Language Performance of Low-Income African American and European American Preschool Children on the PPVT–III

African American Preschoolers' Performance on Norm-Referenced Language Assessments: Examining the Effect of Dialect Density and the Use of Scoring Modifications

PURPOSE

We investigated and compared the outcomes from two standardized, norm-referenced screening assessments of language (i.e., Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-Second Edition [CELFP-2], Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test [DELV-ST]) with African American preschoolers whose spoken dialect differed from that of General American English (GAE). We (a) described preschoolers' performance on the CELFP-2 Core Language Index (CLI) and its subtests with consideration of degree of dialect variation (DVAR) observed, (b) investigated how the application of dialect-sensitive scoring modifications to the expressive morphology and syntax Word Structure (WS) subtest affected CELFP-2 CLI scores, and (c) evaluated the screening classification agreement rates between the DELV-ST and the CELFP-2 CLI.

METHOD

African American preschoolers (N = 284) completed the CELFP-2 CLI subtests (i.e., Sentence Structure, WS, Expressive Vocabulary) and the DELV-ST. Density of spoken dialect use was estimated with the DELV-ST Part I Language Variation Status, and percentage of DVAR was calculated. The CELFP-2 WS subtest was scored with and without dialect-sensitive scoring modifications.

RESULTS

Planned comparisons of CELFP-2 CLI performance indicated statistically significant differences in performance based on DELV-ST-determined degree of language variation groupings. Scoring modifications applied to the WS subtest increased subtest scaled scores and CLI composite standard scores. However, preschoolers who demonstrated strong variation from GAE continued to demonstrate significantly lower performance than preschoolers who demonstrated little to no language variation. Affected-status agreement rates between assessments (modified and unmodified CELFP-2 CLI scores and DELV-ST Part II Diagnostic Risk Status) were extremely low.

CONCLUSIONS

The application of dialect-specific scoring modifications to standardized, norm-referenced assessments of language must be simultaneously viewed through the lenses of equity, practicality, and psychometry. The results of our multistage study reiterate the need for reliable methods of identifying risk for developmental language disorder within children who speak American English dialects other than GAE.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26017978.

Adversity Exposure, Syntax, and Specific Language Impairment: An Exploratory Study

PURPOSE

Children exposed to adversity (e.g., chronic poverty, traumatic events, and maltreatment) are at increased risk for performing below age expectations on norm-referenced language assessments, but it is unknown whether the risk is higher for specific language impairment (SLI). This exploratory study investigated whether adversity exposure is associated with reduced grammar knowledge and SLI.

METHOD

The syntax subtest of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Norm-Referenced (DELV-NR) assessment was administered to 30 school-age children with known histories of adversity exposure. Their primary caregiver also completed a comprehensive adversity exposure measure, which captured adverse event type, frequency, chronicity, and severity. Analyses included t tests, correlations, Mann-Whitney U tests, and chi-square.

RESULTS

Overall, the sample performed below age expectations on the DELV-NR Syntax subtest, and a higher percentage of participants (20%) met diagnostic criteria for SLI than expected. The SLI and typical language (TL) groups did not significantly differ in adversity dosage, frequency, chronicity, or severity; however, participants in the SLI group were 1.46 times more likely to have experienced physical trauma than the participants in the TL group.

CONCLUSIONS

Children with known histories of adversity exposure presented with grammatical deficits and SLI more often than expected based on the DELV-NR normative sample; however, features of the adverse event did not associate with SLI status except for exposure to physical trauma (e.g., physical abuse and victimization). Future research is needed to investigate the prevalence and potential causal pathways of SLI in this population.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20483706.

Validation of a Greek Sentence Repetition Task with Typically Developing Monolingual and Bilingual Children

This study provides a preliminary validation of a Greek Sentence Repetition Task (SRT) with a sample of 110 monolingual and bilingual typically developing (TLD) children and examines the test's ability to distinguish between Greek monolingual children and age-matched Albanian-Greek bilinguals using a Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis. This is the first study to report on the psychometric evaluation of a Greek SRT and its discriminatory ability with typical populations. Since most language assessments are standardized with monolinguals and bilingual children tend to underperform on these compared to monolinguals, it is essential to establish the level of bilingual TLD children's ability on the same tests before moving on to diagnose language impairment in bilinguals. Results showed that the Greek SRT had very high validity and reliability scores, with Accuracy measures being more reliable than Grammaticality measures. The school-age monolingual and bilingual TLD children reached different cut-off scores on this task.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Language Skills of Youth Offenders

PURPOSE

This systematic review and meta-analysis estimates the overall language skills of youth offenders involved with the juvenile justice system. Given the importance of this population, identifying avenues through which we can increase the likelihood of successful interventions is a necessary societal effort.

METHOD

Eighteen studies, representing data from 3,304 individuals, contributed 82 effect sizes to the current analytic sample. We used random-effects models to estimate the overall mean effect size metric to address each research question and fit meta-regression models for each moderator analysis.

RESULTS

Results yielded that youth offenders presented with significantly lower language skills than their nonoffending peers (g = -1.26). Furthermore, high proportions of the present meta-analytic sample were classified as youth with moderate (50%) and severe (10%) language disorders. In general, differences in language skills did not vary as a function of age, gender, or language measure type. We did detect significant differences as a function of sample country and type of peer comparison group.

CONCLUSIONS

This meta-analysis reports on the significantly compromised language skills of youth offenders. We conclude with a discussion of the findings and consideration of the implications for research and practice.

The Impact of SES on Language Domain in Kindergartners' Quick Interactive Language Screener (QUILS) Performance

METHOD

To explore the relationship between SES and language domain (vocabulary, syntax, process), the QUILS was administered to 212 kindergartners.

RESULTS

Children from very-high poverty schools performed significantly below children from high poverty and mid-low poverty schools.

IMPLICATIONS

SES impacts language-learning processes (i.e., fast mapping) in addition to language products (i.e., vocabulary, syntax).

Multilingual toddlers' vocabulary development in two languages: Comparing bilinguals and trilinguals

Many children grow up hearing multiple languages, learning words in each. How does the number of languages being learned affect multilinguals' vocabulary development? In a pre-registered study, we compared productive vocabularies of bilingual (n = 170) and trilingual (n = 20) toddlers aged 17-33 months growing up in a bilingual community where both French and English are spoken. We hypothesized that because trilinguals have reduced input in French and English due to time spent hearing their third language, they would have smaller French-English vocabulary sizes than bilinguals. Trilinguals produced on average 2/3 of the number of words in these languages that bilinguals did: however, this difference was not statistically robust due to large levels of variability. Follow-up analyses did, however, indicate a relationship between input quantity and vocabulary size. Our results indicate that similar factors contribute to vocabulary development across toddlers regardless of the number of languages being acquired.

The Contribution of Socioeconomic Status to Children's Performance on Three Grammatical Measures in the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative contribution of socioeconomic status (SES) on three grammatical measures-finite verb morphology composite (FVMC), percent grammatical utterances (PGU), and clausal density-in children between the ages of 4 and 9 years. Method Data for this study were from the normative sample in the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument. For 359 children, hierarchical linear regression was performed to evaluate the amount of variance in FVMC, PGU, and clausal density that was uniquely explained by SES after accounting for child chronological age and language status (typical, impaired). Results After child age and language status were controlled, SES was a significant predictor of PGU and clausal density scores, but not of FVMC scores. SES uniquely accounted for 0.5% of variance in PGU scores and 0.8% of variance in clausal density scores. Conclusions Consistent with maturational accounts of children's development of tense markers, results of this study offer evidence that, among grammatical measures, FVMC is uniquely robust to variation in SES. Although significant, the variance of PGU and clausal density scores uniquely accounted for by SES was close to minimum. Clinicians can therefore include these three grammatical measures for assessing children of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14810484.

Media exposure and language for toddlers from low-income homes

In the current study, we examined whether the quantity of toddlers' exposure to media was related to language skills and whether meeting the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations of limiting media exposure to one hour or less per day was related to language skills. We examined these associations in a sample of toddlers (N = 157) living in low-income homes. Toddlers were about two years of age (M = 28.44 months, SD = 1.48 months) during the first visit when parents reported on toddlers' exposure to media in the home. Toddlers were about three years of age (M = 33.61 months, SD = 1.06 months) during the second visit when direct measures of toddlers' expressive and receptive language and receptive vocabulary skills were completed. Controls were child gender, race, mothers' education, marital status, work status, and center-based child care. Results indicated that more frequent exposure to media was related to lower expressive language, but not receptive language or receptive vocabulary. The predictor of AAP recommendation was not significantly related to any child language outcomes. These results suggest that media exposure may be related to the displacement of language-enhancing activities during a critical time for toddlers' language development. However, the AAP media recommendation of one hour may not be related to language development.

Psychosocial deprivation and receptive language ability: a two-sample study

Background

The quality of early caregiving experiences is a known contributor to the quality of the language experiences young children receive. What is unknown is whether, and if so, how psychosocial deprivation early in life is associated with long-lasting receptive language outcomes.

Methods

Two prospective longitudinal studies examining early psychosocial deprivation/neglect in different contexts (i.e., deprivation due to institutional care or deprivation experienced by children residing within US families) and receptive language as assessed via the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) were used to assess the magnitude of these associations. First, 129 participants from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a randomized controlled trial of foster care as an alternative to institutional care in Romania, completed a receptive language assessment at age 18 years. Second, from the USA, 3342 participants from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study were assessed from infancy until middle childhood.

Results

Children exposed to early institutional care, on average, had lower receptive language scores than their never institutionalized counterparts in late adolescence. While randomization to an early foster care intervention had no long-lasting association with PPVT scores, the duration of childhood exposure to institutional care was negatively associated with receptive language. Psychosocial deprivation in US families was also negatively associated with receptive language longitudinally, and this association remained statistically significant even after accounting for measures of socioeconomic status.

Conclusion

Experiences of psychosocial deprivation may have long-lasting consequences for receptive language ability, extending to age 18 years. Psychosocial deprivation is an important prospective predictor of poorer receptive language.

Trial registration

Bucharest Early Intervention Project ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00747396

Survey of assessment and intervention practices for students who speak African American English

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) working with students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are encouraged to be "familiar with nondiscriminatory testing and dynamic assessment procedures" (ASHA, 2003). Little is known, however, about the extent to which SLPs implement these methods into their clinical practice. The current study explores the assessment and intervention practices used by SLPs in two states in the US for students who speak African American English (AAE), including the types and frequency of clinical practices. 247 SLPs completed an online survey regarding clinical practices for students who speak AAE as well as a questionnaire regarding their knowledge of the linguistic features of AAE. Half of SLPs reported using modified or alternative assessment practices the majority of the time or some of the time for students who speak AAE; however, SLPs reported using modified or alternative treatment practices less often. Modified scoring of standardized assessments and selecting different intervention strategies were the most commonly reported clinical practices. Knowledge of linguistic features of AAE was a significant predictor of the frequency with which SLPs report implementing modified or alternative assessment and intervention practices and SLPs with the highest levels of knowledge of AAE utilize different clinical practices than those with lower levels of knowledge of AAE. Additional information is needed about the most effective clinical practices for students who speak AAE and the barriers SLPs face to implementing nondiscriminatory clinical practices.

Comparing Word Characteristic Effects on Vocabulary of Children with Cochlear Implants

Many studies have evaluated overall vocabulary knowledge of children who use cochlear implants, but there has been minimal focus on how word form characteristics affect this knowledge. This study evaluates the effects of neighborhood density and phonotactic probability on the expressive vocabulary of 81 children between five and seven years old (n = 27 cochlear implant users, n = 27 children matched for chronological age, and n = 27 children matched for vocabulary size). Children were asked to name pictures associated with words that have common and rare phonotactic probability and high and sparse neighborhood density. Results indicate that children with cochlear implants, similar to both groups of children with typical hearing, tend to know words with common probability/high density or with rare probability/ sparse density. Patterns of word knowledge for children with cochlear implants mirrored younger children matched for vocabulary size rather than age-matched children with typical hearing.

An examination of cultural-linguistic influences on PPVT-4 performance in African American and Hispanic preschoolers from low-income communities

In this study, we examined potential influences of cultural and linguistic background on PPVT-4 performance in a community sample of preschool-age children from low-SES households. We did this by evaluating PPVT-4 item-level performance across African American and Hispanic children from low-income families. We compared PPVT-4 item-level performance for 332 Hispanic and African American children (M_age = 48 months) using Wald chi-square tests of independence. There were clinically significant differences in accuracy on 14 PPVT-4 test items with most favouring the African American group. We then looked at the relationship between African American English use and PPVT-4 scores for a subset of 113 African American children (M_age = 49.9 months). A correlational analysis with PPVT-4 standard scores and a dialect density measure (DDM) in narratives revealed no association between these measures. We concluded that there were potential cultural-linguistic biases in PPVT-4 items that were not explained by income alone for the young Hispanic children.

Communicative Function Use of Preschoolers and Mothers From Differing Racial and Socioeconomic Groups

Purpose

This study explores whether communicative function (CF: reasons for communicating) use differs by socioeconomic status (SES), race/ethnicity, or gender among preschoolers and their mothers.

Method

Mother-preschooler dyads (N = 95) from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's (2005) study of family and social environments were observed during 1 structured learning and free-play interaction. CFs were coded by trained independent raters.

Results

Children used all CFs at similar rates, but those from low SES homes produced fewer utterances and less reasoning, whereas boys used less self-maintaining and more predicting. African American mothers produced more directing and less responding than European American and Latino American mothers, and Latino American mothers produced more utterances than European American mothers. Mothers from low SES homes did more directing and less responding.

Conclusions

Mothers exhibited more sociocultural differences in CFs than children; this suggests that maternal demographic characteristics may influence CF production more than child demographics at school entry. Children from low SES homes talking less and boys producing less self-maintaining coincided with patterns previously detected in pragmatic literature. Overall, preschoolers from racial/ethnic minority and low SES homes were not less deft with CF usage, which may inform how their pragmatic skills are described.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5890255.

False Belief Development in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing Compared With Peers With Normal Hearing

PURPOSE

This study investigates false belief (FB) understanding in children who are hard of hearing (CHH) compared with children with normal hearing (CNH) at ages 5 and 6 years and at 2nd grade. Research with this population has theoretical significance, given that the early auditory-linguistic experiences of CHH are less restricted compared with children who are deaf but not as complete as those of CNH.

METHOD

Participants included CHH and CNH who had completed FB tasks as part of a larger multicenter, longitudinal study on outcomes of children with mild-to-severe hearing loss. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal data were analyzed.

RESULTS

At age 5 years, CHH demonstrated significant delays in FB understanding relative to CNH. Both hearing status and spoken-language abilities contributed to FB performance in 5-year-olds. A subgroup of CHH showed protracted delays at 6 years, suggesting that some CHH are at risk for longer term delays in FB understanding. By 2nd grade, performance on 1st- and 2nd-order FBs did not differ between CHH and CNH.

CONCLUSIONS

Preschool-age CHH are at risk for delays in understanding others' beliefs, which has consequences for their social interactions and pragmatic communication. Research related to FB in children with hearing loss has the potential to inform our understanding of mechanisms that support social-cognitive development, including the roles of language and conversational access.

How Does L1 and L2 Exposure Impact L1 Performance in Bilingual Children? Evidence from Polish-English Migrants to the United Kingdom

Most studies on bilingual language development focus on children's second language (L2). Here, we investigated first language (L1) development of Polish-English early migrant bilinguals in four domains: vocabulary, grammar, phonological processing, and discourse. We first compared Polish language skills between bilinguals and their Polish non-migrant monolingual peers, and then investigated the influence of the cumulative exposure to L1 and L2 on bilinguals' performance. We then examined whether high exposure to L1 could possibly minimize the gap between monolinguals and bilinguals. We analyzed data from 233 typically developing children (88 bilingual and 145 monolingual) aged 4;0 to 7;5 (years;months) on six language measures in Polish: receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary, receptive grammar, productive grammar (sentence repetition), phonological processing (non-word repetition), and discourse abilities (narration). Information about language exposure was obtained via parental questionnaires. For each language task, we analyzed the data from the subsample of bilinguals who had completed all the tasks in question and from monolinguals matched one-on-one to the bilingual group on age, SES (measured by years of mother's education), gender, non-verbal IQ, and short-term memory. The bilingual children scored lower than monolinguals in all language domains, except discourse. The group differences were more pronounced on the productive tasks (vocabulary, grammar, and phonological processing) and moderate on the receptive tasks (vocabulary and grammar). L1 exposure correlated positively with the vocabulary size and phonological processing. Grammar scores were not related to the levels of L1 exposure, but were predicted by general cognitive abilities. L2 exposure negatively influenced productive grammar in L1, suggesting possible L2 transfer effects on L1 grammatical performance. Children's narrative skills benefitted from exposure to two languages: both L1 and L2 exposure influenced story structure scores in L1. Importantly, we did not find any evidence (in any of the tasks in which the gap was present) that the performance gap between monolinguals and bilinguals could be fully closed with high amounts of L1 input.

Independent and Combined Effects of Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Bilingualism on Children's Vocabulary and Verbal Short-Term Memory

The current study explores the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism on the linguistic skills and verbal short-term memory of preschool children. In previous studies comparing children of low and mid-high SES, the terms “a child with low-SES” and “a child speaking a minority language” are often interchangeable, not enabling differentiated evaluation of these two variables. The present study controls for this confluence by testing children born and residing in the same country and attending the same kindergartens, with all bilingual children speaking the same heritage language (HL-Russian). A total of 120 children (88 bilingual children: 44 with low SES; and 32 monolingual children: 16 with low SES) with typical language development, aged 5; 7–6; 7, were tested in the societal language (SL-Hebrew) on expressive vocabulary and three repetition tasks [forward digit span (FWD), nonword repetition (NWR), and sentence repetition (SRep)], which tap into verbal short-term memory. The results indicated that SES and bilingualism impact different child abilities. Bilingualism is associated with decreased vocabulary size and lower performance on verbal short-term memory tasks with higher linguistic load in the SL-Hebrew. The negative effect of bilingualism on verbal short-term memory disappears once vocabulary is accounted for. SES influences not only linguistic performance, but also verbal short-term memory with lowest linguistic load. The negative effect of SES cannot be solely attributed to lower vocabulary scores, suggesting that an unprivileged background has a negative impact on children’s cognitive development beyond a linguistic disadvantage. The results have important clinical implications and call for more research exploring the varied impact of language and life experience on children’s linguistic and cognitive skills.

Measuring Explicit Word Learning of Preschool Children: A Development Study

PURPOSE

The purpose of this article is to present preliminary results related to the development of a new measure of explicit word learning. The measure incorporated elements of explicit vocabulary instruction and dynamic assessment and was designed to be sensitive to differences in word learning skill and to be feasible for use in clinical settings.

METHOD

The explicit word learning measure included brief teaching trials and repeated fine-grained measurement of semantic knowledge and production of 3 novel words (2 verbs and 1 adjective). Preschool children (N = 23) completed the measure of explicit word learning; standardized, norm-referenced measures of expressive and receptive vocabulary; and an incidental word learning task.

RESULTS

The measure of explicit word learning provided meaningful information about word learning. Performance on the explicit measure was related to existing vocabulary knowledge and incidental word learning.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this development study indicate that further examination of the measure of explicit word learning is warranted. The measure may have the potential to identify children who are poor word learners.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5170738.

Reporting of Socioeconomic Status in Pediatric Language Research

PURPOSE

This study examined language-focused research articles published in 3 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association journals to: (a) determine the proportion that reported the socioeconomic status (SES) of pediatric participants and (b) identify the indicators used to represent SES in these articles.

METHOD

Researchers reviewed articles published from 2000-2015 in Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, and the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (language section) that involved pediatric participants and focused on language development, as well as on assessment and intervention for language disorders.

RESULTS

For the 3 journals combined, 417 out of the total 652 (64%) pediatric language articles reported SES of the participants. Over the 16-year period there was an increase in SES reporting of 31.8% (55.6% to 73.3%). The types of SES indicators used represented education, income, and occupation.

CONCLUSION

Although SES reporting for pediatric participants in language-based studies increased over the 16-year period examined, over 1 quarter of studies published in the 3 journals combined still do not report SES. This is a concern. When determining the generalizability of research findings to specific children, it is important for speech-language pathologists to be able to identify the SES background of research participants.

Language Assessment With Children Who Speak Nonmainstream Dialects: Examining the Effects of Scoring Modifications in Norm-Referenced Assessment

Purpose

We compared outcomes from 2 measures of language ability in children who displayed a range of dialect variation: 1 using features that do not contrast between mainstream American English (MAE) and nonmainstream dialects (NMAE), and 1 using contrastive features. We investigated how modified scoring procedures affected the diagnostic accuracy of the measure with contrastive features.

Method

Second-grade students (N = 299; 167 White, 106 African American, 26 other) completed measures of language variation and ability (the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition [CELF-4]). The CELF-4 was scored with and without the recommended scoring modifications for children who spoke African American English.

Results

Partial correlations controlling for socioeconomic status revealed small to moderate correlations between measures of language ability and the use of NMAE features. Modified scoring yielded higher scores for children who spoke African American English and a reduced association between the use of NMAE features and CELF-4 scores. Modified scoring also affected the diagnostic accuracy of the CELF-4, resulting in a lower positive likelihood ratio and a higher negative likelihood ratio.

Conclusions

The decision to apply scoring modifications affects both the false positive and false negative rates. Implications for language assessment for children who speak NMAE dialects are discussed, including the need for further investigation.

Does Rare Vocabulary Use Distinguish Giftedness From Typical Development? A Study of School-Age African American Narrators

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine rare vocabulary produced in the spoken narratives of school-age African American children.

METHOD

Forty-three children from general and gifted classrooms produced 2 narratives: a personal story and a fictional story that was based on the wordless book Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969). The Wordlist for Expressive Rare Vocabulary Evaluation (Mahurin-Smith, DeThorne, & Petrill, 2015) was used to tally number and type of uncommon words produced in these narratives. The authors used t tests and logistic regressions to explore classroom- and narrative-type differences in rare vocabulary production. Correlational analysis determined the relationship between dialect variation and rare vocabulary production.

RESULTS

Findings indicated that tallies of rare-word types were higher in fictional narratives, whereas rare-word density-a measure that controls for narrative length-was greater in personal narratives. Rare-word density distinguished children in general classrooms from those in gifted classrooms. There was no correlation between dialect variation and rare-word density.

CONCLUSION

Examining school-age African American children's facility with rare vocabulary production appears to be a dialect-neutral way to measure their narrative language and to distinguish gifted children from typically developing children.

Effects of the ABC Intervention on Foster Children's Receptive Vocabulary: Follow-Up Results From a Randomized Clinical Trial

Children with histories of maltreatment and disruptions in care are at elevated risk for impairments in early language development, which contribute to difficulties in other developmental domains across childhood. Given research demonstrating associations between parent responsiveness and children's early language development, we examined whether a parenting intervention administered in infancy improved preschool receptive language skills in children involved with the child welfare system. Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) is a 10-session intervention that aims to enhance parent-child interactions. The follow-up results of this randomized clinical trial demonstrated that infants who received the ABC intervention ( n = 24) scored significantly higher on a test of receptive vocabulary at age 36 months than infants who received a control intervention ( n = 28). These results provide evidence of the critical role of parental responsiveness in supporting optimal language development among young children with histories of child welfare involvement.

Validating the Use of D for Measuring Lexical Diversity in Low-Income Kindergarten Children

Purpose

Children from low–socioeconomic status families often perform poorly on standardized vocabulary assessments. The primary purpose of the study was to determine whether lexical diversity as measured by D (Malvern, Richards, Chipere, & Durán, 2004) serves as a valid measure of vocabulary in at-risk, low-income, predominantly African American kindergartners.

Method

Kane's (1992) argument-based approach was used to validate D. Six assumptions were examined. Kindergartners ( N = 210) from a high-poverty, low-achievement region of the United States were recorded narrating a wordless picture book and assessed using the Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition (Williams, 2007), and the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Second Edition–Listening Comprehension subtest (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004).

Results

D was distributed normally and did not vary as a function of language sample length or child ethnicity. D was significantly but weakly related to the Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition, indicating some distinction between D and the Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition, scores. Further, D was only marginally related to the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Second Edition–Listening Comprehension subtest.

Conclusions

Although evidence was somewhat mixed, the study supported the view that D is a potentially valid measure of lexical diversity among low-income, predominantly African American kindergartners and could be a useful supplement to standardized vocabulary measures.

Embedded Instruction Improves Vocabulary Learning During Automated Storybook Reading Among High-Risk Preschoolers

PURPOSE

We investigated a small-group intervention designed to teach vocabulary and comprehension skills to preschoolers who were at risk for language and reading disabilities. These language skills are important and reliable predictors of later academic achievement.

METHOD

Preschoolers heard prerecorded stories 3 times per week over the course of a school year. A cluster randomized design was used to evaluate the effects of hearing storybooks with and without embedded vocabulary and comprehension lessons. A total of 32 classrooms were randomly assigned to experimental and comparison conditions. Approximately 6 children per classroom demonstrating low vocabulary knowledge, totaling 195 children, were enrolled.

RESULTS

Preschoolers in the comparison condition did not learn novel, challenging vocabulary words to which they were exposed in story contexts, whereas preschoolers receiving embedded lessons demonstrated significant learning gains, although vocabulary learning diminished over the course of the school year. Modest gains in comprehension skills did not differ between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

The Story Friends curriculum appears to be highly feasible for delivery in early childhood educational settings and effective at teaching challenging vocabulary to high-risk preschoolers.

Vocabulary Knowledge of Children With Cochlear Implants: A Meta-Analysis

This article employs meta-analysis procedures to evaluate whether children with cochlear implants demonstrate lower spoken-language vocabulary knowledge than peers with normal hearing. Of the 754 articles screened and 52 articles coded, 12 articles met predetermined inclusion criteria (with an additional 5 included for one analysis). Effect sizes were calculated for relevant studies and forest plots were used to compare differences between groups of children with normal hearing and children with cochlear implants. Weighted effect size averages for expressive vocabulary measures (g = -11.99; p < .001) and for receptive vocabulary measures (g = -20.33; p < .001) indicated that children with cochlear implants demonstrate lower vocabulary knowledge than children with normal hearing. Additional analyses confirmed the value of comparing vocabulary knowledge of children with hearing loss to a tightly matched (e.g., socioeconomic status-matched) sample. Age of implantation, duration of implantation, and chronological age at testing were not significantly related to magnitude of weighted effect size. Findings from this analysis represent a first step toward resolving discrepancies in the vocabulary knowledge literature.

Dialect variation, dialect-shifting, and reading comprehension in second grade

The purpose of this study was to examine second graders' (n=680) changing spoken nonmainstream American English (NMAE) use in relation to their oral language and reading comprehension achievement. Fall NMAE production was negatively associated with fall achievement scores. NMAE production generally decreased from fall to spring. Students who qualified for the US Free and Reduced Lunch program (FARL) and who had stronger language skills were more likely to decrease their NMAE use (i.e., dialect shifting) than their peers who did not qualify for FARL or their peers with weaker language skills. Dialect shifting for a sub-sample of 102 students who used substantial amounts of NMAE at the beginning of the school year was predicted by school context, controlling for reading and language skills - in general, students who attended more affluent schools dialect shifted to a greater extent than did their peers who attended higher poverty schools. Greater dialect shifting in this group predicted gains in reading comprehension from fall to spring.

The role of nonverbal working memory in morphosyntactic processing by school-aged monolingual and bilingual children

The current study examined the relationship between nonverbal working memory and morphosyntactic processing in monolingual native speakers of English and bilingual speakers of English and Spanish. We tested 42 monolingual children and 42 bilingual children between the ages of 8 and 10years matched on age and nonverbal IQ. Children were administered an auditory Grammaticality Judgment task in English to measure morphosyntactic processing and a visual N-Back task and Corsi Blocks task to measure nonverbal working memory capacity. Analyses revealed that monolinguals were more sensitive to English morphosyntactic information than bilinguals, but the groups did not differ in reaction times or response bias. Furthermore, higher nonverbal working memory capacity was associated with greater sensitivity to morphosyntactic violations in bilinguals but not in monolinguals. The findings suggest that nonverbal working memory skills link more tightly to syntactic processing in populations with lower levels of language knowledge.

"So we would all help pitch in:" The family literacy practices of low-income African American mothers of preschoolers

The development of emergent literacy skills are important for the development of later literacy competencies and affect school readiness. Quantitative researchers document race- and social class-based disparities in emergent literacy competence between low-income African American and middle-income White children. Some researchers suggest that deficits in parenting practices account for limited literacy skills among low-income African American children. A small body of qualitative research on low-income African American families finds that despite economic challenges, some African American families were actively engaged in promoting child literacy development. Using qualitative interviews that emphasize family strengths, we add to this small body of research to highlight positive family practices obscured in many quantitative analyses that concentrate on family shortcomings. Specifically, we examine in-home literacy practices and child literacy development with a sample of low-income African American mothers (families) of preschoolers. Key findings include identification of various literacy activities promoting child literacy development and inclusion of multiple family members assisting in literacy activities. These findings add to substantive discussions of emergent literacy and resilience. Insights from the qualitative interviews also provide culturally-sensitive recommendations to childhood educators and speech-language pathologists (SLP) who work with low-income African American families and children.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Reader should recognize that (1) there is not a 'right' phenotype and therefore not a right form of environmental input and (2) that context matters (at both the level of the cell and the individual organism).

The influence of two cognitive-linguistic variables on incidental word learning in 5-year-olds

The relation between incidental word learning and two cognitive-linguistic variables--phonological memory and phonological awareness--is not fully understood. Thirty-five typically developing, 5-year-old, preschool children participated in a study examining the association between phonological memory, phonological awareness, and incidental word learning. Children were exposed to target words in a read-aloud story that accompanied a wordless picture book. Target word comprehension was assessed before and after two readings of the story. Phonological awareness predicted incidental word learning but phonological memory did not. The influence of phonological awareness and phonological memory on word learning may be dependent on the demands of the word learning task.

Independent effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on language ability and executive functioning

One hundred and seventy-five children who were 6-years old were assigned to one of four groups that differed in socioeconomic status (SES; working class or middle class) and language background (monolingual or bilingual). The children completed tests of nonverbal intelligence, language tests assessing receptive vocabulary and attention based on picture naming, and two tests of executive functioning. All children performed equivalently on the basic intelligence tests, but performance on the language and executive functioning tasks was influenced by both SES and bilingualism. Middle-class children outperformed working-class children on all measures, and bilingual children obtained lower scores than monolingual children on language tests but higher scores than monolingual children on the executive functioning tasks. There were no interactions with either group factors or task factors. Thus, each of SES and bilingualism contribute significantly and independently to children's development irrespective of the child's level on the other factor.

Investigating the interchangeability and diagnostic utility of the PPVT-III and PPVT-IV for children with and without SLI

The receptive vocabulary performance of pre-school children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically-developing (TD) controls was compared on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test third and fourth edition (PPVT-III and PPVT-IV) to determine consistency in performance and the effect of test revision on identification of impairment. Participants included 40 pre-school children with SLI and 40 controls. Tests were administered in counterbalanced order. Despite a strong relationship between performance on these two tests (p < 0.001), 35% of children performed differently between the two test versions. Children with SLI performed significantly worse than TD children on both tests (p < 0.001). Discriminate analyses identified an optimal standard score cut-off of 103 for both tests. Using this cut-off, sensitivity remained consistent at 80% (95% CI = 0.64-0.90), while specificity was 75% (95% CI = 0.59-0.87) on the PPVT-III and 70% (95% CI = 0.53-0.83) on the PPVT-IV. The results suggest that the two tests do not appear to be interchangeable for more than 1/3rd of children. The findings also highlight the misperception that newer test versions are superior to older in identifying presence or absence of language impairment. Children with SLI are unlikely to score low on these commonly used receptive vocabulary tests, despite known deficits of children with SLI in the area of vocabulary acquisition. Possible explanations for why children with SLI score well on these types of tests will be discussed.

Socioeconomic status, parental education, vocabulary and language skills of children who stutter

PURPOSE

The purpose of this project was to investigate the possible relation between standardized measures of vocabulary/language, mother and father education, and a composite measure of socioeconomic status (SES) for children who do not stutter (CWNS) and children who stutter (CWS).

METHODS

Participants were 138 CWNS and 159 CWS between the ages of 2;6 and 6;3 and their families. The Hollingshead Four Factor Index of Social Position (i.e., Family SES) was used to calculate SES based on a composite score consisting of weighted values for paternal and maternal education and occupation. Statistical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relation between parental education and language and vocabulary scores for both the CWNS and CWS. Correlations were calculated between parent education, Family SES, and stuttering severity (e.g., SSI-3 score, % words stuttered).

RESULTS

Results indicated that maternal education contributed the greatest amount of variance in vocabulary and language scores for the CWNS and for participants from both groups whose Family SES was in the lowest quartile of the distribution. However, paternal education generally contributed the greatest amount of variance in vocabulary and language scores for the CWS. Higher levels of maternal education were associated with more severe stuttering in the CWS.

CONCLUSION

Results are generally consistent with existing literature on normal language development that indicates maternal education is a robust predictor of the vocabulary and language skills of preschool children. Thus, both father and mothers' education may impact the association between vocabulary/language skills and childhood stuttering, leading investigators who empirically study this association to possibly re-assess their participant selection (e.g., a priori control of parental education) and/or data analyses (e.g., post hoc covariation of parental education).

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The reader will be able to: (a) describe the influence of socioeconomic status on the development of vocabulary and language for children who do and do not stutter; (b) discuss the contribution of maternal education on vocabulary and language development; (c) describe possible reasons why paternal education contributes in unique ways to the vocabulary and language development of children who stutter as well as stuttering severity; and (d) explain possible reasons why socioeconomic status is an important variable for describing language related findings in young children.

Socio-economic status and language acquisition: children's performance on the new Reynell Developmental Language Scales

BACKGROUND

Several studies in recent years have indicated a link between socio-economic status (SES) of families and children's language development, including studies that have measured children's language through formal standardized test procedures. High numbers of children with low performance have been found in lower socio-economic groups in some studies. This has proved a cause for concern for both clinicians and educationalists.

AIMS

To investigate the relationship between maternal education and postcode-related indicators of SES, and children's performance on the New Reynell Developmental Scales (NRDLS).

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Participants were 1266 children aged between 2;00 and 7;06 years who were recruited for the standardization of a new assessment procedure (NRDLS). Children were divided into four groups reflecting years of maternal education, and five groups reflecting SES Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) quintiles for the location of participating schools and nurseries. Groups were compared using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with age as a covariate, in order to identify which might be affected by the two SES variables. Where relationships were found between SES and performance on the scales, individual children's standard scores were looked at to determine numbers potentially at risk for language delay.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

An effect of years of maternal education on performance was found such that children whose mothers had minimum years performed less well than other children in the study, this effect being stronger for younger children. Children attending schools or nurseries in IMD quintile 1 areas performed less well in language production. Higher than expected numbers with language delay were found for younger children whose mothers had minimum years of education, and for children in quintile 1 schools and nurseries; however, numbers were not as high as noted in some other studies.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Characteristics of the participant sample and measures used for language and SES may explain these results and are important considerations when interpreting results of studies or developing policies for intervention. The usefulness of commonly used categories of language delay is questioned.

Toward validation of a minimal competence core of morphosyntax for African American children

PURPOSE

The authors set out to determine (a) whether African American children's spontaneous spoken language met use criteria for a revised minimal competence core with original and added morphosyntactic patterns at different geographical locations, and (b) whether pass/fail status on this core was differentiated on other criterion measures of language maturity.

METHOD

The authors used a common set of activities and stimuli to elicit spontaneous speech samples from Head Start students, age 3;0 (years; months). The 119 participants were distributed at a northern (Lansing, MI) and a southern (Baton Rouge, LA) location.

RESULTS

More than 80% of the children at each location met criteria for 10 core competencies. They included sentence length, type, complexity, and morphosyntactic elaborations of sentences at the lexical, phrasal, and clausal levels. The 2 most significant predictors of pass/fail outcomes in a regression analysis were (a) clinical referral status and (b) the number of different words (NDW(100)) spoken in a speech sample.

CONCLUSION

A minimal competence core analyses of spontaneous oral language samples may help to identify delayed spoken grammars in African American children.

An examination of fast mapping skills in preschool children from families with low socioeconomic status

Researchers consistently report that children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families have, on average, smaller vocabularies as assessed by measures of existing vocabulary knowledge than children from higher SES families. Yet, few studies have examined the word-learning process of children from low SES families. The present study was an examination of fast mapping by preschoolers from low SES families. The study also examined the relation between measures of existing vocabulary and performance on the fast mapping task. Forty-six preschoolers (mean age: 4;6, range: 3;11-5;3) from low SES families completed a part-term fast mapping task and two measures of existing vocabulary knowledge. On the fast mapping task, children demonstrated the use of three sources of information (familiar whole objects, possessive syntax and whole-part juxtaposition). Measures of existing vocabulary did not correlate with performance on the fast mapping task. Findings suggest that children from low SES families use multiple sources of information in linguistic input to learn words.

The componential model of reading: predicting first grade reading performance of culturally diverse students from ecological, psychological, and cognitive factors assessed at kindergarten entry

This study, framed by the component model of reading (CMR), examined the relative importance of kindergarten-entry predictors of first grade reading performance. Specifically, elements within the ecological domain included dialect, maternal education, amount of preschool, and home literacy; elements within the psychological domain included teacher-reported academic competence, social skills, and behavior; and elements within the cognitive domain included initial vocabulary, phonological, and morpho-syntactic skills, and alphabetic and word recognition skills. Data were obtained for 224 culturally diverse kindergarteners (58% Black, 34% White, and 8% Hispanic or other; 58% received free or reduced-price lunch) from a larger study conducted in seven predominantly high poverty schools (n = 20 classrooms) in a midsized city school district in northern Florida. Results from a hierarchical multiple regression (with variables in the ecological domain entered first, followed by the psychological and cognitive domains) revealed a model that explained roughly 56% of the variance in first grade reading achievement, using fall-of-kindergarten predictors. Letter-word reading and morpho-syntactic skill were the strongest significant predictors. The findings largely support the CMR model as a means to understand individual differences in reading acquisition and, in turn, to support data-based instructional decisions for a wider range of children.

Assessing the language skills of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds: the expressive vocabulary performance of Singaporean English-Mandarin bilingual pre-schoolers

Standardized language assessments such as the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Pre-school 2 United Kingdom (CELF Preschool 2 UK) are often used in speech-language pathology clinics to determine if a child is at risk of language difficulties. Many of these assessments are designed and standardized for use with monolingual Standard English-speaking children. It is thus recommended that these assessments should only be used with the populations they were designed for; if not test bias might result. However, such tests are still selected and used in the clinics of many multicultural and multilinguistic communities (e.g., Singapore). This research aimed to explore the performance of 79 Singaporean English-Mandarin pre-school children on the Expressive Vocabulary (EV) sub-test of the CELF Preschool 2 UK and to determine if their performance on the EV sub-test accurately reflected their language abilities by comparing their performance on a local screening language assessment tool, the Singapore English Action Picture Test (SEAPT). Results showed that local children performed poorly as compared to their UK counterparts. Two plausible reasons for the findings are: (1) the sub-test elicited only a single measure in English which ignored the language abilities of these bilingual children in their second language; and (2) the presence of culturally and linguistically biased test items.

Metalinguistics, stress accuracy, and word reading: does dialect matter?

PURPOSE

The authors examined the influence of demographic variables on nonmainstream American English (NMAE) use; the differences between NMAE speakers and mainstream American English (MAE) speakers on measures of metalinguistics, single-word reading, and a new measure of morphophonology; and the differences between the 2 groups in the relationships among the measures.

METHOD

Participants were typically developing 3rd graders from Memphis, TN, including 21 MAE and 21 NMAE speakers. Children received a battery of tests measuring phonological and morphological awareness (PA and MA), morphophonology (i.e., accurately produced lexical stress in derived words), decoding, and word identification (WID).

RESULTS

Controlling for socioeconomic status, measures of PA, decoding, and WID were higher for MAE than for NMAE speakers. There was no difference in stress accuracy between the dialect groups. Only for the NMAE group were PA and MA significantly related to decoding and WID. Stress accuracy was correlated with word reading for the NMAE speakers and with all measures for the MAE speakers.

CONCLUSION

Stress accuracy was consistently related to reading measures, even when PA and MA were not. Morphophonology involving suprasegmental factors may be an area of convergence between language varieties because of its consistent relationship to word reading.

The effects of race and maternal education level on children's retells of the Renfrew Bus Story--North American Edition

PURPOSE

The Renfrew Bus Story--North American Edition (RBS-NA; C. Glasgow & J. Cowley, 1994) is widely used in clinical and research settings to determine children's language abilities, although possible influences of race and maternal education on RBS-NA performance are unknown. The current study compared RBS-NA retells of 4 groups of children: African American (AA) children and European American (EA) children whose mothers had an education level of high school or less (≤ HS) and those whose mothers had an education level higher than high school (> HS).

METHOD

Statistical tests were used to examine 172 kindergartners' story retells using raw scores for all 4 RBS-NA measures: (a) Information, (b) Sentence Length, (c) Complexity, and (d) Independence.

RESULTS

A 2 × 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed main effects of maternal education and race for the Information score, with ≤ HS and AA children scoring lower. For measures not meeting ANOVA assumptions, 2 × 2 ANOVAs using ranked data indicated significant main effects of maternal education for Sentence Length, Complexity, and Independence measure, with ≤ HS children scoring lower within the AA group.

CONCLUSION

There are systematic effects of maternal education and race on children's RBS-NA performance, which is important for both researchers and clinicians to take into account when using this instrument.

Parent-school relationships and children's academic and social outcomes in public school pre-kindergarten

Two dimensions of parent-school relationships, parental school involvement and parents' perceptions of teacher responsiveness to child/parent, were examined in state-funded pre-kindergarten classrooms in a large urban school district. Children's social and academic outcomes were individually assessed in the fall and spring. Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses revealed that parental school involvement positively predicted children's social skills (d=.55) and mathematics skills (d=.36), and negatively predicted problem behaviors (d=.47). Perceived teacher responsiveness to child/parent was positively related to children's early reading (d=.43), and social skills (d=.43), and negatively to problem behaviors (d=.61). All analyses controlled for quality of teacher interaction with children in the classroom, parental home involvement, parental education level, and child race/ethnicity.

A Review of Developmental and Applied Language Research on African American Children: From a Deficit to Difference Perspective on Dialect Differences

Purpose

The contemporary practices of delivering speech, language, and hearing services in schools reflect palpable gains in professional sensitivity to linguistic and cultural diversity.

Method

This article reviews the dominant research themes on the oral language of African American preschoolers who contribute to such diversity in the United States. Specifically, it contrasts the historical and current frameworks that have guided studies of (a) such children’s acquisition and use of English and (b) the strategies used to assess and modify their language.

Conclusion

Research initiatives that can expand knowledge about this group are proposed.

Parent ratings of behavioral functioning after traumatic brain injury in very young children

OBJECTIVE

The behavioral ratings of preschoolers who sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) prior to the age of 2 years and a typically developing group were compared; predictors of behavioral functioning were examined.

METHODS

Eighty-two 3-year-olds comprised mild TBI (n = 31), moderate/severe TBI (n = 20), and typically developing (n = 31) groups, with Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) as the primary outcome measure.

RESULTS

Groups differed on the CBCL Withdrawal Scale. No differences emerged in the proportion of children demonstrating clinical elevations, with average mean scores for each group. Exploratory analyses yielded no differences between inflicted, non-inflicted, and typical groups. Glasgow Coma Scale and Self-Report Family Inventory Leadership predicted Externalizing Problems; developmental level predicted Internalizing Problems.

CONCLUSIONS

After early TBI, preschoolers did not differ from one another or a matched comparison group in behavioral ratings; however, it may be premature to infer that preschoolers do not evidence behavioral dysfunction after early TBI.

Peer effects on children's language achievement during pre-kindergarten

This study examined associations between peers' expressive language abilities and children's development of receptive and expressive language among 1,812 four-year olds enrolled in 453 classrooms in 11 states that provide large-scale public pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs. Higher peer expressive language abilities were positively associated with children's development of receptive and expressive language during pre-k. The positive association between peers' expressive language abilities and children's receptive language development was stronger for children who began pre-k with higher receptive language skills and within classrooms characterized by better classroom management. Implications of these findings for understanding ecological inputs to children's language development and for designing effective pre-k programs are discussed.

Morphological Awareness Skills of Fourth-Grade African American Students

Purpose

We examined the morphological awareness skills of fourth-grade African American children and the association between degree of African American English (AAE) use and performance on written measures of morphological awareness. Additional purposes were to determine whether performance on the morphological awareness tasks (a) was affected by the transparency of morphologically related words and the type of task administered, (b) was associated with other literacy and literacy-related skills, and (c) explained unique variance on these latter abilities.

Method

Thirty fourth-grade African American children from low-income backgrounds were administered 2 morphological awareness tasks and completed norm-referenced measures of word-level reading, reading comprehension, spelling, phonemic awareness, and receptive vocabulary.

Results

The degree of AAE use was not associated with students' performance on the morphological awareness tasks. On these tasks, significantly higher scores were obtained on items that represented a transparent relationship between a base word and its derived form. The students' performance on the morphological awareness tasks was significantly and moderately related to their performance on the word-level reading, spelling, and receptive vocabulary measures. Morphological awareness scores explained significant unique variance on measures of word-level reading and spelling, above that predicted by performance on measures of phonemic awareness and vocabulary.

Conclusion

As shown in previous investigations of Caucasian children’s morphological awareness skills, fourth-grade African American students' morphological awareness abilities are associated with select language and literacy skills. Professionals should capitalize on students' intact capabilities in morphological awareness during literacy instruction in an effort to maximize language and literacy performance for African American students.