| 1. |
- Sandgren, Olof, et al.
(author)
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Using a word association task to investigate semantic depth in swedish-speaking children with developmental language disorder
- 2021
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In: Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1401-5439 .- 1651-2022. ; 46:3, s. 134-140
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We examined word associations in Swedish children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) compared to their typically developing (TD) peers. Furthermore, the study aimed to explore the dimensions of vocabulary knowledge (breadth, depth, and fluency) in these children. Fifty children (15 DLD and 35 TD) participated in the study, aged six to nine years. This age span is commonly associated with substantial lexical reorganisation, by some referred to as the syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift. Fifty items from the Kent-Rosanoff list were used to elicit word associations (say the first word that comes to mind). Word associations were coded as paradigmatic (lion-tiger), syntagmatic (chair-sit), phonological (moon-poon), and other/no answer (foot-hello/bed- -). A semantic depth score (paradigmatic and syntagmatic associations) was calculated and analysed. The children with DLD showed significantly lower semantic depth scores than their TD peers, in line with previous research in English-speaking children. However, the vocabulary dimensions were uniformly affected for the DLD group, contradicting previous findings of semantic depth as a particular area of weakness in this group.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Ketty, et al.
(author)
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Impact of language background and school factors on core language skills
- 2019
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Bilingual children are at a disadvantage when compared to monolingual norms in language assessment. Monolingual assessment fails to acknowledge the asymmetrically distributed linguistic competence of bilingual children, for example, different levels of mastery of family and school related concepts in the first and second languages, respectively. Consequently, monolingual assessment results in an overidentification of language impairment in bilingual populations. However, other factors, in many communities associated with bilingualism, may also yield low results in language assessments. We investigated the Swedish CELF-4 Core subscales for receptive language and grammatical production of over 220 7-8-year-old children, all students in the classrooms of teachers participating in an ongoing practice-embedded intervention aimed at modifying mainstream primary school teachers’ verbal and nonverbal instructional communication. The student sample is representative of a southern Swedish urban and suburban population, with approximately 50 percent of students reported by parents to use at least one other language on a daily basis, in addition to the Swedish used in school, although with great differences in proportions, with participating schools ranging between 0 and 95 percent bilingual students. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the contribution of bilingualism, parental education level, school district and enrolment in extra-curricular activities on CELF-4 Core scores. In isolation, bilingualism predicted 38 percent of the variance in the CELF-4 Core scores, p < 0,01. With parental education level, school district and enrolment in extra-curricular activities entered the total variance explained by the model increased to 54 percent. However, the unique contribution of bilingualism was reduced to 9 percent. The results highlight the need to look beyond bilingualism in language assessment and educational management of bilingual children and adolescents, and to consider other explanations to academic struggle. Furthermore, alternative interventions must be considered and applied proportionately to their respective impact on the individual’s development. Evidence-based, high-quality language instruction in school must be complemented by community-based interventions aimed at increasing the parental education level and at providing counsel to parents and families on factors associated with academic advancement, e.g. extra-curricular activities. Measures must also be taken to reduce the gap between schools in order to avoid the double dose of disadvantage often experienced by bilingual children and adolescents and their families in areas of socioeconomic stress.
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| 3. |
- Ekström, Anna, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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It depends on who Im with: How young people with developmental language disorder describe their experiences of language and communication in school
- 2023
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In: International journal of language and communication disorders. - : WILEY. - 1368-2822 .- 1460-6984. ; 58:4, s. 1168-1181
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundThe risks of developmental language disorder (DLD) for both educational progress and socio-emotional development are well documented, but little is known about how children and young people with DLD experience and describe their language and communication. The need to complement experimental and quantitative studies with qualitative perspectives of the lived experience of individuals with DLD for speech and language therapists (SLT) practice has recently been foregrounded. AimsTo understand further the experiences of young people with DLD focusing on language and communication in a school context, and thereby contribute to the improvement of the communicative situation in school for this group. The study is guided by the following research question: How do young people diagnosed with DLD describe their experiences of language and communication in school? Methods & ProceduresThe study is based on data generated from qualitative semi-structured interviews with 23 participants diagnosed with DLD (age 13-19 years old) living in Sweden. All participants attended mainstream schools. To enable data to be collected during COVID-19 restrictions, all interviews were conducted using Zoom. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Outcomes & ResultsFour main themes related to experiences of language and communication in school were constructed from the interviews: (1) feelings of inadequacy and comparisons with others; (2) feelings of being misjudged and misunderstood; (3) the importance of feeling safe and comfortable; and (4) the significance of the social and communicative context. The results bear witness of difficult and challenging aspects related to language and communication in school, including educational, social and emotional dimensions. An important outcome of this study is how young people diagnosed with DLD describe their language and communication functioning to be dependent on both individual characteristics and abilities, as well as situational, contextual and social factors. Conclusions & ImplicationsThe results from this study show that young people with DLD can have persisting problems related to language and communication in school, including educational, social and emotional dimensions. SLT services may therefore be needed throughout the school years to ensure that students with DLD receive adequate support. In addition, support that goes beyond language abilities and targets social, contextual and emotional aspects should be considered. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDSWhat is already known on this subjectChildren and young people have unique knowledge about their language and communication which is instrumental for designing interventions and support strategies. Qualitative analyses of interview data have been able to identify both risk factors and protective strategies in relation to the well-being of individuals with DLD. Despite this, children and young people with DLD are rarely heard in research or clinical discussions. What this paper adds to existing knowledgeIn this study we listen to the voices of young people with DLD as they describe their experiences of language and communication in school. The participants describe a condition that makes them struggle to keep up with peers and puts them at risk of being misjudged by teachers, but also give examples of situations where negative consequences are hardly felt. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?DLD is a complex and dynamic disorder where contextual and social factors interact with individual abilities in creating the end result. The results of the study indicate that DLD can cause persisting problems related to language and communication in school, with impact on educational, social and emotional dimensions. To counteract these effects, SLT services may be needed throughout the school years, and support that goes beyond language abilities must be considered.
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| 4. |
- Rosqvist, Ida, et al.
(author)
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Children’s development of semantic verbal fluency during summer vacation versus during formal schooling
- 2020
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In: Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1401-5439 .- 1651-2022. ; 45:3, s. 134-142
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: Children’s results on school-related achievements tests, such as aspects of math, reading and writing, have been shown to decline following a lengthy summer vacation. Few studies have investigated whether this also applies to vocabulary skills. The purpose of this study is to investigate how lexical organization and retrieval, assessed by a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task, develops during a lengthy summer vacation versus formal schooling. Method: Sixty-eight children with mean age of 7.9 (ranging from 6.5 to 9.1), were assessed pre- and post-summer vacation and post-fall semester using two SVF categories (Animals and Clothes). The number of words produced in both categories gave the total score. Results: The result of the SVF tests decreased following summer vacation. The loss was recouped at the post-fall semester assessment, but no gains compared to initial testing were shown. Neither level of parental education, general language ability, non-verbal IQ, nor bilingualism explained the variance in development during the summer vacation or the fall semester. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that a lengthy summer vacation causes a recess in the expected development of SVF ability and that this recess is recouped after a semester of formal schooling. The findings are in line with previous research indicating that summer vacation may have negative impact on the development of important scholastic abilities in children.
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| 5. |
- Rosqvist, Ida, et al.
(author)
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Development of semantic verbal fluency and narrative ability during summer vacation versus formal schooling
- 2019
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The detrimental effect of a lengthy summer vacation on important scholastic abilities such as reading, writing and mathematical skills is relatively well documented, but how language skills are affected by summer vacation is less investigated. The purpose of our study is to investigate how lexical organization and retrieval assessed by a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task and oral narrative ability develops during summer vacation compared to during formal schooling, and if the development differs between monolingual and bilingual children. The participants (n = 68, MAgeT1 = 7;9) were assessed with a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task with two categories (Animals and Clothes). A subsample (n = 20, MAgeT1 = 7;11) was evenly divided into two groups, monolingual and bilingual, matched for age and sex. The Swedish narrative production of the participants was assessed with MAIN (Gagarina et al., 2012) and scored with Narrative Scoring Scheme (NSS) (Miller et al., 2003; Heilmann et al., 2010), adapted to MAIN in Swedish. Both the SVF and narrative task showed a similar pattern with a decrease in scores following the summer vacation and a positive development following formal schooling. For SVF the participants had significantly lower scores post-summer vacation than pre-summer. However, the pre-summer scores did not differ significantly from the post-fall semester scores, indicating that the participants needed the fall semester to recoup from the losses made over the summer vacation, but that no additional gains had been made. When comparing the narrative development during summer vacation and formal schooling a negative development during the summer vacation and a positive development during formal semester was observed, although not significant. No statistically significant differences were found when comparing development of SVF and narrative ability of the monolingual and bilingual group during neither summer vacation, nor formal schooling. However, a slightly higher NSS mean change during formal schooling was observed for the bilingual group. The results of this study validate previous findings of a negative effect of summer vacation on language measures. The results show a negative effect of summer vacation and positive effect of formal schooling on semantic verbal fluency and narrative ability (although ns). No statistically significant differences in development during neither summer vacation nor formal schooling is seen between monolingual and bilingual participants.REFERENCESGagarina, N., Klop, D., Kunnari, S., Tantele, K., Välimaa, T., Balciuniene, I., Walters, J. (2012). Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). ZAS Papers in Linguistics, 56, 1-140. Miller, J., Andriacchi, K., DiVall-Rayan, J., Lien, P. (2003). Narrative Scoring Scheme.Heilmann, J., Miller, J. F., Nockerts, A., & Dunaway, C. (2010). Properties of the narrative scoring scheme using narrative retells in young school-age children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19(2), 154-166.
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