In the UK there is much concern about the educational progress of children from areas of significant social disadvantage entering primary school with impoverished language skills. These children are not routinely referred to speech and language therapy services and therefore education practitioners in schools deliver intervention to facilitate…

The article describes an approach to aphasia description and intervention based on analysis of speech pauses and hesitations. The concepts of pause, planning, and paraphasia (a language production error involving substitution or replacement) are distinguished. Three case studies illustrate application of the technique. (DB)

This review considers aspects of normal mental storage and retrieval, storage and retrieval in disordered word finding, possible causes of word finding disorders, and clinical implications in both storage and retrieval components. Implications call for attention to increasing word knowledge, storage strength, naming accuracy and speed, retrieval…

Comparison of the narratives of 16 children with word-finding problems and 16 normal children (grades 1-6) found that children with word-finding disorders did not differ in language productivity but manifested significantly more word-finding characteristics in their narratives. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed. (Author/DB)

Pacing boards can assist in the transition from single word to multiword utterances by children with language impairments. The pacing board provides visual and motor cues to help young children imitate and spontaneously produce multiword utterances as well as increase metalinguistic awareness of speech units. Instructions for making pacing boards…

This study evaluated the "missing-item" language intervention with two moderately to severely retarded students (ages five and six) in a special class setting. The missing-item format produced effects in requests for targeted snack items and, after generalization training, a requesting repertoire that was durable and generalized across…

Evidence based and comprehensive, this important work offers a new approach to understanding and intervening with students with learning disabilities. The authors--leading experts in neuropsychology and special education--present a unique model of learning disabilities that integrates the cognitive, neural, genetic, and contextual factors…

This brief paper summarizes research on effective instruction in writing for students with learning disabilities. It finds that three components stand out as methods that reliably and consistently lead to improved outcomes in teaching expressive writing to these students. These components are: (1) adhering to a basic framework of planning,…

Three case studies are reported, illustrating use of Structured Role Play Therapy in teaching moderately language-delayed children, aged 4-6, to produce specifically targeted grammatical forms and to generalize production to sentences not included in therapy activities. The role-playing resulted in rapid increases in production accuracy of…

This paper deals with the specific problems of the adolescent and adult hearing-impaired individual who wishes to improve and develop his or her expressive speech ability. Considered are issues critical to the learning process, intervention strategies for improving speech production, and speech production as one part of communication competency.…

A portrait is presented of the toddler with slow expressive language development (SELD), based on research examining the health history; cognitive, communicative, and adaptive skills; behavior; and phonology of 30 toddlers with SELD and 30 nondisabled toddlers. The paper offers a review of research on the outcomes of SELD, and explores…

This collection of four "focus flyers" developed by the Services for Children with Deaf-Blindness program at the University of Southern Mississippi provides practical guidelines for parents and teachers working with infants, children, and young adults who are deaf-blind. The first flyer is on communication interactions and is organized into an…

Landau-Kleffner syndrome is characterized by difficulty in receptive or expressive language, abnormal electroencephalograms, and seizures. This article describes the primary and secondary characteristics of children with this syndrome and offers educators a framework for intervention techniques. These include using predictable language, creating…

This article reviews aspects of normal affective development and the accompanying language of feelings, explains how children with behavioral and emotional problems diverge from normal patterns, and describes relevant intervention programs for early childhood and the primary and intermediate grades. (Author/JDD)

This discussion first reviews efficacy studies and models for word finding remediation in children and adolescents, and then offers principles and objectives of a threefold intervention model which addresses word finding remediation, self-advocacy instruction, and compensatory programing. (DB)