Vocabulary use across genres: implications for students with complex communication needs.

Purpose: This study examined the vocabulary words and multiword sequences used by 124 typically developing kindergarten and 1st-grade students when they wrote about self-selected topics. The study extends previous research by examining the vocabulary used in different genres.

Method: A total of 457 writing samples were analyzed.

Words needed for sharing a story: implications for vocabulary selection in augmentative and alternative communication.

Background: This study examined the narrative vocabulary of typically developing children for the purpose of guiding vocabulary selection for children with complex communication needs.

Method: Eight children in their first year of schooling (aged 5 years 0 months to 5 years 8 months) and 10 children in their second year of schooling (aged 6 years 0 months to 7 years 2 months) generated story retell, personal, and script narratives. These were analysed using the Child Language Analysis (MacWhinney, 2008 ) program.

The vocabulary of beginning writers: implications for children with complex communication needs.

One of the greatest challenges facing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) professionals is providing children with complex communication needs with access to the vocabulary that they need in order to develop mature language and literacy abilities. The purpose of this study was to analyze the vocabulary used by typically developing early-elementary children in the United States and New Zealand when they write about self-selected topics, in order to inform practices with children with complex communication needs. The children's writing samples were compared across school ages and countries.

Automatic word recognition: the validity of a universally accessible assessment task.

In the current study, the validity of a task designed to assess the automatic word recognition skills of persons with complex communication needs was investigated. A total of 78 students without communication impairments in kindergarten through second grade completed a standard automatic word recognition task requiring oral reading of words presented for less than 0.25 s.