Child Language Teaching and Therapy

Speech therapy conversations between five dyads, consisting of senior speech pathology students and hearing-impaired adolescents enrolled in a Total Communication programme, were videorecorded for five weekly sessions. Samples over one-minute intervals at the start, middle, and end of the sessions were analysed for durations of vocalizations (to the nearest 0.1 second) and for lengths of utterances (by morphemic counts). Statistical analyses examined differences between dyads, conversational partners, sessions, and intervals, and the related interactions. The impli cations of the outcomes for speech therapy instructionlintervention pro grammes are discussed.

Professionals working with prelingually, profoundly deaf children with cochlear implants must be able to give both qualitative and quantitative information regarding vocabulary acquisition and all areas of language development. The following investigation is an initial attempt to address this need. This single subject study evaluated a 4-year-old, prelingually, profoundly deaf child's acquisition of receptive and expressive spoken vocabulary in the first year of multichannel cochlear implant use. Three standardized assessments were utilized to evaluate these areas of langu age development. A prelingually deaf child, after 12 months of cochlear implant use can be described as having a 'hearing age' of 12 months. It was hypothesized that the subject of this study would be more likely to acquire vocabulary at a rate similar to that of a hearing-age control, rather than that of a chronological-age control. In order to test this hypothesis, comparisons were made with standardized data for nor mally-hearing children. It was found that this child acquired vocabulary at approximately twice the rate of a hearing age control.

This paper explores the application of the cognitive neuropsychological model to two children within the autistic spectrum. Both children were assessed individually over five sessions in an attempt to establish their strategies for information processing. Different input modes were com pared in combination and in isolation - the spoken word, sign, and print. The results offer insights into their processing, highlighting indi vidual differences, which led to subsequent hypotheses for optimum teaching approaches.

A joint semantic and phonological approach to word-finding problems was employed in the treatment of a language-disordered child per forming confrontational naming tasks. The techniques used strengthened the child's semantic network and phonological awareness and encour aged self-cuing. Thirty pictures which the child could not name correctly were used. Ten pictures formed a control to test naming ability before and after treatment while the remaining twenty were used for both treat ment and testing. Three treatment sessions per week for eight weeks were given. Post-treatment results showed a marked improvement in naming both control and treatment pictures and a small improvement in self-cuing skills. Repeat testing two months later after the summer holidays showed the improvement in the control group had been main tained, but there had been some loss of skill in naming the treatment pictures. Nine treatment sessions over six weeks were then given and a second maintenance test performed. This showed an overall increase in naming skills and a small improvement in self-cuing ability. The reasons for the improvements are discussed.

Speech and language therapists are under ever-increasing pressure to demonstrate the value of their work, both in terms of cost to the pur chaser and benefit to the client. The work of these therapists in school settings differs significantly from their work in health-care settings, not least because of strong philosophical and organizational differences between health and education. This paper argues that the methods developed within the field of educational research are amongst the most productive in the investigation of effectiveness. It provides details of a multidimensional model which could be applied in educational settings.

Language play is a normal and frequent part of adult and child behav iour. This paper characterizes the phenomenon of language play in adults, examines the ways in which children make use of it, suggests developmental stages, and discusses its relation to linguistic and meta linguistic awareness. Its importance in child development is emphasized, and points of connection with issues in language pathology and the teaching of reading are explored. The paper suggests that a focus on language play can help to bridge the gap between the world of the home/playground and that of the clinic/classroom.