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Purpose: Language sample analysis (LSA) provides many benefits for assessing, identifying therapy goals, and monitoring the progress of children with language disorders. Despite these widely recognized advantages, previous surveys suggest the declining use of LSA by speech-language pathologists (SLPs). This study aimed to provide updates on clinical LSA use following the recent introduction of two new LSA protocols, namely, the Sampling Utterances and Grammatical Analysis Revised (SUGAR) protocol and the Computerized Language Analysis KIDEVAL program. Method: Survey data from SLPs practicing in the United States (N = 337) were used to examine rates of LSA use, methods, and protocols. Factors predicting LSA use and reported facilitators and barriers were also examined. Results: Results indicated that 60% of SLPs used LSA in the past year. LSA skill level, training, and serving preschool or elementary school children predicted LSA use, whereas workplace, caseload, and years of experience were not significant predictors. Most SLPs reported using self-designed LSA protocols (62%), followed by Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (23%) and SUGAR (12%) protocols. SLPs who did not use LSA reported limited time (74%), limited resources (59%), and limited expertise (41%) as barriers and identified additional training on LSA computer programs (52%) and access to automatic speech recognition programs (49%) as facilitators to their adoption of LSA. Conclusions: Reported rates of LSA use and methods were consistent with previous survey findings. This study's findings highlight the ongoing needs for more extensive preprofessional training in LSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underlying deficits in inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity might contribute to suboptimal test-taking behaviours during language assessments that can lead to diagnostic errors. Considerations of potential medication effects on estimates of children's nonword repetition, sentence recall, tense-marking, and narrative abilities are warranted given long-standing enthusiasm for these indices to serve as clinical markers for developmental language disorder (DLD). A battery consisting of 1 nonverbal, 1 reading, and 6 verbal measures was administered twice to 26 children (6–9 years) with independently diagnosed combined-type attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). All participants had been prescribed stimulant medications for the management of their ADHD symptoms and were assessed off- and on-medication, with order counter-balanced across participants. Half of the participants had concomitant DLD. Examiners were unaware of children's clinical status during assessments or when they were testing children who had received medication. Effect sizes were calculated for each measure. Significant score differences indicating a beneficial impact of stimulant medications on children's performances were observed on the recalling sentences subtest of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals and the Picture Peabody Vocabulary Test. Adjustments may be needed when speech language pathologists use sentence recall or receptive vocabulary measures to make diagnostic decisions with children who have ADHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Both developmental language disorder (DLD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) represent relatively common and chronic neurodevelopmental conditions associated with increased risk for poor academic and interpersonal outcomes. Reports of common co-occurrence suggest these neurodevelopmental disruptions might also be linked. Most of the data available on the issue have been based on case-control studies vulnerable to ascertainment and other biases. Method: Seventy-eight children, representing four neurodevelopmental profiles (DLD, ADHD, co-occurring ADHD + DLD, and neurotypical development), were administered a battery of psycholinguistic tests. Parents provided standardized ratings of the severity of their children's inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and executive function symptoms. Examiners were blinded to children's clinical status. Group differences, correlations, and best subset regression analyses were used to examine potential impacts of children's ADHD symptoms on their psycholinguistic abilities. Results: For children with DLD, significant links between their ADHD symptoms and psycholinguistic abilities were limited to the contributions of elevated hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms to lower pragmatic abilities. For children without DLD, inattention symptoms contributed to lower levels of performance in pragmatic, sentence recall, receptive vocabulary, and narrative abilities. Discussion: Links among children's ADHD symptoms and their psycholinguistic abilities were different for children with and without DLD. Implications for the provision of clinical services are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Developmental language disorder (DLD) is an underidentified neurodevelopmental disorder that affects, on average, one out of 11 kindergarten-age children (ages 4-6 years). Children with DLD can face academic, behavioral, psychiatric, emotional, and social challenges. Universal screening is seen as an effective way for public school districts to increase DLD identification rates. However, little is known about factors impacting implementation of schoolbased universal screenings for DLD. We partnered with a large suburban school district in the Intermountain West region of the United States to gather detailed perspectives from school personnel regarding the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of universal screening in their district. Method: Using a two-phase mixed-methods design, we first conducted focus groups to identify potential barriers and facilitators to universal screening. We then used the qualitative data from the first phase to develop a 20-item survey to assess agreement with the focus group results among a wider group of district speech-language pathologists and kindergarten teachers from the school district. Results: Our survey showed moderate levels of agreement with our focus group results. In particular, school personnel showed high levels of support for universal screening for DLD, with interesting interplay across various factors: (a) the negative impact of unmanageable workload on personnel under both referral- and universal-based identification formats, (b) the preference for paraprofessionals to administer screenings, (c) the role that Response to Intervention programs may play in offsetting workloads associated with universal screenings, and (d) the need for increased awareness and education about child language development and impairment among general education teachers and the public. Conclusion: Recommendations for incorporating these factors into more useful and applicable collaborative research-based efforts are presented. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23661876 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language disorders are frequently comorbid with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), a second attention disorder, may potentially explain some of the links between language disorders and ADHD. In this study we examined the psycholinguistic abilities of 207 children (mean age 7;10) with and without clinically significant levels of SCT symptoms to determine the degree to which symptoms of language disorder co-occur in cases of SCT. Analyses of children's tense-marking, nonword repetition, and sentence recall indicated that deficits in these areas were not associated with SCT. Instead, SCT appears to be more closely aligned with features of social (pragmatic) communication disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Researchers estimate the prevalence of developmental language disorder (DLD) in 5-year-olds to be between 7% and 12%. Current identification systems in public schools typically favor referral identification formats over targeted or universal screenings. Public schools face unique challenges when assessing the value of screening measures for DLD that include real-world considerations such as administration, time, and resource constraints. This study used the positive predictive value (PPV) of the Redmond Sentence Recall (RSR) to assess its fidelity when administered by special education paraprofessionals. Our obtained PPV was compared across three areas: (a) previous studies that have utilized the RSR, (b) rates extrapolated from the participating school district’s preexisting referral system from a previous study, and (c) expectations based on DLD prevalence. Method: Language screenings were conducted in two elementary schools using the RSR administered by school-based paraprofessionals trained on the screener protocol. One hundred sixty-four kindergarten students (age range: 5–6 years) were screened. Confirmatory testing was completed on all students who failed the screener. Results: Of the 164 students screened, 19 failed the RSR (11.5%), and 14 met criteria (8.5%) for DLD (PPV = .74). Our PPV was similar to previously published studies that utilized the RSR using research assistants and was higher than the PPV associated with teacher-based referrals from the participating school district. Conclusion: The RSR represents a potentially useful screener for identifying children at risk for previously unidentified language disorders in public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Language sample analysis (LSA) represents an ecologically valid method for diagnosing, identifying goals, and measuring progress in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). LSA is, however, time consuming. The purpose of this study was to determine the length of sample needed to obtain reliable LSA measures for children in kindergarten and first grade with typical language (TL) and DLD using automated analyses from the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts software. Method: Play-based conversational language samples collected on kindergarten to first-grade children with TL (n = 21) and DLD (n = 21) from a communitybased sample were analyzed. Eight LSA measures were calculated from 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 10-min sample cuts and compared to 20-min samples for reliability. Results: Reliability estimates were similar for the TL and DLD groups except for errors and omissions, which showed overall higher levels of reliability in the DLD group and reached acceptable levels at 3 min. Percent grammatical utterances were reliable at 7 min in the DLD group and not reliable in shorter samples in the TL group. The subordination index was reliable at 10 min for both groups. Number of different words reached acceptable reliability at the 3-min length for the DLD group and at the 10-min length for the TL group. Utterances and words per minute were reliable at 3 min and mean length of utterance at 7 min in both groups. Conclusions: Speech-language pathologists can obtain reliable LSA measures from shorter, 7-min conversational language samples from kindergarten to firstgrade children with DLD. Shorter language samples may encourage increased use of LSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Estimates of the expected co-occurrence rates of idiopathic language disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) provide a confusing and inconsistent picture. Potential sources for discrepancies considered so far include measurement and ascertainment biases (Redmond, 2016a, 2016b). In this research symposium forum article, the potential impact of applying different criteria to the observed co-occurrence rate is examined through an appraisal of the literature and an empirical demonstration. Method: Eighty-five cases were selected from the Redmond, Ash, et al. (2019) study sample. Standard scores from clinical measures collected on K-3rd grade students were used to assign language impairment status, nonverbal impairment status, social (pragmatic) communication disorder status, and ADHD status. Criteria extrapolated from the specific language impairment (Stark & Tallal, 1981), developmental language disorder (Bishop et al., 2017), and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition language disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) designations were applied. Results: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition language disorder designation and its separation of language disorder from the social (pragmatic) communication disorder designation provided the clearest segregation of idiopathic language deficits from elevated ADHD symptoms, showing only a 2% co-occurrence rate. In contrast, applying the broader developmental language disorder designation raised the observed co-occurrence rate to 22.3%. The specific language impairment designation yielded an intermediate value of 16.9%. Conclusions: Co-occurrence rates varied as a function of designation adopted. The presence of pragmatic symptoms exerted a stronger influence on observed co-occurrence rates than low nonverbal abilities. Impacts on clinical management and research priorities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventeen years ago, Redmond reviewed five standardized behavioral rating scales and identified several aspects of their design that made them prone to mischaracterize language impairments as socioemotional behavioral disorders. The purpose of this report is to provide an update and extension of the original audit. We consulted test manuals to evaluate: (1) representation of children with language impairments in their standardization samples; (2) presence of language, or academic items within their inventories; (3) accommodations for administering the measure to children with language impairments; and (4) procedures for identifying inordinately punitive ratings. Overlapping language and academic symptoms continued to be a problem across current behavioral rating scales. Improvements since Redmond occurred in the representation of children with language impairments in standardization samples and in procedures for identifying inordinately punitive ratings. We discuss implications for clinical assessment, research programs, and instrument development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Measures of linguistic processing and grammatical proficiency represent strong candidates for adaptation into language screeners for early elementary students. One key barrier, however, has been the lack of consensus around the preferred reference standard for assigning affected status. Diagnostic accuracies associated with sentence recall and past tense marking index measures were examined relative to 5 different reference standards of language impairment: receipt of language services, clinically significant levels of parental concern, low performance on language measures, a composite requiring at least 2 of these indicators, and a composite requiring convergence across all indicators. Method: One thousand sixty grade K-3 students participated in school-based language screenings. All students who failed the screenings and a random sampling of those who passed were invited to participate in confirmatory assessments. The community-based sample was supplemented by a clinical sample of 58 students receiving services for language impairment. Two hundred fifty-four students participated in confirmatory testing. Examiners were naive to participants' status. Results: Diagnostic accuracies for the sentence recall and past tense marking index measures varied across the different reference standards (areas under receiver operating characteristic curves: .67-.95). Higher levels of convergence occurred with reference standards based on behavioral measures. When affected status was defined by receipt of services and/or parental ratings, cases presented with higher levels of performance on the language measures than when affected status was based on behavioral criteria. Conclusion: These results provide additional support for the adaptation of sentence recall and past tense marking to screen for language impairments in early elementary students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Relative lengths of the index (2D) and ring (4D) fingers in humans represent a retrospective biomarker of prenatal hormonal exposures. For this reason, the 2D:4D digit ratio can be used to investigate potential hormonal contributions to the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders. This study tested potential group differences in 2D:4D digit ratios in a sample of boys with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) and examined the strength of associations between 2D:4D digit ratio and a battery of verbal and nonverbal measures. Method: A group of 29 boys affected by DLD and a group of 76 boys with typical language abilities participated (age range = 5;6-11;0 years). Scanned images were used to measure finger lengths. Language measures included the core language subtests from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003), a nonword repetition task, a sentence recall task, and the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (Rice & Wexler, 2001). Results: Significant group differences indicated lower 2D:4D digit ratios in the group with DLD. Modest associations were found between 2D:4D digit ratios and some Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals- Fourth Edition subtests. Conclusions: Prenatal hormone exposures may play a role in the etiology of some language symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The addition of social (pragmatic) communication disorder [S(P)CD] to the DSM-5 taxonomy has left clinicians and researchers searching for appropriate diagnostic measures. Factor analysis procedures examined the extent to which S(P)CD symptoms presented within the Children’s Communication Checklist-Second Edition (CCC-2) represented a unique construct and whether these factors were influenced by children’s sex. Parents of 208 children (males = 125 and females = 83) from a community-based sample completed the CCC-2. Two pragmatic scores from the CCC-2 were analysed as follows: the social interaction difference index (SIDI) and a pragmatic composite from the original CCC (PC-5). Factor analysis failed to find a unique factor structure for either pragmatic composite. Analyses uncovered different factor structures for the CCC-2 SIDI and PC-5 composites and for boys and girls. S(P)CD represents a complex combination of symptoms that are poorly differentiated from other language and socioemotional behavioural difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background. Language impairment (LI) risk is increased for perinatally acquired human immunodeficiency virus-infected (PHIV) and perinatally exposed to HIV but uninfected (PHEU) youth. This study evaluates the persistence of LI in these groups. Methods. The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals was repeated on participants of the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study Adolescent Master Protocol 18 months postbaseline. Regression models identified factors associated with change in standardized score (SC) and the resolution or development of LI. Results. Of 319 participants, 112 had LI at baseline. Upon re-evaluation, SCs were highly stable and changes were similar in PHIV (n = 212) and PHEU (n = 107) participants. Those with family history of language delays had a 2.39 point lower mean increase in SCs than those without, after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic factors and baseline LI status. Among PHIV participants, CD4 count,350 cells/mm³ was associated with lower mean SC change (4.32 points), and exposure to combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) or protease inhibitors (PIs) was associated with a higher mean SC change (5.93 and 4.19 points, respectively). Initial LI was persistent in most cases (78%); 20 new cases occurred (10%). Female sex was associated with higher odds of LI resolution. Among PHIV, duration and baseline cART and history of PI use were associated with LI resolution; higher percentage of detectable viral loads before baseline was associated with lower odds of resolution. Conclusions. The PHIV and PHEU youth are at risk for persistent LI, and family history of language delays was a risk factor for persistence of problems. Measures of successful HIV treatment predicted more favorable outcomes among PHIV youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a ubiquitous designation that affects the identification, assessment, treatment, and study of pediatric language impairments (LIs). Method: Current literature is reviewed in 4 areas: (a) the capacity of psycholinguistic, neuropsychological, and socioemotional behavioral indices to differentiate cases of LI from ADHD; (b) the impact of co-occurring ADHD on children's LI; (c) cross-etiology comparisons of the nonlinguistic abilities of children with ADHD and specific LI (SLI); and (d) the extent to which ADHD contributes to educational and health disparities among individuals with LI. Results: Evidence is presented demonstrating the value of using adjusted parent ratings of ADHD symptoms and targeted assessments of children's tense marking, nonword repetition, and sentence recall for differential diagnosis and the identification of comorbidity. Reports suggest that the presence of ADHD does not aggravate children's LI. The potential value of cross-etiology comparisons testing the necessity and sufficiency of proposed nonlinguistic contributors to the etiology of SLI is demonstrated through key studies. Reports suggest that children with comorbid ADHD+LI receive speech-language services at a higher rate than children with SLI. Conclusion: The ADHD context is multifaceted and provides the management and study of LI with both opportunities and obstacles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The empirical record regarding the expected co-occurrence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and specific language impairment is confusing and contradictory. A research plan is presented that has the potential to untangle links between these 2 common neurodevelopmental disorders. Method: Data from completed and ongoing research projects examining the relative value of different clinical markers for separating cases of specific language impairment from ADHD are presented. Results: The best option for measuring core language impairments in a manner that does not potentially penalize individuals with ADHD is to focus assessment on key grammatical and verbal memory skills. Likewise, assessment of ADHD symptoms through standardized informant rating scales is optimized when they are adjusted for overlapping language and academic symptoms. Conclusion: As a collection, these clinical metrics set the stage for further examination of potential linkages between attention deficits and language impairments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and communication disorders represent a frequently encountered challenge for school-based practitioners. The purpose of the present study was to examine in more detail the clinical phenomenology of co-occurring ADHD and language impairments (LIs). Method: Measures of nonword repetition, sentence recall, and tense marking were collected from 57 seven- to nine-year-old children. The performances of children with ADHD+LI status were compared with those of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical development (TD). Results: ADHD status had no independent detrimental impact on the affected children's LIs (SLI = ADHD+LI < TD). A modest positive correlation was found between the severity of children's ADHD symptoms and their sentence recall performance, suggesting a tendency for affected children who had higher levels of ADHD symptoms to perform better than those children with lower levels. Conclusion: These outcomes are difficult to reconcile with attention-deficit/information-processing accounts of the core deficits associated with SLI. Potential protective mechanisms associated with ADHD status are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The authors explored the cognitive mechanisms involved in language processing by systematically examining the performance of children with deficits in the domains of working memory and language. Method: From a database of 370 school-age children who had completed a grammaticality judgment task, groups were identified with a co-occurring language and working memory impairment (LI–WMI; n = 18) or specific language impairment (SLI) with typical working memory skills (n = 60) and matched control groups. Correct and incorrect use of grammatical markers occurred either early or late in sentence stimuli, imposing a greater working memory load for late-marker sentences. Results: Children with SLI showed a lower preference for grammatical items than typically developing controls, regardless of error marker position. Children with LI–WMI demonstrated a performance pattern modulated by error marker position: Their preference for grammatical items was lower than typically developing controls for late but not early marker sentences. Conclusion: This pattern of results suggests that there are distinct and dissociable impacts of working memory and linguistic skills on metalinguistic functioning through a grammatical judgment task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The authors explored the cognitive mechanisms involved in language processing by systematically examining the performance of children with deficits in the domains of working memory and language. Method: From a database of 370 school-age children who had completed a grammaticality judgment task, groups were identified with a co-occurring language and working memory impairment (LI–WMI; n = 18) or specific language impairment (SLI) with typical working memory skills (n = 60) and matched control groups. Correct and incorrect use of grammatical markers occurred either early or late in sentence stimuli, imposing a greater working memory load for late-marker sentences. Results: Children with SLI showed a lower preference for grammatical items than typically developing controls, regardless of error marker position. Children with LI–WMI demonstrated a performance pattern modulated by error marker position: Their preference for grammatical items was lower than typically developing controls for late but not early marker sentences. Conclusion: This pattern of results suggests that there are distinct and dissociable impacts of working memory and linguistic skills on metalinguistic functioning through a grammatical judgment task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-etiology comparisons provide important information that can help practitioners establish criteria for differential diagnosis and tailor interventions towards the source of children's difficulties. This study examined the extent to which parent rating scales of socioemotional behavioral difficulties differentiate cases of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from cases of specific language impairment (SLI), and typical development (TD). Parents of 60 children (7-8 years) completed the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) and the Conners Parent Rating Scale-Revised (Conners, 2004). Significant differences were observed between ratings provided for the children with ADHD and the children with SLI and TD across several scales which assessed behavioral and emotional difficulties. Most of the observed differences between ratings provided for the SLI and TD groups were not significant when nonverbal IQ was treated as a covariate or when syndrome scales were adjusted for the presence of language and academic items. In contrast, these adjustments had little impact on observed differences between the children with ADHD and the other groups. These results highlight important and clinically useful differences between the scope and the scale of socioemotional behavior difficulties associated with ADHD and SLI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The potential contributions of behavioral and verbal liabilities to social risk were examined by comparing peer victimization levels in children with specific language impairment (SLI) to those in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and typically developing (TD) children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Practitioners must have confidence in the capacity of their language measures to discriminate developmental language disorders from typical development and from other common disorders. In this study, psycholinguistic profiles were collected from 3 groups: children with specific language impairment (SLI), children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and children with typical development (TD). The capacity of different language indices to successfully discriminate SLI cases from TD and ADHD cases was examined through response operating characteristics curves, likelihood ratios, and binary logistic regression. Method: The Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (Rice & Wexler, 2001a), Dollaghan and Campbell's (1998) nonword repetition task, Redmond's (2005) sentence recall task, and the Test of Narrative Language (Gillam & Pearson, 2004) were administered to 60 children (7-8 years of age). Results: Diagnostic accuracy was high for all 4 psycholinguistic measures, although modest reductions were observed with the SLI versus ADHD discriminations. Classification accuracy associated with using the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment and the Sentence Recall task was equivalent to using all 4 measures. Implications: Outcomes confirmed and extended previous investigations, documenting high levels of diagnostic integrity for these particular indices and supporting their incorporation into eligibility decisions, differential diagnosis, and the identification of comorbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Practitioners must have confidence in the capacity of their language measures to discriminate developmental language disorders from typical development and from other common disorders. In this study, psycholinguistic profiles were collected from 3 groups: children with specific language impairment (SLI), children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and children with typical development (TD). The capacity of different language indices to successfully discriminate SLI cases from TD and ADHD cases was examined through response operating characteristics curves, likelihood ratios, and binary logistic regression. Method: The Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (Rice & Wexler, 2001a), Dollaghan and Campbell's (1998) nonword repetition task, Redmond's (2005) sentence recall task, and the Test of Narrative Language (Gillam & Pearson, 2004) were administered to 60 children (7-8 years of age). Results: Diagnostic accuracy was high for all 4 psycholinguistic measures, although modest reductions were observed with the SLI versus ADHD discriminations. Classification accuracy associated with using the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment and the Sentence Recall task was equivalent to using all 4 measures. Implications: Outcomes confirmed and extended previous investigations, documenting high levels of diagnostic integrity for these particular indices and supporting their incorporation into eligibility decisions, differential diagnosis, and the identification of comorbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Elevated levels of absenteeism have been reported for students receiving special education services, especially students with learning disabilities (LDs) and emotional disturbances (EDs). In contrast, little is known about absenteeism rates associated with students with communication disorders (CDs). Method: Archival records of student attendance for the 1997-2001 academic years from a mid-sized urban school district in the Intermountain West were used to examine absenteeism rates in students receiving services for CDs, LDs, and EDs. Two cohort samples were generated (K-4th grade and 5th-9th grade). Results: Students with CDs displayed absenteeism rates that were comparable to those of students receiving general education. Purpose: Elevated levels of absenteeism have been reported for students receiving special education services, especially students with learning disabilities (LDs) and emotional disturbances (EDs). In contrast, little is known about absenteeism rates associated with students with communication disorders (CDs). Method: Archival records of student attendance for the 1997-2001 academic years from a mid-sized urban school district in the Intermountain West were used to examine absenteeism rates in students receiving services for CDs, LDs, and EDs. Two cohort samples were generated (K-4th grade and 5th-9th grade). Results: Students with CDs displayed absenteeism rates that were comparable to those of students receiving general education. Significant group and group x grade effects were found. Students in the LD and ED groups displayed elevated levels of absenteeism, especially at Grade 9. Conclusion: The outcomes of this study support the characterization of the socioemotional concomitants associated with CDs as being typologically different and exerting a weaker influence on student's health levels than those associated with either LDs or EDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Although mean length of utterance (MLU) is a useful benchmark in studies of children with specific language impairment (SLI), some empirical and interpretive issues are unresolved. The authors report on 2 studies examining, respectively, the concurrent validity and temporal stability of MLU equivalency between children with SLI and typically developing children. Method: Study 1 used 124 archival conversational samples consisting of 39 children with SLI (age 5;0 [years;months]), 40 MLU-equivalent typically developing children (age 3;0), and 45 age-equivalent controls. Concurrent validity of MLU matches was examined by considering the correspondence between MLU and developmental sentence scoring (DSS), index of productive syntax (IPSyn), and MLU in words. Study 2 used 205 archival conversational samples, representing 5 years of longitudinal data collected on 20 children with SLI (from age 5;0) and 18 MLU matches (from age 3;0). Evaluation of growth dimensions within and across groups was carried out via growth-curve modeling. Results: In Study 1, high levels of correlation among the MLU, DSS, and IPSyn measures were observed. Differences between groups were not significant. In Study 2, temporal stability of MLU matches was robust over a 5 year period. Conclusions: MLU appears to be a reliable and valid index of general language development and an appropriate grouping variable from age 3 to 10. The developmental stability of MLU matches is indicative of shared underlying growth mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures of sentence recall and past tense marking were used to examine the similarities and differences between children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), children with specific language impairment (SLI), and typically developing (TD) children. Both SLI and ADHD group means for sentence recall tasks were significantly lower than the TD control group (SLI

Conversational indices of language impairment were used to investigate similarities and differences among children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and children with typical development (TD). Utterance formulation measures (per cent words mazed and average number of words per maze) differentiated the ADHD group from the SLI and TD groups (ADHD>TD=SLI). In contrast, measures of lexical diversity, average sentence length and morphosyntactic development (number of different words, MLU, and composite tense) differentiated the SLI group from the ADHD and TD groups (SLI

Children's productions of the affix-ed in past tense and past participle contexts (e.g., the boy kicked the ball vs. the ball was kicked) were examined in spontaneous conversations and elicited productions. The performances of 7 children with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared with those of 2 control groups of typically developing children (age matches, MLU matches). Children with SLI produced fewer obligatory contexts for both past tense and past participle forms than did the control children, and were more likely to omit past tense affixes. In contrast, few omissions of the past participle were observed across all 3 groups. Implications for theories regarding the morphological deficits associated with SLI are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several reports suggest that socioemotional disorders and language impairments frequently co-occur in children receiving special education services. One explanation for the high levels of co-occurrence is that limitations inherent to linguistic deficiencies are frequently misinterpreted as symptomatic of underlying socioemotional pathology. In this report, five commonly used behavioral rating scales are examined in light of language bias. Results of the review indicated that children with language impairments are likely to be overidentified as having socioemotional disorders. An implication of these findings is that speech-language pathologists need to increase their involvement in socioemotional evaluations to ensure that children with language impairments as a group are not unduly penalized for their language limitations. Specific guidelines for using ratings with children with language impairments are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standardized rating scales represent the most reliable method of identifying socioemotional behavioral problems in children with SLI. However, limited information exists on the situational specificity or stability of rating scales applied to this population. In Redmond and Rice (1998), we presented evidence of limited reliability and stability between ratings collected from teachers and parents during kindergarten and first grade. In this research report, we provide additional data on the same group of children over the early elementary period (kindergarten-second grade). The results indicate diminishment in teacher-reported behavior problems in most areas of socioemotional development from kindergarten to second grade and increasing congruence between teacher and parent ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports present mixed findings on the extent to which the development of receptive language skills in children with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI) is compromised by their difficulty with speaking (V. W. Berninger & B. M. Gans, 1986; D. V. M. Bishop, B. Byers Brown, & J. Robson, 1990; O. Udwin & W. Yule, 1990). In this study, grammaticality judgments were used to measure the sensitivity of 4 school-age children with SSPI to different morphological errors. These errors included violations of agreement between the subject and auxiliary verbs (e.g., she are falling), the marking of aspect (e.g., she is play the horn), and the marking of past tense on regular and irregular verbs (e.g., he jump, he fall, he falled). Performance of the participants with SSPI was compared to groups of typically developing children and adults. Results indicated that children in the SSPI and control groups made similar judgments. All groups showed high levels of sensitivity to agreement violations, aspect-marking errors, and tense-marking errors involving irregular verbs. Participants with SSPI had greater difficulty detecting tense-marking errors involving regular verbs. Implications for improving clinical assessments within this population are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which compared the understanding of irregular verb violations by children with specific language impairment (SLI) and those without SLI. Methodology; Results of the study; Discussion.

Purpose: Selecting targets for morphosyntactic intervention is a critical component of treatment planning. The complexity approach suggests that, by treating a complex morphosyntactic target, improvements will occur for the treated structure and for related, simpler structures. This study evaluated the efficacy of the complexity approach for treating morphosyntactic deficits by targeting a complex BE verb question structure for children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and children with Down syndrome (DS) and observing its impact on treated and untreated BE verb structures. We also explored whether etiology impacted our participants’ treatment responses. Method: Three participants with DLD and three with DS received treatment for the BE verb question structure in the context of a single-case multiple-baseline design across participants. Accuracy of production for the treated structure and untreated BE verb structures was measured across baseline, treatment, and posttreatment phases. Results: Treatment of the complex BE verb question structure resulted in change on the treated structure for three participants (i.e., two with DLD and one with DS). Generalization of treatment to untreated, related BE verb structures occurred for all six participants. Outcomes indicated participants from both etiologies benefited from treatment. Conclusions: This study provides evidence supporting the use of a complexitybased approach for selecting morphosyntactic treatment targets for children with DLD and children with DS. Additional research is needed to identify specific characteristics that may influence individual treatment responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study that compared two models of the relationship between socioemotional behavior and verbal abilities. Two interpretative frameworks for the socioemotional behaviors of children with specific language impairment (SIL); Social Adaptation model; Social Deviance model.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to generate a theory grounded in data explaining caregivers' understanding of their child's language disorder and the perceived role of speech-language pathologists in facilitating this knowledge. Method: This study employed grounded theory as a conceptual framework. Qualitative data were generated based on semistructured interviews conducted with 12 mothers of children who had received speech-language pathology services. Results: The following themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) Many mothers reported receiving confusing or irrelevant diagnostic terms for language disorder, (b) mothers of children with language disorders were distressed about their children's language problems, (c) mothers did not always trust or understand their children's speech-language pathologist, and (d) mothers were satisfied with the interventions their child had been receiving. Mothers described their children's language disorder using a total of 23 labels, most of which were not useful for accessing meaningful information about the nature of their child's communication problem. Generally, mothers reported they did not receive language-related diagnostic labels from speechlanguage pathologists for their child's language disorder. Conclusions: Two theories were generated from the results: (a) Lack of information provided to mothers about their child's language disorder causes mothers psychological harm that appears to be long lasting. (b) Difficulties in successfully relaying information about language disorders to parents result in negative perceptions of speech-language pathology. Implications and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports on the outcomes of an investigation designed to evaluate competing accounts of the nature of the grammatical limitations of children with specific language impairment (SLI) with a new comprehension measure involving well-formedness judgments. It is a follow-up to the longitudinal study of Rice, Wexler, and Hershberger ( 1998), which reported on the production of grammatical morphemes by young children with SLI and 2 control groups of children, one at equivalent levels of mean length of utterance at the outset of the study, the other of equivalent age. In this investigation, we report on grammaticality judgment measures collected from the same 3 groups of children over a period of 2 years For 5 times of measurement. It is the first longitudinal study of grammaticality judgments of children with SLI. The findings show that children's grammatical judgments parallel their productions: Children with S can make fine-tuned grammatical judgments to reject morphosyntactic errors they are unlikely to commit, whereas they accept morphosyntactic errors that they are likely to produce. The findings support the extended optional infinitive [EOI) account of morphosyntactic limitation based in underlying grammatical representations and do not support accounts of input processing deficits or production constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A subset of children with VNs generally exhibited a profile of attenuated self-regulation across all domains – behavior (i.e., impulsivity), emotion and cognition – than vocally normal controls. • Thus, diminished self-regulation may influence the development of VNs in some children with VNs as a potential risk factor. • Therefore, it is important for clinicians to understand the potential role of self-regulation in the management of children with VNs. : Vocal fold nodules (VNs) represent the most common cause of voice disorders in children. Phonotrauma related to chronic, repetitive, intense vocal activity is often cited as the proximate cause of VNs. However, diminished self-regulation (SR) may predispose some children toward extreme phonotraumatic voice use, thereby contributing secondarily to their development. This case-control study examined the association between features of SR and VNs in children. : Parents of children with VNs (N = 40, Age Mean = 7.5, SD = 2.03 years) and vocally normal, medical controls (VNCs; N = 40, Age Mean = 7.6, SD = 1.54 years) completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF2; Gioia, Isquith, Guy & Kenworthy, 2015), an inventory that evaluates components of SR in children. : Children with VNs, as compared with the vocally normal control group, were described as (i) impulsive (i.e., scoring significantly worse on the Behavior Regulation Index, BRI; P < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.86), and (ii) emotionally dysregulated (i.e., scoring significantly worse on the Emotional Regulation Index, ERI; P < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.81). : Diminished SR in some children with VNs may contribute to phonotraumatic vocal behaviors and potentially attenuate the effectiveness of voice therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]