The use of differing verb types in the oral narratives of school-age children.

The aim of this project was to examine age-related use of action, metacognitive, and metalinguistic verbs because factors related to verb transparency are thought to impact word learning. Performance on fictional, oral narratives elicited using a single-episode picture was evaluated for 84 children with typical language (TL) and 38 age-matched children with a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) ranging in age from 5;1 to 14;4 years of age. Narrative samples were transcribed and coded for occurrences of action verbs (AV), metacognitive verbs (MCV), and metalinguistic verbs (MLV). The total number of verbs used and the number of different verbs produced in each category were examined across ages, as was the difference in verb usage patterns across language ability groups. A statistically significant increase in the overall use of action, MCV, and MLV with age was observed. TL children used a wider variety of each verb type as compared to those with DLD. Age-related progression for verb use was observed in the fictional narrative generation task by both groups of children. However, despite similar rates of total verb use, children with DLD produced fewer different verbs in the three categories. These findings indicate the total number of verbs used is similar in children with TL and DLD, but there is a difference in the number of different verbs used in functional tasks such as narratives for children with DLD. These results also indicate a need for ongoing examination of the factors not only impacting verb acquisition but also use in communication tasks.

School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists' Engagement With Evidence-Based Practice: An Update With Implications for Implementation Research.

PURPOSE: We replicated a prior survey study (Hoffman et al., 2013) to document current evidence-based practice (EBP) patterns as reported by school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) during the 2021-2022 school year. METHOD: Via an online survey, SLPs reported their training experiences and needs, workplace resources, and frequency of engagement in EBP activities. RESULTS: A total of 889 SLPs in 50 states participated in the survey. Results revealed that 19% of seasoned SLPs (with more than 10 years since last degree) had no formal training in EBP, 22% of SLPs worked in school districts with official EBP procedural guidelines, and 36% had scheduled time in their work week to support EBP activities. Early career (EC) professionals were more likely than seasoned career (SC) professionals to pose and research one or more EBP questions per year and to read journal articles about assessment and treatment. The gap in article use by experience groups was larger than a decade ago. Like prior survey results, the majority of SLPs read zero to four American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) journal articles on assessment or intervention per year, with similar results for reading non-ASHA journal articles. CONCLUSIONS: Although the past decade has fostered some positive increases in the use of EBP resources and engagement in EBP activities, there continues to be a need for additional training and support for school-based SLPs to fully implement EBP. Training and implementation support should account for differences in training preferences and workplace resources and address differentiation of reported practices by EC versus SC professionals. Further implications for implementation science in schools are provided. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23152817.

Prologue: improving clinical practice from the inside out.

PURPOSE: This prologue introduces a clinical forum entitled "Reflections on Improving Clinical Practice" and orients the reader to the scope of articles included within it. METHOD: The purpose of the clinical forum is described, its lead article is introduced, and brief summaries of the 7 response articles are provided. CONCLUSIONS: The commentaries in this clinical forum draw on scientific evidence and assert that current intervention services for children and adolescents who have language and learning disorders could be improved. Authors describe rationales for doing so and provide practical suggestions that could promote better intervention outcomes.

Evidence-based speech-language pathology practices in schools: findings from a national survey.

PURPOSE: This study documented evidence-based practice (EBP) patterns as reported by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) employed in public schools during 2010-2011. METHOD: Using an online survey, practioners reported their EBP training experiences, resources available in their workplaces, and the frequency with which they engage in specific EBP activities, as well as their resource needs and future training format preferences. RESULTS: A total of 2,762 SLPs in 28 states participated in the online survey, 85% of whom reported holding the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology credential. Results revealed that one quarter of survey respondents had no formal training in EBP, 11% of SLPs worked in school districts with official EBP procedural guidelines, and 91% had no scheduled time to support EBP activities. The majority of SLPs posed and researched 0 to 2 EBP questions per year and read 0 to 4 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) journal articles per year on either assessment or intervention topics. CONCLUSION: Use of ASHA online resources and engagement in EBP activities were documented to be low. However, results also revealed that school-based SLPs have high interest in additional training and resources to support scientifically based practices. Suggestions for enhancing EBP support in public schools and augmenting knowledge transfer are provided.

An exploratory study of clinician real-time morpho-syntactic judgements with pre-school children.

The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility of employing real-time morpho-syntactic judgements. A system of capturing real-time judgements of children's utterances was implemented using a modified talk-time sampling procedure with 13 monolingual, English-speaking US pre-school children who had standard scores above 85 on a norm-referenced measure of language ability, four of whom had histories of diagnosed language deficits and were receiving language therapy. The remaining participants (n = 9) were typically-developing. The primary research questions were whether the linguistic data from abbreviated talk-time samples were comparable to traditional 100 utterance samples, and whether utterance level judgements made in real-time were in concordance with the linguistic data available in talk-time samples. Results of this investigation revealed positive and significant correlations in linguistic data across both forms of language sampling, as well as statistically significant inverse correlation between real-time judgement of utterance errors and mean length of utterances in morphemes (MLU-m), indicating that clinician decisions about children's utterances were closely associated with morpho-syntactic accuracy. Further analyses revealed that the percentage of conversational utterances with errors was different for children with and without histories of language impairment. Implications for potential clinical application and directions for future research are discussed.

Overlap in speech-language and reading services for kindergartners and first graders.

PURPOSE: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and reading professionals provide educational services to children who are at risk for reading difficulties, although these professions do not necessarily coordinate efforts. To date, there is limited evidence regarding the proportion of children who receive services from both professionals. The current study reports the prevalence and overlap of speech-language and reading services provided to kindergartners and first graders in Virginia. METHOD: This study analyzed a population-level database of reading screening scores from 74,730 kindergartners and 75,088 first graders. Information regarding the speech-language services received by these children was obtained. Prevalence rates of speech-language impairment, reading risk, and comorbidity were calculated. The distribution of children receiving speech-language services across categories of reading competence was examined. RESULTS: Findings indicated that ∼6% of the children received speech-language services and 11.1% of the kindergartners and 13.7% of the first graders received reading services. One-quarter of the children receiving speech-language services also received reading services. Furthermore, children receiving speech-language services received reading services at twice the rate of children who were not receiving speech-language services in both kindergarten (23.1% vs. 9.1%) and first grade (25.2% vs. 11.3%). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: This study provides empirical support for improving coordination between SLPs and reading professionals.

Concurrent and construct validity of oral language measures with school-age children with specific language impairment.

PURPOSE: This study investigated the psychometric properties of 2 oral language measures that are commonly used for diagnostic purposes with school-age children who have language impairments. METHOD: Two hundred sixteen children with specific language impairment were assessed with the Test of Language Development-Primary, Third Edition (TOLD-P:3; Newcomer & Hammill, 1997) and the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL; Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999) within a 3-month period. The concurrent and construct validities of these 2 published tests were explored through correlation analysis and principle-component factor analysis. RESULTS: The TOLD-P:3 Spoken Language Quotient and CASL Core Composite scores were found to have an intertest correlation value of r = .596 within this sample, and a paired samples t test revealed a statistically significant difference between these scores. Principle-component factor analyses revealed a 2-factor structure solution for the TOLD-P:3, whereas data from the CASL supported a single-factor model. CONCLUSIONS: Analyses of assessment measure performance data from a sample of school-age children with specific language impairment revealed concurrent validity values and construct validity patterns that differed from those found in the norming samples as cited in examiner manuals. Implications for practice patterns and future research are discussed.

The effects of Fast ForWord Language on the phonemic awareness and reading skills of school-age children with language impairments and poor reading skills.

PURPOSE: To examine the efficacy of Fast ForWord Language (FFW-L) and 2 other interventions for improving the phonemic awareness and reading skills of children with specific language impairment with concurrent poor reading skills. METHOD: A total of 103 children (age 6;0 to 8;11 [years;months]) with language impairment and poor reading skills participated. The children received either FFW-L computerized intervention, a computer-assisted language intervention (CALI), an individualized language intervention (ILI), or an attention control (AC) computer program. RESULTS: The children in the FFW-L, CALI, and ILI conditions made significantly greater gains in blending sounds in words compared with the AC group at immediate posttest. Long-term gains 6 months after treatment were not significant but yielded a medium effect size for blending sounds in words. None of the interventions led to significant changes in reading skills. CONCLUSION: The improvement in phonemic awareness, but not reading, in the FFW-L, CALI, and ILI interventions limits their use with children who have language impairment and poor reading skills. Similar results across treatment conditions suggest that acoustically modified speech was not a necessary component for improving phonemic awareness.

The utility of school-age narrative microstructure indices: INMIS and the proportion of restricted utterances.

PURPOSE: This research investigated the applicability of the index of narrative microstructure (INMIS; L. M. Justice et al., 2006) system for narratives that were elicited through a wordless picture book context. In addition, the viability of an alternative, simpler metric was explored. METHOD: Narrative transcripts using the Frog, Where Are You? (M. Mayer, 1969) wordless picture book with 48 school-age children with and without language impairment were analyzed using the INMIS productivity and complexity indices and a proportion of restricted utterances metric. Roy-Bargmann stepdown F calculations, effect sizes, confidence intervals, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were analyzed to examine the statistical and clinical significance of each narrative metric. RESULTS: The INMIS complexity metric and the proportion of restricted utterances metric yielded statistically significant differences between the two language ability groups and are likely to have good potential as research and clinical tools within the wordless picture book narrative elicitation context. The INMIS productivity metric did not differentiate between the language groups. CONCLUSION: The results support the use of the INMIS complexity metric in a wordless picture book elicitation context and introduce an alternative microstructure analysis metric, the proportion of restricted utterances, which uses a logically transparent scale and may meet research and clinical needs without requiring the use of specialized software or complex calculations.

The efficacy of Fast ForWord Language intervention in school-age children with language impairment: a randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE: A randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the language and auditory processing outcomes of children assigned to receive the Fast ForWord Language intervention (FFW-L) with the outcomes of children assigned to nonspecific or specific language intervention comparison treatments that did not contain modified speech. METHOD: Two hundred sixteen children between the ages of 6 and 9 years with language impairments were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: (a) Fast ForWord Language (FFW-L), (b) academic enrichment (AE), (c) computer-assisted language intervention (CALI), or (d) individualized language intervention (ILI) provided by a speech-language pathologist. All children received 1 hr and 40 min of treatment, 5 days per week, for 6 weeks. Language and auditory processing measures were administered to the children by blinded examiners before treatment, immediately after treatment, 3 months after treatment, and 6 months after treatment. RESULTS: The children in all 4 conditions improved significantly on a global language test and a test of backward masking. Children with poor backward masking scores who were randomized to the FFW-L condition did not present greater improvement on the language measures than children with poor backward masking scores who were randomized to the other 3 conditions. Effect sizes, analyses of standard error of measurement, and normalization percentages supported the clinical significance of the improvements on the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (E. Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999). There was a treatment effect for the Blending Words subtest of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (R. K. Wagner, J. K. Torgesen, & C. A. Rashotte, 1999). Participants in the FFW-L and CALI conditions earned higher phonological awareness scores than children in the ILI and AE conditions at the 6-month follow-up testing. CONCLUSION: Fast ForWord Language, the intervention that provided modified speech to address a hypothesized underlying auditory processing deficit, was not more effective at improving general language skills or temporal processing skills than a nonspecific comparison treatment (AE) or specific language intervention comparison treatments (CALI and ILI) that did not contain modified speech stimuli. These findings call into question the temporal processing hypothesis of language impairment and the hypothesized benefits of using acoustically modified speech to improve language skills. The finding that children in the 3 treatment conditions and the active comparison condition made clinically relevant gains on measures of language and temporal auditory processing informs our understanding of the variety of intervention activities that can facilitate development.

Verbal and spatial information processing constraints in children with specific language impairment.

A dual-processing paradigm was used to investigate information processing limitations underlying specific language impairment (SLI). School-age children with and without SLI were asked to recall verbal and spatial stimuli in situations that varied the number of tasks that were required and the speed at which stimuli were presented. Children recalled digits or locations of X's that were presented on a computer screen. In some conditions, they were asked to name or point to the color of the stimuli before completing the recall task. In comparison to their typically developing peers, children with SLI had generally poorer recall of digits and locations across all conditions. Typically developing children derived greater benefit than the children with SLI under conditions that enabled them to disperse processing efforts across verbal and spatial response modalities. It appears that limitations in general cognitive capacity and central executive functions in working memory work synergistically with response modality to constrain information processing in children with SLI.