Standardized norm-referenced language assessments are used to identify developmental language disorder (DLD) in bicultural Navajo children. However, these assessments do not include normative data for Navajo children, the majority of whom are exposed to both Navajo and English, and consequently the assessments may not reflect their true language…

We conducted a scoping review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses to map the available research describing verbal pragmatic skills development and problems in school-age children with primary language impairments and children with language-learning disabilities. A total of 112 reports met inclusion…

This pilot study evaluates the feasibility of an integrated intervention titled "Language and Literacy Together" developed to target semantic and narrative skills in bilingual children at risk for developmental language disorder (DLD). Thirteen first-grade bilingual children who scored in the risk range for DLD on the Bilingual English…

Language sample analysis (LSA) has been called the "gold standard" for clinical language assessment with children learning more than one language. The research literature discussing this clinical tool with bilingual children has grown substantially in recent years. This article reviews and synthesizes the literature on LSA in order to…

Competent writing eludes many school children and adolescents, especially those with developmental language and reading disorders. Language sample analysis (LSA) of writing is a powerful but underused assessment tool that can also inform instruction. Similar to LSA of oral language, writing has been analyzed at word, sentence, and text levels…

Although language samples are child-friendly and well-suited for obtaining global measures of language production, structured protocols have the potential to elicit many different exemplars of language structures in a shorter amount of time. We created a structured elicitation protocol, the Sentence Diversity Priming Task (SDPT), to efficiently…

In this study of more than 1,000 typical and at-risk elementary Arabic-speaking students in Oman, we explore relationships between pragmatic (and other) language skills, literacy, cognition, and behavior and the degree to which demography impacts performance on associated tasks. We found, in most cases, that females performed better than males,…

The aim of this article was to evaluate the use of alternatives to traditional language sample analysis (LSA) measures with bilingual preschool-aged children. A database of 184 bilingual preschool children, including children with developmental language disorder (DLD), was used in this study. The goals of the study were to establish the convergent…

For academic success, it is increasingly important that students of all ages can produce and comprehend expository discourse. This article provides guidance to clinicians and educators on using language sample analysis (LSA) to assess the expository language abilities of students across grades. Focusing on microstructural and macrostructural…

This article examines the language and cognitive skills of bidialectal and bilingual children, focusing on African American English bidialectal speakers and Spanish-English bilingual speakers. It contributes to the discussion by considering two themes in the extant literature: (1) linguistic and cognitive strengths can be found in speaking two…

Adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who also possess limited speech capabilities often display poor language and academic skills in adolescence. However, as with all adolescents, they have personal goals and should have equal access to participation across facets of life including but not limited to education.…

Purpose: A systematic review and synthesis was performed on published articles and dissertations produced between 1970 and 2013 that focused on selected pragmatic language behaviors of African American children and adolescents. Methods: Electronic databases and hand searches of articles located in the databases were used to identify the published…

In this study, we investigated which componential skills can be distinguished in the second language (L2) development of 140 bilingual children with specific language impairment in the Netherlands, aged 6-11 years, divided into 3 age groups. L2 development was assessed by means of spoken language tasks representing different language skills…

Purpose: A primary goal of aphasia intervention is to improve everyday communication. Although a large body of research focuses on treatment generalization, transfer of learning to real-world interactions involving discourse does not always occur. The goal of an integrated discourse treatment for aphasia (IDTA) approach is to facilitate such…

As more students identified with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) graduate high school and aspire to a college education, the need for intervention and support targeted to their needs has become apparent. Designing effective programs of support rests on comprehensive and appropriate assessment. This article provides a critical review of areas to…