Cross-linguistic interactions in the spontaneous productions of preschoolers who speak Jamaican-Creole and English

Supporting Culturally Responsive Assessment Practices With Preschoolers: Guidance From Methods in the Jamaican Context

PURPOSE

There is a shortage of available methods to accurately inform the developmental status of children whose cultural and linguistic backgrounds vary from the mainstream. The purpose of this review article was to describe different approaches used to support the accurate characterization of speech, language, and functional communication in children speaking Jamaican Creole and English, an understudied paradigm in the speech pathology research.

METHOD

Approaches used across four previously published studies in the Jamaican Creole Language Project are described. Participants included 3- to 6-year-old Jamaican children (n = 98-262) and adults (n = 15-33). Studies I and II described validation efforts about children's functional communication using the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; speech) and the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS; speech and language). Study III described efforts to accurately characterize difference and disorder in children's expressive grammar using adapted scoring, along with adult models to contextualize child responses. Last, Study IV applied acoustic duration (e.g., whole word) and an adapted scoring protocol to inform variation in speech sound productions in the Jamaican context where a post-Creole continuum exists.

RESULTS

Studies I and II offered promising psychometric evidence about the utility of the ICS and the FOCUS. Study III revealed strong sensitivity and specificity in classifying difference and disorder using adult models. Last, in Study IV, linguistically informed acoustic analyses and an adapted protocol captured variation in speech productions better than a standard approach.

CONCLUSIONS

Applying culturally responsive methods can enhance the accurate characterization of speech, language, and functional communication in Jamaican children. The innovative methods used offer a model approach that could be applied to other linguistic contexts where a mismatch exists between speech-language pathologists and their clientele.

PRESENTATION VIDEO

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23929461.

Characterizing Communicative Participation in Multilingual Jamaican Preschoolers

PURPOSE

This study characterized communicative participation and related aspects of functional communication for Jamaican Creole (JC)-English-speaking preschoolers with and without functionally defined speech sound disorders (fSSDs). This study included parent reports and direct assessment measures from an existing corpus of baseline data collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHOD

The communicative participation of typically developing (TD; n = 226) bilingual JC-English-speaking preschoolers and those with fSSDs (n = 39) was documented using the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS). Functional speech intelligibility was recorded using the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) in English and JC (ICS-JC). Objective measures of speech production were collected through direct child assessment in both languages and then transcribed and calculated for percent of consonants (PCC), vowels (PVC), and phonemes correct (PPC). Within-group relationships were explored using association testing, and differences between groups were explored through multivariate analyses.

RESULTS

FOCUS scores and ICS and ICS-JC scores were found to be minimally to moderately related for Jamaican preschoolers in the TD group (r = .28-.34, p < .002) and strongly related in the fSSD group (r = .56-.60, p < .002). No relations were observed between the FOCUS scores and PCC/PVC/PPC in either language. There was a statistically significant difference between all FOCUS scores for Jamaican preschoolers in the TD and fSSD groups (p ≤ .002).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide additional evidence for using the FOCUS beyond documenting change in communicative participation to support clinical decision-making in planning and developing speech-language interventions. This study also documents an important characterization of JC-English-speaking children with and without fSSDs, offering data on children's abilities that can be used in future comparisons of communicative participation and speech functioning observed during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

How to Use the Index of Productive Syntax to Select Goals and Monitor Progress in Preschool Children

PURPOSE

Syntax assessment and treatment is a major focus of speech-language pathologists who work with young children with language needs. The Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn) provides an efficient method for the assessment of syntax of preschool-age children. The purpose of this tutorial is to illustrate how to hand-score an IPSyn from language sample transcripts and use this information to formulate appropriate syntactic goals.

METHOD

We describe general methods and tips for facilitating hand-scoring. Two case study transcripts of a late talker at 36 and 48 months are provided. One case study transcript is fully scored in IPSyn with detailed explanations; the second case study is provided as a practice example with an IPSyn answer key. Relevant sample probes are provided to assist in the goal of obtaining a representative set of language structures.

RESULTS

We show how the IPSyn can be scored, subscale by subscale, and can highlight developmental stages of syntax following Brown's stages of grammatical development. We illustrate how the visual snapshot developmental nature of the instrument makes it ideal for deriving goals.

CONCLUSION

The IPSyn is a practical and valuable tool for the assessment of syntax of preschool-age children.