Anthony D. Koutsoftas

Evaluating measures of global coherence ability in stories in adults

BACKGROUNDnDiscourse coherence is a reflection of the listeners ability to interpret the overall meaning conveyed by the speaker. Measuring global coherence (maintenance of thematic unity of the discourse) is useful for quantifying communication impairments at the discourse level in clinical populations and for measuring response to discourse-level treatments.nnnAIMSnThe aim was to determine feasibility of a four-point global coherence scale developed by the authors. Specifically, they were (1) to estimate measurement reliability of the four-point global coherence scale; and (2) to estimate construct validity for the four-point global coherence scale.nnnMETHOD & PROCEDURESnFifty cognitively healthy adults aged between 28 and 58 years participated in the study. Participants viewed and then told the stories depicted in two wordless picture books. Participants stories were orthographically transcribed and segmented into communication units (C-unit). Raters scored each participants story for global coherence using two global coherence scales (four- and five-point scales). Each C-unit received an individual score, then the mean global coherence score was computed, resulting in two mean global coherence scores for each coherence scale, one for each story, for all participants.nnnOUTCOMES & RESULTSnResults indicated high reliability estimates for the scale. In addition, construct validity, specifically face validity and convergent validity, was effectively estimated for using the four-point scale as a measure of maintenance of global coherence in stories told by cognitively healthy adults. Lastly, it was found that the wordless picture books elicited stories that are comparable and can be reliably interchanged as different forms to evaluate maintenance of global coherence.nnnCONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONSnThe assumptions that the measure is feasible were achieved and face and convergent validity were adequately estimated. Future investigations should consider estimating predictive validity, concurrent validity and discriminant validity of the measure.

Global coherence in younger and older adults: Influence of cognitive processes and discourse type.

ABSTRACT The purpose of the present research was to examine the influence of cognitive processes on discourse global coherence ability measured across different discourse tasks and collected from younger (n = 40; 20–39 years) and older (n = 40; 70–87 years) cognitively healthy adults. Study participants produced oral language samples in response to five commonly used discourse elicitation tasks and they were analyzed for maintenance of global coherence. Participants also completed memory and attention measures. Group differences on the global coherence scale were found for only one type of discourse—recounts. Across discourse elicitation tasks the lowest global coherence scores were found for recounts compared to the other discourse elicitation tasks. The influence of cognitive processes on maintenance of global coherence differed for the two age groups. For the younger group, there were no observed significant relationships. For the older group, cognitive measures were related to global coherence of stories and procedures.

Writing Process Products in Intermediate-Grade Children with and without Language-Based Learning Disabilities.

PurposenDifficulties with written expression are an important consideration in the assessment and treatment of school-age children. This study evaluated how intermediate-grade children with and without written language difficulties fared on a writing task housed within the Hayes and Berninger (2014) writing process framework.nnnMethodnSixty-four children completed a writing task whereby they planned, wrote, and revised a narrative story across 3 days. Children had extended time to produce an outline, first draft, and final copy of their story. Language transcription approaches were used to obtain measures reflecting writing productivity, complexity, accuracy, and mechanics, in addition to measures of planning and revision.nnnResultsnResults indicated that children with writing difficulties produced poorer quality stories compared with their peers yet were not significantly different across all measures. Children with typical development produced longer stories with better spelling accuracy. Writing process measures predicted significant amounts of variance in writing quality across the sample.nnnDiscussionnWriting should be considered as part of language assessment and intervention, whether as the sole language difficulty or alongside difficulties with speaking, listening, or reading in children with language-based learning difficulties. Implications for translation of research to practice and service delivery are provided.

Writing-Process Products of Fourth- and Sixth-Grade Children: A Descriptive Study.

This study examined developmental differences in written expression of intermediate-grade children across planning, writing, and revising products. This work is the first step in a programmatic line of research examining the utility of the assessment procedures toward formative writing assessment protocols. Eighty children in fourth and sixth grades produced a narrative writing sample whereby they planned, wrote, and revised stories over 3 days. Measures representing writing processes accounted for written productivity, complexity, accuracy, mechanics, and quality. Findings indicated that sixth-grade children outperformed fourth-grade children on a measure of syntactic complexity on first drafts but not final copies. Patterns of relationships among measures of interest were few and varied by grade. Findings from this study add to normative data on writing skills from a cognitive-linguistic perspective. Educational implications in relation to current nationwide curriculum are provided alongside future research directions.

Written cohesion in children with and without language learning disabilities

BACKGROUNDnCohesion refers to the linguistic elements of discourse that contribute to its continuity and is an important element to consider as part of written language intervention, especially in children with language learning disabilities (LLD). There is substantial evidence that children with LLD perform more poorly than typically developing (TD) peers on measures of cohesion in spoken language and on written transcription measures; however, there is far less research comparing groups on cohesion as a measure of written language across genres.nnnAIMSnThe current study addresses this gap through the following two aims. First, to describe and compare cohesion in narrative and expository writing samples of children with and without language learning disabilities. Second, to relate measures of cohesion to written transcription and translation measures, oral language, and writing quality.nnnMETHODS & PROCEDURESnFifty intermediate-grade children produced one narrative and one expository writing sample from which measures of written cohesion were obtained. These included the frequency, adequacy and complexity of referential and conjunctive ties.nnnOUTCOMES & RESULTSnExpository samples resulted in more complex cohesive ties and children with TD used more complex ties than peers with LLD. Different relationships among cohesion measures and writing were observed for narrative verse expository samples.nnnCONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONSnFindings from this study demonstrate cohesion as a discourse-level measure of written transcription and how the use of cohesion can vary by genre and group (LLD, TD). Clinical implications for assessment, intervention, and future research are provided.

Preschool teachers’ endorsement of instructional practices: an interprofessional exploration

Abstract Background: Preschool teacher’s instructional practices are one component of high-quality early education classrooms that have the potential to directly influence young children’s school readiness and success; therefore, the type and quality of instructional practices used by preschool teachers should be explored. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to expand our understanding of instructional practices reported by preschool teachers as most or least characteristic of their classroom teaching across three domains: classroom climate, emotional socialisation and language and literacy. Sample: Participants in the present study included 150 teachers from early educational settings across the state of Arizona. Design and methods: Teachers completed a demographic survey and Q-sort task. The Q-sort comprised 80 instructional practices that have been shown to influence children’s school readiness in terms of specific skills and later school outcomes. Results: Descriptive analyses revealed the least and most endorsed practices across and within the domains of interest. The key finding was consistent with previous research revealing that the most commonly endorsed practices were those that target children’s skills via the classroom climate. Conclusions: Implications for professional development and early childhood teacher preparation are discussed alongside the interprofessional nature of this research.