The purpose of this study was to examine the potential of a well-developed assessment battery that takes into account African American English (AAE) culture. The battery used five language measures to compare AAE children with language impairments (LI) to AAE children who are typically developing. The literature review was quite extensive for the topic of assessment batteries. While there are many researchers who have looked at dynamic assessments, there is little research in culturally relevant assessments (Kayser, 1996; Lidz & Pena, 1996). Some researchers believe a new approach to an older task, such as the non-word repetition task, could be promising for the study of African American children (Campbell, Dollaghan, Needleman, & Janosky, 1997; Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998). Other researchers have also explored two other tests to make progress in the area of articulation and receptive vocabulary. The Arizona Test of Articulation Proficiency, Second Edition (Fudala & Reynolds, 1986) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT–III; Dunn & Dunn, 1997) both have revised scoring to better suit African American children. The University of Michigan has spent time researching the language development of typically developing African American children while measuring oral expression and comprehension. While these studies measure …show more content…
important factors for researchers to consider about African American children as a whole, there is not much research in the area of comparing African American children with language impairments to those who are typically developing. The study looked at the following research questions: 1.
Are the performances of African American children with language impairments statistically different from those of peers matched for chronological age or mean C-unit length on selected expressive and receptive language measures? 2. What patterns characterize language production and comprehension, and how do the children with language impairments compare to those who are typically developing? 3. What are the sensitivity and specificity of this set of measures for detecting language impairment and for avoiding misidentifications of African American children who are typically
developing? Seventy-two African American children from Detroit participated in this study. Out of the 72 participants, three groups were formed with one group having language impairments and the other two acting as control groups. The two control groups were matched with the language impairment group by their chronological age (CA) or by their C-unit length (MLCU). This assessment had a variety of measures therefore a variety of materials to help obtain data. To collect a language sample, clinicians used action figures, dolls, dolls, Fisher-Price, or Legos during free play. These language samples were transcribed and analyzed to obtain measurements from the first 50 intelligible C-units. For every child, these C-units were used to calculate Mean Length of Turn (MLT) or Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) as well as number of different words and syntactic complexity. The next task given to all three groups were to respond to Wh-questions while looking at two action pictures from the Bracken Concept Development Program. There were 72 possible points with full credit per question being 3 points. The final task given to the groups was the comprehension of active and passive sentences task. Ten pairs of action drawings were presented to the children with 30 spoken prompts. Data was scored based on the child’s ability to point to the correct picture based on the active and passive form of describing the action. The total possible score was 20 points with one point awarded if both passive and active answers were correctly given. A Turkey-HSD post hoc analysis revealed lower scores in the MLCU morphemes (MLCUm) as well as the MCLU words (MLCUw) scores in the LI group. While the number of different words varied among all the groups, the same analysis revealed lower scores in children with LI in both syntactic complexity and responses to Wh-questions. Individual performance profiles were used to see if the battery could distinguish children with LI from their typically developing peers. Researches used a visual comparison between the LI group and their paired CA group to see if the LI group scored lower on at least two out of the five tasks. According to the data, the battery had a sensitivity of 1.00 and a specificity of .86. While the first research question was answered in detail throughout the whole study, the second research question could not be answered in the study. The data showing differences between expressive and receptive language were the only section of the five measures that did not show lower scores in children with LI. The final research question was answered by stating the assessment was both sensitive and specific, and should help prevent the misidentification of African American children who are typically developing. The clinical implications of this study showed strong support that these five areas of measurement accurately identify children with LI to those who are typically developing. These measure are comprehensive and should be carried out in therapy services. The measures taken were gross and quantitative so a more in depth analysis of the nature of the disorders present will not be attainable. The subgroups of the LI group did not have statistical differences and may have altered the scores of the LI group overall if subgroups had been differentiated. The study was comprehensive and clear with no major grammatical errors.
In the case study, “Is This Child Mislabeled?” the reader is introduced to Serge Romanich, who is a third-grade Serbian refugee. Upon Serge’s enrollment in Oakwood Elementary, it was said that he barely knew any English and never started school due to his mother’s hospitalization and the Serbian war. Serge was placed into the Limited English Proficiency (LEP) program at his school, where he was soon labeled as a non-reader with no aptitude. Adding onto that, due to Serge’s inability to make academic progression and catch up, the faculty at Oakwood Elementary suggested to his mother, Byona Romanich, that Serge had a learning disability. According to the article, “On the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities, he scored at least 2 standard
McCleery et al. (2006) studied the speech sound development of minimally verbal and nonverbal children with ASD and compared their development to typically developing children who were matched for language production and comprehension skills. Their findings indicate that children with ASD, even those that are severely language delayed, show the same general consonant production patterns as typically developing children. Moreover, the production pattern of children with ASD is practically identical for sounds produced spontaneously and sounds produced in imitation....
Kapantzoglou, M., Restrepo, M., & Thompson, M. S. (2012). Dynamic Assessment of Word Learning Skills: Identifying Language Impairment in Bilingual Children. Language, Speech & Hearing Services In Schools, 43(1), 81-96. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2011/10-0095) Wagner, R. K., Francis, D. J., & Morris, R. D. (2005).
As most people know speech and language issues would only happen with children just learning to talk and tennagers in middle school to high school. The reasoning behind this is because most people don’t correct their children’s speech when they are first learning due to the fact that the parents or grandparents think it is to cute to correct, which only hurts the children more th...
Since countries and cities are different, it seems that it is difficult to compare different education systems. With the influence of the globalization, the social problems tend to be common problems in the world. Canada and China are in different education systems but still have the same problem with educational equity. With the period change and policies seems to be improve by the government in both countries. When facing with the ethnic minority communities, China used several methods to give privilege to the groups in order to improve their education level. For example, after 1977, the educational policy was more in favor of the minority groups by empowering certain ethnic regions with the ability to administer the exams in the local language
Culp, R. E., Watkins, R. V., Lawrence, H., Letts, D., Kelly, D. J., & Rice, M. L. (1991). Maltreated children's language and speech development: Abused, neglected, and abused and neglected. First Language, 11(33), 377-389.
For centuries African Americans have fought for equal rights, one of them being an opportunity for the chance to get an equal education. Many people believe that African Americans have an equal or better chance at getting an education than other students. This is not the case when in fact, it is actually harder for these three reasons: African American students tend to come from harsh, poverty stricken atmospheres. Shattered family lifestyles that make it difficult to pursue a higher education because they have not received the proper information. Secondly, just because African Americans are minorities does not mean that they receive a vast amount of government assistance or financial aid to pursue a higher education. Lastly, African American students do not receive the same treatment as other students when they attend predominantly white colleges and universities.
...sek J. (2009). Language Characteristics in Individuals with Down Syndrome. National Institutes of Health. pp.112-132.
The child’s lexical inventory is well developed. She has no troubles with finding words to express her thoughts. Not many words are repeated and that illustrates that she has a vast vocabulary to where she does not have to borrow words. She does not over or under extend the usage of her words.
Speech is dramatically affected from abuse and neglect. Over one third of physically abused children have language delays. (Oates 119) All aspects of language are affected. Written and oral language is affected. The area that children tend to exhibit the most difficulties with is pragmatics. They tend to be l...
...g the time period of being born and turning five, a lot of language development did not occur, as it was suppose to. With my hearing not being diagnosed, I could not pick up on a lot of sounds a normal hearing toddler could. I had a hard time saying my constants since they are a high frequency tone.
Recently in the United States, there has been a drive at both the state and national level to provide universal screening for newborns to detect hearing loss. Although the idea of a universal screening in newborns is a new phenomenon, research has examined the impact of early intervention and screening for children with hearing loss. “Most professionals in the field feel strongly that early identification of hearing loss and early implementation of intervention enhances the child’s social, communicative, and academic development” (Calderon, 1998, p. 54). With that, the two studies used participants in the same early intervention program and mainly focused on the importance of the age of enrollment. Furthermore, the age of enrollment was used to study the effect it had on the children after completion of the early intervention program. In the first study, the children’s speech, language, and auditory skills were evaluated when they exited the program. While in the second study, the evaluation was of the children’s language development at exit, subsequent language, academic, and social-emotional development after graduation from the program. These studies were able to provide additional support for the importance of early identification and intervention in language, academic, and social-emotional development.
Cognitive Development and Language Skills Development “Cognitive development underpins all the other aspects of development as children start to explore and make sense of the world around them. It is closely linked to the development of language and communication skills as children interact with the people around them.” There are many theories written on the subjects of cognitive development and language and communication. These theories vary in several ways, but they all seem to make the link between the too subjects. Childcare settings put these theories into practise in a lot of ways, sometimes without even realising it, just through conversation.
Lee, V. and Gupta, P.D. 1995. Children’s Cognitive and Language Development. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers in association with the Open University.
Further in this term-paper I am going to describe the stages in child language acquistion starting from the very birth of an infant till the onset of puberty.