Measures Of Receptive Vocabulary Research Articles

Prenatal maternal Inflammation, childhood cognition and adolescent depressive symptoms.

Accumulating evidence indicates that higher prenatal maternal inflammation is associated with increased depression risk in adolescent and adult-aged offspring. Prenatal maternal inflammation (PNMI) may increase the likelihood for offspring to have lower cognitive performance, which, in turn, may heighten risk for depression onset. Therefore, this study explored the potential mediating role of childhood cognitive performance in the relationship between PNMI and adolescent depressive symptoms in offspring. Participants included 696 mother-offspring dyads from the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) cohort. Biomarkers of maternal inflammation [interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) and soluble TNF receptor-II (sTNF-RII)] were assayed from first (T1) and second trimester (T2) sera. Childhood (ages 9-11) cognitive performance was assessed via standardized Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), a measure of receptive vocabulary correlated with general intelligence. Adolescent (ages 15-17) depressive symptoms were assessed via self-report. There were no significant associations between T1 biomarkers and childhood PPVT or adolescent depressive symptoms. Higher T2 IL1-RA was directly associated with lower childhood PPVT (b=-0.21, SE=0.08, t=-2.55, p=0.01), but not with adolescent depressive symptoms. T2 IL-6 was not directly associated with childhood PPVT, but higher T2 IL-6 was directly associated at borderline significance with greater depressive symptoms in adolescence (b=0.05, SE=0.03, t=1.96, p=0.05). Lower childhood PPVT predicted significantly higher adolescent depressive symptoms (b=-0.07, SE=0.02, t=-2.99, p<0.01). There was a significant indirect effect of T2 IL-1RA on adolescent depressive symptoms via childhood PPVT (b=0.03, 95% CI=0.002-0.03) indicating a partially mediated effect. No significant associations were found with T2 sTNF-RII nor IL-8. Lower childhood cognitive performance, such as that indicated by a lower PPVT score, represents a potential mechanism through which prenatal maternal inflammation contributes to adolescent depression risk in offspring.

Inferential Comprehension Abilities in French-Speaking Preschoolers Exposed to Neglect in the Early Longitudinal Language and Neglect Study.

Using a longitudinal design, this study aimed to describe inferential comprehension abilities of neglected French-speaking preschool children from 42 to 66 months of age in comparison to non-neglected peers, to examine the association with receptive vocabulary, and to determine whether rates of change in inferential abilities over time was stable between the two group conditions. An inferential comprehension task and the French version of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition were administered to a group of neglected children (n = 37-40) and to a group of same-age non-neglected children (n = 71-91) at 42, 54, and 66 months old, as part of the Early Longitudinal Language and Neglect study. Results show that children exposed to neglect obtain significantly lower scores compared to their same-age peers on inferential comprehension and receptive vocabulary measures at all three time points (p < .001) with large to very large effect sizes and indicate moderate to strong correlations between the two variables. Children from the neglected group present difficulties in inferencing compared to same-age non-neglected peers, a disadvantage that remains stable over time. This study demonstrates the significant gap in inferential comprehension abilities between neglected and non-neglected preschool children. These results reiterate the importance of early detection of language comprehension difficulties in young children coming from vulnerable environments.

The Effect of Online Bilingual Shared Book Reading on Vocabulary Learning for Korean-English Bilingual Children

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a bilingual shared book reading intervention on vocabulary learning for Korean-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD).Methods: A total of 16 Korean-English bilingual children aged 4-6 (9 typically developing children and 7 children with DLD) participated in this study. Participants participated in a bilingual shared book reading intervention using bridging to L1 techniques twice a week for 3 weeks, for a total of 6 sessions. Korean, English, and conceptual receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and expressive definitions were assessed at pre and post tests to examine the effect of the intervention on vocabulary learning.Results: First, there was a statistically significant increase between pre-test and post-test results on all measures of Korean, English, and conceptually scored receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and expressive definitions for typically developing children. Second, there was a statistically significant increase between pre-test and post-test results on measures of Korean receptive vocabulary, English receptive and expressive vocabulary, and conceptually scored receptive and expressive vocabulary for children with DLD.Conclusion: These results provide preliminary evidence that bilingual shared book reading is an effective method of vocabulary intervention for Korean-English bilingual children with and without DLD.

Examining the Relationship Between Multiple Tests of Receptive Vocabulary.

Numerous tasks have been developed to measure receptive vocabulary, many of which were designed to be administered in person with a trained researcher or clinician. The purpose of the current study is to compare a common, in-person test of vocabulary with other vocabulary assessments that can be self-administered. Fifty-three participants completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) via online video call to mimic in-person administration, as well as four additional fully automated, self-administered measures of receptive vocabulary. Participants also completed three control tasks that do not measure receptive vocabulary. Pearson correlations indicated moderate correlations among most of the receptive vocabulary measures (approximately r = .50-.70). As expected, the control tasks revealed only weak correlations to the vocabulary measures. However, subsets of items of the four self-administered measures of receptive vocabulary achieved high correlations with the PPVT (r > .80). These subsets were found through a repeated resampling approach. Measures of receptive vocabulary differ in which items are included and in the assessment task (e.g., lexical decision, picture matching, synonym matching). The results of the current study suggest that several self-administered tasks are able to achieve high correlations with the PPVT when a subset of items are scored, rather than the full set of items. These data provide evidence that subsets of items on one behavioral assessment can more highly correlate to another measure. In practical terms, these data demonstrate that self-administered, automated measures of receptive vocabulary can be used as reasonable substitutes of at least one test (PPVT) that requires human interaction. That several of the fully automated measures resulted in high correlations with the PPVT suggests that different tasks could be selected depending on the needs of the researcher. It is important to note the aim was not to establish clinical relevance of these measures, but establish whether researchers could use an experimental task of receptive vocabulary that probes a similar construct to what is captured by the PPVT, and use these measures of individual differences.

Reading Aloud to Children, Social Inequalities and Vocabulary Development: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial

This article presents the results of an RCT assessing the impact of a Shared Book Reading (SBR) intervention that targeted children aged 4 attending kindergarten. We selected a large, random sample of families living in the city of Paris and provided parents of treated classes with free books for children, information on the benefits of book reading and tips for effective reading practices. We measured book reading frequency and children’s vocabulary before and after this intervention among treated and control children, and we found evidence of positive treatment effects on book reading frequency and on one of our two measures of receptive vocabulary. Moreover, we measured treatment impacts on this vocabulary measure at a 6-month follow-up and found that they were persistent. This light-touch intervention was particularly beneficial to male children, to children from families with low levels of education and from the most disadvantaged schools. Children from bilingual families benefited as much as their native counterparts.

A preliminary study of the effects of stimulant medications on estimates of psycholinguistic abilities for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

ABSTRACT Underlying deficits in inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity might contribute to suboptimal test-taking behaviours during language assessments that can lead to diagnostic errors. Considerations of potential medication effects on estimates of children’s nonword repetition, sentence recall, tense-marking, and narrative abilities are warranted given long-standing enthusiasm for these indices to serve as clinical markers for developmental language disorder (DLD). A battery consisting of 1 nonverbal, 1 reading, and 6 verbal measures was administered twice to 26 children (6–9 years) with independently diagnosed combined-type attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). All participants had been prescribed stimulant medications for the management of their ADHD symptoms and were assessed off- and on-medication, with order counter-balanced across participants. Half of the participants had concomitant DLD. Examiners were unaware of children’s clinical status during assessments or when they were testing children who had received medication. Effect sizes were calculated for each measure. Significant score differences indicating a beneficial impact of stimulant medications on children’s performances were observed on the recalling sentences subtest of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals and the Picture Peabody Vocabulary Test. Adjustments may be needed when speech language pathologists use sentence recall or receptive vocabulary measures to make diagnostic decisions with children who have ADHD.

The grammaticality judgement of inflectional morphology in children with and without Developmental Language Disorder

ABSTRACT To explore the clinical potential of grammaticality judgement tasks, this study investigated whether a Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT) of inflectional morphology could differentiate between a clinically selected sample of children with DLD and children in mainstream (i.e. regular education) schools. We also explored the relationship between grammaticality judgement and measures of receptive vocabulary, receptive grammar, and nonword repetition. Children with DLD (n = 30; age range = 69–80 months) and mainstream children in Pre-primary, Year 1, and Year 2 (n = 89, age range = 61–96 months) were assessed on a GJT of regular past tense, third person singular, and possessive ‘s. The GJT was sensitive to developmental differences in mainstream children and differentiated children with DLD from Year 1 and 2 mainstream children, with DLD results consistent with a one-year delay in performance compared to controls. The GJT was the strongest discriminator of membership to a clinically selected sample of children with DLD (ROC curve analysis, area under the curve = 88%). Receptive grammar, receptive vocabulary, and nonword repetition were related to performance on the GJT. The grammaticality judgement of inflectional morphology shows promise as a reliable indicator of DLD and a measure sensitive to developmental differences in mainstream children. GJTs should continue to be explored for clinical application as a potential tool for both assessment and intervention.

The Effects of a Science and Social Studies Content Rich Shared Reading Intervention on the Vocabulary Learning of Preschool Dual Language Learners

This study examined the effects of a content-based shared book reading (SBR) intervention on receptive and expressive vocabulary outcomes of dual language learner (DLL) preschool children enrolled in two school districts in south Texas. Using SBR as the target of instruction, 50 preschool teachers and 298 preschoolers were randomly assigned at the class level to either a well-specified and scripted SBR condition or a comparison SBR condition. Children in the study were selected based on their scores on the school district administered and thereby archival Preschool Language Assessment Scales (Pre-LAS©) and determined to be at the Limited English Speaker (LES) level of English. Teachers in the intervention condition implemented the curriculum for 18 weeks in 5-day instructional cycles of about 20 minutes per day. Results revealed significant and robust effects on proximal measures of expressive and receptive vocabulary; whereas no significant effects on standardized measures were indicated. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Associations between rapid auditory processing of speech sounds and specific verbal communication skills in autism.

The ability to rapidly process speech sounds is integral not only for processing other's speech, but also for auditory processing of one's own speech, which allows for maintenance of speech accuracy. Deficits in rapid auditory processing have been demonstrated in autistic individuals, particularly those with language impairment. We examined rapid auditory processing for speech sounds in relation to performance on a battery of verbal communication measures to determine which aspects of verbal communication were associated with cortical auditory processing in a sample of individuals with autism. Participants were 57 children and adolescents (40 male and 17 female) ages 5-18 who were diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Rapid auditory processing of speech sounds was measured via a magnetoencephalographic (MEG) index of the quality of the auditory evoked response to the second of two differing speech sounds ("Ga" / "Da") presented in rapid succession. Verbal communication abilities were assessed on standardized clinical measures of overall expressive and receptive language, vocabulary, articulation, and phonological processing. Associations between cortical measures of left- and right-hemisphere rapid auditory processing and verbal communication measures were examined. Rapid auditory processing of speech sounds was significantly associated with speech articulation bilaterally (r = 0.463, p = 0.001 for left hemisphere and r = 0.328, p = 0.020 for right hemisphere). In addition, rapid auditory processing in the left hemisphere was significantly associated with overall expressive language abilities (r = 0.354, p = 0.013); expressive (r = 0.384, p = 0.005) vocabulary; and phonological memory (r = 0.325, p = 0.024). Phonological memory was found to mediate the relationship between rapid cortical processing and receptive language. These results demonstrate that impaired rapid auditory processing for speech sounds is associated with dysfunction in verbal communication in ASD. The data also indicate that intact rapid auditory processing may be necessary for even basic communication skills that support speech production, such as phonological memory and articulatory control.

Word Learning With Orthographic Support in Nonspeaking and Minimally Speaking School-Age Autistic Children.

Previous research has demonstrated that typically developing children, verbal children with a diagnosis of autism, children with Down syndrome, children with developmental language disorder, and children with dyslexia can all benefit from orthographic support during word learning tasks. This study sought to determine if minimally speaking or nonspeaking children with a diagnosis of autism would also demonstrate an orthographic facilitation effect during a computer-based remote word learning task. Twenty-two school-age children with a diagnosis of autism and little to no spoken language learned four novel words by contrasting the words with known objects. Two novel words were taught with orthographic support present, and two were taught without orthographic support. Participants were exposed to the words a total of 12 times and then given an immediate posttest to assess identification. Parent report measures of receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, autism symptomatology, and reading skills were also collected. During learning tasks, participants performed equally well whether orthographic support was given or not. For the posttest, however, participants performed significantly better for words that were taught with orthographic support. The presence of orthography improved accuracy and supported a greater number of participants to reach the passing criterion compared to the absence of orthography. Orthographic representations aided the word learning of those with lower expressive language significantly more than those with higher expressive language. Minimally speaking or nonspeaking children with a diagnosis of autism benefit from orthographic support when learning new words. Further investigation is warranted to determine if this effect holds during face-to-face interactions using augmentative and alternative communication systems. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22465492.

How do the component skills affect Chinese FL reading comprehension? A study based on ridge regression analysis

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the effect of reading components (including Chinese character knowledge, morphological knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, grammar knowledge, and lexical inference) on the reading comprehension of 44 Malaysian child learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Measures of Chinese character knowledge, morphological knowledge, receptive vocabulary, vocabulary synonym, lexical inference, word order, grammatical judgment, and reading comprehension were used. Drawing upon ridge regression, the study found that grammar knowledge (measured by word order and grammatical judgment) had the largest effect on reading comprehension, followed by morphological knowledge and vocabulary knowledge (measured by receptive vocabulary and vocabulary synonym). Lexical inference and Chinese character knowledge had the least effects on reading comprehension. The findings of the study are discussed with pedagogical implications and future research suggestions.

Modulations of right hemisphere connectivity in young children relates to the perception of spoken words

The early school years shape a young brain's capability to comprehend and contextualize words within milliseconds of exposure. Parsing word sounds (phonological interpretation) and word recognition (enabling semantic interpretation) are integral to this process. Yet little is known about the causal mechanisms of cortical activity during these early developmental stages. In this study, we aimed to explore these causal mechanisms via dynamic causal modelling of event-related potentials (ERPs) acquired from 30 typically developing children (ages 6–8 years) as they completed a spoken word-picture matching task. Source reconstruction of high-density electroencephalography (128 channels) was used to ascertain differences in whole-brain cortical activity during semantically “congruent” and “incongruent” conditions. Source activations analyzed during the N400 ERP window identified significant regions-of-interest (pFWE<.05) localized primarily in the right hemisphere when contrasting congruent and incongruent word-picture stimuli. Dynamic causal models (DCMs) were tested on source activations in the fusiform gyrus (rFusi), inferior parietal lobule (rIPL), inferior temporal gyrus (rITG) and superior frontal gyrus (rSFG). DCM results indicated that a fully connected bidirectional model with self-(inhibiting) connections over rFusi, rIPL and rSFG provided the highest model evidence, based on exceedance probabilities derived from Bayesian statistical inferences. Connectivity parameters of rITG and rSFG regions from the winning DCM were negatively correlated with behavioural measures of receptive vocabulary and phonological memory (pFDR<.05), such that lower scores on these assessments corresponded with increased connectivity between temporal pole and anterior frontal regions. The findings suggest that children with lower language processing skills required increased recruitment of right hemisphere frontal/temporal areas during task performance.

The Effects of Language Experience in Both Home and School Environments for Spanish-English Bilingual Children: A Preliminary Study

ABSTRACT The amount of language input bilingual children receive influences their language acquisition. This three-year quasi-longitudinal study determined the extent home language input influences measures of expressive and receptive English vocabulary among Spanish-English school-age bilingual children. The study also determined whether a relationship exists between school of attendance and measures of expressive and receptive English vocabulary among the same group of children. One Spanish-English dual-immersion school and one English-only school in Utah participated in the study. Participants were administered two formal measures of receptive and expressive English once a year for three consecutive years. Results indicate that regardless of their home language, all children demonstrated improvements in receptive and expressive English language skills after three years. Between year one and three, the increase in English receptive language measures were statistically significant among the children who primarily heard Spanish at home. Results revealed that all children made advancements in expressive and receptive vocabulary skills, regardless of their home language and the type of school they attended. Findings suggest that exposure to a language other than English at home is not a detriment to English language development. Additionally, bilingual education is as effective as English-only education in fostering children‘s vocabulary skills in English.

How we measure language skills of children at scale: A call to move beyond domain-specific tests as a proxy for language

Purpose The aim of this research note is to encourage child language researchers and clinicians to give careful consideration to the use of domain-specific tests as a proxy for language; particularly in the context of large-scale studies and for the identification of language disorder in clinical practice. Method We report on data leveraged through the prospective Raine Study cohort. Participants included 1626 children aged 10 years (n = 104 with developmental language disorder [DLD] and n = 1522 without DLD). We assessed the predictive utility of common language measures including subtests of a standardised omnibus language assessment, non-verbal intelligence, and a domain-specific receptive vocabulary test. Result Children with DLD performed within the average range on a measure of non-verbal intelligence (z = −0.86) and receptive vocabulary (z = −0.38), as well as two out of the six subtests on the omnibus language assessment (zs > −1.50). The magnitude of the predictive relationship between language assessments and the likelihood of a child meeting criteria for DLD at 10 years was assessed using a logistic regression model, which was significant: χ 2(8) = 16.91, p = 0.031. Semantic Relationships (OR = 1.13, CI = 1.04 − 1.23, p = .004), Formulated Sentences (OR = 1.07, CI = 1.01 − 1.13, p = .028), Recalling Sentences (OR = 1.20, CI = 1.15 − 1.26, p < .001), and Sentence Assembly (OR = 1.17, CI = 1.07 − 1.30, p = .001) were significant predictors of DLD. Conclusion Domain-specific language assessments, particularly those testing receptive vocabulary, may overestimate the language ability of children with DLD. Caution is urged when using such tests by clinicians and researchers, especially those measuring language skills of children at scale. Future directions for measuring the functional impact of DLD are presented.

The effect of anxiety on working memory and language abilities in elementary schoolchildren with and without Additional Health and Developmental Needs.

Although excessive childhood anxiety is recognised as a significant public health, education and socioeconomic concern, the specific effects of such anxiety on language development and working memory, particularly visual working memory, are relatively unknown. Thus, this study aimed to examine parent-reported trait anxiety, parent-reported functional language (daily communication skills) and clinical measures of non-verbal intelligence, receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness, and visual and auditory-verbal short-term and working memory in elementary schoolchildren. The final sample included 41 children categorised as Additional Health and Developmental Needs (AHDN) due to medical, neurodevelopmental or educational concerns and 41 age- and IQ-matched neurotypical (NT) children, aged 5- to 9-years. Results showed that 26% of all children in our entire sample (AHDN and NT) experienced moderate, sub-clinical anxiety (as reported by parents), and that AHDN children were 10.5 times more likely to experience high anxiety than the NT group (odds ratio). Parents of AHDN children reported lower functional language in their children than parents of NT children. Cognitive testing indicated that the AHDN group also had poorer visual and auditory-verbal working memory than the NT group. Further, High Anxiety children (drawn from both AHDN and NT groups) showed poorer parent-reported functional language skills, and lower visual and auditory-verbal working memory capacities. Our findings are amongst the first to confirm that the presence of high parent-rated trait anxiety is associated with reduced visual working memory in children, which is consistent with biological and theoretical expectations of the impact of anxiety on visually driven, goal-directed attention and working memory. Our results regarding the high prevalence of sub-clinical anxiety in both ADHD and neurotypical children highlight the need for early assessment of anxiety in all schoolchildren, especially those classified as AHDN.

Language Impairment in Autistic Adolescents and Young Adults.

Little is known about the specific nature of language abilities of autistic adolescents and young adults with language impairment (LI), limiting our knowledge of developmental trajectories and ability to develop efficacious speech/language supports. An important first step is establishing proof of concept of identification of LI in this population, with considerations for feasibility of assessment. This research note describes such a study in a sample of autistic adolescents and young adults with LI. Thirteen autistic adolescents and young adults completed an assessment protocol of age-referenced language and nonverbal cognitive assessments. Assessment took place once per year for 3 years; the first two assessments were conducted in person, and the final was conducted online due to the pandemic. All assessments included measures of overall language and morphosyntax; the third added measures of expressive and receptive vocabulary, verbal working memory, and nonverbal intelligence (NVIQ). Analysis included descriptives and comparison of individual performance with epidemiological criteria for LI. All participants qualified for LI, with overall receptive and expressive language scores persistently in the LI range. Other outcomes were variable. Some participants had nonword repetition and vocabulary abilities within age expectations, and some consistently showed adultlike morphosyntactic performance. NVIQ was variable, with no consistent associations with language outcomes. Our findings support the use of the current protocol, as implemented in person or online, to identify LI in autistic adolescents and young adults. This exploratory work is limited by a small sample and missing data. The findings contribute to our understanding of linguistic strengths and variability in the language skills of autistic young adults with LI.

Expressive and receptive performance with graphic symbol sentences by individuals who use aided communication

This study explored performance on expressive and receptive graphic symbol tasks and spoken comprehension by individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) as well as the relationship of performance with participants’ skills and characteristics. Participants were 19 children and youth (aged 5- to 18-years-old) who used aided communication. Four experimental tasks were administered, with either speech or symbols as input (stimuli) and symbols or choice from an array of pictures as output (response). Symbols were not accompanied by written or spoken labels in the tasks. Measures of receptive vocabulary, receptive syntax, memory, and visual cognitive skills as well as information regarding participant characteristics were collected. There were strong relationships among all experimental tasks. Cluster analysis revealed different response patterns that may suggest a progression in expressive and receptive performance with graphic symbol sentences. Individual differences in receptive language, particularly receptive syntax, were related to task performance. The findings suggest that different ways of experiencing symbols, in addition to spoken comprehension of the sentences and receptive spoken language more generally, may contribute to expressive graphic symbol sentences. Performance on receptive symbol tasks may uncover a level of facility with the graphic-symbol modality not observed through expressive symbol use in communicative situations.

Object label and category knowledge among toddlers at risk for autism spectrum disorder: An application of the visual array task

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate atypical development of receptive language and object category knowledge. Yet, little is known about the emerging relation between these two competencies in this population. The present study utilized a gaze-based paradigm, the visual array task (VAT), to examine the relation between object label and object category knowledge in a sample of toddlers at heightened genetic risk for developing ASD. Eighty-eight toddlers with at least one typically developing older sibling (low-risk; LR) or one older sibling diagnosed with ASD (high-risk; HR) completed the VAT at 17 (LR n = 20; HR n = 27) and/or 25 months of age (LR n = 42; HR n = 22). Results indicated that the VAT was both a sensitive measure of receptive vocabulary as well as capable of reflecting gains in category knowledge for toddlers at genetic risk of developing ASD. Notably, an early emerging difference in the relation between target label knowledge and category knowledge for the groups was observed at 17 months of age but dissipated by 25 months of age. This suggests that while the link between receptive vocabulary and category knowledge may develop earlier in LR groups, HR groups may potentially catch up by the second year of life. Therefore, it is likely meaningful to consider differences in category knowledge when conceptualizing the receptive language deficits associated with HR populations. During language learning, typically developing children are sensitive to the common features of category members and use this information to generalize known object labels to newly encountered exemplars. The inability to identify similarities between category members and/or utilize this information when learning new object referents at 17 months of age may be a potential mechanism underlying the delays observed in HR populations.

The Effects of Virtual Assessment on Capturing Skill Growth in Children With Hearing Loss.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of switching from in-person assessment to virtual assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic on the growth trajectories of children with hearing loss who are learning spoken language. Sixty-eight children with typical hearing, 44 children with cochlear implants, and 47 children with hearing aids were assessed with a norm-referenced measure of receptive vocabulary, a criterion-referenced measure of phonological awareness, and a criterion-referenced measure of conceptual print knowledge at least 4 times, at 6-month intervals, between the ages of 4 and 6 years. Of those participants, 26 children with typical hearing, 13 children with cochlear implants, and 13 children with hearing aids entered virtual testing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The slopes of growth for children who entered virtual testing were compared to their own slopes prepandemic and to the growth slopes of children who completed all testing in-person, prepandemic. Within-subject comparisons across all measures did not show a change in growth slopes prepandemic to postpandemic. For the measure of conceptual print knowledge, children who were tested during the pandemic showed slower overall growth than children who were tested prepandemic. No effects of hearing status were found across growth on any measure. These preliminary data support the use of virtual assessment to measure growth in receptive vocabulary, phonological awareness, and conceptual print knowledge in children with hearing loss learning spoken language.

Strategies in conveying information about unshared events using aided communication

Describing events may be challenging for any child, but children who use communication aids may face unique linguistic, pragmatic, and strategic challenges in conveying information with the communication means they have available. This study explores strategies used by young, aided communicators when describing the content of a video unknown to their communication partners. The participants of the study were 48 aided communicators (aged 5;3–15;2) from nine countries and seven language groups and their communication partners (parents, professionals, and peers) who used natural speech. Descriptive and statistical analyses were utilized to investigate the relationships between individual characteristics, linguistic and non-linguistic factors, linguistic strategies, and performance in conveying the content of the video event. Analyses of the 48 videotaped interactions revealed the use of a variety of linguistic elements and multimodal strategies, demonstrating both creativity and challenges. Success in relaying messages was significantly related to age, mode of communication, and individual profiles, such as everyday communication functioning and comprehension of grammar. Measures of receptive vocabulary and non-verbal reasoning were not significantly related to communicative success. The use of shared context and negotiation of meaning of potentially ambiguous utterances demonstrate the shared responsibility of disambiguation and meaning construction in interactions involving aided and naturally speaking communicators.