The Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation

Presenters: 2003 NYSSLHA ConventionHarry N. Seymour Univ of Massachusetts

Thomas Roeper Univ of Massachusetts

Jill deVilliers Smith College

Peter deVilliers Smith College

*supported by NIH grant N01-DC-8-2104*webpage:www.umass.edu/aae

African American English: A Definition

African American English (AAE) is one of manyvarieties of English, whose status as a dialect is definedby a commonality of speech spoken primarily byAfrican Americans, but not by all. AAE is lessgeographically defined than other dialects of English ,rather it has emerged as a commonality of speech andgrammar of a culturally defined group, though thereare differences by geographic regions. Of course,children or adults of other races who have strongcultural identification or primary social interactionwith African Americans may speak AAE too. Thus,AAE may be defined in terms of the features thatdistinguish a pattern of grammar (morphology,semantics, syntax and phonology) in the speech used byculturally identified African Americans.

Definition

Myths Behind the Controversy

• AAE is simply bad or broken English.

• AAE jeopardizes  learning Standard English

• AAE is political correctness gone amuck.

• AAE is a cruel self-esteem hoax.

Clinical Problem

• Standardized tests for children who speak African American English

• The deficit/difference dilemma

• Too Many African American children fail

Misdiagnosis

• Over-representation–14.8 % of general population–20.2% of special education

• Under-representation–Unclear

Clinical Solution

• Make the tests harder– Avoid somewhat superficial aspects of language

• Contrasts between dialects

– Focus on deep principles of language every child should know

• Noncontrastive elements between dialects

The DELV (Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation) -- Goals

• To develop a comprehensive language assessment of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and phonology between ages 4 and 9.

• To be able to determine whether language variation in children is due to Development, Dialect, Delay, or Disorder.

• To create a test that is not biased against dialect speakers, especially African-American English speakers.

Collaborators

Peggy Speas Angelika Kratzer Christina Foreman Barbara Pearson Eliane Ramos Lisa SelkirkLisa Green Lamya Abdulkarim Shelley VellemanToya Wyatt Bart Hollebrandse Fred HallMike Dickey Linda Bland Debra Garrett Mike Terry Tempe Champion Minjoo KimJanice Jackson Laura Wagner Ida StockmanD’Jaris Coles Robin Schafer Deanna MooreValerie Johnson Kristen Asplin Joe PaterTim Bryant Frances Burns Caroline Jones The Psychological Corporation Uri Strauss

Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation (DELV)

• Variation in speech and language development

• Variation in speech and language disorders

• Variation in speech and language dialects

The DELV Tests

• DELV-Screening Test (3/25/03)– Identifies language variation status– Identifies students at risk for a disorder

• DELV-Criterion Referenced Test (Spring, 03)– Diagnose speech and language disorders

• Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatic, Phonology

• DELV-Standardized Version (2005)– Standardized exclusively on AAE children

General Results of the DELV Field

Testing -- The Subject Sample • 1014 four to nine year olds, most of them from working class backgrounds and

from all regions of the USA. • There were 217 four-year-olds, 266 five-year-olds, 300 six-year-olds, 56 seven-

year-olds, 101 eight-year-olds and 74 nine-year-olds.• Approximately 60% of the children were characterized by the testing clinicians

as speakers of African American English (AAE), the other 40% as speakers of Mainstream American English (MAE).

• AAE and MAE children were matched for parental education level.• Approximately 1/3rd of the children at each age and in each dialect group were

identified by the participating clinicians and schools as having a specific language-impairment and were receiving language services.

• 10 to 15% of the children spread equally across ages and dialect groups were diagnosed as having phonological or articulation problems.

DELV-SCR Structure

• The test has a screener version (DELV-SCR) that takes 15 to 20 minutes to administer.

• The screener contains morphosyntax and phonology Identifier Items on which AAE-speaking children produce systematically different responses from MAE.

• It also contains a set of Diagnostic Items designed to tell the clinician whether further testing is needed because the child is at risk for language delay or impairment.

Screener Morphosyntax Identifier Items

• Have/has (“The girl have (has) a big kite”)

• 3rd person present tense ‘s (“The girl always sleep(s).”)

• Doesn’t/don’t (“This girl don’t (doesn’t) like to play basketball.”)

• Be copula forms (They was (were) sick”)

Screener Phonology Identifier Items

• Substitution f/th: bath --->baf

• Substitution v/th: breathe --->breav or bread

• Zero Cluster Element: gift--->gif

Language Variation Status

• Mainstream American English (MAE)

• Some Variation from MAE

• Strong Variation from Mae

Performance of the different dialect and impairment status groups on the Identifier Items

on the DELV-SCR (Non-mainstream responses).

Screener Identifier Items

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IMPAIRED MAE

TYPICAL AAE

TYPICAL MAE

Major Theories of SLI

• Difficulty with morphosyntax:(Leonard, Rice).• Difficulty repeating nonsense words(Bishop)• Difficulty with variables and embedded clauses

(Penner, Roeper & Seymour, van der Lely)

Screener Diagnostic Items

• Past tense was/were auxiliary and copula forms (obligatory in both MAE and AAE).

• Elliptical Possessive pronoun (obligatory in both MAE and AAE). Thsee are for morphosyntax.

• Non-word Repetition (for memory problems)

• Wh-Question Comprehension (for variables and embedding)

Performance of typically developing and language impaired children on the Diagnostic Items on the

DELV-SCR (Errors)

Screener Diagnostic Items

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Performance of MAE and AAE speaking children on the Diagnostic Items on the DELV-SCR

(Errors)

Screener Diagnostic Items

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Is a screener enough?

• A screener is just that: it does not diagnose.

• A practitioner needs to know more precisely what the child’s areas of difficulties are, for both accurate diagnosis and design of remediation.

• The DELV-CR goes deeper, and checks what the results of the screener mean.

Characteristics of the DELV-CR

The DELV-CR (criterion-referenced test) has 11 subtest components organized into four language domains.

• Syntax = Wh-Q comprehension, Passives comprehension, Articles production.

• Pragmatics = Wh-Q asking, Communicative Role Taking (production), Narrative.

• Semantics = Verb contrast production, Preposition contrast production, Quantifier comprehension, and Syntactic Bootstrapping/Fast mapping.

• Phonology

Components of The DELV SYNTAX Domain

Question Type Core Concepts

WH-QUESTION COMPREHENSION

VariablesMovement

PASSIVES MovementHidden properties

ARTICLES Discourse properties(something in a prior sentence making requirements on an element in a

subsequent sentence)

ARTICLES: TESTING REQUIREMENTS OF DISCOURSE PROPERTIES

Does the child carry information from one sentence into another?

Ex. A bird flew out of a cage because something was open? What was it?

THE door (nor A door)

Has the child learned to interpret articles as reference to context?

Examples of eliciting questions

Part-the: Sally was eating an ice-cream cone when suddenly- slosh! something fell out and she only had the cone left. What was it? (THE icecream)

Familiar-the: A cat and a bird were sitting in a tree. They were friends. One of them flew out of the tree. Guess which.

(THE bird)Specific-a: I'll bet you have something hanging on the wall of your room at

home. What is it? (A picture)Non-referential-a: Tyrone is going to take a nap, and he wants to cuddle with

something,. What does he need? (A blanket)Predicational-a: Think of a baseball player. Can you imagine what one looks

like? What does he have? (A glove)

Wh-factors:Query: what is thatEcho: you ate WHATExclamative: What nice clothes you have!Indirect question: he knows what to do

=> not answeredRelative clause: the man who you sawDiscourse connected:

John has 3 hats. Which is best?

Core CONCEPT #1 IN SYNTAX on the DELV

• I. Principles of MOVEMENT • Simple:• “I saw a boy, a girl, and a dog.” =>• “What did I see ( - ) ?”• Complex:• What did she say she saw ( - )?

• Does the child get complex movement right?

•

Core Syntactic Concept #1 on the DELV (con’t)

Does the child know…1. Where the WH word originates• What did he eat ( - )?• When did she say ( - ) she lost her purse (- )?

2. When certain structures "block" certain meanings:Ex. When did she say how she lost her purse?

can only mean "when did she SAY it” not “When did she lose it?”

Core Syntactic CONCEPT #2 on the DELV

• II. VARIABLES • (words that are intended to refer not to a single

referent, but to members of a set)• Examples:• Simple Question (1 variable)• . (“I saw a boy, a girl, and a dog.”)• “What did I see?” • “what” = set of objects (boy, girl, dog)• “Who was at dinner?”• “who” = the 5 or 6 individuals at dinner•

Core Syntactic CONCEPT #2 on the DELV (con’t)

• II. b. Complex Variables• 2 variables in the same sentence:• “who bought what?” requires reference

to all the members in the 2 sets in an ordered relation:

• Person 1 bought Thing 1• Person 2 bought Thing 2

• Does the child get variable properties right?

Core Syntactic CONCEPT #2 on the DELV (con’t)

Does the child know how to answer Double WH-questions:Who ate what?How did she play what?

• Requires “set” answers to BOTH questions– (he and she, chocolate and vanilla)

• Not just listed, but PAIRED.

Ex. HE ate CHOCOLATE, and SHE ate VANILLA.

Testing Complex WH-Question Comprehension

We test this:1) Can children answer both parts of a double-WH? 2) Can children answer questions whose site of origin is far

away (long distance)?

and 3) Can children appropriately block meanings that the grammar

doesn’t allow, i.e.when there is a barrier?

Wh-Question Comprehension:Testing Procedure

• The child is told a brief story about a pictured event.

• They are then asked the key test question about some aspect of the event.

• The pictured events and stories support several possible interpretations of the question.

Typical Answers to double WH questions

• PAIRED, EXHAUSTIVE responses– Ex. She played the piano with her hands and the drums with her feet.

• SINGLETONS (Incorrect)– One element: “piano” “with her feet”

– Both objects, no instruments: “piano and drums”

– One pair: “the piano with her hands.”

• OTHER

– “She played a lot.” “She was playing.”

Double WH Response Types by Age and Language Status (N = 1014, 708 Typically Developing,

306 Language Impaired)

Fig. 1b. Double WH Response Types

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Typical Answers to “False Clause” questions

• LONG DISTANCE (LD) TWO CLAUSE responses– Ex. She said she bought paper towels.

• ONE CLAUSE responses (Incorrect)– Ex. (She bought) a birthday cake.

• OTHER– “a surprise” “a bag” “I don’t know.”

LD False Clause Response Types by Age and Language Status (N = 1014)

Fig. 3 WH "False Clause" Response Types

by Age and Language Status

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Long distance movement barriers

• We also tested children on long distance movement, and respect for a variety of barrier effects:

wh-islands:• How did the girl ask how to ride?• Who did the girl ask what to bring?relative clauses:• How did the boy who sneezed drink the milk?empty operators:• Where did the boy buy the lemonade to splash on his face?

Typical Answers toWH-barriers questions

• SHORT DISTANCE responses– (How did she learn…?) By watching TV..

• MEDIAL ANSWERS (Incorrect)– (…what to bake?) “a cake”

• LONG DISTANCE responses (Incorrect)– (How…..bake?) “With a pudding mix,” “With a spoon”

• OTHER– Ex. “She didn’t know how.”

WH Barrier Response Types by Age and Language Status (N = 1014)

WH "Barriers" Response Types by Age and

Language Status

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Summary of barrier effects

• All the barriers were obeyed well even in LI but the rate of errors was higher in LI children.

• The most prevalent error was answering the medial, an error type that persists in LI.

• No children answer the “who” complementizer in the relative clause, despite superficial equivalence.

The Echo-Exhaustive distinction

Echo questions differ from ‘real” wh questions in several ways:

What did the children eat?

The children ate what?

Differences

• Echo questions ask for the missing constituent, real wh for an exhaustive answer

• Echo questions can be substitute for a part of a constituent, real wh cannot:

• The boy said he bought a big blue what?• * What did the boy say he bought a big blue

t?

Previous tests

• Mari Takahashi (1991) tested whether 3 year olds respected this distinction and got nice contrasting results: more exhaustive for real wh, more constituents for echo questions.

• A student pilot study reported in de Villiers and Roeper 1995 found intonation insignificant for distinguishing the two.

Echo/Exhaustive Distinction by age

Respect ec/ex distinction

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4 5 67-8

11-12

Ages

Percentage of newscore "2"

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dissae

tryaae

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Wh-Question Asking Elicitation Procedure

• The child is shown a picture with something missing from it.• They have to ask the right question to find out what the event is about.• The missing elements of the pictures include objects, people, locations,

tools, and causes of emotions -- so what, who, where, how, and why questions are motivated.

• Different levels of prompting are given for each trial if the child does not spontaneously ask an appropriate question -- varying from the semantic domain of the question to ask, to the specific wh-word to begin the question with.

• If the child asks an appropriate question they are shown the complete picture.

Wh-Question production in MAE and AAE speaking children following all prompts.

Wh-Question Production

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Wh-Question production in typically developing and language impaired children following all

prompts.

Wh-Question Production

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Production of Double Wh-Questions by Typically-developing and Language-impaired

Children following all prompts

Elicited Double Wh-Questions

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Why is semantics a challenge?

• Bias of acquired vocabulary tests: too culturally dependent?

• Want to look at process: CAN the child learn a new word easily?

• For older children, lexical organization/retrieval may be more significant than size of vocabulary.

Three Semantics tests

• Novel verb learning/fast mapping

- gets at the process of learning a new word

• Verb contrasts

• Preposition contrasts

- these get at lexical organization and contrasts

Syntactic Bootstrapping and Fast Mapping of Word Meanings from Context

• Children acquire a verb’s meaning in part through the argument frames in which it appears. This phenomenon of fast mapping of meanings from context is often called syntactic bootstrapping.

• We test how much children can learn from intransitives, transitives, datives, and complement argument frames.

• Nonsense verbs were used in these frames to describe strange actions in ambiguous contexts. The child then answered questions about the verb and its subjects and/or objects.

Procedure

• The child saw a picture that contained at least two events. S/he heard a sentence about it containing either a REAL or a NOVEL verb.

• The child had to answer a set of questions about the picture that are designed to test which action s/he has associated with the verb.

Argument structures

• Intransitive: one argument

E.g. the dog is barking

• Transitive: two arguments

E.g. The boy poured the drink

• Dative: three arguments

E.g. The mailman handed the letter to the boy

• Complement: three arguments

E.g. The policeman asked the woman to stop the car

Question types

• ING e.g Which one is zanning? (agent)• ER e.g. Which one is the zanner? (agent)• Got-ED e.g. Which one got zanned? (patient)• ABLE e.g. Which one is zannable? (patient)• Subj-comp e.g.• Which one did she sug (e) to send the ball?• Obj-comp e.g.• Which one did she sug the man to send (e)?

Verb Contrasts

• How do children organize their lexicon for easy retrieval of e.g. contrasts or opposites?

• Waxman & Hatch studied noun organization in 3 year olds e.g. plantflowerrose

• We decided to focus on verbs because a) less culturally biased b) maybe disordered in SLI (Rice)

• Tried to elicit different verbs from the children for the same picture depending on the prompt, to tap versatility and organization of verb lexicon.

Procedure

• The child sees a picture (of a man crawling out of a building) and is told e.g.

“The man is not WALKING, he’s…?” (crawling)• THEN, for the same picture:“The man is not ENTERING the building,he’s…?” (going out)

Preposition contrasts

• Finally, we decided to tap preposition contrasts in the same way, to see if children could handle the different semantic and grammatical forms they take.

• The format is the same as for verb contrasts, i.e. we prompt for two different prepositions per picture.

Prompts to picture

• “She’s not looking at the radio, she’s listening . . .” (to the radio)

• “She’s not lifting the chair, she’s sitting . . .”

(under the chair)

Development of MAE and AAE speaking children on the Semantics Domain Score

DELV-CRT Semantics Subdomain

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Development of typically developing and language impaired children on the Semantics

Domain Score

DELV-CRT Semantics Subdomain

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Double Questions

Among the questions we elicited were double wh-questions such as:

• Who is eating what?

• Or

• Which person is eating which food?

Singleton answers by age

Decline in singletons, subtest 2wh 1-6

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II. General Background:Quantification

1. Problems with quantification (Roeper and DeVilliers (1991)

a. A boy saw every fish. He raised his eyebrow.

=> fish, not boy•

Mathematics:Does every boy have three shovels?

=> boy-shovel boy-shovel boy-shovel

Answer: "no", but ask a 7yr old and many will say "yes"

Do the boys have three shovels?ambiguous: 1. each one has three shovels

2. they have three shovels altogether

Control-No, normal vs. disordered

Summary: development pattern is the same, with the normals outperforming thedisordereds the whole way. NB: the graph spans 0 to more than 1, so the differencesbetween the two lines is not as insignificant as it might seem. E.g. at age 4, the differenceis close to 20%.

Control-no, Normal vs. Disordered

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No Quantifier Hypothesis: Wh- Singletons and Control-No Failure

Results on 2 control-no questionsNormal Disorder Overall

0 errors 540 (60.7%) 200 (49.3%) 740 (57.1%)1 error 128 (14.4) 74 (18.2) 202 (15.6)2 errors 221 (24.9) 132 (32.5) 353 (27.3)Total 889 406 1295349/ 889 normal children => 1 or 2 errors: 128 made 1 error, 221 made 2 errors. Out of ,206 /406 disordered children=:> 1 or 2 errors

Correlation of Wh-singletons and Control-No

Wh-exhaustivity errors: 0 1 2+

Quantifier errors:0 84.9 11.2 3.9

1 63.9 23.3 12.9 2 59.8 22.4 17.6

- 35% children who show one Q error, have 1or 2 wh- errors- 40% children who show two Q, errors, have 1or 2 wh-errors

Significance

• Results are highly significant (statistically):

• Chi-squared analysis result: p < 0.001

• (i.e. probability that the 2 effects are independent and only appear to be related by accident is less than 0.1%.

Wh without “every”?

• Singleton => wh-without "every"

• Control-no => no comprehension of every

• Conclusion: Children must learn: => wh- contains hidden "every"

• LI children: fail to recognize this factor

Spreading total

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Spreading incidence

• Quantifier Spreading: Prominent until a late age for all children

• LI children definitely show Q-spreading, but many• Normals do as well until a late age. • Spreading exists for all, some, every, most• And may disappear differentially

Key Features of the Pragmatics Assessment Procedures on the DELV-CR

• They test the interaction of syntactic and semantic forms with specific pragmatic functions -- assessment of pragmatic skills cannot be divorced from the forms that are needed for those functions of language.

• They sample a range of simpler to more complex syntactic forms that serve the same communicative functions.

• They assess pragmatic skills that are important for early school success and literacy development.

• The materials are all picture-based so they require minimal technology and can be administered and scored by a single clinician interacting with the child.

Wh-Question Asking Elicitation Procedure

• The child is shown a picture with something missing from it.• They have to ask the right question to find out what the event is about.• The missing elements of the pictures include objects, people, locations,

tools, and causes of emotions -- so what, who, where, how, and why questions are motivated.

• Different levels of prompting are given for each trial if the child does not spontaneously ask an appropriate question -- varying from the semantic domain of the question to ask, to the specific wh-word to begin the question with.

• If the child asks an appropriate question they are shown the complete picture.

5 year old TryAAE 5 year old DISAAEwho WHAT IS THE NURSE FEEDING? NRwhere WHERE DID SHE GO SWIMMING? SHE MAKING A POOL.what WHAT IS THE GIRL MAD ABOUT? WHAT THE GIRLhow HOW IS THE GIRL FIXIN' THAT? SHE'S FIXING HIS BIKEwhat WHAT IS THE WOMAN EATING? WHAT SOME MEATwho WHO IS RIDING THE BIKE? WHAT A BOYwhere WHERE IS THAT BOY GOING? THE BOY IS RUNNING TO THE ICE CREAMwhy WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT?who eats what WHAT IS THEY EATING? NR

6 year old TryAAE 6 year old DISAAEwho WHO IS THE NURSE FEEDING? WHO IS THAT FEEDING HIM?where WHERE DID THE GIRL SWIM? SHE JUMPED IN THE WATER.what WHAT IS THE GIRL MAD FOR? SHE MAD AT THE TABLE.how WHAT IS THE GIRL FIXING? SHE IS FIXIN THE TOY.what WHAT IS THE GIRL EATING? WHO'S EATIN?who WHO IS RIDING THE BIKE? A BOY RIDIN ON THE BIKE.where WHERE IS THE BOY RUNNING? WHO'S RUNNING?why WHY IS THE BOY CRYING? HE DROPPED HIS ICE CREAM.who eats what WHAT ARE THE PEOPLE EATING? WHO'S EATIN?

8 year-old TRYAAE 8 year old DISAAEwho WHO IS THE NURSE FEEDING? WHO IS SHE FEEDING?where WHERE DID THE GIRL GO SWIMMING? WHAT SOMETHING SHE SWIM IN?what WHY IS THE GIRL MAD? WHO IS SHE MAD AT?how HOW IS THE GIRL FIXING THE TOY? WHAT'S SHE HOLDING ON HER HAND?what WHAT IS THE WOMAN EATING? WHAT HER MOM EATING FROM HER TWO FINGERS AND HER HAND?who WHO IS RIDING THE BIKE? SOMETHING RIDING A BICYCLE.where WHAT IS THE BOY RUNNING TO? WHERE IS HIS HOUSE?why WHY IS THE BOY CRYING? WAS HE CRYING?who eats what WHO IS EATING WHAT FOOD? HOW WAS THEY WAS EATING?

Narratives

Narratives have three important components:• Coherence = use of required story grammar components• Cohesion =

a. use of linguistic devices to establish, maintain, and specify referents (e.g., articles and pronouns, or referent characterizing expressions)b. expression of causal and temporal links between events in the story.

• Adopting different perspectives on the events -- “inside” versus “outside” view -- “landscape of action” versus “landscape of consciousness” (Bruner, 1986). This depends on having a “theory of mind”.

Narrative Samples from the DELV-CR

• I want my train. I’m gonna hide the train from him. I’m gonna play out of the toy box. I’m gonna find that train. Bring that train. (C: 4;2)

• He was looking for the choo choo train because the other boy was playin’. And then… and then he said, “I want that choo choo train back”, and umm… he put it in his toy box. And then he came back to find it and he looked under the bed and it wasn’t there. (SC: 4;9)

More Narrative Samples from theDELV-CR

• The big boy came into the little boy’s room and took away the little boy’s train. Then he hid it under the boy’s bed where he couldn’t get it. Then the little boy… when he left… he got out his train and put it in the toy box while the big boy was eating. Then the big boy thought about the train and he went under the bed to go see it but it wasn’t there.

(A: 6;4)

• The little brother was trying to get his toy from the big brother. And the big brother hiding his toy under the bed. When he is eating his sandwich, the little boy go and get it and put it inside of his toy box. When his big brother walk in, he think about the train and he look under his bed for it. (J: 6;3)

Development of reference contrast in narratives (contrasting the two main characters) in typically

developing MAE and AAE speaking children.

Reference Contrast in Spoken Narrative

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Development of reference contrast in narratives (contrasting the two main characters) in typically

developing and language impaired children.

Reference Contrast in Spoken Narrative

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Development of the expression of temporal links between events in the narratives of typically developing MAE and

AAE speaking children.

Temporal Links in Spoken Narrative

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Development of the expression of temporal links between events in the narratives of typically developing and

language impaired children.

Temporal Links in Spoken Narrative

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Development of “theory of mind” explanations for the character’s mistaken action in the picture narrative (typically developing MAE versus AAE speaking

children).

Mental State Explanations of Action

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Development of “theory of mind” explanations for the character’s mistaken action in the picture narrative

(typically developing versus language impaired children).

Mental State Explanations of Action

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ImpairedTypical

Communicative Role Taking and Understanding Speech Acts

• Children not only need to produce different kind of speech acts at appropriate times (e.g., asking for information, requesting action, rejecting or denying, prohibiting etc.); they also need to understand the circumstances and force of those utterances in other people.

• The children were shown pictures in which a person was communicating to another about some object or event that was clearly depicted. They were asked what the characters were telling (reporting an observed event), asking, or saying (prohibiting an action), depending on the scenario.

Development of appropriate speech act production in a communicative role taking context (MAE

versus AAE speaking children)

Communicative Role Taking

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AAEMAE

Development of appropriate speech act production in a communicative role taking context (typically developing versus language impaired children).

Communicative Role Taking

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Age

Average Score /4

IMPAIREDTYPICAL

– 25 target phonemic Clusters– Cluster targets only--two and three elements– Initial and medial positions of words only– Phonotactic Properties

Phonology Structure

Phonology Format

– Sentence repetition– Cartoon illustrations– Carrier Phrase--”I see…”

Fig. 3 Phonology Subtest by Age and Dialect

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30

4 5 6 7 8 9

Age Years

Number Correct

AAE

MAE

Fig. 3 Phonology Subtest by Age and Dialect

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Number Correct

aae

sae

Phonology Subtest by Age and Dialect

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Number Correct

AAE

MAE

Phonology Subscore by Age and Articulation Status

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Number Correct (of 25)

Disart

TDart

Typical Answers to “False Clause” questions

• LONG DISTANCE (LD) TWO CLAUSE responses– Ex. She said she bought paper towels.

• ONE CLAUSE responses (Incorrect)– Ex. (She bought) a birthday cake.

• OTHER– “a surprise” “a bag” “I don’t know.”

WH-False Clause Example Responses from field testing

CHILD A (12663)

A cake

CHILD B (18221)

Paper towels

1 clause answer

0 points

2-clause answer (long distance)

1 point

Item Type 3 Barrier to Long Distance Movement

Note: Children’s ability to give LD answers (without embedded false clause) was tested in piloting and then in the DSLT Tryout testing. 90% of the children ages 4-6 and 95% of the children 7-10 gave at least one Long Distance answer, so for reasons of time, simple Long Distance items do not appear on the DELV.

Typical Answers toWH-barriers questions

• SHORT DISTANCE responses– (How did she learn…?) By watching TV..

• MEDIAL ANSWERS (Incorrect)– (…what to bake?) “a cake”

• LONG DISTANCE responses (Incorrect)– (How…..bake?) “With a pudding mix,” “With a spoon”

• OTHER– Ex. “She didn’t know how.”

WH-barrier Example Responses 2Who did she ask what to buy?

CHILD A (12663)

bologna

CHILD B (18221)

The grocery store lady

Medial

0 points

Short Distance

1 point

Other WH Example Responses

CHILD A (12663)

2 correct barriers, 2 barrier violations1 other

CHILD B (18221)

4 correct barriers1 medial

2 points (of 5)

Total:4 of 14

4 points (of 5)

Total: 12 of 14

Who are these children?

CHILD A (12663)

5 years oldWhite FemaleFrom South

Parents w/ HS education

Mainstream English speaker

Not receiving speech or language services

CHILD B (18221)

4 years oldAfrican American boyFrom “north Central” USParents w/ HS education

“Some difference” from MAE”

Not receiving speech or language services

Profiles of semantic problems

Purpose: discuss some individual response patterns to show the tasks in

detail, the kinds of responses to expect as a function of age of the

child, and possible disordered status.

1)Fast mapping task

• The child saw a picture that contained at least two events. S/he heard a sentence about it containing either a REAL or a NOVEL verb.

• The child had to answer a set of questions about the picture that are designed to test which action s/he has associated with the verb.

Six AAE-speaking children

4 yr- old 4 yr-old 6 yr old 6-yr-old 8 yr-old 8-yr-oldTRYAA E DISAAE TRYAA E DISAAE TRYAA E DISAAE

Which one was the zanner? 0 0 1 1 1 0Which one got zanned? 1 0 1 1 1 0Which one was zannable? 1 1 1 0 0 1Which one was zanning? 0 0 1 1 1 1

Which one was the sugger? 1 1 1 0 0 0Which one did the girl sug to send the ball? 1 0 1 0 1 0Which one did the girl sug the man to send? 1 0 0 0 1 0Which one was sugging? 1 1 0 0 1 0Total 6 3 6 3 6 2

Summary

• This is a demanding task over this age range, but younger children can do some questions easily. In general, transitive is easier than dative, and both are easier than complements.

• Children with a language disorder have a hard time fast-mapping a new word from the grammar, and make many errors.

• The task reveals a problem some children may have picking up new words casually from conversation or text: a process increasingly necessary with schooling. They may need more support and repetition than normally developing children.

2) Verb Contrasts

• How do children organize their lexicon for easy retrieval of e.g. contrasts or opposites?

• Tried to elicit different verbs from the children for the same picture depending on the prompt, to tap versatility and organization of verb lexicon.

Examples

• The child sees a picture (of a man crawling out of a building) and is told e.g.“The man is not WALKING, he’s…?” (crawling)• THEN, for the same picture:“The man is not ENTERING the building,he’s…?” (going out)The child is shown a picture of a woman buttoning her coat as she walks out the door.• The child is told,“She’s not taking off her coat, she’s…?”

(putting it on)And then:“She not undressing, she’s…?

(dressing)

Six AAE-speaking children

DisAAE score TryAAE score

4 SLIP ON THE STEP 0   SLIDING DOWN THE STEPS 0  STAY RIGHT THERE 0   COMING OUT THE BUILDING 1

4 PUTTING IT IN THERE 0   PUT HE COAT ON 1

 PUTTIN IT IN THE COAT (P) GOING TOWORK 0   DRESSING 1

6 SITTING DOWN 0   CRAWLING 1  TRYING TO DO THAT 0   ENTERING OUT THE BUILDING 0

6 TRYING TO GO TO WORK 0   PUTTING ON HER COAT 1  FIXING HER COAT 1   LEAVING OUT THE DOOR 0

8 CRAWLING HIS HANDS 1   CRAWLIN' 1  PUTTING STUFF IN 0   LEAVING 1

8 ON IT THE COAT 0   PUTTING ON HER COAT 1  ZIPPING THE COAT 0   DRESSING 1

Summary

• Normally developing children have flexibility in describing a scene, and can find the right “level” to describe it at given the prompt.

• Language-disorded children have less flexibility and also don’t hit the right contrast so easily. They use more “all -purpose” or “vague” verbs.

• This suggests the verb lexicon is an area of concern for children with language difficulties: both incomplete, and poorly organized into contrasts.

Prompts to picture

• “She’s not looking at the radio, she’s listening . . .” (to the radio)

• “She’s not lifting the chair, she’s sitting . . .”

(under the chair)

Six AAE-speaking children

Disaae Tryaae4 TO THE RADIO 1   TO THE RADIO 1

UNDER THE CHAIR 1   UNDER THE CHAIR 1A FORK 0   WITH A FORK 1DOWN ON FLOOR 0   ON THE FLOOR 1GET THE CAT 0   TO GET THE CAT 0IN THE NIGHT TIME 1   AT DARK 1

6 TO THE RADIO 1   TO THE RADIO 1IN THE CHAIR 0   UNDER THE CHAIR 1THE FORK 0   WITH A FORK 1THE SIDE THE TV 0   IN FRONT OF THE TV 1GET THE CAT 0   HE TRYING TO GET HIS CAT 0UP THERE 0   IN THE NIGHT 1

8 THE RADIO 0   TO THE RADIO 1DOWN THE CHAIR 0   UNDER THE CHAIR 1FORK 0   WITH A FORK 1NEXT TO IT 1   ON SIDE OF THE TV 0UP THE CAT 0   BY HIMSELF 1IN THE NIGHT 1   IN THE NIGHT 1

Summary

• As with the verb contrasts, language-disordered children show difficulty finding the right preposition. Sometimes they omit one, sometimes they use an odd form e.g. “down the chair” instead of “under the chair”.

• Their lexicon of prepositions may be poorly organized too.

Overall Summary

• The three AAE-speaking children who are normally developing reveal similar strengths across these semantic tasks.They all pass the DELV.

• The three AAE-speaking children identified as possibly disordered show marked problems across the semantic tasks. They all fail the DELV.

• It is possible that existing tests that look at MAE morphology and at acquired vocabulary normed on MAE would pick out all six as disordered.

Communicative Role Taking and Understanding Speech Acts

• Children not only need to produce different kind of speech acts at appropriate times (e.g., asking for information, requesting action, rejecting or denying, prohibiting etc.); they also need to understand the circumstances and force of those utterances in other people.

• The children were shown pictures in which a person was communicating to another about some object or event that was clearly depicted. They were asked what the characters were telling (reporting an observed event), asking, or saying (prohibiting an action), depending on the scenario.

Four-year-old AAE Children

TYPICAL AAE

TELL HIS BIG SISTER FELLED OFF HER BIKEASK CAN I PLAY BASEBALL?ASK CAN I HAVE A PI ECE OF CAKE?SAY YOU DON'T FEED THE DOG. THAT'S HIS OWN FOOD

IMPAIRED AAE

TELL HER BLEEDIN'ASK HIM CARRY SOMETHINGASK HER SAY LOOK AT THE CAKESAY HE FEEDIN THE DOG

Six-year-old AAE Children

TYPICAL AAETELL THAT HIS SISTER GOT HURTASK CAN HE GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY WITH HIS BROTHERASK CAN I GET A PIECE OF THAT CAKE?SAY DON'T GIVE THE DOG NONE OF YOUR FOOD

IMPAIRED AAETELL SHE GOT AN OWIE, A SOREASK I GOT A BAT AND A GLOVEASK SHE CAN EAT CAKE YETSAY NO

IMPAIRED AAE?TELL THE GIRL SHE HAD FELL AND SHE WAS BLEEDIN' ON HER KNEEASK CAN HE COME OUTSIDE?ASK CAN SHE HAVE SOME CAKE?SAY NO

Narrative

• Uniquely specifying referents -- telling my listener(s) who and what I am referring to.

• Linking meaning across referents and events -- expression of temporal relationships.

• Marking point of view -- appreciating different perspectives on events -- having a “theory of mind”.

Four-year-old AAE Children

TYPICAL AAE

REF YESTIME SEQUENCERPICT5 HE DREAMED THAT HIS TRAIN WAS UNDER THE BEDToM BECAUSE HE WANTED IT.

IMPAIRED AAE

REF NONETIME NONEPICT5 THE BOY TAKE THAT FOR HIM.ToM CAUSE HE GOT FIND THE TRAIN

Six-year-old AAE Children

TYPICAL AAEREF YESTIME ADVERBIAL CLAUSEPICT5 THE BIG BROTHER IS THINKING ABOUT THE TRAIN AND HE GOING BACK TO HIS ROOMToM HE THINK IT'S THERE

IMPAIRED AAEREF NONETIME SEQUENCERPICT5 THE BOY CAN'T FIND THE CHOO CHOO TRAINToM BECAUSE HE CAN'T FIND IT

IMPAIRED AAE?REF YESTIME ADVERBIAL CLAUSEPICT5 HE THINK THE TRAINS UNDER THE BED.ToM HIS BIG BROTHER IS LOOKING FOR HIS TRAIN…

HE THINK IT'S UNDER THE BED, BUT ITS IN THE TOYBOX.

Conclusions

• We have shown that the assessment of complex aspects of children’s syntactic development between the ages of 4 and 9 can be carried out in a dialect neutral fashion.

• These materials and procedures capture the development of several aspects of language that are vital for success in early schooling and the transition to literacy.

• They provide the clinician with a substantial profile of the child language strengths and weaknesses, not just a diagnostic categorization.

• As such they provide a much richer evaluation of language variation and its sources that has direct implications for areas and methods of intervention.