This article examines the construct of working memory and its relationship to sentence comprehension difficulties of children with specific language impairment. Some sentence comprehension problems of these children may be related to inefficient management of working memory resources. Techniques for assessing working memory and enhancing the…

A mnemonic is suggested to help evaluators remember the five guiding principles of evaluation developed by the American Evaluation Association. A character from F. Baum's "Wizard of Oz" is associated with each of these: (1) systematic inquiry; (2) competence; (3) respect for people; (4) responsibility to general and public welfare; and…

This book contains articles from two issues of "Topics in Language Disorders" that focus on recent developments in the understanding of short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory systems and their relationship to language comprehension, lexical development, early academic development, later academic development, and communication…

The Wechsler Memory Scale[R] (WMS-III) is a widely used measure of memory functioning that is useful in the assessment of individuals with dementia, traumatic brain injury, and substance abuse problems, among others. This book is designed to help mental health professionals acquire the knowledge and skills to use the WMS-III. The chapters are: (1)…

Evidence is offered that children with specific language impairment often have serial memory difficulties. Research on the difficulties such children have in rote counting and in learning nursery rhymes is reviewed. Implications of current research for assessment and intervention in mathematics and rhymes are discussed. (DB)

The memory deficits associated with the dementia syndromes of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Lewy body disease are outlined and related to the language impairments that have been observed in patients with these disorders. Assessment techniques are described, including commonly used individual tests and test batteries that assess memory and…

Discusses how treatment of memory disorders resulting from traumatic brain injury must extend beyond intervention strategies focusing on deficit reduction to embrace models centering on disability reduction. Disability oriented approaches that emphasize rehearsal and encoding strategies and the use of memory aids are described. (Author/CR)

Five impediments to accurate clinical judgment are discussed: inability to assess covariation, influence of preconceived notions, lack of awareness of one's judgmental processes, overconfidence, and hindsight bias. Presents three strategies to minimize impediments' effects: considera- tion of alternative outcomes, increased attention to data, and…

Explains how many of the narratives told by children are mapped onto frameworks carried in long-term memory. Assessment methods that speech-language pathologists can use to determine whether a child can use narrative frameworks and how to explain the assessment results are discussed. (Author/CR)

This article examines several sub-constructs of information processing and their potential association with the poorer language comprehension of children with specific language impairments (SLI). It argues that some of the language comprehension problems of children with SLI are related to certain information processing inefficiencies. Techniques…

The Learning Efficiency Test-II (LET-II) is an expanded version of the LET (R. E. Webster, 1981), which is individually administered to persons with suspected learning difficulties or memory impairments. The norms have been expanded to include ages 5 through 75 years and older, with the norm tables in 1-year intervals between ages 5 and 15 years.…

This book is intended to help professionals differentiate among processing disorders in children in kindergarten through high school so that intervention efforts can become focused and more effective. It explains how to differentiate among processing disorders, discusses the major processing models, explains assessment procedures, and outlines…