Alison Crutchley

Concordance between teacher/therapist opinion and formal language assessment scores in children with language impairment

As part of a wider study, 242 children attending language units attached to mainstream schools were assessed on a number of formal language assessments. In addition, each childs teacher was asked to state whether, for each of four areas of language difficulty, the participant exhibited this impairment. The four areas were: articulation, phonology, syntax/morphology and semantic/pragmatic impairment. This report compares test results between children thought by their teacher or therapist to show each impairment and those not thought clinically to show the difficulty. Investigations into suitable cut-off scores for the tests used were also examined using level of agreement between the two modes of assessment as criteria. For articulation, phonology and syntax/morphology, teacher opinion was found to discriminate significantly on at least some formal tests. However, for children with semantic/pragmatic impairment, no tests used identified their problems. Furthermore, by use of 25th centile cut-off scores, 66% agreement levels between teacher and test groupings were found in all but the group with semantic/pragmatic impairments. The importance and limitations of analysis of teacher-test concordance is discussed as well as the current lack of suitable formal assessment material for semantic and pragmatic language impairment.

Bilingual children with SLI attending language units: getting the bigger picture

Bilingual children with speech and language difficulties are an under-researched group. The present paper intends to map out the field and contextualize findings from four years of research into a group of bilingual children attending primary age language units across England. Differences between the bilingual group and their monolingual peers are summarized, and underlying themes and issues in the research are explored. These include the identification and assessment of bilingual children with specific language impairments (SLI), parental involvement in the educational process, knowledge, attitudes and awareness of teaching staff and availability of provision in schools for bilingual children.

Professional Attitudes and Experience in Relation to Bilingual Children Attending Language Units.

Abstract A large‐cohort study looking at children with speech and language difficulties attending ‘language units’ across England identified a small subgroup of the cohort who were bilingual. Interview data were collected to try to shed light on differences found between this ‘bilingual’ subgroup and the rest of the cohort. Head‐teachers and language unit teachers were asked about levels of involvement of bilingual parents in school or unit life, about the level of provision available for bilingual children in the local education authority (LEA) and about the adequacy of this provision. Qualitative analysis of ‘themes’ indicated that differences existed between head and unit teachers in patterns of answers in all of these areas. However, relating these qualitative results to quantitative data from a questionnaire survey of English LEAs revealed that attitudes and knowledge also varied according to the location of the school (in a Greater London, metropolitan or non‐metropolitan LEA). It is thus suggested ...

Book Review: Investigations in universal grammar: a guide to experiments on the acquisition of syntax and semantics

rience, to keep its feet on the ground. I liked the non-polemical, genuinely exploratory tone of the book – the authors allow that no single model of development may be ‘correct’ and others, by exclusion, ‘incorrect’; they are not afraid to say that their evidence is incomplete and their arguments tentative. I do not agree with everything the authors say; here and there I think the arguments are muddled; I also think that the authors do less than justice to recent connectionist and dynamic systems models. But overall this book makes a substantial contribution to ways of thinking about development, and may in the future be seen as providing a turning point in discussions concerning the nature of mind and its origins in childhood.

Cambios educativos para niños con trastornos específicos del lenguaje: el proyecto nuffield

Resumen El presente articulo describe de modo resumido los datos que se han encontrado durante un proyecto de tres anos subvencionado por la Nuffield Foundation y realizado en el Departamento de Educacion de la Universidad de Manchester (AT251[OD] Educational Transitions of Language-Impaired Children). Se trata de un amplio estudio que investiga las experiencias educativas de ninos con trastornos especificos del lenguaje que a los siete anos de edad estan recibiendo educacion en clases especiales llamadas Cunidades de lenguajee (language units). Estas clases especiales se encuentran casi siempre dentro de colegios normales, asi los ninos con trastornos especificos del lenguaje (SLI) participan de una integracion social en la vida escolar, pero reciben un curriculum disenado para ayudarlos con sus problemas del lenguaje y por lo tanto est.n segregados educativamente. Especificamente estabamos interesados en saber que tipo de cambios educativos habia para estos ninos desde las clases especializadas de lenguaje en que encontraban hacia la escuela normal. Tambien nos interesaba saber el tipo de dificultades que los ninos con SLI presentan entre 7 y 8 anos de edad en cuando a habilidades verbales y no verbales y que problemas tienen en relacion con el aprendizaje del lenguaje.