Cori Williams

Teacher Judgements of the Language Skills of Children in the Early Years of Schooling.

Language impairments are often associated with problems in educational attainments and in acquiring literacy, but speech therapy services to school-aged children are not universally available. If teachers are able to reliably identify those children whose language skills place them at risk, then the specialist services offered by speech and language therapists (pathologists) may be used in more productive ways. The current study compared teacher judgements with formal testing of general language ability and phonological awareness. Results indicate that teacher identification compared more favourably with formal test outcomes for pre-primary and Year 1 children than was the case when their judgements of kindergarten children were included.

Phonological processing skills in specific language impairment.

Abstract In order to provide effective intervention for children with specific language impairment (SLI), it is crucial that there is an understanding of the underlying deficit in SLI. This study utilized a battery of phonological processing tasks to compare the phonological processing skills of children with SLI to typically-developing peers matched for age or language. The children with SLI had significantly poorer performance than age-matched peers on measures of phonological representations, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, phonological short-term memory, and one measure of working memory. Of particular significance, the SLI group also demonstrated significantly weaker performance than language-matched peers on one measure of phonological representations, and one measure of working memory. The findings provide some support for a phonological processing account of SLI and highlight the utility of using tasks that draw on a comprehensive model of speech processing to profile and consider childrens phonological processing skills in detail.

The cultural appropriateness and diagnostic usefulness of standardized language assessments for Indigenous Australian children

Abstract Speech-language pathologists experience uncertainty about how to interpret standardized assessment results for Indigenous Australian children. There are risks for inappropriate diagnosis: both over- and under-diagnosis of language impairment may occur due to a convergence of linguistic features which causes difficulty in distinguishing between impairment and difference. While the literature suggests that standardized assessments are inappropriate for Indigenous Australian children, there is an absence of empirical documentation to show how Indigenous children perform on standardized tests of language ability. This study examined the performance of 19 Indigenous Australian children, aged 8;01–13;08, from one school on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fourth Edition, Australian Standardized Edition. Standardized scores were compared with teacher ratings of childrens oral language skills. Analysis showed poor alignment between teacher ratings and language assessment, and assessment scores were negatively influenced by features of Aboriginal English. Children rated with above average language skills presented with different linguistic profiles from the children rated with average and below average language abilities. The inappropriateness of current standardized language assessments for Indigenous children and the need for further research to guide appropriate assessment are discussed.

Verbal working memory in Specific Language Impairment: The effect of providing visual support

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) are known to exhibit difficulties on auditory working memory (WM) tasks. This study investigated the impact of providing visual support on childrens performance on an auditory WM task. Three groups of 18 children participated. The groups were children with SLI, age matched, and language matched control children. Participants completed 4 digit recall tasks using different combinations of auditory and visual input and output for a digits forwards (DF) recall condition in the first session and a digits backwards (DB) recall condition in the final session. The digit recall tasks accompany this manuscript and can be downloaded from http://www.informaworld.com/ijslp. For the DF tasks, the SLI and age matched groups recalled significantly more sequences when visual support was provided in input and output, and all groups showed a significant benefit from visual support for the DB condition. These findings provide further evidence that the provision of visual information supports working memory performance in children with SLI and typically developing children. This has implications for the support strategies currently used to assist children with WM difficulties.

Literacy skills of Australian Indigenous school children with and without otitis media and hearing loss

Abstract This study examined the relationship between reading, spelling, and the presence of otitis media (OM) and co-occurring hearing loss (HL) in metropolitan Indigenous Australian children, and compared their reading and spelling outcomes with those of their non-Indigenous peers. OM and HL may hinder language development and phonological awareness skills, but there is little empirical evidence to link OM/HL and literacy in this population. Eighty-six Indigenous and non-Indigenous children attending pre-primary, year one and year two at primary schools in the Perth metropolitan area participated in the study. The ear health of the participants was screened by Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre EarBus in 2011/2012. Participants’ reading and spelling skills were tested with culturally modified sub-tests of the Queensland University Inventory of Literacy. Of the 46 Indigenous children, 18 presented with at least one episode of OM and one episode of HL. Results indicated that Indigenous participants had significantly poorer non-word and real word reading and spelling skills than their non-Indigenous peers. There was no significant difference between the groups of Indigenous participants with OM and HL and those with normal ear health on either measure. This research provides evidence to suggest that Indigenous children have ongoing literacy development difficulties and discusses the possibility of OM as one of many impacting factors.

Dialectal grammatical differences in oral narratives of school-aged Indigenous Australian children

Abstract Purpose: Childrens oral language samples are regularly analysed in order to describe levels of language development and develop learning goals. However, diagnostic interpretation of language samples from Indigenous Australian children is problematic due to overlap between features of Aboriginal English and features of language impairment in the mainstream non-Indigenous population. Limited studies explore the use of Aboriginal English and its diagnostic impact. This research, therefore, describes the grammatical features of language samples from one group of Indigenous Australian children. Method: Participants were 19 children aged 8;1–13;4 from the same school in a regional city with 100% Indigenous enrolment. The Test of Narrative Language was administered, eliciting three oral narratives, and features of Aboriginal English grammar were coded. Result: Dialect density was highly variable and greater in the Verb Phrase than in the Noun Phrase or Clause Structure. High teacher ratings of oral language ability aligned with lower measures of dialect density and higher grammatical accuracy for Standard Australian English. Grammatical accuracy was frequently higher for Aboriginal English than Standard Australian English. Conclusion: Over-identification of language impairment was identified as a risk when evaluating the language ability of Indigenous Australian children.

Middle Ear Disease and Hearing Loss in School-Aged Indigenous Western Australian Children

Abstract This study investigated the occurrence of middle ear disease (MED) and hearing loss across age and season in urban and regional indigenous primary school children (aged 3 to 15 years) from Western Australia. It compares the occurrence of MED and concomitant hearing loss in the urban and regional cohorts. Tympanometry and audiometry were used to determine ear health and hearing status. MED (Type B and C tympanograms) was diagnosed in 125 (30.64%) out of 408 urban participants and 68 (15.52%) out of 438 regional participants. The urban cohort of participants had a significantly higher proportion of MED than the regional cohort. There was a significant negative relationship between age and MED where the disease was highest in the youngest age group in both cohorts. The study found there was a seasonal influence on the occurrence of MED in the regional cohort but not in the urban cohort. Hearing loss concurrent with MED was detected in 71 (60.17%) out of 118 urban participants and 41 (71.93%) out of the 57 regional participants. The study informs health and educational authorities about the need for ongoing screening for MED and associated hearing loss. Implications of these high proportions and future directions are discussed.

Identifying developmental language disorder in bilingual children from diverse linguistic backgrounds

Abstract Purpose: To investigate an assessment approach that incorporates a parent questionnaire (ALDeQ) and two language processing tasks (nonword repetition [NWR] and recalling sentences [RS]) administered in English to differentiate bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) from typically developing (TD) bilingual children. Method: Participants were 42 typically developing bilingual children (biTD) and 19 bilingual children with DLD (biDLD). Groups were matched for age (M = 5;10) socioeconomic status (M = 1,023 SEIFA) and length of exposure to English (M = 33.4 months). Children were given a NWR and RS task. Parents completed the ALDeQ. Result: BiDLD had significantly (p < 0.005) lower average scores than biTD on all three assessment tools. The ALDeQ provided the highest diagnostic accuracy (100% sensitivity, 95.2% specificity, area under the curve [AUC] = 0.991). Two other combinations also provided good diagnostic accuracy (above 80% sensitivity and 80% specificity): combination of ALDeQ and NWR; scores below the cut-offline on any combination of assessment tools. Conclusion: Correct identification of DLD among bilingual children using an all English approach is possible. This approach has the potential to provide a practical and evidence-based solution for English speaking speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with bilingual children.

Factors Affecting Language and Literacy Development in Australian Aboriginal Children: Considering Dialect, Culture and Health.

Australian Aboriginal children, in general, lag behind their mainstream peers in measures of literacy. This article discusses some of the complex and interconnected factors that impact Aboriginal children’s early language and literacy development. Poor health and historically negative socio-political factors are known influences on Aboriginal children’s participation and achievement in education. Cultural and dialectal differences are also considered in this article for the effect these variables may have on children’s learning, in terms of both the child’s ability to code-shift between dialects and the development of the educator–child relationship. The importance of this relationship is discussed, partly because of the valuable communicative interactions that are involved. These educator–child interactions allow children an opportunity to extend their oral language skills, which are essential precursors to literacy development. This discussion concludes with some suggestions for further research.

Speech and Language Development of Intercountry Adopted Children Aged 3 to 6 Years: An Explorative Study of Australian Parents’ Knowledge, Beliefs, and Experiences

This qualitative, explorative study provides an insight into intercountry-adoptive parents’ knowledge, beliefs, and experiences about their childrens speech and language development. Eleven parents who lived in Australia and adopted a child aged 3 to 6 years from an overseas country in the past five years completed an online questionnaire. Six consented to participate further in a semistructured interview. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to report on the parents’ experiences with their adopted children, the challenges they faced, the services they accessed, and their recommendations for future services. The results provide a direction for the development of evidence based service and support to meet the specific needs of this population.