Child Language Teaching and Therapy

Interprofessional practice between teachers and speech-language therapists (SLTs) is essential to supporting learning and inclusive education in school. Its progress, however, in education is not meeting expectations. This study explored the conditions for Interprofessional practice in the perceptions of teachers and SLTs who worked together in education. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 professionals (17 teacher-SLT pairs). Using reflexive thematic analysis, the interviews were examined, from which themes and subthemes were developed. The conditions perceived by teachers and SLTs for the development of interprofessional practice were organized at a political, municipal, school, and individual level, drawing on Bronfenbrenner`s Ecological model (2006). These results shed light on the varied needs perceived by teachers and SLTs, which should be considered when planning and allocating resources. These insights will be helpful for decision-makers wishing to advance their schools towards inclusive educational contexts.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are known to present difficulties in storytelling, both in macrostructure (i.e., narrative scheme) and in microstructure (i.e., language complexity). Studies also show that children with DLD can improve their narrative macrostructural performance through specific intervention. While most intervention studies explore the impact of intervention on one type of narrative task in an individual setting, we explore the impact of intervention on two types of narrative tasks (story retelling and story generation) in a group setting. Children receive intervention on a story retelling task, and we examine whether they can generalize the narrative skills they have learned to a story generation task. Fifteen French-speaking children with DLD (aged 7;5 to 10;2) were trained into two groups of seven to eight children, during four to six sessions of 45 min each. Children had (1) to make the correspondence between an icon and a macrostructural element, (2) to learn macrostructure elements within a story, and (3) to practice the retelling of this story. In order to assess improvement between pre- and posttest, children were assessed via four baselines: two story retelling tasks (with only one story that was trained), one story generation, and a control measure (rapid automatized naming test). Children significantly improved on the three stories, in terms of the number of macrostructural elements learned. No improvement was observed on the control measure nor on the microstructural score. Our results confirmed that intervention focusing on macrostructure leads to improvement in this specific domain and that children with DLD can generalize learning acquired during a retelling task to a story generation one, a finding which has clinical applications for group intervention on narratives in speech–language therapy.

Despite extensive research and investment, persistent disparities in educational achievement continue to be observed for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Public health experts emphasize the significance of early language experience and caregiver talk, also known as “language nutrition,” in improving children's outcomes. A large body of research has demonstrated the effectiveness of Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) technology in conjunction with coaching for parents. LENA software uses audio recordings to automatically compute objective data about the language environment. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of LENA Grow coaching in promoting language nutrition and enhancing language environments in Early Head Start classrooms. We recruited 28 classrooms located in urban, low socioeconomic neighborhoods to participate in the study. Eighteen classrooms implemented LENA Grow and 10 classrooms served as the control group. The results indicated positive effects on language nutrition metrics such as conversational turn count and adult word count per hour, as well as improvements in children's early literacy skills for the LENA Grow classrooms. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Intervention studies targeting developmental language disorder (DLD) have been conducted mainly with monolingual English-speaking children and bilingual children learning English. There is a need to explore the application of current methods to more languages. However, adapting an existing intervention to other languages can be a daunting task as it is not necessarily clear which aspects need modification. This article presents pilot studies that were conducted to explore the applicability of dialogic book reading (DBR) to three languages and countries, and to clarify methodological aspects of the intervention in preparation for the development of a protocol for a larger international efficacy study to be conducted across several languages and countries. The article describes an iterative process conducted by an international team, which included group work on the creation and adaptation of intervention materials, as well as three feasibility clinical trials conducted at different stages of the iterative process in Bulgaria, Austria and Lebanon. Each trial addressed methodological aspects of DBR implementation, including the number and types of books to use in total and per session, the length of sessions, the number and type of target words in total and per session and the types of probes used to keep track of intervention gains. In addition to shedding light on methodological aspects of the implementation of DBR, the study describes the iterative process undertaken by the research team, which could serve as a model or inspiration to other international teams.

Children and young people living in care (aka looked-after children and young people) are at a high risk of language development delays. This scoping review aimed to identify and synthesise research published between 1989 and 2024 that examines the prevalence, nature and key areas of language difficulties among children and young people in care. It also aimed to report associated risk and protective factors and to identify existing intervention strategies relevant to supporting their language development. An iterative search strategy resulted in the inclusion of 38 studies, with the majority conducted in the United States (n = 12). Studies varied widely in terms of methodological factors, and most were single research projects that had not been replicated. A range of language screening tools were used which included well-known and less-known measures that had different clinical thresholds. The results indicated that children and young people in care are at a greater risk of experiencing difficulties in all areas of language. This topic thus warrants more attention and further investigation. This research has the potential to significantly influence both policy and practice by highlighting the critical need for early identification and support for language difficulties among children in care, particularly those who have experienced maltreatment.