PURPOSE:This study examined developmental change in macrostructural (discourse-level) signed composition among deaf children over the course of one academic year. The study also investigated whether grade level, early language access, and demographic characteristics were associated with differences in change across narrative, informational, and opinion genres. METHOD:Participants included 181 deaf children from prekindergarten through third grade enrolled in 11 signing programs in the United States. Children produced self-generated signed compositions in narrative, informational, and opinion genres at the beginning and end of the academic year. Linear mixed-effects models were used to examine fall-to-spring changes in discourse organization while accounting for grade level and child-level characteristics. A lexical unit count was also recorded for each composition as an index of signed language productivity. RESULTS:Children demonstrated growth in discourse organization across all three genres during the school year. Grade level emerged as a stronger predictor of change than chronological age. Early language deprivation was associated with smaller gains in discourse organization. Demographic variables such as gender, race, and additional disabilities showed minimal associations with change. CONCLUSIONS:These findings provide large-scale quantitative benchmarks of discourse-level signed composition development across genres in deaf children. Results suggest a developmental progression in which deaf children gradually expand their ability to organize ideas, connect events, and communicate for different purposes across genres. The findings also highlight associations between early language access and discourse-level development and suggest that language services may play an important role in supporting signed language development in deaf children.
Introduction: Information pertaining to language experience and proficiency is crucial in studies of bilingual children and is usually sought from parents. However, there are barriers to obtaining valid information from parents, which may be addressed by child's self-report. In this study, we examined the relationships between parent report and child self-report, including whether relationships differ by child's grade level. Method: Parent and child questionnaires were analyzed from n = 489 Spanish/English bilinguals in prekindergarten through third grade ( M age = 7.24). Both questionnaires resulted in measures of proficiency in Spanish and English as well as bilingual experience. Results: Child questionnaires administered directly to the child yielded higher response rates (93%) than questionnaires sent home for parents (31%). Correlations between similar indicators of proficiency and experience across child and parent reporters ranged from medium to large. Multiple regression analyses revealed that grade level was a significant predictor of child's self-reported proficiency in both languages but not of bilingual experience. Results did not conclusively demonstrate that parent and child alignment differed by child's grade level. Conclusions: Although child's self-report is not a replacement for parent report, research with young bilinguals should consider the use of a child's self-report tool, particularly when low response rates to parent questionnaires are a concern. Child self-report and parent report are moderately to strongly correlated, and seeking a child's self-report provides a unique perspective on their bilingual language proficiency and experience.
PURPOSE:Children with vision differences face unique challenges in accessing classroom communication, which can affect language development, academic achievement, and social participation. To ensure effective communication, professionals must understand each child's diverse access needs and individual preferences. Professionals must also be aware of the nature of the child's lived visual experience, including the strategies that allow the child with low vision to access sustained and meaningful vision, compared to those strategies preferred by the child who is blind. METHOD:This tutorial discusses a comprehensive framework that is created by combining the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC). The ICF identifies barriers and facilitators to functioning and participation, while the ECC supports independence, participation, and communication through relevant interventions. RESULTS:This tutorial highlights practical strategies and interdisciplinary approaches to promote inclusive, accessible communication in mainstream educational settings using two interdisciplinary case studies (one child diagnosed with septo-optic dysplasia and optic nerve hypoplasia at 1 year of age, then a severe language disorder, intellectual disability, and autism spectrum disorder at 6 years, and the other diagnosed with suspected cerebral vision impairment and single-sided hearing loss at 2 years of age). CONCLUSIONS:Children with blindness and low vision benefit from speech-language pathologist (SLP) collaboration with their families and professionals (e.g., orientation and mobility specialists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists) to actively support optimal learning and engagement. SLPs can apply the ICF and ECC and insights from the case studies to inform assessment, goal setting, collaborative planning, and intervention.
PURPOSE:The purpose of this study was to investigate the processing differences of phonological interference (tongue twisters) and semantic interference (subject-object interchange/double-object interchange) between prelingual deaf Chinese speakers and normal-hearing speakers during sentence reading and memory, to test the deficit phonemic awareness hypothesis and the deficit structure awareness hypothesis of deaf reading, and to provide theoretical basis for deaf education strategies. METHOD:Twenty-two prelingually deaf college students (hearing loss ≥ 85 dB) and 41 normal-hearing college students (including 22 ability-matched groups) were recruited. Thirty-two sets of experimental sentences (normal correct sentences, normal incorrect sentences, tongue-twister correct sentences, tongue-twister incorrect sentences) were used. We used a two-phase experimental task. In the first (reading) phase, participants read each sentence and performed a sentence logic judgment task. In the second (memory) phase, after an arithmetic interference task, participants completed a fill-in-the-blank recall task. Accuracy and response time were recorded and analyzed using generalized linear mixed models and linear mixed models. RESULTS:In the reading phase, the hearing group showed sensitivity to phonological interference, with significantly longer reaction times for tongue-twister sentences (p < .001). The deaf group showed numerically longer reaction times for incorrect sentences, but the difference only approached a trend (p = .054). In the memory phase, phonological similarity increased recall accuracy for both groups (p = .001). Semantic interference significantly reduced memory accuracy in the hearing group (p = .035) and prolonged response times in both groups (p < .001). Overall, the hearing group outperformed the deaf group on all measures (p ≤ .006). CONCLUSIONS:Chinese prelingually deaf people rely on semantic reorganization strategies (supporting the deficit structure awareness hypothesis), and their semantic integration occurs after vocabulary extraction, which is different from the synchronous processing mechanism of the hearing population. Also, phonological and semantic processing are independent of each other. Educational practices need to prioritize semantic logic training (e.g., visualization tools), reduce phonological dependence, and develop word order-based memory strategies to improve reading performance. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.33283011.
Purpose: This study examined the types of spelling errors produced by typically developing bilingual learners (BLs) and monolingual English-speaking students and investigated whether students' vocabulary knowledge predicted the rate of spelling errors. Method: Writing samples were collected from 100 fifth-grade students (50 Spanish-speaking BLs and 50 monolingual English speakers) during an authentic classroom writing assessment. Spelling errors were coded based on English phonology, orthography, and morphology. A simple linear regression examined the relation between students' vocabulary knowledge, measured by a standardized vocabulary task, and their total number of error codes. Results: Only the proportion of whole-root morpheme substitution errors differed significantly between groups, with monolingual English-speaking students producing a higher proportion of these errors. Students' vocabulary knowledge significantly predicted their total number of errors, with higher vocabulary knowledge associated with fewer spelling errors. Conclusions: These findings suggest that while Spanish-speaking BLs and monolingual English-speaking students share many types of spelling errors, monolingual students may produce more whole-root morpheme substitution errors. Additionally, vocabulary knowledge is a significant predictor of spelling accuracy. Understanding these patterns can inform instructional decisions and intervention targets for school-based speech-language pathologists working with BLs and monolingual students. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.33134633
PURPOSE:This study examines the impact of diglossia on the phonological awareness of dyslexic Jordanian Arabic-speaking children, focusing on deletion, segmentation, and reading tasks in both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Arabic (CA). METHOD:Forty dyslexic and 40 typically developing (TD) children from special education resource rooms in four private schools in Amman, Jordan, participated. RESULTS:Statistical analysis revealed that both groups performed better in MSA than in CA across all tasks, with TD children outperforming dyslexic children and task difficulty decreasing with grade level. Dyslexic children found segmentation easier than deletion, whereas TD children found both tasks equally challenging. A significant relationship was observed between reading and deletion tasks in CA for second-grade TD children and in MSA for second-grade dyslexic children. CONCLUSIONS:MSA-CA performance gap should inform instructional strategies, suggesting that phonological awareness interventions need to target the weaker variety (CA) while maintaining support in MSA. Strengthening phonological processing in CA may reduce the phonological load associated with dialectal mismatch and facilitate bidirectional transfer of phonological skills between CA and MSA. The findings may reflect exposure to multiple dialects, individual learning styles, and the complexities of the Arabic writing system. Overall, the study provides empirically grounded guidance for designing differentiated, dialect-sensitive interventions to support dyslexic learners in diglossic Arabic contexts.
PURPOSE:Writing interventions for elementary-grade students with learning disabilities have traditionally focused on paragraph-level strategies (McMaster et al., 2018). Students who struggle to compose a complete sentence need more explicit instruction and may benefit from additional language and self-regulation supports (Kim & Graham, 2022). The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of a sentence writing intervention on the writing of a fifth-grade student with a learning disability. METHOD:This pilot study used an exploratory AB single-case design to measure the effects of a sentence writing intervention on the writing of a fifth-grade boy with a learning disability. The participant received 10 daily sentence writing lessons focusing on writing complete sentences with adjectives to describe pictures. Supports included steps for planning a sentence, a self-checklist for evaluation, and word banks. RESULTS:Results indicated that the sentence writing instruction with supports had a large effect on the participant's use of sentence elements (e.g., noun, verb, adjective) and the length (total correct word sequences), accuracy (incorrect word sequences), and complexity (correct word sequences per sentence) of his sentences. CONCLUSIONS:Explicit instruction in sentence construction has potential to increase the length, accuracy, and complexity of the sentences students with learning disabilities write. Added language and self-regulation supports through planning, oral sentences, and checklists increased the current participant's consistency in their final product.
PURPOSE:The purpose of this article was to examine the application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to the human and communication rights of children with cleft lip and palate (CLP). The authors of this article, some of whom also have lived experience of CLP, are clinicians and researchers who work with children who have CLP. In this article, the authors provide several examples of initiatives and research around the globe that have supported children with CLP and align with the CRC. CONCLUSION:Providers who work with people with CLP from birth through young adulthood have helped to support the CRC through various programs that have addressed the United Nations: Article 2 (nondiscrimination), Article 6 (life, survival, and development), Article 12 (respect for the views of the child), Article 13 (freedom of expression), Article 23 (children with a disability), Article 24 (health and health services), Article 27 (adequate standard of living), Article 28 (access to education), Article 29 (goals of education), and Article 30 (children from minority or indigenous groups). SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.33085112.
Purpose: During the assessment process, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have the opportunity to account for the involvement, thoughts, and views of children with speech sound disorders (SSDs). This is in alignment with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC; UNICEF, n.d.; United Nations, 1989) including CRC Article 12 (Respect for children's views), Article 13 (Sharing thoughts freely), and Article 23 (Children with disabilities), which affirms SLPs' role to facilitate participation and consider perspectives. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF; World Health Organization, 2001) offers a holistic framework that can guide assessment practices, including accounting for children's views of their own speech. While previous research has been limited to theoretical application, the current study provides preliminary data regarding how American SLPs practically utilize the ICF framework in the evaluation of children with SSDs. Method: An online survey was created using REDCap and disseminated to currently practicing SLPs across the United States. A total of 296 surveys were completed, and data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Over 50% of American SLPs were unfamiliar with the ICF, which was reflected in how they selected assessments of Body Functions more than Activities/Participation and Contextual Factors for children with SSDs. Furthermore, under 10% of SLPs included an assessment tool that measures a child's communicative participation or self-reported attitudes. Conclusions: Findings demonstrated a need for greater exposure to holistic assessment of children with SSDs in the United States. Recommendations extend to faculty and researchers to integrate the ICF framework in teaching and research to promote evidence-based assessment practices and patient-reported outcome measures to protect the CRC.
PURPOSE:Letter knowledge, including letter-name and letter-sound recognition and identification, and writing, is foundational for decoding and reading development. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are at risk for persistent literacy difficulties; however, assessment and intervention practices for this population remain underexplored. This systematic review synthesizes research on letter-knowledge assessment and intervention in children with DLD. METHOD:Studies examining English-language assessment or intervention of letter knowledge among children aged 3-18 years with DLD or specific language impairment were systematically identified across multiple databases. Two reviewers independently screened all studies and extracted data using a standardized protocol. A narrative synthesis summarized patterns in assessment focus, intervention, and instructional approaches. RESULTS:Assessment studies most often examined letter-name and letter-sound identification, while recognition and writing tasks were rarely included. Only one study assessed all five subskills. Standardized measures predominated, with few experimental tools. Eight intervention studies provided letter-knowledge instruction. Some focused solely on letter knowledge, whereas most integrated it with phonological awareness or broader literacy instruction. Across interventions, letter-sound identification was emphasized, with variation in setting and dosage. CONCLUSIONS:Research on letter knowledge in children with DLD mainly targets letter naming and sound identification, with limited attention to recognition and writing. Because recognition emerges earlier and identification later, assessing all five skills may not always be desirable. Task selection, including writing, should be intentional, and this review article outlines tools to guide decisions.
PURPOSE:The aim of this study was to characterize sources of variability in spelling performance in adolescents and young adults with a history of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), including linguistic skills, motor-speech sequencing, spelling error types, and residual speech errors. We also examined whether selected endophenotypes differ from peers with a history of speech sound disorder without CAS (SSD-no CAS). METHOD:Correlations assessed relations among single-word decoding, oral language, phonological awareness, syllable sequencing, and spelling in participants with a history of CAS (N = 32; ages 12;6-25;3 [years;months]). Linear regression, including an interaction term for the effect of group by endophenotype, was used to compare the spelling performance of participants with a history of CAS with age-matched peers with a history of SSD-no CAS (N = 32; ages 12;1-25;1 [years;months]), using the same endophenotypes. Spelling errors were classified by linguistic type using the Spelling Sensitivity System (SSS), and persistent speech errors were examined in relation to spelling. RESULTS:Within the CAS group, spelling was associated with decoding (r = .88), phonological awareness (r = .74), oral language (r = .71), and syllable sequencing (r = -.59). SSS analyses showed that implausible orthographic errors and phoneme omissions were significantly associated with spelling performance (p = .005 and p = .046, respectively), whereas persistent speech errors were unrelated. A significant interaction between group and syllable sequencing (p = .035) indicated that syllable sequencing predicted spelling only in the CAS group. CONCLUSIONS:Adolescents and young adults with histories of CAS rely on the same core linguistic skills for spelling as peers with a history of SSD-no CAS; however, spelling in CAS is additionally influenced by a motor-speech sequencing deficit, suggesting involvement of both linguistic and motor planning domains. Residual speech errors were unrelated to spelling, indicating that spelling difficulties arise from underlying representations rather than articulation. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.32942729.
PURPOSE:This study compared mental health outcomes in preadolescents with and without a history of late talking (HLT) to determine whether outcomes cascade from early language ability, considering ecological and early mental health factors. METHOD:We included 52 Mandarin-speaking preadolescents (100% Han Chinese) 9-11 years of age: 26 with HLT (M = 10.15 years, SD = 0.34; 20 boys, six girls) and 26 without HLT (M = 10.20 years, SD = 0.38; 17 boys, nine girls). Both groups had comparable nonverbal cognitive abilities (p = .721). The mental health outcomes assessed, based on parents' reports and participants' performance in laboratory tasks, included conceptual learning for adaptation, competence and emotion, self-regulation, and autism-like characteristics. Early language ability was assessed during toddlerhood (24-32 months of age) and the preschool period (48-57 months of age). RESULTS:Preadolescents with HLT performed worse in conceptual learning, self-regulation, and social functioning than those without HLT ([Formula: see text]s = .08-.20), indicating medium-to-large effect sizes. These three domains were associated with early language ability, showing moderate correlations (rs = .31-.52 or -.28 to -.41). CONCLUSIONS:Preadolescents with HLT had more mental health problems than those without HLT, which was linked to early language abilities. Their mental health should be understood from a developmental cascade perspective, emphasizing early identification and intervention, starting in childhood. Monitoring mental health may be particularly important during the transition to formal schooling.
PURPOSE:In this article, we examine how the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' (IACHR) 2025 report, The situation of the rights of persons with disabilities in the Americas, serves as a mechanism for incorporating principles from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to improve treatment outcomes for children with communication disorders in the United States, by integrating child-centered and rights-based principles into national policy and clinical practice, in the context of U.S. nonratification of the CRC. METHOD:Using a legal-analytical method grounded in treaty interpretation, comparative law, and policy analysis, we examine the IACHR's recommendations and the CRC's key provisions (Articles 2, 3, 6, 12, 13, 23, and 28) alongside U.S. disability law, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. We situate communication as a fundamental human right and identify operational strategies derived from the CRC across three domains: early intervention, inclusive education, and communication access in schools. CONCLUSION:We conclude that the IACHR report offers a credible framework for aligning U.S. disability practice with global children's rights norms, transforming abstract treaty obligations into practical tools for ensuring timely, equitable, and participatory communication supports in U.S. schools and communities.
PURPOSE:This tutorial provides speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with foundational knowledge to support their communication interventions with children and youth who are deafblind. This is a small disability group of great heterogeneity, with most having some functional vision and/or hearing and additional disabilities. The impact of deafblindness cannot be understood by adding the impacts of the child's hearing loss and visual impairment, as these senses frequently interact as the two distance senses for learning. Deafblindness greatly reduces both observational and incidental learning, necessitating the crafting of experiences and direct teaching of concepts. Children who are deafblind learn through the parts-to-whole approach, experiencing part of a context or experience and then needing the support of a trusted other to guide meaning-making. Receptive and expressive communication is often multimodal. METHOD:This tutorial provides a foundation on deafblindness, including a focus on learning and cognitive development, communication development, communication assessment, literacy development, and evidence-based practices and professional competencies. Additionally, the interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) framework is provided to support collaboration among SLPs and other professionals. CONCLUSIONS:Communication interventions for individuals who are deafblind should be carefully designed to include the four key aspects of communication: form, function, content, and context. These aspects should be tailored to the individual's communication development level and their understanding of symbols. IPCP is important for sharing knowledge of the child and professional expertise.
PURPOSE:Collaborative partnerships contribute to the development of effective tools and practices while simultaneously creating new knowledge. However, establishing and maintaining these partnerships is challenging, and understanding factors that support or hinder the success of the partnership is necessary. Adopting qualitative methods to understand the experience of those engaged in the partnership can identify barriers and facilitators of partnered research. METHOD:In the current project, school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and researchers comprising the leadership of a collaborative partnership to validate a kindergarten assessment tool aimed to understand their partnership experiences by participating in a qualitative research project with two components. A perceptual mapping activity with eight participants was completed to gather details about facilitators and barriers within the partnership. Two SLPs completed a semistructured interview, which was an opportunity to explore factors influencing the partnership in more depth. RESULTS:Four themes emerged from the data including (a) facilitators to the partnership, (b) barriers to the partnership, (c) factors important to partnership initiation, and (d) factors important to partnership maintenance. Subthemes specific to each theme and illustrative quotes are used to describe each theme in more detail. CONCLUSIONS:Practice-based research is a powerful way for researchers and clinicians to create meaningful changes to clinical practice but requires effective collaboration. Results from this in-depth examination of a collaborative partnership revealed factors related to facilitators of success, barriers that may disrupt success, and partnership establishment and maintenance. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.31662613.
PURPOSE:Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the school setting need to efficiently locate, evaluate, and utilize research evidence in their clinical practice. This tutorial provides resources focused on the foundational aspects of evidence-based practice (EBP) and its application for SLPs to implement research into clinical practice. METHOD:This tutorial (a) reviews study design and discusses clinical questions best suited to each; (b) provides key tips for extracting information from main sections of research articles; (c) discusses the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a clinical and research tool, including actionable steps and examples for using AI in EBP; and (d) provides detailed strategies to increase interaction with research beyond reading articles. RESULTS:School-based SLPs can utilize the information and strategies provided to increase their confidence in evaluating research literature, applying information, and incorporating resources from research articles into their clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS:This tutorial equips school-based SLPs with actionable steps and concrete tools to increase ease and efficiency of applying research evidence into clinical practice. It provides guidance on different study designs, practical strategies to review research articles, and a case study demonstrating these strategies as well as discusses the potential use of AI to support clinicians in generating clinical questions and the steps of the EBP process. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.31652170.
PURPOSE:The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between temporal processing and literacy performance in children with hearing aids. METHOD:The study included a total of 45 children, comprising 21 with typical hearing and 24 who used hearing aids, all of whom were attending the second, third, or fourth grades of primary school. Temporal processing skills were evaluated using the Frequency Pattern Test and the Duration Pattern Test (DPT), whereas reading and writing abilities were assessed through the Literacy Assessment Battery. RESULTS:Children using hearing aids demonstrated statistically significantly lower performance in the DPT and in the test assessing writing skills compared to their typically hearing peers. A positive, significant correlation was found between temporal processing skills and literacy skills. Moreover, temporal processing and literacy performance were observed to be negatively correlated with the age at which the child's first amplification was provided and positively correlated with the duration of auditory rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS:This study found that in children using hearing aids, performance on temporal pattern tests was significantly correlated with reading and writing skills. Furthermore, these findings suggest that early amplification and consistent auditory rehabilitation may be correlated with better temporal processing and literacy skills.
PURPOSE:The overall aim of this exploratory study was to evaluate personal narrative coherence in groups of children representing a range of cultural and/or linguistic backgrounds. Based on previous research, we expected to find effects based on culture/language participant group and the emotional valence of the prompt (positive, negative, neutral). We also anticipated potential interactions between culture/language participant group and prompt type. METHOD:Four hundred seventeen 10-year-old children from 21 culture/language participant groups took part in this cross-sectional study. The children were from 19 countries or regions, speaking 18 different languages or dialects. All children were seen individually, either face-to-face or online, and asked to produce personal narratives in response to the Global Talking About Lived Experiences in Stories (TALES) protocol. Three of their narratives, each representing a different emotional valence-happy, angry, and a problem situation-were included in the current study. All narratives were coded for coherence using the multidimensional Narrative Coherence Coding Scheme (NaCCS), which yields a total coherence score and three coherence dimension subscores: context, chronology, and theme. Linear mixed models were used to identify differences in narrative coherence between culture/language participant groups and narrative prompt types. RESULTS:We found significant main effects for both participant group and narrative prompt type on total coherence scores, as well as a significant interaction effect. Overall, the problem prompt elicited more coherent narratives than the angry prompt. Performance varied notably across culture/language participant groups, with no consistent pattern of strength linked to prompt type. Additionally, some culture/language participant groups scored significantly lower on total coherence than others. Significant participant group effects were also observed across all three coherence dimension subscores, with the theme dimension showing the greatest number of between-groups differences. CONCLUSIONS:In an increasingly multicultural and plurilingual world, the need for ecologically valid tools to assess children's spoken language skills is more critical than ever. Findings from this exploratory study offer further support for the use of the Global TALES protocol for eliciting personal narratives in children from diverse cultural and/or linguistic backgrounds. Furthermore, results indicated that the NaCCS is a viable method for describing differences and similarities in personal narrative coherence among these diverse groups of children. Our next steps involve refining the coding framework and expanding our participant pool to include larger, more age- and ability-representative samples-with the ultimate aim of integrating personal narrative assessment and analysis into routine clinical practice worldwide. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.32653314.
PURPOSE:In this preliminary inquiry, we sought perspectives from elementary school speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and counselors regarding the social-emotional learning (SEL) needs of elementary students with communication disorders. METHOD:In a virtual focus group, three school SLPs and three school counselors shared their experiences supporting the SEL of elementary students with communication disorders, including available resources and areas for improvement. We used reflexive thematic analysis to develop multilevel themes from the focus group, which were contextualized with quantitative survey data from a separate sample of 30 elementary school SLPs regarding their views on SEL. RESULTS:We derived three overarching themes from the focus group: (a) Elementary students with communication disorders face unique social-emotional challenges in school, even if they are not aware of them at the time; (b) SLPs often target SEL skills with elementary students with communication disorders, even if they were not formally trained in it; and (c) SLPs and counselors have distinct yet complementary experiences and tools to support SEL of elementary students with communication disorders. The quantitative survey data further characterized five subthemes identified from the focus group, providing a richer understanding of the data. CONCLUSIONS:These preliminary findings highlight the unique SEL needs of young students who navigate communication adversity in their daily lives. School SLPs and counselors called for enhanced training, both within and across their respective disciplines, underscoring the need for expanded research and training in how to effectively support SEL of students with communication disorders. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.32649186.
PURPOSE:Traditional writing assessments often prioritize surface-level correctness, limiting insight into students' underlying linguistic development. This research note introduces ScriptSense, a web-based linguistic analysis platform designed to provide accessible descriptions of student writing. Grounded in the Morphological Pathways Framework and the Lexical Quality Hypothesis, ScriptSense analyzes written language for indicators of morphological complexity, lexical diversity, and syntactic development. METHOD:Using a cross-sectional pilot design, ScriptSense was applied to 50 third-grade narrative writing samples collected in general education classrooms. Automated analyses extracted descriptive indices of morphological use (e.g., inflectional and derivational morphemes), lexical diversity (e.g., type-token ratio [TTR], lexical density), and syntactic structure (e.g., clause-to-sentence ratio, mean length of utterance). Outputs were analyzed descriptively, with subset verification to support interpretive consistency. RESULTS:Students produced an average of 56 words per narrative (SD = 21), with moderate lexical diversity (M TTR = 0.68) and lexical density (M = 0.59). All students demonstrated productive use of inflectional morphology, and over two thirds produced at least one derivational morpheme. Variability was observed across syntactic measures (mean clauses per sentence = 4.30, SD = 0.77), reflecting differences in sentence elaboration beyond rubrics. CONCLUSIONS:By emphasizing descriptive linguistic patterns rather than error-based scoring, ScriptSense offers an accessible approach to examining children's written language. Findings illustrate the platform's capacity to generate multidimensional linguistic profiles.
