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- Title
Predictors of Language Gains Among School-Age Children With Language Impairment in the Public Schools.
- Authors
Justice, Laura M.; Hui Jiang; Logan, Jessica A.; Schmitt, Mary Beth
- Abstract
Purpose: This study aimed to identify child-level characteristics that predict gains in language skills for children with language impairment who were receiving therapy within the public schools. The therapy provided represented business-as-usual speech/language treatment provided by speech-language pathologists in the public schools. Method: The sample included 272 kindergartners and first-graders with language impairment who participated in a larger study titled “Speech-Therapy Experiences in the Public Schools.” Multilevel regression analyses were applied to examine the extent to which select child-level characteristics, including age, nonverbal cognition, memory, phonological awareness, vocabulary, behavior problems, and self-regulation, predicted children's language gains over an academic year. Pratt indices were computed to establish the relative importance of the predictors of interest. Results: Phonological awareness and vocabulary skill related to greater gains in language skills, and together they accounted for nearly 70% of the explained variance, or 10% of total variance at child level. Externalizing behavior, nonverbal cognition, and age were also potentially important predictors of language gains. Conclusions: This study significantly advances our understanding of the characteristics of children that may contribute to their language gains while receiving therapy in the public schools. Researchers can explore how these characteristics may serve to moderate treatment outcomes, whereas clinicians can assess how these characteristics may factor into understanding treatment responses.
- Subjects
UNITED States; LANGUAGE disorders in children; PUBLIC schools; FORECASTING; SPEECH therapy for children; LANGUAGE ability; KINDERGARTEN children; NONVERBAL communication in children; PHONOLOGICAL awareness; TREATMENT of language disorders; REGRESSION analysis; BEHAVIOR disorders in children; COGNITIVE testing; CONFIDENCE intervals; INTELLIGENCE tests; LONGITUDINAL method; MEMORY; PHONETICS; PROBABILITY theory; SCHOOLS; SELF-management (Psychology); SPEECH therapy; STATISTICS; VOCABULARY; SECONDARY analysis; SOCIOECONOMIC factors; RELATIVE medical risk; TREATMENT effectiveness; MEDICAL coding; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; CHILDREN
- Publication
Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 2017, Vol 60, Issue 6, p1590
- ISSN
1092-4388
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1044/2016_JSLHR-L-16-0026