Language Difference vs. Language Disorder: Assessment & Intervention Strategies for SLPs Working with Bilingual Children
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The Reign of the Problematic PLS-5 and the Rise of the Hyperintelligent Potato
Those of us who have administered PLS-5 ever since its release in 2011, know that the test is fraught with significant psychometric problems. Previous reviews of its poor sensitivity, specificity, validity, and reliability, have been extensively discussed HERE and HERE as well as in numerous SLP groups on Facebook.
One of the most significant issues with this test is that its normative sample included a “clinical sample of 169 children aged 2-7;11 diagnosed with a receptive or expressive language disorder”.
The problem with such inclusion is that According to Pena, Spalding, & Plante, (2006) when the purpose of a test is to identify children with language impairment, the inclusion of children with language impairment in the normative sample can reduce the accuracy of identification.
Indeed, upon its implementation, many clinicians began to note that this test significantly under-identified children with language impairments and overinflated their scores. As such, based on its presentation, due to strict district guidelines and qualification criteria, many children who would have qualified for services with the administration of the PLS-4, no longer qualified for services when administered the PLS-5.
For years, SLPs wrote to Pearson airing out their grievances regarding this test with responses ranging from irate to downright humorous as one can see from the below response form (helpfully provided by an anonymous responder).
And now it appears that Pearson is willing to listen. A few days ago, many of us who have purchased this test received the following email: 
It contains the link to a survey powered by Survey Monkey, asking clinicians their feedback regarding PLS-5 administration and how it can be improved. So if you are one of those clinicians, please go ahead and provide your honest feedback regarding this test, after all, our littlest clients deserve so much better than to be under-identified by this assessment and denied services as a result of its administration.
References:
- Peña, E.D., Spaulding, T.J., & Plante, E. (2006). The Composition of Normative Groups and Diagnostic Decision Making: Shooting Ourselves in the Foot.
- Spaulding, Plante & Farinella (2006) Eligibility Criteria for Language Impairment: Is the Low End of Normal Always Appropriate?
- Spaulding, Szulga, & Figueria (2012) Using Norm-Referenced Tests to Determine Severity of Language Impairment in Children: Disconnect Between U.S. Policy Makers and Test Developers
- Zimmerman, I. L., Steiner, V, G., & Pond, E. (2011). Preschool Language Scales- Fifth Edition (PLS-5). San Antonio, TX: Pearson.
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Birthday Giveaway Day Twelve: Columbus Day Explorer Freebie
What better way to celebrate a birthday than to get presents? Well here’s a fun little present Maria of Communication Station: Speech Therapy has cooked up just in time for Columbus Day. For those of you who follow her new and improved blog, Communication Station: Speech Therapy you know how much she loves to use thematic units to support communication development.
She’s done examples of how she creates thematic therapy units for younger children but haven’t shared anything for older students until today.
This packet is perfect for students in the upper elementary grades, middle school, and depending on cognitive level and communication goals, possibly some high school students as well.
It includes background knowledge/post learning worksheet where students have the opportunity to share what they already know, want to learn, and have learned after either doing their own research or reading the short story enclosed in the packet.
Along with the short story there is a comprehension questions worksheet that students can independently complete or complete as a group.
Next is a vocabulary synonyms match-up sheet that can be used to pre-teach vocabulary (note: vocabulary words highlighted in red in the short story), teach while reading using context clues, or post teach/review. Again this sheet can be completed independently on in a group.
Following this sheet, there is a writing prompt in which your students will be given the opportunity to use some creative thinking and reasoning skills to write a narrative about exploration. In addition, there is a guided questions sheet for younger students or students who have difficulty organizing their thoughts.
Finally, enclosed in this packet are 10 true/false cards. Each statement is about explorers and their role in history. Weather the facts are true or false they are followed by additional information your students can learn regarding each topic.
You can grab your free copy of this packet here! Be advised of Communication Station terms of use: the packet is for personal use only, redistribution of it is strictly prohibited. Feel free to direct your friends to her site for their free copy as well.
Enjoy and happy talking and exploring!
Maria Del Duca, M.S. CCC-SLP, is a pediatric speech-language pathologist in southern, Arizona. She owns a private practice, Communication Station: Speech Therapy, PLLC, and has a speech and language blog under the same name. Maria writes a monthly column on all topics related to child development, titled Kid Confidential, on the American Speech-Language and Hearing Associations blog, ASHAspere. She has experience in various settings such as private practice, hospital and school environments and has practiced speech pathology in NJ, MD, KS and now AZ. Maria has a passion for early childhood, autism spectrum disorders, rare syndromes, and childhood Apraxia of speech. For more information, visit her blog or find her on Facebook.
Speech, Language, & Literacy Disorders in School Aged Children with Psychiatric Impairments
Recently I did a presentation for Rutgers University on the subject of “Speech, Language, & Literacy Disorders in School-Aged Children with Psychiatric Impairments“. The learning objectives for this presentation were as follows:
- Explain the comorbidity between language impairments and psychiatric disturbances of school-aged children
- Describe language and literacy deficits of school-aged children with psychiatric impairments
- List warning signs of language and literacy deficits in school-aged children that warrant a referral to speech-language pathologists for a potential assessment
Teaching Punctuation for Writing Success
Last week I wrote a blog post entitled: “Teaching Metalinguistic Vocabulary for Reading Success” in which I described the importance of explicitly teaching students basic metalinguistic vocabulary terms as elementary building blocks needed for reading success (HERE). This week I wanted to write a brief blog post regarding terminology related to one particular, often ignored aspect of writing, punctuation.
Punctuation brings written words to life. As we have seen from countless of grammar memes, an error in punctuation results in conveying a completely different meaning.
In my experience administering the Test of Written Language – 4 (TOWL – 4) as well as analyzing informal writing samples I frequently see an almost complete absence of any and all punctuation marks in the presented writing samples. These are not the samples of 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th graders that I am referring to. Sadly, I’m referring to written samples of students in middle school and even high school, which frequently lack basic punctuation and capitalization.
This explicit instruction of punctuation terminology does significantly improve my students understanding of sentence formation. Even my students with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities significantly benefit from understanding how to use periods, commas and question marks in sentences.
I even created a basic handout to facilitate my students comprehension of usage of punctuation marks (FREE HERE) in sentences.
Similarly to my metalinguistic vocabulary handout, I ask my older elementary aged students with average IQ, to look up online and write down rules of usage for each of the provided terms (e.g., colon, hyphen, etc,.), under therapist supervision.
This in turns becomes a critical thinking and an executive functions activity. Students need sift through quite a bit of information to find a website which provides the clearest answers regarding the usage of specific punctuation marks. Here, it’s important for students to locate kid friendly websites which will provide them with simple but accurate descriptions of punctuation marks usage. One example of such website is Enchanted Learning , which also provides free worksheets related to practicing punctuation usage.
In contrast to the above, I use structured worksheets and punctuation related workbooks for younger elementary age students (e.g., 1st – 5th grades) as well as older students with intellectual impairments (click on each grade number above to see the workbooks).
I find that even after several sessions of explicitly teaching punctuation usage to my students, their written sentences significantly improve in clarity and cohesion.
One of the best parts about this seemingly simple activity, is that due to the sheer volume of provided punctuation mark vocabulary (20 items in total), a creative clinician/parent can stretch this activity into multiple therapy sessions. This is because careful rule identification for each punctuation mark will in turn involve a number of related vocabulary definition tasks. Furthermore, correct usage of each punctuation mark in a sentence for internalization purposes (rather mere memorization) will also take-up a significant period of time.
How about you? Do you explicitly work on teaching punctuation?