Language Disorders:from Infancy through Adolescence:

Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Communicating

Rhea Paul, PhD, CCC-SLPProfessor, Yale Child Study Center

New Haven, Connecticut

Courtenay F. Norbury, PhD

Senior Research Fellow Department of Psychology Royal Holloway University of London London,England

pages 431-439

transcribing the speech sample

analyzing the speech sample

analyzing average t-unit length

analyzing syntactic forms

look at three aspects of the child's syntactic production:

(1)analysis of errors in morphological and syntactic form

omission of verb arguments and locative elements,and errors in re-arrangement of words to form sentence variant,such as questions,negative,and passive

sample score sheet for recording error analysis from free speech samples(p.432)

(2)use of complex syntax

(3)disruptions

complex sentence analysis

complex sentences are those that contain more than one verb phrase in embedded or conjoined multiclause utterances.

complex sentence types divided into early-and late-appearing groups(p.434)

early group (first appear in normal development when MLU is between 3 and 4)

simple infinitive(he has to move;she wants to get out)

full propositional complements(i think that we have some;pretend you said it)

simple wh-clause(i know what we could do;look how big i am)

simple conjoinings(close the gate so he can't get out;i eat ice cream 'cause i like it)

multiple embeddings(it's gonna start to fall;i think we gotta pour some water on it)

embedded and conjoined(it's not a bulldozer 'cause it doesn't have a scooper thing to scoop with;he wants to stay at home and i don't know why)

later group(first appear in normal development when MLU is between 4 and 5)

infinitive clauses with different subjects(i want it to go chug;dad made this for me to drive)

relative clauses(that's not the that i like;they're boys that i know)

gerunds(i felt like turning it;they can hear us talking on the recorder)

wh-infinitive(i know what to do;you know how to make one)

unmarked infinitives(watch me jump;help me pick these up )

Eisenberg elicitation technique for complex sentence production

the student is presented with a simple story,accompanied by appropriate toy figures,each story consists of several simple sentences so that sentences with embedded clauses are not modeled,the SLP  tells the story while simultaneously demonstrating the actions with toy figures,at the end of each story,the SLP states the sentence subject and main verb,then ask the child to complete the story and restarts the target sentence,producing just the subject with rising intonation,obligating production of the main verb,the examiner then has the child act out the unterance by saying "now show me"

example

SLP:S and P are sitting at the KK when M walks in,S looks tired,he looks for a chair but can't find one.

S wants P to stand up so P can sit down.

S says"stand up,P"

you finish the story :S...?(wants/tells P to stand up)

portion of a speech sample derived from an interview of a  9-year-old student

disruptions 

many descriptions of children with learning-language disorder refer to their disruptions in speech,or getting tangle up when they try to talk.

an important distinction to be made in examining disruptions is to differentiate between stalls(disruptions that interrupt the flow of speech,but do not change the lexical, morphological,syntactic,semantic,or phonological material of the sentence)and revisions (changes of lexical and morphological material and major changes in syntactic structure)

system for analyzing speech disruptions(p.436)

1.collect a speech sample,using a question or interview format

2.segment the sample into t-units

3.transcribe all words,portions of words,unglossable speechlike sounds ,and silent pauses of more than 2s in length

4.identify verbal mazes(false starts,repetitions,and revisions).count the number of the words not within mazes in the transcript,this is the number of unmazed words to be used to compute the percentage of disruptions in step 6

5.identify each disruption in the transcript and count the frequency of each type of disruption and the total number of disrunptions

6.divide the frequency of disruptions by the number of unmazed words in the sample(from step 4).multiply by 100 to get the percentage of occurrence of disrunptions per 100 unmazed words

7.determine whether there are more than seven or eight disrunptions per 100 unmazed words to dicide whether the student's speech is significantly"tangled"

8.look for unusual types of disruptions,also,inspect for patterns with respect to where disruptions occur.

disruption types

pauses(nonlexical,one-syllable filler vocalizatons,such as um or er)

repetitions

revisions

orphans

pragmatics

pragmatics in conversation

there are three major areas to think about

1.an appropriately broad range of communicative intentions,or functions of communication

2.whether the student can modify communicative style,or register,for different interactive situation

3.how the student can manage discourse turns,topics,and breakdowns.

communicative intentions

cognitive changes(an increased ability to monitor one's own behavior,to reason,to relate events and ideas to each other,and to engage in complex imaginative play.)

cognitive uses of language of young school-age children(p.437)

directive

self-directing(child accompanies actions with words;it won't turn,i need help;i'am gonna cut this clay into two,then i'll flatten it.)

other-directing(put yours here,like this;be careful,don't push it;you'll need another block to finish it;we're gonna have a crash!make yours go fast so they can crash good)

interpretive

reporting on present or past events(that's a cowboy;that's a sheriff;we went to the beach, and it was too cold to go swimming,so we picked up stones and seashells;i got one,but it's not like that one;that house is too small for this doll;we went on vacation,and i got chicken pox,the bob got them;the ice cream got soft 'cause we forgot to put it in the fridge;people don't like it if you take their stuff)

projective

predicting(my dad's gonna build me a playhouse;my mom'll be mad if i get home late;we could take a train or a car to my grandma's;if my thermos is broken,the milk'll leak all over my lunch;my zipper's broke;maybe my dad can fix it with a wrench)

empathetic(she doesn't like his teasing,and she's crying 'cause she didn't like it;she won't like that)

imagining(this will be the house;on toy phone:doctor,my baby's sick;this is such a big hospital,will may baby be ok;playing doctor:now,now,mrs.jones,i'll take good care of your baby;)

ralational

self-maintaining(watch me!i can do it;that's mine,give it back;i want red so i can draw a fire engine;i don't like your picture;give me that or i'll hit you)

interactional(i'm the one that's the mommy;please give me my car back now)

contextual variation

part of pragmatic skill is the ability to use the context of the communicative situation to decide how to say what we want to say.

assessing register variation

it is especially helpful in our remedial planning if we choose contexts that relate to the child's performance in shcool.

working with language learning disabilities

expressive activities

request ice cream

greet

persuade(說服）

request information

receptive activities

student requests a baseball from a friend

teacher requests a pencil from a student

student requests a cookie in the cafeteria 

student greets a teacher

principal greets a student

student greets a friend

student tries to get a teacher to lend a book from the class libary

student tries to get a friend to give him a ride on the back of his bike

student tries to get parent to increase allowance

student asks teacher to repeat page numbers of math assignment

student asks librarian to help find a book 

student asks friend for the time 

assessing presuppositional skill

have clients describe a sequence of pictures,each of which changes by one detail.

barrier games 

referential communication task

discourse management

the ability to orchestrate turns and topics and repair breakdowns in conversation constitutes the realm of discourse management.