Treatment in the Developing Language Period

Question 1

What should we consider when choosing language intervention goals

Answer 1

1. Child’s current accuracy (ZPD)
2. Communicative effectiveness/efficiency
3. Teach one new thing at once (new form + old function; old form + new function)
4. Concerns of parents, teachers, other stakeholders
5. Functional needs
6. Teachability
7. Phonological considerations
8. Expected developmental sequence

Question 2

Academic Readiness

Answer 2

• preschool vocabulary predicts reading acheivement
• increase knowledge of basic concepts that are expected knowledge in school (counting, recognizing numbers and shapes, following commands)

Question 3

What not to do when setting goals

Answer 3

DON’T set a goal based on one time they got wrong on the test. write goals based on skills the child did not perform well on a standardized test

Question 4

More possible targets in developing language

Answer 4

1. Early semantic networks (relational vocabulary)
2. Wh- question comprehension
3. Following directions.

Question 5

Semantic Networks

Answer 5

Vocabulary words are not learned, used, or stored in isolation

Question 6

Activities that target semantic networks

Answer 6

1. matching associated pictures
2. sorting cards into categories
3. finding an object when told its function
4. answering wh- questions about vocabulary words (where does the elephant live? what do you do with a towel? who drives the fire truck?)

Question 7

Focused Stimulation

Answer 7

• focused refers to the specific targets of treatment
• manipulate the linguistic input to increase salience of the target within a NATURAL communicative context
• doing an activity that is meaningful for a child while prompting language
• can be parent or clinician implemented

Question 8

How to increase salience

Answer 8

• say it louder than other words
• repeat it more times
• repeat across diverse contexts/situations
• simplification of utterance
• decrease rate
• pair a visual

Question 9

How do social learning theory and transactional models of language development relate to FS?

Answer 9

transaction - children learn language by interacting, having meaningful social interactions with people. have to embed FS into meaningful situations
social learning - we will learn by trying to imitate other people

Question 10

Information processing models and FS

Answer 10

kids with language learning have underlying information processing deficits, will need more repetitions, more models

Question 11

Tracking the frequency of clinician modeling in FS

Answer 11

yes want frequency, because want most direct measure of what you’re doing, but you need some kind of measure of the child’s progress

Question 12

Focused stimulation evidence

Answer 12

FS is effective for late talkers, BUT

• individual results vary widely
• receptive language not targeted
• very limited populations studied (middle class, caucasian, monolingual english speakers)

Question 13

Conversational recasting

Answer 13

• natural setting, recast the child’s utterances
• is contingent on what child said
• work on specific skill child does wrong but not info processing, working memory, or auditory processing
• focus on developmentally appropriate speech, stay within the developmental sequence
• it’s an intensity thing. don’t need something different, just need more of the same thing

Question 14

What model is conversational recasting based on

Answer 14

Transactional model - children develop language skills through meaningful interactions with others

Question 15

Interactive therapy approach in conversational recasting

Answer 15

elements of natural caregiver-child

1. natural consequences
2. meaningful environment
3. parent imitation
4. child maintains attention

Question 16

Conversational recasting assumptions

Answer 16

1. children with disabilities can learn in the same manner as TD kids, if the transactions are adjusted to accommodate the parameters of the disability that impede access to transactions
2. children with speech and language disorders may be helped by a narrower focus for adult conversational responses with an increased frequency
3. it is unlikely adult levels of speech perception are required for speech and language learning

Question 17

Problems with conversational recasting assumptions

Answer 17

1. the same mechanisms are not intact, not same as TD
2. at what point does it turn into a script instead of natural conversation?
3. need to be accommodated for outside therapy. can do all you want in therapy, but others need to carry over in classroom and home for child

Question 18

Conversational recasting evidence

Answer 18

• don’t work on yes/no questions, relative clauses, or attributes
• more variability in the number of different verbs presented used to teach morphemes mattered. more variability led to greater learning.

Question 19

script therapy

Answer 19

• embed language into motivated and meaningful contexts. birthday party, something child is familiar with
• joint book reading

Question 20

Making effective use of commercial products

Answer 20

• they are only as good as you make them

- they will not do the work for you

Question 21

how can we quantify dosage in preschool language therapy?

Answer 21

1. length of tx session
2. number of trials
3. sessions per week
4. number of weeks of treatment

Question 22

Evidence for tx dosage

Answer 22

1. distributed practice is better than massed practice (at least for acquiring morphosyntactic forms
2. attendance at therapy sessions mediates treatment gains
3. NO overall difference between 1x week and 5x week

Question 23

Number of hours intensity needed to treat phonological awareness

Answer 23

20 hours

Question 24

Who should do therapy in the developing language period?

Answer 24

1. peers
2. SLP
3. parents
4. trained other professionals

Question 25

children with language disorders have poorer long term outcomes in what areas?

Answer 25

1. academic
2. vocational
3. social