Using language sample analyses across English dialects: A case-based approach for preschoolers.

This study compared language samples from typically developing 4-year-olds who spoke African American English (AAE), Jamaican English (JE), or Mainstream American English (MAE) to assess the value of using language sample analysis (LSA) measures for characterising language use across dialects of English. Specific LSA metrics included mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes and in words, the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn), Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) and measures of lexical diversity. Children demonstrated diverse linguistic patterns across dialects, but a Kruskal-Wallis H test did not reveal significant differences in scores obtained through LSA measures.

Speech-Language Outcomes in the COVID-19 Milieu for Multilingual Jamaican Preschoolers and Considerations for Telepractice Assessments.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility (i.e., how children use communication and how well they are understood across everyday life) of typically developing (TD) bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with functionally defined speech sound disorders (fSSDs) in the COVID-19 milieu.

Phonemic and pitch variability in bilingual preschoolers: A comparison of Jamaican Creole and English.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-linguistic influences of Jamaican Creole (JC) and English on phonemic and vocal development in bilingual JC-English-speaking preschoolers.

Method: Sixteen typically developing children (12 females,  = 4 years; 4 months) completed the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation in Phonology Word Inconsistency Assessment subtest in JC and in English. Acoustic measures of voice onset time (VOT), VOT variability (VOT ), mean fundamental frequency (), and variability ( ) were extracted from each target word.

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.

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; = 226) bilingual JC-English-speaking preschoolers and those with fSSDs ( = 39) was documented using the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS).

Characterizing Speech Sound Productions in Bilingual Speakers of Jamaican Creole and English: Application of Durational Acoustic Methods.

Purpose: This study examined the speech acoustic characteristics of Jamaican Creole (JC) and English in bilingual preschoolers and adults using acoustic duration measures. The aims were to determine if, for JC and English, (a) child and adult acoustic duration characteristics differ, (b) differences occur in preschoolers' duration patterns based on the language spoken, and (c) relationships exist between the preschoolers' personal contextual factors (i.e.

Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six: Validation of Language Skills in the Jamaican Context.

The Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS) is one of a few validated outcome measures related to children's communicative participation. Additional validation of the FOCUS measure could address the paucity of validated outcomes-based measures available for assessing preschool-age children, particularly for those who are multilingual. The data collected for this study, with a representative sample of Jamaican Creole-English speaking children, extend the applicability of the FOCUS to a broader range of preschoolers and expand psychometric evidence for the FOCUS to a multilingual and understudied context.

Linguistically Informed Acoustic and Perceptual Analysis of Bilingual Children's Speech Productions: An Exploratory Study in the Jamaican Context.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to characterize speech acoustics in bilingual preschoolers who speak Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. We compared a standard approach with a culturally responsive approach for characterizing speech sound productions. Preschoolers' speech productions were compared to adult models from the same linguistic community as a means for providing confirmatory evidence of typical speech patterns specific to JC-English speakers.

Variability, accuracy, and cross-linguistic transfer in bilingual children speaking Jamaican Creole and English.

Due to the lack of normative data about bilingual speech development and limited availability of diagnostic tools optimised for this population, bilingual children under consideration for speech-language services are at an elevated risk of misdiagnosis. In the absence of validated assessment tools, speech-language pathologists may use measures of accuracy and variability of speech production to diagnose suspected speech sound disorders in bilingual children. Research in general motor development suggests that variability and accuracy may trade off in the course of maturation, whereby movement variability spikes before the transition to a more mature stage of motor control.

Construct validity of the focus on the outcomes of communication under six (FOCUS) total and profile scores for multilingual preschoolers: Considering functional speech skills.

Purpose: To conduct an exploratory study to establish construct validity of the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS) in the Jamaican context for FOCUS Total and Profile scores.

Method: Parents of a representative sample of 3-to-6-year-old Jamaican Creole (JC)-English-speaking simultaneous bilingual children completed the FOCUS in English, and the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) in JC and in English. Children completed the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP) in both languages.

A Systematic Review of Interventions for Multilingual Preschoolers With Speech and Language Difficulties.

Purpose There is a shortage of information on evidence-based interventions for supporting young multilingual children. The purpose of this review was to identify interventions that have been evaluated with preschool-age multilingual children with a speech and/or language disorder or who are at risk of poor speech, language, literacy, and/or educational outcomes. Method This review considered speech, language, and early literacy interventions evaluated with preschool-age multilingual children with a speech and/or language disorder or who have been identified as being at risk of language difficulties (PROSPERO ID: 165892).

Assessment of Intelligibility in Children with Velopharyngeal Insufficiency: The Relationship between Intelligibility in Context Scale and Experimental Measures.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical application of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) instrument in children with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). This study investigated the relationship between clinical speech outcomes and parental reports of speech intelligibility across various communicative partners.

Methods: The ICS was completed by the parents of 20 English-speaking children aged 4-12 years diagnosed with VPI.

The Cultural and Diagnostic Appropriateness of Standardized Assessments for Dual Language Learners: A Focus on Jamaican Preschoolers.

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of standardized assessments of expressive grammar and vocabulary in a sample of preschool-age dual language learners (DLLs) who use Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. Adult models from the same linguistic community as these children were used to inform culturally and linguistically appropriate interpretation of children's responses to a standardized assessment. Method JC-English-speaking preschoolers ( = 176) and adults ( = 33) completed the Word Structure and Expressive Vocabulary subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-Second Edition.

Variability across repeated productions in bilingual children speaking Jamaican Creole and English.

Purpose: Previous work suggests that variability across repeated productions of the same word may be useful in diagnosing speech sound disorder (SSD) in bilingual children. However, there is debate over what level of variability in transcribed productions should be considered typical even in monolingual speech development. High variability in the input represents a factor that could promote increased production variability in bilinguals.

The Narrative Competence of Bilingual Jamaican Creole- and English-Speaking Preschoolers.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to characterize narrative competence of typically developing bilingual children using Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. Method Story comprehension and fictional storytelling tasks in JC and English were completed by 104 bilingual preschoolers aged 4-6 years. Story comprehension was analyzed using inferential story comprehension questions representing Blank's Question Hierarchy.

Intelligibility in Context Scale: Sensitivity and specificity in the Jamaican context.

The present study investigated the sensitivity and specificity of the English Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) and the ICS-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC) translation with bilingual preschool-aged Jamaican children. Participants in this study were 262 English-Jamaican Creole simultaneous bilingual children (aged 3;3 to 6;3, = 4;11, SD = 7.8).

Current Methods of Evaluating the Language Abilities of Multilingual Preschoolers: A Scoping Review Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth Version.

Purpose The purpose of this scoping review was to identify current measures used to evaluate the language abilities of multilingual preschoolers within the framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY; World Health Organization, 2007 ). Method This review adhered to established models for conducting a comprehensive, iterative scoping review outlined by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) and Levac, Colquhoun, and O'Brien (2010) and included the following phases: (a) articulating the research question; (b) identifying relevant studies; (c) selecting studies; (d) charting the data; and (e) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. The ICF-CY was used to frame the identified measures ( World Health Organization, 2007 ).

Bilingual Preschoolers' Spontaneous Productions: Considering Jamaican Creole and English.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to characterize grammatical production in Jamaican Creole (JC) and English using the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn; Scarborough, 1990 ) in a sample of typically developing bilingual Jamaicans. Method Spontaneous language samples were collected in JC and English from 62 preschoolers aged 4-6 years. Language samples were analyzed for IPSyn subdomains (Total Score, Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, Questions/Negations, Sentence Structures), mean length of utterance in morphemes, and number of different words.

Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in Assessment and Intervention of School-Aged Children With Language Impairments.

Purpose: The aim of this tutorial is to support speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in assessment and treatment practices with children with language impairment.

Method: This tutorial reviews the framework of the ICF, describes the implications of the ICF for SLPs, distinguishes between students' capacity to perform a skill in a structured context and the actual performance of that skill in naturalistic contexts, and provides a case study of an elementary school child to demonstrate how the principles of the ICF can guide assessment and intervention.

Implications: The Scope of Practice and Preferred Practice documents for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association identify the ICF as the framework for practice in speech-language pathology.

Validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for Jamaican Creole-Speaking Preschoolers.

Purpose: To describe validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012a) and ICS-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC; McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012b) in a sample of typically developing 3- to 6-year-old Jamaicans.

Method: One-hundred and forty-five preschooler-parent dyads participated in the study. Parents completed the 7-item ICS (n = 145) and ICS-JC (n = 98) to rate children's speech intelligibility (5-point scale) across communication partners (parents, immediate family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, strangers).

Current Methods of Evaluating Speech-Language Outcomes for Preschoolers With Communication Disorders: A Scoping Review Using the ICF-CY.

Purpose: The purpose of this scoping review was to identify current measures used to evaluate speech-language outcomes for preschoolers with communication disorders within the framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY; World Health Organization, 2007).

Method: The review involved 5 phases outlined by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) and further developed by Levac, Colquhoun, and O'Brien (2010): (a) articulating the research question; (b) identifying relevant studies; (c) selecting studies; (d) charting the data; and (e) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. The ICF-CY was used to frame the measures included.

The association between expressive grammar intervention and social and emergent literacy outcomes for preschoolers with SLI.

Purpose: To determine whether (a) expressive grammar intervention facilitated social and emergent literacy outcomes better than no intervention and (b) expressive grammar gains and/or initial expressive grammar level predicted social and emergent literacy outcomes.

Method: This investigation was a follow-up to a recently published study exploring the impact of grammatical language intervention on expressive grammar outcomes for preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI). Twenty-two 3- to 5-year-old preschoolers received ten 20-minute intervention sessions addressing primary deficits in grammatical morphology.

Exploring the outcomes of a novel computer-assisted treatment program targeting expressive-grammar deficits in preschoolers with SLI.

Purpose: The impact of a newly designed computer-assisted treatment (C-AT) program, My Sentence Builder, for the remediation of expressive-grammar deficits in children with specific language impairment (SLI) was explored. This program was specifically designed with features to directly address expressive-grammar difficulties, thought to be associated with hypothesized deficits in verbal working memory (VWM).

Method: Thirty-four preschoolers with deficits in expressive-grammar morphology participated.