A Tutorial on Expository Discourse: Structure, Development, and Disorders in Children and Adolescents

Sharing Stories Versus Explaining Facts: Comparing African American Children's Microstructure Performance Across Fictional Narrative, Informational, and Procedural Discourse

PURPOSE

Both fictional oral narrative and expository oral discourse skills are critical language competencies that support children's academic success. Few studies, however, have examined African American children's microstructure performance across these genres. To address this gap in the literature, the study compared African American children's microstructure productivity and complexity across three discourse contexts: fictional narratives, informational discourse, and procedural discourse. The study also examined whether there were age-related differences in microstructure performance by discourse type.

METHOD

Participants were 130 typically developing African American children, aged 59-95 months old, enrolled in kindergarten through second grades in a Midwestern U.S. public school district. Wordless children's books were used to elicit fictional narratives, informational, and procedural discourse. Indicators of microstructure performance included measures of productivity (i.e., number of total words and number of different words) and complexity (i.e., mean length of communication unit and complex syntax rate). The effects of genre and age on microstructure performance were assessed using linear mixed-effects regression models.

RESULTS

Children produced longer discourse and used a greater diversity of words for their fictional stories compared to their informational or procedural discourse. Grammatical complexity was greater for fictional narratives and procedural discourse than informational discourse. Results showed greater productivity and complexity among older children compared to younger children, particularly for fictional and informational discourse.

CONCLUSIONS

African American children exhibit variation in their microstructure performance by discourse context and age. Understanding this variation is key to providing African American children with support to maximize their oral language competencies.

Assessment and theoretical interpretation of spoken discourse and cognitive skills in two adolescents with acquired brain injury

PURPOSE

Although discourse assessment is recommended, few tools exist for adolescent acquired brain injury (ABI) and few theories describe the contribution of cognition to discourse impairment. This study explored whether a novel discourse protocol can identify difficulties following ABI and whether a discourse processing model provides a useful account of impairment.

METHOD

Using a case-control design, two adolescent males with moderate ABI (12 and 14 years) were compared to a neurotypical sample on a range of language and cognitive assessments. Patterns in performance were interpreted using a theoretical model. Participants completed a standardised omnibus language assessment, discourse assessment, and battery of cognitive tasks.

RESULT

Analyses revealed significant differences in discourse and cognition between adolescents with and without ABI. No impairment was detected on a standardised language assessment. Patterns in discourse and cognition aligned with a contemporary model of discourse processing.

CONCLUSION

Participants with ABI demonstrated discourse deficits relative to the neurotypical reference sample. The findings demonstrate the value of discourse sampling across multiple genres and analysis of microlinguistic to superstructural features. A structure-building framework (SBF) model, originating in schizophrenia, provides a promising theory with which to interpret discourse impairment and has the potential to inform intervention for discourse in ABI.

Extending Double Empathy: Effects of Neurotype-Matching on Communication Success in an Expository Context

PURPOSE

Milton's theory of double empathy posits that the difference in communication styles between people of different neurotypes contributes to mutual misunderstandings. The current quasi-experimental study seeks to expand on research indicating that matched neurotype pairs tend to communicate more effectively than mixed neurotype pairs by examining communication across and within neurotypes in an expository language context.

METHOD

Thirty autistic adults and 28 nonautistic adults were paired in either a matched neurotype or mixed neurotype condition. The pairs' interactions involved giving and listening to directions to draw an image. Interactions were recorded, transcribed, and coded for communication accuracy, rate, and clarity. Participants also completed a survey about the rapport they experienced in the interaction.

RESULTS

Matched neurotype pairs were significantly more accurate in their communication than mixed neurotype pairs. Rate was fastest among mixed neurotype pairs, but clarity did not differ significantly across conditions. Matched autistic pairs reported significantly lower rapport than other pairs.

CONCLUSIONS

This finding lends further support to the neurodiversity model by demonstrating that autistic communication is not inherently deficient. Further research is necessary to investigate a variety of influences on rate, clarity, and rapport development. Clinical implications include considerations for neurodiversity-affirming communication supports for expository contexts such as classroom directions or workplace instructions.

Evidence-Based Expository Intervention: A Tutorial for Speech-Language Pathologists

PURPOSE

This tutorial guides speech-language pathologists (SLPs) through the research base for expository intervention and evidence-based decision making for clinical implementation.

METHOD

In the first half of the tutorial, the nature and development of expository discourse is described, and then attention is turned to the research base that informs SLP expository intervention. The many educational domains in which relevant research can be found and the diverse terminology used are explained. From reading comprehension and compositional writing, two areas with strong research evidence that are suitable to SLP use-text structure and learning strategies-are identified. The second half of the tutorial focuses on crafting SLP interventions from the educational evidence. An expository intervention designed specifically for SLPs from this research base, called Sketch and Speak, is presented. In this intervention, visual and written note-taking strategies are combined with oral formulation and practice strategies and taught through individualized oral interactions around informational texts. SLPs are guided on how to adapt this and other expository treatments to their own priorities and service delivery situations while maintaining quality features or "active ingredients" of researched treatments.

CONCLUSIONS

There is considerable educational research on expository intervention. From this literature, SLPs can strategically adopt and adapt to implement evidence-based interventions to help students understand, speak, and write in this important discourse form.

An eclectic Voice Therapy Program for the Treatment of Hyperfunctional Voice Disorders (HFVD)

PURPOSE

An eclectic voice therapy program includes sequenced and structured set of exercises combining direct and indirect intervention methods. Tailor-made exercise prescription with specific cultural adaptations are needed to provide a holistic change to voice quality.1 This study detailed the construction of an exercise prescription for participants with hyperfunctional voice disorder [HFVD] in the Indian context.

METHOD

The exercise program was developed based on literature related to vocal therapy approaches and delivery methods. Adaptations were introduced to a selected set of exercises. Five voice experts verified the exercises and their prescription for content and feasibility of use in the Indian context. Modification suggested by the experts were included for framing the final version of the exercise program. This structured therapy program was planned for 6 weeks (30 minutes duration/session offered individually twice per week, with a gap of two days between sessions in a week) with the goals to improve voice quality, flexibility, and endurance while speaking. Five participants with HFVD partook in the study for pilot testing. Stroboscopy, perceptual voice analysis, Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI) and Vocal Fatigue Index in Tamil (VFI-T) were used to report the therapy outcomes. Participants' report on the learning process and generalization of the program were documented. Wilcoxon-signed rank test was used to test the pre-post outcome measures.

RESULTS

An eclectic voice therapy program, i.e., Comprehensive Voice Habilitation Program [CVHP] was constructed and it included vocal hygiene instructions, warm-up & cool-down, easy onset, resonant voice, and carry over exercises. Participants completed the program in 14-18 sessions (over 7 to 9 weeks of therapy). All participants showed significant changes in vocal fold movement patterns, reduction in ventricular hyperadduction, overall grade of voice quality, DSI and VFI-T. Participants reported that pictorial illustrations, feedback, and monitoring sheets were useful in learning the exercises.

CONCLUSION

CVHP showed significant change in the voice-related outcome measures and was a viable program for treating HFVD.

Do Second Graders Adjust Their Language by Discourse Context?

PURPOSE

Children's ability to adjust one's language according to discourse context is important for success in academic settings. This study examined whether second graders vary in linguistic and discourse features depending on discourse contexts, that is, when describing pictures in contextualized (describing the picture to an examiner while looking at it together) and decontextualized (pretending to describe the picture to a friend while sitting in front of the examiner) conditions.

METHOD

A total of 330 English-speaking second graders in the United States (M age = 7.33 years; 53% boys; 55% Caucasian children, 35% African American children) described three pictures in contextualized and decontextualized conditions. Children's picture descriptions were transcribed verbatim and coded for linguistic (e.g., elaborated noun phrase) and discourse (e.g., proper character introduction, degree of decontextualization) features.

RESULTS

Type-token ratio was higher in the contextualized condition than in the decontextualized condition, whereas certain types of elaborated noun phrases (e.g., simple descriptive noun phrase, noun phrase with postmodification), coordinating conjunctions, and nonclauses occurred more frequently in the decontextualized condition, controlling for total productivity and student demographics. The proportion of proper character introduction was higher in the decontextualized condition, whereas higher degrees of decontextualization and complex perspective-taking were found in the contextualized condition.

CONCLUSION

Various linguistic and discourse cues illustrated the extent to which primary grade students employ their discourse knowledge when producing oral language.

Expository Discourse Production in School-Age Children across Two Scaffolded Tasks

School-age children encounter expository discourse daily in the classroom, and skilled understanding and production of expository language is critical for academic success. The purpose of this study was to compare children's production of two types of expository discourse, generation and retell, while employing a scaffolded note-taking procedure to assist children in developing their samples. Twenty-six typically developing children, 9 to 12 years of age, participated in the study. For the expository generation task, children gave an explanation of a favorite activity, and for the retell task they viewed a video and provided an explanation of the information in the video. Overall, expository generation samples were longer and richer in content, but expository retell samples demonstrated greater lexical diversity. In addition, generation samples contained fewer grammatical errors than retell samples (trend), but measures of syntactic complexity, which were positively related across tasks, were not significantly different between sample types. Findings suggest that using a scaffolded procedure for supporting expository production resulted in (1) samples that were long enough for valid analysis of the children's language and (2) the production of utterances that, on average, were longer than reported in similar studies without scaffolding. The potential impact of comprehension on retell task performance is discussed.

Materials Matter: An Exploration of Text Complexity and Its Effects on Middle School Readers' Comprehension Processing

Purpose Complex features of science texts present idiosyncratic challenges for middle grade readers, especially in a post-Common Core educational world where students' learning is dependent on understanding informational text. The primary aim of this study was to explore how middle school readers process science texts and whether such comprehension processes differed due to features of complexity in two science texts. Method Thirty 7th grade students read two science texts with different profiles of text complexity in a think-aloud task. Think-aloud protocols were coded for six comprehension processes: connecting inferences, elaborative inferences, evaluative comments, metacognitive comments, and associations. We analyzed the quantity and type of comprehension processes generated across both texts in order to explore how features of text complexity contributed to the comprehension processes students produced while reading. Results Students made significantly more elaborative and connecting inferences when reading a text with deep cohesion, simple syntax, and concrete words, while students made more evaluative comments, paraphrases, and metacognitive comments when reading a text with referential cohesion, complex syntax, and abstract words. Conclusions The current study provides exploratory evidence for features of text complexity affecting the type of comprehension processes middle school readers generate while reading science texts. Accordingly, science classroom texts and materials can be evaluated for word, sentence, and passage features of text complexity in order to encourage deep level comprehension of middle school readers.

Reading Abilities Post Traumatic Brain Injury in Adolescents and Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose People with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often struggle with complex reading, limiting participation in work and educational settings. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined studies of reading conducted with adolescents and adults with TBI to describe reading problems post TBI and investigate underlying factors for the effects of TBI on reading abilities. Method The search was conducted in EBSCO (including MEDLINE, PsycINFO, etc.), BIOSIS, ProQuest, and Web of Science. Empirical studies that used samples with a mean age greater than 10 years, reported injury characteristics, and investigated complex reading abilities (defined as greater than single-word reading) were eligible for this review. Study quality was evaluated using QualSyst. Study and sample characteristics, measures, and outcomes of interest were extracted and synthesized in the review. Studies that compared reading abilities between people with and without TBI were included in the meta-analysis. Results Twenty-four studies met inclusion criteria, six of which addressed reading in pediatric samples. Findings from heterogeneous samples supported the existence of reading deficits post TBI, including mild TBI. In studies of children, comprehension was examined most frequently, whereas reading speed was the focus of most adult studies. Oculomotor functions and processing speed were related to reading speed; cognitive functions, such as attention and memory, were associated with reading comprehension. Intervention studies were limited, but most reported positive effects. The meta-analysis confirmed the impact of TBI on reading with a large effect size (g = 1.23). Demographic, injury, and study variables did not moderate overall reading outcomes, but male sex was a significant moderator of impairment in reading speed. Discussion Global reading ability, including both comprehension and speed, is negatively impacted by TBI. Future research should continue to explore reading after TBI, including its underlying mechanisms, effects on complex reading activities such as inferencing, development of screening and assessment tools that address a range of functional reading needs, and efficacy of reading-related interventions.

An In-Depth Analysis of Expository Writing in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

Using detailed linguistic analysis, this study examined the expository writing abilities of school-age children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in comparison to neurotypical (NT) children. Associations between executive functioning (EF) and writing ability in children with and without ASD were also explored. Compared to NT peers, children with ASD wrote shorter expository texts that contained more grammatical errors, and needed more assistance from the experimenter to complete the writing assessment. However, the texts of children with and without ASD did not differ in their lexical diversity, use of writing conventions, and overall quality. Analyses also revealed that greater EF was associated with better writing outcomes in both groups. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

Communicative Competence of Oral Deaf Children While Explaining Game Rules

Classrooms are characterized by interactions in a range of genres. The concise language required by expository interactions can be challenging for children who have atypical language, including children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). This study compared the way three groups of upper primary school students (aged 8-13 years) taught a peer to play a new unfamiliar board game: (a) DHH "experts" teaching a "novice" hearing peer; (b) hearing experts teaching a DHH novice; and (c) a hearing expert teaching a hearing novice. All DHH students were enrolled in mainstream schools and used spoken language as the main mode of communication. All three groups were able to convey game rules and purpose, and navigate clarifications. Differences emerged in the accuracy of the use of referents when instructing their peers how to play the game. The specific content vocabulary and the need to emphasize new concise information also challenged the DHH children. This study highlights the importance of including expository tasks in language support and intervention for children who are DHH.

Adolescent Summaries of Narrative and Expository Discourse: Differences and Predictors

Purpose

Summarizing expository passages is a critical academic skill that is understudied in language research. The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of verbal summaries produced by adolescents for 3 different discourse types and to determine whether a composite measure of cognitive skill or a test of expressive syntax predicted their performance.

Method

Fifty adolescents listened to, and then verbally summarized, 1 narrative and 2 expository lectures (compare–contrast and cause–effect). They also participated in testing that targeted expressive syntax and 5 cognitive subdomains.

Results

Summary quality scores were significantly different across discourse types, with a medium effect size. Analyses revealed significantly higher summary quality scores for cause–effect than compare–contrast summaries. Although the composite cognitive measure contributed significantly to the prediction of quality scores for both types of expository summaries, the expressive syntax score only contributed significantly to the quality scores for narrative summaries.

Conclusions

These results support previous research indicating that type of expository discourse may impact student performance. These results also show, for the first time, that cognition may play a predictive role in determining summary quality for expository but not narrative passages in this population. In addition, despite the more complex syntax commonly associated with exposition versus narratives, an expressive syntax score was only predictive of performance on narrative summaries. These findings provide new information, questions, and directions for future research for those who study academic discourse and for professionals who must identify and manage the problems of students struggling with different types of academic discourse.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6167879

Examining the association between language, expository discourse and offending behaviour: an investigation of direction, strength and independence

BACKGROUND

A high prevalence of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is reported in the population of Young Offenders (YO). However, little is known about the extent of the association between language and offending behaviour relative to social disadvantage, education attendance and non-verbal intelligence (IQ), and neither has this association been investigated with particular reference to the expository discourse abilities of YOs on community orders in the UK.

AIMS

This study aimed to examine the direction and strength of the association between language and offending behaviour by comparing the receptive and expressive language and expository discourse abilities of male and female YOs and non-offenders in the UK, relative to the confounds of social disadvantage, years of education attended and non-verbal IQ. Examining expository discourse provided a measure of the YOs. ability to verbally communicate complex information; a communication ability that is fundamental to engaging effectively in youth offending services and secondary education.

METHODS

An opportunity sample of 52 YOs was recruited from a youth offending service. The YO group was matched on years of education, social disadvantage and non-verbal IQ to a purpose selected comparison group of 25 non-offenders. All participants had English as their first language and were not currently receiving any speech and language intervention. Participants completed standardised measures of receptive and expressive language and an expository discourse measure. The incidence of DLD was identified and compared across offender group using scores from the language and expository discourse measures and gender differences were also explored. Finally, logistical regression analysis was used to test the association between language performance and offending status relative to the confounds of social disadvantage, education attendance and non-verbal IQ.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

A large proportion of YOs scored below test norms for the language and expository discourse measures, which indicated a high incidence of DLD that was much larger than that displayed by the non-offenders. No differences were found on language performance between male and female YOs. Logistic regression analyses found that as language performance increased, the probability of being a non-offender significantly increased.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Participants were over 1 to 5 times more likely to be classified as a non-offender for every unit increase in the language and expository discourse scores. The statistically significant positive association found between language and offending behaviour relative to other confounds, highlights the important role of language in understanding offending behaviour. YOs displayed high incidences of DLD in their language and expository discourse abilities despite having not received any speech and language intervention prior to their involvement in this study. This has implications for their effective engagement in education and in youth offending and criminal justice services (CJS). Professionals in education, health and social care and youth justice should be made aware of the language needs of both YOs and children with emotional behavioural difficulties, and these language needs should be identified and targeted as early as possible to enable them to be effective communicators who can engage effectively in their provision.