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Purpose: This article is concerned with the growing body of international evidence indicating that adolescents in contact with the youth justice system are likely to have severely compromised oral language skills, receptively and expressively. A smaller, but persuasive, literature also points to poor literacy skills in this population. Language and literacy skills underpin academic, social, and vocational success (C. Snow, 1983; P. C. Snow, 2016; Snowling & Hulme, 2012) and are central to the professional expertise of speechlanguage pathology as a profession (P. C. Snow, 2016). Method: In this article, I review the epidemiology of youth offending together with research evidence concerning the language and literacy skills of this population. I outline the major practice and research implications of these findings for speech-language pathology as a profession, considering the "school-to-prison pipeline" via key domains of early years' reading instruction, young people's passage through the justice system, restorative justice processes, and design and delivery of language and literacy interventions for young people on youth justice orders. Results: Implications for speech-language pathology scope of practice and future research are outlined. Conclusions: Speech-language pathology as a profession has a significant role to play in advocating for vulnerable young people at each point in the school-to-prison pipeline. This includes strengthening the evidence base concerning speechlanguage pathology language and literacy interventions and lobbying governments to fund speech-language pathology services to address the complex communication needs of this population, both on community-based and custodial orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Measuring change is a common goal in clinical research, and comparing nonequivalent groups is sometimes a necessity in this context. Yet, evaluating change in this way can be problematic, and little consensus is reported on the best way to conduct such an evaluation. This tutorial presents the process of planning a clinical study designed to measure change in the context of a therapeutic intervention. Method: This article presents a hypothetical clinical research scenario and follows the process of study design from question formulation to interpretation of results. The presentation focuses on the use of gain score analysis in the context of nonequivalent participant groups, methods that may be particularly relevant to the clinical context. Conditions that are favorable to gain score use, as well as situations that are problematic for gain score use, are presented. Conclusions: In this article, the clinical research process is presented, following a logical process from formulation of a clear research question to selection of an appropriate research design to implementation of an effective analysis method. Gain score analysis is presented as an effective tool to measure change in clinical research, even with nonequivalent groups, given the correct conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Statistical learning--the ability to learn patterns in environmental input--is increasingly recognized as a foundational mechanism necessary for the successful acquisition of spoken language. Spoken language is a complex, serially presented signal that contains embedded statistical relations among linguistic units, such as phonemes, morphemes, and words, which represent the phonotactic and syntactic rules of language. In this review article, we first review recent work that demonstrates that, in typical language development, individuals who display better nonlinguistic statistical learning abilities also show better performance on different measures of language. We next review research findings that suggest that children who are deaf and use cochlear implants may have difficulties learning sequential input patterns, possibly due to auditory and/or linguistic deprivation early in development, and that the children who show better sequence learning abilities also display improved spoken language outcomes. Finally, we present recent findings suggesting that it may be possible to improve core statistical learning abilities with specialized training and interventions and that such improvements can potentially impact and facilitate the acquisition and processing of spoken language. Method: We conducted a literature search through various online databases including PsychINFO and PubMed, as well as including relevant review articles gleaned from the reference sections of other review articles used in this review. Search terms included various combinations of the following: sequential learning, sequence learning, statistical learning, sequence processing, procedural learning, procedural memory, implicit learning, language, computerized training, working memory training, statistical learning training, deaf, deafness, hearing impairment, hearing impaired, DHH, hard of hearing, cochlear implant(s), hearing aid(s), and auditory deprivation. To keep this review concise and clear, we limited inclusion to the foundational and most recent (2005-2018) relevant studies that explicitly included research or theoretical perspectives on statistical or sequential learning. We here summarize and synthesize the most recent and relevant literature to understanding and treating language delays in children using cochlear implants through the lens of statistical learning. Conclusions: We suggest that understanding how statistical learning contributes to spoken language development is important for understanding some of the difficulties that children who are deaf and use cochlear implants might face and argue that it may be beneficial to develop novel language interventions that focus specifically on improving core foundational statistical learning skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide a tutorial on statistical learning and its role in learning to spell and to discuss the implications of the research for educators. Method: The tutorial begins with a discussion of statistical learning and its characteristics. It then discusses research on how statistical learning plays out in learning to spell, how spelling should be taught, and similarities and differences among learners. The focus is on the learning of English, although studies of other alphabetic writing systems are also considered. Research shows that, from an early age, children use their statistical learning skills to learn about the visual characteristics of written words. Children also use their statistical learning skills to help learn about the relations between visual units and units of language, supplementing what they are explicitly taught in school. Conclusion: Statistical learning plays an important role in learning to spell, and this can help to explain why some aspects of spelling are more difficult to learn than others. If children are to learn to spell effectively and efficiently, structured instruction is also important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Over the last 2 decades, research on statistical learning has demonstrated its importance in supporting language development. Notably, most of the research to date has focused on monolingual populations (or has not reported the language background of participants). Several recent studies, however, have begun to focus on the impact of bilingualism on statistical learning. To date, the results have been quite mixed, with a handful of studies finding differences between monolinguals and bilinguals and several other studies reporting no differences. Thus, the purpose of this manuscript is to review the literature to date on how bilingualism impacts statistical learning abilities. Method: We review the contemporary literature, organized by the age of participants and by task when relevant. Conclusions: We note that there are many discrepant findings within this nascent field, although some trends have emerged. For instance, differences in performance may be attributed to factors such as age of acquisition. However, we note that the state of the field does not yet permit firm clinical recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Statistical learning research seeks to identify the means by which learners, with little perceived effort, acquire the complexities of language. In the past 50 years, numerous studies have uncovered powerful learning mechanisms that allow for learning within minutes of exposure to novel language input. Method: We consider the value of information from statistical learning studies that show potential for making treatment of language disorders faster and more effective. Results: Available studies include experimental research that demonstrates the conditions under which rapid learning is possible, research showing that these findings apply to individuals with disorders, and translational work that has applied learning principles in treatment and educational contexts. In addition, recent research on memory formation has implications for treatment of language deficits. Conclusion: The statistical learning literature offers principles for learning that can improve clinical outcomes for children with language impairment. There is potential for further applications of this basic research that is yet unexplored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this tutorial is to explain how learning to read can be thought of as learning statistical regularities and to demonstrate why this is relevant for theory, modeling, and practice. This tutorial also shows how triangulation of methods and cross-linguistic research can be used to gain insight. Method: The impossibility of conveying explicitly all of the regularities that children need to acquire in a deep orthography, such as English, can be demonstrated by examining lesser-known probabilistic orthographic cues to lexical stress. Detection of these kinds of cues likely occurs via a type of implicit learning known as statistical learning (SL). The first part of the tutorial focuses on these points. Next, studies exploring how individual differences in the capacity for SL relate to variability in word reading accuracy in the general population are discussed. A brief overview of research linking impaired SL and dyslexia is also provided. The final part of the tutorial focuses on how we might supplement explicit literacy instruction with implicit learning methods and emphasizes the value of testing the efficacy of new techniques in the classroom. The basic and applied research reviewed here includes corpus analyses, behavioral testing, computational modeling, and classroom-based research. Although some of these methods are not commonly used in clinical research, the depth and breadth of this body of work provide a compelling case for why reading can be thought of as SL and how this view can inform practice. Conclusion: Implicit methods that draw on the principles of SL can supplement the much-needed explicit instruction that helps children learn to read. This synergy of methods has the potential to spark innovative practices in literacy instruction and remediation provided by educators and clinicians to support typical learners and those with developmental disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examined whether children and adults with developmental language disorder (DLD) could use distributional information in an artificial language to learn about grammatical category membership similarly to their typically developing (TD) peers and whether developmental differences existed within and between DLD and TD groups. Method: Sixteen children ages 7-9 with DLD, 26 agematched TD children, 17 college students with DLD, and 17 TD college students participated in this task. We used an artificial grammar learning paradigm in which participants had to use knowledge of category membership to determine the acceptability of test items that they had not heard during a training phase. Results: Individuals with DLD performed similarly to TD peers in distinguishing grammatical from ungrammatical combinations, with no differences between age groups. The order in which items were heard at test differentially affected child versus adult participants and showed a relation with attention and phonological working memory as well. Conclusion: Differences in ratings between grammatical and ungrammatical items in this task suggest that individuals with DLD can form grammatical categories from novel input and more broadly use distributional information. Differences in order effects suggest a developmental timeline for sensitivity to updating distributional information.S [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In a previous article, we reported that beginning treatment for regular past tense -ed with certain types of verbs led to greater generalization in children with developmental language disorder than beginning treatment with other types of verbs. This article provides updated data from that study, including the addition of data from 3 children, results from naturalistic language samples, and data from a third time point. Method: Twenty 4- to 9-year-old children with developmental language disorder (10 per condition) were randomly assigned to receive language intervention in which the verbs used to teach regular past tense -ed were manipulated. Half received easy first intervention, beginning with highly frequent, telic, phonologically simple verbs, and half received hard first intervention, beginning with less frequent, atelic, and phonologically complex verbs. The design used a train-tocriterion approach, with children receiving up to 36 visits. Performance was assessed using elicited production probes and language samples before intervention, immediately following intervention and 6-8 weeks later. Results: Children in the hard first group showed greater gains on the use of regular past tense -ed in both structured probes (at immediate post only) and in language samples (at both immediate and delayed post). Gains attributable to therapy were not observed in untreated morphemes. Conclusions: This study suggests that the choice of therapy materials, with an eye on the role that treatment stimuli play in generalization, is important for treatment efficacy. Clinicians should consider early selection of atelic, lower-frequency, phonologically complex verbs when teaching children to use regular past tense -ed. Further work expanding this to other morphemes and a larger population is needed to confirm this finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Our goal was to investigate whether preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can begin to learn new word meanings by attending to the linguistic contexts in which they occur, even in the absence of visual or social context. We focused on verbs because of their importance for subsequent language development. Method: Thirty-two children with ASD, ages 2;1-4;5 (years; months), participated in a verb-learning task. In a betweensubjects design, they were randomly assigned to hear novel verbs in either transitive or intransitive syntactic frames while watching an unrelated silent animation or playing quietly with a toy. In an eye-tracking test, they viewed two video scenes, one depicting a causative event (e.g., boy spinning girl) and the other depicting synchronous events (e.g., boy and girl waving). They were prompted to find the referents of the novel verbs, and their eye gaze was measured. Results: Like typically developing children in prior work, children with ASD who had heard the verbs in transitive syntactic frames preferred to look to the causative scene as compared to children who had heard intransitive frames. Conclusions: This finding replicates and extends prior work on verb learning in children with ASD by demonstrating that they can attend to a novel verb's syntactic distribution absent relevant visual or social context, and they can use this information to assign the novel verb an appropriate meaning. We discuss points for future research, including examining individual differences that may impact success and contrasting social and nonsocial word-learning tasks directly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this epilogue is to synthesize the main points of the articles in this issue on statistical learning for clinicians. These points can be used to guide practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To provide a personal perspective on auditory processing disorder (APD), with reference to the recent clinical forum on APD and the needs of clinical speech-language pathologists and audiologists. Method: The Medical Research Council-Institute of Hearing Research (MRC-IHR) has been engaged in research into APD and auditory learning for 8 years. This commentary is informed by and describes that and other research. Results: Currently, APD is ill defined, and training-based interventions appear to have limited effectiveness. However, there remains a huge clinical and caregiver appetite for evidence-based information about children's listening difficulties and how they might be managed. MRC-IHR research suggests that both the problem and the solution revolve around auditory cognition and, in particular, working memory and attention. Children who are poor listeners tend to have a range of cognitive difficulties. But, results of training studies within and beyond auditory science indicate that training primarily influences sustained attention (focus) rather than more basic sensory detection or discrimination. Conclusion: Providing logical and rigorous scientific information on the nature and alleviation of listening difficulties in children should remain a high priority for speech, language, and hearing research. We should be optimistic that collaboration between clinicians and researchers will result in much greater understanding and improved management of listening disorders in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This article proposes some recommendations to enable clinicians to balance certainty and uncertainty when evaluating the currency and effectiveness of their treatment approaches. Method: I offer the following advice: (a) Question the authority of the information previously learned in one's career; (b) be cognizant of what we do not yet know about best clinical practice; (c) understand that knowledge of "best practices" is both temporary and relative; (d) enable access to new information by the use of electronic alerts; (e) be flexible in reading new clinical reports, keeping an open mind as to their value; (f ) get the clinically relevant details of new approaches by reading the full reports; and (g) employ, and then evaluate the outcomes of, new approaches used in treating individuals on our caseload. Results: Examples are provided to show that proactive participation in research-alert programs can enable clinicians to access emerging, clinically relevant information, some of which is controversial. Staying abreast of such information is more efficient than performing guided searches for information as challenging cases arise. Conclusions: Applications of these recommendations should enable practicing clinicians to entertain new, clinically useful concepts while not taxing the limited time that clinicians typically have to engage in continuing education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: I provide alternative views to Kamhi's (2011) assertion that clinical practice cannot be scientific. I also discuss how the field of communication sciences and disorders might encourage scientific thinking about clinical practices in researchers and clinicians. Method: Kamhi's three main points for why clinical practice cannot be scientific are discussed, and alternate perspectives are offered. Results: Clinicians and clinical practice can be scientific and can contribute to changes in scientific orthodoxy. Conclusion: Science is an attitude that needs to be instilled in future researchers and clinicians during their educational programs. Model clinical scientists should be used as role models when educating these individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the problem of stuttering in school-age children. It states that a speech-language pathologist (SLP) trains the child's parent to identify fluent utterances in the child's conversational speech and to reinforce those utterances with frequent praise. It also informs about the studies which have been conducted and designed for comparing the effectiveness of different approaches to the treatment of stuttering in school-age children.