Classwide Extensions of Vocabulary Intervention Improve Learning of Academic Vocabulary by Preschoolers

Seven, Y., Hull, K., Madsen, K., Ferron, J., Peters-Sanders, L., Soto, X., Kelley, E. A. & Goldstein, H. (2020). Classwide extensions of vocabulary intervention improve learning of academic vocabulary by preschoolers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63(1), 173-189.

Recent research has demonstrated that explicit teaching about words is an important part of effective vocabulary intervention. One example of explicit vocabulary teaching comes from the Story Friends curriculum designed by Goldstein and colleagues (2016). In the Story Friends program, children listen to pre-recorded audio storybooks in which target vocabulary words are introduced. The introduction of a target word is immediately followed by explicit teaching of that word. Children are exposed to that word in different contexts and over one-week children hear the story book three times. The intervention is 11 weeks long, includes 8 story books and 4 target vocabulary words per book. This program has been shown to support vocabulary development in preschool children. The current research wanted to extend the use of this program and combine it with Classwide Vocabulary Review Strategies (CVRS). CVRS are strategies for teachers to use with their whole class to increase vocabulary learning in children who are receiving the small group, Story Friends intervention. CVRS strategies include repeating the word, restating the definition and engaging in activities that involve using the word.

The present study examined the influence and implementation of CVRS in a preschool classroom. Researchers were interested in (1) whether the CVRS benefitted vocabulary development above and beyond the traditional Story Friends program and (2) teachers’ opinion of implementing CVRS in their classrooms. Prior to the intervention, children completed measures of expressive and receptive language, and during the intervention children completed weekly probes which assessed if a child had understood and remembered the vocabulary words introduced in the stories. Results revealed that for children who participated in the Story Friends program with CVRS, their vocabulary gain was twice that of children who only received the Story Friends intervention. When examining a group of children who only received the CVRS from the classroom teachers, these children demonstrated significantly more vocabulary gains than children who did not receive the CVRS. Finally, teachers were motivated to implement the CRVS, felt that they could use the target vocabulary words in their classroom, and thought that the strategies could be implemented in a reasonable amount of time.

These results suggest that the classwide extension of the Story Friends program supports a child’s vocabulary development above and beyond the Story Friends program. These findings provide further evidence that children learn new vocabulary better when the words are explicitly taught, they hear the words multiple times in different contexts, and they can engage in activities using the words.

Blogger: Meghan Vollebregt is a student in the combined SLP MClSc/PhD program working under the supervision of Dr. Lisa Archibald.

Predicting Dyslexia in Children with Developmental Language Disorder

Alonzo, McIlraith, Catts, & Hogan (2019). Predicting dyslexia in children with developmental language disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63, 151-162.

This paper examines early predictors of reading ability in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and children with typical language. Measures of phonological processing, including phonological awareness, are often used as predictors of later reading ability and dyslexia. However, children with DLD are known to have poor phonological processing in early school aged years, but not all children with DLD go on to have reading problems. Another early skill known to predict reading ability is letter identification. The aim of the present study was to examine how Grade 2 reading abilities in children with DLD and children with typical language are predicted by kindergarten phonological awareness and letter identification.

The study used a subset of data from 473 children, from a previous longitudinal study of 7218 children (cite). In kindergarten, the participants completed measures of expressive and receptive language, phonological awareness, and letter identification. In grade 2, children completed a measure of single word reading abilities. Participants were categorized into a DLD group and TD group based on their performance on the expressive and receptive language measures. Additionally, participants were categorized as having dyslexia if they scored below the 16th percentile on the reading task administered in grade 2. The authors used a number of regression analyses to examine how phonological awareness and letter identification predict dyslexia and reading ability in the DLD and typical language groups. In general, results for the DLD group showed that letter word identification was a strong predictor of grade 2 word reading and phonological awareness did not contribute to predicting unique variance. For the TD group, on the other hand, phonological awareness and letter identification predicted grade 2 reading, with the latter being a stronger predictor in poorer readers.

Overall, these findings suggest that letter identification is an early predictor in both children with DLD and children with typical language, however, the role of phonological awareness varies between the two groups. Although phonological awareness is a strong predictor of reading in children with typical language, it may not have the specificity or sensitivity to be used to predict reading and dyslexia in children with DLD, given their poor phonological processing abilities. Currently, most dyslexia screeners are focused on measures of phonological processing, which is likely to result in false positives in children with DLD. The authors suggest that screeners should include both phonological awareness and letter identification measures, as well as measures of early language skills such as sentence imitation, grammatical awareness, or comprehension for better early identification of DLD.

Blogger: Alex Cross is a M.Cl.Sc. and Ph.D. Candidate in Speech-Language Pathology, supervised by Dr. Lisa Archibald and Dr. Marc Joanisse.

Digit Span in Dyslexia: Variations According to Language Comprehension and Mathematics Skills

Helland, T., & Asbjørnsen, A. (2004). Digit span in dyslexia: Variations according to language comprehension and mathematics skills. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 26(1), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.1076/jcen.26.1.31.23935.

Working memory is the ability to hold and manipulate information in the current focus of attention. The ability to just hold information – to store it briefly in mind – has been referred to as short-term memory. We can assess the ability to briefly hold phonological (speech) sound information in mind by asking someone to immediately repeat a list of spoken digits in the correct order (digit span forward). We can assess the ability to both hold phonological information in mind and manipulate it by asking someone to immediately repeat a list of spoken digits in the reverse order from how they were presented (digit span backward task). In both the digit span forward and backward tasks, phonological short-term memory (i.e., the phonological loop) is assessed. In the digit span backward task, working memory is assessed by additionally requiring the manipulation of item order.

This study focused on digit span performance in children with dyslexia. It has been suggested that children with dyslexia have impairments in the phonological loop because they perform poorly on digit span tasks—they might struggle with holding the numbers in their mind in general, rehearsing the correct order, or have difficulty with increased cognitive load. This study also considers two other important factors: (1) other language and/or mathematical problems that could impact span performance, and (2) the use of compensatory strategies during digit span performance. The present study was therefore conducted to systematically investigate digit span performance across subgroups of children dyslexia (and other language/math problems) while controlling for strategy use.

Participants were 20 typically developing children and 37 children with dyslexia. Children with dyslexia were further subgrouped into three groups: children with dyslexia only (n = 12), children with dyslexia and math impairments only (n = 9), and children with dyslexia and language impairments who may also be impaired in math skills (n = 16). All children completed a test of intelligence, and forward and backward digit span tasks without using strategies (e.g., no finger-counting or lip reading).

Results revealed that children with dyslexia only did well in the digit span forward task and poor in the digit span backward task. Children with dyslexia and math impairments did poor on both the digit span forward and digit span backward tasks. Notably, both groups were especially poor at the digit span backward task, and struggled to remember numbers in the latter part of the list, suggesting a difficulty with increased load. In contrast, children with dyslexia and language impairments were able to recall the earlier and latter parts of the list but recalled less digits overall. This suggested a joint language and storage problem.

Findings from this work demonstrates that differences in span performance in children with dyslexia may have clinical implications. It could help us speculate about effects on reading, writing, and math skills. For instance, for children with dyslexia and for those with additional math problems, difficulties with reading and writing may be especially apparent when the cognitive load is high. Children with dyslexia with impaired language skills, on the other hand, might have language comprehension and retention problems more generally.

Blogger: Theresa Pham is a student in the combined SLP MClSc/PhD program, supervised by Dr. Lisa Archibald.