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ABSTRACTWritten reflective practice (WRP) is a teaching and learning activity utilized in clinical programmes. Identifying depth of WRP aims to provide an overall rating of students’ written reflective abilities. Engaging in reflective activities has been proposed to have a positive relationship with clinical competency. Aims: 1. To examine the impact of time on depth of WRP for SLT students across and within each year group of the SLT clinical programme. 2. To determine whether a relationship exists between depth of WRP and clinical competency of SLT students. Methods: Participants were 77 undergraduate SLT students (first, second or final professional year) in the clinical programme. Participants wrote reflections as part of their clinical education experiences. Depth of WRP was measured utilizing a modification of Plack et al.’s [2005. A method for assessing reflective journal writing. Journal of Allied Health, 34(4), 199–208] coding schema. This was completed at four time points across the academic year for each professional year. Level of clinical competency was assessed using the Competency Assessment in Speech Pathology (COMPASS®) at the end of both semesters. Results: There was a statistically significant association between time and development of depth of WRP for students in their final professional year (β = .66 (.30), z = 2.22, p < .05). There was no association between depth of WRP and level of clinical competency. Conclusion: A one-off judgement of WRP depth may be useful for supporting overall judgements of RP ability and provide observable behaviours for competency assessments. This research contributes to the evidence base examining how WRP is assessed and utilized in clinical programmes.

PurposeThe use of questioning in clinical education aims to support the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and reasoning skills in students who are engaged in clinical training, such as medical, nursing, or allied health professions. To date, there has been a limited investigation into clinical educators' use of questioning with speech-language pathology students and students of differing experience levels following a real-time clinical experience. The purpose of this study was to describe the level, type, and number of questions asked by clinical educators and to examine the effect of student experience on clinical educator questions.MethodParticipants were 5 female faculty speech-language pathology clinical educators. Participants audio-recorded each debrief with speech-language pathology students following clinical sessions across the semester. Level, type, and number of questions used were coded using a system modified from Profetto-McGrath, Bulmer Smith, Day, and Yonge's (2004) questioning framework.ResultsSpeech-language pathology clinical educators used significantly more low-level questions compared to high-level questions. They also used a variety of question types. Significantly more high-level synthesis questions and rhetorical question types were asked of final-year students compared to first-year students.ConclusionsThe clinical educators working with speech-language pathology students used similar levels and types of questions compared to previous studies conducted in nursing, physical therapy, and athletic training; they did not adjust their questions in response to the student level of experience. Implications for clinical education are discussed.

Two studies are reported in which homonymy in the speech of children with specific language impairment (SLI) was examined. In the first study, the degree of homonymy reflected in the speech of 14 SLI children was found to resemble that seen in the speech of a group of language-matched children with normal language (NL). Within each group there was considerable variation in the degree of homonymy observed. An examination of the sound changes that contributed to the children's use of homonymy suggested that homonyms arising from prevocalic voicing were more frequent in the speech of the NL children. The second study represented a more systematic examination of prevocalic voicing differences between NL and SLI children. Minimal pairs differing only in the voicing feature of the initial consonant were produced by four SLI and four language-matched NL children. The SLI children showed greater ability to distinguish the minimal pairs by means of a voiced-voiceless initial consonant contrast, as measured by voice onset time as well as by phonetic transcription. The linguistic and neuromotor factors contributing to the findings are discussed.

The symbolic play of 15 normally developing (CA, 16–22 months) and 15 language-impaired children (CA, 32–49 months), whose productive language skills were at the single-word utterance level, was compared. Symbolic play was assessed formally through the Symbolic Play Test and informally through the observation of spontaneous play. The language-impaired children were found to be developmentally advanced when compared to the language-matched normal children in the level and direction of their symbolic play. Relative to age norms, however, the language-impaired children evidenced deficits in symbolic play. Thus, their linguistic and symbolic play abilities were not equally impaired. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the relationship between symbolic play and language and for the nature of specific language impairment.

This study examined the characteristics of early lexical acquisition in children with specific language impairment. Sixteen unfamiliar words and referents were exposed across 10 sessions to language-impaired and normal children matched for level of linguistic development. Posttesting revealed similar comprehension-production gaps in the two groups of children. In addition, both groups showed greater comprehension and production of words referring to objects than words referring to actions. However, the language-impaired children's object word bias was not as marked as that of the normal children. For both groups, words containing initial consonants within the children's production repertoires were more likely to be acquired in production than words containing consonants absent from the children's phonologies. A similar tendency was not seen for comprehension.

Describes the play "Last Summer at Bluefish Cove," directed by Billie McBride. Information on Jane Chambers, original author of the play; Career highlights of McBride; Significance of the drama to the lesbian community.