Purpose This study used a mixed-methods design to assess changes in students\u0027 cultural awareness during and following a short-term study abroad. Method Thirty-six undergraduate and graduate student...

This study used a multiple-baseline-across-participants design to measure the effect of sentence-combining treatment provided to 6 school-age students who were identified by their teachers as being weak writers. The treatment aimed to increase the number of complex sentences in written samples by instructing students to combine simple sentences using specific conjunctions (e.g., before, while, if, until, unless). Students completed a standardized subtest of sentence combining from the Test of Written Language–Fourth Edition (Hammill & Larsen, 2009) pre- and posttreatment. Data on the number of complex sentences were collected from written samples produced during the baseline, treatment, and posttreatment phases. Results indicated that 3 of the 6 students earned higher scores on the standardized subtest of sentence-combining posttreatment, whereas the other 3 did not. Five of the 6 students showed positive, albeit generally weak, treatment effects for the number of complex sentences written. These results suggest that sentence-combining treatment may have the potential to increase the use of complex syntax in writing for some students identified as weak writers, though individual responses to treatment varied considerably.

No AccessPerspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) PopulationsArticle1 Apr 2014Grammaticality of Preschoolers in Narratives: Considering the Influences of Bilingualism and Daycare Participation: A Retrospective and Exploratory Study Maria Resendiz, Rachel Henrich, Celeste Domsch and Elizabeth Belasco Maria Resendiz Department of Communication Disorders, Texas State UniversitySan Marcos, TX Google Scholar More articles by this author , Rachel Henrich Student, Texas State UniversitySan Marcos, TX Bilingual Language Accquisition Bunch LabSan Antonio, TX Google Scholar More articles by this author , Celeste Domsch Department of Communication Disorders, Texas State UniversitySan Marcos, TX Google Scholar More articles by this author and Elizabeth Belasco Department of Communication Disorders, Texas State UniversitySan Marcos, TX Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/cds21.1.22 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Purpose: The current retrospective and exploratory study aimed to identify the role of language experience for monolingual and bilingual preschool age children who did and did not attend daycare on the production of grammatical utterances during a narrative task. Method: Eighty-eight preschool age children (M=4; 10, SD=4 months), a subset of children from a larger study (Resendiz, in preparation), participated in the current study. Parent interviews were completed to obtain background information about each child (Gutierrez-Clellen & Kreiter, 2003). Each child produced narratives using wordless picture books in the language of their choice. Five children produced a narrative in both English and Spanish; for these children we used their higher grammaticality score. Narratives were transcribed and each utterance was coded as grammatical or ungrammatical. Results: There were no significant differences between children who were bilingual and children who were monolingual. There were also no significant differences between children who attended daycare and those who did not. Conclusion: Coming from a bilingual background did not hinder children's performance in the area of grammaticality. Participation in daycare did not influence children's use of grammatical language. While there are other documented benefits of daycare participation, grammaticality is not an affected area of language. References Ansari, A., & Winsler, A. (2012). Stability and sequence of center-based and family childcare: Links with low income children's school readiness.Children and Youth Services Review, 35(2), 358–366. Google Scholar Bedore, L. M., Peña, E. D., Gillam, R. B., & Ho, T. (2010). Language sample measures and language ability in Spanish-English bilingual kindergarteners.Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 498–510. CrossrefGoogle Scholar Beller, S. (2008) Fostering language acquisition in daycare Settings: What does research tell us? Working paper No. 49. 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(2000).Child Development, 71, 960–980. Google Scholar Resendiz, M. (in preparation). Changes in narrative language by preschool age children with typically developing language, at risk for language impairment, and language impairment after participation in tier 2 of RTI. Google Scholar Restrepo, M. A. (1998). Identifiers of predominantly Spanish-speaking children with language impairment.Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 41, 1398–1411. LinkGoogle Scholar Rhyner, P. M. (2007). An analysis of caregivers' language during book sharing with toddler age children.Communication Disorders Quarterly, 28, 167–178. Google Scholar Shulman, M. D., & Liles, B. Z. (1979). A sense of grammaticality: An ingredient for language remediation.Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 10, 59–63. Google Scholar Simon-Cereijido, G., & Gutierrez-Clellen, V. F. (2007). Spontaneous language markers of Spanish language impairment.Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 317–339. 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Child care resources handbook.Retrieved from http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/worklife/reference-materials/child-care-resources-handbook/ Google Scholar Additional Resources FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 21Issue 1April 2014Pages: 22-32 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in issue: Apr 1, 2014 Metrics Downloaded 43 times Topicsasha-topicsasha-sigsasha-article-typesCopyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2014 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationPDF DownloadLoading ...

In this article, the author considers the state of communication disorders in Ethiopia today by first discussing the health status of adults and children, particularly as it relates to the prevalence of neurologic and communication disorders. The author goes on to describe new models of treatment for communication and related disorders and the current system of health-care delivery. Next, the author examines the multilingual nature of education in Ethiopia. The article concludes with a consideration of the language development of internationally adopted children, as well as the expected influence of Amharic on English production in mature bilingual speakers.

Background: Children who do not produce single words by the expected age have been described as late talkers or as demonstrating late language emergence (LLE). Although their short-term growth in vocabulary is often strong, longer-term consequences of LLE remain in dispute. It has been argued that the majority of school-age children who had LLE move into the average range for narrative production, though studies have not examined narrative comprehension. It has also been argued that school-age children with LLE score in the average range on standardized tests of syntax, though studies have not examined performance in conversational contexts. Aims: This article compared school-age children with and without histories of LLE for performance on standardized narrative comprehension and production tasks, as well as the use of complex sentences and relative clauses in narration and conversation. Both complex syntax and relative clause use are reduced in children with specific language impairment (SLI), so these structures may be useful as indicators of linguistic weakness. Methods & Procedures: The participants were twenty-two 8-year-old children, divided into two groups. Eleven children who had been diagnosed with LLE at 30 months were compared with a control group of 11 children with typical development (TD). All participants completed a standardized test of narrative comprehension and production and a 10-min conversational sample. Both narrative and conversational samples were analysed for the number of complex sentences and relative clauses. Outcomes & Results: Overall results indicated that children with a history of LLE did not have comprehension or production scores that were significantly different from the TD group on the standardized narrative test; nor did groups differ for production of complex sentences or relative clauses in narrative samples. However, a significant difference was found for the production of complex sentences in conversational samples, with the children diagnosed with LLE producing fewer complex sentences than the TD group. There was no difference between groups for relative clause use in conversation or in narratives. Conclusions & Implications: These data suggest that children with a history of LLE may exhibit age-appropriate performance on a standardized narrative test, but still lack the syntactic complexity of their TD peers in conversation. Assessments for school-age children with a history of language delay should include analysis of syntactic complexity in conversation to identify continuing weakness. Future research should examine use of other specific types of complex structures (e. g. infinitival and clausal complements) in this population, as well the feasibility of increasing complex sentence production through intervention. In addition, future studies should examine whether this decreased production of complex syntax in conversation is noted by naive listeners.

To sound native-like, nonnative speakers need to approximate the articulatory patterns of native speakers. When nonnative speakers deviate from native speakers' production patterns, it gives rise to a nonnative accent. This study examines how proficiency in a second language (L2) is related to processing skills in L2, as measured by the accuracy of consonant production. 10 monolingual speakers of American English, 10 Bengali-English bilinguals with high proficiency in English, and 10 Bengali-English bilinguals with low proficiency in English participated. The participants spoke 16 nonwords of four different syllable lengths. Productions were phonetically transcribed. Results suggested that nonnative speakers' L2 proficiency differentially interacted with overall phonemic accuracy, usage of appropriate place, manner and voicing features, position of consonants within target words, and syllable length. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of customized strategies for modification of nonnative accents.

BACKGROUND:Research has indicated that 24-36-month-olds with late language emergence ('late talkers') are at risk for later language-learning difficulties. Previous reviews have examined the efficacy of treatment for children with language delay/disorders; however, no systematic review has examined the effects of language treatment specifically for children with late language emergence. AIMS:This systematic review reports the effects of intervention studies conducted between 1985 and 2008 of 24-36-month-olds with late language emergence. MAIN CONTRIBUTION:Eleven studies that included a total of 275 participants were located, synthesized, and appraised for quality. Studies varied significantly with respect to methodological quality, with seven of the eleven receiving moderately strong quality scores. OUTCOMES & RESULTS:Treatment for children with late language emergence improved performance on formal measures of language, mean length of utterance, and target word use as indicated by medium to large effect sizes in these good-quality studies. Treatment descriptions and clinical implications are provided. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS:There is evidence to suggest that focused stimulation and modelling of single words can lead to improvements in the language of children with late language emergence. Subsequent treatment studies should examine the application of these effective treatments to larger, population-based samples. Future treatment studies would also benefit from specific examination of children's receptive language level and inclusion of children with late language emergence who vary in socio-economic status and/or ethnicity.

Children who do not speak single words by 2 years of age have been labeled as having late language emergence (LLE). While the majority of children with LLE recover by school-age, it has been argued that they often still perform below the level of their typical peers for specific linguistic skills. In this case, speechlanguage pathologists (SLPs) should consider language skills as varying along a dimension, rather than as simply impaired vs. unimpaired. To examine the dimensionality of language skill, this study compared infinitival clause production in 22 schoolage children with and without LLE. The infinitive clauses were: catenatives, such as gonna; let us + verb, typically produced as let’s; unmarked infinitives such as make it go; and simple infinitives such as We want to run. The 22 participants included 11 with typical development and 11 with a history of LLE, sampled in a conversational context at 8-years of age. Analysis indicated that the groups did not statistically differ for use of the four types of infinitival clauses. However, the LLE group did use fewer simple infinitives, offering support for a dimensional model of language development.

This study investigated the eff ects of maternal education and language use on vocabulary and mean-length-of-utterance (MLU) in 20 children with late language emergence (LLE). Multiple home visits were conducted over an 8-month period to measure child vocabulary growth using a standardized checklist and to collect spontaneous mother-child language samples. Standardized receptive and expressive test scores for the 20 children were obtained at the end of the 8 months. Results indicated that maternal education was positively associated with child MLU. Furthermore, the number of diff erent words (NDW) used by mothers was positively associated with child receptive vocabulary scores but curiously not with expressive vocabulary scores. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) indicated that children with LLE diff ered in their vocabulary sizes and rates of growth, but that these diff erences were not accounted for by maternal education. Children with LLE appeared to benefi t from hearing a wide variety of words, even though they may not immediately produce them. The primary mechanism driving vocabulary growth in children with LLE may diff er from that in typical children, where maternal education has been argued to play a signifi cant role. In any case, SLPs have further evidence that use of a large variety of words may be helpful in treating children with LLE, and they should continue to recommend this strategy to parents.