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Purpose: This study examined the relationship between utterance length, syntactic complexity, and the probability of making an error at the utterance level. Method: The participants in this study included 830 Spanish-speaking first graders who were learning English at school. Story retells in both Spanish and English were collected from all children. Generalized mixed linear models were used to examine within-child and between-children effects of utterance length and subordination on the probability of making an error at the utterance level. Results: The relationship between utterance length and grammaticality was found to differ by error type (omission vs. commission), language (Spanish vs. English), and level of analysis (within-child vs. between-children). For errors of commission, the probability of making an error increased as a child produced utterances that were longer relative to their average utterance length (withinchild effect). Contrastively, for errors of omission, the probability of making an error decreased when a child produced utterances that were longer relative to their average utterance length (within-child effect). In English, a child who produced utterances that were, on average, longer than the average utterance length for all children produced more errors of commission and fewer errors of omission (between-children effect). This between-children effect was similar in Spanish for errors of commission but nonsignificant for errors of omission. For both error types, the within-child effects of utterance length were moderated by the use of subordination. Conclusion: The relationship between utterance length and grammaticality is complex and varies by error type, language, and whether the frame of reference is the child's own language (within-child effect) or the language of other children (between-children effect). Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.17035916, The purpose of this study is to enhance our understanding of the relationship between the length and complexity of an utterance and the probability of making an error at the [...]

Purpose: The general aim of this study is to enhance our understanding of the patterns of language growth in Spanish and English during the school years. In this study, we used a longitudinal retrospective approach to explore the growth of the percentage of grammatical utterances (PGU) in both Spanish and English in 2 groups of English learners (ELs): ELs attending English-only instruction and ELs attending Spanish-English bilingual instruction. Method: The participants included 1,080 ELs. ELs produced at least 3 story retells in both Spanish and English between kindergarten and 2nd grade. All stories were transcribed and coded for errors, and PGU was calculated for each story. Results: At the onset of the study, children showed higher PGU in Spanish and lower PGU in English. Growth curve analysis indicated that PGU in English improved over time, whereas PGU in Spanish declined in both instructional groups. However, those children who were in bilingual programs showed a slower rate of decline in Spanish PGU and a slower rate of improvement in English PGU. By the age of 9 years, children in English-only programs had approximately a Spanish PGU of 65% in Spanish, whereas children in bilingual instruction had an average Spanish PGU of 80%. The improvement in English PGU was steady with a small difference in the rate of growth benefiting children in English-only programs. Conclusion: The results of this study document a shift in language proficiency from Spanish to English during the school years. This study offers evidence of a temporary period of relatively low grammaticality in both languages that seems to be the result of a shift in proficiency from Spanish to English., Hispanics are currently the fastest growing population in the United States, and the projections indicate that this ethnic group will continue to grow in the years to come (U.S. Census [...]

Purpose: This study aimed to examine changes in English and Spanish morphosyntactic standardized scores over time in bilingual children. Method: One hundred bilingual children participated in this longitudinal study. The average age of the children at the beginning of the study was 5;11 (years;months). A subset of the participants was identified as children with developmental language disorder (DLD, n = 43). Children completed behavioral testing in Spanish and English at three time points over a period of 2 years. Growth curve modeling was employed to analyze longitudinal data. Results: Distinct patterns of Spanish and English language growth were observed. While the average standard score in English increased, the average score in Spanish decreased over time for both groups. Children with DLD showed persistent language difficulties in both Spanish and English over time in comparison to their peers. Conclusions: The results of this study provide evidence of a shift in language proficiency from Spanish to English for bilingual children with and without language disorders. This study also shows that bilingual children with DLD show a protracted but parallel growth in morphosyntactic skills in comparison to children without DLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to perform a comprehensive systematic review of the literature on voice-related patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures in adults and to evaluate each instrument for the presence of important measurement properties. Method: MEDLINE, the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and the Health and Psychosocial Instrument databases were searched using relevant vocabulary terms and key terms related to PRO measures and voice. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were developed in consultation with an expert panel. Three independent investigators assessed study methodology using criteria developed a priori. Measurement properties were examined and entered into evidence tables. Results: A total of 3,744 studies assessing voice-related constructs were identified. This list was narrowed to 32 PRO measures on the basis of predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Questionnaire measurement properties varied widely. Important thematic deficiencies were apparent: (a) lack of patient involvement in the item development process, (b) lack of robust construct validity, and (c) lack of clear interpretability and scaling. Conclusions: PRO measures are a principal means of evaluating treatment effectiveness in voice-related conditions. Despite their prominence, available PRO measures have disparate methodological rigor. Care must be taken to understand the psychometric and measurement properties and the applicability of PRO measures before advocating for their use in clinical or research applications., Voice disorders have an estimated point prevalence of 20 million (0.98%) in the United States (Cohen, Kim, Roy, Asche, & Courey, 2012b; Roy, Merrill, Gray, & Smith, 2005). Annual direct [...]

Purpose: Children with language impairment (LI) often perform below the level of typically developing peers on measures of both processing speed and working memory. This study examined the relationship between these 2 types of measures and attempted to determine whether such measures can account for the LI itself. Method: Fourteen-year-old children with LI and their typically developing peers participated in a wide range of processing speed and working memory tasks and were administered a comprehensive language test battery. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to compare 3 nested models designed to examine the dimensionality of the speed and working memory measures. A model that included a general speed factor was also evaluated. Results: The models meeting our evaluation criteria treated speed and working memory as separable factors. Furthermore, nonverbal as well as verbal processing factors emerged from these analyses. Latent variable regression analyses showed that each of the appropriate models accounted for 62% of the variance in the children's concurrent composite language test scores, with verbal working memory making the largest contribution. Conclusions: These findings shed light on the relationship among different types of processing and suggest that processing factors can contribute to the understanding of language disorders. KEY WORDS: memory, cognition, language disorders, The term language impairment (LI) is often applied to children exhibiting a significant deficit in language development without accompanying problems such as hearing impairment, neurological damage, or mental retardation. Because [...]

Purpose: To determine whether children with language impairment were slower than typically developing peers at age 14, and whether slowing, if present, was similar across task domains; whether differences in response time (RT) across domains were the same for children with specific language impairment (SLI) and nonspecific language impairment (NLI); and whether RT performance at age 9 predicted performance at age 14. Method: Fourteen-year-old children with SLI (n = 20), NLI (n = 15), and typical development (NLD; n = 31) were administered several linguistic and nonlinguistic speeded tasks. The children had received the same tasks at age 9. RT performance was examined. Results: Both the SLI and the NLI groups were significantly slower than the NLD group in motor, nonverbal cognitive, and language task domains, and there was no significant difference among domains. Individual analyses showed that most, but not all, children with SLI and NLI were slower than the NLD group mean. Slowing at age 9 and age 14 were moderately correlated. Conclusions: The results suggest that slow RT is a persistent characteristic of many children with language impairment; however, the nature of the relationship between RT and language performance requires further investigation. KEY WORDS: language functions and disorders, adolescents, experimental research, Children with specific language impairment (SLI) demonstrate language abilities significantly below what is expected for their age, but show no evidence of hearing impairment, frank neuropathology, autism spectrum disorders, or [...]

Purpose: Dysphagia occurs as a component of a wide variety of diseases and conditions. When unrecognized or poorly managed, dysphagia can result in malnutrition, volume depletion, and reduced quality of life, as well as aspiration, pneumonia, and death. This document focuses specifically on oropharyngeal dysphagia. The modified barium swallow study (MBSS) is a fluoroscopic motion study used to evaluate oropharyngeal anatomy and swallowing physiology in real time. It is typically performed by a speech-language pathologist together with a radiologist and often assisted by a radiologic technologist. Because oropharyngeal dysphagia has such a varied presentation, the guidance to diagnose and treat oropharyngeal dysphagia in the United States falls under the purview of several professional societies and organizations. However, a thorough review of available practice guidelines and appropriateness criteria issued to date reveals a deficit of up-to-date, comprehensive, evidence-based information on the diagnosis and evaluation of oropharyngeal dysphagia. Specifically, a lack of quality guidance on the ordering, performance, and reporting of the MBSS has hindered efforts to improve standardization and ensure quality continuity of care. Method: In 2019, a group with expertise in oropharyngeal dysphagia (speech-language pathologists, radiologists, and referring physicians) convened with the goal of specifying a core set of expert recommendations/best practices to achieve a high-quality MBSS. Results: Here, we present the results of the participants' discussions and provide consensus recommendations regarding ordering, performing, and reporting an MBSS. Conclusion: The overarching goal of this summary is to emphasize the need for and encourage the development of MBSS practice guidelines to support clinicians and patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines issues concerning the use of IQ tests for identifying children with learning and/or language disabilities. Weakness of the conceptual rationale for models suggesting that IQ directly influences the attainment of academic and/or language skills; Psychometric issues relating to the significance of an IQ/attainment difference score.