Over the past several years, research has shown that children with language impairment often have increased social difficulties. The purpose of this study was to take a closer look at the relationship between language ability and emotion understanding by examining the recognition of facial expressions in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their typically developing peers. As such, this study is a follow-up investigation of the work done by Spackman, Fujiki, Brinton, Nelson, & Allen (2006). Children with SLI and their age- and gender-matched peers were asked to identify the following six facial expressions of emotion in a language-minimal manner: happiness, anger, fear, surprise, sadness, and disgust. Group performance was then compared for each of the emotions examined. This study found significant differences between the groups (SLI vs. typical), with the children without language impairment performing better than those with SLI. There was also a significant difference found for emotion, indicating that some emotions were identified more correctly than others. No significant effects were found for gender, nor were any interaction effects between variables found.

Recent literature has suggested a link between verbal working memory and language impairment (LI) in children. There is limited research, however, about the link between verbal working memory and social behaviors in children with LI. This study was designed to explore the relationship between social behaviors (measured by the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale; Hart & Robinson, 1996) and verbal working memory abilities (measured by a 3-, 4-, and 5-syllable nonword repetition task) in children with LI. Thirty-six children (18 with LI and 18 typically developing) aged 7 to 11 years participated in the study. Children with LI were rated by teachers as having significantly higher levels of reticence and lower levels of likeability and prosocial behaviors compared to typically developing peers. Children with LI also scored significantly lower on the nonword repetition task at the 3- and 4-syllable levels. Regression analyses revealed that nonword repetition scores were significant predictors of reticence and prosocial behaviors when examining all children as a group, accounting for 22% and 42% of the variance, respectively. As nonword repetition performance increased, reticence ratings decreased and prosocial behavior ratings increased. Nonword repetition did not significantly predict ratings on reticence or prosocial behaviors when examining language groups separately. Nonword repetition was not a significant predictor of likeability for children in this study. These findings indicate a relationship between nonword repetition performance and social behaviors in children with and without LI.

Several recent studies indicate that children with Language Impairment (LI) have difficulty recognizing and inferring meaning from emotional prosody. The present study is a replication investigating the ability of children with LI to recognize emotion conveyed by prosody in an orally presented narrative passage. Twenty-two children with LI and twenty-two age matched peers ranging from age 7;0 to 10;11 (M= 9.11, SD= 2.54) were selected to participate. Participants listened to recordings of a seven sentence passage read by actors to express happiness, anger, sadness, and fear. The children's task was to identify which emotion the speaker portrayed. Scores obtained from the children with LI as a group were significantly lower than the scores of typically developing children. Differences in the degree of recognition of individual emotions were also apparent; happiness being correctly identified most frequently, followed by anger, sadness, and then fear. Evidence supports the supposition that children with LI struggle to understand emotion conveyed through prosodic cues, which may contribute to the social challenges children with LI experience.

This study investigated the ability of children with LI to recognize the need to dissemble emotions. Participants included 22 children with LI and 22 typically developing peers, ages 7;1 to 11;0 years. Children were presented with 10 hypothetical social scenarios in which the main character experienced an emotion which should be dissembled for social purposes. The participant's responses were categorized as dissemblance or display. Children with LI reported that they would hide the experienced emotion significantly less often than their typical peers. Children in both groups reported higher levels of dissemblance when asked what their parents would want them to do. There was no significant difference between language groups for this question.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotion understanding and language ability to the sociable behavior in children with language impairment (LI) and their typically developing peers. Twenty-nine children with LI and 29 age- and gender-matched peers with typical language were used in this study. Sociability was rated by his/her classroom teacher using the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (Hart & Robinson, 1996). Language ability was assessed using the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999). To assess emotion understanding, each participant was asked to perform several structural dissemblance tasks. Children with LI received scores significantly lower in language, dissemblance, prosocial behavior, and likeability compared to their typical developing peers. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that language was a significant predictor of sociability. However, further analyses indicated that dissemblance mediated the relationship between language and likeability in girls, but not boys. Results from further analyses for prosocial behavior indicated that dissemblance did not mediate the relationship between language and prosocial behavior. Evidence from this study supports past research indicating children with LI experience emotional and language difficulties, which affect their social competence, particularly in girls.

Past research has indicated that children with language impairment (LI) struggle more than children with typical language in their social interactions (Fujiki, Brinton, & Todd, 1999). The purpose of this study was to determine if the social strategies and goals of children with LI varied from those of children with typically developing language. A social goals questionnaire was used to determine the strategies the children verbally indicated that they would use. The children were then asked why they would use the selected strategy. The responses were then separated into goal categories. A chi-square analysis indicated that children with LI varied significantly from children with typical language in their selection of the strategies of adult-seeking, passive, and hostile-controlling strategies. A descriptive analysis of the social goals showed the goals to be less relationship-oriented and less congruent with the selected strategy than typically developing peers.

Previous studies examining withdrawal in children with language impairment (LI) have found that these children are more socially withdrawn than their typically developing peers. It seems reasonable to assume that a causal relationship exists between language deficits and withdrawal. However, there is growing evidence that different subtypes of withdrawal have varying social consequences and language may not be closely linked to each subtype. In the present study, subtests from the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL; Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999) were used to evaluate specific language skills and the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS; Hart & Robinson, 1996) was used to evaluate solitary-passive withdrawal behaviors of 34 children with LI and 34 children with typically developing language. These children were matched for age (ranging from 6;11 to 11;0) and gender. No significant difference in solitary-withdrawn behavior was found between groups of children with language impairment and children with typically developing language. There was also no significant relationship between the amount of solitary-passive withdrawal and the CASL subtest scores. The results suggest that low language ability may not be directly related to solitary-passive withdrawal. Rather, the relationship between language ability and solitary-passive withdrawal is complex and is likely influenced by other factors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between language skills and prosocial behavior in 37 children with language impairment (LI) and 37 typically developing peers matched for age (ranging from 6;11 to 11;1 years). The influence of gender on this relationship was also considered. Three different subtests of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999) were used to evaluate language ability in the areas of language comprehension, language production and pragmatic judgment skills. The Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (C. H. Hart & Robinson, 1996) was used to evaluate prosocial behavior. The current study replicated previous research by documenting that children with LI demonstrate significantly poorer prosocial behavior skills than do typically developing peers. Children with LI also performed significantly more poorly on the three language subtests of paragraph comprehension, syntactic construction, and pragmatic judgment skills compared to typical peers. No significant gender differences were noted on any of the comparisons. Multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between the three language subtests and prosocial behavior in the group with LI compared to the typical group. Results for both groups indicated that paragraph comprehension, syntactic construction, and pragmatic judgment skills were not significant predictors of prosocial behavior when used in combination or independently. Results suggest that language alone cannot predict prosocial behavior in children with LI or typically developing children.

Advances in instrumentation and computer technology such as electropalatography (EPG) have offered additional types of feedback to more traditional therapy for individuals with speech disorders, specifically those with hearing impairment. The purpose of this study was to document whether therapeutic integration of EPG visual feedback in combination with traditional articulation therapy for a school-aged child with an articulation disorder secondary to hearing impairment was more effective than traditional therapy alone. One participant received five sessions of each therapy approach. Six adult listeners rated the quality of the participant's production of /r/ in words recorded during the therapy sessions. The EPG plus a traditional approach to therapy was more effective in treating the misarticulation of /r/ than traditional therapy alone. The integration of EPG therapy into traditional methods was an effective way of treating an articulation disorder for an individual with hearing impairment.

Recent research in counselor training has focused on the difficulties and challenges facing counseling practitioners that result in high stress, burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and counselor impairment. The American Counseling Association's (ACA) Code of Ethics has addressed the ethical issues inherent in counselor impairment. Further, the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) has focused on the development of counselors that will assist them in being resilient to workplace stressors. Wellness is a theoretically based construct that holds much promise for bolstering the resilience of pre-service counselors. In addition, counselor self-efficacy has been linked to greater advocacy for self and others, the use of higher order counseling skills, greater problem solving practice, and more self-regulated, ethical decision making. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between counselor self-efficacy and counselor wellness. A total of 88 participants completed both the Five Factor Wellness Evaluation of Lifestyle Inventory and the Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale. Demographic and descriptive statistics were included along with a Multiple Regression Analysis. Results did not indicate a statistically significant relationship. Potential limitations, implications for counselor educators, and future research directions were elucidated.