A meta-analysis of morphological interventions: effects on literacy achievement of children with literacy difficulties

The effects of explicit morphological analysis instruction in early elementary Spanish speakers

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of implicit and explicit morphological analysis instruction in Spanish, a language characterized by high morphological complexity and relatively consistent letter-sound correspondences. For 3 days, 94 Grade 3 Spanish monolingual students (43 girls; Mage = 8.9 years) were trained on target words containing experimenter-designed suffixes consistent in form and meaning (e.g., the suffix -isba refers to a factory in words such as "botisba" [a boot factory] and "cajisba" [a box factory]). Explicit and implicit instruction differed in the attention given to the co-occurrence of the suffixes in the target words. One day (immediate posttest) and 1 week (delayed posttest) after training concluded, participants were tested on their learning of the suffixes' form using a suffix identification task and meaning using a word definition and a multiple-choice task. Results of mixed-effects models showed that explicit instruction yielded better results for the learning of the form of the suffixes. Regarding meaning, across-condition differences were detected only in the word definition task; explicit instruction produced better results for both trained and transfer words. We discuss our findings in the context of the grain-size unit theory and examine the interplay between the language's orthographic and morphological characteristics, considering their impact on classroom instruction.

The Impact of Morphological Intervention on Literacy Knowledge and Reading Motivation: A Cluster-Randomized Comparison Trial in Diverse Socioeconomic Status Kindergartens

PURPOSE

This study investigated the effectiveness of a storytelling-based morphological intervention program on the language and literacy knowledge and reading motivation of kindergarten children from low and mid socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. It also explored how these groups compared in change scores against a non-intervened high SES group.

METHOD

Employing a cluster randomization approach, this study included 158 kindergarten children, comprising intervention and comparison groups from low and mid SES backgrounds, as well as a non-intervened high SES group. Assessments were conducted on morphological awareness (MA), print concepts, vocabulary, and reading motivation.

RESULTS

Children in the intervention groups showed better performance in MA and print concept scores than those in their respective comparison groups. The mid SES intervention group also displayed significant improvement in vocabulary and motivation scores compared to its counterpart. When examining the effects of SES on change scores, the low SES intervention group achieved superior results in vocabulary and print concept scores compared to both the mid SES intervention and the non-intervened high SES groups. For reading motivation, the mid SES group outperformed the low SES group.

CONCLUSIONS

The morphological intervention program using storytelling positively impacts both the literacy skills and reading motivation of kindergarten children, especially those from low and mid SES backgrounds. This study emphasizes the significance of designing interventions that cater to the distinct educational needs of children from different SES backgrounds.

The Impact of Verb Inflectional Distance on Morphological Awareness in Arabic Diglossia: Insights From a Longitudinal Study (Kindergarten to Grade 3)

PURPOSE

The main aim of the current study was to examine the longitudinal impact of verb inflectional distance on morphological awareness among Arabic-speaking children from kindergarten (K) to third grade. The study also investigated the impact of testing children in two language varieties, Spoken Palestinian dialect (SPD) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), on the development of morphological awareness.

METHOD

Sixty-two children were followed longitudinally at three time points: K, Grade 1 (G1), and Grade 3 (G3). Each child completed two parallel orally administered inflectional awareness pseudoverb tasks in the spoken and in the standard variety at each grade. The items were classified by form and function into two main distance levels: low-diglossic and high-diglossic, representing the closest and the farthest distance between SPD and MSA morphemes, respectively.

RESULTS

The findings indicated that morphological awareness was more difficult for high-diglossic morphemes than for low-diglossic ones. Moreover, the findings point to different paths in the developmental trajectory of verb inflectional awareness by distance levels and language variety: In SPD, the difference in children's awareness between low-diglossic morphemes and high-diglossic morphemes decreased across grades and disappeared in G3, whereas, in MSA, this difference significantly increased from K to G1 and G3.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate the substantial impact of verb inflectional distance on morphological awareness development before and during the initial process of learning to read. Results are discussed within the context of linguistic distance and the development of metalinguistic processing skills with implications for assessment and intervention.

Contrasting Direct Instruction in Morphological Decoding and Morphological Inquiry-Analysis Interventions in Grade 3 Children With Poor Morphological Awareness

We report on a school-based randomized control trial study comparing two morphological interventions with untaught controls: one focusing on direct instruction targeting print morphological decoding (direct decoding condition) and the other on inquiry-focused pedagogy using oral morphological analysis (inquiry-analysis condition). We identified 63 Grade 3 children with below-average morphological awareness following screening (from N = 163). This sub-sample showed average pseudoword decoding but poor language and word reading abilities. Following a 13-week supplemental intervention randomized within the 63 children, results showed a statistically significant main effect of intervention on standardized reading vocabulary measures at immediate post-test in the direct decoding condition. Pre-test morphological awareness moderated reading vocabulary effects for the untaught control group. Statistically significant moderation of growth in sentence comprehension at post- by pre-test morphological awareness was also evident in the inquiry-analysis condition. Universal screening for below-average morphological awareness followed by inquiry-based or direct instruction interventions focusing on the meaning dimensions of morphemes may be modestly efficacious for supporting reading vocabulary and sentence comprehension in such at risk learners, potentially aiding school-wide literacy improvement.

The Impact of Diglossia on Inflectional Morphological Constructions and Their Relation to Literacy Skills: A Longitudinal Study

PURPOSE

This study examined the differences in spoken Arabic (SpA) and standard Arabic (StA) in inflectional (gender, number, possessive pronouns, and tense) construction use in Arabic among preschoolers. Moreover, we tested the contribution of the inflectional constructions possessed in kindergarten to reading skills in the first grade and examined whether this morphological contribution differs between SpA and StA.

METHOD

We assessed 261 Arabic-speaking kindergartners for 1 year until the end of first grade for inflectional knowledge in kindergarten and reading skills in first grade (reading accuracy and fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension).

RESULTS

The findings revealed that among inflections, prevalence of performance on gender constructions was the highest, followed by number and possessive pronouns, and lowest performance for tense constructions. Although the performance for SpA was higher than for StA in all constructions, similar patterns were observed except similarity between gender and number in StA. Moreover, the results indicate a significant contribution of almost all inflectional constructions (except possessive pronouns) possessed in kindergarten to all reading skills in the first grade. However, tense did not contribute to reading comprehension, and possessive pronouns did not contribute to any of the reading measures. Regarding diglossia, although the claims that linguistic components in StA are not represented in the mental lexicon, StA accounted for an additional significant 2%-3% of the explained variance in Step 2 (which checked the practical significance of statistically significant results) in all reading measures.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights the impact of diglossia-specific morphological differences (prevalence of the use of the morphological construction in Arabic in SpA vs. StA) on reading and literacy measures, especially the contribution of morphological awareness in SpA, which may provide a stronger basis for StA reading skills. The implications of these results are discussed, especially regarding exposing children to the morphological representations of both the SpA and StA forms to promote reading and literacy in Arabic.

Derivational Morphology Training in French-Speaking, 9- to 14- Year-Old Children and Adolescents With Developmental Dyslexia: Does it Improve Morphological Awaraness, Reading and Spelling Outcome Measures?

Children with developmental dyslexia (DD) display partially preserved morphology skills which they rely upon for reading and spelling. Therefore, we conducted explicit and intensive training of derivational morphology in individuals with DD, ages 9 to 14 years, in order to assess its effect on: morphological awareness, reading (speed and accuracy), and spelling. Our pre-posttest design included a group trained in derivational morphology and a group of children who continued their business-as-usual rehabilitation program with their speech-language therapist. Results showed effects on morphological awareness and on the spelling of complex words, with a large between-group effect size for trained items and a large to moderate effect size for untrained items. All these gains tended to be maintained over time on the delayed posttest, 2 months later. For reading, the results were more contrasted, with large between-group effect sizes for accuracy and speed for trained items, reducing to a small effect for accuracy on the delayed posttest. For untrained items, small effects were observed on accuracy (at both posttests) but not on speed. These results are very promising and argue in favor of using derivational morphology as a medium to improve literacy skills in French-speaking children and adolescents with DD.

Reading Fluency in Chinese Children With Reading Disabilities and/or ADHD: A Key Role for Morphology

The Triangle Model of Reading proposes that phonology, orthography, and semantics are crucial to understand word reading and reading disability (RD). Morphology has been added as a binding agent to this model. However, it is unclear how these variables relate to word reading in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or comorbid ADHD and RD (ADHD+RD). This study examined the performance of Chinese children with RD, ADHD, or ADHD+RD in phonology, orthography, semantics, and morphology, and investigated whether morphology made an additional contribution beyond the other skills in explaining word reading fluency. Participants were 151 Grade 1 to 3 Chinese students: RD (n = 31), ADHD (n = 43), ADHD+RD (n = 27), and typically developing controls (TD, n = 50). Results indicated that children with ADHD+RD (a) showed similar performance to RD and ADHD in tone awareness, orthographic legality, and homophone morpheme awareness; (b) had similar performance to RD but worse than ADHD in phonology, semantics, and morpheme production; and (c) had more severe deficits than RD and ADHD in orthographic reversal, morpheme identification, and homograph awareness. Morphology significantly predicted word reading fluency beyond the other skills, and its predictive effect was more salient for ADHD+RD, ADHD, and TD. The findings provide evidence of both shared and additive effects of RD and ADHD. Morphology may be an important diagnostic factor in identifying Chinese reading and behavioral deficit groups and a worthwhile target for intervention.

Reading and spelling profiles of adult poor readers: Phonological, orthographic and morphological considerations

Reading and spelling skills are important to communicate in today's literate society, however, the underlying processes of spelling skills are under-researched compared to reading skills. Our goals were to (a) study how the component skills of phonological, orthographic and morphological awareness are different in adults with and without reading difficulties, and (b) characterize the relationship between the component skills and reading and spelling performance in both skilled and poor readers. Participants (N = 37, N = 15 with reading impairments and N = 22 skilled readers) took part in the study where they completed several literacy-based measures. We performed a series of mixed ANOVAs to study the between-group differences in performance and the relationship between different literacy outcomes, respectively. We found evidence for poor phonological and morphological awareness in the poor readers compared to the skilled readers. We also found differential relationships between the component skills and reading and spelling behavior. Specifically, sound awareness was significantly related to reading and spelling measures in the skilled readers, whereas morphological and sound awareness played an important role in the same skills in the poor readers. We discuss these findings in the context of potential remediation strategies for adults with persistent literacy impairments.

Effects of morphological intervention on multiple aspects of academic vocabulary knowledge

Despite the positive role of English morphology in word learning, the existing evidence is mainly on young L1 native speakers' receptive word gains. This intervention study, which employed a pretest-posttest control-experimental group design, was conducted to explore the effects of morphological training on multiple aspects of academic vocabulary learning. Participants (N = 50) were college EFL learners from southern China, who received either traditional vocabulary instruction or morphological training for 6 weeks. The 2 × 2 ANOVA analysis revealed significant instructional effects on receptive academic vocabulary learning, but not for productive academic word knowledge. Results are discussed in light of the important connection between morphology and receptive word learning, and the nature of productive vocabulary acquisition.

Orthographic facilitation in upper elementary students: does attention to morphology of complex words enhance the effects?

The current study aimed to investigate whether exposure to spellings would boost memory of meanings and spellings of morphologically complex words, and when spellings are present, whether drawing attention to the morphology of derivative words would activate morphological analysis and therefore enhance word learning. Participants were 36 fourth and fifth graders (20 Spanish speakers, and 16 English speakers) from an elementary school in the Southeastern U.S. students were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: (a) group A, simple spelling exposure group; and (b) group B, drawing attention to morphology group. Each group learned 12 low-frequency morphologically complex words (e.g., odorous) in two orthographic conditions: with the presence of spelling (1) and with the absence of spelling (2). Three learning trials and three test trials were interweaved. After each learning trial, students were prompted to meaning and spelling recall for each target word. Results have extended the evidence of orthographic facilitation effect to morphologically complex words. Students with both higher and lower word reading skills benefitted from spelling presence. Drawing attention to morphology did not enhance the memory of meanings and spellings of morphologically complex words, in comparison to spelling exposure only condition. Implications for vocabulary learning theories and instruction for linguistically diverse students were discussed.

Reporting of Classroom-Based Morphological Awareness Instruction and Intervention for Kindergarten to Grade 3 Students in the Literature: A Scoping Review

PURPOSE

The purpose of this scoping review was to document how the literature reports morphological awareness instruction and interventions delivered by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and/or educators in classroom settings for kindergarten to Grade 3 students.

METHOD

We followed the Joanna Briggs Institute's methodology for scoping reviews and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews reporting guidelines. Six relevant databases were searched systematically with article screening and selection completed by two reviewers calibrated for reliability. For data charting, one reviewer extracted content and a second reviewer verified it was pertinent to the review question. Charting for the reported elements of morphological awareness instruction and interventions was guided by the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System.

RESULTS

The database search yielded 4,492 records. After removal of duplicates and screening, 47 articles were selected for inclusion. Interrater reliability for source selection exceeded the pre-established criterion of k = .61. Our analysis generated a comprehensive description of the elements of morphological awareness instruction as reported in the included articles.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings provide school-based SLPs and educators a systematic means of reviewing the literature to identify key elements of morphological awareness instruction in published articles for application of evidence-based practices with fidelity, thus helping to close the research-to-practice gap. Our manifest content analysis revealed reporting of the elements for classroom-based morphological awareness instruction was varied, and in some cases, underspecified in the articles included in our study. Implications for clinical practice and future research to advance knowledge and promote implementation of evidence-based practices by SLPs and educators in today's classrooms are discussed.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22105142.

The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Low SES Kindergarteners' Language Abilities

Young children's language skills have a significant positive impact on their academic success throughout school, especially on reading and writing performance. The spread of COVID-19, which has resulted in lockdowns, fewer learning hours in kindergarten, and distance learning, might have affected children's exposure to learning opportunities. The aim of the current study was to compare language abilities (vocabulary and morphological awareness) of two groups of low SES kindergarteners, 110 children who attended seven kindergartens before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 54 children who attended eight kindergartens during the COVID-19 pandemic. While both groups followed the same educational program with the same teachers, the pre-COVID-19 group studied in kindergarten before the first wave of COVID-19 restrictions, in 2018-2019, and the mid-COVID-19 group, during the pandemic, in 2020. The results showed that the mid-COVID-19 group of children achieved lower scores on morphological awareness (d = 0.46 to d = 1.19, p = .006 to p < .001), pointing to a negative developmental effect of COVID-19 on young children's language abilities. Educational implications of the results are discussed.

Economic evaluation of dyslexia intervention

In many countries, intervention costs are not covered by public health care. A critical basis for deciding whether an intervention is covered or not is to analyse the relation between benefits and costs of the intervention, and to quantify the consequential costs. In this study, a cost-utility analysis was computed to investigate the costs of individualized dyslexia intervention while quantifying the benefit in terms of health-related quality of life in a sample of 36 individuals with dyslexia. In addition, educational outcomes and costs of untreated dyslexia for the society were estimated using information for class repetition, school success, and unemployment rates from previous studies and official statistics. A significant increase in quality of life with medium effect sizes was found across all quality-of-life measures. Increases in quality of life were domain-specific, thus occurring specifically in those domains that are affected by learning disorders. The cost-utility ratio was 9,782 Euros per quality adjusted life years (QALYs), which is in line with similar therapy forms, such as speech therapy. The loss of productivity for untreated dyslexia in the German population was estimated for class repetition and reduced income due to lower school degrees. The cost-utility analysis and the calculation of consequential costs suggest that the dyslexia intervention is cost-effective.

Predicting Children's Long-Term Knowledge of Taught Words and Transfer Words After a Morphological Vocabulary Intervention

PURPOSE

The first purpose of this study was to investigate how children's knowledge of taught words and transfer words assessed 10 months after a morphological vocabulary intervention can be predicted by means of language measures taken before the intervention. The second purpose was to investigate whether and how immediate post-intervention measures can contribute to the prediction after pre-intervention measures are accounted for.

METHOD

A secondary analysis of data from 87 participants in a trial of short- and long-term effects of a morphological vocabulary intervention for fifth-grade students with limited vocabulary was conducted. Students' knowledge of morphologically transparent taught words and transfer words was examined 10 months after the intervention. Pre-intervention and immediate post-intervention measures of general vocabulary, knowledge of morphologically transparent words, morphological analysis of pseudowords, and meta-morphological knowledge were evaluated as predictors.

RESULTS

By means of pre-intervention measures only, about 40% of the overall variance in students' knowledge of morphologically transparent words assessed at follow-up could be predicted. A good early classification of students with later relatively good or poor word knowledge could be obtained, especially for knowledge of transfer words. Furthermore, immediate post-intervention measures were found to add substantially to the prediction of overall variance in students' knowledge of morphologically transparent words at follow-up and to the correct early classification beyond the contribution from pre-intervention measures. In particular, pre- and post-intervention measures of knowledge of morphologically transparent words and morphological analysis of pseudowords in combination yielded a good classification of students with later relatively good or poor knowledge of transfer words.

CONCLUSION

A good level of prediction of students' knowledge of morphologically transparent taught words and transfer words 10 months after a morphological vocabulary intervention can be provided by means of a combination of a few pre- and post-intervention measures of knowledge of morphologically transparent words and morphological analysis of pseudowords.

Morphological awareness in developmental dyslexia: Playing with nonwords in a morphologically rich language

Although phonological deficits are unanimously recognized as one of the key manifestations of developmental dyslexia, a growing body of research has reported impairments in morphological abilities. Our study aimed at casting further light on this domain by investigating the morphological awareness skills of 21 children with dyslexia (mean age 9.10 years old) and 24 children with typical development (mean age 10.3 years old). All children were monolingual speakers of Italian, which is a morphologically rich language characterized by complex inflectional and derivational paradigms. We developed an experimental protocol inspired by Berko’s Wug test and composed of 11 tasks addressing inflectional and derivational processes. Participants were asked to manipulate nonwords of various lexical categories, modeled after the phonotactic structure of Italian, and manipulation involved both word formation and base retrieval. Conditions of the experiments were based on verb conjugation classes differing in frequency, productivity, regularity, and formal transparency. Results confirmed that morphological skills are impaired in dyslexic children, who performed significantly more poorly than their age-matched peers in all tasks. Children with dyslexia were especially challenged by tasks and conditions requiring advanced morphological awareness skills, such as the retrieval of infinitives of infrequent and irregular conjugation classes. The educational and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

A promising new tool for literacy instruction: The morphological matrix

There is growing interest in the role that morphological knowledge plays in literacy acquisition, but there is no research directly comparing the efficacy of different forms of morphological instruction. Here we compare two methods of teaching English morphology in the context of a memory experiment when words were organized by affix during study (e.g., a list of words was presented that all share an affix, such as <doing>, <going>, <talking>, <walking>, etc.) or by base during study (e.g., a list of words was presented that all share a base, such as <doing>, <done>, <redo>, <undo>). We show that memory for morphologically complex words is better in both conditions compared to a control condition that does not highlight the morphological composition of words, and most importantly, show that studying words in a base-centric format improves memory further still. We argue that the morphological matrix that organizes words around a common base may provide an important new tool for literacy instruction.

The Relative Effects of Instruction Linking Word Reading and Word Meaning Compared to Word Reading Instruction Alone on the Accuracy, Fluency, and Word Meaning Knowledge of 4th-5th Grade Students With Dyslexia

This within-subjects experimental study investigated the relative effects of word reading and word meaning instruction (WR+WM) compared to word-reading instruction alone (WR) on the accuracy, fluency, and word meaning knowledge of 4th-5th graders with dyslexia. We matched word lists on syllables, phonemes, frequency, number of definitions, and concreteness. We assigned half the words to WR and half to WR+WM. Word reading accuracy, word reading fluency, and word meaning knowledge were measured at pretest, immediately following each intervention session, and at posttest, administered immediately following the 12, 45-minute, daily instructional sessions. Compared to WR instruction alone, WR+WM significantly improved accuracy (d = 0.65), fluency (d = 0.43), and word meaning knowledge (d = 1.92) immediately following intervention, and significantly improved accuracy (d = 0.74), fluency (d = 0.84), and word meaning knowledge (d = 1.03) at posttest. Findings support the premise that word meaning knowledge facilitates accurate and fluent word reading, and that instruction explicitly integrating word reading and word meaning may be an effective support for upper elementary students with dyslexia.

Morphological awareness and vocabulary predict reading resilience in adults

Resilient readers comprehend written language despite word reading deficits. The reading resiliency framework specifies candidate protective factors hypothesized to mitigate adverse effects on reading comprehension arising from phonological decoding deficiencies and, consequently, illuminates how some individuals exhibit relative reading resiliency. A focus on relative reading resiliency involves an examination of individual strengths and weaknesses because areas of relative strength can bolster one's abilities. The ability for morphological awareness and vocabulary to be strengths or protective factors contributing to reading resiliency was explored in a sample of university students. Morphological awareness is predicted to be a particularly important skill for university students due to the complexity of texts encountered in their coursework. A measure of word-level morphological awareness was positively associated with relative reading resiliency. Furthermore, across norm-referenced and standardized high-stakes testing measures of reading comprehension, vocabulary mediated the impact of morphological awareness on comprehension after controlling for phonological decoding ability. These findings suggest that morphological awareness and vocabulary skills are important contributing factors to reading comprehension and reading resilience.

Targeted school-based interventions for improving reading and mathematics for students with or at risk of academic difficulties in Grades K-6: A systematic review

Background

Low levels of numeracy and literacy skills are associated with a range of negative outcomes later in life, such as reduced earnings and health. Obtaining information about effective interventions for children with or at risk of academic difficulties is therefore important.

Objectives

The main objective was to assess the effectiveness of interventions targeting students with or at risk of academic difficulties in kindergarten to Grade 6.

Search Methods

We searched electronic databases from 1980 to July 2018. We searched multiple international electronic databases (in total 15), seven national repositories, and performed a search of the grey literature using governmental sites, academic clearinghouses and repositories for reports and working papers, and trial registries (10 sources). We hand searched recent volumes of six journals and contacted international experts. Lastly, we used included studies and 23 previously published reviews for citation tracking.

Selection Criteria

Studies had to meet the following criteria to be included: Population: The population eligible for the review included students attending regular schools in kindergarten to Grade 6, who were having academic difficulties, or were at risk of such difficulties. Intervention: We included interventions that sought to improve academic skills, were conducted in schools during the regular school year, and were targeted (selected or indicated). Comparison: Included studies used an intervention-control group design or a comparison group design. We included randomised controlled trials (RCT); quasi-randomised controlled trials (QRCT); and quasi-experimental studies (QES). Outcomes: Included studies used standardised tests in reading or mathematics. Setting: Studies carried out in regular schools in an OECD country were included.

Data Collection and Analysis

Descriptive and numerical characteristics of included studies were coded by members of the review team. A review author independently checked coding. We used an extended version of the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool to assess risk of bias. We used random-effects meta-analysis and robust-variance estimation procedures to synthesise effect sizes. We conducted separate meta-analyses for tests performed within three months of the end of interventions (short-term effects) and longer follow-up periods. For short-term effects, we performed subgroup and moderator analyses focused on instructional methods and content domains. We assessed sensitivity of the results to effect size measurement, outliers, clustered assignment of treatment, risk of bias, missing moderator information, control group progression, and publication bias.

Results

We found in total 24,414 potentially relevant records, screened 4247 of them in full text, and included 607 studies that met the inclusion criteria. We included 205 studies of a wide range of intervention types in at least one meta-analysis (202 intervention-control studies and 3 comparison designs). The reasons for excluding studies from the analysis were that they had too high risk of bias (257), compared two alternative interventions (104 studies), lacked necessary information (24 studies), or used overlapping samples (17 studies). The total number of student observations in the analysed studies was 226,745. There were 93% RCTs among the 327 interventions we included in the meta-analysis of intervention-control contrasts and 86% were from the United States. The target group consisted of, on average, 45% girls, 65% minority students, and 69% low-income students. The mean Grade was 2.4. Most studies included in the meta-analysis had a moderate to high risk of bias.The overall average effect sizes (ES) for short-term and follow-up outcomes were positive and statistically significant (ES = 0.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.25, 0.34] and ES = 0.27, 95% CI = [0.17, 0.36]), respectively). The effect sizes correspond to around one third to one half of the achievement gap between fourth Grade students with high and low socioeconomic status in the United States and to a 58% chance that a randomly selected score of an intervention group student is greater than the score of a randomly selected control group student.All measures indicated substantial heterogeneity across short-term effect sizes. Follow-up outcomes pertain almost exclusively to studies examining small-group instruction by adults and effects on reading measures. The follow-up effect sizes were considerably less heterogeneous than the short-term effect sizes, although there was still statistically significant heterogeneity.Two instructional methods, peer-assisted instruction and small-group instruction by adults, had large and statistically significant average effect sizes that were robust across specifications in the subgroup analysis of short-term effects (ES around 0.35-0.45). In meta-regressions that adjusted for methods, content domains, and other study characteristics, they had significantly larger effect sizes than computer-assisted instruction, coaching of personnel, incentives, and progress monitoring. Peer-assisted instruction also had significantly larger effect sizes than medium-group instruction. Besides peer-assisted instruction and small-group instruction, no other methods were consistently significant across the analyses that tried to isolate the association between a specific method and effect sizes. However, most analyses showed statistically significant heterogeneity also within categories of instructional methods.We found little evidence that effect sizes were larger in some content domains than others. Fractions had significantly higher associations with effect sizes than all other math domains, but there were only six studies of interventions targeting fractions. We found no evidence of adverse effects in the sense that no method or domain had robustly negative associations with effect sizes.The meta-regressions revealed few other significant moderators. Interventions in higher Grades tend to have somewhat lower effect sizes, whereas there were no significant differences between QES and RCTs, general tests and tests of subdomains, and math tests and reading tests.

Authors’ Conclusions

Our results indicate that interventions targeting students with or at risk of academic difficulties from kindergarten to Grade 6 have on average positive and statistically significant short-term and follow-up effects on standardised tests in reading and mathematics. Peer-assisted instruction and small-group instruction are likely to be effective components of such interventions.We believe the relatively large effect sizes together with the substantial unexplained heterogeneity imply that schools can reduce the achievement gap between students with or at risk of academic difficulties and not-at-risk students by implementing targeted interventions, and that more research into the design of effective interventions is needed.

Feasible and Effective Language Intervention Strategies that Accelerate Students' Academic Achievement

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who work in schools are responsible for delivering intervention that improves language abilities but has an impact on academic outcomes. To accomplish this, SLPs need feasible and effective strategies that can be readily incorporated into clinical practice. In this article, we describe two ways that SLPs can deliver intervention that can improve language abilities and academic outcomes: choosing academic language targets and providing language intervention contextualized in the academic curriculum.

A Comprehensive Treatment Approach to Address Speech Production and Literacy Skills in School-Age Children with Speech Sound Disorders

Children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) represent a large proportion of clients served by school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs). While considerable evidence is available regarding the identification of SSD in school-age children, there is a paucity of information regarding service delivery aspects of school-based speech therapy, such as frequency of sessions, number of trials, distribution of sessions over time, and format (individual or group intervention) that impacts the ability of SLPs to effectively treat SSD in the schools. School-age children with SSD are at risk for later literacy deficits, and strategically addressing their language and emerging literacy needs in addition to speech production accuracy may lead to increased intelligibility and better educational outcomes. In this article, we discuss the heterogeneity of school-age children with SSD with regard to weaknesses in phonological processing skills and language skills. We summarize the information currently available regarding the aspects of service delivery that contribute to gains in speech production accuracy. We conclude by sharing an example of how school-based SLPs could target speech production, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness in the same session with a child with SSD to maximize gains in speech and literacy skills.

A general role for ventral white matter pathways in morphological processing: Going beyond reading

The ability to recognize the structural components of words, known as morphological processing, was recently associated with the bilateral ventral white matter pathways, across different writing systems. However, it remains unclear whether these associations are specific to the context of reading. To shed light on this question, in the current study we investigated whether the ventral pathways are associated with morphological processing in an oral word production task that does not involve reading. Forty-five participants completed a morpheme-based fluency task in Hebrew, as well as diffusion MRI (dMRI) scans. We used probabilistic tractography to segment the major ventral and dorsal white matter pathways, and assessed the correlations between their microstructural properties and performance on the morpheme-based fluency task. We found significant correlations between morpheme-based fluency and properties of the bilateral ventral tracts, suggesting that the involvement of these tracts in morphological processing extends beyond the reading modality. In addition, significant correlations were found in the frontal aslant tract (FAT), a dorsal tract associated with oral fluency and speech production. Together, our findings emphasize that neurocognitive associations reflect both the cognitive construct under investigation as well as the task used for its assessment. Lastly, to elucidate the biological factors underlying these correlations, we incorporated the composite hindered and restricted model of diffusion (CHARMED) framework, measured in independent scans. We found that only some of our findings could be attributed to variation in a CHARMED-based estimate of fiber density. Further, we were able to uncover additional correlations that could not be detected using traditional dMRI indices. In sum, our results show that the involvement of the ventral tracts in morphological processing extends to the production domain, and demonstrate the added value of including sensitive structural measurements in neurocognitive investigations.

Predicting Response to Vocabulary Intervention Using Dynamic Assessment

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine how well students' response to a morphological vocabulary intervention can be predicted before the start of the intervention from traditional static assessments and to determine whether a dynamic assessment with graduated prompts improves the prediction. Method A planned secondary analysis of a randomized trial of a morphological vocabulary intervention for fifth-grade students with limited vocabulary was conducted. Response to this intervention was examined for 111 participants based on their development in definitions of morphologically transparent words from pretest to posttest. Traditional static measures of vocabulary, knowledge of morphology, and morphological analysis as well as a dynamic assessment of morphological analysis were evaluated as predictors of students' response to intervention. Results The static pretest measures predicted more than half of the overall variance in students' response to intervention and provided a good classification of students with subsequent poor or good response to intervention. The single best static predictor was the static assessment of morphological analysis. Furthermore, the dynamic assessment added significantly to the prediction of the overall variance in students' response to intervention and to the correct early classification of students as poor or good responders. Conclusions The results suggest that an acceptable level of prediction of students' response to morphological vocabulary intervention can be obtained by means of a couple of static morphological measures. This study also provides evidence for the added predictive value of a dynamic assessment of morphological analysis.

Grammatical Spelling and Written Syntactic Awareness in Children With and Without Dyslexia

Children with dyslexia face persistent difficulties in acquiring not only reading skills but also spelling skills. Among difficulties in spelling, problems in grammatical spelling have been studied very rarely. The goal of the study is to better understand grammatical spelling difficulties in children with dyslexia by assessing written syntactic awareness skills, a linguistic factor that has not been investigated in the context of spelling until now. It is worth noting that while morphological awareness has been well studied in children with dyslexia, only very few studies have focused on syntactic awareness, which is, however, necessary to produce number or gender agreement. Twenty children with dyslexia were matched to typically developing children on both chronological age and on grammatical spelling level. All the children were asked to perform a subject verb agreement grammatical spelling test and a written syntactic awareness test on the same sentences, as well as control measures. Results demonstrated that the children with dyslexia performed equally compared to grammatical spelling matched children in grammatical spelling, whilst they performed less well compared to children of the same age. For syntactic awareness, they were less accurate at identifying the subject of the complex sentences than spelling age matched children, even though both groups were matched in grammatical spelling. These results demonstrate that children with dyslexia face a specific deficit in written syntactic awareness. It highlights how better understanding of the spelling difficulty will better guide treatment.

Collecting Words: A Clinical Example of a Morphology-Focused Orthographic Intervention

Purpose Morphological interventions promote gains in morphological knowledge and in other oral and written language skills (e.g., phonological awareness, vocabulary, reading, and spelling), yet we have a limited understanding of critical intervention features. In this clinical focus article, we describe a relatively novel approach to teaching morphology that considers its role as the key organizing principle of English orthography. We also present a clinical example of such an intervention delivered during a summer camp at a university speech and hearing clinic. Method Graduate speech-language pathology students provided a 6-week morphology-focused orthographic intervention to children in first through fourth grade (n = 10) who demonstrated word-level reading and spelling difficulties. The intervention focused children's attention on morphological families, teaching how morphology is interrelated with phonology and etymology in English orthography. Results Comparing pre- and posttest scores, children demonstrated improvement in reading and/or spelling abilities, with the largest gains observed in spelling affixes within polymorphemic words. Children and their caregivers reacted positively to the intervention. Therefore, data from the camp offer preliminary support for teaching morphology within the context of written words, and the intervention appears to be a feasible approach for simultaneously increasing morphological knowledge, reading, and spelling. Conclusion Children with word-level reading and spelling difficulties may benefit from a morphology-focused orthographic intervention, such as the one described here. Research on the approach is warranted, and clinicians are encouraged to explore its possible effectiveness in their practice. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12290687.

A Dynamic Measure of Morphological Awareness and First-Grade Literacy Skill

Purpose

The purpose of this feasibility study was to investigate an early dynamic measure of morphological awareness (MA) involving graduated prompts to measure early MA skill and determine whether this task relates to and predicts performance on other language and/or literacy measures in first-grade children with language abilities typically found in the classroom.

Method

In addition to a battery of language and literacy measures, a dynamic assessment of MA was designed and administered to 74 first-grade children with a range of language abilities.

Results

The dynamic measure of MA was found to be valid, reliable, and measured early school–age MA performance for children with typical language and those at risk for developmental language disorder. For children with typical language, the developed dynamic MA measure was related to and predictive of performance on other language and literacy measures above and beyond static phonological and MA measures.

Conclusions

The results provide preliminary support for the use of dynamic assessment to measure MA in first-grade children with a range of language abilities.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12591767

Forum: Morphological Awareness as a Key Factor in Language-Literacy Success for Academic Achievement

Purpose This article introduces the Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools Forum: Morphological Awareness as a Key Factor in Language-Literacy Success for Academic Achievement. The goal of this forum is to relate the influence morphological awareness (MA) has on overall language and literacy development with morphology acting as the "binding agent" between orthography, phonology, and semantics (Perfetti, 2007) in assessment and intervention for school-aged children. Method This introduction provides a foundation for MA development and explores the influence MA has over the course of school-aged language and literacy development. Through summaries of the 11 articles in this forum, school-based speech-language pathologists will be able to convey the importance of MA to promote successful educational outcomes for kindergarten to adolescent students. The forum explores researcher-developed assessments used to help identify MA skill level in first- through eighth-grade students at risk for literacy failure to support instructional needs. The forum also provides school-based speech-language pathologists with details to design and implement MA interventions to support academic success for school-aged students with varying speech-language needs (e.g., dual language emersion, vocabulary development, reading comprehension) using various service delivery models (e.g., small group, classroom-based, intensive summer camps). Conclusion MA is effective in facilitating language and literacy development and as such can be an ideally focused on using multilinguistic approaches for assessment and intervention. The articles in this issue highlight the importance in assessment measures and intervention approaches that focus on students' MA to improve overall academic success in children of all ages and abilities.

The Link Between Language and Spelling: What Speech-Language Pathologists and Teachers Need to Know

Purpose Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working within the pediatric field will find themselves working with school-age children and consequently collaborating with teaching staff. Knowledge of the links between language, speech, and literacy can support and inform successful collaboration between the SLP and the teacher and their shared goal of facilitating the school-age child in accessing the curriculum. To facilitate and develop the collaborative working practices of SLPs working with school-age children and teaching staff, it is helpful, to both parties, to develop and extend their explicit understanding of the link between language, speech, and spelling. Method In this tutorial, I describe how verbal and written speech and language skills are inextricably linked and key to spelling development and progress. I will (a) discuss the complexities of spelling in the English language; (b) describe the links between language, speech, and spelling; and (c) propose a linguistically informed approach to spelling intervention. Conclusion SLPs have expertise in the key speech and language domains such as phonology, morphology, and semantics and are therefore well placed to play an important role in supporting learners in making links between these domains in relation to spelling development and intervention.

Morphological Awareness Skills of Second- and Third-Grade Students With and Without Speech Sound Disorders

Purpose Morphological awareness is the ability to consciously manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language. Morphological awareness contributes to success with literacy skills for children with typical language and those with language impairment. However, little research has focused on the morphological awareness skills of children with speech sound disorders (SSD), who may be at risk for literacy impairments. No researcher has examined the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD and compared their skills to children with typical speech using tasks representing a comprehensive definition of morphological awareness, which was the main purpose of this study. Method Thirty second- and third-grade students with SSD and 30 with typical speech skills, matched on age and receptive vocabulary, completed four morphological awareness tasks and measures of receptive vocabulary, real-word reading, pseudoword reading, and word-level spelling. Results Results indicated there was no difference between the morphological awareness skills of students with and without SSD. Although morphological awareness was moderately to strongly related to the students' literacy skills, performance on the morphological awareness tasks contributed little to no additional variance to the children's real-word reading and spelling skills beyond what was accounted for by pseudoword reading. Conclusions Findings suggest that early elementary-age students with SSD may not present with concomitant morphological awareness difficulties and that the morphological awareness skills of these students may not play a unique role in their word-level literacy skills. Limitations and suggestions for future research on the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD are discussed.

Morphological Knowledge: Opportunities for Collaboration Through Multitiered System of Supports

Purpose The study of morphological knowledge and its role in literacy development for early elementary students is growing. The aim of this tutorial is to illustrate the role a school-based speech-language pathologist (SLP) has as a collaborative partner in multitiered system of supports (MTSS) in elementary for morphological knowledge. Method This tutorial presents the role of morphology in the English writing system and the documented benefit of morphological interventions to support students' oral and written language development. Next, the role of morphology in literacy development as it appears in curricular standards is highlighted. Lastly, strategies are provided for how SLPs can be part of a collaborative educational team to increase morphological knowledge in early elementary school within an MTSS framework. Conclusion Given school-based SLPs' language and literacy expertise, we are well suited for engaging in collaborative partnerships in the school setting to increase academic outcomes. The information presented in this tutorial provides a guide to establish collaborative partnerships within educational teams to support morphological knowledge development through all MTSS tiers. Additionally, the need for further evidence to support the role of morphological knowledge in literacy development is presented.

The Importance of Morphological Awareness in Bilingual Language and Literacy Skills: Clinical Implications for Speech-Language Pathologists

Purpose This clinical focus article will highlight the importance and role of morphological awareness (MA) across orthographies, in particular, the role it plays in reading development, specifically with bilingual populations. MA supports reading acquisition and development beyond other predictors of reading, such as phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and rapid automatic naming to name a few. While MA aids in the development of decoding fluency, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension, explicit morphological instruction does not occur regularly in reading intervention. For English learners (ELs), instruction should focus on improving MA, semantic awareness, and orthographic processing, which in turn would exert a positive influence on reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. This clinical focus article aims to provide speech-language pathologists with applicable tasks to measure MA and strategies to guide explicit morphological instruction. Method The role of MA in reading development will be described with regard to its importance beyond other predictors and the role it plays in theoretical models of reading development. Then, MA will be described across orthographies, with a focus on cross-linguistic influences. Finally, measurement tasks will be described, and clinical implications will be discussed in terms of using different strategies and tools to explicitly address MA. Conclusion Clinical implications of morphological instruction should be further explored and incorporated in current practices. With regard to ELs, it is important that we provide effective and specific instruction to better bridge the academic achievement gaps and increase overall language and literacy skills. Morphological instruction should be explicit and provided in conjunction with other domains of language. Equally important is leveraging families of ELs to promote their children's oral language and literacy in their first language.

Morphological Supports: Investigating Differences in How Morphological Knowledge Supports Reading Comprehension for Middle School Students With Limited Reading Vocabulary

Purpose The current study takes a practical and theoretically grounded look at assessment of morphological knowledge and its potential to deepen understanding of how morphological knowledge supports reading comprehension for students with limited reading vocabulary. Specifically, we explore how different morphological skills support reading comprehension for students with typical reading vocabulary development compared to students with limited reading vocabulary. Method A sample of 1,140 fifth through eighth graders were assessed via a gamified, computer-adaptive measure of language that contained a morphological knowledge assessment. Links to standardized reading comprehension were explored with a focus on determining differences for the 184 students in the sample who showed limited reading vocabulary knowledge. Specifically, multiple regression analyses were used to test for the relation between morphology skills and standardized reading comprehension, as well as the moderator effect of reading vocabulary on the relation between morphological knowledge and standardized reading comprehension. Results Findings indicate that the four instructionally malleable morphological skills identified by the assessment differentially supported reading comprehension. These skills were (a) Morphological Awareness, (b) Syntactic Morphological Knowledge, (c) Semantic Morphological Knowledge, and (d) Phonological/Orthographic Morphological Knowledge. Significant interactions for students with limited reading vocabulary were shown in how the skills of Syntactic Morphological Knowledge, Semantic Morphological Knowledge, and Phonological/Orthographic Morphological Knowledge supported standardized Reading Comprehension. Conclusions Given the challenges students with limited reading vocabulary have with semantic information, Syntactic Morphological Knowledge and Phonological/Orthographic Morphological Knowledge were particularly supportive, suggesting the compensatory role of these morphological skills. In contrast, Semantic Morphological Knowledge had a negative relationship with Reading Comprehension for students with limited reading vocabulary. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Predicting Arabic word reading: A cross-classified generalized random-effects analysis showing the critical role of morphology

The distinctive features of the Arabic language and orthography offer opportunities to investigate multiple word characteristics at the item level. The aim of this paper was to model differences in word reading at the item level among 3rd grade native Arabic-speaking children (n = 303) using cross-classified generalized random-effects (CCGRE) analysis. The participants read 80 vowelized words that varied in multiple elements that may contribute to their decodability: number of letters, number of syllables, number of morphemes, ligaturing (connectivity), semantics (concrete vs. abstract), orthographic frequency, root type frequency, and part of speech. Morphological awareness (MA) was included as a person-level predictor. Results of individual models showed that MA, number of letters, number of syllables, number of morphemes, number of ligatures, orthographic frequency, and part of speech were significantly related to the probability of a correct response. However, when all predictors were entered simultaneously, only MA and number of morphemes remained significant. These results underscore the important role of morphology in the lexical structure of Arabic words and in Arabic word reading. Discussion focuses on the role of morphology in Arabic reading and the implications for intervention to improve word recognition in children learning to read Arabic.

Morphological decomposition compensates for imperfections in phonological decoding. Neural evidence from typical and dyslexic readers of an opaque orthography

The current study examined the widely held, but un-tested, assumption that morphological decomposition can compensate for missing phonological information in reading opaque orthographies. In addition, we tested whether morphological decomposition can compensate for the phonological decoding deficits in readers with dyslexia. Hebrew provides a unique opportunity to test these questions as it has a rich Semitic morphology, and two versions of script: a transparent orthography (with diacritic marks, 'pointed') and an opaque orthography (without diacritic marks, 'un-pointed'). In two experiments, one behavioral and one fMRI, skilled and dyslexic readers read aloud Hebrew nouns: half bi-morphemic (root + pattern) and half mono-morphemic (non-decomposable). Each word was presented both in the transparent orthography (pointed), and in the opaque orthography (un-pointed). While skilled readers were faster, and showed no effects of diacritics or morphology, dyslexic readers read pointed words more slowly than un-pointed words and bi-morphemic words faster than mono-morphemic words. The imaging results showed: 1) In both groups a morphological effect was found in un-pointed words, in left inferior and middle frontal gyri, associated with morpho-phonological decomposition. 2) Only readers with dyslexia showed a morphological effect in pointed words in the left occipito-temporal cortex, associated with orthographic processing. 3) Dyslexic readers also showed a positive association between morphological awareness and activation in the left occipito-temporal cortex during reading of all words, and activation in inferior frontal cortex during reading of un-pointed bi-morphemic words. Altogether, these findings suggest that in both typical and dyslexic readers morphological decomposition can compensate for the missing phonological information in an opaque orthography. The results also show that readers with dyslexia can rely on morphological decomposition to compensate for their deficits in phonological decoding. Finally, these results highlight the way in which unique language specific properties shape the neural mechanisms underlying typical and atypical reading.

Language and Literacy Together: Supporting Grammatical Development in Dual Language Learners With Risk for Language and Learning Difficulties

Purpose Early Interventions in Reading (Vaughn et al., 2006), the only literacy intervention with demonstrated effectiveness for U.S. dual language learners, was enhanced to support the development of oral language (vocabulary, grammar, and narrative) and literacy, which we refer to as "Language and Literacy Together." The primary focus of this study is to understand the extent to which grammatical skills of bilinguals with risk for language and/or reading difficulties improve in the Language and Literacy Together intervention. Method Fifteen first-grade dual language learners with risk for language and/or reading difficulties participated in an enhanced version of Early Interventions in Reading in Spanish. Children completed pre- and postintervention evaluations in Spanish and English, including grammatical testing from the Bilingual English Spanish Oral Screener (Peña et al., 2008) and narrative evaluation Test of Narrative Language story prompts (Gillam & Pearson, 2004; Gillam et al., n.d.). Data from six comparison participants with typical language skills who completed pre- and posttesting demonstrate the stability of the measures. Results The intervention group made gains in English and Spanish as evidenced by significant increases in their cloze and sentence repetition accuracy on the Bilingual English Spanish Oral Screener Morphosyntax subtest. They increased productivity on their narratives in Spanish and English as indexed by mean length of utterance in words but did not make gains in their overall grammaticality. Conclusions Structured intervention that includes an emphasis on grammatical elements in the context of a broader intervention can lead to change in the production of morphosyntax evident in both elicited constructions and narrative productivity as measured by mean length of utterance in words. Additional work is needed to determine if and how cross-linguistic transfer might be achieved for these learners.

Structured Literacy Intervention for Students With Dyslexia: Focus on Growing Morphological Skills

Purpose Structured literacy (SL) is an umbrella term used by the International Dyslexia Association that refers to evidence-based instructional approaches that incorporate all aspects of spoken language into the teaching of reading, spelling, and writing (International Dyslexia Association, 2016). SL has gained prominence in the field of reading but is less familiar to speech-language pathologists. This tutorial seeks to describe SL with specific attention to the morphological component. Using current research literature combined with descriptions of specific therapeutic practices, this tutorial offers research-informed, clinical strategies for facilitating the development of morphological skills in students with spoken and written language impairments including dyslexia. Method In this tutorial, the authors focus on the research literature and clinical applications related to the topics of (a) spoken and written language impairments, including dyslexia; (b) SL intervention; (c) intervention in the areas of morphological awareness and analysis; and (d) the promotion of academic success in students who struggle with language and literacy. Conclusions SL is a term used to unify and describe evidence-based principles and components that should be included in all effective reading and writing instructions. Among other linguistic skills, morphology holds a prominent place in SL. It is critical that speech-language pathologists become familiar with SL and the evidence-based practices for growing these students' morphological awareness skills in order to promote language and literacy success.

The Development of Morphological Knowledge and Spelling in French

The Frenchorthographic system is particularly difficult to learn because nearly 30% of words in the lexicon end with a silent letter. One metalinguistic skill that has been identified to facilitate spelling acquisition in French is morphological knowledge. This cross-sectional study investigated the construct of morphological knowledge, its development and its role in building accurate orthographic representations in a sample of francophone elementary students. We proposed that morphological knowledge, a superordinate process, encompasses children's implicit use of morphemes in everyday language and their conscious, targeted manipulation of morphemes. In the present study, we assessed children's recognition of morphogrammes, the silent-letter endings (SLEs) of root words that become pronounced in suffixed forms (e.g., the silent t in chant/ʃã/ [song] → chanteur /ʃãtœʀ/ [singer]). When spelling root words, children may mark morphogrammes by recalling morphologically related words in which the morphogramme is not silent - thus, morphological knowledge was hypothesized to positively predict morphogramme spelling. One hundred and twenty-three children in grades 1-3 were assessed on four measures of morphological knowledge, two measures of spelling recognition and a dictation of pseudowords to explore their inclusion of silent-letter endings in novel words. As expected, morphological tasks that required explicit morphological manipulations were harder than implicit ones. Moreover, first graders struggled to complete explicit morphological tasks, while third graders were near ceiling performance on implicit tasks. Nevertheless, the four tasks converged on a single morphological knowledge construct as confirmed by a factor analysis. Importantly, morphological knowledge explained unique variance in children's accurate representation of silent-letter endings after controlling for grade, reading for pleasure and general orthographic recognition of words. Finally, children rarely used silent-letter endings when spelling pseudowords; however, when they did, they displayed sensitivity to the appropriate phonological context for the letter used. The findings are in accord with theoretical models suggesting that the representations of letters without phonological value are difficult to construct and may remain fuzzy.

Toward Understanding the Lexical-Morphological Networks of Children With Specific Language Impairment: Analysis of Responses on a Morphological Production Task

Purpose The purpose of this study was to characterize the lexical-morphological networks of children with specific language impairment (SLI) compared to children with typical language by analyzing responses on a morphological derived form production task. Method School-age children with SLI (n = 32) and peers with typical language (n = 40) completed an oral cloze derived form production task (Carlisle, 2000). On this task, children were expected to complete verbally presented sentences with a derived form of a provided morphological stem. Responses were coded as correct or incorrect following Carlisle's (2000) stated correct responses. Incorrect responses were coded as scorable or unscorable, and then scorable responses were coded as pseudowords or real words. Real words were further coded according to whether they were repetitions of the given stem. Results There was a statistically significant between-group difference for mean correct responses (d = 1.43). The scorable incorrect responses of children with SLI included a lower mean proportion of pseudowords than did the incorrect responses of children with typical language (d = 0.76). Conclusion Because children with SLI produced a lower proportion of pseudowords as scorable incorrect responses than peers with typical language, we conclude that they have less developed lexical-morphological networks and, thus, less derivational morphology knowledge than peers with typical language.

Speech-Language Pathologist–Guided Morphological Awareness Instruction in the General Education Classroom

Purpose

Research has shown that instruction in morphological awareness improves students' understanding and use of affixes. However, morphological awareness instruction, typically, is not provided in the general education classroom, and there are few documented collaborations between teachers and speech-language pathologists (SLPs), the latter of whom have a unique expertise in language. Thus, the purpose of this article was to determine the feasibility of an SLP-guided morphological awareness instructional program in a general education classroom.

Method

After completing a webinar training in morphological awareness, 2 general education teachers implemented morphological awareness lessons in their classrooms over an 8-week period. The teachers and collaborating SLP met weekly to discuss the lessons. Following implementation of the lessons, the teachers completed a questionnaire surveying their opinions on the collaboration. They, along with their students, also completed pre- and postmeasures of their morphological awareness.

Results

Results indicated that the teachers' morphological awareness, as assessed by the morphological awareness measure, did not improve as a result of implementing the lessons; however, the teachers reported that they valued the collaboration and the importance of morphological awareness instruction. Most importantly, the students' morphological awareness skills increased significantly following receipt of the morphological awareness lessons. The effects of these gains were moderate to large.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that teachers with limited morphological awareness can successfully implement scripted morphological awareness lessons that result in meaningful gains in their students' morphological awareness. Limitations and suggestions for future research on the collaboration between SLPs and teachers are discussed.

Improving the Derivational Morphological Skills of a Ninth Grader With Language and Reading Disabilities: A Public School Case Study

Purpose

This article details the implementation of a morphological awareness intervention program to improve the use and spelling of derivational suffixes (e.g., the “ful” in careful) for a 9th-grade student with a language impairment and reading disability in a public school setting.

Method

The unpublished morphological intervention program was implemented via a 30-min, once-weekly therapy schedule across 10 weeks. Careful data collection, which included establishment of stable baseline performance on a morphological measure prior to treatment and administration of the same measure during and after intervention, was utilized to measure progress over time. Additionally, pre- and posttreatment measures of morphological awareness and social validity were also administered.

Results

The participant demonstrated an increase in correct use and spelling of targeted derivational suffixes, and social validity data provided qualitative support of treatment outcomes.

Conclusion

The treatment program and data collection were successfully conducted in a high school setting and within the confines of a typical public school speech therapy schedule and caseload.

Key Elements of Robust Vocabulary Instruction for Emergent Bilingual Adolescents

Purpose

In this clinical focus article, the authors argue for robust vocabulary instruction with emergent bilingual learners both in inclusive classroom settings and in clinical settings for emergent bilinguals with language and literacy disorders. Robust vocabulary instruction focuses on high-utility academic words that carry abstract meanings and appear in texts across content areas (e.g., diminish , ambiguous ). For emergent bilinguals, vocabulary instruction should be infused with morphological analysis emphasizing Latin roots to support students to problem-solve meanings of new, unfamiliar words and make connections between semantic clusters of related words in English. An innovative and critical component of this instructional approach is to support emergent bilinguals to leverage their linguistic resources by making connections to their home languages. Five design principles for teaching emergent bilinguals to engage in morphological analysis with Latin roots are presented. These design principles are illustrated with examples of evidence-based practices from intervention materials for instruction. Examples are drawn from varied instructional contexts. We present a synthesis of findings from implementation trials of our instructional program. Finally, application of the approach to clinical settings for speech-language pathologists are addressed.

Conclusions

Clinical practice with emergent bilingual learners at intermediate and advanced stages of proficiency should incorporate robust vocabulary instruction for emergent bilinguals from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Clinicians should focus on high-utility academic words, and they should teach morphological problem-solving skills for generative word learning. Clinicians should leverage emergent bilingual learners' home language resources for developing morphological problem-solving skill.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9745169

A Review of Middle School Vocabulary Interventions: Five Research-Based Recommendations for Practice

Purpose

The purpose of this tutorial is to explain key concepts about vocabulary acquisition and instruction and to translate research from middle school vocabulary interventions into practice recommendations for practitioners. In this tutorial, we consider the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension, describe vocabulary acquisition including the development of semantic networks, provide a review of high-quality middle school vocabulary studies, and make recommendations for practice.

Method

We reviewed the experimental and quasi-experimental literature examining the impact of vocabulary instruction on the vocabulary and reading comprehension development of middle school students. We searched multiple electronic databases (e.g., PsycInfo, ERIC, Scopus, Google Scholar) using combinations of specific search terms (i.e., vocabulary, intervention, instruction, middle school, adolescent ), searched reviews of vocabulary research, and conducted bibliographic searches of included studies. We then extracted information from each included study about the intervention, participants, and outcomes.

Results

We identified 17 studies meeting our inclusion criteria. The majority of studies were conducted with students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds. Only 1 study focused exclusively on students with learning disabilities, language impairments, or reading disabilities, highlighting the need for more vocabulary experimental research studies with special populations of students in middle school.

Conclusion

After reviewing the middle school studies, we make 5 recommendations based on the literature: (a) teach vocabulary intentionally, (b) teach independent word-learning strategies (morphological analysis), (c) focus on developing semantic networks, (d) increase opportunities to use new words in discussion and writing, and (e) provide a motivating and language-rich learning environment.

Morphological processing influences on dyslexia in Greek-speaking children

The study explored the inflectional morphological awareness of Greek-speaking children with dyslexia in grade 3. The sample consisted of 24 dyslexic children and 32 chronological age-matched typically developing readers. All participants completed two oral experimental tasks of inflectional morphological awareness (i.e., verb inflections and noun-adjective inflections). The noun-adjective inflection task assessed children's ability to produce the plural of articles, adjectives, and nouns in the context of a sentence. The verb inflection task required children to change the tense of the verb in a sentence. Furthermore, phonological awareness and oral receptive vocabulary were assessed. Greek-speaking children with dyslexia faced difficulties in both inflectional tasks and in receptive vocabulary. They appeared to have greater difficulty in elicitation of non-past tense from past tense. Binary logistic regression targeted at understanding whether dyslexia can be predicted based on phonological and non-phonological oral language skills revealed that phonological awareness had a significant effect on distinguishing dyslexics from typically developing readers. Overall, our findings lead us to suggest that in an alphabetic language with a shallow orthographic system and rich morphology, children with dyslexia appear to have impaired inflectional morphological awareness and impaired vocabulary in comparison to their peers. Moreover, these results suggest the significance of teaching morphological skills in improving reading skills. However, further research is needed to substantiate these findings.

School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists' Knowledge/Use of Morphological Awareness Instruction: Results of a Survey

Purpose

This study was conducted to gain a better understanding of the role that morphological awareness instruction plays in school-based speech-language pathologists' (SLPs) clinical practice. Issues related to their knowledge and use of morphological awareness instruction and their overall level of satisfaction with this type of treatment were examined in the survey.

Method

Members of the School-Based Issues Special Interest Group 16 responded to an invitation to complete an electronic survey related to morphological awareness instruction.

Results

The majority of the survey participants did report using morphological awareness instruction within their clinical practice. SLPs were most likely to provide morphological awareness instruction to clients in the elementary grades diagnosed with either a language learning disability or specific language impairment. Specific activities used varied across survey participants, but the majority expressed a high level of satisfaction with this type of intervention.

Conclusion

Data from the current survey reveal that many SLPs recognize the benefits of morphological awareness instruction. Educational and clinical implications are discussed.