Linguistics and language therapy: the sentence construction board

This paper describes the use of an apparatus called the sentence construction board (SCB) to facilitate therapy involving sentence structure. The SCB was developed from basic linguistic principles and from Fitzgerald’s method for teaching language to deaf children. Several authors have suggested use of structural linguistics and transformational grammar to guide the selection of syntactic patterns in language therapy. Therapy should progress from using simple structures such as kernel sentences to using minor and major transformations. Fitzgerald’s method employed key words and symbols to represent grammatical classes and to be arranged according to syntactic rules. The SCB contains lights that are employed as symbols for grammatical classes. The light symbols and key words may be arranged to depict kernel structures and different transformations. The SCB is intended to assist a patient in constructing standard or nonstandard English sentences in response to simple pictures. It may be applied in therapy for a variety of language pathologies, including training hard-of-hearing children and retraining aphasic adults. It may also be helpful in teaching English as a second language or dialect. The SCB also shows that linguistic theory can have practical consequences for the language clinician.

Employing paraprofessional teachers in a group language training program for severely and profoundly retarded children

A study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly developed language training program particularly suited for the severely retarded. Designed for use with non-professional staff acting as teachers, the program contains (1) a simplified introduction to operant and modeling procedures, (2) detailed lesson plans, (3) necessary materials, and (4) instructions for testing and evaluation. Institutionalized children classified as severely and profoundly retarded were pretested and assigned to four groups, based on pretest scores. Pairs of children were matched within each group according to pretest performance, language equivalence scores, mental classification, age, sex, race, and behavior problems. One member of each matched pair was then randomly designated an experimental or control child. The experimental groups received 2 mo. of language training (each group comprising one class), with two psychiatric aides conducting all activities. As training was completed, all children were posttested. Comparison of pre- and posttest performances indicated clear treatment effects, demonstrating the potential for wide-spread institutional use of such programs.

A pilot training program for parent-clinicians

Four mothers of children with a variety of communication disorders received training in behavior change techniques at a two-day workshop. The goal was to teach the mothers to use a specific instructional approach which involved an antecedent-behavior-consequence paradigm. For each case, specific child and parental behaviors were determined by a speech pathologist. Follow-up was accomplished by mail and telephone contact. Positive changes occurred in three of the four children over a two- to three-month period. Such an approach should be useful where speech pathology services are limited or where daily treatment is required.

A phonological analysis of the spontaneous language of a four-year-old, hard-of-hearing child

This paper presents a linguistic analysis of the phonological system of a four-year-old, hard-of-hearing girl. The purpose is to clarify what phonological structures the child used and thereby to demonstrate the efficacy of a linguistic analysis. The phonetic structure of nonintelligible utterances was analyzed separately from the phonemic analysis of the intelligible, or so-called comparative, data. For the latter, specific phonemes were termed “fairly well established” when the child used a number of appropriate allophones, although these same allophones may have appeared in other classes, and “not established” when allophones were not appropriately used. This categorized the state of the child’s phonemic development. For example, in manner of articulation only the stop/resonant contrast was present; in place of articulation, only the gross labial/nonlabial distinction was consistent. An important discovery from the noncomparative data was that [w] and [?] were used as coarse phonetic representatives of possible syllabic or syntactic configurations. Therapy is suggested for more firmly establishing stop/resonant contrasts, teaching the concept of frication, and encouraging further development of primitive linguistic stages.

The nonverbal child: some clinical guidelines

This article describes some principles and procedures related to language training for nonverbal children. Reinforcement theory is discussed and illustrative cases are presented. Emphasis is on the application of an experimental approach to the modification of language behavior. The role of recent research in language acquisition as well as the relationship of the language training to the social environment is questioned and discussed.

Bases of decision in language training

When selecting grammatical structures to use as language development goals in training language-disordered children, the language clinician may refer to various theoretical approaches. Six bases of decision for language training, each following from differing theoretical approaches, are discussed and reviewed: (1) the structural complexity basis, (2) the developmental language basis, (3) the perceptual strategy basis, (4) the mean-length-of-utterance basis, (5) the cognitive basis, and (6) the dialectal basis. Of these possible bases of decision, the developmental language basis, the cognitive basis, the perceptual strategy basis, and the dialectal basis appear to suggest the most useful guidelines for sequences in language training. The language clinician may be able to organize his training program more effectively by recognizing the theoretical bases from which his decisions arise.

The expanding responsibilities of the speech and hearing clinician in the public schools

The expanding responsibilities of the speech and hearing clinician in the public schools are discussed within the framework of (1) his role in defining his own educational responsibilities; (2) the emerging duties of the resource, remedial, and learning disability teachers and speech and hearing clinicians, and educational implications; (3) the traditional role of the sensory-motor technician as contrasted to his emerging role as a specialist in communication disorders; (4) evaluating and remediating communication and achievement problems with regard to channels, processes, and levels of communication; (5) important guidelines for planning remedial activities; (6) defining responsibilities for a team approach; (7) his responsibilities toward a speech improvement program in the classroom; and (8) the necessity for him to expand his role from that of a sensory-motor technician to that of a specialist in the area of communication disorders.

Token loss in speech imitation training

The use of tokens as positive reinforcers for correct responses and no consequences for incorrect responses was compared with the use of tokens contingent upon correct responses and loss of tokens contingent on incorrect responses. Two magnitudes of token gain to token loss were also compared: (1) three tokens were given for a correct response and one token removed for an incorrect response; (2) one token was given for a correct response and one was removed for an incorrect response. The subjects were a six-year-old child with delayed language development and a seven-year-old with an articulation problem. Training items consisted of the verbal imitation of words. Results indicated that the no-token-loss condition was more effective in decreasing incorrect responses than either magnitude of token loss. Results of the two token-loss procedures indicated, however, that their effectiveness is partly determined by the ratio of tokens gained to tokens lost. It is concluded that token loss could be effective but that related variables should be carefully examined.

Developmental sentence scoring: a clinical procedure for estimating syntactic development in children's spontaneous speech

Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) is a clinical procedure for estimating the status and progress of children enrolled for language training in a clinic. It is based upon a developmental scale of syntax acquisition. By analyzing a child’s spontaneous, tape-recorded speech sample, a clinician can estimate to what extent the child has generalized the grammatical rules sufficiently to use them in verbal performance. With such a guide the clinician can plan lessons which present these structures in a presumably developmental sequence, thereby introducing grammatical complexity in systematically graded steps. The DSS procedure gives weighted scores to a developmental order of pronouns, verbs, negatives, conjunctions, yes-no questions, and wh-questions. The mean score per sentence estimates the child’s ability to formulate sentences with a high grammatical “load.” The DSS procedure was carried out on 80 boys and 80 girls, ages 3 years, 0 months, to 6 years, 11 months, equally distributed within six-month age groups, all coming from middle-income, standard dialect homes, and all scoring between 85 and 115 on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Percentiles of DSS scores for these 160 normal children provide guidelines for estimating the status and rate of progress of children treated in a clinic.