Developmental language disorder (DLD) and dyslexia are common but under-identified conditions that affect children's ability to read and comprehend text. Universal screening is a promising solution for improving under-identification of DLD and dyslexia, however, we lack evidence for how to effectively implement and sustain screening procedures in schools. In the current study, we solicited input from educators in the U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe examined whether and how the degree of meaning overlap between morphologically related words influences sentence plausibility judgment in children. In two separate studies with kindergarten and second-graders, English-speaking and French-speaking children judged the plausibility of sentences that included two paired target words. Some of these word pairs were morphologically related, across three conditions with differing levels of meaning overlap: low (), moderate (-) and high (-).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To describe the 9-year journey of a group of language and literacy researchers in establishing and cultivating Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs). Those interested in incorporating implementation science frameworks in their research may benefit from reading our exploration into this type of work and our lessons learned.
Method: We showcase how a group of researchers, who are committed to collaboration with school practitioners, navigated building and scaling RPPs within educational systems necessary for our long-term implementation work.
Purpose Reading and writing are language-based skills, and effective literacy instruction/intervention practices should include an explicit linguistic focus. A multilinguistic structured literacy approach that integrates morphological awareness is proven beneficial to improve reading and writing for students with language literacy deficits. The key components of this approach are explored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLang Speech Hear Serv Sch
July 2020
Purpose This article introduces the Forum: Morphological Awareness as a Key Factor in Language-Literacy Success for Academic Achievement. The goal of this forum is to relate the influence morphological awareness (MA) has on overall language and literacy development with morphology acting as the "binding agent" between orthography, phonology, and semantics (Perfetti, 2007) in assessment and intervention for school-aged children. Method This introduction provides a foundation for MA development and explores the influence MA has over the course of school-aged language and literacy development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLang Speech Hear Serv Sch
July 2020
Purpose The purpose of this feasibility study was to investigate an early dynamic measure of morphological awareness (MA) involving graduated prompts to measure early MA skill and determine whether this task relates to and predicts performance on other language and/or literacy measures in first-grade children with language abilities typically found in the classroom. Method In addition to a battery of language and literacy measures, a dynamic assessment of MA was designed and administered to 74 first-grade children with a range of language abilities. Results The dynamic measure of MA was found to be valid, reliable, and measured early school-age MA performance for children with typical language and those at risk for developmental language disorder.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: As noted by Powell (2018), speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are an integral part of the overarching curriculum for all students in schools, and this holds true for adolescents who require transition planning. The purpose of this tutorial is to focus on transition planning for secondary school students with a language-based learning disability (LLD) and provide a case illustration for how SLPs may use self-determination strategies to facilitate postsecondary transition while promoting academic success.
Method: As students with LLD enter secondary school, they are expected to write and think at more complex levels than ever before to meet post-graduation workforce demands, yet the provision of needed language-literacy intervention services drastically declines.
Semin Speech Lang
February 2015
Morphological awareness positively influences language and literacy development and may be an ideal intervention focus for improving vocabulary, sight word reading, reading decoding, and reading comprehension in students with and without language and literacy deficits. This article will provide supporting theory, research, and strategies for implementing morphological awareness intervention with students with language and literacy deficits. Additionally, functional connections are explored through the incorporation and application of morphological awareness intervention in academic literacy contexts linked to Common Core State Standards.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLang Speech Hear Serv Sch
April 2015
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine a dynamic assessment with graduated prompts to assess morphological awareness and determine whether such a task was related to third-grade literacy success.
Method: A dynamic assessment of morphological awareness was adapted and administered to 54 third-grade students in addition to a norm-referenced language and literacy battery.
Results: A dynamic assessment of morphological awareness measured a range of performance including that of emerging morphological awareness abilities and provided rich linguistic insights for how best to scaffold and prompt for such a skill.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a multilinguistic intervention to improve reading and spelling in primary grade students who struggle with literacy. Twenty second-grade students with spelling deficits were randomly assigned to receive a multilinguistic intervention with a phonological and orthographic awareness emphasis, or one with an additional morphological awareness focus. The morphological intervention group performed better on standardized measures of reading comprehension, and spelling, and on a nonstandardized spelling test of morphological patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this study was to examine the relation between the ability to quickly acquire initial mental graphemic representations (MGRs) in kindergarten and fourth grade literacy skills in children with typical language (TL) and children with language impairment (LI). The study is a longitudinal extension of a study conducted by Wolter and Apel in which kindergarten children with LI and TL were administered early literacy measures as well as a novel written pseudoword task of MGR learning (spelling and identification of target pseudowords). In the current study (4 years later), the authors administered reading and spelling measures to 37 of the original 45 children (18 children with LI, 19 children with TL).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Speech Lang Hear Res
February 2010
Purpose: The authors examined initial acquisition of mental graphemic representations (MGRs) for a set of pseudowords in children with language impairment (LI). They also determined whether the linguistic properties of the words (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLang Speech Hear Serv Sch
July 2009
Purpose: The purpose of this study was twofold. First, we investigated whether first-grade children evidenced morphological awareness and whether they used their knowledge of morphological relations to guide their spelling. Second, we sought to determine whether children's morphological awareness abilities were predictive of their performance on word-level reading and spelling measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Remediation efforts with adolescents and adults with language-literacy deficits (LLD) may be hindered by concomitant factors such as decreased self-esteem and self-efficacy. Despite sound linguistically based remediation practices, treatment lacking integrated counseling components may fail to achieve optimal outcomes. In this tutorial, we recount a counseling approach, specifically a narrative therapy counseling approach based on constructivist theory, to be used with adolescents and adults with LLD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this study was to investigate the orthographic-processing skills of typically developing 5-year-old preschool children. Of interest was whether phonotactic probabilities and/or orthotactic probabilities affected their ability to quickly learn the orthographic forms of 12 novel words. Orthographic processing was measured by the children's ability to spell and identify spellings of the novel words.
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