Assessment of Language in Young Children

2019 ◽  
pp. 314-333
Author(s):  
Leslie A. Rescorla
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Screening Tool ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Good Clinical Practice ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Late Talkers ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Efficient Screening

Language delay is one of the major reasons that young children are referred for developmental or psychological evaluation. When no more primary condition is present, a child with a language delay is diagnosed with specific language impairment, with children ages 2 to 3 usually called late talkers. A vocabulary checklist such as the Language Development Survey (Rescorla, 1989) is an efficient screening tool for identifying language delay in toddlers. Research findings in five major domains of language and communication (gestures/play, phonology/vocalizations, vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatics) are reviewed, as well as standardized and naturalistic methods for assessing development in each domain. It is good clinical practice to screen for psychopathology when conducting a language assessment of young children, even though many preschoolers with language delay do not have significant psychopathology. Findings on associations between language delay and behavioral/emotional problems are reviewed, as well as commonly used rating forms for identifying maladjustment.

Eliciting Verbs From Children With Specific Language Impairment

1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Frome Loeb ◽  
Clifton Pye ◽  
Sean Redmond ◽  
Lori Zobel Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Lexical Skills

The focus of assessment and intervention is often aimed at increasing the lexical skills of young children with language impairment. Frequently, the use of nouns is the center of the lexical assessment. As a result, the production of verbs is not fully evaluated or integrated into treatment in a way that accounts for their semantic and syntactic complexity. This paper presents a probe for eliciting verbs from children, describes its effectiveness, and discusses the utility of and problems associated with developing such a probe.

The Speech-Language Assessment of English Language Learning Students: A Non-Standardized Approach

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kraemer ◽  
Allison Coltisor ◽  
Meesha Kalra ◽  
Megan Martinez ◽  
Bailey Savage ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
The United States ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
English Speaking

English language learning (ELL) children suspected of having specific-language impairment (SLI) should be assessed using the same methods as monolingual English-speaking children born and raised in the United States. In an effort to reduce over- and under-identification of ELL children as SLI, speech-language pathologists (SLP) must employ nonbiased assessment practices. This article presents several evidence-based, nonstandarized assessment practices SLPs can implement in place of standardized tools. As the number of ELL children SLPs come in contact with increases, the need for well-trained and knowledgeable SLPs grows. The goal of the authors is to present several well-establish, evidence-based assessment methods for assessing ELL children suspected of SLI.

Early Language Delay and Risk for Language Impairment

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica M. Ellis ◽  
Donna J. Thal
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Late Talkers ◽  
Late Talker ◽  
Early Language Delay ◽  
Clinically Significant ◽  
Normal Variability

Abstract Clinicians are often faced with the difficult task of deciding whether a late talker shows normal variability or has a clinically significant language disorder. This article provides an overview of research investigating identification, characteristics, outcomes, and predictors of late talkers. Clinical implications for speech-language pathologists in the identification and treatment of children who are late talkers are discussed.

Memory for rote linguistic routines and sensitivity to rhyme: A comparison of low-income children with and without specific language impairment

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara B. Fazio
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Relative Performance ◽  
Classroom Activity ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Lower Performance ◽  
Low Income Children ◽  
Before And After

ABSTRACTThis report describes two studies on memory for rote linguistic sequences and sensitivity to rhyme in young children with and without language impairment. In the first study, 10 low income kindergarteners with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared with age- and income-matched classmates on reciting common nursery rhymes, reciting the alphabet, and rote counting. Children with SLI displayed lower performance on most of the rote linguistic sequence tasks, especially on (heir knowledge of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. The second study examined the learning and retention of nursery rhymes in 8 young children with SLI after 6 weeks of classroom instruction. Low-income, 4- and 5-year-old children with SLI and their age- and income-matched classmates were taught five novel Mother Goose rhymes during a large-group classroom activity. Children were tested before and after the intervention on their ability to recite nursery rhymes and to detect rhyme. When compared with their peers, children with SLI had difficulty repeating the nursery rhymes, despite daily classroom exposure. Although the performance of children with SLI on rhyme recitation and detection tasks was poor, their relative performance was better on a cloze task based on the set of nursery rhymes. The results of this study suggest that children with SLI have difficulty storing and/or retrieving lines of memorized text. Traditional informal techniques for teaching rote linguistic sequences may need to be modified to give children with SLI more opportunities to practice rote sequences.

Early Verb-Related Vulnerability Among Children With Specific Language Impairment

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1384-1397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela A. Hadley
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Grammatical Development ◽  
Very Young Children ◽  
Developmental Progression

The purpose of this study was to characterize the nature of early grammatical development among very young children with specific language impairment (SLI). Grammatical development was examined for two subtypes: (a) children with expressive language impairments only (SLI-E) and (b) children with both receptive and expressive language impairments (SLI-RE). In particular, characteristics of noun-phrase (NP) and verb-phrase (VP) elaboration were examined longitudinally to determine whether structures associated with NP and VP emerged together following a typical developmental progression. Group analyses did not reveal any differences between the subtypes on the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn; Scarborough, 1990). However, specific weakness in VP elaboration was revealed on the IPSyn as well as in more extensive productivity analyses. The contribution of these findings to a developmentally sensitive grammatical description of SLI for very young children is discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document