Using Telehealth-Delivered Procedures to Collect a Parent-Implemented Expressive Language Sampling Narrative Task in Monolingual and Bilingual Families With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study

Language impairments are frequent, severe, and of prognostic value in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Unfortunately, the evaluation of the efficacy of treatments targeting the language skills of those with ASD continues to be hindered by a lack of psychometrically sound outcome measures. Expressive Language Sampling (ELS) procedures offer a promising alternative to norm-referenced standardized tests for assessing expressive language in treatment studies. Until now, however, research on the validity and utility of ELS as outcome measures has been limited to administrations by a trained professional in a clinic setting and to use with English-speaking families. These limitations are a barrier for many families accessing the benefits of participation in treatment studies. The current study examines the feasibility of teaching native English-speaking parents (NESP) and native Spanish-speaking parents (NSSP) how to administer the ELS narrative task (ELS-N) to their sons and daughters with ASD (between ages 6 and 21) at home through telehealth-delivered procedures. The parent training was provided in the primary language of the participating parent (i.e., 11 NSSP and 11 NESP) and administered by the parent to the youth in the language that the parent reported to use to communicate with the youth at home (i.e., 9 Spanish and 13 English). Families were able to choose between using their own technology or be provided with the technology needed for participation. Of the 19 parents who completed the training, 16 learned to administer the ELS-N procedures. In addition, strong test-retest reliability and no practice effects over the 4-week interval were observed for ELS-N derived youth outcome measures (i.e., talkativeness, vocabulary, syntax, dysfluency, and intelligibility) for both NSSP and NESP. Results from this pilot study suggest that the home-based parent-implemented ELS-N procedures can be learned and administered at acceptable levels of fidelity by parents, with good test-retest reliability and limited practice effects observed in terms of outcome measures for youth with ASD. Implications for treatment studies and future directions are discussed.

Online data collection to address language sampling bias: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has massively limited how linguists can collect data, and out of necessity, researchers across several disciplines have moved data collection online. Here we argue that this rising popularity of remote web-based experiments also provides an opportunity for widening the context of linguistic research by facilitating data collection from understudied populations. We discuss collecting production data from adult native speakers of Tagalog using an unsupervised web-based experiment. Compared to equivalent lab experiments, data collection went quicker, and the sample was more diverse, without compromising data quality. However, there were also technical and human issues that come with this method. We discuss these challenges and provide suggestions on how to overcome them.

Investigating Adolescent Discourse in Critical Thinking: Monologic Responses to Stories Containing a Moral Dilemma

Purpose The adolescent developmental task of establishing autonomy from parents is supported through various aspects of executive functioning, including critical thinking. Our aim was to investigate younger and older adolescent language performance in form, content, and use in response to a moral dilemma task. Method Forty-four typically developing adolescents completed a language sampling task, responding to stories that contained a moral dilemma for one of the characters. Two age groups participated: younger adolescents ( n = 24, 12;2–13;11 [years;months]) and older adolescents ( n = 20, 16;1–17;11). Participants produced a monologue in response to an open-ended question prompt. Responses were transcribed and analyzed for discourse production on measures of form (verbal productivity and syntactic complexity) and content (semantic diversity and word percentages in three semantic domains: affective, social, and cognitive). Language use was evaluated using a coding system based on Bloom's revised taxonomy of thinking. Results There were no significant group differences in performance on measures of syntactic complexity and semantic diversity. Significant differences were found in adolescents' language using Bloom's revised taxonomy. The younger adolescents demonstrated a significantly higher proportion of utterances at Level 1 (remembering and understanding) compared to older adolescents, while the older age group produced a higher proportion at Level 3 (evaluating and creating). Conclusions The moral dilemma task was effective in demonstrating the growth of adolescent language skills in use of language for critical thinking. The results highlight the clinical utility of the moral dilemma task in engaging adolescents in discourse involving critical thinking, whereas the associated coding scheme, based on Bloom's revised taxonomy of thinking, may differentiate levels of critical thinking and provide direction for intervention.

Spoken language outcome measures for treatment studies in Down syndrome: feasibility, practice effects, test-retest reliability, and construct validity of variables generated from expressive language sampling

Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate expressive language sampling (ELS) as a procedure for generating spoken language outcome measures for treatment research in Down syndrome (DS). We addressed (a) feasibility, (b) practice effects across two short-term administrations, (c) test-retest reliability across two short-term administrations, (d) convergent and discriminant construct validity, and (e) considered comparisons across the conversation and narration contexts. Method Participants were 107 individuals with DS between 6 and 23 years of age who presented with intellectual disability (IQ < 70). The utility of ELS procedures designed to collect samples of spoken language in conversation and narration were evaluated separately. Variables of talkativeness, vocabulary, syntax, utterance planning, and articulation quality, derived from transcripts segmented into C-units (i.e., an independent clause and its modifiers), were considered. A 4-week interval was used to assess practice effects and test-retest reliability. Standardized direct assessments and informant report measures were collected to evaluate construct validity of the ELS variables. Results Low rates of noncompliance were observed; youth who were under 12 years of age, had phrase-level speech or less, and had a 4-year-old developmental level or less were at particular risk for experiencing difficulty completing the ELS procedures. Minimal practice effects and strong test-retest reliability across the 4-week test-retest interval was observed. The vocabulary, syntax, and speech intelligibility variables demonstrated strong convergent and discriminant validity. Although significant correlations were found between the variables derived from both the conversation and narration contexts, some differences were noted. Conclusion The ELS procedures considered were feasible and yielded variables with adequate psychometric properties for most individuals with DS between 6 and 23 years old. That said, studies of outcome measures appropriate for individuals with DS with more limited spoken language skills are needed. Context differences were observed in ELS variables suggest that comprehensive evaluation of expressive language is likely best obtained when utilizing both contexts.

A Survey of Speech-Language Pathologists' Approaches to Assessing Social Communication Disorders in Children

Purpose The purpose of this article is to explore and describe the approaches and specific assessment tools that speech-language pathologists are currently using to assess social communication disorders (SCDs) in children, in relation to current best practices. Method Ninety-four speech-language pathologists completed an online survey asking them to identify which of the following approaches they use to assess children with SCD: parent/teacher report, naturalistic observation, formal assessment, language sample analysis, interviews, semistructured tasks, and peer/self-report. Participants were also asked to identify specific assessment tools they use within each approach. Results Participants most commonly assess SCDs by combining interviews, naturalistic observation, language sampling, parent/teacher report, and formal assessment. Semistructured tasks and peer/self-report tools were less frequently utilized. Several established parent/teacher report and formal assessment tools were commonly identified for assessing SCDs. Most participants use an informal approach for interviews, language sampling, and naturalistic observations in their SCD assessment process. Conclusions Generally, participants follow best practices for assessing SCDs by combining several different approaches. Some considerations for future assessment are identified, including the use of established protocols in the place of informal approaches in order to make the assessment of SCDs more systematic. Future directions for research are discussed.

Sampling Utterances and Grammatical Analysis Revised (SUGAR): Quantitative Values for Language Sample Analysis Measures in 7- to 11-Year-Old Children

Purpose The purpose of this study was to document whether mean length of utterance SUGAR (MLU S ), total number of words (TNW), clauses per sentence (CPS), and/or words per sentence (WPS) demonstrated age-related changes in children with typically developing language, aged 7;0–10;11 (years;months). Method Participants were 132 typically developing children (aged 7;0–10;11), with a final sample size of 112 participants (57 boys and 55 girls). Fifty utterance conversational language samples were collected using a language sampling protocol. Four language sample analysis metrics (i.e., MLU S , TNW, CPS, and WPS) were calculated from the samples. Results Results indicated statistically significant age-related increases in three (MLU S , TNW, and WPS) of the four metrics. Conclusions MLU S , TNW, CPS, and WPS may be used with other assessment data to document age-related language changes in children aged 7;0–10;11. When combined with previous data from younger (aged 3;0–7;11) children (Pavelko & Owens, 2017), the data suggest that these metrics offer a set of measures that can be used to assess children's conversational language skills from preschool through late elementary school.

“Undating” and “Quarter Ponies”: Comparing the Use of Derived Words and Compounds Across Discourse Types and Age Groups

Purpose Derivational morphology and compounds are important aspects of academic vocabulary. However, investigation of the development of expressive derivational and compound morphology using language sampling is sparse. This cross-sectional study used three types of language samples to investigate quantitative and qualitative changes in the spontaneous production of derived words and compounds in early and late elementary–age children as a function of age and discourse type. Method Twenty-three children in two age groups (early elementary, n = 12; late elementary, n = 11) participated. Three types of language samples were elicited: conversational (10-min conversation with an adult examiner), narrative (“I tell–you tell” narrative with single picture stimulus combined with a story stem narrative), and expository (explanation of how to play a favorite game or sport with text-based topic prompts). Language samples were transcribed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (Miller & Chapman, 2012) conventions with the addition of researcher-created codes to identify derived words and compounds. Quantitative measures (number of derived words, different derived words, number of compounds, and different compounds) were calculated as percentages of total words or number of different words to control for differing sample length. The types of derivational morphemes and compounds produced by children in each age group were listed and qualitatively analyzed for evidence of a sequential development of specific morpheme types, variation in complexity, and productivity. Results Developmental change in quantitative and qualitative measures of derivational and compound morphology was evident across early and late elementary–age children in the language samples. Lists of derived words and compounds produced provided a rich source for analyzing developmental patterns in expressive morphology. Conversational and, to a lesser extent, expository discourse generated the greatest number and diversity of multimorphemic words. Conclusions This research provided new insights into academic vocabulary development in elementary school–age children. The clinical usefulness of language sampling to quantitatively and qualitatively assess derivational morphology and compounds was demonstrated. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12170373

How Adolescents Interpret the Moral Messages of Fables: Examining the Development of Critical Thinking

Purpose Critical thinking pervades formal educational benchmarks in the United States, including the Common Core State Standards. However, little information is available on how it develops. Hence, the primary purpose of this study was to examine the development of critical thinking in adolescents using a written language-sampling task. We also examined related aspects of development: verbal productivity, syntactic complexity, and metacognitive verb use. Method The participants included two groups of adolescents, aged 13 and 16 years ( n = 40 per group). All testing took place in classrooms at a middle school or high school. Participants read four fables by the Greek storyteller Aesop (circa 620–560 B.C.) and explained in writing why they agreed or disagreed with the moral message of each story. To examine critical thinking, we evaluated their explanations using a unique 0- to 4-point scoring system. We also examined each participant's transcript for verbal productivity, syntactic complexity, and metacognitive verb use. Results On the critical thinking task, the 16-year-olds outperformed the 13-year-olds, providing explanations that were more elaborate and detailed. However, there were many individual differences within groups, and even the older group did not consistently perform at the highest level, indicating that critical thinking is a late-developing ability. Age-related gains also occurred on verbal productivity and metacognitive verb use but not on syntactic complexity. Conclusion Information gleaned from this study demonstrates how critical thinking develops during adolescence but remains incomplete. The study also has implications for assessing critical thinking in adolescents and knowing how to prompt complex language and thought. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12100989