Narrative Assessment Profile: discourse analysis for school-age children.

The assessment of narrative skills of school-age children is described using a comprehensive discourse analysis approach, the Narrative Assessment Profile. The following dimensions of narration are evaluated: topic maintenance, event sequencing, explicitness, referencing, conjunctive cohesion, and fluency. The purpose of this article is to describe the development of these six dimensions and their symptoms in impaired narrative discourse. Assessment and intervention guidelines are presented.

Narrative skills following traumatic brain injury in children and adults.

Personal narratives serve an important function in virtually all societies (Peterson & McCabe, 1991). Through narratives individuals make sense of their experiences and represent themselves to others (Bruner, 1990). The ability to produce narratives has been linked to academic success (Feagans, 1982). Persons who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are at risk for impaired narrative ability (Dennis, 1991). However, a paucity of information exists on the discourse abilities of persons with TBI. This is partly due to a lack of reliable tools with which to assess narrative discourse. The present study utilized dependency analysis (Deese, 1984) to document and describe the narrative discourse impairments of children and adults with TBI. Ten children (mean age 12;0) and 10 adults (mean age 35;2) were compared with matched controls. Dependency analysis reliably differentiated the discourse of the individuals with TBI from their controls. Individuals with TBI were significantly more dysfluent than their matched controls. Furthermore, their performance on the narrative task revealed a striking listener burden.

Conflict resolution abilities of children with specific language impairment and children with normal language.

This study explored the conflict resolution ability of 30 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 30 children with normal language (NL) in grades 3 through 7. The children participated in a hypothetical problem-solving activity in which an imaginary conflict was presented and a hypothetical solution was required. They also engaged in role enactments of conflicts. The children with SLI suggested fewer types of strategies to resolve hypothetical conflicts than their peers with NL. The groups did not differ in the number of strategy types used in the role-enactment contexts. The children with receptive and expressive SLI performed more poorly than the children with primarily expressive language deficits only on the role-enactment task. Similarities and differences in types of strategy used by the children with SLI and those with NL were found in both tasks. Explanations are offered for these findings.

Selected syntactic usage of language-impaired children.

The syntactic performance of ten language-impaired and ten normal children, matched by mean length of utterance was compared. Language samples were analyzed with respect to grammatical marker need index (GMN), grammatical marker error index (GME), and GMEs for nouns (GME-N), verbs (GME-V), bound (GME-B), and unbound (GME-U) forms. The distribution of syntactic errors for nine syntactic categories was also explored. There was no significance between the groups for GMN; significant between-group differences were found for GME, GME-N versus GME-V, and GME-B versus GME-U. For all children, noun-related forms elicited fewer errors than verb-related forms; no differences were found between bound and unbound elements. The distribution of errors for the syntactic categories revealed that significant differences were not found between the groups. More errors were made with articles than pronouns and with contractible auxiliaries than contractible copulas. The results are discussed in terms of the nature of the syntactic impairments in language-impaired children and clinical implications.

Concurrent validity of two language screening tests.

The importance of ascertaining the validity of clinical instruments used to make decisions about individuals is discussed and the need for additional validation studies is emphasized. Steps that can be taken to confirm the validity for a particular application, setting, or population are described. As an example, the concurrent validity of two language screening instruments, the Fluharty Preschool Screening Test and the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test, and their subtests was examined. Decisions from these screening tests and subtests were compared to a validity criterion of passing or failing the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development for 182 white middle-class children, ages 36-47 months. The results showed that the screening tests differed in their validity, depending upon the content of the test and each subtest. The consequences of using either screening test are explored, to illustrate how the outcomes of such studies should be interpreted.

The development of the interpersonal construct system in educable mentally retarded children.

The development of the interpersonal construct system of educable mentally retarded children was studied using three measures: cognitive complexity, construct abstractness and egocentricity. Ten mentally retarded children in the mental age groups of 6, 8, 10 and 12 were compared with nonretarded children of the same mental ages. The mentally retarded children used a limited number of constructs with less abstractness than the nonmentally retarded children. In terms of egocentricity, the nonretarded children used more other-oriented constructs than did the retarded children. For all measures, there were significant differences between the age levels of 6 and 8 versus 12 years, suggesting developmental trends.

Comparison of self- and peer-perceptions of mentally retarded children.

The self- and peer-perceptions of 40 mentally retarded children (mental ages 6 yr. to 12 yr.) were compared. Age differences were not obtained. Affective reports of likes and dislikes predominated the self-perceptions. Situational, external descriptions of behavior characterized the peer perceptions. These qualitative results are similar to the self- and peer-perceptions of nonretarded children.

A symptom approach to the intervention of childhood language disorders.

This paper presents a symptom approach for the intervention of childhood language disorders. Intervention guidelines are presented in the following areas of functioning: two word utterances, auxiliaries, grammatical structures, auditory comprehension, discourse, and symbolic play. Behavioral analysis, rather than etiologic classification, forms the basis of the intervention strategies.

The development of persuasive strategies by mentally retarded children.

The persuasive strategies of educable mentally retarded children were examined in terms of their level of perspective-taking ability. Forty mentally retarded children and 40 non-mentally retarded children constructed persuasive messages to a familiar and unfamiliar target. There were 10 children from each group in the mental ages of 6, 8, 10, and 12 years. Significant differences were found for age and target but not between the groups. The results are discussed in terms of the social-cognitive and communicative skills of educable mentally retarded children.

The development of listener-adapted communication by educable mentally impaired children.

The listener-adapted communication strategies of educable mentally impaired and nonmentally retarded children were investigated. The children constructed goal directed messages to three pairs of targets (a happy and a sad boy, man, and woman). They were than asked to explain their communicative strategies: Did they alter their messages for the happy and sad targets? Ten mentally impaired children in the mental age levels of 6, 8, 10, and 12 were compared with their nonretarded peers of similar mental ages. The results revealed that age, listener, and group differences were evident as a function of the specific task the children were required to perform.

Screening Kit of Language Development: a preschool language screening instrument.

The Screening Kit of Language Development ( SKOLD ) was designed to meet the following criteria: Validity for 2.5-4 year old children, standardization for speakers of standard and Black English, and appropriateness for paraprofessional screeners . This paper describes the development, content, administration, scoring, reliability, and validity of SKOLD .

Cognitive complexity, rhetorical sensitivity: contributing factors in clinical skill?

Rhetorical sensitivity and cognitive complexity, measures of interpersonal sensitivity and complexity of interpersonal construct systems, were investigated in this study as they relate to clinical skill. A clinical evaluation tool was developed and validated in order to identify outstanding and failing clinicians. Cognitive complexity and rhetorical sensitivity data were collected and analyzed to compare two groups of clinicians representing the extremes of clinical ability. Outstanding and failing clinicians were not differentiated on the basis of these measures. The clinical implications of these findings were addressed.

The use of nonverbal pragmatic behaviors by language-impaired and normal-speaking children.

The use of six nonverbal pragmatic behaviors was investigated for three groups of subjects. The experimental group (LI) consisted of 20 language-impaired children who were in stages III and IV of linguistic development. One control group (NSY) consisted of 20 normal-speaking children equated with the experimental group on the basis of mean length of utterance. Another control group (NSO) consisted of 20 normal-speaking children equated with the experimental group by chronologic age. The NSY were younger, whereas the NSO were of the same age as the LI. Two individuals observed each child and a peer playing with toys and recorded the presence of the six behaviors for each subject. The LI and the NSY and the NSO did not differ significantly for five behaviors. Play was the only behavior that distinguished the groups. The clinical implications of the results are discussed.

Black English responses on selected language tests.

Standardized screening and assessment measures for language development do not take into account Black English responses. This study was designed to determine the extent to which normal and language impaired black preschool children respond in Black English and Standard English on selected screening instruments. Developmental differences in the usage of Standard English and Black English were also investigated. The results indicate that black normal and language impaired preschool children are both Standard English and Black English on screening tests. Developmental differences were noted. The results suggest that tests for language development need to be standardized on speakers of Black English and also should include Black English response alternatives.

A comparison of verbal communicative skills of language impaired and normal speaking children.

This investigation compared the speech act usage of language impaired and normal speaking children. Twenty language impaired subjects (LI) in stages III and IV constituted the experimental group. One control group consisted of 20 normal speaking younger children (NSY) equated with the language impaired subjects by MLU. The other control group consisted of 20 older normal speaking children (NSO) equated with the experimental group by chronological age. Two observers independently identified ten speech acts used by the subjects during free play sessions with a peer. The results indicated that the same speech acts were used in similar proportions by all three groups. The NSO used more utterances than the LI and NSY subjects. The NSO used describing and acknowledging speech acts more than the LI or NSY. Answering was used more frequently by the LI than the NSO. Requesting an action was used more frequently by the NSY than the NSO. The results suggest that language impaired subjects are able to use a variety of speech acts but that they appear to be delayed in their pragmatic development. Clinical implications of the data are presented.

Language evaluation: science of art?

This study was designed to determine the degree of agreement between standardized tests of language development and clinical judgment. The Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL), the Carrow Elicited Language Inventory (CELI), and the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD) were used. Three-year-old white preschool children were tested individually by experienced speech-language pathologists in day-care centers. Each examiner also made a clinical judgment of normal or impaired language behavior, based on observations during the testing. The results indicated that the CELI agreed the most with the clinical judgment of the examiners, followed by the SICD and TACL. The clinical significance of these results is discussed.

Sentence structures of trainable and educable mentally retarded subjects.

Educable and trainable mentally retarded children were administered a story completion task that elicits 14 grammatical structures. There were more correct responses from educable than from trainable mentally retarded children. Both groups found imperatives easiest, and future, embedded, and double-adjectival structures most difficult. The children classed as educable produced more correct responses than those termed trainable for declarative, question, and single-adjectival structures. The cognitive and linguistic processing of both groups is discussed as are the implications for language remediation.

A story completion approach as a measure of language development in children.

A task employing a story completion approach was administered to 120 children who exhibited normal language development. Fifteen boys and 15 girls at four-, five-, six-, and seven-year age levels were tested. The test elicits 14 grammatical structures using 28 stories. Significant differences in structures did not occur between the sexes at any age level but males required more prompting. Significant differences in the total number of correct responses were established between the four and five year olds and between the five and six year olds but not between the six and seven year olds. Performance by age varied according to the grammatical structure. Simple structures were produced most accurately by the younger subjects while the more advanced ones were used by the older subjects. Discussion of results emphasized normal cognitive and language development as well as the clinical significance for the assessment of language behavior.

Performance of adult aphasics on a sentence evaluation and revision task.

Adult aphasics completed a sentence evaluation and revision task to test some aspects of their linguistic competence. Grammatical and ungrammatical sentences served as the stimuli. Ungrammatical sentences were characterized by violations of syntactic or semantic structure, or both. Aphasics evaluated correctly the grammaticality of most stimulus sentences. Incorrect evaluations were associated with sentences characterized by violations of syntactic structure. Aphasics' revisions of sentences that they judged to be ungrammatical were in the direction of appropriate grammatical structures. Omission of morphological endings was the most frequent sentence revision error. Aphasics' errors on both tasks could be accounted for by performance deficits such as inattentiveness to syntactic detail, auditory perceptual impairments, and inefficient lexical retrieval. These findings lend support to the argument that aphasia is best characterized as a performance rather than competence disruption.

Aphasics' sentence repetition behavior as a funciton of grammaticality.

Twenty asphasics repeated grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. Ungrammatical sentences were characterized by violations of syntactic and/or semantic structure. Aphasics repeated accurately more grammatical than ungrammatical sentences. Ungrammatical sentences with violations of syntactic structure were repeated less accurately than those with preserved syntax. Aphasics' repetition errors were classified as: incorrect repetition, inapropriate correction, morphological error, lexical deletion and substitution responses. Repetition errors appeared to result from performance deficits, such as reduced retention span and physiological limitations of the speech musculature. Results suggest that asphasics are to some extent guided by a greater residual linguistic knowledge or competence than might be inferred from their spontaneous production.