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Purpose: Parent-child interaction therapy refers to a number of interventions mediated by trained parents to treat developmental difficulties, including speech, language, and communication. Understanding the experiences of parents who take part in parent-child interaction therapy is a key aspect of determining how this intervention can be implemented successfully. However, to date, there has been limited work on synthesizing parental views of this intervention. Method: We used qualitative evidence synthesis that involved searching the literature for qualitative studies addressing the experiences and perceptions of parent-child interaction therapy for parents of preschool children with communication difficulties. We identified 27 studies (from 32 publications) and synthesized the data using thematic synthesis. We appraised the quality of included studies using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) and assessed our confidence in the review findings using GRADE Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research (CERQual). Results: At the beginning of this intervention, parents may have competing demands and varied expectations about the intervention. Their engagement is facilitated when the intervention is tailored to their individual family, their preferences for learning, and when they have a trusting relationship with the clinician. At the end of the intervention, although most parents perceive an improvement in their child's communication and feel empowered to facilitate this, they have concerns about their child's future needs. Conclusions: It is important that clinicians explore parents' readiness for this intervention by discussing their needs and preferences openly, and that they facilitate their engagement through a supportive relationship. They also need to consider how parents will transition out of the intervention and continue to support their child's language development. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha. 14978454, Parents are integral to a child's early language development. We have known for many years that the amount of caregiver speech directed to young children is associated with better language [...]

This study examined implementation of an evidence-based home reading program by caregivers of children with language impairment. Caregivers received materials and supports to read with their children for 15 weeks, four times weekly; in total, 128 caregivers were enrolled. Survival analysis showed that 55% of caregivers completed the program, and the majority of dropouts did so early in the intervention. Mulitnominal logistic regression results showed that dropout was associated with household income, child literacy skills, and receipt of behavior-change techniques by caregivers, especially financial incentives (50 cents per book reading). Results may advance the science of implementation in the area of early childhood disability and could provide suggestions to improve caregivers' effectiveness in implementing interventions to their children., Author(s): Laura M. Justice [sup.1] [sup.2] , Jing Chen [sup.1] , Hui Jiang [sup.1] , Sherine Tambyraja [sup.1] , Jessica Logan [sup.1] [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.261331.4, 0000 0001 2285 [...]

Findings that a subgroup of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have linguistic capabilities that resemble specific language impairment (SLI) have led some authors to hypothesise that ASD and SLI have a shared aetiology. While considerable research has explored overlap in the language phenotypes of the two conditions, little research has examined possible overlap in cognitive characteristics. In this study, we explored nonword and sentence repetition performance, as well as performance on the Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT) for children with ASD or SLI. As expected, 'language impaired' children with ASD (ALI) and children with SLI performed worse than both 'language normal' ASD (ALN) and typically developing (TD) children on the nonword and sentence repetition tests. Further, the SLI children performed worse than all other groups on the CEFT. This finding supports distinct cognitive profiles in ASD and SLI and may provide further evidence for distinct aetiological mechanisms in the two conditions. Keywords Cognitive phenotype * Specific language impairment * Aetiological overlap, Introduction The language phenotype of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is complex and heterogeneous. While some individuals with ASD fail to develop functional verbal language, others develop large vocabularies and are [...]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a parent-implemented language intervention improves language skills in toddlers at risk for persistent language impairment (LI) as compared with a group of typically developing toddlers. Method: Thirty-four children with LI between 24 and 42 months of age were randomly assigned to a treatment or nontreatment experimental condition. Participants in the treatment group received 24 biweekly 1-hr sessions for 3 months. An additional sample of 28 age- and gender-matched children with typically developing language (TL) was also included. Norm-referenced child assessments and observational measures were used to assess changes in children's language growth. Results: Results from multilevel modeling indicate that children in the treatment group made greater gains than children in the control group on most language measures. Whereas children in the treatment group had lower language scores than children with TL at the end of intervention, the rate of language growth was not significantly different between groups. Child receptive language and parent use of matched turns predicted expressive language growth in both children with and without LI. Conclusion: The results of this preliminary study indicate that parent-implemented interventions may be an effective treatment for children with expressive and receptive LI. Key Words: parent training, early intervention, language impairments, Young children who have expressive and receptive language impairment (LI) during their toddler years are at increased risk for persistent LI and later academic failure (Snowling, 2005). Developing effective early [...]

Purpose: This study evaluated the feasibility, efficacy, and social validity of a parent-implemented intervention for promoting print knowledge in preschoolers with language impairment. Method: This trial involved 62 children and their parents. Each dyad completed a 12-week intervention program. Parents in the treatment group implemented print-focused reading sessions; parents in two comparison groups implemented sessions focused on either storybook pictures (picture-focused condition) or phonological concepts (sound-focused condition). Results: Many parents completed the program successfully, but attrition was high; 23% of families dropped out of the program. Children who remained in the treatment group demonstrated significantly greater gains on 1 of 2 measures of print knowledge compared with those in the picture-focused condition but not the sound-focused condition. Parents generally reported favorable impressions of the program, although several aspects of the program received higher ratings from parents in the print-focused group. Conclusion: Study results raise questions about the feasibility of home-based intervention for some families; future research that examines the characteristics of families that may affect completion are needed. The causal effects of print-focused reading sessions are promising for addressing children's print-concept knowledge but not alphabet knowledge. Home-based reading intervention has considerable social validity as a therapeutic approach. Key Words: emergent literacy, language impairment, intervention, An improved understanding of specific early indicators of reading problems has been a major scientific breakthrough of the last decade. Individual study results (e.g., Badian, 1998; O'Connor & Jenkins, 1999; [...]

Purpose: This study examined the macrostructure in Estonian children's narratives according to the story grammar (SG) model. The study's aims were to determine whether differences exist in narrative macrostructure between Estonian- and English-speaking children, among typically developed (TD) children, and between children with and without language impairment (LI). Method: A clinical group of 18 children with LI (ages 6-8) and a control group of 216 TD children (ages 6-7), divided into 3 language competence subgroups, participated in the study. Narratives were analyzed for the presence of SG components and quantity of story information units. Results: Estonian children's narratives reflected age-expected SG structures similar to those of children in English-speaking countries. The analyses revealed significant group influences for the setting category, demonstrating the superior skills of TD children with high language competence in starting stories, compared with their peers. The quantity of story information units differed significantly between the high and low language competence TD subgroups, likewise between the control and the clinical groups. Conclusions: The contrasts between stories of TD children and between TD and LI children are discussed. The findings support the suitability of the SG model in terms of quantity of story information units for language assessment. KEY WORDS: narratives, stories, narrative assessment, macrostructure, story grammar, typical development, language impairment, Over the past 2 decades, there has been a growing interest in the study of narrative abilities of children in several disciplines, including psychology, linguistics, and speech-language pathology. Stories have [...]

The article explains the potential value of working with school-aged children to increase their competence with narrative forms. It further discusses that increased knowledge of experience with narrative.

The article discusses the key findings in recent research dealing narrative abilities in children with and without language implications. The implications of research findings for narrative assessment and intervention are discussed.

Purpose: A randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the language and auditory processing outcomes of children assigned to receive the Fast ForWord Language intervention (FFW-L) with the outcomes of [...]

Purpose: The goals of this investigation were to determine whether gains in the use of tense and agreement morphemes by children with specific language impairment (SLI) during a 96-session intervention [...]

Purpose: The authors aimed to establish whether 2 theoretically motivated interventions could improve use of verb argument structure in pupils with persistent specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Twenty-seven pupils with [...]

Purpose: In a landmark study, B. A. Wright et al. (1997) reported an apparent backward-masking deficit in language-learning-impaired children. Subsequently, the controversial interpretation of those results has been influential in guiding treatments for childhood language problems. This study revisited the temporal-masking paradigm reported by B. A. Wright et al. to evaluate adult listener signal/masker uncertainty effects for some of their key stimulus conditions. New signal conditions presented off frequency from the masker also were evaluated to assess conditions of reduced signal/masker confusion. Method: Masked detection was measured for 20-ms sinusoids (480, 1000, or 1680 Hz) presented at temporal positions before, during, or after a gated narrowband (bandwidth = 600-1400 Hz) masker. Listener uncertainty was investigated by cueing various stimulus temporal properties with a 6000-Hz sinusoid presented contralateral to the test ear. Results: The primary cueing effect was measured in the backward-masking condition for the cue gated simultaneously with the on-frequency 1000-Hz signal. The resulting cued masked-detection threshold was reduced to quiet threshold. No significant cueing effects were obtained for other signal temporal positions in the masker or for any off-frequency signal conditions. Conclusions: These results for normal adult listeners indicate that on-frequency backward masking can be eliminated by cueing the signal, and thus, these findings raise the possibility that the deficit reported by B. A. Wright et al. for language-learning-impaired children may reflect inordinate signal/masker confusion, rather than a temporal-processing deficit per se. KEY WORDS: cueing effect, temporal-processing deficit, auditory temporal masking, Stimulus-cueing techniques have been used for at least half a century to investigate the nature of masking (Tanner, 1958; Veniar, 1958). Under some circumstances, the masked threshold for a tone [...]

The authors' objective in this article was to explore the accuracy of mothers' estimates concerning their children's developmental functioning, especially with respect to vocabulary and gross motor development, by comparing the results of diagnostic tests administered to both the children and their mothers. The authors studied 55 children with disorders of language development (LD) between the ages of 3 and 6 years using several diagnostic scales concerning child development. The authors assessed the mothers' estimates regarding vocabulary and gross motor development by the same scales as those used for their children. These scales were presented as questionnaires and scored like the tests used for the children. There was a significant tendency toward a general overestimation of a child's developmental functioning regarding vocabulary and gross motor skills. Moreover, the accuracy of the mothers' estimates did not seem to be associated with several selected variables. The results did not correspond to those of other studies that have shown that mothers' estimates provide a good indication for the developmental status of a child--at least for the child's developmental status considering vocabulary and gross motor skills in children with LD. The results support the objection regarding the use of maternal estimates as the only source of information concerning the development of a child among scientific studies, especially if they deal with research on the development of vocabulary or gross motor skills. Index Terms: disorder in language development, gross motor development, mothers' estimates, vocabulary, Disorders of language development (LD) are very often seen in preschool-aged children. The prevalence of LD has been estimated to be as high as 6-8% among children. (1) According to [...]

Specific language impairment (SLI), like many diagnostic labels for complex behavioral conditions, is often assumed to define a category of children who differ not only in degree but also in kind from children developing language normally. Although this assumption has important implications for theoretical models and clinical approaches, its validity has not been tested. In this study, distributions of language scores from children at ages 3 (N = 620) and 4 (N = 623) years were analyzed using a taxometric procedure known as "mean above minus below a cut" (MAMBAC; P. E. Meehl & L. J. Yonce, 1994). Language scores were distributed dimensionally at both ages, failing to support the hypothesis of a qualitatively distinct group corresponding to children with SLI. KEY WORDS: specific language impairment, taxametrics, child language disorders, Specific language impairment (SLI) is label applied to children who exhibit significant deficits in language development in the absence of co-occurring cognitive, hearing, oral-motor, emotional, or environmental deficits (Leonard, 1998; [...]

Byline: Ioanna Tsiouri (1), R. Douglas Greer (1) Keywords: verbal behavior; motor imitation; echoics; mands; tacts; establishing operations; behavioral momentum Abstract: We conducted two experiments demonstrating the use of a rapid motor imitation sequence to evoke echoic and independent mands in three preschoolers with no vocal verbal behavior, who were unresponsive to alternative procedures. We further tested the procedure in the induction of echoics and independent tacts. The dependent variables for both experiments were echoics, mands, and tacts. In Experiment 1, we used a within subject multiple baseline design, across two mand and two tact forms, which were introduced in a counterbalanced order. In Experiment 2 we used a multiple baseline across subjects design with a tandem tact and mand training schedule, during which opportunities for echoic and independent mand training were contingent upon correct echoic and independent tact responses. Results showed that the rapid motor imitation antecedent was successful in inducing echoic and independent mands and tacts. Tacts required fewer opportunities than mands for mastery during the first experiment. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY Article History: Registration Date: 05/10/2004

A speech processing algorithm was developed to create more salient versions of the rapidly changing elements in the acoustic waveform of speech that have been shown to be deficiently processed by language-learning impaired (LLI) children. LLI children received extensive daily training, over a 4-week period, with listening exercises in which all speech was translated into this synthetic form. They also received daily training with computer 'games' designed to adaptively drive improvements in temporal processing thresholds. Significant improvements in speech discrimination and language comprehension abilities were demonstrated in two independent groups of LLI children., Exposure to a specific language alters an infant's phonetic perceptions within the first months of life, leading to the setting of prototypic phonetic representations, the building block on which a [...]

The recent literature on language intervention has become increasingly focused upon developing treatments that more closely parallel normal language acquisition. However, there have been relatively few reports that directly compare imitative procedures to conversational-interactive interventions. The purpose of the present study was to compare the relative effectiveness of imitative intervention and conversational recast language intervention applied to a wide range of grammatical morpheme and complex sentence targets in 21 children with specific language impairment. The results indicated that although both kinds of treatments were effective in triggering acquisition of most targets, consistently fewer presentations to first spontaneous use were required in the conversational procedure. In addition, the transition from elicited production to generalized spontaneous production was more rapid under conversation-interactive treatment. Finally, although imitation treatment was more effective in generating elicited production, a significantly greater number of spontaneous productions occurred under the conversational training procedures. The theoretical and applied ramifications of these findings are discussed. KEY WORDS: language disorders, language intervention, naturalistic language training, specific language impairment, language generalization

Two children with word-finding deficits characterized largely by semantic substitutions participated in a treatment involving phonological information about target words. The treatment was motivated by models of naming where semantic information and phonological information are stored in independent ordered components. Given such models, it is possible to characterize some semantic word-finding substitutions as well as phonological word-finding substitutions as the result of breakdown at the level of the phonological output representation. The treatment was organized according to a single-subject multiple baseline design across behaviors and subjects. As hypothesized, the phonologically based treatment resulted in reduction not only of occasional phonological word-finding substitutions but also of the large number of semantic word-finding substitutions displayed during baseline and control measures of confrontation naming. In light of these data, the possible source of word-finding breakdowns in these children is explored. KEY WORDS: word-finding, language impairment, treatment

Two approaches to grammar facilitation in preschool-age children with language impairment were evaluated. One approach was administered by a speech-language pathologist and the other was presented by the subjects' parents, who were trained by the speech-language pathologist. Both treatment packages ran for 4 1/2 months and made use of focused stimulation procedures and a cyclical goal-attack strategy. Subjects were 30 children between the ages of 3:8 and 5:10 (years:months) who had marked delays in grammatical development. Children who served in a delayed-treatment control group averaged no gains over their no-treatment period. In contrast, large treatment effects were observed for both treatment groups on three of four measures of grammatical expression. However, closer inspection of the data revealed that the effects for the clinician treatment were more consistent across treatment administrations than were those for the parent treatment. Although the specific contributions of the focused stimulation procedures and the cyclical goal attack strategy were not evaluated, the results support the viability of these components as parts of larger treatment packages. The results also support the participation of parents as primary intervention agents in grammar facilitation programs. When parents take such a large role in the intervention process, however, it is imperative that the children's progress be monitored carefully and that program adjustments be made whenever gains are smaller than expected.

Can multiple intelligences be applied to preschoolers - particularly those with language problems? Yes! - and with results worth talking about. Three billy goats went out to eat, over the [...]

Code-switching is an important method teacher should use which could help children with linguistic difficulties to improve their grammar skills.

An introduction to current models of working and short-term memory, their links with learning and diagnosis of impairments is presented. It is concluded that impairments of short-term and working memory are associated with learning difficulties that can be substantial and that can be minimized by appropriate methods of remedial support.

Inclusive and collaborative intervention settings represent a restructuring of service delivery for students with special needs. This article contrasts traditional versus collaborative service delivery settings designed for students with language [...]

The origins of the Canterbury Oast Trust can be traced back almost 20 years, when a group of local parents got together and realised they were all disenchanted with the [...]