Exploring Input Parameters in an Expressive Vocabulary Treatment With Late Talkers.

Purpose The aims of this study were (a) to assess the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment and (b) to compare treatment outcomes for expressive vocabulary acquisition in late talkers in 2 conditions: 3 target words/90 doses per word per session versus 6 target words/45 doses per word per session. Method We ran the treatment protocol for 16 sessions with 24 primarily monolingual English-speaking late talkers. We calculated a score for each child, compared treatment to control effect sizes, and assessed the number of words per week children acquired outside treatment.

Individual Versus Small Group Treatment of Morphological Errors for Children With Developmental Language Disorder.

Purpose This study examines the effects of enhanced conversational recast for treating morphological errors in preschoolers with developmental language disorder. The study assesses the effectiveness of this treatment in an individual or group ( n = 2) setting and the possible benefits of exposing a child to his or her partner's treatment target in addition to his or her own. Method Twenty children were assigned to either an individual ( n = 10) or group ( n = 10, 2 per group) condition.

Data-driven item selection for the Shirts and Shoes Test.

Purpose: The first stage of test development is the generation of a pool of potential items to be used in the assessment. Ideally, these items are then tested in the field on members of the population for which the assessment is intended. This initial analysis assures that tests build in validity at the level of the individual items.

Cross-situational statistically based word learning intervention for late-talking toddlers.

Purpose: To explore the efficacy of a word learning intervention for late-talking toddlers that is based on principles of cross-situational statistical learning.

Methods: Four late-talking toddlers were individually provided with 7-10 weeks of bi-weekly word learning intervention that incorporated principles of cross-situational statistical learning. Treatment was input-based meaning that, aside from initial probes, children were not asked to produce any language during the sessions.

Acquisition of the stop-spirant alternation in bilingual Mexican Spanish-English speaking children: theoretical and clinical implications.

The purpose of this study was to identify characteristics of typical acquisition of the Mexican Spanish stop-spirant alternation in bilingual Spanish-English speaking children and to shed light on the theoretical debate over which sound is the underlying form in the stop-spirant allophonic relationship. We predicted that bilingual children would acquire knowledge of this allophonic relationship by the time they reach age 5;0 (years;months) and would demonstrate higher accuracy on the spirants, indicating their role as the underlying phoneme. This quasi-longitudinal study examined children's single word samples in Spanish from ages 2;4-8;2.