Vocabulary Instruction Embedded in Narrative Intervention: A Repeated Acquisition Design Study With First Graders at Risk of Language-Based Reading Difficulty.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of vocabulary instruction embedded in the narrative intervention on the immediate and retained definitional knowledge of taught words for first graders at risk for language-related reading difficulties. METHOD: We employed a repeated acquisition design with innovative quality features and supplemental statistics with 11 treatment students and three control students. In the context of the school's multitiered system of supports, treatment students received 30-min small group interventions, 4 days a week for 12 weeks. Intervention involved story retelling and personal story generation lessons, both of which emphasized the learning and practicing of target vocabulary words in each story. Pre- and postprobes of the taught definitions were conducted every week. RESULTS: According to visual analysis conventions of single-case research, there was a consistent pattern of improvement from pre- to postprobes for all treatment participants, but for none of the control participants. Retention was also consistently observed, when measured at Week 13. Supplemental statistics confirmed that large effects were associated with the intervention. CONCLUSION: Vocabulary instruction embedded in narrative intervention led to meaningful acquisition and retention of taught vocabulary for students at risk of language-based reading difficulty.

The Effects of a Multitiered System of Language Support on Kindergarten Oral and Written Language: A Large-Scale Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to examine the effects of a multitiered system of language support (MTSLS) on kindergarteners' narrative retelling, personal stories, writing, and expository language. METHOD: Participants were 686 kindergarten students from four school districts in the United States. Twenty-eight classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 337 students) or control (n = 349 students) conditions. The treatment group received 14 weeks of oral narrative language instruction using Story Champs, a multitiered language program. Classroom teachers delivered large group (Tier 1) instruction for 15-20 min a day for 4 weeks. After this short-duration whole-class instruction, speech-language pathologists began small group Story Champs (Tier 2) intervention with a random sample of students who did not make adequate progress from the large group instruction (n = 49). These students received Tier 2 intervention for 20 min twice a week in addition to continued Tier 1 instruction. RESULTS: Results indicated that the students in the treatment group had significantly higher scores on all outcome measures compared to the students in the control group. Analyses of outcomes from the 49 students who received Tier 2 intervention compared to a matching sample of at-risk control students revealed that the treatment group had significantly higher scores on narrative retells, personal stories, and expository retells. When compared to matched average-performing and advanced-performing control peers, the students who received Tier 2 intervention had significantly higher narrative retell scores and no longer had significantly lower personal story, expository, or writing scores. CONCLUSION: This effectiveness study demonstrated that MTSLS can lead to meaningful improvements in kindergarteners' oral and written language skills, even helping at-risk students catch up to high-achieving peers.

The accuracy of a Spanish dynamic assessment of narrative language in identifying developmental language disorder: A cross validation study / La precisión de una evaluación dinámica del lenguaje narrativo en español para identificar el trastorno del desarrollo del lenguaje: un estudio de validación cruzada

Introduction and objectives: This cross-validation study investigated the extent to which a Spanish narrative language dynamic assessment accurately identified students with and without developmental language disorder across two separate samples of monolingual Spanish-speaking students from Guatemala and Mexico.Materials and methods: Students with developmental language disorder and students with typically developing language were administered a Spanish narrative dynamic assessment. A test–teach–retest format of dynamic assessment was followed. Posttest scores and measures of student modifiability were gathered and examined.Results and conclusions: Results indicated that the most predictive dynamic assessment variables for the Guatemalan sample were posttest scores and two modifiability measures. These same variables were applied in the cross-validation analysis of the Mexican sample with high classification accuracy achieved when posttest scores and an overall modifiability rating were combined. The results of this study indicate that a Spanish narrative dynamic assessment may be a culturally appropriate diagnostic tool in identifying Spanish-speaking students with developmental language disorder.(AU)

Introducción y objetivos: Este estudio de validación cruzada investigó hasta qué punto una evaluación dinámica del lenguaje narrativo en español identificó con precisión a estudiantes con y sin trastorno del desarrollo del lenguaje en dos muestras separadas de estudiantes monolingües de habla hispana de Guatemala y México.Materiales y métodos: Se administró una evaluación dinámica narrativa en español a estudiantes con trastorno del desarrollo del lenguaje y a estudiantes con un desarrollo típico del lenguaje. Se siguió un formato de evaluación dinámica de tipo test-enseñanza-retest. Se recogieron y examinaron las puntuaciones posteriores a la prueba y las medidas de modificabilidad de los estudiantes.Resultados y conclusiones: Los resultados indicaron que las variables de evaluación dinámica más predictivas para la muestra guatemalteca fueron las puntuaciones postest y dos medidas de modificabilidad. Estas mismas variables se aplicaron en el análisis de validación cruzada de la muestra mexicana y se logró una alta precisión de clasificación cuando se combinaron las puntuaciones del postest y una calificación global de modificabilidad. Los resultados de este estudio indican que una evaluación dinámica narrativa en español puede ser una herramienta de diagnóstico culturalmente apropiada para identificar a los estudiantes de habla hispana con trastorno del desarrollo del lenguaje.(AU)

Using Parallel, Narrative-Based Measures to Examine the Relationship Between Listening and Reading Comprehension: A Pilot Study.

Purpose The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether parallel measures of narrative-based listening comprehension and reading comprehension reflected the same construct and yielded comparable scores from a diverse sample of second- and third-grade students. One hundred ten students participated in this study. Method Three listening and three reading comprehension narrative retells and subsequent responses to story questions and vocabulary questions were collected using the Narrative Language Measures Listening and Reading subtests of the CUBED assessment. Results Results indicated a strong correlation between the listening comprehension and reading comprehension measures. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the listening and reading comprehension measures loaded onto one factor. Mean scores were not significantly different between the listening and reading comprehension measures, and the equipercentile analyses indicated that the two measures yielded scores that aligned with similar percentile rankings for a diverse sample of students, suggesting symmetry and equity. Conclusion Oral narrative language retells and responses to story and vocabulary questions could potentially serve as proxy measures for reading comprehension for young students.

Narrative Intervention: Principles to Practice.

Purpose Narrative interventions are a class of language interventions that involve the use of telling or retelling stories. Narrative intervention can be an efficient and versatile means of promoting a large array of academically and socially important language targets that improve children's access to general education curriculum and enhance their peer relations. The purpose of this tutorial is to supply foundational information about the importance of narratives and to offer recommendations about how to maximize the potential of narrative interventions in school-based clinical practice. Method Drawing from decades of cognitive and linguistic research, a tutorial on narratives and narrative language is presented first. Ten principles that support the design and implementation of narrative interventions are described. Results Clinicians can use narrative intervention to teach story grammar, complex language, vocabulary, inferencing, and social pragmatics. Storytelling, as an active intervention ingredient, promotes the comprehension and production of complex language. Conclusion When narrative intervention is implemented following a set of principles drawn from research and extensive clinical experience, speech-language pathologists can efficiently and effectively teach a broad set of academically and socially meaningful skills to diverse students.

The Classification Accuracy of a Dynamic Assessment of Inferential Word Learning for Bilingual English/Spanish-Speaking School-Age Children.

Purpose Educators often use results from static norm-referenced vocabulary assessments to aid in the diagnosis of school-age children with a language disorder. However, research has indicated that many of these vocabulary assessments yield inaccurate, biased results, especially with culturally and linguistically diverse children. This study examined whether the use of a dynamic assessment of inferential word learning was more accurate at identifying bilingual (English/Spanish-speaking) children with a language disorder when compared to static measures of vocabulary. Method Thirty-one bilingual Spanish/English school-age children-21 children with typical language and 10 children with a language disorder-ages 5;9-9;7 (years;months) were administered traditional static vocabulary assessments and a dynamic assessment of inferential word learning that used a test-teach-test design. Results Discriminant analysis and logistic regression indicated that the combined posttest scores and modifiability ratings from the dynamic assessment generated 90%-100% sensitivity and 90.5%-95.2% specificity, which were superior to the static vocabulary tests. Conclusion These preliminary findings suggest that dynamic assessment of inferential word learning may be an effective method for accurately identifying diverse children with a language disorder.

Predicting Reading Problems 6 Years Into the Future: Dynamic Assessment Reduces Bias and Increases Classification Accuracy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine how well a kindergarten dynamic assessment of decoding predicts future reading difficulty at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade and to determine whether the dynamic assessment improves the predictive validity of traditional static kindergarten reading measures. Method: With a small variation in sample size by grade, approximately 370 Caucasian and Hispanic students were administered a 3-min dynamic assessment of decoding and static measures of letter identification and phonemic awareness at the beginning of kindergarten. Oral reading fluency was then assessed at the end of Grades 2-5. In this prospective, longitudinal study, predictive validity was estimated for the Caucasian and Hispanic students by examining the amount of variance the static and dynamic assessments explained and by referring to area under the curve and sensitivity and specificity values. Results: The dynamic assessment accounted for variance in reading ability over and above the static measures, with fair to good area under the curve values and sensitivity and specificity. Classification accuracy worsened when the static measures were included as predictor measures. The results of this study indicate that a very brief dynamic assessment can predict with approximately 75%-80% accuracy, which kindergarten students will have difficulty in learning to decode up to 6 years into the future. Conclusions: Dynamic assessment of decoding is a promising approach to identifying future reading difficulty of young kindergarten students, mitigating the cultural and linguistic bias found in traditional static early reading measures.

Bridging Oral and Written Language: An Oral Narrative Language Intervention Study With Writing Outcomes.

Purpose: Despite literature showing a correlation between oral language and written language ability, there is little evidence documenting a causal connection between oral and written language skills. The current study examines the extent to which oral language instruction using narratives impacts students' writing skills. Method: Following multiple baseline design conventions to minimize threats to internal validity, 3 groups of 1st-grade students were exposed to staggered baseline, intervention, and maintenance conditions. During the intervention condition, groups received 6 sessions of small-group oral narrative instruction over 2 weeks. Separated in the school day from the instruction, students wrote their own stories, forming the dependent variable across baseline, intervention, and maintenance conditions. Written stories were analyzed for story structure and language complexity using a narrative scoring flow chart based on current academic standards. Results: Corresponding to the onset of oral narrative instruction, all but 1 student showed meaningful improvements in story writing. All 4 students, for whom improvements were observed and maintenance data were available, continued to produce written narratives above baseline levels once the instruction was withdrawn. Conclusions: Results suggest that narrative instruction delivered exclusively in an oral modality had a positive effect on students' writing. Implications include the efficiency and inclusiveness of oral language instruction to improve writing quality, especially for young students.

Dynamic Assessment of Narratives: Efficient, Accurate Identification of Language Impairment in Bilingual Students.

Purpose: This study investigated the classification accuracy of a concentrated English narrative dynamic assessment (DA) for identifying language impairment (LI). Method: Forty-two Spanish-English bilingual kindergarten to third-grade children (10 LI and 32 with no LI) were administered two 25-min DA test-teach-test sessions. Pre- and posttest narrative retells were scored in real time. Using a structured intervention approach, examiners taught children missing story grammar elements and subordination. A posttest was administered using a parallel story. Results: Four classification predictors were analyzed: posttest scores, gain scores, modifiability ratings, and teaching duration. Discriminant function analysis indicated that an overall modifiability rating was the best classifier, with 100% sensitivity and 88% specificity after 1 DA session and 100% sensitivity and specificity after 2 sessions. Any 2 combinations of posttest scores, modifiability ratings, and teaching duration for just 1 session resulted in sensitivity and specificity rates over 90%. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were used to identify clinically usable cutoff points. Post hoc exploration indicated that similar results could be obtained after only one 5-10-min teaching cycle, potentially further abbreviating the DA process. Conclusion: Concentrated English narrative DA results in high classification accuracy for bilingual children with and without LI. This efficient version of DA is amenable to clinical use.

Predicting Reading Difficulty in First Grade Using Dynamic Assessment of Decoding in Early Kindergarten: A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study.

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the classification accuracy of early static prereading measures and early dynamic assessment reading measures administered to 600 kindergarten students. At the beginning of kindergarten, all of the participants were administered two commonly used static prereading measures. The participants were then administered either a dynamic assessment featuring an onset-rime decoding strategy or a dynamic assessment featuring a sound-by-sound strategy. At the end of first grade, those same participants' reading ability was assessed using multiple reading measures. Results indicated that the dynamic assessments yielded significantly higher classification accuracy over the static measures, but that the classification accuracy of the two dynamic assessments did not differ significantly. Sensitivity for the static measures was less than 80%, and specificity ranged from 33% to 51%. The sensitivity and specificity for the dynamic assessments was greater than 80% for all children, with the exception of specificity for the Hispanic children, which was at or greater than 70%. Results also indicated that the combination of static and dynamic measures did not improve the classification accuracy over the dynamic assessments alone. Dynamic assessment appears to be a promising approach to classifying young children at risk for future reading difficulty.

Tier 2 Language Intervention for Diverse Preschoolers: An Early-Stage Randomized Control Group Study Following an Analysis of Response to Intervention.

PURPOSE: The first purpose of this study was to explore the use of a whole class, test-teach-test, dynamic assessment of narratives for identifying participants. The second purpose was to examine the efficacy of a Tier 2 narrative language intervention for culturally and linguistically diverse preschoolers. METHOD: A dynamic assessment was conducted with students from 3 Head Start classrooms. On the basis of the results of the dynamic assessment, 22 children were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 12) and control (n = 10) groups for intervention. Participants received a small-group (4:1), differentiated, narrative intervention for 15-20 min, twice a week, for 9 weeks. Interventionists used weekly progress monitoring data to explicitly focus on individualized narrative and linguistic targets. RESULTS: The treatment group showed significant improvement over the control group on proximal and distal measures of narrative retells, with large effect sizes. Group differences on a measure of children's language in the context of personal stories were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: This early-stage study provides evidence that narrative language intervention is an effective approach to improving the language skills of preschoolers with diverse language needs. Furthermore, the evidence supports the use of dynamic assessment for reducing overidentification and identifying candidates for small-group language intervention.

Predicting reading ability for bilingual Latino children using dynamic assessment.

This study investigated the predictive validity of a dynamic assessment designed to evaluate later risk for reading difficulty in bilingual Latino children at risk for language impairment. During kindergarten, 63 bilingual Latino children completed a dynamic assessment nonsense-word recoding task that yielded pretest to posttest gain scores, residuum gain scores, and modifiability scores. At the end of first grade, the same participants completed criterion reading measures of word identification, decoding, and reading fluency. The dynamic assessment yielded high classification accuracy, with sensitivity and specificity at or above 80% for all three criterion reading measures, including 100% sensitivity for two out of the three first-grade measures. The dynamic assessment used in this study has promise as a means for predicting first-grade word-level reading ability in Latino, bilingual children.

Systematic individualized narrative language intervention on the personal narratives of children with autism.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an individualized, systematic language intervention on the personal narratives of children with autism. METHOD: A single-subject, multiple-baseline design across participants and behaviors was used to examine the effect of the intervention on language features of personal narratives. Three 6- to 8-year-old boys with autism participated in 12 individual intervention sessions that targeted 2-3 story grammar elements (e.g., problem, plan) and 3-4 linguistic complexity elements (e.g., causal subordination, adverbs) selected from each participant's baseline performance. Intervention involved repeated retellings of customized model narratives and the generation of personal narratives with a systematic reduction of visual and verbal scaffolding. Independent personal narratives generated at the end of each baseline, intervention, and maintenance session were analyzed for presence and sophistication of targeted features. RESULTS: Graphical and statistical results showed immediate improvement in targeted language features as a function of intervention. There was mixed evidence of maintenance 2 and 7 weeks after intervention. CONCLUSION: Children with autism can benefit from an individualized, systematic intervention targeting specific narrative language features. Greater intensity of intervention may be needed to gain enduring effects for some language features.

Accurately Predicting Future Reading Difficulty for Bilingual Latino Children at Risk for Language Impairment.

Sixty-three bilingual Latino children who were at risk for language impairment were administered reading-related measures in English and Spanish (letter identification, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and sentence repetition) and descriptive measures including English language proficiency, language ability, SES, and preschool attendance at kindergarten. At the end of first grade, English word-level reading and reading comprehension were measured. Results indicated that the Spanish predictor measures did not account for significant variance over and above the English predictor measures for any of the first grade outcome measures. Of the descriptive predictor measures, only English language proficiency and language ability were significantly predictive, accounting for unique variance in first grade reading comprehension. Sensitivity ranged from .67 to .86 and specificity ranged from .82 to .93 across the four first grade outcome measures.

Trastorno específico del lenguaje: una revisión / Specific language impairment: a review

El Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje (TEL) es uno de los trastornos infantiles más comunes y afecta aproximadamente al 7 por ciento de los niños en los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica. Si bien se trata de un trastorno prevalente, su origen no se ha esclarecido del todo y existen diversas teorías al respecto. El propósito de esta revisión es presentar un panorama global de los enfoques teóricos que pretenden explicar el TEL y ofrecer una mirada crítica a las investigaciones que apoyan estas teorías. Una explicación sencilla para el origen de este déficit podría relacionarse con la existencia de un correlato neural específico deficitario para cada subgrupo de TEL descrito. Dado que falta evidencia consistente al respecto, una definición amplia de TEL considerando todos los subgrupos queda sin verificación empírica todavía. Sin embargo, los estudios siguen progresando hacia esta dirección ofreciendo evidencias para apoyar o rechazar las diversas teorías acerca del TEL.

The Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is one of the most common childhood disorders, affecting an estimated 7 percent of children in the United States of America. Although SLI is a prevalent disorders, it is not well understood, and a number of theories associated with the explanation of specific language impairment have been presented. The purpose if this review is to present an overview of theories of specific language impairment and critically discuss the research supporting those theories. It may be that the most parsimonious account for SLI is that there are different subgroups of SLI and that there is a direct correlation between the specific neural damage and the corresponding subgroup. A broad definition of SLI with accompanying sub-categories remains to be empirically verified. Nonetheless, research is progressing in that direction. It is clear that additional research is needed to suport of refute the varying theories of SLI.

The effects of literate narrative intervention on children with neurologically based language impairments: an early stage study.

PURPOSE: This study investigated the effect of a literate narrative intervention on the macrostructural and microstructural language features of the oral narratives of 3 children with neuromuscular impairment and co-morbid receptive and expressive language impairment. METHOD: Three children, ages 6-8 years, participated in a multiple baseline across participants and language features study. The 3 participants engaged in 10 individual literate narrative intervention sessions following staggered baseline trials. Assessment probes eliciting picture- and verbally prompted narratives were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: All three children demonstrated gains in the use of story grammar (macrostructure) and causality (microstructure), with moderate to large effect sizes based on percentage of nonoverlapping data points. Gains were seen in both picture-prompted narratives that were the direct focus of intervention and in verbally prompted narratives that served as a measure of generalization. Other features of microstructure not explicitly targeted during intervention increased in the narratives produced by the participants. Additionally, follow-up data collected 8 months after intervention indicated the maintenance of some skills over time. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that literate narrative intervention may be useful for improving children's functional use of narrative macrostructure and microstructure, including literate language.