Purpose: To examine the validity of the Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT; K. Williams, 1997) for assessing the expressive vocabulary skills of African American students. Method/Results: One hundred sixty-five African American preschool and kindergarten students were administered the EVT. The mean EVT score for these African American students was…

This meta-analysis examined whether writing about stressful experiences affects health care utilization (HCU) compared with writing on neutral topics or no-writing control groups. Randomized controlled trials of 30 independent samples representing 2,294 participants were located that contained sufficient information to calculate effect sizes.…

In this article I share stories I have lived alongside my son, Matthew, who is challenged by multiple disabilities, particularly in the domain of expressive speech. Narrative inquiry shaped a space to attend and inquire into stories. The stories reveal the tension between an identity "given" and an identity continually "created" in relationship.…

The complex nature of written expression presents difficulty for many students, particularly those with learning disabilities (LD). The literature in the area of written expression and students with learning disabilities indicates that explicit, rule-based instruction can enhance the writing skills of struggling students. Research in Direct…

This paper reports an assessment of the collocational competence of students of English Linguistics at the University of Granada. This was carried out to meet a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, we aimed to establish a solid corpus-driven approach based upon a systematic and reliable framework for the evaluation of collocational competence in…

Purpose: Language and speech are difficult to assess in newly arrived internationally adopted children. The purpose of this study was to determine if assessments completed when toddlers were first adopted could predict language outcomes at age 2. Local norms were used to develop early intervention guidelines that were evaluated against age 2…

The aim of this article is to show that a better awareness of the relationship between written and spoken communication can help the writer to improve his/her effectiveness. The focus will be on written texts that precede (formal and informal) discussions. The analysis will start with a description of the differences between orality and literacy.…

The assessment of selective mutism usually takes place in a clinic, where the child often refuses to speak to the therapist. The challenge when trying to understand the child's own perspective is to find a medium for communication. Three selectively mute children were interviewed using Raven's Controlled Projection for Children (RCPC). The…

Background: When assessing people with intellectual disabilities (ID), using the DSM-IV-TR can be challenging. Frequently, significant clinical data must be obtained from interviews with key informants. A new semi-structured interview tool was developed including behavioural descriptions of each DSM-IV-TR symptom criterion for a number of mood and…

The frequency, course, and inter-relationships of atypical eating, sleeping, self-injurious behavior, aggression and temper tantrums in children with autism and children with a history of language impairment (HLI), was investigated using a parent interview that was created to examine these problem behaviors. The relationships between these…

This study examined the composition of vocabulary and preschoolers' vocabulary learning in an early literacy program. Fifty-six children with typical achievement, with special needs, and at risk for disabilities participated. Curriculum-based measures (CBM) were used to track children's receptive and expressive vocabulary growth over three…

Oral language skills in the preschool years are predictive of children's later reading success and literacy acquisition, and among these language skills, vocabulary and narrative ability play important roles. Children from low socioeconomic families face risks to their language development and because of threats to these skills it is important to…

Three teachers of 11 primary age hearing impaired children were trained to use expansions (complete adult grammatical imitations of a child's incomplete utterance). (Author)

Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogism has applications to rhetoric and composition instruction. Dialogism, sometimes translated as intertextuality, is the term Bakhtin used to designate the relation of one utterance to other utterances. Dialogism is not dialogue in the usual sense of the word; it is the context which informs utterance, and…

Some new approaches to the assessment and treatment of language handicaps suggest the need to examine relationships between verbal creativity and language performance. Data were collected from 40 normally developing white fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children, drawn from both urban and rural communities and from a middle socioeconomic level.…