Purpose: Morphological awareness refers to the ability to consider and manipulate consciously the smallest units of meaning in language. In previous studies investigating students' morphological awareness, no consistent task has been used to measure this skill across grade levels and comparisons among studies have been based on tasks, which…

This study examined the composing process and communication of students aged 5-8 identified with intellectual disabilities. An open-ended writing activity called Big Paper was implemented at least once every 2 weeks for a 6-month period. Qualitative methods were utilized to analyze writing samples, videotapes of writing sessions, and transcripts…

Purpose: The present study examined associations of 5 endophenotypes (i.e., measurable skills that are closely associated with speech sound disorders and are useful in detecting genetic influences on speech sound production), oral motor skills, phonological memory, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and speeded naming, with 3 clinical criteria…

Purpose: This pilot project implemented and evaluated a theme-based unit designed to teach expository comprehension skills to young children in four preschool classrooms. Method: The program and the unit were collaborative efforts of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and early childhood educators. Within topically related units, 71 children ages…

Children adopted from abroad at older ages have unique speech and language-learning issues. At adoption, the impact of longer stays in orphanages with their associated lack of enrichment, nutrition, and healthcare is more pronounced. After adoption, the children begin school in a new language soon after arriving home. These children quickly lose…

Growing evidence suggests that, as a group, many internationally adopted children catch up to their peers in terms of their language development by the time they reach their school-age years. Although this appears to be particularly true for children adopted during the first few years of life, it is not true for all internationally adopted…

This article reviews the evidence pertaining to intensity for phonemic awareness intervention for preschoolers and kindergartners with language impairment. The nature of phonemic awareness instruction is considered, including which phonemic awareness skills should be explicitly taught, how to structure these skills into teaching episodes, and how…

Fully developed definitions of evidence-based practice incorporate evidence from family perspectives, as well as evidence from research on the effectiveness of particular interventions. Systems for appraising research evidence typically place qualitative analyses at lower levels. The argument in this article is that qualitative data offer a…

This article provides an overview of 3 approaches to peer-mediated intervention that have been effective in improving the social and communicative interactions among young children with autism and other developmental disabilities and their classmates without disabilities. These empirically supported peer-mediated interventions involve teaching…

Pragmatic language skills are important for developing relationships with others, and for communicating with a range of interlocutors in a variety of contexts, including preschool and elementary school classrooms. Pragmatic language difficulties frequently are a primary area of disability for children diagnosed with autism, Asperger's syndrome,…

This article describes a new construct for coding the social communicative performance of school-aged children as they interact with peers and teachers in the classroom. The Social Communication Coding System (SCCS) allows clinicians a way of describing how children actually spend their time during the school day by observing ongoing behaviors…

This article highlights the importance of peer interactions for pre-school-aged children's social and language development and demonstrates the need for professional development in this area. Learning Language and Loving It[TM]--The Hanen Program[R] for Early Childhood Educators and Preschool Teachers is a professional development program that is…

Effective social communication interventions achieve 2 outcomes: enhancement of language and social skills and generalization of these skills during authentic interactions with peers. This article describes intervention contexts and strategies for promoting generalization of social communication skills in children with language impairments.…

In this article, 3 models of collaboration between speech-language pathologists and classroom teachers are discussed to promote emergent literacy and accurate and fluent word recognition. These models are demonstration lessons, team teaching, and consultation. A number of instructional principles are presented for emergent literacy and decoding…

D. V. M. Bishop and M. J. Snowling (2004) proposed that 2 dimensions of language are required to conceptualize the relationship between dyslexia and specific language impairment: phonological skills and wider language skills beyond phonology (grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic skills). In this article, we discuss the commonalities between…