Purpose: Variability in the input plays an important role in language learning. The current study examined the role of object variability for new word learning by preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Eighteen 4- and 5-year-old children with SLI were taught 8 new words in 3 short activities over the course of 3 sessions.…

Purpose: Children with developmental language disorder sometimes spontaneously repeat clinician models of morphemes targeted for treatment. We examine how spontaneous repeating of clinician models in the form of recasts associates with improved child production of those emerging morphemes. Method: Forty-seven preschool children with developmental…

Purpose: This was an investigation of the dimensionality of oral and written language to test the hypothesis that a two-factor model with sound/word and sentence/discourse language levels would best fit language and literacy data for a population-based sample in the school-age years. Method: A stratified secondary data set of 1,500 participants…

Purpose: To assess the utility of a wide range of language measures (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics) for the identification of adults with developmental language impairment. Method: Measures were administered to 3 groups of adults, each representing a population expected to demonstrate high levels of language impairment, and to…

Previous language learning research reveals that the statistical properties of the input offer sufficient information to allow listeners to segment words from fluent speech in an artificial language. The current pair of studies uses a natural language to test the ecological validity of these findings and to determine whether a listener's language…

Purpose: Two studies are presented providing evidence indicating the diagnostic and predictive validity of the American version of "The Renfrew Bus Story" (J. Cowley & C. Glasgow, 1994). Method: Thirty-two children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 32 children with typical language development participated in the first…

Purpose: This study examined the empirical evidence for using the Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test: Third Edition (SPELT-3; Dawson, Stout, & Eyer, 2003) to diagnose language impairment in preschool children. The SPELT-3 is a revision of the SPELT-II (Werner & Kresheck, 1983), which has been proven in the past to have high levels of…

Purpose: The assumption that children with language impairment will receive low scores on standardized tests, and therefore that low scores will accurately identify these children, is examined through a review of data in the manuals of tests that are intended for use in identifying such children. Method: Data from 43 commercially available tests…

Twenty-one language tests that included norms for children ages 4 and 5 were reviewed for information on 10 psychometric criteria. Administration of the 4 tests meeting the most criteria to 20 preschool children with specific language impairments and 20 controls found that only 1 (the Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test) provided…

A review of the literature finds that the criteria developed by Stark and Tallal (1981) for the selection of children with specific language impairment for research purposes continue to be used, in part or in whole, in current research. Additional information on the use of norm-referenced tests with this population is also provided. (Author/DB)

Purpose: The normative group of a norm-referenced test is intended to provide a basis for interpreting test scores. However, the composition of the normative group may facilitate or impede different types of diagnostic interpretations. This article considers who should be included in a normative sample and how this decision must be made relative…

A study of 20 preschool children with specific language impairments and 20 typical preschool children examined the extent to which norm-referenced tests can identify a language impairment and determine specific areas of deficit. Results indicate the norm-referenced tests gave high discriminate capacity but inconsistent item-level performance.…

This study compared four commonly used vocabulary tests to screen or identify preschool children for specific language impairment (SLI). Four- and five-year olds with (N=31) and without (N=31) SLI were compared on the tests. Despite moderate to strong inter-test correlations, no test was a strong identifier of SLI. (Author/DB)

This introduction to a clinical forum on children with speech, language, and hearing difficulties focuses on assessment validity. The paper emphasizes that assessment validity depends on the purpose for which the clinician employs the assessment and the inferences the clinician intends to draw, and that assessment interpretation involves degrees…

This study compared 4 methods (2 case history and 2 performance-based) used to classify the status of adult subjects in familial studies of developmental language disorders, involving 24 parents of children with developmental language disorders and 24 unrelated adult controls. Classification by case history found fewer affected adults than…