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studies examining withdrawal in children with language impairment (LI) have found that these children are more socially withdrawn than their typically developing peers.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 No significant difference in solitary-withdrawn behavior was found between groups of children with language impairment and children with typically developing language.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.

The purpose of this current study was to first examine through assessments and the use of school-based disability criteria, the quantitative and qualitative patterns in phonological processing, phonological working memory, oral retellings, and oral and written narratives in middle school-aged children with reading disabilities (RD; N=10) and those with language impairments (LI; N=5) in order to provide data to further explain the complex profiles of these two clinical populations. Secondly, a single-subject multiple baseline across subjects design study examined the effectiveness of an intervention program targeting expository and narrative discourse in adolescents with language and reading deficits (N=4). Expository and narrative discourse assessments were replicated at post-intervention for pre and post comparisons of performance. The findings will assist speech-language pathologists in accurately and efficiently evaluating and treating these two clinical populations in linguistic areas that are critical to successful academic and social development.

This study examined the efficacy of a social skills training program on the use of validating comments and negative comments by children with specific language impairment. The present study is an extension of a previous research project. Four children (three female, one male) with specific language impairment, ages 6 to 11, participated in a ten week social skills training program which involved direct instruction of target concepts, peer interactions with classmates, and evaluation of the use of target skills by reviewing videotaped peer interactions. The individual performance of each subject was compared to the age- and gender-matched typical peers with whom they interacted during the weekly game sessions of the intervention program. The intervention program was successful in improving the use of validating comments for three of the four subjects (AA, CS, and JH). The subjects' increased use of validating comments, however, did not appear to significantly affect or change the participants' use of negative comments. It was also found that, while individual performance improved, three of the four participants (AA, MD, and CS) consistently produced fewer validating comments than did their typical peers during the weekly game sessions. Follow-up data for the participants indicated that the three participants (AA, CS, and JH) who showed improvement in their use of validating comments over the course of treatment appeared to maintain their increased skill after the treatment ended. Possible explanations for these results are discussed, and recommendations are made for future social skills training programs.

Diploma thesis Assessment of language skills of specific language impaired children deals with children with specific language impairment in preschool and early school age (6-8 years). The thesis is to map the resources that are dealing with this issue and define the concept of specific language impairment in our country and foreign environment, because it is a very problematic term The theoretical part describes the status of speech therapy and special education diagnosis of children with specific language impairment in Czech Republic and foreign countries. It maps out how this developmental disorder speech therapists and special educators diagnose, what tools to use and what diagnostic criteria used in their practices. The aim of our research activities in the framework of this thesis is to determine whether and what value could have a Battery of tests of phonological skills (Seidlová Málková, Caravolas 2013) for the diagnostic process of specific language impairment. And also try to detect whether the battery includes tests to detect potential child with specific language impairment and thus contribute to the differential diagnosis. Keywords: Specific language impairment, language assessment, diagnostic markers, Battery of tests of phonological skills

Syftet med denna studie är att med fokus på språkstörning och läs- och skrivlärande undersöka hur pedagoger ser på begreppet språkstörning, samt vilka erfarenheter de har vid undervisning av elever med språkstörning. Studien handlar om elevens utveckling när de hamnar i den situationen där en eventuell språkstörning kan bli ett hinder i språk-, läs- och skrivlärandet. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av semistrukturerade gruppintervjuer på fyra olika skolor inom samma kommun. Informanterna har ingått i ett arbetslag som har erfarenhet av elever med språkstörning. De områden som valts att fokusera på är läs- och skrivlärande processen, metoder och arbetssätt och lärmiljön. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt används det sociokulturella perspektivet där kommunikation och språkanvändning är centrala begrepp, dessa begrepp utgör länken mellan barnet och omgivningen. Resultaten är uppdelade under områdena: begreppet språkstörning, metoder och arbetssätt, pedagogers erfarenheter, lärmiljön, pedagogiska utmaningar och framgångsfaktorer. Dessa områden har sedan sammankopplats i diskussionen med den forsknings- och litteraturgenomgång som genomförts. Resultatet visar att begreppet språkstörning innefattar många olika områden och används inte alltid i rätt syfte. Arbetslagen utgår alltid från flera metoder och arbetssätt, de provar sig fram och utgår från elevens behov. Viktiga aspekter i lärmiljön är att använda tydlighet, struktur, ett gemensamt förhållningssätt, fasta rutiner och att alltid ha ett mål att vara flera vuxna i klassrummet. Pedagogiska utmaningar innebär att kartlägga elevens behov för att sätta in rätta åtgärder. En språkstörning hos en elev kan yttra sig på olika vis vilket innebär behov av stöd inom flera områden.

The development of category knowledge is in part a function of one's experiences with the world. The types of errors produced during category generation tasks may reveal the boundaries of these experiences and the ways in which they are organized into lexical networks. Examining the errors made by bilingual children with and without language impairment (LI) and bilingual adults may help to distinguish the effects of ability versus experience on the development and organization of lexical-semantic categories. The purpose of this study was to examine the types of errors made by bilingual (Spanish-English) children with (n=37) and without (n=35) LI and bilingual adults (n=26) on category generation tasks in both their languages and at two category levels: taxonomic and slot-filler. Results revealed a main effect for level (taxonomic vs. slot-filler) and error type (semantic vs. other) and suggest that bilingual seven to nine-year-old children's and adults' proportions and types of errors produced on category generation tasks differ significantly based on ability (i.e., TD or LI) but not on experience (i.e., TD or Adults). / text

Adults with language impairment have poor language skills, but may or may not have reading deficits. For those identified with literacy difficulties as children, deficits in the skills related to sublexical level decoding skills can persist into adulthood. Decoding deficits, current or remediated, would implicate the sublexical interaction of orthography and phonology. In addition, the heterogeneous reading profiles of adults with language impairment provide an opportunity to examine whether the deficits in this bidirectional link between orthography and phonology are related to reading deficit specifically or language impairment globally. Sixty adults, 30 with language impairment and 30 with typical language, participated in this study. Nonword stimuli, orthogonally varied based on orthographic and phonological neighborhood density, were presented in two sublexical tasks, nonword repetition and nonword spelling. The experiment revealed a pattern of similar responses for adults with and without language impairment. However, adults with impaired language had significantly poorer performance on both the nonword repetition task and the nonword spelling task. Additional analyses indicated that both language and literacy measures predicted the overall performance on the orthogonally varied nonword repetition and nonword spelling tasks. This study highlights the existence of a bidirectional influence between phonological and orthographic processing. For adults with language impairment it appears that this bidirectional link is intact at the sublexical level.

The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the level of comprehension of czech sentences with a different syntactic complexity in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children at family risk for dyslexia (experimental groups) compared to typically developing peers (control group). Statistically significant differences were proven both between the SLI group and the family risk group and between the SLI group and control group. The assumed descending tendency of achievement in the test blocks was not substantiated.

Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD), including Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) have poorer language skills compared to typically developing children; however, language as a potential risk factor for DBD has received little empirical attention or evaluation. Receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language skills in preschoolers with DBD were examined. Participants were 82 preschool-age children and their primary caregivers. Primary caregivers completed a semi-structured interview and symptom and language questionnaires. Preschoolers completed measures of receptive and expressive language. Results indicated that preschoolers with DBD were more impaired on receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language compared to non-DBD children. Pragmatic language appears particularly impaired in children with DBD, and language problems appear most linked with increased hyperactivity-impulsivity (vs. inattention or oppositional-defiance). This work suggests the need for early assessment of language in preschoolers with DBD, as well as the possibly utility of tailored interventions focusing on improving pragmatic language.