Correction: Global TALES feasibility study: Personal narratives in 10-year-old children around the world.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273114.].

Children's Use of Evaluative Devices in Response to the Global TALES Protocol.

INTRODUCTION: It has been well established that the function of sharing personal narratives is to inform the listener about what the event meant to the narrator, for example, by using a range of evaluative devices. The use of these evaluative devices may reflect a person's understanding of the differences between one's own mind and others, by expressing their beliefs, emotions, thoughts, and desires. This paper investigates children's use of evaluative devices when producing personal narratives in response to the six emotion-based prompts contained in the Global TALES protocol (excited, worried, annoyed, proud, problem situation, something important). It addresses three research questions: (1) What types and proportions of evaluative devices do 10-year-old English-speaking children use in response to the six prompts contained in the Global TALES protocol and are there differences in performance between boys and girls? (2) What are the correlations between the different types of evaluative devices? (3) Does children's use of evaluative devices differ depending on the type of prompt used? METHODS: Eighty-two native English-speaking ten-year-old children from three English-speaking countries (Australia, New Zealand, and the USA) participated. None of the children had been identified with language and/or learning difficulties. Children's personal narratives were transcribed and analysed for the use of 12 evaluative devices: compulsion, internal emotional states, evaluative words, intensifiers, mental states, causal explanations, hypotheses, objective judgements, subjective judgements, intent, negatives, and repetition. RESULTS: Results showed that children use a high number of evaluative devices, with "intensifiers" and "evaluative words" used most frequently. There were few effects for sex, apart from girls using a wider range of evaluative devices than boys. We found moderate to large correlations between most devices, with factor analysis revealing three factors we labelled "causality," "hypothesis," and "judgement." Although there were significant overall effects for prompt type on the use of evaluative devices, there was no clear pattern when inspecting responses to individual prompts. CONCLUSION: The results from this study shed light on children's use of evaluative devices to convey the meaning of their personal narratives in response to six different prompts tapping into different emotions. Moving beyond appraising children's structural language skills when narrating their personal experiences may enhance the understanding of interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects of theory of mind, which may inform clinical practices, such as individualized goal setting and intervention choices.

Global TALES feasibility study: Personal narratives in 10-year-old children around the world.

Personal narratives make up more than half of children's conversations. The ability to share personal narratives helps build and maintain friendships, promotes physical and emotional wellbeing, supports classroom participation, and underpins academic success and vocational outcomes. Although personal narratives are a universal discourse genre, cross-cultural and cross-linguistic research into children's ability to share personal narratives is in its infancy. The current study addresses this gap in the research by developing the Global TALES protocol, a protocol comprising six scripted prompts for eliciting personal narratives in school-age children (excited, worried, annoyed, proud, problem situation, something important). We evaluated its feasibility with 249 ten-year-old children from 10 different countries, speaking 8 different languages, and analyzed researchers' views on the process of adapting the protocol for use in their own country/language. At group-level, the protocol elicited discourse samples from all children, although individual variability was evident, with most children providing responses to all six prompts. When investigating the topics of children's personal narratives in response to the prompts, we found that children from around the world share many commonalities regarding topics of conversation. Once again individual variability was high, indicating the protocol is effective in prompting children to share their past personal experiences without forcing them to focus on one particular topic. Feedback from the participating researchers on the use of the protocol in their own countries was generally positive, although several translation issues were noted. Based on our results, we now invite clinical researchers from around the world to join us in conducting further research into this important area of practice to obtain a better understanding of the development of personal narratives from children across different languages and cultures and to begin to establish local benchmarks of performance.

The Dimensionality of Language and Literacy in the School-Age Years.

PURPOSE: This was an investigation of the dimensionality of oral and written language to test the hypothesis that a two-factor model with sound/word and sentence/discourse language levels would best fit language and literacy data for a population-based sample in the school-age years. METHOD: A stratified secondary data set of 1,500 participants was drawn randomly from a larger nationally representative U.S. data set (N = 1,853) gathered during standardization of the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills. A sample of 254 students with prior diagnoses of language and literacy disorders (LLD) was drawn from the full data set. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the hypothesized two-factor model with other theoretically possible models. RESULTS: The hypothesized two-factor language-levels model had an acceptable-to-good fit to the full data set, as did the three-factor model, with verbal memory added. High interfactor correlation between verbal memory and sentence/discourse constructs, as well as a preference for parsimony, led to the acceptance of the two-factor model as best. This language-levels model had a good fit to the data at ages 8-11 years, and an excellent fit at ages 12-18 years, but only a poor fit for ages 6-7 years (yet still better than other two-factor or unitary models). It had a reasonable fit for students with LLD, although the three-factor model fit their data slightly better. CONCLUSIONS: Oral and written language abilities during the school-age years are best explained by a two-factor model with sound/word and sentence/discourse language levels and memory as a contributing factor. Implications for identifying and treating language and literacy disorders as multidimensional rather than categorical are discussed.

Evaluating the Equivalence of Telepractice and Traditional Administration of the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills.

PURPOSE: This study evaluated the equivalence of the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS) when administrated via telepractice (Tele-TILLS) and face-to-face methods. METHOD: Participants were 51 children and adolescents in three age bands, ages 6-7 years (n = 9), 8-11 years (n = 21), and 12-18 years (n = 21). Data were gathered by 25 volunteer examiners who assessed the same participants twice within a 2- to 4-week period, using Tele-TILLS and traditional methods in randomly selected, counterbalanced order. RESULTS: Evaluation of identification equivalence showed 96% agreement between methods (49 of 51 decisions), with 39 agreements of no disorder, 10 agreements of yes disorder, and two disagreements (yes disorder for Tele-TILLS and no disorder for traditional). Partial correlations, controlled for test order, showed moderate to high agreement between all composite and subtest scores, except Nonword Repetition. Scoring by examiners and the first author showed high interrater agreement. No differences between Nonword Repetition scores were found for students who wore headsets (n = 12), whereas differences were found for those who did not (n = 34). CONCLUSIONS: This study provided preliminary evidence that Tele-TILLS results can be equivalent to traditional TILLS, supporting its validity for identifying language/literacy disorder and interpreting profiles. The small, highly homogeneous sample with well-educated parents limits generalizability to the broader population. Caution is warranted when testing 6- to 7-year-old students for whom Nonword Repetition is part of the Identification Core score. Suggestions are provided for optimizing technological setup, preparing facilitators, and making minor modifications in subtest administration.

Language XX: What shall it be called and why does it matter?

Terms suggested for unexpected language learning difficulty include specific language impairment, primary language disorder and language learning disability; however, none of them represents the critical element of literacy. Some experts have suggested that debating what to call language disorders is parallel to debating what to call reading disorders and dyslexia. In contrast, it is argued here that reading disorders are language disorders and not separate or parallel. Evidence is presented for quadrant models that explain language disorders and dyslexia along two dimensions-sound/word level (phonological) knowledge and sentence/discourse level (non-phonological) knowledge. Support for these two dimensions comes from factor analysis of a new assessment tool called the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS). Two case studies illustrate how a quadrant model can be used to explain patterns of abilities that vary along these two dimensions to parents and teachers. The article concludes with a recommendation to adopt a label that reflects language/literacy commonalities rather than differences, such as language/literacy disorder or specific language/literacy impairment.

Language and communication in autism: an integrated view.

Children with autism spectrum disorders can have varying degrees of difficulty acquiring spoken and written language, but symptoms of communication impairment associated with social impairment are uniformly present, distinguishing autism spectrum disorders from other neurodevelopmental disabilities. Early diagnosis and early intervention involving parents can improve prognosis. Red flags for social communication problems can be observed early. This article summarizes findings from the National Standards Project of the National Autism Center, which identified 11 types of treatment, 8 of which address communication. Both contemporary behavioral approaches and naturalistic developmental approaches are included in this set.

Questions about certainty and uncertainty in clinical practice.

PURPOSE: This article offers a critical response to Kamhi's (2011) essay regarding the need to balance certainty and uncertainty in evidence-based practice (EBP). METHOD: Points of concordance and discordance (counterpoints) between Kamhi's essay and the author's frames of reference were considered. RESULTS: In agreement with Kamhi, a major role is outlined for clinicians to use questions strategically (i.e., acting on uncertainty) to prioritize intervention targets and select approaches that best fit the context and stakeholders' values for purposes of planning, accomplishing, and evaluating change. The first counterpoint emphasizes a need for larger roles for theoretical frameworks involving systems theory and collaborative, contextualized approaches to assessment and intervention. The second notes opportunities for self-correction by using outcome data from relevant contexts outside of treatment sessions. CONCLUSION: Clinicians should capitalize on Kamhi's ideas by working with other key stakeholders to make points of certainty and uncertainty explicit. By generating insightful questions that can guide the process of EBP and gathering evidence from broader outcomes, clinicians can gain external validation for the approach taken or for the need to consider alternatives.