Vocabulary | Smart Speech Therapy

Posted on June 7, 2015January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — Leave a comment

Friend or Friendly: What Does Age Have To Do with It?

In my social pragmatic language groups I target a wide variety of social communication goals for children with varying levels and degrees of impairment with a focus on improving their social pragmatic language competence. In the past I have written blog posts on a variety of social pragmatic language therapy topics, including strategies for improving students’ emotional intelligence as well as on how to teach students to develop insight into own strengths and weaknesses. Today I wanted to discuss the importance of teaching students with social communication impairments, age recognition for friendship and safety purposes.

Now it is important to note that the focus of my sessions is a bit different from the focus of “teaching protective behaviors”, “circles of intimacy and relationships” or “teaching kids to deal with tricky people“. Rather the goal is to teach the students to recognize who it is okay “to hang out” or be friends with, and who is considered to be too old/too young to be a friend.

Why is it important to teach age recognition?

There are actually quite a few reasons.

Firstly, it is a fairly well-known fact that in the absence of age-level peers with similar weaknesses, students with social communication deficits will seek out either much younger or much older children as playmates/friends as these individuals are far less likely to judge them for their perceived social deficits. While this may be a short-term solution to the “friendship problem” it also comes with its own host of challenges. By maintaining relationships with peers outside of their age group, it is difficult for children with social communication impairments to understand and relate to peers of their age group in school setting. This creates a wider chasm in the classroom and increases the risk of peer isolation and bullying.

Secondly, the difficulty presented by friendships significantly outside of one’s peer group, is the risk of, for lack of better words, ‘getting into trouble’. This may include but is not limited to exploring own sexuality (which is perfectly normal) with a significantly younger child (which can be problematic) or be instigated by an older child/adolescent in doing something inappropriate (e.g, shoplifting, drinking, smoking, exposing self to peers, etc.).

Thirdly, this difficulty (gauging people’s age) further exacerbates the students’ social communication deficits as it prevents them from effectively understanding such pragmatic parameters such as audience (e.g., with whom its appropriate to use certain language in a certain tone and with whom it is not) and topic (with whom it is appropriate to discuss certain subjects and with whom it is not).

So due to the above reasons I began working on age recognition with the students (6+ years of age) on my caseload diagnosed with social communication and language impairments. I mention language impairments because it is very important to understand that more and more research is coming out connecting language impairments with social communication deficits. Therefore it’s not just students on the autism spectrum or students with social pragmatic deficits (an official DSM-5 diagnosis) who have difficulties in the area of social communication. Students with language impairments could also benefit from services focused on improving their social communication skills.

I begin my therapy sessions on age recognition by presenting the students with photos of people of different ages and asking them to attempt to explain how old do they think the people in the pictures are and what visual clues and/or prior knowledge assisted them in the formulation of their responses. I typically select the pictures from some of the social pragmatic therapy materials packets that I had created over the years (e.g., Gauging Moods, Are You Being Social?, Multiple Interpretations, etc.).

I make sure to carefully choose my pictures based on the student’s age and experience to ensure that the student has at least some degree of success making guesses. So for a six-year-old I would select pictures of either toddlers or children his/her age to begin teaching them recognition of concepts: “same” and “younger” (e.g., Social Pragmatic Photo Bundle for Early Elementary Aged Children).

For older children, I vary the photos of different aged individuals significantly. I also introduce relevant vocabulary words as related to a particular age demographic, such as:

Infant (0-1 years of age)
Toddler (2-3 years of age)
Preschooler (3-5 years of age)
Teenager (individual between 13-19 years of age)
Early, mid and late 20s, 30s, 40s
Middle-aged (individuals around 50 years of age)
Senior/senior citizen (individuals ~65+ years of age)

I explain to the students that people of different ages look differently and teach them how to identify relevant visual clues to assist them with making educated guesses about people’s ages. I also use photos of my own family or ask the students to bring in their own family photos to use for age determination of people in the presented pictures. When students learn the ages of their own family members, they have an easier time determining the age ranges of strangers.

My next step is to explain to students the importance of understanding people’s ages. I present to the students a picture of an individual significantly younger or older than them and ask them whether it’s appropriate to be that person’s friend. Here students with better developed insight will state that it is not appropriate to be that person’s friend because they have nothing in common with them and do not share their interests. In contrast, students with limited insight will state that it’s perfectly okay to be that person’s friend.

This is the perfect teachable moment for explaining the difference between “friend” and “friendly”. Here I again reiterate that people of different ages have significantly different interests as well as have significant differences in what they are allowed to do (e.g., a 16-year-old is allowed to have a driver’s permit in many US states as well as has a later curfew while an 11-year-old clearly doesn’t). I also explain that it’s perfectly okay to be friendly and polite with older or younger people in social situations (e.g., say hello all, talk, answer questions, etc.) but that does not constitute true friendship.

I also ask students to compile a list of qualities of what they look for in a “friend” as well as have them engage in some perspective taking (e.g, have them imagine that they showed up at a toddler’s house and asked to play with him/her, or that a teenager came into their house, and what their parents reaction would be?).

Finally, I discuss with students the importance of paying attention to who wants to hang out/be friends with them as well as vice versa (individuals they want to hang out with) in order to better develop their insight into the appropriateness of relationships. I instruct them to think critically when an older individual (e.g, young adult) wants to get particularly close to them. I use examples from an excellent post written by a colleague and good friend, Maria Del Duca of Communication Station Blog re: dealing with tricky people, in order to teach them to recognize signs of individuals crossing the boundary of being friendly, and what to do about it.

So there you have it. These are some of the reasons why I teach age recognition to clients with social communication weaknesses. Do you teach age recognition to your clients? If so, comment under this post, how do you do it and what materials do you use?

Helpful Smart Speech Resources Related to Assessment and Treatment of Social Pragmatic Disorders

Posted on May 28, 2015January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 3 Comments

Improving Emotional Intelligence of Children with Social Communication Disorders

Our ability to recognize our own and other people’s emotions, distinguish between and correctly identify different feelings, as well as use that information to guide our thinking and behavior is called Emotional Intelligence (EI) (Salovey, et al, 2008).

EI encompasses dual areas of: emotion understanding, which is an awareness and comprehension of one’s and others emotions (Harris, 2008) and emotion regulation, which are internal and external strategies people use to regulate emotions (Thompson, 1994).

Many students with social communication challenges experience problems with all aspects of EI, including the perception, comprehension, and regulation of emotions (Brinton & Fujiki, 2012).

A number of recent studies have found that children with language impairments also present with impaired emotional intelligence including impaired perception of facial expressions (Spackman, Fujiki, Brinton, Nelson, & Allen, 2005), prosodic emotions (Fujiki, Spackman, Brinton, & Illig, 2008) as well as abstract emotion comprehension (Ford & Milosky, 2003).

Children with impaired emotional intelligence will experience numerous difficulties during social interactions due to their difficulty interpreting emotional cues of others (Cloward, 2012). These may include but not be limited to active participation in cooperative activities, as well as full/competent interactions during group tasks (Brinton, Fujiki, & Powell, 1997)

Many students with social pragmatic deficits and language impairments are taught to recognize emotional states as part of their therapy goals. However, the provided experience frequently does not go beyond the recognition of the requisite “happy”, “mad”, “sad” emotions. At times, I even see written blurbs from others therapists, which state that “the student has mastered the goals of emotion recognition”. However, when probed further it appears that the student had merely mastered the basic spectrum of simple emotional states, which places the student at a distinct disadvantage as compared to typically developing peers who are capable of recognition and awareness of a myriad of complex emotional states.

That is why I developed a product to target abstract emotional states comprehension in children with language impairments and social communication disorders. “Gauging Moods and Interpreting Abstract Emotional States: A Perspective Taking Activity Packet” is a social pragmatic photo/question set, intended for children 7+ years of age, who present with difficulty recognizing abstract emotional states of others (beyond the “happy, mad, sad” option) as well as appropriately gauging their moods.

Many sets contain additional short stories with questions that focus on making inferencing, critical thinking as well as interpersonal negotiation skills. Select sets require the students to create their own stories with a focus on the reasons why the person in the photograph might be feeling what s/he are feeling.

There are on average 12-15 questions per each photo. Each page contains a photograph of a person feeling a particular emotion. After the student is presented with the photograph, they are asked a number of questions pertaining to the recognition of the person’s emotions, mood, the reason behind the emotion they are experiencing as well as what they could be potentially thinking at the moment. Students are also asked to act out the depicted emotion they use of mirror.

Activities also include naming or finding (in a thesaurus or online) the synonyms and antonyms of a particular word in order to increase students’ vocabulary knowledge. A comprehensive two page “emotions word bank” is included in the last two pages of the packet to assist the students with the synonym/antonym selection, in the absence of a thesaurus or online access.

Students are also asked to use a target word in a complex sentence containing an adverbial (pre-chosen for them) as well as to identify a particular word or phrase associated with the photo or the described story situation.

Since many students with social pragmatic language deficits present with difficulty determining a person’s age (and prefer to relate to either younger or older individuals who are perceived to be “less judgmental of their difficulties”), this concept is also explicitly targeted in the packet.

This activity is suitable for both individual therapy sessions as well as group work. In addition to its social pragmatic component is also intended to increase vocabulary knowledge and use as well as sentence length of children with language impairments.

Intended Audiences:

Clients with Language Impairments
Clients with Social Pragmatic Language Difficulties
Clients with Executive Function Difficulties
Clients with Psychiatric Impairments
- ODD, ADHD, MD, Anxiety, Depression, etc.
Clients with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Clients with Nonverbal Learning Disability
Clients with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Adult and pediatric post-Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) clients
Clients with right-side CVA Damage

Areas covered in this packet:

Gauging Age (based on visual support and pre-existing knowledge)
Gauging Moods (based on visual clues and context)
Explaining Facial Expressions
Making Social Predictions and Inferences (re: people’s emotions)
Assuming First Person Perspectives
Understanding Sympathy
Vocabulary Knowledge and Use (pertaining to the concept of Emotional Intelligence)
Semantic Flexibility (production of synonyms and antonyms)
Complex Sentence Production
Expression of Emotional Reactions
Problem Solving Social Situations
Friendship Management and Peer Relatedness

Helpful Smart Speech Resources:

References:

Brinton, B., Fujiki, M., & Powell, J. M. (1997). The ability of children with language impairment to manipulate topic in a structured task. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 28, 3-11.
Brinton B., & Fujiki, M. (2012). Social and affective factors in children with language impairment. Implications for literacy learning. In C. A. Stone, E. R. Silliman, B. J. Ehren, & K. Apel (Eds.), Handbook of language and literacy: Development and disorders (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Guilford.
Cloward, R. (2012). The milk jug project: Expression of emotion in children with language impairment and autism spectrum disorder (Unpublished honor’s thesis). Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Ford, J., & Milosky, L. (2003). Inferring emotional reactions in social situations: Differences in children with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46(1), 21-30.
Fujiki, M., Spackman, M. P., Brinton, B., & Illig, T. (2008). Ability of children with language impairment to understand emotion conveyed by prosody in a narrative passage. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 43(3), 330-345
Harris, P. L. (2008). Children’s understanding of emotion. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, & L. Feldman Barrett, (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (3rd ed., pp. 320–331). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Salovey, P., Detweiler-Bedell, B. T., Detweiler-Bedell, J. B., & Mayer, J. D. (2008). Emotional intelligence. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, & L. Feldman Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of Emotions (3rd ed., pp. 533-547). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Spackman, M. P., Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., Nelson, D., & Allen, J. (2005). The ability of children with language impairment to recognize emotion conveyed by facial expression and music. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 26(3), 131-143.
Thompson, R. (1994). Emotion regulation: A theme in search of definition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2-3), 25-52

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Posted on May 23, 2015January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 3 Comments

Teaching “Insight” to students with language, social communication, and executive functions impairments

One common difficulty our “higher functioning” (refers to subjective notion of ‘perceived’ functioning in school setting only) language impaired students with social communication and executive function difficulties present with – is lack of insight into own strengths and weaknesses.

Yet insight is a very important skill, which most typically developing students exhibit without consciously thinking about it. Having insight allows students to review work for errors, compensate for any perceived weaknesses effectively, and succeed with efficient juggling of academic workload.

In contrast, lack of insight in students with language deficits further compounds their difficulties, as they lack realization into own weaknesses and as a result are unable to effectively compensate for them.

That is why I started to explicitly teach the students on my caseload in both psychiatric hospital and private practice the concept of insight.

Now some of you may have some legitimate concerns. You may ask: “How can one teach such an abstract concept to students who are already impaired in their comprehension of language?” The answer to that is – I teach this concept through a series of concrete steps as well as through the introduction of abstract definitions, simplified for the purpose of my sessions into concrete terms.

Furthermore, it is important to understand that the acquisition of “insight” cannot be accomplished in one or even several sessions. Rather after this concept is introduced and the related vocabulary has been ‘internalized’ by the student, thematic therapy sessions can be used to continue the acquisition of “insight” for months and even years to come.

How do we begin?

When I first started teaching this concept I used to explain the terminology related to “insight” verbally to students. However, as my own ‘insight’ developed in response to the students’ performance, I created a product to assist them with the acquisition of insight (See HERE).

Intended Audiences:

Clients with Language Impairments
Clients with Social Pragmatic Language Difficulties
Clients with Executive Function Difficulties
Clients with Psychiatric Impairments
- ODD, ADHD, MD, Anxiety, Depression, etc.
Clients with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Clients with Nonverbal Learning Disability
Clients with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Adult and pediatric post-Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) clients
Clients with right-side CVA Damage

This thematic 10 page packet targets the development of “insight” in students with average IQ, 8+ years of age, presenting with social pragmatic and executive function difficulties.

The packet contains 1 page text explaining the concept of insight to students.

It also contains 11 Tier II vocabulary words relevant to the discussion of insight and their simplified definitions. The words were selected based on course curriculum standards for several grade levels (fourth through seventh) due to their wide usage in a variety of subjects (social studies, science, math, etc.)

Language activities in this packet include:

Explaining definitions
Answering open-ended comprehension questions
Sentence construction activity
Crossword puzzle
Two morphological awareness activities
- Define prefixes and suffixes
- Change word meanings by adding prefixes and suffixes to words
Self-reflection page in written format contains questions for students to assist them with judging their own strengths and weaknesses related to academic performance

And now a few words regarding the lesson structure…

I introduce the concept of “insight” to clients by writing down the word and asking them to identify its parts: ‘in‘ and ‘sight‘. Depending on the student’s level of abilities I either get to the students to explain it to me or explain it myself that it is a compound word made up of two other words.

I then ask the students to interpret what the word could potentially mean. After I hear their responses I either confirm the correct one or end up explaining that this word refers to “looking into one’s brain” for answers related to how well someone understands information.

I have the students read the text located on the first page of my packet going over the concept of insight and some of its associated vocabulary words. I ask the students to tell me the main idea of each paragraph as well as answer questions regarding supporting text details.

Once I am confident that the students have a fairly good grasp of the presented text I move on to the definitions page. There are actually two definition pages in the lesson: one at the beginning and one at the end of the packet. The first definitions page also contains word meaning and what parts of speech the definitions belong to. The definition page at the end of the packet contains only the targeted words. It is now the students responsibility to write down the definition of all the vocabulary words and phrases in order for me to see how well they remember the meanings of pertinent words.

The packet also includes comprehension questions, a section on sentence construction several morphological awareness activities, a crossword puzzle and a self-reflection page.

The final activity in the packet requires the student to judge their own work performance during this activity. I ask students questions such as:

How do you think you did on this task?
How do you know you did ________?
How can you prove to me you understood ________?

If a student responds “I know I did well because I understood everything”, I typically ask them to prove their comprehension to me, verbally. Here the goal is to have the student provide concrete verbal examples supporting their insight of their performance.

This may include statements such as:

I know I did well because you said: “Nice Work!”
I know I did well because you didn’t correct me too much
I know I did well because you kept smiling and showed me thumbs up as I was talking

As mentioned above this activity is only the beginning. After I ensure that the students have a decent grasp of this concept I continue working on it indirectly by having the students continuously judge their own performance on a variety of other therapy related activities and assignments.

You can find the complete packet on teaching “insight” in my online store (HERE). Also, stay tuned for Part II of this series, which will describe how to continue solidifying the concept of “insight” in the context of therapy sessions for students with social pragmatic and executive function deficits.

Helpful Smart Speech Resources:

Posted on May 18, 2015January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 2 Comments

Designing RTI-Based Vocabulary Interventions

Smart Speech Therapy LLC is celebrating #BHSM2015 ASHA Better Hearing and Speech Month. So without further ado, below you will find my recommendations for designing effective vocabulary interventions for struggling students.

This past academic year I have been delivering vocabulary intervention once a week for an hour in my setting to 5 different classrooms of low achieving students. This allowed me to research quite a bit regarding the principles of vocabulary teaching as well as gave me an opportunity to adapt and design my own vocabulary intervention materials.

Vocabulary is of course one of the integral components of reading comprehension along with phonological awareness, phonics, and reading fluency. Knowledge of vocabulary is especially important for navigation of informational texts.

Who can benefit from explicit vocabulary instruction?

The answer is simple: any child with decreased vocabulary skills! This may include but not be limited to:

Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds
Children with Limited English Proficiency
Children with language impairments and learning disabilities

How can we design effective vocabulary interventions?

According to Judy Montgomery “You can never select the wrong words to teach.” Beck et al (2002) recommends teaching Tier II words, as they would make the most significant impact on a child’s spoken and written expressive capabilities, and are useful across a variety of settings.

Tips on creating intervention materials:

Make vocabulary words thematic and center them around current events
Select a topic students are learning about in the classroom or center it around a seasonal event/holiday
Select no more than 10 words per packet and work on the packet for a period of several weeks to engage in a frequent mass practice
Attempt to select vocabulary words used across several domains, which are still applicable to the student’s academic experience

Packet Layout :

1. Embed the selected vocabulary words in a short thematic text

2. Create a definitions page with usage tips to assist students with comprehension of vocabulary definitions

3. Have the students practice using these vocabulary words in various activities such as fill-in the blank, matching, sentence creation, etc.

This thematic packet, which can be used all year round, was created to target listening and reading comprehension of older students diagnosed with language impairments and learning disabilities.

The packet contains the following items:

4 Paragraph Reading Comprehension Passage about the Hyrologic (Water) Cycle
7 Open ended comprehension questions
12 Response to Intervention (RTI) Tier 2 vocabulary words in story context
10 Synonyms and antonyms matching words
15 Fill-in the blank words to complete sentences
Open ended sentence formulation utilizing 10 story vocabulary words

You can grab it HERE in my online store.

Helpful Smart Speech Resources:

Posted on April 9, 2015January 12, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 3 Comments

Thematic Language Intervention with Language Impaired Children Using Nonfiction Texts

In the past a number of my SLP colleague bloggers (Communication Station, Twin Sisters SLPs, Practical AAC, etc.) wrote posts regarding the use of thematic texts for language intervention purposes. They discussed implementation of fictional texts such as the use of children’s books and fairy tales to target linguistic goals such as vocabulary knowledge in use, sentence formulation, answering WH questions, as well as story recall and production.

Today I would like to supplement those posts with information regarding the implementation of intervention based on thematic nonfiction texts to further improve language abilities of children with language difficulties.

First, here’s why the use of nonfiction texts in language intervention is important. While narrative texts have high familiarity for children due to preexisting, background knowledge, familiar vocabulary, repetitive themes, etc. nonfiction texts are far more difficult to comprehend. It typically contains unknown concepts and vocabulary, which is then used in the text multiple times. Therefore lack of knowledge of these concepts and related vocabulary will result in lack of text comprehension. According to Duke (2013) half of all the primary read-alouds should be informational text. It will allow students to build up knowledge and the necessary academic vocabulary to effectively participate and partake from the curriculum.

So what type of nonfiction materials can be used for language intervention purposes. While there is a rich variety of sources available, I have had great success using Let’s Read and Find Out Stage 1 and 2 Science Series with clients with varying degrees of language impairment.

Here’s are just a few reasons why I like to use this series.

They can be implemented by parents and professionals alike for different purposes with equal effectiveness.
They can be implemented with children fairly early beginning with preschool on-wards
The can be used with the following pediatric populations:
- Language Disordered Children
- Children with learning disabilities and low IQ
- Children with developmental disorders and genetic syndromes (Fragile X, Down Syndrome, Autism, etc.)
- Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
- Internationally adopted children with language impairment
- Bilingual children with language impairment
- Children with dyslexia and reading disabilities
- Children with psychiatric Impairments
The books are readily available online (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc.) and in stores.
They are relatively inexpensive (individual books cost about $5-6).
Parents or professionals who want to continuously use them seasonally can purchase them in bulk at a significantly cheaper price from select distributors (Source: rainbowresource.com)
They are highly thematic, contain terrific visual support, and are surprisingly versatile, with information on topics ranging from animal habitats and life cycles to natural disasters and space.
They contain subject-relevant vocabulary words that the students are likely to use in the future over and over again (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986).
The words are already pre-grouped in semantic clusters which create schemes (mental representations) for the students (Marzano & Marzano, 1988).

For example, the above books on weather and seasons contain information on:

1. Front Formations
2. Water Cycle
3. High & Low Pressure Systems

Let’s look at the vocabulary words from Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll (see detailed lesson plan HERE). (Source: ReadWorks):

Word: water vapor
Context: Steam from a hot soup is water vapor.

Word: expands
Context: The hot air expands and pops the balloon.

Word: atmosphere
Context: The atmosphere is the air that covers the Earth.

Word: forecast
Context: The forecast had a lot to tell us about the storm.

Word: condense
Context: steam in the air condenses to form water drops.

These books are not just great for increasing academic vocabulary knowledge and use. They are great for teaching sequencing skills (e.g., life cycles), critical thinking skills (e.g., What do animals need to do in the winter to survive?), compare and contrast skills (e.g., what is the difference between hatching and molting?) and much, much, more!

So why is use of nonfiction texts important for strengthening vocabulary knowledge and words in language impaired children?

As I noted in my previous post on effective vocabulary instruction (HERE): “teachers with many struggling children often significantly reduce the quality of their own vocabulary unconsciously to ensure understanding” (Excerpts from Anita Archer’s Interview with Advance for SLPs).

The same goes for SLPs and parents. Many of them are under misperception that if they teach complex subject-related words like “metamorphosis” or “vaporization” to children with significant language impairments or developmental disabilities that these students will not understand them and will not benefit from learning them.

However, that is not the case! These students will still significantly benefit from learning these words, it will simply take them longer periods of practice to retain them!

By simplifying our explanations, minimizing verbiage and emphasizing the visuals, the books can be successfully adapted for use with children with severe language impairments. I have had parents observe my intervention sessions using these books and then successfully use them in the home with their children by reviewing the information and reinforcing newly learned vocabulary knowledge.

Here are just a few examples of prompts I use in treatment with more severely affected language-impaired children:

What do you see in this picture?
This is a _____ Can you say _____
What do you know about _____?
What do you think is happening? Why?
What do you think they are doing? Why?
Let’s make up a sentence with __________ (this word)
You can say ____ or you can say ______ (teaching synonyms)
What would be the opposite of _______? (teaching antonyms)
Do you know that _____(this word) has 2 meanings
- 1st meaning
- 2nd meaning
How do ____ and _____ go together?

Here are the questions related to Sequencing of Processes (Life Cycle, Water Cycle, etc.)

What happened first?
What happened second?
What happened next?
What happened after that?
What happened last?

As the child advances his/her skills I attempt to engage them in more complex book interactions

Compare and contrast items
(e.g. objects/people/animals)
Make predictions and inferences about will happen next?
Why is this book important?

“Picture walks” (flipping through the pages) of these books are also surprisingly effective for activation of the student’s background knowledge (what a student already knows about a subject). This is an important prerequisite skill needed for continued acquisition of new knowledge. It is important because “students who lack sufficient background knowledge or are unable to activate it may struggle to access, participate, and progress through the general curriculum” (Stangman, Hall & Meyer, 2004).

These book allow for :

1.Learning vocabulary words in context embedded texts with high interest visuals

2.Teaching specific content related vocabulary words directly to comprehend classroom-specific work

3.Providing multiple and repetitive exposures of vocabulary words in texts

4. Maximizing multisensory intervention when learning vocabulary to maximize gains (visual, auditory, tactile via related projects, etc.)

To summarize, children with significant language impairment often suffer from the Matthew Effect (“rich get richer, poor get poorer”), or interactions with the environment exaggerate individual differences over time

Children with good vocabulary knowledge learn more words and gain further knowledge by building of these words

Children with poor vocabulary knowledge learn less words and widen the gap between self and peers over time due to their inability to effectively meet the ever increasing academic effects of the classroom. The vocabulary problems of students who enter school with poorer limited vocabularies only worsen over time (White, Graves & Slater, 1990). We need to provide these children with all the feasible opportunities to narrow this gap and partake from the curriculum in a more similar fashion as typically developing peers.

Helpful Smart Speech Therapy Resources:

References:

Duke, N. K. (2013). Starting out: Practices to Use in K-3. Educational Leadership, 71, 40-44.

Marzano, R. J., & Marzano, J. (1988). Toward a cognitive theory of commitment and its implications for therapy. Psychotherapy in Private Practice 6(4), 69–81.

Stahl, S. A. & Fairbanks, M. M. “The Effects of Vocabulary Instruction: A Model-based Metaanalysis.” Review of Educational Research 56 (1986): 72-110.

Strangman, N., Hall, T., & Meyer, A. (2004). Background knowledge with UDL. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum.

White, T. G., Graves, M. F., & Slater W. H. (1990). Growth of reading vocabulary in diverse elementary schools: Decoding and word meaning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 281–290.

Posted on March 20, 2015January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 4 Comments

Effective Vocabulary Instruction: What SLPs Need to Know

Having a solid vocabulary knowledge is key to academic success. Vocabulary is the building block of language. It allows us to create complex sentences, tell elaborate stories as well as write great essays. Having limited vocabulary is primary indicator of language learning disability, which in turn blocks students from obtaining critical literacy skills necessary for reading, writing, and spelling. “Indeed, one of the , most enduring findings in reading research is the extent to which students’ vocabulary knowledge relates to their reading comprehension” (Osborn & Hiebert, 2004)

Teachers and SLPs frequently inquire regarding effective vocabulary instruction methods for children with learning disabilities. However, what some researchers have found when they set out to “examine how oral vocabulary instruction was enacted in kindergarten” was truly alarming.

In September 2014, Wright and Neuman, analyzed about 660 hours of observations over a course of 4 days (12 hours) in 55 classrooms in a range of socio-economic status schools.

They found that teachers explained word meanings during “teachable moments” in the context of other instruction.

They also found that teachers:

Gave one-time, brief word explanations
Engaged in unsystematic word selection
And spent minimal time on vocabulary devoted to subject areas (e.g., science and social studies in which word explanations were most dense)

They also found an economic status discrepancy, namely:

Teachers serving in economically advantaged schools explained words more often and were more likely to address sophisticated words than teachers serving in economically disadvantaged schools.

They concluded that “these results suggest that the current state of instruction may be CONTRIBUTING to rather than ameliorating vocabulary gaps by socioeconomic status.”

Similar findings were reported by other scholars in the field who noted that “teachers with many struggling children often significantly reduce the quality of their own vocabulary unconsciously to ensure understanding.” So they “reduce the complexity of their vocabulary drastically.” “For many children the teacher is the highest vocabulary example in their life. It’s sort of like having a buffet table but removing everything except a bowl of peanuts-that’s all you get“. (Excerpts from Anita Archer’s Interview with Advance for SLPs)

It is important to note that vocabulary gains are affected by socioeconomic status as well as maternal education level. Thus, children whose family incomes are at or below the poverty level fare much more poorly in the area of vocabulary acquisition than middle class children. Furthermore, Becker (2011) found that children of higher educated parents can improve their vocabulary more strongly than children whose parents have a lower educational level.

Limitations of Poor Readers:

Poor readers often lack adequate vocabulary to get meaning from what they read. To them, reading is difficult and tedious, and they are unable (and often unwilling) to do the large amount of reading they must do if they are to encounter unknown words often enough to learn them.

Matthew Effect, “rich get richer, poor get poorer”, or interactions with the environment exaggerate individual differences over time. Good readers read more, become even better readers, and learn more words. Poor readers read less, become poorer readers, and learn fewer words. The vocabulary problems of students who enter school with poorer limited vocabularies only exacerbate over time.

However, even further exacerbating the issue is that students from low SES households have limited access to books. 61% of low-income families have NO BOOKS at all in their homes for their children (Reading Literacy in the United States: Findings from the IEA Reading Literacy Study, 1996.) In some under-resourced communities, there is ONLY 1 book for every 300 children. Neuman, S., & Dickinson, D. (Eds.). (2006) Handbook of Early Literacy Research (Vol. 2). In contrast, the average middle class child has 13+ books in the home.

The above discrepancy can be effectively addressed by holding book drives to raise books for under privileged students and their siblings. Instructions for successful book drives HERE.

So what are effective methods of vocabulary instruction for children with language impairments?

According to (NRP, 2000) a good way for students to learn vocabulary directly is to explicitly teach them individual words and word-learning strategies .

For children with low initial vocabularies, approaches that teach word meanings as part of a semantic field are found to be especially effective (Marmolejo, 1991).

Many vocabulary scholars (Archer, 2011; Biemiller, 2004; Gunning 2004, etc.) agree on a number of select instructional strategies which include:

Rich experiences/high classroom language related to the student experience/interests
Explicit vs. incidental instruction with frequent exposure to words
Instructional routine for vocabulary
- Establishing word relationships
- Word-learning strategies to impart depth of meaning
- Morphological awareness instruction

Response to Intervention: Improving Vocabulary Outcomes

For students with low vocabularies, to attain the same level of academic achievement as their peers on academic coursework of language arts, reading, and written composition, targeted Tier II intervention may be needed.

Tier II words are those for which children have an understanding of the underlying concepts, are useful across a variety of settings and can be used instructionally in a variety of ways

According to Beck et al 2002, Tier II words should be the primary focus of vocabulary instruction, as they would make the most significant impact on a child’s spoken and written expressive capabilities.

Tier II vocabulary words

High frequency words which occur across a variety of domains conversations, text, etc.
Contain multiple meanings
Descriptive in nature
Most important words for direct instruction as they facilitate academic success
- Hostile, illegible, tolerate, immigrate, tremble, despicable, elapse, etc.

According to Judy Montgomery “You can never select the wrong words to teach.”

Vocabulary Selection Tips:

Make it thematic
Embed it in current events (e.g., holidays, elections, seasonal activities, etc)
Classroom topic related (e.g., French Revolution, the Water Cycle, Penguin Survival in the Polar Regions, etc)
Do not select more than 4-5 words to teach per unit to not overload the working memory (Robb, 2003)
Select difficult/unknown words that are critical to the passage meaning, which the students are likely to use in the future (Archer, 2015)
Select words used across many domains

Examples of Spring Related Vocabulary

Adjectives:

Flourishing
Lush
Verdant
Refreshing

Nouns:

Allergies
Regeneration
Outdoors
Seedling
Sapling

Verbs

Awaken
Teem
Romp
Rejuvenate

Idiomatic Expressions:

April Showers Bring May Flowers
Green Thumb
Spring Chicken
Spring Into Action

Creating an Effective Vocabulary Intervention Packets and Materials

Sample Activity Suggestions:

Text Page (story introducing the topic containing context embedded words)
Vocabulary Page (list of story embedded words their definitions, and what parts of speech the words are)
Multiple Choice Questions or Open Ended Questions Page
Crossword Puzzle Page
Fill in the Blank Page
True (one word meaning) Synonym/Antonym Matching Page
Explain the Multiple Meaning of Words Page
Create Complex Sentences Using Story Vocabulary Page

Intervention Technique Suggestions:

1.Read vocabulary words in context embedded in relevant short texts

2.Teach individual vocabulary words directly to comprehend classroom-specific texts (definitions)

3.Provide multiple exposures of vocabulary words in multiple contexts, (synonyms, antonyms, multiple meaning words, etc.)

4.Maximize multisensory intervention when learning vocabulary to maximize gains (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.)

5.Use multiple instructional methods for a range of vocabulary learning tasks and outcomes (read it, spell it, write it in a sentence, practice with a friend, etc.)

6.Use morphological awareness instruction (post to follow)

An ability to recognize, understand, and use word parts (prefixes, suffixes that “carry significance” when speaking and in reading tasks

Conclusion:

Having the right tools for the job is just a small first step in the right direction of creating a vocabulary-rich environment even for the most disadvantaged learners. So Happy Speeching!

Helpful Smart Speech Resources:

Posted on February 1, 2015January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 1 Comment

For the Love of Speech Blog Hop: February Edition

Today I am very excited to participate along with 27 other talented SLPs in the For the Love of Speech Blog Hop. I love being an SLP, and to spread that love around from February 1-4 I am giving away a Valentine’s Day Product: “The Origins of Valentine’s Day: At thematic language activity packet for middle and high school students” .

This thematic packet was created to target listening and reading comprehension of middle and high school students diagnosed with language impairments and learning disabilities. The packet contains Response to Intervention (RTI) Tier 2 vocabulary words in story context. Expressive language activities for the packet include production of synonyms and antonyms, fill-in the blank, as well as sentence formulation using story vocabulary. Comprehension questions pertaining to story are provided in an open ended question format. It is great for teaching reading comprehension and sophisticated vocabulary in a thematic context related to familiar to the student events.

You can grab this product for free for a limited time only in my online store (HERE) and then head on over to Teach Speech 365 to grab her freebie as well. Collect all freebies by the time the blog hop ends on February 4th!

For more useful FREE and PAID products check out my online store by clicking HERE or on the picture below

Posted on October 30, 2014March 18, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 1 Comment

Word-Finding Remediation: EBP Resources for SLPs

It’s on the tip of my tongue! How many times have you used this expression or heard it from other people. Oftentimes when we think of word-finding deficits we automatically think of it as an adult affliction, however, you would be surprised how many children including even very young children (4+ years of age) are affected by it. Did you know that “up to 7% of children have specific language needs and around 25% of children attending language support services have word-finding difficulties (WFD; Dockrell et al., 1998)?”

If you participate in various speech language and education related forums you may frequently see a variation on this question: “How would you assess and treat a child with word finding difficulties?” Before I provide some recommendations on this matter I’d like to talk a little bit about what word-finding is as well as what impact untreated word finding issues may have in a child.

So how do word-finding deficits manifest in children? In a vast variety of ways actually! For starters they could occur at the word level, conversational level or both. Below are just a few examples of word-level errors from German, 2005:

Error Pattern 1- Lemma Related Semantic Errors
- “Slips of the tongue” or semantic word substitutions such as fox→ wolf; clown → gnome
Error Pattern 2 – Form Related Blocked Errors
- “Tips of the tongue” or responses characterized by word blocks, pauses, fillers (um, ah, etc), repetitions, metalinguistic or metacognitive comments such as “I know”, “I don’t know”, etc.
Error Pattern 3 – Form & Segment Related Phonologic Errors
- “Twists of the tongue” which include phoneme omissions, substitutions and additions such as cactus → catus; octopus →opotus, etc.

Further complicating the above may be the speed (some delay or no delay) with which they retrieve words as well as accuracy/inaccuracy of their retrieval once the words are retrieved. Additionally, a number of secondary characteristics may also play a role which include gestures (e.g, miming a word, frustration, etc) as well as extra verbalizations (metalinguistic and metacognitive comments).

At discourse level, students with word-finding deficits typically occupy one of two categories: productive vs. insufficiently productive language users. While their narrative language profile may be marked by frequent pauses, word fillers, as well as word and phrase revisions and repetitions.

Moreover, word-retrieval deficits are not limited to discourse, they are also found in reading tasks. There word-finding issues may manifest as omitted words or almost stuttering/cluttering like behaviors. Interestingly German and Newman (2005; 2007) found that students with word retrieval difficulties are able to successfully correctly identify the words they missed during oral reading tasks in silent reading recognition tasks.

Difficulty coherently expressing oneself can have significant detrimental effect on the child’s academic performance, social relationships and ultimately self-esteem, which without appropriate intervention may potentially lead to poor school performance as well as mental issues (e.g., anxiety, depression, etc.)

So how can word-finding deficits be assessed for free? You can assess word-finding at narrative level using the clinical narrative assessment.

At word level you can adapt single word standardazed tests such as the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT) in order to test the efficiency of the student’s word retrieval in single word context. Here, the goal is not necessarily to test their expressive vocabulary knowledge but rather to see what type of word finding errors the students are making as they are attempting to correctly recall the visually shown word. Depending on the extent of the child’s word finding deficits you may have some very useful information to derive from the presentation of this test.

To illustrate, I recently informally administered applicable portions of this test to a four-year old Russian speaking preschooler. Based on his performance I was able to determine that his errors are primarily Error Pattern 3 – Form & Segment Related Phonologic Errors or Twists of the tongue”. This was further confirmed when I had the child to participate in the narrative retelling task.

So where can we find reputable evidence-based practice information on effective assessment and treatment strategies for word finding deficits? Start with Dr. Diane German’s website, entitled Word Finding. She has a lot of good information to offer there for free to both speech language professionals as well as parents. Take a look at her recommended materials and resources, they are very helpful when it comes to assessing and treating children with word finding deficits. Now have fun and evidence-base practice on!

PS. Calculating percentage of word-finding difficulties in children.

Dr. German recommends the following procedure: “Obtain a language sample of 50 T-units (kernel sentence + subordinate clause) in length using stimuli of interest to the learner (or use one you have as long as all utterances in the sample are included). Then asses each T unit for the presence of one or more of the following 7 WF behaviors in discourse: repetitions, revisions (reformulations), substitutions, insertions (comment that reflects on the WF process like I cannot think of it, etc. ), time fillers (um, er, uh), delays with in the T unit, and empty words (thing, stuff). Learners with WF difficulties manifest one or more WF behaviors in 33% or more of their T units (often 40% – 50%). Typical language learners display WF behaviors in 19% or less of their T-Units (German, 1991)“ (German, 2015: SIG 16 Topic: Assessing Word-Finding Skills)

Helpful Related Materials:

References:

Dockrell, J.E., Messer, D., George, R. & Wilson, G. (1998). Notes and Discussion Children with word-finding difficulties-prevalence, presentation and naming problems. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 33 (4), 445-454.
German, D.J. (2001) It’s on the Tip of My Tongue, Word Finding Strategies to Remember Names and Words You Often Forget. Word Finding Materials, Inc.
Dr. German’s Word Finding Website: http://www.wordfinding.com/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are the personal opinion of the author. The author is not affiliated with dr. Diane German nor PRO-ED publications in any way and was not provided by them with any complimentary products or compensation for this post.

Posted on May 30, 2014January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 2 Comments

Why Do I Have to Tell You What’s Wrong with My Child? Or On the Importance of Targeted Assessments

A few days ago I received a phone call from a parent who was seeking a language evaluation for her child. As it is my policy with all assessments, I asked her to fill out an intake and a checklist to identify her child’s specific areas of difficulty in order to compile a comprehensive and targeted testing battery. Her response to me was: “I’ve never heard of this before? Why do I have to tell you what’s wrong with my child? Why can’t you figure it out?” Similarly, last week, another parent has questioned: “So you can’t do the assessment without this form?” Given the above questions, and especially because May is a Better Hearing and Speech Month #BHSM, during which it is important to raise awareness about communication disorders, I want to take this time to explain to parents why performing targeted speech language assessments is SO CRUCIAL.

To begin with it is very important to understand that speech and language can be analyzed in many different ways beyond looking at pronunciation, vocabulary or listening and speaking skills.

Targeted areas within the scope of practice of pediatric school based speech language pathologists include the assessment of:

SPEECH
- The child may have difficulties with pronunciation of sounds in words, stutter, clutter, have a lisp or have difficulties in the areas of voice, prosody, or resonance. For the majority of the above difficulties completely different tests and testing procedures may be needed in order to appropriately assess the child.

LANGUAGE
- Receptive Language
  - Ability to follow directions, answer questions, recall sentences, understand verbal messages, as well as comprehend orally presented text
- Memory and Attention
  - Also see executive function skills
- Expressive Language
  - Vocabulary knowledge and use, formulation of words and sentences as well as production of narratives or stories
- Problem Solving
  - Verbal reasoning and critical thinking skills are very important for successful independent decision making as well as for interpretation of academically based texts and complete assignments
- Pragmatic Language
  - Successful use of language for a variety of communicative purposes
    - Initiate and maintain topics, maintain conversational exchanges, request help, etc
- Social Emotional Competence
  - Effective interpersonal negotiation skills, compromise and negotiation abilities, as well as perspective taking are integral to academic and social success. These abilities are often compromised in children with language disorders and require a thorough assessment
- Executive Functions (EFs)
  - These are higher level cognitive processes involved in inhibition of thought, action and emotion, which are located in the prefrontal cortex of the frontal lobe of the brain.
  - Major EF components include working memory, inhibitory control, planning, and set-shifting. EFs contribute to child’s ability to sustain attention, ignore distractions, and succeed in academic settings.
READING DISABILITIES AND DYSLEXIA
- Phonological Awareness
- Reading Ability
- Writing
- Spelling

One General Language Test Does Not Fit All!

Children with speech and language disorders do not necessarily display weaknesses in all affected areas but may only display difficulties in selected few.

To illustrate, high functioning students on the autistic spectrum may have very strong academic skills related to comprehension and expression of language but may display significant social pragmatic language weaknesses, which will not be apparent on general language testing (e.g., administration of Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals -5). Thus, the administration of a general language test will be contraindicated for these students as it will only show typical performance on these tests and will not qualify them for targeted language based services that they need. However, by administering to them a testing battery composed of tests sensitive to social pragmatic language competence will highlight their areas of difficulty and result in a creation of a targeted intervention plan to improve their abilities in the affected areas.

Similarly, children at risk for reading disabilities will not benefit from the administration of general language testing either, since their deficits may lie in the areas of sound discrimination, isolation, or blending as well as as impaired decoding ability. So the administration of tests sensitive to phonological awareness and emergent reading ability would be much more relevant.

This is exactly why taking an extra step and filling out a simple form will result in a much more targeted and beneficial speech language assessment for the child. The goal of any competent professional assessment is to eliminate the administration of unnecessary and irrelevant tests and focus only on the administration of instruments directly targeting the areas of difficulty that the child presents with. Given the fact that assessment of language covers so many broad areas, it makes perfect sense to ask parents to fill out relevant checklists/intakes as a routine part of a pre-assessment procedure. Otherwise, even after observations in school setting, I would still just be blindly ‘fishing’ for deficits without really knowing whether I will ‘accidentally stumble upon them’ using a general test at hand.

Of course, even checklists need to be targeted by age and areas of functioning. Here’s how I use mine. When performing comprehensive fist time assessments I ask the parent to fill out the comprehensive checklists based on the child’s age. These are broken down as follows:

However, oftentimes when I perform reassessments or second opinion evaluations, I may ask the parent to fill out checklists pertaining to specific, known, areas of difficulty. These currently include:

After the parent fills the checklist out, the child’s areas of difficulty literally jump out from the pages. Now, all I need to do is to choose the appropriate testing instruments, which will BEST help me determine the exact nature and cause of the child’s deficits and I am all set. I administer the testing, interpret the results and write a comprehensive report detailing which therapy goals will be targeted. And this is why pre-assessment checklist administration is so important.

Helpful Resources:

Posted on April 6, 2014January 5, 2022 by Tatyana Elleseff — 3 Comments

Real Vocabulary App Review and Giveaway

Today I am a reviewing a new vocabulary app created by the Virtual Speech Center called Real Vocabulary Pro. Developed to target the core curriculum vocabulary of K-5th grade students, it has tons tons of pictures and pre-recorded audio to target various vocabulary concepts as well as allows users to add their own words, pictures and audio recordings for a more individualized and targeted therapy sessions. Continue reading Real Vocabulary App Review and Giveaway

Category: Vocabulary

Designing RTI-Based Vocabulary Interventions

Thematic Language Intervention with Language Impaired Children Using Nonfiction Texts

Effective Vocabulary Instruction: What SLPs Need to Know

For the Love of Speech Blog Hop: February Edition

Word-Finding Remediation: EBP Resources for SLPs

Real Vocabulary App Review and Giveaway

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