Revised methods of scoring the Token Test and Reporter's Test were developed to accommodate specific types of errors committed by language-disordered children during a previous standardization study. Test modifications are explained as are the results of administering the revised tests to both normal and language-disordered school-aged children.…

Fifteen 1-year-olds without otitis media were compared to 12 babies who were otitis positive. No significant differences were detected on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development or the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD) Receptive scale. However, the otitis-positive group exhibited lower SICD Expressive scores than the…

While no significant differences were found for sixth-graders' (N=30) performance on the Fullerton Test for Adolescents, Test of Adolescent Language, and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Functions, significantly fewer students were identified as needing further evaluation by the Screening Test of Adolescent Language than by the other three…

Comparison of Test of Early Language Development (TELD) scores of developmentally-delayed three- to six-year-olds (N=85) with other language and cognition measures indicated that TELD scores documented language delays, correlating strongly with other language measures, but failed to accurately classify subjects clinically classified as…

Comparison of production and comprehension methods in teaching six 3-year-old language disordered children the relationship between semantic role and word order indicated the production method (the children produced sentences contrasting word order and meaning) was more effective than the comprehension method (the children responded to contrasting…

Three methods for evaluating change in the spontaneous language of aphasic subjects were compared. Clinical judgments of experienced speech language pathologists showed excellent agreement with the Shewan Spontaneous Language Analysis (SSLA) and less agreement with the Western Aphasia Battery. The SSLA was found to provide the most comprehensive…

Approaches to the analysis of utterance disruptions are reviewed, and a system is proposed for analyzing disruptions in spontaneous language, with four disruption categories (pauses, repetitions, revisions, and orphans). Use of the system is illustrated using language samples from 10 traumatically brain-injured and 10 normally developing speakers…

Two language ability tests are discussed: the Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale (REEL), measuring language competencies from birth through 36 months and the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL), for children ages three to seven. Their efficacy in identifying language delays and in establishing criteria for effective…

This study evaluated 9 computer-generated measures of children's language production, based on 24 children with specific language impairment and 24 normally developing children, ages 24-50 months. Three measures possessed desirable developmental and diagnostic characteristics: mean syntactic length, total number of words, and number of different…

Maternal language directed to 21 nonhandicapped, 21 Down syndrome, and 19 language impaired preschool children was examined. The three groups (all Caucasian and middle-class) were matched in mean length of utterance (MLU) and in developmental skills as measured on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale. Mother-child language interaction was…

A study was undertaken in an effort to develop techniques for monolingual speech pathologists in the Boston public schools to assess whether language behavior of Cape Verdean immigrants is due to language learning disabilities or simply to language differences. The following three questions were addressed: (1) What are some of the differences…

A standardization sample for the Boston Naming Test was established. Means, standard deviations, and ranges of performance in accuracy and latency were established for age and grade for 357 kindergarten through grade six subjects. It was concluded that the test is an efficient and valid screening measure of students' word finding skills.…

The study demonstrated that 36 male children (ages 7-10) with learning problems were characterized not by a restricted vocabulary as such (i.e., the variance common to both receptive and productive vocabulary measures) but by a hampered production of words (i.e., the variance common to both speed-of-naming and productive vocabulary measures.…

A program was developed to provide for generalization training for two groups of language delayed children (N=11), ages 5 to 11, being served in two self contained special education classrooms. The program consisted of three components: teaching the target language construction in a controlled classroom setting, evaluation of language…

Examination of 11 standard vocabulary lists used as sources of vocabulary items for developers of augmentative and alternative communication systems found little overlap between them, small vocabularies, and a tendency toward simple words. Many words in lists of adult nonspeaking users were not on any of the lists. (Author/DB)