How Inclusive Practice Increases the Educational Relevance of Individualized Education Programs.

Purpose: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act guidelines for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) require that students with disabilities should, to the fullest extent appropriate, receive services that promote academic achievement that are delivered within the general educational environment. In this clinical focus article, we will demonstrate how the inclusive practice service delivery model can assist speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with the development of educationally relevant IEPs.

Method: Twelve SLPs who saw at least 30% of their students in a general education context shared their perspectives on inclusive practice.

Comparing Measures From Computer-Administered and Examiner-Administered Narrative Retells in Spanish: A Pilot Study.

Purpose: Narrative language sample analysis (LSA) is a recommended best practice for the assessment of monolingual and bilingual children. With business-as-usual narrative LSA, examiners are actively involved in all aspects of the elicitation. Software advancements have shown multiple benefits of computer-administered language assessments, some of which may be beneficial for narrative assessments, particularly for bilingual children.

Dynamic Norming for Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts.

Purpose: This exploratory study sought to establish the psychometric stability of a dynamic norming system using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) databases. Dynamic norming is the process by which clinicians select a subset of the normative database sample matched to their individual client's demographic characteristics.

Method: The English Conversation and Student-Selected Story (SSS) Narrative databases from SALT were used to conduct the analyses in two phases.

Identification of Gaps in Training, Research, and School-Based Practice: A Survey of School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists.

Purpose Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) encounter many challenges in the school environment. We sought to identify school-based SLPs' needs in the areas of training and research to support school-based practice. Method We collected surveys from 145 school-based SLPs practicing in Wisconsin.

Properties of Spoken Persuasive Language Samples From Typically Developing Adolescents.

Purpose Persuasive communication skills are vital for achieving success in school, at work, and in social relationships. To facilitate assessment of persuasive discourse, we developed a clinically feasible persuasive speaking protocol and used it to compile a database of language samples. This database allowed us to describe the properties of adolescents' persuasive speaking skills.

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 ( = 48 months) using Wald chi-square tests of independence.

Clinical impact of wordless picture storybooks on bilingual narrative language production: A comparison of the 'Frog' stories.

Background: Language sampling, recognized as a gold standard for expressive language assessment, is often elicited using wordless picture storybooks. A series of wordless storybooks, commonly referred to as 'Frog' stories, have been frequently used in language-based research with children from around the globe.

Aims: To examine the impact that differences in stories have on narrative output by comparing narrative productions across a series of five storybooks produced by 831 bilingual (Spanish-English) children in kindergarten through third grade.

The rules of the game: properties of a database of expository language samples.

Purpose: The authors created a database of expository oral language samples with the aims of describing the nature of students' expository discourse and providing benchmark data for typically developing preteen and teenage students.

Method: Using a favorite game or sport protocol, language samples were collected from 235 typically developing students in Grades 5, 6, 7, and 9. Twelve language measures were summarized from this database and analyses were completed to test for differences across ages and topics.

The role of dialect density in nonword repetition performance: an examination with at-risk African American preschool children.

The Nonword Repetition Task (NRT) is considered to be a less-biased language measure for children from cultural minority groups. In the current study, we examined NRT performance of 50 at-risk, preschool-age children who spoke African American English (AAE). In addition to the NRT, measures included AAE dialect density and several standardised language tests.

Stability of measures from children's interviews: the effects of time, sample length, and topic.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of, and sources of variability in, language measures from interviews collected from young school-age children.

Method: Two 10-min interviews were collected from 20 at-risk kindergarten children by an examiner using a standardized set of questions. Test-retest reliability coefficients were calculated for 8 language measures.

Language sampling: does the length of the transcript matter?

Purpose: Language sample analysis is considered by many to be the gold standard for documenting children's oral language skills. One limitation, however, is the time required for collection and transcription of language samples. The goal of this study was to determine if stable language sample measures could be generated using relatively short language samples.

Using language sample databases.

Purpose: Over the past 50 years, language sample analysis (LSA) has evolved from a powerful research tool that is used to document children's linguistic development into a powerful clinical tool that is used to identify and describe the language skills of children with language impairment. The The Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT; J. F.

Properties of the narrative scoring scheme using narrative retells in young school-age children.

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical utility of the narrative scoring scheme (NSS) as an index of narrative macrostructure for young school-age children.

Method: Oral retells of a wordless picture book were elicited from 129 typically developing children, ages 5-7. A series of correlations and hierarchical regression equations were completed using microstructural measures of vocabulary and grammar to predict NSS scores.

Utility of the MacArthur-Bates communicative development inventory in identifying language abilities of late-talking and typically developing toddlers.

The present study investigated the validity of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) for a group of toddlers 30 months of age. Study 1 examined the concurrent validity of the CDI for a group of 38 late talkers. Significant correlations were found between the CDI and direct measures of language abilities.