Progress Toward a Multisectoral Community Intervention Approach to Prevention of the Word Gap.

Children learn language through the interactions they have with their parents/caregivers beginning at birth. Hart and Risley (1995) discovered an inequity in the home language input children received from parents/caregivers. Children reared in low-income families received less input (conversations, turns) from parents than did children reared in more advantaged families. Less language input was linked to a disparity in children's vocabulary learning by age 3. The long-term result of this social determinant of early language/literacy learning is a life trajectory of poor educational, economic, and health attainment for many children in families with limited resources, at vast cost to individuals, communities, and the nation. What is needed is an approach to word-gap prevention that is capable of achieving positive individual, community, and population outcomes. Translating research into practice, we developed the Bridging the Word Gap Community Action Planning Guide (BWG-CAPG) using a combined behavior-analytic, community psychology, and public health framework for this purpose (Greenwood et al., 2017). We also developed a progress-monitoring measure, the online BWG Community Check Box Evaluation System, to provide feedback on a community's actions and progress in implementing their plan. Results from an initial pilot investigation within and across three community sectors in a large urban city were promising. BWG Community Check Box results indicated a number of desired outcomes: (a) capacity development and mobilization, (b) community implementation actions, and (c) community changes in practices, programs, and policies. Implications are discussed.

Automated Language Environment Analysis: A Research Synthesis.

Purpose: The Language Environment Analysis (LENA®) represents a breakthrough in automatic speech detection because it makes one's language environment, what adults and children actually hear and say, efficiently measurable. The purpose of this article was to examine (a) current dimensions of LENA research, (b) LENA's sensitivity to differences in populations and language environments, and (c) what has been achieved in closing the Word Gap. Method: From electronic and human searches, 83 peer-reviewed articles using LENA were identified, and 53 met inclusionary criteria and were included in a systematic literature review. Each article reported results of 1 study. Results: Originally developed to make natural language research more efficient and feasible, systematic review identified a broad landscape of relevant LENA findings focused primarily on the environments and communications of young children but also older adults and teachers. LENA's automated speech indicators (adult input, adult-child interaction, and child production) and the audio environment were shown to meet high validity standards, including accuracy, sensitivity to individual differences, and differences in populations, settings, contexts within settings, speakers, and languages. Researchers' own analyses of LENA audio recordings have extended our knowledge of microlevel processes in adult-child interaction. To date, intervention research using LENA has consisted of small pilot experiments, primarily on the effects of brief parent education plus quantitative linguistic feedback to parents. Conclusion: Evidence showed that automated analysis has made a place in the repertoire of language research and practice. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.

Impact of a Teacher-as-Coach Model: Improving Paraprofessionals Fidelity of Implementation of Discrete Trial Training for Students with Moderate-to-Severe Developmental Disabilities.

Ensuring educational progress for students with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities requires exposure to well executed evidence-based practices. This necessitates that the special education workforce, including paraprofessionals, be well-trained. Yet evidence regarding effective training mechanisms for paraprofessionals is limited. A multiple baseline design across five teachers was used to evaluate the impact of online instructional modules and a Practice-Based Coaching (PBC) model with teacher-as-coach on their paraprofessionals' fidelity of discrete trial training (DTT). Implementation of the instructional modules yielded little to no change in paraprofessionals' DTT fidelity, however, a clear functional relation between PBC and improvement in paraprofessionals' fidelity of implementation of DTT was demonstrated. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.