Corrin Richels

Utterance complexity and stuttering on function words in preschool-age children who stutter

UNLABELLED The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relation between utterance complexity and utterance position and the tendency to stutter on function words in preschool-age children who stutter (CWS). Two separate studies involving two different groups of participants (Study 1, n=30; Study 2, n=30) were conducted. Participants were preschool-age CWS between the age of 3, 0 and 5, 11 who engaged in 15-20min parent-child conversational interactions. From audio-video recordings of each interaction, every child utterance of each parent-child sample was transcribed. From these transcripts, for each participant, measures of language (e.g., length and complexity) and measures of stuttering (e.g., word type and utterance position) were obtained. Results of Study 1 indicated that children stuttered more frequently on function words, but that this tendency was not greater for complex than simple utterances. Results of Study 2, involving the assessment of utterance position and MLU quartile, indicated that that stuttering was more likely to occur with increasing sentence length, and that stuttering tended to occur at the utterance-initial position, the position where function words were also more likely to occur. Findings were taken to suggest that, although word-level influences cannot be discounted, utterance-level influences contribute to the loci of stuttering in preschool-age children, and may help account for developmental changes in the loci of stuttering. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will learn about and be able to: (a) describe the influence of word type (function versus content words), and grammatical complexity, on disfluent speech; (b) compare the effect of stuttering frequency based on the position of the word in the utterance; (c) discuss the contribution of utterance position on the frequency of stuttering on function words; and (d) explain possible reasons why preschoolers stutter more frequently on function words than content words.

Psychosocial Treatments for ADHD: A Systematic Appraisal of the Evidence

Objective: Children with learning disabilities often experience comorbid ADHD, impacting on the effectiveness of interventions for those children. In addition to pharmacologic intervention, clinicians and educators employ a variety of psychosocial methods to address the behavioral and social issues that arise in children with ADHD, including those with co-occurring learning disabilities. Numerous systematic reviews and meta-analyses have been conducted examining treatment studies using psychosocial interventions for children with ADHD. Because of the importance of such reviews to evidence based clinical and educational practice, it is essential that reviews be conducted with rigorous methodologies to avoid bias in conclusions (Schlosser, Wendt, & Sigafoos, 2007). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses conducted for psychosocial treatments of ADHD in children. Method: Electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed, English language studies of psychosocial treatments for ADHD in children up to 18-years-old from 1998 to 2010. Twenty-one studies were identified that met inclusion criteria (13 systematic reviews, 8 meta-analyses). Independent examiners used the quality rating scale proposed by Auperin, Pignon, and Pynard (1997) to rate the characteristics of good systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Results: Results indicated that certain methodological characteristics were common across trials reviewed, yet shortcomings were common among most reviews, including inadequate descriptions of data extraction methods and lack of quality ratings for trials included in the reviews. Conclusion: Synthesis of findings from the five top-rated reviews and the literature on ADHD suggest that psychosocial treatments contribute to improvements on behavioral and social outcomes. How ADHD and LD interplay in treatment outcomes is largely unexplored.

Traits of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in school-age children who stutter

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to explore whether parents of CWS reported the presence of ADHD symptoms that would warrant a referral to a psychologist to rule out the disorder. This study also aimed to describe the characteristics of the sample in terms of gender, family history of stuttering, presence of neurological impairment, concomitant diagnoses, and stuttering severity. Finally, this study sought to explore the possible statistical relations among these same variables. METHODS Participants were 36 school-age CWS (32 males and 4 females) between the ages of 3.9 and 17.2 years (M=10.4, SD=4.0). Parent responses on the ADHD Rating Scale (Power et al., 2001) were collected via a retrospective chart review. RESULTS For this sample 58% (n=21), of the participants met criteria for needing referral for additional evaluation for symptoms related to ADHD. A strong positive relation (r=.720, p<.001) was found between a reported family history of recovered stuttering and the presence of a concomitant diagnosis. CONCLUSION The results of the present study demonstrate the need for further training and education for SLPs working with CWS regarding ADHD. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will be able to (1) describe the main characteristics of ADHD, (2) discuss the evidence suggesting a possible relationship between ADHD and stuttering and (3) discuss how ADHD characteristics could impact clinical outcomes for CWS.

Using Dyad-Specific Social Stories to Increase Communicative and Social Skills of Preschoolers with Hearing Loss in Self-Contained and Inclusive Settings.

Children with profound hearing loss often do not have the same prelinguistic opportunities for social and communication interaction as peers with typical hearing and benefit from structured opportunities to learn these skills. This study examined the effect of two interventions to improve the communicative and social skills of four preschoolers with hearing loss in two learning environments: a preschool for children who are deaf (oral approach) and an inclusive regular preschool. A social story with a verbal prompt was provided before play (Intervention 1), and a social story with a teacher prompt and verbal prompting and reinforcement during play were provided (Intervention 2). A single-subject design revealed that in the inclusive settings, three of the four participants increased verbal comments and play turns in Interventions 1 and 2, although some changes were slight. In the oral preschool classroom, two showed improvements in target behaviours with both interventions. Generalisation of skills occurred in two participants. Additionally, all participants generalised some vocabulary from their social story to play. Implications for teaching young children with hearing loss who are oral in inclusive classrooms are discussed.

Teaching Emotion Words Using Social Stories and Created Experiences in Group Instruction with Preschoolers who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: An Exploratory Study

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate whether specific emotion vocabulary could be taught to children with hearing impairments using child-specific social stories and demonstration tasks. The participants were three preschool-aged children who were being served in an auditory-verbal preschool classroom. An A-B single-subject design was used during a small group activity for 10 weeks that took place on average three times a week. During the study, participants were provided small group instruction using social stories and demonstration tasks to teach three target emotion words (afraid, surprised, and frustrated). Results indicated that all children successfully used the target vocabulary without adult prompting to describe target emotions in themselves and in others. The implications for classroom instruction are discussed.

Using Repeated Reading and Explicit Instruction to Teach Vocabulary to Preschoolers with Hearing Loss.

Children with hearing loss often experience communication and language delays that result in difficulties acquiring novel vocabulary and literacy skills. This research examined the effectiveness of using repeated storybook reading paired with explicit teacher instruction to teach novel vocabulary to young children with hearing loss who were receiving instruction with an oral approach. Data from a multiple baseline design across 4 children demonstrated that all children acquired the instructional vocabulary words, demonstrated generalization of the words in a novel situation, and maintained vocabulary for 2–4 weeks following intervention. Vocabulary that had not been explicitly taught was learned at a low rate across the 5 books. Implications for teaching young children with hearing loss and communication delays are discussed.

Structured Instruction With Modified Storybooks to Teach Morphosyntax and Vocabulary to Preschoolers Who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing

Children who are deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) are at risk for diminished morphosyntactical and vocabulary development. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of repeated reading combined with structured instruction. Targets were a morphosyntactical form and novel vocabulary words. Participants were 3 preschoolers who are D/HH who were receiving instruction with an oral approach. Data from a multiple baseline design indicated that all children acquired the targeted skills and demonstrated high levels of generalization of these skills to untrained context. Implications for teaching young children who are D/HH using repeated storybook reading are discussed.

Teachers and Peers as Communication Models to Teach Grammatical Forms to Preschoolers With Hearing Loss

Structured input from both teachers and peers maximizes the opportunities for preschoolers to learn grammatical forms. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using a teacher and a peer with typical hearing and language skills to model grammatically correct verbal responses to action wh- questions (“What is he/she doing?”) using picture stimuli with three preschool-aged children with hearing loss. Data from a multiple probe across participants design indicated that (a) all children learned to appropriately answer the wh- question using their targeted grammatical form during intervention, (b) all three children were able to generalize these skills to untrained pictures with varying degrees of success, and (c) all three children maintained the skills for 6 to 10 weeks following intervention. Implications for teaching grammatical forms to preschool children with hearing loss are discussed.

Using a Child-Specific Social Story to Improve Communication and Social Skills in Two Preschoolers with Cochlear Implants: An Exploratory Classroom Case Study

Abstract This case study explored the efficacy of reading the same child-specific social story prior to a five-minute unstructured play session with two four-year-old children with cochlear implants. Results revealed that after the social story was read one participant produced a moderate–high increase in initiated verbal comments while the other child manifested a slight increase, both used vocabulary from the story in their play, and that play turns increased. This strategy may offer promise for educators in separate and inclusive classrooms, although more research is needed.