Mary Alt
University of Arizona, Speech Language and Hearing Science, Faculty Member
Purpose: The aims of this study were (a) to assess the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment and (b) to compare treatment outcomes for expressive vocabulary acquisition in late talkers in 2... more
Purpose: The aims of this study were (a) to assess the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment and (b) to compare treatment outcomes for expressive vocabulary acquisition in late talkers in 2 conditions: 3 target words/90 doses per word per session versus 6 target words/45 doses per word per session.Method: We ran the treatment protocol for 16 sessions with 24 primarily monolingual English-speaking late talkers. We calculated a d score for each child, compared treatment to control effect sizes, and assessed the number of words per week children acquired outside treatment. We compared treatment effect sizes of children in the condition of 3 target words/90 doses per word to those in the condition of 6 target words/45 doses per word. We used Bayesian repeated-measures analysis of variance and Bayesian t tests to answer our condition-level questions.Results: With an average treatment effect size of almost 1.0, VAULT was effective relative to ...
Research Interests: Psychology and Vocabulary
Purpose: This feasibility study examined a caregiver-implemented telehealth model of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) protocol. We asked whether caregivers could reach fidelity on VAULT, if the protocol was... more
Purpose: This feasibility study examined a caregiver-implemented telehealth model of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) protocol. We asked whether caregivers could reach fidelity on VAULT, if the protocol was socially and ecologically valid, and if late-talking toddlers could learn new words with this model. Method: Five late-talking monolingual and bilingual toddlers and four caregivers participated. The caregiver-related research questions involved measurements taken at multiple time points and replication across subjects but did not follow a specific research design. The toddler-related research questions included elements of a single-case design. Caregivers completed self-paced online training modules and then provided 8 weeks of VAULT to their children with remote coaching. Fidelity data were collected during coached sessions and through rating scales. Social and ecological validity data were collected via surveys and interviews. Children's word l...
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Purpose We report on a replicated single-case design study that measured the feasibility of an expressive vocabulary intervention for three Cantonese-speaking toddlers with small expressive lexicons relative to their age. The aim was to... more
Purpose We report on a replicated single-case design study that measured the feasibility of an expressive vocabulary intervention for three Cantonese-speaking toddlers with small expressive lexicons relative to their age. The aim was to assess the cross-cultural and cross-linguistic feasibility of an intervention method developed for English-speaking children. Method A nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design was used with four baseline data points and 16 intervention sessions per participant. The intervention design incorporated implicit learning principles, high treatment dosage, and control of the phonological neighborhood density of the stimuli. The children (24–39 months) attended 7–9 weeks of twice weekly input-based treatment in which no explicit verbal production was required from the child. Each target word was provided as input a minimum of 64 times in at least two intervention sessions. Treatment feasibility was measured by comparison of how many of the target and control w...
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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use an established model of working memory in children to predict an established model of word learning to determine whether working memory explained word learning variance over and above the... more
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use an established model of working memory in children to predict an established model of word learning to determine whether working memory explained word learning variance over and above the contributions of expressive vocabulary and nonverbal IQ. Method: One hundred sixty-seven English-speaking second graders (7- to 8-year-olds) with typical development from two states participated. They completed a comprehensive battery of working memory assessments and six word learning tasks that assessed the creation, storage, retrieval, and production of phonological and semantic representations of novel nouns and verbs and the ability to link those representations. Results: A structural equation model with expressive vocabulary, nonverbal IQ, and three working memory factors predicting two word learning factors fit the data well. When working memory factors were entered as predictors after expressive vocabulary and nonverbal IQ, they explained 45% of...
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The primary purpose of this study was to compare the working memory performance of monolingual English-speaking second- grade children with dyslexia (N = 82) to second-grade children with typical development (N = 167). Prior to making... more
The primary purpose of this study was to compare the working memory performance of monolingual English-speaking second- grade children with dyslexia (N = 82) to second-grade children with typical development (N = 167). Prior to making group comparisons, it is important to demonstrate invariance between working memory models in both groups or between-group comparisons would not be valid. Thus, we completed invariance testing using a model of working memory that had been validated for children with typical development (Gray et al., 2017) to see if it was valid for children with dyslexia. We tested three types of invariance: configural (does the model test the same constructs?), metric (are the factor loadings equivalent?), and scalar (are the item intercepts the same?). Group comparisons favoured the children with typical development across all three working memory factors. However, differences in the Focus-of-Attention/Visuospatial factor could be explained by group differences in non-verbal intelligence and language skills. In contrast, differences in the Phonological and Central Executive working memory factors remained, even after accounting for non-verbal intelligence and language. Results highlight the need for researchers and educators to attend not only to the phonological aspects of working memory in children with dyslexia, but also to central executive function.
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Purpose This study examined the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment in a version that manipulated the length of clinician utterance in which a target word was presented (dose length). The... more
Purpose This study examined the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment in a version that manipulated the length of clinician utterance in which a target word was presented (dose length). The study also explored ways to characterize treatment responders versus nonresponders. Method Nineteen primarily English-speaking late-talking toddlers (aged 24–34 months at treatment onset) received VAULT and were quasirandomly assigned to have target words presented in grammatical utterances matching one of two lengths: brief (four words or fewer) or extended (five words or more). Children were measured on their pre- and posttreatment production of (a) target and control words specific to treatment and (b) words not specific to treatment. Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis was used to classify responders versus nonresponders. Results VAULT was successful as a whole (i.e., treatment effect sizes of greater than 0), with no difference bet...
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Purpose The aims of this study were (a) to assess the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment and (b) to compare treatment outcomes for expressive vocabulary acquisition in late talkers in 2... more
Purpose The aims of this study were (a) to assess the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment and (b) to compare treatment outcomes for expressive vocabulary acquisition in late talkers in 2 conditions: 3 target words/90 doses per word per session versus 6 target words/45 doses per word per session. Method We ran the treatment protocol for 16 sessions with 24 primarily monolingual English-speaking late talkers. We calculated a d score for each child, compared treatment to control effect sizes, and assessed the number of words per week children acquired outside treatment. We compared treatment effect sizes of children in the condition of 3 target words/90 doses per word to those in the condition of 6 target words/45 doses per word. We used Bayesian repeated-measures analysis of variance and Bayesian t tests to answer our condition-level questions. Results With an average treatment effect size of almost 1.0, VAULT was effective relative to t...
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Purpose The purpose of our study was to test the hypotheses (a) that children with dyslexia have spoken word learning deficits primarily related to phonology and (b) that children with dyslexia and concomitant developmental language... more
Purpose The purpose of our study was to test the hypotheses (a) that children with dyslexia have spoken word learning deficits primarily related to phonology and (b) that children with dyslexia and concomitant developmental language disorder (DLD) have word learning deficits related to both phonology and semantic processing when compared to peers with typical development (TD). Method Second-graders with dyslexia ( n = 82), concomitant dyslexia and DLD (dyslexia + DLD; n = 40), and TD ( n = 167) learned names and semantic features for cartoon monsters in 5 carefully controlled word learning tasks that varied phonological and semantic demands. The computer-based tasks were played in 6 different word learning games. We analyzed results using Bayesian statistics. Results In general, the dyslexia + DLD group showed lower accuracy on tasks compared to the dyslexia and TD groups. As predicted, word learning tasks that taxed phonology revealed deficits in the dyslexia group, although there ...
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Purpose We compared novel word learning in 2nd-grade children with typical development who were Spanish–English bilinguals to English monolinguals to understand word learning in bilingual children. Method Children (monolinguals n = 167,... more
Purpose We compared novel word learning in 2nd-grade children with typical development who were Spanish–English bilinguals to English monolinguals to understand word learning in bilingual children. Method Children (monolinguals n = 167, bilinguals n = 76) engaged in 5 computer-based tasks that assessed word learning in 6 different contexts. The tasks measured children's ability to link novel names with novel objects/actions, make decisions about the accuracy of those names and objects/actions, recognize the semantic features of the objects/actions, and produce the novel names. For analysis, we used Bayesian repeated-measures analyses of covariance with Bayesian independent-samples t tests to clarify interactions. Results Monolingual and bilingual children differed in some, but not most, word learning situations. There was at least moderate evidence that bilingual children were less accurate at naming in 1 condition and at detecting mispronunciations in 3 of 6 contexts and were l...
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of variability in teaching prepositions to preschoolers with typical development (TD) and developmental language disorder (DLD). Input variability during teaching can enhance learning,... more
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of variability in teaching prepositions to preschoolers with typical development (TD) and developmental language disorder (DLD). Input variability during teaching can enhance learning, but is target dependent. We hypothesized that high variability of objects would improve preposition learning. We also examined other characteristics (e.g. vocabulary skills) of children who responded to treatment. We used a case series design, repeated across children ( n = 18) to contrast how preschoolers learned prepositions in conditions that manipulated variability of objects and labels across three treatment sessions. We contrasted a high versus low variability condition for objects and labels for one group of typically-developing (TD) children ( n = 6). In other groups (TD, n = 6; DLD, n = 6), we contrasted high versus low object variability only. Visual inspection and descriptive statistics were used to characterize gains. Half ( n = 3) of T...
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Purpose The purpose of this epilogue is to synthesize the main points of the articles in this issue on statistical learning for clinicians. These points can be used to guide practice.
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Purpose The purpose of this special issue is to introduce speech-language pathologists to the topic of statistical learning and how this is relevant to their practice. In the following articles, the concept of statistical learning will be... more
Purpose The purpose of this special issue is to introduce speech-language pathologists to the topic of statistical learning and how this is relevant to their practice. In the following articles, the concept of statistical learning will be explained, and readers will find (a) research studies showing how children with special needs can use statistical learning to learn language; (b) tutorials that show why statistical learning is meaningful for special populations; and (c) tutorials that show how statistical learning is involved in language, reading, and spelling.
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Orthographic facilitation describes the phenomenon in which a spoken word is produced more accurately when its corresponding written word is present during learning. We examined the orthographic facilitation effect in children with... more
Orthographic facilitation describes the phenomenon in which a spoken word is produced more accurately when its corresponding written word is present during learning. We examined the orthographic facilitation effect in children with dyslexia because they have poor learning and recall of spoken words. We hypothesized that including orthography during spoken word learning would facilitate learning and recall. Children with dyslexia and children with typical development (n = 46 per group), 7-9 years old, were matched for grade and nonverbal intelligence. Across 4 blocks of exposure in 1 session, children learned pairings between 4 spoken pseudowords and novel semantic referents in a modified paired-associate learning task. Two of the pairings were presented with orthography present, and 2 were presented with orthography absent. Recall of newly learned spoken words was assessed using a naming task. Both groups showed orthographic facilitation during learning and naming. During learning, ...
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Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify effects of variability of visual input on development of conceptual representations of academic concepts for college-age students with normal language (NL) and those with language-learning... more
Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify effects of variability of visual input on development of conceptual representations of academic concepts for college-age students with normal language (NL) and those with language-learning disabilities (LLD). Method Students with NL ( n = 11) and LLD ( n = 11) participated in a computer-based training for introductory biology course concepts. Participants were trained on half the concepts under a low-variability condition and half under a high-variability condition. Participants completed a posttest in which they were asked to identify and rate the accuracy of novel and trained visual representations of the concepts. We performed separate repeated measures analyses of variance to examine the accuracy of identification and ratings. Results Participants were equally accurate on trained and novel items in the high-variability condition, but were less accurate on novel items only in the low-variability condition. The LLD group showed the...
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The purpose of this study is to investigate word learning in children with dyslexia to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses during the configuration stage of word learning. Children with typical development (N = 116) and dyslexia (N =... more
The purpose of this study is to investigate word learning in children with dyslexia to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses during the configuration stage of word learning. Children with typical development (N = 116) and dyslexia (N = 68) participated in computer-based word learning games that assessed word learning in 4 sets of games that manipulated phonological or visuospatial demands. All children were monolingual English-speaking 2nd graders without oral language impairment. The word learning games measured children's ability to link novel names with novel objects, to make decisions about the accuracy of those names and objects, to recognize the semantic features of the objects, and to produce the names of the novel words. Accuracy data were analyzed using analyses of covariance with nonverbal intelligence scores as a covariate. Word learning deficits were evident for children with dyslexia across every type of manipulation and on 3 of 5 tasks, but not for every combina...
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Purpose The purpose of this experiment was to determine if there is alternate forms reliability for paper- and computer-administered standardized vocabulary tests. Another purpose was to determine whether the behavioral ratings of... more
Purpose The purpose of this experiment was to determine if there is alternate forms reliability for paper- and computer-administered standardized vocabulary tests. Another purpose was to determine whether the behavioral ratings of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) would improve during the computer-administered testing sessions secondary to a decreased need for social interaction. Method Thirty-six school-age children (half with ASDs, half neurotypical [NT]) took 2 versions (i.e., paper vs. computer) of the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT–2000; Brownell, 2000a) and the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (ROWPVT–2000; Brownell, 2000b). Order of presentation was counterbalanced across participants. Test sessions were videotaped, and randomly selected 1-min intervals were rated for behaviors. Standardized test scores and behavior ratings were compared for equivalence across the test presentation methods. Results Standard scores for both versions ...
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<b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of this study was to use an established model of working memory in children to predict an established model of word learning to determine whether working memory explained word learning variance over... more
<b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of this study was to use an established model of working memory in children to predict an established model of word learning to determine whether working memory explained word learning variance over and above the contributions of expressive vocabulary and nonverbal IQ.<b>Method: </b>One hundred sixty-seven English-speaking second graders (7- to 8-year-olds) with typical development from two states participated. They completed a comprehensive battery of working memory assessments and six word learning tasks that assessed the creation, storage, retrieval, and production of phonological and semantic representations of novel nouns and verbs and the ability to link those representations.<b>Results:</b> A structural equation model with expressive vocabulary, nonverbal IQ, and three working memory factors predicting two word learning factors fit the data well. When working memory factors were entered as predictors after expressive vocabulary and nonverbal IQ, they explained 45% of the variance in the phonological word learning factor and 17% of the variance in the semantic word learning factor. Thus, working memory explained a significant amount of word learning variance over and above expressive vocabulary and nonverbal IQ.<b>Conclusion: </b>Results show that working memory is a significant predictor of dynamic word learning over and above the contributions of expressive vocabulary and nonverbal IQ, suggesting that a comprehensive working memory assessment has the potential to identify sources of word learning difficulties and to tailor word learning interventions to a child's working memory strengths and weaknesses.<br><b>Supplemental Material S1. </b>Correlations among working memory, word learning measures, expressive vocabulary, &amp; nonverbal IQ (lower-left triangle), <i>N </i>for each measure (Diagonal), and <i>N </i>for each pair of measures (upper-right triangle).<b><br></b><b>Supplemental Material S2. </b>Estimated factor loadings and error variances of the working memory variables [...]
Purpose Little is known about the relationship between sentence production and phonological working memory in school-age children. To fill this gap, we examined how strongly these constructs correlate. We also compared diagnostic groups’... more
Purpose Little is known about the relationship between sentence production and phonological working memory in school-age children. To fill this gap, we examined how strongly these constructs correlate. We also compared diagnostic groups’ working memory abilities to see if differences co-occurred with qualitative differences in their sentences. Method We conducted Bayesian analyses on data from seven- to nine-year-old children (n = 165 typical language, n = 81 dyslexia-only, n = 43 comorbid dyslexia and developmental language disorder). We correlated sentence production and working memory scores and conducted t tests between groups’ working memory scores and sentence length, lexical diversity, and complexity. Results Correlations were positive but weak. The dyslexic and typical groups had dissimilar working memory and comparable sentence quality. The dyslexic and comorbid groups had comparable working memory but dissimilar sentence quality. Conclusion Contrary to literature-based pre...
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Purpose: The purpose of our study was to test the hypotheses (a) that children with dyslexia have spoken word learning deficits primarily related to phonology and (b) that children with dyslexia and concomitant developmental language... more
Purpose: The purpose of our study was to test the hypotheses (a) that children with dyslexia have spoken word learning deficits primarily related to phonology and (b) that children with dyslexia and concomitant developmental language disorder (DLD) have word learning deficits related to both phonology and semantic processing when compared to peers with typical development (TD).Method: Second-graders with dyslexia (n = 82), concomitant dyslexia and DLD (dyslexia + DLD; n = 40), and TD (n = 167) learned names and semantic features for cartoon monsters in 5 carefully controlled word learning tasks that varied phonological and semantic demands. The computer-based tasks were played in 6 different word learning games. We analyzed results using Bayesian statistics.Results: In general, the dyslexia + DLD group showed lower accuracy on tasks compared to the dyslexia and TD groups. As predicted, word learning tasks that taxed phonology revealed deficits in the dyslexia group, although there w...
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Purpose We investigated four theoretically based latent variable models of word learning in young school-age children. Method One hundred sixty-seven English-speaking second graders with typical development from three U.S. states... more
Purpose We investigated four theoretically based latent variable models of word learning in young school-age children. Method One hundred sixty-seven English-speaking second graders with typical development from three U.S. states participated. They completed five different tasks designed to assess children's creation, storage, retrieval, and production of the phonological and semantic representations of novel words and their ability to link those representations. The tasks encompassed the triggering and configuration stages of word learning. Results Results showed that a latent variable model with separate phonological and semantic factors and linking indicators constrained to load on the phonological factor best fit the data. Discussion The structure of word learning during triggering and configuration reflects separate but related phonological and semantic factors. We did not find evidence for a unidimensional latent variable model of word learning or for separate receptive an...
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Purpose Compared to children with typical development, children with dyslexia, developmental language disorder (DLD), or both often demonstrate working memory deficits. It is unclear how pervasive the deficits are or whether the deficits... more
Purpose Compared to children with typical development, children with dyslexia, developmental language disorder (DLD), or both often demonstrate working memory deficits. It is unclear how pervasive the deficits are or whether the deficits align with diagnostic category. The purpose of this study was to determine whether different working memory profiles would emerge on a comprehensive battery of central executive, phonological, visuospatial, and binding working memory tasks and whether these profiles were associated with group membership. Method Three hundred two 2nd graders with typical development, dyslexia, DLD, or dyslexia/DLD completed 13 tasks from the Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children–Working Memory ( Gray, Alt, Hogan, Green, & Cowan, n.d. ) that assessed central executive, phonological, and visuospatial/attention components of working memory. Results Latent class analyses yielded 4 distinct latent classes: low overall (21%), average with high number updating (30%)...
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Purpose We examined the relationship between maternal level of education as an index of socioeconomic status (SES) on the narrative story retells of school-aged children who are English language learners (ELLs) to guide interpretation of... more
Purpose We examined the relationship between maternal level of education as an index of socioeconomic status (SES) on the narrative story retells of school-aged children who are English language learners (ELLs) to guide interpretation of results. Method Using data available from the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts database (Miller & Iglesias, 2012), we were able to compare the language samples of 907 ELL students in kindergarten and 2nd grade whose parents had different levels of education. We used a simple linear regression to see if maternal level of education was predictive of measures of vocabulary, syntax, and narrative structure in Spanish and English narrative story retells. Results There were no differences in language measures between children from different SES backgrounds for the Spanish language samples. There were differences with the English language samples in four of the five measures for the kindergarten sample and only three of five measures for the old...
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Significance This paper demonstrates that typical children have enhanced learning of new words across sleep periods (naps) which is linked to the amount of time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and shows sleep-dependent learning losses... more
Significance This paper demonstrates that typical children have enhanced learning of new words across sleep periods (naps) which is linked to the amount of time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and shows sleep-dependent learning losses in an atypically developing group of children with REM deficits (e.g., Down syndrome). The work yields both medical and theoretical impacts by ( i ) highlighting a modifiable mechanism of intellectual disability in Down syndrome that has not been described before and ( ii ) emphasizing the important role of REM sleep in children’s learning.
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The purpose of this study was to examine differences in performance between monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual second graders (aged 7-9 years old) on executive function tasks assessing inhibition, shifting, and updating to... more
The purpose of this study was to examine differences in performance between monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual second graders (aged 7-9 years old) on executive function tasks assessing inhibition, shifting, and updating to contribute more evidence to the ongoing debate about a potential bilingual executive function advantage. One hundred sixty-seven monolingual English-speaking children and 80 Spanish-English bilingual children were administered 7 tasks on a touchscreen computer in the context of a pirate game. Bayesian statistics were used to determine if there were differences between the monolingual and bilingual groups. Additional analyses involving covariates of maternal level of education and nonverbal intelligence, and matching on these same variables, were also completed. Scaled-information Bayes factor scores more strongly favored the null hypothesis that there were no differences between the bilingual and monolingual groups on any of the executive function tasks. Fo...
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The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children - Working Memory (CABC-WM) is a computer-based battery designed to assess different components of working memory in young school-age children. Working memory deficits have been identified... more
The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children - Working Memory (CABC-WM) is a computer-based battery designed to assess different components of working memory in young school-age children. Working memory deficits have been identified in children with language-based learning disabilities, including dyslexia(1)(,)(2) and language impairment(3)(,)(4), but it is not clear whether these children exhibit deficits in subcomponents of working memory, such as visuospatial or phonological working memory. The CABC-WM is administered on a desktop computer with a touchscreen interface and was specifically developed to be engaging and motivating for children. Although the long-term goal of the CABC-WM is to provide individualized working memory profiles in children, the present study focuses on the initial success and utility of the CABC-WM for measuring central executive, visuospatial, phonological loop, and binding constructs in children with typical development. Immediate next steps are to...
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In children with dyslexia, deficits in working memory have not been well-specified. We assessed second-grade children with dyslexia, with and without concomitant specific language impairment, and children with typical development.... more
In children with dyslexia, deficits in working memory have not been well-specified. We assessed second-grade children with dyslexia, with and without concomitant specific language impairment, and children with typical development. Immediate serial recall of lists of phonological (non-word), lexical (digit), spatial (location) and visual (shape) items were included. For the latter three modalities, we used not only standard span but also running span tasks, in which the list length was unpredictable to limit mnemonic strategies. Non-word repetition tests indicated a phonological memory deficit in children with dyslexia alone compared with those with typical development, but this difference vanished when these groups were matched for non-verbal intelligence and language. Theoretically important deficits in serial order memory in dyslexic children, however, persisted relative to matched typically developing children. The deficits were in recall of (1) spoken digits in both standard and...
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This study investigated the structure of working memory in young school-age children by testing the fit of three competing theoretical models using a wide variety of tasks. The best fitting models were then used to assess the relationship... more
This study investigated the structure of working memory in young school-age children by testing the fit of three competing theoretical models using a wide variety of tasks. The best fitting models were then used to assess the relationship between working memory and nonverbal measures of fluid reasoning (Gf) and visual processing (Gv) intelligence. One hundred sixty-eight English-speaking 7-9 year olds with typical development, from three states, participated. Results showed that Cowan's three-factor embedded processes model fit the data slightly better than Baddeley and Hitch's (1974) three-factor model (specified according to Baddeley, 1986) and decisively better than Baddeley's (2000) four-factor model that included an episodic buffer. The focus of attention factor in Cowan's model was a significant predictor of Gf and Gv. The results suggest that the focus of attention, rather than storage, drives the relationship between working memory, Gf, and Gv in young school...
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Purpose The purpose of this tutorial is to provide clinicians with a theoretically motivated and evidence-based approach to teaching adjectives to children who struggle with word learning. Method Given that there are almost no treatment... more
Purpose The purpose of this tutorial is to provide clinicians with a theoretically motivated and evidence-based approach to teaching adjectives to children who struggle with word learning. Method Given that there are almost no treatment studies to guide this topic, we have synthesized findings from experimental and theoretical literature to come up with a principles-based approach to treatment. Results We provide a sample lesson plan, incorporating our 3 theoretical principles, and describe the materials chosen and methods used during treatment and assessment. Conclusion This approach is theoretically motivated, but it needs to be empirically tested.
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Research Interests: Computer Science and Text
Reliabilities of scores for experimental tasks are likely to differ from one study to another to the extent that the task stimuli change, the number of trials varies, the type of individuals taking the task changes, the administration... more
Reliabilities of scores for experimental tasks are likely to differ from one study to another to the extent that the task stimuli change, the number of trials varies, the type of individuals taking the task changes, the administration conditions are altered, or the focal task variable differs. Given that reliabilities vary as a function of the design of these tasks and the characteristics of the individuals taking them, making inferences about the reliability of scores in an ongoing study based on reliability estimates from prior studies is precarious. Thus, it would be advantageous to estimate reliability based on data from the ongoing study. We argue that internal consistency estimates of reliability are underutilized for experimental task data and in many applications could provide this information using a single administration of a task. We discuss different methods for computing internal consistency estimates with a generalized coefficient alpha and the conditions under which t...
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To examine the impact of perceptual, linguistic, and capacity demands on performance of verbal working memory tasks. The Ease of Language Understanding Model (Rönnberg et al., 2013) provides a framework for testing the dynamics of these... more
To examine the impact of perceptual, linguistic, and capacity demands on performance of verbal working memory tasks. The Ease of Language Understanding Model (Rönnberg et al., 2013) provides a framework for testing the dynamics of these interactions within the auditory-cognitive system. Adult native-English speakers (n = 45) participated in verbal working memory tasks requiring processing and storage of words involving different linguistic demands (closed/open-set). Capacity demand ranged from 2 to 7 words per trial. Participants performed the tasks in quiet and in speech-spectrum-shaped noise. Separate groups of participants were tested at different signal-to-noise ratios. Word recognition measures were obtained to determine effects of noise on intelligibility. Contrary to predictions, steady-state noise did not have an adverse effect on working memory performance in every situation. Noise negatively influenced performance for the task with high linguistic demand. Importantly, the ...
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Perception, Psycholinguistics, and 15 moreSpeech perception, Linguistics, Adolescent, Medicine, Humans, Noise, Female, Male, Speech Intelligibility, Clinical Sciences, Psychological Tests, Adult, Short Term Memory, Acoustic Stimulation, and Language tests
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Communication Disorders, Vocabulary, Treatment Outcome, and 14 moreWord Learning, Medicine, Situational Ethics, Humans, Female, Male, Infant, Clinical Sciences, Speech Therapy, Guidance and Counseling Intervention Programs, Child Language, Child preschool, Language Development Disorders, and Language tests
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ABSTRACT This study was conducted to determine whether Spanish-enhanced administration of a standardized math assessment would result in improved scores for English Learners who used Spanish as a heritage language. Twenty-one typically... more
ABSTRACT This study was conducted to determine whether Spanish-enhanced administration of a standardized math assessment would result in improved scores for English Learners who used Spanish as a heritage language. Twenty-one typically developing second-graders (English Learners) were administered the traditional KeyMath-3. If the child made an error on an item, a Spanish version of the item was presented. Difference scores were calculated to determine whether the Spanish-enhanced version resulted in improved scores. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests and simple regression. The data results showed that all children significantly benefited from the Spanish-enhanced administration of items answered incorrectly in English. The amount of benefit was predicted by a child&#39;s degree of Spanish dominance. It was concluded that standardized math tests that do not accommodate second-language learners may be inadvertently testing language skills in addition to math skills. Implications for assessment and interpretations of assessments are discussed.
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PurposeThe present study examined the relationship between mathematics and language to better understand the nature of the deficit and the academic implications associated with specific language impairment (SLI) and academic implications... more
PurposeThe present study examined the relationship between mathematics and language to better understand the nature of the deficit and the academic implications associated with specific language impairment (SLI) and academic implications for English language learners (ELLs).MethodSchool-age children (N= 61; 20 SLI, 20 ELL, 21 native monolingual English [NE]) were assessed using a norm-referenced mathematics instrument and 3 experimental computer-based mathematics games that varied in language demands. Group means were compared with analyses of variance.ResultsThe ELL group was less accurate than the NE group only when tasks were language heavy. In contrast, the group with SLI was less accurate than the groups with NE and ELLs on language-heavy tasks and some language-light tasks. Specifically, the group with SLI was less accurate on tasks that involved comparing numerical symbols and using visual working memory for patterns. However, there were no group differences between children ...
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Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether children exposed to 2 languages would benefit from the phonotactic probability cues of a single language in the same way as monolingual peers and to determine whether... more
Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether children exposed to 2 languages would benefit from the phonotactic probability cues of a single language in the same way as monolingual peers and to determine whether crosslinguistic influence would be present in a fast-mapping task. Method Two groups of typically developing children (monolingual English and bilingual Spanish-English) took part in a computer-based fast-mapping task that manipulated phonotactic probability. Children were preschool-aged ( N = 50) or school-aged ( N = 34). Fast mapping was assessed through name-identification and naming tasks. Data were analyzed using mixed analyses of variance with post hoc testing and simple regression. Results Bilingual and monolingual preschoolers showed sensitivity to English phonotactic cues in both tasks, but bilingual preschoolers were less accurate than monolingual peers in the naming task. School-aged bilingual children had nearly identical performance to monolingual ...
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Purpose This purpose of this study was to investigate the lexical and semantic fast mapping ability of young children with specific language impairment (SLI) and normal language (NL), with a specific emphasis on the influence of... more
Purpose This purpose of this study was to investigate the lexical and semantic fast mapping ability of young children with specific language impairment (SLI) and normal language (NL), with a specific emphasis on the influence of phonological factors. Method The study included 46 children (mean age 58 months), half with SLI and half with NL. Children were asked to fast map visual information only, visual-plus-nonlinguistic-auditory information, and visual-plus-linguistic-auditory information. A mixed design was used to compare children across and within groups. Results Children with SLI performed worse than children with NL overall. The SLI group showed specific deficits in semantic fast mapping when they saw visual information only. This condition may have disrupted encoding because it varied from the expected auditory and visual pattern. The children with SLI also performed poorly when they were asked to map phonotactically infrequent linguistic information and when the difficulty ...
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Phonology, Semantics, Linguistics, and 15 moreSpecific Language Impairment, Medicine, Language disorders, Multivariate Analysis, Humans, Models, Cognitive Mapping, Female, Male, Risk factors, Clinical Sciences, Risk Factors, Tape Recording, Case Control Studies, and Child preschool
This study examined the receptive language skills of young children (4–6 years old) with specific language impairment (SLI). Specifically, the authors looked at their ability to fast-map semantic features of objects and actions and... more
This study examined the receptive language skills of young children (4–6 years old) with specific language impairment (SLI). Specifically, the authors looked at their ability to fast-map semantic features of objects and actions and compared it to the performance of age-matched peers with normally developing language (NL). Children completed a computer task during which they were exposed to novel objects and actions with novel names. The children then were asked questions about the semantic features of these novel objects and actions. Overall, the questions about actions were more difficult for children than objects. The children with SLI were able to recognize fewer semantic features than were their peers with NL. They also performed poorly relative to their peers on a lexical label recognition task. These results lend support to the idea that children with SLI have broader difficulties with receptive vocabulary than simply a reduced ability to acquire labels.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Communication Disorders, Vocabulary, Face recognition (Psychology), and 15 moreWord Learning, Specific Language Impairment, Medicine, Humans, Syllable, Child, Word Recognition, Female, Male, Clinical Sciences, Interference, Verbal Learning, Case Control Studies, Language Development Disorders, and Language tests
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Communication Disorders, Cognition, Nonverbal Communication, and 15 moreFacial expression, Language Impairment, Medicine, Language disorders, Affect, Humans, Child, Cues, Comprehension, Female, Male, Clinical Sciences, Paralinguistics, Emotional Response, and Child preschool
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Paleontology, Communication Disorders, and 15 moreAudiology, Fast Mapping, Specific Language Impairment, Medicine, Humans, Child, Models, Language Skills, Female, Male, Clinical Sciences, Short Term Memory, Child Language, Case Control Studies, and Language Development Disorders
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Neuropsychology, Neuroimaging, and 15 moreMotor Development, Child Development, Semantic Memory, Medicine, Early Childhood, Knowledge, Salient, Humans, Child, Comprehension, Concept Formation, Brain injury, Semantic Processing, Conceptual Knowledge, and Neurosciences
Purpose The authors explored a novel technique with potential for assessing conceptual development. Participants rated how “normal” to “really weird” an image was in order to determine whether (a) participants would rate images by amount... more
Purpose The authors explored a novel technique with potential for assessing conceptual development. Participants rated how “normal” to “really weird” an image was in order to determine whether (a) participants would rate images by amount of variation (slight/significant) from the standard image, (b) participants would treat variation related to different concepts equally, or (c) there would be developmental differences in these ratings. Then, authors asked whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) would demonstrate weaker conceptual skills based on their ratings. Method Adults and school-age children (with and without SLI) used a 9-point equal-appearing interval scale to rate photographic images of animals. These included standard images and images that altered the animals' shape, pattern, color, and facial morphometry. Results Significant differences in ratings were obtained for adults compared with typically developing children and children with SLI compared wit...