Contribution of spoken language and socio-economic background to adolescents' educational achievement at age 16 years

Enhancing online speech and language assessment: Item development for the remote adult language experiment (ReAL-E) tool

PURPOSE

Recent technological advancements in psychology have yielded multiple unsupervised online tools for measuring cognitive skills. However, these tools do not measure key features of communication abilities in adults, such as productive speech or oral language. To address this gap, we developed the Remote Adult Language Experiment (ReAL-E) using a three-step approach that incorporates domain identification, expert evaluation, and piloting testing.

METHOD

Step 1 focused on domain and task identification by collaborating with experts and reviewing the literature. Step 2 included two rounds of evaluation by content and lay experts to assess the initial tool design, identify areas for refinement, and solicit feedback for desired features. Step 3 involved piloting the tool in a sample of adults recruited online.

RESULTS

The ReAL-E tool adapted three speech planning and production tasks and four oral and written language tasks into online versions. Feedback from content and lay experts led to significant improvements, including enhanced task instructions, presentation modifications, and the incorporation of features to address potential confounds. Pilot testing demonstrated that adults perform within expected ranges, and five out of seven tasks had good to excellent preliminary reliability.

CONCLUSION

The development of the ReAL-E tool contributes to the field by offering a scalable, efficient method for assessing a broad range of communication skills in adults, paving the way for future research and clinical applications in developmental communication disorders. Our study underscores the collaborative effort and innovative approach required for creating a digital assessment tool that promises to expand research capabilities and improve diagnostic processes in the discipline.

The word learning dynamic assessment protocol (WorLDAP): Exploring speech-language pathologists' perceptions of the acceptability of a novel assessment tool

PURPOSE

Few resources are available to support speech-language pathologists (SLPs') dynamic assessment of vocabulary with school-aged children. We developed the Word Learning Dynamic Assessment Protocol (currently undergoing pilot testing). Framed by implementation science, in the current study we worked with speech-language pathologists to explore their perspectives on the acceptability of the Word Learning Dynamic Assessment Protocol.

METHOD

Eight speech-language pathologists who work with school-aged children watched a video demonstration of the Word Learning Dynamic Assessment Protocol being administered with a 6-year-old child and were then interviewed to share their thoughts on the Word Learning Dynamic Assessment Protocol's acceptability.

RESULT

Six themes were generated using reflexive thematic analysis: 1) Structure, scripting, and resourcing builds confidence in speech-language pathologists, 2) gaining important insight into the learning process, 3) flexible assessment supports child engagement and diversity, 4) family buy-in is created with clear communication, 5) a worthwhile investment of time?, and 6) building a more tailored assessment.

CONCLUSION

The speech-language pathologists who took part in this study valued the structure and resourcing of the Word Learning Dynamic Assessment Protocol as a way of supporting their ability to evaluate a child's strengths and challenges in vocabulary development in an engaging and individually tailored manner. Suggestions for further development will guide task refinement to meet the needs of speech-language pathologists.

Normative CLEFT-Q Data From the General Dutch Population

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), such as the CLEFT-Q, have become essential for outcomes in patients with CL/P. Normative values of the CLEFT-Q for non-CL/P peers have not yet been established. This study aims to establish normative values for the CLEFT-Q in the general Dutch population. Dutch nationals aged 16-24 years without CL/P were recruited through an online survey. Participants completed the CLEFT-Q, excluding the lip scar and eating and drinking scales. Data were weighted based on the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics. Normative values were calculated as means and standard deviations, stratified by sex and education category. Tobit regression models were used to analyze associations between CLEFT-Q scores and demographic variables. In total, 870 participants responded, of which 160 were excluded due to potential craniofacial anomalies. Significant variations in CLEFT-Q scores based on sex were found, with females scoring lower than males. Level of education had a modest impact on CLEFT-Q scores, with lower education having lower scores on certain scales. Age marginally influenced CLEFT-Q scores, with younger participants scoring lower than older participants. Positive correlations were found between all CLEFT-Q scales. The strongest correlation was observed between the social and school functioning scales. This study provides the first set of normative values for the CLEFT-Q in the Dutch general population. Significant differences in CLEFT-Q scores based on sex, level of education and age were found. These normative values are useful for clinicians interpreting CLEFT-Q scores and help make informed decisions.

Can Narrative Skills Improve in Autism Spectrum Disorder? A Preliminary Study with Verbally Fluent Adolescents Receiving the Cognitive Pragmatic Treatment

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting social and communicative skills, including narrative ability, namely the description of real-life or fictive accounts of temporally and causally related events. With this study, we aimed to determine whether a communicative-pragmatic training, i.e., the version for adolescents of the Cognitive-Pragmatic Treatment, is effective in improving the narrative skills of 16 verbally fluent adolescents with ASD. We used a multilevel approach to assess pre- and post-training narrative production skills. Discourse analysis focused on micro- (i.e., mean length of utterance, complete sentences, omissions of morphosyntactic information) and macrolinguistic measures (i.e., cohesion, coherence errors, lexical informativeness). Results revealed a significant improvement in mean length of utterance and complete sentences and a decrease in cohesion errors. No significant change was found in the other narrative measures investigated. Our findings suggest that a pragmatically oriented training may be useful in improving grammatical efficiency in narrative production.

Evaluating the Effect of Rich Vocabulary Instruction and Retrieval Practice on the Classroom Vocabulary Skills of Children With (Developmental) Language Disorder

PURPOSE

Learning new vocabulary has been identified as a challenge for students with (developmental) language disorder ((D)LD). In this study, we evaluate the effects of two active learning methods, (a) retrieval practice (RP) and (b) rich vocabulary instruction (RVI), in a group of students with (D)LD in secondary school.

METHOD

A quasi-experimental counterbalanced within-subject design was used to compare and evaluate the effect of RP and RVI on learning Tier 2 vocabulary, with target and control words as dependent measures. Eleven students with (D)LD (M _age = 14.9 years) attending a language unit participated. RP and RVI were implemented in regular classroom activities during 16 lessons (eight lessons/instructional condition). Learning was assessed by comparing performance on a pretest session 1-2 weeks prior, with posttest performance 1 week after each instructional condition.

RESULTS

The learning gain for RP was superior to that for RVI, both with respect to the Bayesian probabilistic estimations for target words relative to control words and in direct comparison with RVI. Only weak evidence was found for RVI with respect to the Bayesian probabilistic estimations for target words relative to control words.

CONCLUSIONS

All participants showed positive learning gains following RP, whereas the outcome for RVI was more diverse. This initial work suggests that RP promotes larger learning gains relative to RVI and promotes learning across language profiles. This study extends previous studies by exploring the implementation of RP in regular classroom activities and by using more complex to-be-learned material (Tier 2 words).

Receptive and expressive vocabulary development in children learning English as an additional language: Converging evidence from multiple datasets

Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) are a diverse and growing group of pupils in England's schools. Relative to their monolingual (ML) peers, these children tend to show lower receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge in English, although interpretation of findings is limited by small and heterogeneous samples. In an effort to increase representativeness and power, the present study combined published and unpublished datasets from six cross-sectional and four longitudinal studies investigating the vocabulary development of 434 EAL learners and 342 ML peers (age range: 4;9-11;5) in 42 primary schools. Multilevel modelling confirmed previous findings of significantly lower English vocabulary scores of EAL learners and some degree of convergence in receptive but not expressive knowledge by the end of primary school. Evidence for narrowing of the gap in receptive knowledge was found only in datasets spanning a longer developmental period, hinting at the protracted nature of this convergence.

Explicating Child-Driven Patterns of Parent-Child Responsivity in Fragile Families: A Longitudinal Approach

It has been well-established that development occurs in the context of a transactional framework, with bidirectional parent-child interactions influencing both proximal and distal outcomes. In particular, child vocabulary development is sensitive to parenting qualities including warmth, sensitivity, and control as well as parental stimulation including language input and access to learning enrichment activities. Similarly, these parenting qualities are influenced by and influence children's development of pro-social behaviors. Given the foundational role of both language and pro-social skills for academic achievement and the establishment of healthy relationships across the lifespan, a comprehensive understanding of the magnitude, stability, and reciprocity of such interactions across childhood has the potential to better inform early intervention and prevention practices and highlight risk and resilience factors. This study investigated the concurrent and successive transactional relationships between child pro-social behavior, child emergent language, and parenting qualities within a large, longitudinal sample. This study utilized Waves 3, 4, and 5 of the Fragile Families and Child Well Being Study (FFCWBS), corresponding to focal child age 3, 5, and 9 years, respectively. A series of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with full-information likelihood (FIML) estimation (n = 3,422) including child prosocial behavior, receptive vocabulary, and supportive parenting behaviors was tested and compared. Our findings indicate significant, positive associations over time between child pro-social behavior and receptive vocabulary, and parenting quality across all three stages of early child development. The steady decline in magnitude of these associations over time highlights the importance of synergistic parent-child interactions in toddlerhood as an early opportunity to propel these developmental outcomes and supportive parenting behaviors. Patterns of change in child pro-social behavior skills and parenting qualities remained positive and relatively stable, while observed growth in child receptive vocabulary skills increased in magnitude over time. Additional investigation of indirect effects specified the role of receptive vocabulary, as well as the bolstering role of prosocial behavior, in eliciting responsive parenting qualities over time.

Word learning and verbal working memory in children with developmental language disorder

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Previous research into word learning in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) indicates that the learning of word forms and meanings, rather than form-referent links, is problematic. This difficulty appears to arise with impaired encoding, while retention of word knowledge remains intact. Evidence also suggests that word learning skills may be related to verbal working memory. We aimed to substantiate these findings in the current study by exploring word learning over a series of days.

METHODS

Fifty children with DLD (mean age 6; 11, 72% male) and 54 age-matched typically developing (TD) children (mean age 6; 10, 56% male) were taught eight novel words across a four-day word learning protocol. Day 1 measured encoding, Days 2 and 3 measured re-encoding, and Day 4 assessed retention. At each day, word learning success was evaluated using Naming, Recognition, Description, and Identification tasks.

RESULTS

Children with DLD showed comparable performance to the TD group on the Identification task, indicating an intact ability to learn the form-referent links. In contrast, children with DLD performed significantly worse for Naming and Recognition (signifying an impaired ability to learn novel word forms), and for Description, indicating problems establishing new word meanings. These deficits for the DLD group were apparent at Days 1, 2, and 3 of testing, indicating impairments with initial encoding and re-encoding; however, the DLD and TD groups demonstrated a similar rate of learning. All children found the retention assessments at Day 4 difficult, and there were no significant group differences. Finally, verbal working memory emerged as a significant moderator of performance on the Naming and Recognition tasks, such that children with DLD and poor verbal working memory had the lowest levels of accuracy.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates that children with DLD struggle with learning novel word forms and meanings, but are unimpaired in their ability to establish new form-referent links. The findings suggest that the word learning deficit may be attributed to problems with encoding, rather than with retention, of new word knowledge; however, further exploration is required given the poor performance of both groups for retention testing. Furthermore, we found evidence that an impaired ability to learn word forms may only be apparent in children who have DLD and low levels of verbal working memory.

IMPLICATIONS

When working with children with DLD, speech-language pathologists should assess word learning using tasks that evaluate the ability to learn word forms, meanings, and form-referent links to develop a profile of individual word learning strengths and weaknesses. Clinicians should also assess verbal working memory to identify children at particular risk of word learning deficits. Future research should explore the notion of optimal intervention intensity for facilitating word learning in children with poor language and verbal working memory.

The Spoken Language and Social Communication Characteristics of Adolescents in Behavioral Schools: A Controlled Comparison Study

Purpose Working with students with emotional behavioral disorders is a challenging area of speech-language pathology practice. In this study, we compare and profile the narrative discourse, structural language, and social communication characteristics of adolescents attending behavioral support and mainstream schools. We also examine relationships between narratives, structural language, social communication, and behavior. Method Fifty-four students aged between 12 and 16 years participated. Twenty-seven students were from 3 Australian government Schools for Specific Purposes for students with behavioral difficulties, and 27 typically developing students were from a mainstream, government school. Students were matched for age and closely matched for sex and socioeconomic status. All students completed 3 communication assessments: oral narrative, structural language, and social communication skills. Teachers were asked to complete 2 behavioral questionnaires. Results Students in behavioral schools had significant difficulties generating narratives. Their structural language and overall social communication skills were also significantly poorer than their mainstream peers. One third of the behavioral group experienced significant difficulties across all 3 of these communication areas. Externalizing behavior was significantly related to narrative, structural language, and social communication only when the data were pooled across both groups. Conclusions Language and social communication difficulties were evident in adolescents who attend alternative school settings-behavioral schools. These findings confirm the need for speech-language pathologists to be engaged in specialist behavioral schools and provide impetus to service providers, speech-language pathologists, and educators to address relationships between behavior and communication ability.

An Online Tool to Assess Sentence Comprehension in Teenagers at Risk for School Exclusion: Evidence From L2 Italian Students

This study presents a web-based sentence comprehension test aimed at identifying high school students who are at risk for a language delay. By assessing linguistic skills on a sample of high school students with Italian as an L2 and their monolingual peers, attending a vocational school, we were able to identify a subgroup of L2 students with consistent difficulties in sentence comprehension, though their reading skills were within the average range. The same subgroup revealed to experience a lack of support within the school context, suggesting that poor L2 skills might be a critical variable to consider in order to identify students at risk for school exclusion. Regarding the test, accuracy to the on-line sentence comprehension task was significantly predicted by reading abilities and vocabulary skills, thus indicating that this test might represent a rapid but efficient way to assess linguistic abilities at school. We recommend that establishing a valid and practical procedure for the evaluation of linguistic skills in bilingual students who struggle with their L2 is the first step toward promoting social inclusion in the multilingual classroom, in order to increase their ability to actively participate in school and social activities.

Improving storytelling and vocabulary in secondary school students with language disorder: a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Although language and communication difficulties are common in secondary school students, there has been limited research into the efficacy of interventions for adolescents with language and communication difficulties.

AIMS

To investigate the efficacy of teaching assistant (TA)-delivered narrative and vocabulary interventions to mainstream secondary school-aged students with language disorder.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a language and communication intervention was used to evaluate the efficacy of vocabulary and narrative interventions to improve the vocabulary and narrative performance of adolescents (mean age = 12.8 years) with language disorder. The language and communication programmes (narrative, vocabulary and combined narrative and vocabulary) were delivered by TAs in the classroom, three times per week, for 45-60 min each, over 6 weeks, totalling 18 sessions. Standardized and intervention-specific measures were used as outcomes.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Twenty-one schools with 358 eligible participants were recruited. The three intervention groups showed significant improvements (d = .296) on a narrative latent variable defined by a standardized narrative assessment (the Expression, Reception and Recall of Narrative Instrument-ERRNI), but there were no significant improvements on an overall vocabulary latent variable compared with the waiting control group. Differential effects were found on some non-standardized intervention-specific measures with the narrative group making significantly more progress on narrative tasks compared with the waiting control group, the vocabulary group showing the same pattern on specific vocabulary tasks, and the combined narrative and vocabulary group making significantly more progress on some of the intervention-specific narrative, and all the intervention-specific vocabulary outcomes compared with the waiting control group.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

It is possible to improve narrative but not vocabulary skills, as assessed by standardized measures, in secondary school students with a relatively brief group TA-delivered intervention. There were differential effects for both narrative and vocabulary with intervention-specific measures. Future work is required to explore whether more intensive and longer lasting interventions would be more effective and to identify which students in this age group are most likely to benefit from such interventions.

Effectiveness of vocabulary intervention for older children with (developmental) language disorder

BACKGROUND

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) frequently have difficulties with word learning and understanding vocabulary. For these children, this can significantly impact on social interactions, daily activities and academic progress. Although there is literature providing a rationale for targeting word learning in such children, there is little evidence for the effectiveness of specific interventions in this area for children with identified DLD.

AIMS

To establish whether direct one-to-one intervention for children with DLD over 9 years of age leads to improved abilities to identify, comprehend, define, and use nouns and verbs targeted in intervention as compared with non-targeted control items and whether or not the participants' rating of their own knowledge of the words changes with intervention.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Twenty-five children and young people with language disorder (aged 9;4-16;1) participated in the study: 18 with DLD and seven with a language disorder associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two assessments of different levels were created: a higher ability (less frequent words) and a lower ability (more frequent words). Participants' speech and language therapists (SLTs) decided which level would be the most appropriate for each participant. Four tasks were carried out as part of the assessment and the scores were used to identify which words each participant worked on. Participants received one 30-min session per week one-to-one with their own SLT for 7 weeks, plus a 5-min revision session in between each main session. During each of the first five sessions, participants learned two new words; the two final sessions were spent revising the 10 words which had been targeted.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Post-intervention assessment showed an increase in scores for both treated and control words. However, progress on treated words was significantly greater than on control words (d = 1.07), indicating effectiveness of intervention. The difference between progress on targeted and control words was found both for nouns (d = 1.29) and verbs (d = 0.64), but the effect size was larger for nouns. Whether or not the participants had an associated ASD did not affect the results. The children's self-rating of their knowledge of the targeted words was also significantly higher than for control words post-intervention.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

The intervention delivered one-to-one by the participants' usual SLT was effective in teaching new vocabulary to older children with language disorders. This shows that older children with language disorders can make progress with direct one-to-one intervention focused on vocabulary.

Examining the association between language, expository discourse and offending behaviour: an investigation of direction, strength and independence

BACKGROUND

A high prevalence of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is reported in the population of Young Offenders (YO). However, little is known about the extent of the association between language and offending behaviour relative to social disadvantage, education attendance and non-verbal intelligence (IQ), and neither has this association been investigated with particular reference to the expository discourse abilities of YOs on community orders in the UK.

AIMS

This study aimed to examine the direction and strength of the association between language and offending behaviour by comparing the receptive and expressive language and expository discourse abilities of male and female YOs and non-offenders in the UK, relative to the confounds of social disadvantage, years of education attended and non-verbal IQ. Examining expository discourse provided a measure of the YOs. ability to verbally communicate complex information; a communication ability that is fundamental to engaging effectively in youth offending services and secondary education.

METHODS

An opportunity sample of 52 YOs was recruited from a youth offending service. The YO group was matched on years of education, social disadvantage and non-verbal IQ to a purpose selected comparison group of 25 non-offenders. All participants had English as their first language and were not currently receiving any speech and language intervention. Participants completed standardised measures of receptive and expressive language and an expository discourse measure. The incidence of DLD was identified and compared across offender group using scores from the language and expository discourse measures and gender differences were also explored. Finally, logistical regression analysis was used to test the association between language performance and offending status relative to the confounds of social disadvantage, education attendance and non-verbal IQ.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

A large proportion of YOs scored below test norms for the language and expository discourse measures, which indicated a high incidence of DLD that was much larger than that displayed by the non-offenders. No differences were found on language performance between male and female YOs. Logistic regression analyses found that as language performance increased, the probability of being a non-offender significantly increased.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Participants were over 1 to 5 times more likely to be classified as a non-offender for every unit increase in the language and expository discourse scores. The statistically significant positive association found between language and offending behaviour relative to other confounds, highlights the important role of language in understanding offending behaviour. YOs displayed high incidences of DLD in their language and expository discourse abilities despite having not received any speech and language intervention prior to their involvement in this study. This has implications for their effective engagement in education and in youth offending and criminal justice services (CJS). Professionals in education, health and social care and youth justice should be made aware of the language needs of both YOs and children with emotional behavioural difficulties, and these language needs should be identified and targeted as early as possible to enable them to be effective communicators who can engage effectively in their provision.