Word finding difficulties are often seen in children with language difficulties. Their problem is readily observed and has led to investigations of its nature and encouraged attempts at intervention. Semantic errors in their naming suggest that their knowledge of items is poorly developed and that therapies to strengthen it may be effective.…

This article summarizes the evidence as regards the effectiveness of therapy for grammar for school-aged children with language impairments. I first review studies focusing on specific areas of grammar (both expressive and receptive targets) and then studies aiming to improve language more generally, several of which focus more on the…

This study taught the passive to two children with specific language impairment (aged 8;1 and 8;2). It employed usage-based principles including "constructional grounding"; using short structures as the basis for acquiring long structures, and "construction conspiracy"; encouraging analogies between partially overlapping…

A 10-year-old boy with autism was part of an evaluation of an innovative intervention focused on improving communication skills. His school was using the minimal speech approach (Potter and Whittaker, 2001) with all children in accordance with government guidance. The pupil's receptive language had not been formally assessed due to his lack…

Communication and play skills are important aspects of development yet are largely uncharted in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This exploratory study examined whether changes in pragmatic skills and problem-solving skills were observed in children with ADHD pre- and post-participation in a play-based intervention…

The purpose of this research was to ascertain the views of staff and managers within a youth offending team on their experiences of working with a speech and language therapist (SLT). The model of therapy provision was similar to the whole-systems approach used in schools. The impact of the service on language outcomes is reported elsewhere…

Data regarding treatment intensity provide evidence for service delivery decision-making in schools. In this pilot study, dose frequency effects (i.e. number of therapy sessions per week) on semantic and morphologic abilities in preschool children, ages 4;0 to 5;3 years of age, with language impairment were examined. Children enrolled in a…

The most common interventions for children with lexical disorders are forms and combinations of interventions focusing on phonological and semantic elaboration and retrieval. Systematic reviews of intervention studies on children with lexical disorders show that a significant generalization of therapeutic effects to untrained vocabulary was rarely…

Although many children are referred with difficulties in both their speech and their language, the literature offers relatively little guidance on their therapy. Should clinicians treat these difficulties independently? Or should treatment depend on the potential impact of one domain on the other? This study aimed to investigate the relationship…

Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and social, emotional and behaviour difficulties (SEBD) commonly overlap, yet we know relatively little about the mechanism linking the two, specifically to what extent it is possible to reduce behaviour difficulties by targeted communication skills. The EPPI Centre systematic review methodology was…

This article reports a series of interviews with education and health practitioners. The aims were to identify interventions used in practice with children with speech, language and communication needs, to explore explanations for the choice of intervention and to identify the ways that outcomes were measured. Participants (n = 61) included…

Compared to the treatment of consonant segments, the treatment of vowels is infrequently described in the literature on children's speech difficulties. Vowel difficulties occur less frequently than those with consonants but may have significant impact on intelligibility. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of vowel targeted intervention (VTI)…

Children with language difficulties often omit verbs and grammatical elements and fail to complete sentences. Bryan (1997) described "colourful semantics", a therapy she used to treat a 5-year-old boy. The therapy uses colour coding to highlight the predicate argument structure of sentences. This study further tested the therapy's effectiveness by…

Many profoundly deaf signers have difficulty communicating with hearing people. This article describes a therapy called "Strategies and Measurable Interaction in Live English" (smiLE; Schamroth and Threadgill, 2007a), an approach used to teach deaf children skills to become successful communicators in real-life situations. This study evaluates the…

This pilot study with an n-of-1 design examined whether children with a specific language impairment without working memory impairment (SLI), a specific working memory impairment without language impairment (SWMI), or mixed language and working memory impairments (L&WMI) may respond differently to treatment targeting verbal or visuospatial…