Reading instruction has historically been deemphasized for students in special education, and the limited research on this topic reveals that sight word vocabulary is most commonly taught in special education classrooms (Browder, Wakeman, Spooner, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Algozzine, 2006). However, successful reading instruction must target the five essential components: vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, phonics, and phonemic awareness (National Reading Panel, 2000). The extremely small body of research attempting to teach phonics and phonemic awareness to students with mild to severe disabilities approaches instruction from a decoding framework with mixed success (Browder et al., 2006). Alternatively, this study aims to teach from an encoding framework. Encoding is the process of converting speech sounds to print by applying the alphabetic code (Herron, 2008). Students are actively engaged in the process relying on their current level of knowledge to construct words. Any attempt is viewed as a success that can be gradually improved by feedback and increased phonological and phonemic awareness. This study investigated whether encoding practice embedded in a narrative context would improve participants developmental spelling patterns across intervention sessions, and whether scores on measures of phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, print knowledge, language abilities, and spelling would improve following the 18 intervention sessions. Prior to any intervention, participants completed multiple baseline probes attempting to spell three lists of target words that were randomly selected from the words that would be targeted during intervention. Immediately before intervention sessions, participants attempted to spell five target words independently. During intervention sessions, the same five words were practiced in a narrative context with scaffolding and feedback (i.e., examiner and Phonic Faces). Participants again attempted to spell the same five target words independently immediately following the intervention session. On average, participants spelling attempts improved following intervention sessions. One participant made expected positive changes in encoding abilities from baseline to intervention, while the other participants made inconsistent progress. From pretest to posttest, participants made clinically significant gains on standardized measures of phonological awareness, vocabulary, and language measures. Findings of the study suggest that students with developmental disabilities have the potential to learn early reading skills when given direct instruction and practice.

Cajun English (CE) is an understudied dialect that is spoken in and around the Acadian triangle of Louisiana. Of the studies that exist, almost all have been completed with adults. The purpose of the current study was to determine if children whose parents have identified their family as Cajun use five phonological features of CE (/t, d/ for /θ, ð/, nonaspirated /p, t, k/, heavy vowel nasalization, monophthongization, and glide weakening on vowels) more frequently than those identified as non-Cajun. The participants were 11 kindergarteners who were identified as Cajun or non-Cajun and who resided in Assumption Parish in rural south Louisiana. Cajun status was determined through a questionnaire that asked families about their family history, self and familial exposure to Cajun French, and self and familial French-speaking abilities. Measures of the childrens use of CE phonological features was based on an analysis of one-minute audio clips that had been randomly extracted from 30-minute, examiner-child play-based language samples. The participants with Cajun status produced the /t, d/, heavy vowel nasalization, and monophthongization features more frequently than the participants with a non-Cajun status, and the difference was statistically significant for the monophthongization feature. This finding may suggest that CE phonological features are currently heard in the vowels that children produce. In addition, all of the participants produced higher frequencies of the CE features than did a group of same-age participants who lived in a neighboring parish and who had been previously studied. This finding may indicate parish effects on childrens CE phonological use that need to be considered as a contributing factor in discussions of dialect variation and change.

Five kindergarten subjects who had no known disabilities, but were identified as low beginning readers received intervention using both Plain Word Cards (PWC) and pictured word cards, termed MorphoPhonic Faces (MPF). A group of eight words were presented as printed word cards and a comparable group of eight words were presented as MPF. Results revealed that MPF did not hold an advantage for learning and retaining sight words compared to the plain print words. Improvements in sight word training corresponded in time with improved skills underlying the alphabetic principle, including phonological awareness skills and letter-sound learning, as well as emerging decoding skills for two subjects. These findings suggest that working on larger units such as words with a focus on initial sounds and word patterns has a positive (and probably reciprocal effect) on phoneme and grapheme level skills.

The IT-MAIS is a caregiver-report tool used to assess a childs functional auditory development pre- and post-implantation (Zimmerman-Phillips, et al., 2001) and as a measure of functional auditory behaviors in studies exploring cochlear implant (CI) candidacy (Barker, Kenworthy, & Walker, 2011; Franz 2002; Osberger, Zimmerman-Phillips, & Koch, 2002). However it lacks psychometric analysis of its overall reliability and validity, which are essential in determining the strength of the IT-MAIS conclusions in determining the direction of a childs clinical intervention outcomes. Barker, Donovan, Schubert, and Walker (2013) showed in their longitudinal study that caregivers did not predictably respond to items from the IT-MAIS. These unpredictable caregiver responses to the tools items lower the reports caregiver reliability. We predicted that videos for each IT-MAIS item could accurately depict the assessments targeted auditory behaviors if both rater groups found the same videos to be most representative of each IT-MAIS item. In Study 1 we generated 6 video scenarios and had 10 pediatric audiologists rate the video scenarios for each IT-MAIS item using a 7-point Likert scale. Results from Study 1 showed that pediatric audiologists found two scenarios for each IT-MAIS item that differed only by their point of view. Then the results from Study 1 and were filmed the 2 top-rated video scenarios for each IT-MAIS item. In Study 2, 5 different pediatric audiologists determined whether each video accurately depicted its corresponding IT-MAIS item. In Study 3, 20 caregivers rated how representative each video was of its corresponding IT-MAIS item using a 7-point Likert scale. Results from Studies 2 and 3 showed that the reporting audiologists and caregivers found the same 10 videos to be most representative. Those final videos were found to accurately depict the targeted behavior in each IT-MAIS item, and are the first step in improving the IT-MAIS intra-rater reliability. Our future directions suggested the need for these final 10 videos to be used in the IT-MAIS clinical administration to determine if they allow more predictable caregiver responses. These videos can be found to improve the IT-MAIS intra-rater reliability if caregiver responses become more predictable.

Speech-language pathologists must consider the clients quality of life (QoL) to provide effective and meaningful evidence-based treatment (ASHA, 2005). Quality of life assessment goes beyond language impairments and is often a key part of planning intervention. However, few QoL measures exist for people with aphasia (PWA). The Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39; Hilari, 2003) is one of the few valid and reliable measures used to assess QoL in people with mild to moderate aphasia. However, the validity and reliability of the SAQOL-39 has not been established for individuals with severe aphasia who are unable to read and comprehend the written items (Hilari & Byng, 2001). Proxy reports for people with severe aphasia are not reliable and can contribute to misinterpretation of people with severe aphasia and their QoL (Hilari & Byng, 2009). High-context color photographs may access intact linguistic processes in PWA by bypassing their reading deficits (McKelvey, Hux, Dietz, & Beukelman, 2010). Therefore, visual aids may enhance accessibility of written assessments like the SAQOL-39 for people with severe aphasia. Preliminary content validity has been established for high-context color photographs paired with SAQOL-39 items by normal aging adults (Brouwer, 2013). The present study aimed to continue to establish the content validity of the photographs by investigating how 10 adults with mild to moderate aphasia, aged 30-89 years, rated similarities of photographic representations of SAQOL-39 items, rated on a 7-point Likert scale. The present results supported high content validity of photographic representations. The overall mean rating of items was 6.40 and 92% of the photographs were rated a 6 or 7 at least 60% of the time, indicating most people with mild to moderate aphasia rated photographs highly similar to the written questions they were paired with. This studys results suggest the photographs may make the SAQOL-39 more accessible for people with severe aphasia to self-report on their QoL. Further research is warranted to investigate accessibility of the photographs among the severe aphasia population.

The purpose of this study was to examine Cajun English (CE)-speaking childrens marking of infinitival TO. To do this, CE-speaking childrens marking of infinitival TO was compared to the marking of infinitival TO by Southern White English (SWE)- and African American English (AAE)-speaking children. Marking of infinitival TO also was examined as a function of the childrens clinical status (i.e., Specific Language Impairment, SLI, or typically developing, TD) and by the verb contexts that preceded the infinitival TO forms. <br> <br>The data came from 180 kindergarteners who lived in four rural towns in Assumption Parish, Louisiana. The childrens dialect classifications were based on their school location, which led to 37 children classified speakers of CE, 68 classified as speakers of SWE, and 75 classified as speakers of AAE. The childrens clinical status was based on a review of each childs academic profile and test scores, which led to 54 children classified as SLI and 126 classified as TD. The data were 4,530 infinitival TO contexts that were extracted from play-based, examiner-child, language samples. Within the samples, the childrens infinitival TO contexts were coded as zero marked (e.g., went Ø go) or overtly marked (e.g., went to go), and the preceding verb contexts were classified as GO, COME, WENT, or all OTHER verbs (e.g., want, like, have). <br> <br>Results indicated that the childrens overall marking of infinitival TO did not differ as a function of their dialects. However, the preceding verb context influenced the CE-speaking childrens rates of zero marking in ways that differed from what was found for the SWE- and AAE-speaking children. Also, for each dialect, the childrens overall rates of zero marked infinitival TO were higher for the SLI group than for the TD controls, and this finding was directly tied to differences in the childrens zero marking of infinitival TO when it was preceded by a verb classified as OTHER. Together, these findings show subtle differences in the use of grammar by children who speak different nonmainstream dialects of English while also further documenting the grammatical weaknesses of children with SLI within these dialects.