Tanya M. Gallagher

Interrelationships among Children's Language, Behavior, and Emotional Problems.

Prevalence studies of co-occurring emotional/behavioral problems and language problems suggest that there is substantial overlap among these populations of children. Literature is reviewed that suggests that children with co-occurring problems may not be receiving the comprehensive service delivery

Language Skill and the Development of Social Competence in School-Age Children

The normal course of childrens development of social competence from preschool through high school levels is reviewed, and its relationship with developing language skills is discussed. Peer aspects of developing social competence, particularly those relating to friendship development and the development of interpersonal understanding, are highlighted.

Contingent query sequences within adult-child discourse.

The structure of contingent query sequences within adult–child discourse was examined. The children, aged 1; 11–3; 0 in language stages I–III, demonstrated basic knowledge of the contingent query. Implications for conceptualizations of the young childs communicative competence and for theoretical formulations of the query sequence itself are discussed.

Relative clause sentence production using augmentative and alternative communication systems

Complex syntactic structures may be difficult to recognize when produced using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems that do not contain grammatical markers. The present study investigated adult English speakers’ production of Subject and Object relative clause sentences using a picture/symbol-based AAC system with speech output. Most participants avoided the potential ambiguity that resulted from the absence of grammatical markers. They followed spoken English word order when encoding Object relative clause sentences, but altered this order for Subject relative clause sentences. Most participants used constituent proximity to maintain the distinction between Subject and Object relative clause sentences. Results indicate the combined effects of underlying syntactic knowledge and pragmatic variables on the AAC constituent order patterns observed.

The Structural Characteristics of Monologues in the Speech of Normal Children: Syntactic Nonconversational Aspects

Semantic and conversational aspects of monologues in the speech of normal children were investigated. Subjects were nine children, three each at Browns language Stages I, II, and III. A two-hour language sample, containing alternations of dialogue with the examiner and monologue produced during independent play, was collected from each child. Results indicate that the semantic and conversational categories that occurred in monologue speech were similar to those that appeared in contextually matched dialogue speech but the proportional frequencies differed. Monoloque subsamples were generally short in length and had a sequencing pattern that was highly consistent and sematically organized. Results are discussed in terms of Piagetian cognitive theory and pragmatic language models.

An investigation of overlap in children's speech

The simultaneous speech of six 4-year-old girls was investigated within three-party conversation. The data reveal two major types of overlap, one providing instances of turn completion projections and the other reflecting tension for the turn at speaking. The data are discussed in terms of the Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson (1974) model of conversational interaction.

Prematurity and Language Developmental Risk: Too Young or Too Small?.

Studies of the language developmental outcomes of prematurity over the last 30 years have reported contradictory results. Methodological differences that may account for some of these inconsistencies are reviewed. Frequently occurring perinatal risk factors are discussed and two areas of research warranting further attention—small-for-gestational-age infants and language and language-related skills in older children—are highlighted. Currently, being born too young, too small, or both represent risk factors for language development that increase in that order and are sufficient to warrant language monitoring.

Collecting Outcomes Data in Schools: Needs and Challenges

The definition of treatment outcomes, its interpretive limitations, and the need for this type of information are discussed. The activities of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Associations (ASHAs) Task Force on Treatment Outcomes and Cost-Effectiveness and the development of the National Outcomes Measurement System for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology (NOMS) are reviewed, with an emphasis on the NOMS: K-12 (Education) component. How outcomes data can be used and the challenges its collection presents in school settings are also discussed.

An investigation of pragmatic connectives within preschool peer interactions

Abstract Interrelationships among social variables and the use of pragmatic connectives were examined in the dyadic and triadic play interactions of six 4-year-old children. Results indicated that most pragmatic connectives occurred as a link between speech acts that expressed play role or personal identification. Pragmatic connectives were not more frequent within triadic interactions for four of the children. Semantic, syntactic, and functional characteristics of pragmatic connectives are discussed.

Adult-child discourse: The conversational relevance of pauses

Abstract The present investigation examined 2 to 3 year old childrens responses to pauses compared to their responses to other classes of adult behavior within child initiated request sequences. The results indicated that the children responded differentially to neutral and negative adult responses. However, only some, children made a similar distinction between long pauses, inter-utterance pauses greater than one second, and short pauses, inter-utterance pauses of one second or less. The data contributes to our understanding of the young childs responses to pauses and highlights the need for empirical validation of discourse segmentation procedures.