Elaine R. Silliman

Spelling patterns in preadolescents with atypical language skills : Phonological, morphological, and orthographic factors

Several investigations have considered the spelling abilities of children with reading disability; however, the spelling patterns of children with a language learning disability (LLD) have been largely ignored. This study examined the spelling error patterns of three groups of children who met strict inclusion criteria—those with a known LLD (n = 8), chronological-age-matched peers (CA; n = 8), and a younger spelling-age-matched group (SA; n = 8). An experimental spelling measure was specially designed and administered to elucidate the underlying linguistic features (clusters, digraphs, etc.) and linguistic classifications (phonological, orthographical, morphological) of misspellings. Based on inferential statistical analyses, a general pattern was that the LLD group and the SA group always differed from the CA group, whereas the LLD group performed similarly to the SA group. This finding lends credence to the hypothesis that children with an LLD, like children with reading disability, are delayed in spelling development rather than following a deviant developmental process. However, a qualitative analysis indicated two specific patterns. First, the LLD group had more trouble than did the SA group in representing the basic phonological structure of words, when complexity was increased by word length or linguistic structure. Second, in contrast to the SA group, the LLD group had greater omissions of inflected and derived morphological markers. These findings point to the critical role of morphology as the mediator between and form and meaning.

An open-label trial of bromocriptine in nonfluent aphasia: a qualitative analysis of word storage and retrieval.

Anomia is a commonly found in aphasia and has been attributed to a loss of representations (storage deficit) or to a loss of access to these representations (retrieval deficit). Bromocriptine, a dopamine agonist, was tested on four patients, two men and two women, with nonfluent aphasia. The patients were tested in an open-label ABBA design using a stochastic model that measured the degree of storage and retrieval deficits. All patients showed significant improvements in word retrieval. Bromocriptine may be a useful adjunct in the treatment of selected patients with a nonfluent aphasia in which retrieval deficits play a major role.

Methods for controlling amount of talk: Difficulties, considerations and recommendations

The aim of this article is to focus researchers’ attention on some central methodological issues involving control of amount of talk (AOT). First, appropriate methods for standardizing the size of language samples are considered. Second, the common practice of deriving linguistic rates by dividing the frequency of some linguistic variable of interest by a frequency tapping AOT is challenged. This operation does not adequately control for AOT and may result in spurious findings. Third, appropriate contexts for achieving control of AOT through statistical partialling are discussed. Some recommendations for research are offered.

Spanish and English Proficiency in the Linguistic Encoding of Mental States in Narrative Retellings

Abstract The present study investigated whether differences existed among 28 sequential bilingual children, ages 9–11 years, with varied English proficiency, in their clausal and nonclausal choices for encoding subjective concepts in narratives in both Spanish and English. The subjective categories examined were perceptual action, psychological action, and private state reports. Despite a significant difference in age between the two proficiency groups, results present evidence for similar patterns of ability and variability in the syntactic encoding of subjective categories. Both proficiency groups expressed private state reports most frequently across languages; however, English language use might have influenced the proportion of subjectivity category use. Furthermore, differences between proficiency groups were not found for a measure of clausal complexity, but differences in clause type usage and aspects of nonclausal complexity were attributed to the language of retelling. Patterns of performance reinforce the importance of assessing children in both Spanish and English.

Narratives: A Window on the Oral Substrate of Written Language Disabilities

Oral precursors underlying competence with literacy activities are approached through a review of studies on narrative comprehension and production in children identified as language learning disabled (LLD). Areas addressed include a general overview of narrative types, the kinds of narrative knowledge that are acquired, the nature of story organization, and developmental acquisitions in story recall and generation. Nine studies on the oral comprehension and production of language learning disabled children are then compared with respect to methodological issues and patterns of performance. Implications from these studies are discussed in terms of their potential insight for subtypes of a LLD including the value of oral narratives in identifying precursors for competence with written language.

A Dynamic Systems Approach To Writing Assessment in Students with Language Learning Problems.

Speech-language pathologists have not typically included writing as part of instructional or intervention goals. This omission may be related to the sparse research data on writing development in children with a language learning disability (LLD). Like reading and spelling, writing results from complex interactions among the linguistic and discourse systems and changes over time from an oral style of communication to a more literate style. One purpose of this article is to describe individual differences in the phases of writing development, drawing on examples from students who are typically developing, and those with an LLD. Special emphasis is given to the differentiation of audience and syntactic choices during the school-age years as critical elements in communicating the “writers voice.” Using an illustrative case study of a 10-year-old, the second purpose is to demonstrate how school-based writing samples can serve as a dynamic tool for analysis of interactions among the linguistic and discourse systems. The multiple levels addressed include genre knowledge, concept of audience, clausal and nonclausal complexity, spelling, and punctuation. A major assessment issue is whether the writing problems of individual students stem from an unrecognized LLD, instructional inadequacies, or both factors. Suggestions are offered for better meeting individual needs through combining explicit strategy instruction for composing and self-regulation with explicit linguistic strategies that enhance semantic and syntactic options in writing.

Getting the Point: A Narrative Journey into the Athabaskan Culture.

Narrative assessment is traditionally approached from the linear perspective of the dominant culture and methods of analysis reflect that bias. Other cultures, like the Athabaskan culture, organize narrative thinking in a different manner. Few tools are available for the more critical understanding of the nonlinear narrative for developmental, clinical, and educational purposes. Using story recall, this article examines the Athabaskan narrative as told by a village storyteller to two native students, one of whom has a language-learning disability with a co-occurring mild hearing loss. The original narrative and the retellings were studied using underlying structure analysis. The prosodic and structural patterns revealed through the method of assessment were consistent with the concept of a spatially organized narrative. Clinical implications for applying this approach are described as being more sensitive to possible interfaces between cultural differences in narrative recall and discourse management problems characteristic of a language-learning disability.

Bilingual spelling patterns in middle school: it is more than transfer

This study examined the Spanish and English spelling patterns of bilingual adolescents, including the cross-linguistic effects of each language, by applying a fine-grained measure to the differences in spelling in naturalistic writing. Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 20 Spanish–English bilingual adolescents (n = 160). Errors were coded by categories (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic features affected and then analyzed by language and genre. Descriptive analyses noted similarities and differences among error patterns in both languages as well as language transfer (i.e., borrowings and code-switching). Statistical analyses revealed language differences in proportions of misspellings across linguistic categories. More fine-grained analyses indicated linguistic feature patterns that were shared across languages and unique to each language. Finally, borrowing, while infrequent, was noted more frequently in English compositions. This investigation appears to demonstrate that spelling, when approached as both a cognitive and linguistic activity, is complex since multiple knowledge systems must be coordinated. The use of triple word form theory to analyze misspellings in emerging bilingual writers suggests that discerning patterns of misspellings in each language provides more insight than does transfer alone into the extent that phonology, orthography, and morphology are becoming unified.

Narrative analysis: Filtering individual differences in competence☆

Abstract The choice of methods of analysis, in large part, determines judgments about childrens narrative competence. If narratives are seen as a window on the mind, then narrative analysis is the filter for revealing relationships between universal categories and sociocultural variation in narrative production. This article begins with a discussion of narratives as a way of thinking, including the universal and particular aspects. Second, two different perspectives for analyzing narratives are introduced and illustrated with data collected from one adolescent who exemplifies an increasingly common dilemma for language educators and clinicians: When does a sociolinguistic difference in narrative style indicate a learning impairment? Finally, a discussion of the implications of narrative analyses for the practice of teaching, learning, and assessment is given.

Sociolinguistic analysis: Nonformalassessment of children's language and literacy skills

The focus of this special issue of the journal is upon nonformal assessment of childrenslanguage and literacy skills in school. Each of the authors of this isse shares the view that the traditional methods of testing and evaluation of childrens competencies have not adequately contributed to the improvement of childrens leaning in shool. In particular, formal standardized testing has failed nonmajority children. The research preseted in this issue clearly illustrates the inadequacies of solely relying on standardized testing to obtain a complete view of childrens competencies. This article provides an overview for the three research articles presented in thisissue. It includes a discussion of sociolinguistic approaches to assessment and a comprehenvise view of multiple methods of assessment as applied to observation of childrens language use in school. The conclusion considers the consequences of inadequate assessment for school failure.