Tracking children from poverty at risk for specific language impairment: a 3-year longitudinal study.

A 3-year longitudinal study of the language performance of children from poverty was designed to address the problem of separating children with a specific language impairment (SLI) from low-scoring normal children in the borderline area on the continuum of language performance where normal ends and abnormal begins. Two approaches to definition were compared: an experimental approach (using story-retelling, rote-memory ability, and invented-morpheme learning) and a traditional approach (using standardized-test discrepancy scores). Results indicated that 6 of 34 children tracked from kindergarten through second grade appeared to be SLI at the end of the study. The best kindergarten predictor for the outcome status of these 6 children was a combination of the score on the Oral Vocabulary subtest of the TOLD-2P and the score on a combination of the experimental tasks. The best single kindergarten predictor of the academic status of the 15 children in the study who received academic remediation was story-retelling. Children's scores on the experimental and standardized tests of language performance and nonverbal intelligence were profiled over the 3 years of the study, and patterns of change in many instances reveal the lifting of the early influences of poverty.

An attributional model of supervisors' decision-making behavior in speech-language pathology.

An attributional model of speech-language pathology supervisors' decision-making behavior based on Weiner's achievement motivation attributional model was applied. Forty-six supervisors were asked to imagine hypothetical good or poor therapy sessions and to cite causes for the session's outcome, request information to understand the outcome better, and suggest actions they would take in response to the particular outcome. Results indicated that clinician attributions were cited most frequently and few client, supervisor, or other attributions were made. Clinician factors were generally described in terms of planning behaviors, instructional behaviors, and strategies. Session outcomes were attributed primarily to factors controllable by the participants and were expected to vary over time. Supervisors most frequently requested information about the clinician, client, and structure of therapy. They suggested actions that focused primarily on the clinician, occurred after the session, and were directed by the supervisor. Supervisors' causal attributions, information requests, and action responses differed for good and poor sessions. Implications for supervisory practice are discussed.

Influences of hearing impairment on early language development.

It is difficult to determine exactly the effects of chronic otitis media on early language development, in part because we do not know whether hearing loss resulting from otitis media is intermittent or constant, and in part because it is difficult to assess the precise language ability of very young children. This paper focuses on those aspects of language development which one might expect hearing impairment to affect, and presents several hypotheses about the possible effects of mild-to-moderate hearing loss on the earliest stages of language development.

Children's use of spatial prepositions in two- and three-dimensional tasks.

This study evaluates children's performance on selected spatial prepositions and determines the age levels these prepositions are acquired in both receptive and expresive language, as revealed in tasks involving both two- and three-dimensional objects. Subjects were 80 children (40 males and 40 females), ranging in age from three years to four years and eleven months. All were native English speakers with no speech, hearing, or neurological disorders, and with normal intelligence. Results indicated a significant difference in test scores according to age (older children perform better than younger), task (comprehension scores higher than production scores), referent (three-dimensional tasks showing higher scores than two-dimensional tasks), and preposition. Children's use of selected spatial prepositions is dependent on the semantic complexity of the preposition. Prepositions whose meanings can be described in terms of simple topological notions are understood and used with greater facility than those involving dimensional or Euclidean spatial notions. When the prepositional variable interacts with age, dimension, task, age + dimension, age + task, dimension + task, and age + dimension + task, overall differential response are likely to occur.

Language performance of educable mentally retarded and normal children at five age levels.

The present study comprised an analysis and comparison of the language performance of educable mentally retarded and normal children at mental age levels six through 10 years. Both syntactic and functional performance variables were investigated. The results indicate language performance differences between the two groups with the primary discriminators being hesitation phenomena (false starts, filled pauses, and repeats) and clausal constructions (relative and subordinate clauses), resulting in a higher sentence elaboration level for normal children.