Children with severe physical disabilities often do not have the capabilities for oral communication. Professionals are frequently faced with selecting vocabulary for children who are unable to use vocal output because of severe motor impairments. A child who is nonambulatory may have additional reasons for communicating and sees the world from a different viewpoint than his ambulatory peers. Selecting appropriate words for an initial lexicon that are useful to nonspeaking disabled children that also meet normal language acquisition standards is a concern. This study specifically addresses this concern by looking at the vocabulary differences of ambulatory and nonambulatory preschool children. The purpose of this research project was to compare expressive vocabulary produced by nonambulatory, speaking children with the expressive vocabulary produced by ambulatory, speaking children. It is suggested that the vocabulary of nonambulatory, speaking children might be more appropriate for selecting a lexicon for AAC systems if indeed, they are different from words produced by ambulatory, speaking children.

Communication refers to the conveyance of intended messages so that the listeners' attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors are changed. Communication through a language system may be thought of as the integration of the three components of content (semantics), form (syntax), and use (language in context or pragmatics). The corning together of content, form, and use in signs, words, phrases, and discourse is the essence of language development. The synergism of content/form/use makes up language competence, or knowledge. When children speak and understand a message, they have a plan that is knowledge of language and they use that plan for the behavior involved in speaking or understanding messages, (Bates, 1976; Bloom and Lahey, 1978).

Two preschool males who presented with the characteristics of developmental verbal dyspraxia were enrolled in a phonological cycles intervention approach. Initially, each child's deviant phonological processes were analyzed by the CAPD and target patterns and words selected for remediation. A continuous speech sample was obtained and analyzed to measure intelligibility by percentage and rating on a seven point scale. A time-space probe was developed based on targeted and non-targeted phonemes and administered prior to the first intetvention session. Using the selected targeted patterns and words, an individualized remediation plan was developed, and the phonological process cycling approach used. Each subject participated in 60 minutes of intervention for each targeted pattern to complete the first cycle in approximately 10 weeks. The time-space probes were administered approximately every two weeks.

Researchers have successfully labeled specific patterns of expressive language development as it appears in children developing language normally. Little research has identified particular patterns of expressive language in children who display expressive language disorders or delays. Longitudinal studies of expressively language impaired children indicate that linguistic, educational and social impairments exist long after the language impairment was first identified (Aram, Eckelman and Nation, 1984; Aram and Nation, 1980; Fundudis, Kolvin and Garside, 1979; Stark, Berstein, Condino, Bender, Tallal and Catts, 1984). If patterns of delayed or disordered language development are researched and possibly labeled in the early stages of language development, strategies for assessment and intervention can be made more efficient and the effects of early language impairment on later academic achievement may be prevented. The present study was part of the Portland Language Project, a longitudinal study of early language delay. Lee's Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) was used to attempt to identify syntactic patterns used by children exhibiting early language delay. The DSS is a standardized measure for analyzing children's standard English expressive language abilities in the following eight grammatical categories: 1) indefinite pronouns; 2) personal pronouns; 3) main verbs; 4) secondary verbs; 5) negatives; 6) conjunctions; 7) interrogative reversal; and 8) Wh-Questions. Using the DSS, specific syntactical areas of deficit can be identified by analysis of an audiotaped speech sample. A comparison of expressive language in the eight subcategories in the DSS was completed among three groups of preschool children; 1) children developing language normally (the NL group); 2) children who did not meet criteria for normal language development at 20 months, but later fell within the normal range of language development as measured by the DSS (Lee, 1974). This is referred to as the history of expressive language delay group (HELD); and 3) children who did not meet criteria for normal language development at 20 months and again, did not meet criteria for normal language development as measured by the DSS (Lee, 1974) at later ages. This is referred to as the expressive language delay group (ELD). The purpose of this study was to determine if significant differences exist in each of the eight subcategory group scores from the DSS between those children identified as expressively language delayed and those identified as developing language normally at ages three and four. At age three, significant differences were found among the three groups in all eight subcategory scores of the DSS. By age four, the significant differences were found between the delayed group and the normal developing group in the main verb category and the personal pronoun category only. There were no significant differences between the normal developing and the history of delay groups on any of the eight categories at age four. The delayed group exhibited marked improvement and narrowed the deficits in expressive language to a specific area of language. The present study suggested that children with early language delay appear to "catch up" with normal peers in most areas of syntactic production by age four. The DSS (Lee, 1974) provides information about specific areas of syntactic development. Due to the length and complexity of the DSS, it is not a tool that practicing clinicians often use. A study such as this may help the practicing clinician quickly screen a preschool child in a specific syntactic category, such as verb marking, in order to check for possible early language delay. In addition to providing clinical assistance, this study has opened up the door for future research in syntactic development. This study could be expanded to examine the specific verb markers that are being used by the delayed subjects. This may lead to more efficient identification and remediation of early language delays.

Interest in children who are diagnosed with expressive language delay has increased over the years. This has resulted in follow-up studies which have suggested that these children would have difficulties in academics during their elementary school years (Hall & Tomblin, 1978; Weiner, 1974) The current study sought to determine if children with a history of and children with continued expressive language delay would have problems with academics once they reached the second grade. The Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) was used to measure academic performance. It was chosen for it's reliable standardization and use of five different subtest areas to determine overall academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are significant differences in academic performance on PIAT between three groups of second grade children with different language histories. The three groups are: 1) children with normal language history 2) children with a history of expressive language delay (HELD) who were identified as late to talk between 20 and 34 months of age, but who received a score at or above the tenth percentile in the second grade on the DSS (Developmental Sentence Scoring, Lee 1974), and 3) children with chronic expressive language delay (ELD) who were identified as late to talkers between 20 and 34 months of age, and received a score below the tenth percentile in the second grade on the DSS. Significant differences were found between the ELD group and the Normal group in the areas of Math and General Information as well as the Total Test Score. The ELD group also performed significantly lower than the HELD group in the areas of Math and the Total Test Score. There were no significant differences found between the HELD group and the Normals or between the ELD and HELD groups on the General Information subtest. These results were consistent with the most recent research article by Whitehurst and Fischel (1994) which looked at three longitudinal studies and found that by five years of age most children diagnosed with specific expressive language delay were performing within the normal range in ·various areas of language development.

Proficiency in various higher level language skills is necessary to integrate and organize units of meaning beyond the sentence level. Examining narratives has become a useful tool for assessing these language abilities. Narrative skills are considered by many researchers to be a strong link between oral language and literacy, and related to academic performance (Westby, 1991; Roth & Spekman, 1991). The present study was part of the Portland Language Development Project, a longitudinal study of early language delay. The purpose of this study was to assess higher level language abilities by examining the stories of 6-year-olds with normal, impaired, and late developing oral language. The specific objective was to determine whether there were differences on 9 measures of narrative skill in first graders that could be related to their pattern of language acquisition. The original group size was 24 children with normal expressive vocabulary size at age 20-34 months, and 30 children whose expressive vocabulary size fell below the normal range at 20-34 months referred to as "late talkers." These two groups of children were re-evaluated when in first grade. Each child was audiotaped producing a narrative and a spontaneous language sample. The Bus Story (Renfrew, 1977), a story retelling procedure, was administered for the narrative measure. When the spontaneous, conversational language samples were scored for syntactic complexity with Lee's (1974) Developmental Sentence Score (DSS), 22 (73°/o) of the original L T had scores in the normal range and were reclassified as "History of Expressive Language Delay" (Hx). The remaining 8 (27°/o) who continued to fall below the normal range were now classified as "Expressive Language Delayed" (ELD). The narrations produced by all of the children were scored on nine measures: narration length in T-units, mean length perT-unit in morphemes, type-token ratio, average number of morphemes in the five longest sentences, information retold, lexical richness, cohesion, percentage of new propositions produced, and narrative stage assignment. No significant differences were found among the three diagnostic groups on the following seven measures: narration length in T-units, mean length perT-unit in morphemes, type-token ration, information retold, lexical richness, cohesion, or percentage of new propositions produced. Significant differences were found among groups on the average number of morphemes in the five longest sentences. Both the normal group and the Hx group scored significantly higher than the ELD group. Significant differences were found between the normal group and both the Hx group and the ELD group on the measure of narrative stage assignment. The present study suggested that children with early language delay appear to "catch up" with normal peers in most areas of narrative ability by age 6. Of the variables examined in this study, the production of an overall mature narrative was the primary deficit noted in children with a history of expressive language delay. Language intervention should focus not only on morphology and syntax, but also on basic story grammar knowledge. Children with an expressive language delay as well as children with a history of language delay may need additional teaching and training of narrative skills in order to succeed with literacy.

Beginning at birth, a child's receptive and expressive language skills are developing in stages. Likewise, the child's socialization skills are progressing in stages. However, it does not seem that communication and socialization are developing independently of each other. Rather, it seems that their development is interrelated.Children learn to speak in a social context, and social situations are necessary for the development of a variety of language structure~ On the same note, in order for those language structures to develop normally, it is necessary for the child to participate in different social situations. Social interactionists have theorized for some time that human language develops out of the social-communicative functions that language serves in human relations. Vygotsky (1962) theorized that language development, social development, and cognitive development all overlap. He stated that a child's social means of thought is language and referred to this as "verbal thought." This verbal thought process serves a major social function. It is through this verbal thought process that children have the ability to be socialized by others and to socialize with others: If, in fact,Expressive language skills and socialization skills do develop together, it would then seem logical that the child who is late to begin talking would also experience initial deficits in the development of socialization Subsequently, it would seem that the late-talking child (L T) who has persistent deficits in language would, in turn, maintain chronic deficits in socialization. Results of a study which set out to investigate the differences between two and three-year old subjects with a history of LT and their normal language peers indicated that subjects with a history of LT are, in fact, at risk for persistent delays in both expressive language and socialization (Paul, Spangle Looney, and Dahm, 1991). The purpose of this study was to compare the language and socialization skills of a group of five-year olds with a history of LT to a group of normal subjects of the same age. If significant differences were found between the two groups in either area, the scores of the subjects with a history of LT at age two would be correlated with their scores at age five to investigate whether a significant relationship existed between their scores at both ages. It was hypothesized that the subjects with a history of LTwould be at risk for longterm delays in both language and socialization. More specifically, the group of subjects with a history of LT, as a whole, would show significant delays in the areas of expressive language and socialization as compared to the normal controls. It was further hypothesized that the subjects with a history of LTs' scores at the age of two would reliably predict their scores at five, given a significant deficit in either area. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales VABS (Sparrow, Balla, & Cicchetti, 1984) was the test instrument used to gather the data at both age levels, five years and two years. Parents of 25 subjects with a history of L T and 25 normal subjects were interviewed by a trained graduate researcher on their child's communication, daily living and socialization skills using the VABS. Results of an ANOVA and Tukey multiple comparisons indicated that the subjects with a history of LT, as a whole, scored significantly lower than the normal subjects in the areas of expressive communication and socialization at age five. Since a proportion of the test items in the socialization domain of the VABS require the child to verbalize, an item analysis between the verbal and the nonverbal test items was performed to determine the influence of the verbal test items on the subjects with a history of LTs' socialization scores. Results of the item-analysis indicated that the subjects with a history of L T's poor performance on the socialization scale was due to their deficits in social skills not their deficits in expressive language. Lastly, a Pearson Product Moment Correlational Test was conducted to investigate the relationship between the subjects with a history of LTs' scores at age two on the communication and the socialization scales and their scores at age five on the same scales. Results indicated that the subjects with a history of LTs' scores on both the socialization scale and the communication scale at age two correlated significantly with their scores on the socialization scale at age five. Therefore, the subjects with a history of LTs' socialization and communication scores at age two are good predictors of their adaptive social skills at the age of five.

The narrative, just like any lectured or monologue information which is shared, does not depend to any great extent on context. Therefore, ability to encode and decode the information to be presented verbally is required, that is, in order for the speaker to be able to verbalize what he or she wants to say while taking into consideration the listener's needs. This indicates that production of strong narratives depends on higher level language skills, and so children's narratives provide a sensitive means of assessing children's language development. The purpose of this study was to compare the narrative ability of children at second grade age, using a wordless picture book, with differing rates of language development. Subjects were assigned to three diagnostic groups, (normal, history of expressive language delay, and chronic expressive language delay) based on their original diagnoses at 20 - 34 months (normal or late-talker) and their Developmental Sentence Score (Lee, 1974) at second grade age. During the second grade assessment, each subject was audiotaped producing a spontaneous narrative using a wordless picture book. These narratives were scored on eight measures: Mean Length of Utterance per T-Unit, TypeToken Ratio, Narration Length in T-Units, Information, Average Sentence Length, Lexical Diversity, Cohesion, and Narrative Stage. Results of the ANOVA and the Duncan Test multiple comparison procedures revealed significant differences among the groups on only one variable - Mean Length of Utterance per T-Unit. Children in the normal language group and the history of expressive language delay group performed significantly better than the group of children with chronic expressive language delay. No significant differences were found between the normal language group and the history of expressive language delay subjects.

Current research in early language development suggests that children who were diagnosed during preschool with expressive language delay would demonstrate difficulties during elementary school years (Scarborough and Dobrich, 1990). This purpose of the present study was to qualitatively describe the outcome of children with a history of early language delay and differing levels of expressive performance (ELD and HELD), as reported by the parents. A questionnaire was developed to determine the children's current age and grade level, past and present reading ability and reading interests, best and worst academic subject, special services and diagnosed disability, speech and language concerns, friendships concerns, and behavioral and motor issues. The study used Developmental Sentence Scoring (Lee, 197 4), which determined which children continued to function below the normal range at second grade. Once identified, these children were placed into two groups indicating early language delay (ELD) and history of early language delay (HELD). The data was collected from parent interviews and placed into tables for analysis. Case vignettes were developed for each ELD and HELD subject. The suggested trends from the study include: Differences in reading material, literacy related play activities, number of friends, and similar special services received in school.

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