Lesley B. Olswang

When to Recommend Intervention

The first treatment efficacy decision that faces the clinician is deciding when a child with language impairments can benefit from intervention. This article reviews the critical issues that influence this decision and recommends a data-based approach to answering the question. Three procedures (profiling, dynamic assessment, and tracking/monitoring) are recommended as the tools for helping speech-language pathologists make informed decisions about when children might best benefit from intervention.

Discovering indices of contingency awareness in adults with multiple profound disabilities

We conducted two studies to examine parameters of social attention in contingency awareness training using switch activation with individuals who had multiple profound disabilities. In Study 1 we compared leisure devices and social attention as reinforcing stimuli with 5 individuals. Results indicated the reinforcing qualities of social attention over leisure devices with 2 individuals and documented the importance of session length in training. In Study 2 we investigated idiosyncratic behaviors as indicators of responsiveness with 3 of the 5 original participants as they activated switches. Behavior changes during switch activation versus nonactivation times in the leisure device and social attention conditions suggested volitional movement supporting contingency awareness and preference. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Assessment of Language in Developmentally Disabled Infants and Preschoolers

The language assessment of infants and developmentally delayed preschoolers requires a usable definition of language and a comprehensive understanding of language development. Language is a complex skill that has traditionally been viewed as consisting of four basic parts: phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. Phonology refers to the sound system of our language; semantics, to the meaning of words and word relations; syntax, to the grammatical rules for ordering words; and pragmatics, to communication, or the use of language in social contexts. Although language must always be viewed as an interactive system in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, the assessment process requires that the major components be examined separately. This approach is necessary for evaluating language development and for identifying specific deficit areas.

Effectiveness of language elicitation tasks with two-year-olds:

One unstructured and two structured language sampling conditions were compared to determine the ways in which different types of structure would affect 2-year-olds productions of the possessor + possession semantic relation. In the unstructured, naturalistic condition, the clinician followed the childs lead and responded in ways that would encourage the produc tion of the possessive construction. In the structured conditions, the clinician utilized wh-questions and sentence completion tasks to elicit the possessive construction. While the subjects produced a greater quantity and diversity of possessive constructions in the structured conditions, no differences were observed between the two types of linguistic elicitation techniques. Implications for sampling language with young children are discussed.

Treatment efficacy research: A paradigm for investigating clinical practice and theory

Abstract Some might regard treatment efficacy research as being limited to questions addressing clinical issues, particularly those concerning accountability. Although the notoriety of efficacy research may have been gained from this perspective, such a view ignores the wealth of information this research paradigm has to offer. Research paradigms should be defined by the phenomena under investigation, whether they be clinical or theoretical, rather than being limited to a particular line of inquiry. Frameworks for describing clinical-driven and theory-driven treatment efficacy research will be presented. These frameworks provide an opportunity to appreciate the contributions of treatment efficacy research to the clinical practice of speech/language pathology and the theory underpinning communication sciences and its disorders.