The application of a morphological awareness strategy can be used to improve vocabulary and reading skills in school-age students. The purpose of this article is to briefly review the evidence for using a morphological awareness strategy and provide an example for how a speech-language pathologist can integrate such a skill in practice.

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Although speech-language pathologists may understand the importance of vocabulary for oral language, listening, and reading comprehension and the need for vocabulary instruction, they may not have a clear rationale for selecting specific words to teach. The purpose of this article is to review different strategies for selecting vocabulary words for direct instruction and to discuss the pros and cons of each strategy.

This article will review the evidence base for interactive book reading to facilitate new word learning for preschool and school age children. Methods from an ongoing clinical trial of interactive book reading will be described to illustrate how this treatment approach can be delivered at a high intensity to children with specific language impairment (SLI). Preliminary results from this clinical trial indicate that children with SLI need a modified intensity that is three times higher than their same-age peers.

The learning of a new word involves at least two processes: learning from input and memory evolution in the absence of input. The authors will review the literature and describe the relationship between these two processes and novel word learning by children with specific language impairment (SLI). Cases from an ongoing preliminary clinical trial of word learning in kindergarten children with SLI will serve as clinical illustrations. In particular, one case will be used to demonstrate a pattern of good learning from input and good memory retention (i.e., desirable learning pattern during treatment). Three additional cases will be used to illustrate patterns indicative of poor learning from input and/or poor memory retention. Suggestions will be provided concerning how treatment can be altered when these patterns appear, to promote desirable learning outcomes.

Children with language impairment (LI) are at substantial risk for short and long term delays in reading development. This fact is neither surprising nor new information, as language and literacy skills have been shown to be highly correlated. Empirical evidence suggests that literacy interventions are effective in boosting the reading outcomes of children with LI; however, research into business-as-usual practices in the public schools suggests that children with LI receive very little time devoted to literacy-based instruction, including speech-therapy and special education classrooms. This article discusses the connection between oral language and literacy for children with LI, federal mandates that guide intervention, and current research regarding provision of literacy intervention for children with LI.

Although a general limited availability of expository texts currently exists in preschool special education classrooms, expository texts offer speech-language pathologists (SLPs) a rich context for addressing the language goals of preschool children with language impairment on their caseloads. Thus, this article highlights the differences between expository and narrative texts and describes how SLPs might use expository texts for targeting preschool children's goals related to listening comprehension, vocabulary, and syntactic relationships.

In this article, the author defines academic language, and provides examples of how it is used in early childhood classrooms. The connections between academic language and later literacy development are discussed, emphasizing how the differences in children's experiences with academic language may be reflected in their classroom performances. Strategies for incorporating and assessing academic language use in a variety of settings in early childhood classrooms are presented.

In this article, the authors outline how concept of word in text is a pivotal event in early reading development and discuss research on the development of concept of word in text. Next, the authors provide a framework for the development of concept of word in text and the relation to other early literacy skills including both formal and informal assessment options. We conclude with instruction suggestions that include ways that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can help facilitate concept of word in text development with other early literacy skills.