Dixie Sanger

Prevalence of Language Problems Among Adolescent Delinquents: A Closer Look

This article describes the prevalence of language problems among delinquents and potential reasons they did not receive language services prior to their commitment to a correctional facility. Sixty-seven girls between the ages of 13 and 17 were tested on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-3 (CELF-3) and the Adolescent WORD Test (WORD Test). Three additional language measures, including a self-assessment measure, were administered to participants performing more than 1.3 below the mean on the CELF-3 and WORD Test. Findings provide clues to partially explain why some incarcerated adolescents are overlooked for language services. Implications for planning programs are provided.

Language Sampling Practices: A Survey of Nine States

A total of 239 school-based speech-language pathologists from nine midwestern states were surveyed about their language sampling practices. Survey data provided information on collection and analys...

Cultural analysis of communication behaviors among juveniles in a correctional facility.

This study addressed communication behaviors of female juvenile delinquents in a correctional facility. Qualitative methodology was used to study 78 participants ranging in age from 13.1 to 18.9 (years; months), over a five-month period. Data collection consisted of observations, participant observation, interviews, and a review of documents. Additionally, participants were tested on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-3. Listening and following rules, utterance types, topics of conversion, politeness, and conversational management emerged as themes. Findings indicated that as many as 22% of participants were potential candidates for language services. Implications for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) providing communication services will be provided.

Parental report of occurrences and consequences of traumatic brain injury among delinquent and non-delinquent youth

Completed questionnaires from parents of youths attending a public middle school or high school and parents of youths admitted to an institution for juvenile delinquents provided information about incidents of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in their children. Results revealed that approximately 40% of the non-delinquent youth and 50% of the delinquent youth had sustained one or more TBIs during their childhood or youth. The majority of injuries appeared to be mild and had no permanent consequences. However, the parents of more than one-third of the delinquent youth with TBI histories reported long-term effects on academic performance, behavior and emotional control, activity level, and/or interactions with friends and family members; parental reports of long-term effects occurred significantly less frequently among the non-delinquent youth. The most common causes of TBI differed between the two adolescent populations. Non-delinquent youth sustained TBIs most frequently from blows to the head during sporting events, and delinquent youth sustained TBIs with approximately equal frequency from sporting events, fall, motor vehicle accidents and fights.

Oral Language Skills of Female Juvenile Delinquents

The language performances of female delinquents and nondelinquents were compared on composite scores from a standardized test (the Test of Language Competence-Expanded) and an informal language sam...

Female juvenile delinquents' pragmatic awareness of conversational interactions

Standardized testing has shown that juvenile delinquents have a high incidence of communication problems; however, discourse analyses have failed to confirm pragmatic deficits. This studys purpose was to explore, using qualitative procedures, the pragmatic awareness of female juvenile delinquents concerning conversational interactions. The 45 participants engaged in small-group conversations about communication during multiple class periods. On-line field notes served as the data and were used to determine emerging patterns of verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors. Identified themes included (a) active listening; (b) body position; (c) eye contact, facial expressions, and gestures; (d) utterance types; (e) topics of conversation; (f) politeness and honesty; and (g) conversational management. Results suggested that juvenile delinquents can state many conventions governing conversational interactions; however, some do not always display interactional behaviors consistent with their pragmatic awareness. Discrepancies about pragmatic awareness are discussed in terms of the underlying nature of communication challenges in delinquent populations.

Educators’ Opinions About Speech-Language Pathology Services in Schools

This study examined 628 educators’ opinions about the role and performance of school speech-language pathologists. Regular and special education teachers, elementary school principals, and school p...

Language samples using three story elicitation tasks and maturation effects

The spoken language skills of 20 elementary students with verified learning disabilities were explored using a story format and discourse analysis procedure. The purpose was to compare the performance of LD students on three types of story tasks (story generation from a picture, story generation from memory, and story generation based on a game) over a one-year period. Results indicated statistically significant main effects for approximately half (9/17) of the discourse variables by task and one main effect for time. Overall, stories from memory were longer and characterized by more as well as different types of errors than were stories from pictures or stories based on games. Implications for use of stories and type of story collection task in language sampling are discussed.

Restorative Justice conferencing and the youth offender: exploring the role of oral language competence

BACKGROUND Restorative Justice is an approach to responding to youth offending that aims to be collaborative and conciliatory rather than adversarial. In this respect, it is a welcome innovation in justice, welfare, and educational settings, and is gaining favour around the world. To date, however, the Restorative Justice literature has not considered the possible implications of unidentified language impairment in the young offenders who are asked to participate in face-to-face conferences with their victim(s). AIMS The aims of this paper are (1) to bring two paradigms together: Restorative Justice on the one hand, and the literature on language and social cognition impairments in vulnerable and socially marginalized young people on the other; (2) to stimulate awareness and interest in this aspect of public policy and practice by speech-language pathologists; and (3) to suggest some research questions that need to be tackled from an oral language competence perspective. METHODS & PROCEDURES A narrative review of the relevant literature pertaining to both Restorative Justice and oral language competence in vulnerable young people was conducted, with particular emphasis on the implications of the undetected language impairments as a source of possible unintended harm to both victims and offenders in Restorative Justice conferences. MAIN CONTRIBUTION This is the first paper that specifically addresses the oral language skills of vulnerable and socially marginalized young people with respect to their capacity to participate in Restorative Justice conferences. CONCLUSIONS It is important that speech-language pathologists contribute their specialized knowledge and clinical skills to public policy-making and debate, and practice that pertains to marginalized young people who may have undetected oral language impairments. Speech-language pathology as a profession is well positioned to plan and execute important programmes of research on this growing approach to dealing with youth offending and reducing recidivism.

Language Problems Among Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Provides an overview of language problems and the extent of their impact on and the implications for youngsters with emotional and behavioral disorders