Kamf Hoppe, Hanna & Svensson, Cecilia (2021). Gynnsamma arbetssätt för flerspråkiga elever med språkstörning - verktyg för speciallärare. Speciallärarprogrammet inriktning grav språkstörning, Institutionen för skolutveckling och ledarskap, Lärande och samhälle, Malmö universitet (MAU), 90 hp.

Forskning visar på att det är svårt för elever med språkstörning att ta till sig undervisningen i skolan. Deras svårigheter kan te sig på olika sätt, men det är vanligt med svårigheter kring att tänka språkligt, läsa och skriva. Behovet av stöd är stort och skolan är skyldig att anpassa undervisningen efter elevernas och behov. Många lärare är dock osäkra på hur de ska tillmötesgå dessa elevers olika behov. Genom denna uppsats undersöker jag hur elever uppfattar sin skolsituation på gymnasiet samt vilket stöd de upplever att de är hjälpta av. Det framkommer att eleverna uppfattar diagnosticeringen på olika sätt. En del beskriver den som en möjlighet medan andra uppfattar den som ett hinder. De svårigheter eleverna upplever i skolan gäller läsning, skrivning, ordförståelse samt trötthet. Beroende på vilket behov eleverna har och vad skolan erbjuder så använder de sig av olika stöd i skolan. Det handlar om speciallärare, tekniska hjälpmedel och lyhörda ämneslärare. / Research shows that it is difficult for students with language disturbance to attend school classes. Their difficulties can teem in different ways, but it is common with difficulties in thinking linguistically, reading and writing. The need for support is large and the school is obliged to adapt the teaching to students and needs. However, many teachers are uncertain how to accommodate these students' different needs. Through this essay, I investigate how students perceive their school situation in high school and what support they feel they are helped by. It appears that the students perceive the diagnosis in different ways. Some describe it as an opportunity while others perceive it as an obstacle. The difficulties students experience in school concerns reading, writing, word understanding and fatigue. Depending on the needs of the students, they use different support in school. It is about specialist teachers, technical aids and attentive subject teachers.

The purpose of this study was to discover the current awareness of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) regarding the link between language disorder and the juvenile justice system. It is to consider how speech-language pathology, as a profession, think about the implications of language disorder on life outcomes as well as determine the need for speech-language intervention within the juvenile justice system. A Google Form was created and distributed to current speech-language pathologists that have their Certificate of Clinical competence, and have experience working with students in the educational setting. Results suggest SLPs are aware of the link between LD and the juvenile justice system as well as the aspects of language found difficult for these young offenders, but training and professional development on this topic is minimal. Participants report an interest in interprofessional practice and are positioned to become advocates for young offenders with LD in the juvenile justice system.

State standards require kindergarten students to produce expository writing, but little research has been done regarding their abilities in this area. This study describes expository writing samples of 47 typically developing (TD) kindergarteners and 43 kindergarteners with developmental language disorder (DLD). The Expository Language Measures (ELM) Flow Chart and the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software were used to detail the language complexity and text structure features the children in the sample produced. When comparing TD and DLD children's expository written samples, no significant differences in the language and text structure measures were found. It is important to continue acquiring data regarding young children's abilities to produce expository written language. Identifying norms and areas of weakness promotes the creation of more specific and effective teaching and intervention methods.

As the population of Spanish-English bilingual children in the United States steadily grows, the importance of accurately assessing and diagnosing developmental language disorder (DLD) has also grown. Understanding a child's underlying language learning system is critical in this process. Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of nonword repetition (NWR) tasks in bilingual children across a wide range of development, however there is little information regarding guidelines for interpretation of NWR performance or analyzing error patterns. This study was conducted to address these gaps in the research. A sample of 26 Spanish-English bilingual school aged children (6;0-9;4) were administered English and Spanish NWR, recalling sentences, and narrative tasks. Total errors, as well as errors of omission and substitution were examined across tasks, languages, and language group (typically developing-TD and developmental language disorder- DLD). Descriptive statistics revealed that DLD children made a higher number of errors across language tasks in Spanish and English than their TD peers. Group membership predicted total errors in the Spanish NWR task while controlling for age and language proficiency. Language proficiency was not a significant predictor for any of the error types above and beyond group membership. Therefore, when age and language input/output were controlled for, language ability was best predictor of the number of errors. Additionally, results showed stronger correlations between Spanish across all three language tasks in TD children and in English across two language tasks in DLD children. According to the results of the current study, total errors is the only effective error measure of language ability. However, looking at error patterns across language and language group can be informative regarding bilingual children's language learning systems. Future research should be conducted to repeat the study with a larger sample size and investigate the difference in error patterns between languages in TD and DLD children.

Nonword repetition (NWR) has demonstrated significant potential as a less-biased language assessment measure for dual language learners (DLLs). However, there are currently no available guidelines for the use of NWR in a clinical setting. The purpose of this preliminary study is to develop initial recommendations for the clinical use of NWR tasks by determining the diagnostic accuracy and optimal cut-off scores for two NWR tasks and scoring methods, and to evaluate the clinical feasibility of NWR as an assessment measure. Participants included 23 DLL students with and without language disorder between the ages of 6 and 8. Spanish and English NWR tasks were administered in school classrooms and scored by percent phonemes correct (PPC) and number of whole words correct. Optimal cut-off scores resulting in the best sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each task and scoring method. Diagnostic accuracy was then compared for each task, combination of tasks, and scoring method. English PPC, Spanish PPC, and combined whole word scores yielded acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity. Combined PPC scores resulted in excellent specificity, but inadequate sensitivity. Whole word scores for the tasks individually did not approach acceptable diagnostic accuracy. The current findings suggest that NWR can be feasibly implemented in the clinical setting and yield accurate results. English-Spanish whole word scores show potential as an accurate assessment measure for DLL children but should be investigated further. English-Spanish PPC scores appear to be appropriate for ruling out a language disorder, but are insufficient for ruling one in. These results provide preliminary support for the use of NWR tasks in the clinical assessment of DLLs as well as initial recommendations for their administration and interpretation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate preliminary psychometric normative data of an English dynamic assessment of narrative language for a group of diverse school-age students with and without language disorder. This study included 364 diverse students with and without language disorder ranging from kindergarten through 6th grade. Students were confirmed as having a language disorder if they had an existing active IEP for language, and scores below a certain cutoff point on a nonword repetition (NWR) task and the narrative language measure (NLM). English language proficiency was investigated, and students were classified as being a dual language learner (DLL) based on student, teacher, or parent report of diverse home language, and poor performance on an English narrative language assessment. Participants were administered a nonword repetition task (NWR), the Narrative Language Measure (NLM), and the Dynamic Assessment of Oral Narrative Discourse (the DYMOND). Data were analyzed within groups of typically developing students and students with a language disorder to identify statistically different mean modifiability and posttest scores given various demographic factors. Results of this study indicate that modifiability and posttest scores for typically developing students were not found to be statistically different given gender or school location, however, significant differences were noted given grade and level of English proficiency or DLL status. The group of students with a disorder demonstrated no statistically different mean modifiability scores given any demographic factor. Students with a language disorder demonstrated significantly different mean posttest scores given school location and English proficiency and DLL status. Results from this study are consistent with previous dynamic assessment research in demonstrating excellent classification accuracy in culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) populations. Students may benefit from a norm-referenced dynamic assessment of narrative language in order to provide less-biased standardized forms of assessment for CLD populations.

To address the needs of the growing number of Spanish-English bilingual children in the United States, Nonword Repetition (NWR) tasks were created to reduce testing bias in the assessment and diagnosis of children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Several studies have shown promising results in the use of NWR tasks; however, fewer studies have addressed questions such as the use of different scoring methods or analyzing error patterns. Thus, this study was conducted to address these gaps in the research. An English and a Spanish NWR task were administered to 26 Spanish-English bilingual school aged children (6;0-9;4). Two different scoring methods (percent phoneme correct and whole word scoring) were compared for diagnostic accuracy and the types and frequency of errors were analyzed. Both scoring methods showed statistically significant differences between groups (participants with DLD and those with typically developing language). Whole word scoring in Spanish had the best diagnostic accuracy, according to sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratio measures. However, due to the small number of nonwords that any participant repeated correctly, this may not be a clinically practical scoring method. The Spanish NWR task was a better measure than the English NWR task in identifying children with DLD, suggesting that Spanish NWR could be used to assess DLD in bilingual children. Participants with DLD produced more consonant, vowel, substitution, and omission errors than those with typically developing language. There was no difference between groups for addition errors. Significantly more omission errors were made in Spanish, likely due to the longer nonwords. The longer nonwords may be key in distinguishing between typically developing children and those with DLD. These results have the potential to inform future clinical practices in selecting, scoring, and analyzing NWR tasks.

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This study examines how educators describe what strategies they use when working with students with language impairment. We investigated how educators describe their teaching of students with language impairment, what methods they use and which adaptations they make. We were also interested in opportunities and difficulties the educators describe they experience when working with pupils with language impairment. Five special education teachers and four class teachers were interviewed. The results of the interviews show that the educators believe that they need more knowledge about language impairment and that there is a demand for further education in the area of language disorders. However, the interviews also show that the educators use a variety of tools and methods in their teaching of students with language impairment, which are in line with what the research describes as effective teaching methods for this student group.