Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools最新文献

Background: Traditional language assessments using monolingual standardized tests often lead to misdiagnoses in bilingual children due to variations in language experiences. Given the strong link between iconic gestures and language abilities, an iconic gesture comprehension task could serve as an effective screening tool for bilingual children with developmental language disorder (biDLD), as it does not necessitate verbal output. Therefore, we explored the potential and validity of such a screening tool.

Method: We developed an iconic gesture comprehension task where children observe a gesture and select the corresponding image from four options. The task was completed by 70 monolingual children with typical development (moTD), 70 bilingual children with typical development (biTD), and 40 biDLD between 3 and 9 years old. Additionally, language tests were administered to gain insight into the relation between gesture performance and language abilities.

Results: Performance on the gesture task increased with age, and group comparisons revealed that moTD and biTD outperformed biDLD. Although the task was unaffected by language experience, diagnostic accuracy at the individual level was 68.18%. Additionally, gesture performance was associated with lexicosemantic abilities in biDLD, suggesting that the task appears most sensitive to children with significant semantic deficits.

Conclusions: While the iconic gesture comprehension task differentiated between children with and without developmental language disorder at the group level, its diagnostic accuracy at the individual level remains limited. Further research is needed to assess whether the task, in a modified form, still has potential as a screening task and to clarify how gesture comprehension relates to language abilities.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.31211821.

Purpose: This study investigated the verbal (VWM) and nonverbal working memory (NWM) of school-aged children with cochlear implants compared to their typically hearing peers, in order to determine how early auditory deprivation and the reduced auditory input characteristic of cochlear implants are related to storage and processing functions of working memory.

Method: A total of 58 children took part: 35 with cochlear implants and 23 with typical hearing, matched by age and gender. VWM was measured using the digit span task, while NWM was measured using the Corsi Block Tapping task.

Results: The results showed that children with cochlear implants had a significantly lower storage and processing capacity of working memory for verbal information compared to their typically hearing peers. However, no significant differences were found between the two groups in NWM. Within-group analyses showed that both children with cochlear implants and children with typical hearing processed less information than they could store and that they processed nonverbal information better than verbal information. Correlation analyses showed that the relationships between verbal storage and other components of working memory were significantly weaker in children with cochlear implants, suggesting that they may rely on alternative nonverbal strategies.

Conclusions: The results support the sensory theory that attributes the VWM deficit in children with cochlear implants to a spectrally reduced auditory input and not to a general cognitive deficit as proposed by the cognitive theory. These findings emphasize the need for early implantation and interventions that focus on the development of VWM strategies while considering the preserved potential for nonverbal cognitive processing.

Purpose: This critical literature review examines how African American English (AAE) and American Sign Language (ASL)-including Black ASL-shape literacy development in Black Deaf students. It situates these linguistic systems within broader historical and contemporary contexts of literacy acquisition, highlighting systemic inequities in educational practices that marginalize nonstandard dialects and visual languages. Understanding these dynamics is essential to developing more inclusive and effective literacy instruction that honors the linguistic identities of Black Deaf learners.

Method: Drawing from sociocultural theory, (socio)cognitive theory, poststructuralism, and critical race theory, this literature review employs a thematic synthesis to analyze how these frameworks illuminate the complex interplay between language, identity, and literacy development among Black Deaf students. The review integrates empirical and theoretical studies across hearing and Deaf populations, situating findings within broader historical and societal literacy trends. It also addresses contemporary challenges such as multilingualism and the role of nonpublic educational settings in shaping literacy outcomes.

Results: The findings reveal that prevailing educational systems frequently rely on deficit-based models that marginalize AAE and ASL, thereby limiting literacy opportunities for Black Deaf students. The literature advocates for a shift toward diversity-affirming frameworks that recognize AAE and ASL as vital cognitive and cultural assets supporting literacy acquisition. Key themes include the importance of culturally responsive pedagogy and inclusive educational policies that validate students' linguistic identities, dismantle systemic biases, and foster equitable literacy development. These insights underscore the need for educational practices that integrate students' home languages and social contexts to promote academic success.

Conclusions: Affirming AAE and ASL in educational settings is essential for promoting equitable literacy development. The review recommends integrating these theoretical perspectives into policy reform and within the fields of education and speech-language pathology. Future research should explore the roles of family, community, and multimodal literacy practices in supporting Black Deaf learners across diverse educational contexts.

Purpose: Preschool children with developmental language disorder (DLD) frequently omit or misuse multiple grammatical forms. We hypothesized that treatment of these errors might be more efficient if treatment first targeted a grammatical form anticipated to be easy to treat, because it was partially acquired by the child, before targeting a form that was rarely used that might be more difficult to learn.

Method: Thirty-four preschool children with DLD were treated for up to 25 sessions using Enhanced Conversational Recast therapy. Half received treatment targeting a grammatical form that they used rarely ("difficult," less than 7% pretreatment use on average), and half began with a grammatical form that they used more frequently ("easy," more than 50% pretreatment use on average) and then transitioned to a difficult form. An additional grammatical form that was rarely used served as an untreated control form for both groups. Generalization to untreated linguistic contexts was probed for both treated and untreated grammatical forms throughout the treatment period and after a period of no treatment to test retention.

Results: Bayesian analyses provided support for the efficacy of the treatment overall. Children who first began with an easy target made stronger initial gains on their difficult target compared with children who began with a difficult target. Retention of treated grammatical forms was strongly correlated with their use at the end of treatment.

Discussion: The results suggest that children with DLD "learn to learn" in treatment and that beginning with a target that children use some of the time can facilitate learning of a subsequent, more difficult target. This could make treatment of multiple targets more efficient in clinical practice.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.31057249.

This epilogue reviews key concepts and summarizes the seven articles presented in the forum focused on addressing childhood trauma and maltreatment through the lens of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework. Each of these articles presents information relevant to how the occurrence and subsequent effects of trauma and maltreatment can be conceptualized, realized, and mitigated. At its essence, this forum provides a collection of articles that underscore how to provide contextualized care by considering environment, social factors, individual characteristics, and so forth, as opposed to focusing on treatment in insolation. While different approaches are discussed, this epilogue highlights the central theme of the ICF and how speech-language pathologists can apply this framework to provide compassionate trauma-informed care to children with communication disorders who have experienced trauma and/or maltreatment.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of two vocabulary interventions (a structured, explicit instruction intervention and a naturalistic, incidental teaching intervention) for children who use robust, high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

Method: This study used an adapted alternating-treatments single-subject design to compare the effects of both interventions for early language learners with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities who use AAC. Three children who use robust, high-tech AAC devices participated in this study across 9 weeks. All participants attended two intervention sessions weekly: one explicit instruction session and one incidental teaching session. The order that children received the intervention sessions within each week was randomized. One word list (containing 10 words) was taught in each session; different word lists were used for explicit instruction and incidental teaching sessions. All target words were probed prior to intervention and after intervention to determine the total number of words learned in each intervention.

Results: All children learned words in both interventions. However, all children learned words more efficiently in the structured, explicit instruction intervention.

Conclusion: These preliminary data suggest that a structured, explicit instruction intervention yields better vocabulary outcomes than a naturalistic, incidental teaching intervention for early language learners who use robust, high-tech AAC.

Purpose: A history of trauma is significantly related to the likelihood of having a language disorder. Given that one in seven children experience maltreatment in the United States, it is essential that school-based speech-language pathologists are well prepared to engage in trauma-informed practice when working with children and adolescents who have a history of trauma. The primary purpose of this tutorial is to provide an overview of trauma and its relationship to language and to synthesize the extant literature on trauma-informed approaches that could be used by speech-language pathologists. Trauma-informed practices include preventing retraumatization and recognizing trauma responses, creating a safe environment, collaborating with team members, using a strengths-based approach, obtaining a comprehensive case history to guide decisions, and empowering the students by including them in choices.

Conclusion: This tutorial discusses each of these approaches, describes how these approaches could be used in the context of speech-language practice, provides a questionnaire that was developed to obtain the case histories of students with a history of trauma, and illustrates case examples of how trauma-informed approaches might be implemented by speech-language pathologists.

Purpose: Childhood trauma is pervasive and can have widespread negative influences on language development. Children with disabilities, especially with communication disorders, are at elevated risk for, and have barriers to reporting, neglect and abuse. Protective factors, such as responsive caregivers and trauma-informed services, can buffer against the influence of trauma for individual children. Caregiver coaching is a common delivery method of early language intervention. Although principles of trauma-informed practice exist broadly in the field of mental health, there has been limited direct application to early language intervention. In this clinical tutorial, we aim to (a) describe how childhood trauma can impact language interaction, development, and caregiver coaching and (b) apply trauma-informed practice to caregiver coaching in early language intervention.

Method: We adapt the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration principles of trauma-informed care-realize, recognize, respond, and resist-to the context of early language development and intervention. In the first section, we use the ecobehavioral model of early language development as a framework for realizing the mechanisms by which trauma might impact children's development and their caregivers. We also describe how to apply an International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health model of assessment to systematically and comprehensively recognize individual child and caregiver strengths and needs. In the second section, we present applied strategies for responding to trauma and resisting retraumatization.

Conclusions: The pervasiveness of childhood trauma and the uniqueness of individual experiences necessitate trauma-informed practices within early language intervention. This tutorial provides background knowledge and applied strategies for clinicians to implement trauma-informed strategies.

Purpose: The aims of this tutorial were to provide an overview of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework and present how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can use this framework to support the language skills of young children who have experienced complex trauma.

Method: Included in this tutorial area is a brief review of the various forms of trauma, as well as the ways in which the ICF provides a unique model through which to view language impairments in children with a history of trauma exposure. Additionally, the known impact of trauma on language is reviewed through an ICF lens, including Body Functions & Structures, Activity, Participation, and Contextual Factors (Environmental and Personal Factors). A case study is also provided as an exemplar for using the ICF to guide assessment and treatment.

Implications: This tutorial will facilitate SLPs' understanding of how the ICF framework can support understanding the complex interplay between exposure to trauma, language development, and language use in functional contexts. Strategies for optimizing assessment and intervention practices, as well as considering a child's environmental and personal factors, are reviewed. Ultimately, these practices help facilitate informed practices when providing language intervention in naturalistic contexts (including social/pragmatic) and supporting academic success.