Background: Speech and language researchers study phonological acquisition and evaluate the errors that children make to understand this complex process. This information provides clinicians with a scientific reference for better assessment and intervention services to children with articulation/phonological disorders. Urdu is a language spoken by…

Background: We discuss a free software system (Computerized Language Analysis [CLAN]) that can enable fast, thorough, and informative language sample analysis (LSA). Method: We describe methods for eliciting, transcribing, analyzing, and interpreting language samples. Using a hypothetical child speaker, we illustrate use KidEval to generate a…

Purpose: Spoken discourse analysis is commonly employed in the assessment and treatment of people living with aphasia, yet there is no standardization in assessment, analysis, or reporting procedures, thereby precluding comparison/meta-analyses of data and hindering replication of findings. An important first step is to identify current practices…

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the discriminant validity of the Persian version of Alberta Language Development Questionnaire (ALDeQ) in Turkish-Persian bilingual children, aged 75 months with 19 months of exposure to Persian, on average. The study sample included the parents of 22 bilingual children with language…

Background: Idiom skills are essential for children to access age-appropriate media, curriculum resources and teaching. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) require support to develop the ability to understand and define idioms. However, research investigating one-to-one and classroom-based idiom skill intervention for children with…

Background: There is no consensus in the UK regarding the types of speech samples or parameters of speech that should be assessed at 3 years of age in children with cleft palate ± cleft lip (CP±L), despite cleft units routinely assessing speech at this age. The standardization of assessment practices would facilitate comparisons of outcomes across…

Purpose: Spoken language serves as a primary means of social interaction, but speech and language skills change with age, a potential source of age-related stereotyping. The goals of this study were to examine how accurately age could be estimated from language samples, to determine which speech and language cues were most informative, and to…

This paper outlines the use of Learning Language and Loving It™ -- The Hanen Program® for Early Years Educators/Teachers (LLLI) with Early Years Educators (EYEs) as part of a community-based early years Continuing Professional Development (CPD) intervention. Trainer sensitivity to the cultural use of questions by EYEs was used as a means to raise…

Purpose: This retrospective study was intended to replicate findings from Sacks et al. (2013) regarding the efficacy of using the SATPAC (Systematic Articulation Training Program Accessing Computers) approach for remediating speech sound errors in a Tier 3 response to intervention (RTI) context. Method: Nine children aged 7;7 (years;months) to…

This study examined the validity of data collected from a novel online story retell task. The task was specifically designed for use by junior school teachers with the support of speech-language therapists or literacy specialists. The assessment task was developed to monitor children's oral language progress in their first year at school as part…

Background: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) describes a heterogeneous group of language-led dementias. People with this type of dementia are increasingly being referred to speech and language therapy (SLT) services. Yet, there is a paucity of research evidence focusing on PPA interventions and little is known about SLT practice in terms of…

A recent project entitled CATALISE used the Delphi method to reach a consensus on terminology for unexplained language problems in children. "Developmental language disorder" (DLD) was the term agreed by a panel of 57 experts. Here I reflect on points of difficulty that arose when attempting to reach a consensus, using qualitative…

Background: Identifying risk and protective factors for language development informs interventions for children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Maternal responsive and intrusive communicative behaviours are associated with language development. Mother-child interaction quality may influence how children use these behaviours in language…

Background: A pattern of ingressive substitutions for word-final sibilants can be identified in a small number of cases in child speech disorder, with growing evidence suggesting it is a phonological difficulty, despite the unusual surface form. Phonological difficulty implies a problem with the cognitive process of organizing speech into sound…

Background: The detection of specific language impairment (SLI) in children growing up bilingually presents particular challenges for clinicians. Non-word repetition (NWR) and sentence repetition (SR) tasks have proven to be the most accurate diagnostic tools for monolingual populations, raising the question of the extent of their usefulness in…