1,720,966 research outputs found
Narrative Dynamic Assessment Task (NDAT): Protocol & Fidelity Checklist
No full textThe upload includes administration and scoring instructions and an examiner fidelity of administration checklist.The Narrative Dynamic Assessment Task (NDAT) is a tool that can be used by speech-language pathologists and researchers to better understand the language learning skills of children. The NDAT was designed for use with 5- to 6-year old multilingual children who speak English in addition to another home language. The NDAT includes three phases: Test, Teach, and Retest and can be completed in less than 30 minutes. The NDAT was developed by the was developed by the Child Language Intervention Lab at the University of Minnesota as part of the NIH-funded SMART Explicit Study (R01DC017927), which examines explicit and implicit grammatical instruction. These materials are released to provide researchers and clinicians with a tool for evaluating morphosyntactic skills in children aged 5 to 9 years. No participant data are included.NIDCD R01DC019895: Reliability and Validity of Dynamic and Processing-based Assessments for Language in Diverse Bilingual School-age Children StudyKuchler, Kirstin; Ebert, Kerry Danahy; Finestack, Lizbeth H. (2026). Narrative Dynamic Assessment Task (NDAT): Protocol & Fidelity Checklist. Retrieved from the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM), https://doi.org/10.13020/ngm8-2t32
Expressive Morphosyntactic Probe (EMP): Administration and Scoring Instructions, Answer Sheets, and Stimulus Items
Get PDFThe upload includes administration and scoring instructions, examiner protocol forms for Versions A and B, and corresponding picture-based stimulus materials.The Expressive Morphosyntactic Probe (EMP) is a screening tool that evaluates children’s ability to produce core English grammatical forms commonly targeted in intervention for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The EMP elicits past tense -ed, singular present -s, plural present unmarked -s, progressive is/are + verb-ing, and auxiliary do/does questions through picture-based prompts featuring two characters, Qubo and Meepa. Each of the two versions, Form A and Form B, includes 56 items that vary in verb frequency and phonological complexity to allow for repeated use.
The EMP was developed by the Child Language Intervention Lab at the University of Minnesota as part of the NIH-funded SMART Explicit Study (R01DC017927), which examines explicit and implicit grammatical instruction. These materials are released to provide researchers and clinicians with a tool for evaluating morphosyntactic skills in children aged 5 to 9 years. No participant data are included.This research was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under Award Number R01DC019374-01, Explicit and Implicit Grammatical Intervention for Children with Developmental Language Disorder (Principal Investigator: Dr. Lizbeth H. Finestack).Finestack, Lizbeth H; Ancel, Elizabeth; Kuchler, Kirstin; Linert, Jamie; Matthys, Olivia. (2025). Expressive Morphosyntactic Probe (EMP): Administration and Scoring Instructions, Answer Sheets, and Stimulus Items. Retrieved from the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM), https://doi.org/10.13020/6aqe-t894
Using Eye Tracking to Evaluate Language Learning
Get PDFFaculty advisor: Lizbeth FinestackThis research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).Schulz, Laura; Nygaard, Sydney; Brown, Jessica; Finestack, Lizbeth. (2018). Using Eye Tracking to Evaluate Language Learning. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/196407
Recordings of 31 Speech-Language Pathologists Administering a Sentence Repetition Task in Child- and Adult-Directed Speech
No full textThis dataset contains recordings of all the SLP participants’ spoken sentences as part of their administration of the sentence repetition task, a total of 2,635 sentences (31 SLP participants saying 17 sentences to five different imagined listeners). It also contains files that with data about the speakers, output files from analysis in Praat, and R code used to generate analyses.Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) often administer live-voice assessments to children to determine whether they have communication disorders. Because of the method of administration, the outcome of assessment tasks may be influenced by SLPs’ speech style, which is reflected in variation in rate of speech and F0 patterns. To describe variability between SLPs when administering assessments, we conducted an online study of 31 SLPs’ speech characteristics as they administered a 16-item sentence repetition task to an imagined adult and four different imagined children: two 3-year-olds and two 12-year-olds who were either described as having developmental language disorder (DLD) or not. For each production of a child-directed sentence, we measured the SLP’s rate of speech, median F0, and F0 range and compared those to their adult-directed productions. The results demonstrated that SLPs decreased their rate of speech and increased their median F0 for younger children and children with DLD and increased their F0 range for younger children. Thus, SLPs adapt their speech characteristics to different children during assessment tasks, which could potentially impact children’s assessment outcomes.Funding support was provided to the first author through the University of Minnesota’s Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship and by funds from the University of Minnesota Vice President for Research to author BM. In addition, the first author is supported by NICHD grant T32 HD07489, with additional funding from the Waisman Center & The Friends of the Waisman Center.Ancel, Elizabeth; Winn, Matthew; Finestack, Lizbeth; Munson, Benjamin. (2026). Recordings of 31 Speech-Language Pathologists Administering a Sentence Repetition Task in Child- and Adult-Directed Speech. Retrieved from the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM), https://hdl.handle.net/11299/278921
Student Anxiety, Acceptance, and Experience Using the Immediate Feedback – Assessment Technique®️
Get PDFThe use of multiple-choice testing is common among all levels of education. This study examined one type of multiple-choice testing: the Immediate Feedback – Assessment Technique®️ (IF-AT®️), which uses an answer-until-correct testing format. More than 300 undergraduate students in a speech-language-hearing sciences course used the IF-AT ®️ to take course exams. After each of the first two exams, students were given an optional survey which probed their levels of anxiety, acceptance of the IF-AT ®️ format, and experience using the format. Descriptive statistics demonstrated that while students do experience test anxiety, they also widely accept and appreciate the IF-AT ®️ format. Students did not report substantially different experiences after the second exam. Ordinal logistic regression and Chi-square analyses revealed no statistical differences between responses on the survey after the first and second exams. Results of this study support the use of the answer-until-correct format, and more specifically the IF-AT ®️. The benefits to instructors and students of using the IF-AT ®️ are high and should be taken into consideration when selecting testing formats
Narrative language development of Persian-English bilingual children attending an immersion preschool
No full textPurpose: This study aimed to provide a better understanding of the language development of bilingual children who attend a Persian immersion preschool in the United States, with a specific focus on their microstructural language skills derived from a story retell task.opportunities to use their languages, compared to monolingual children. For monolin gual children, their language input and use revolve around one language, the language
that tends to be spoken by the majority of people in their environment. One unique
subset of multilingual children is those who attend immersion schools. Immersion
schools aim to improve children’s language skills by increasing the input and produc tion of a language not spoken by the majority of people in a country. For example, in
the United States, this would be a language other than English. Relatively little is known
regarding the language skills of children who attend immersion schools, particularly
those of very young children whose immersion school is supporting a less commonly
taught language, such as Persian (also known as Farsi) in the United States. Thus, the
overarching goal of the current study was to better understand the language development of preschool children who attended a Persian immersion school in the United States.
Methods: Participants included two groups of preschoolers: 14 Persian-English bilingual children who attended a Persian immersion preschool (2-through 5-years of age) and 16 monolingual English-speaking children who attended an English-only preschool (3-through 5-years of age). Participants completed a story retell task, and their parents completed a questionnaire regarding their child’s language environment.
Results: Analyses revealed that Persian-English bilingual children produced narratives that are comparable to their same-aged, English monolingual peers with regard to measures of microstructure. Furthermore, mean length of utterance in morphemes was significantly associated with parental language input, positively with Persian input, and negatively with English input.
Conclusions: Findings demonstrate that Persian-English bilingual children who attend a Persian immersion preschool develop English to a level comparable to same-age English monolingual peers based on language produced during a story retell task
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
A comparison of explicit and implicit interventions to teach a novel grammatical marking to children with language impairment
Get PDFDissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Kansas, Speech-Language-Hearing: Science Disorders, 2007.Purpose. Most first language intervention approaches rely on implicit techniques to teach problematic language forms to children with language impairment. That is, learners are not made conscious of the patterns guiding language forms at any stage of the intervention process. The language gains made by children using these implicit approaches are modest and require many treatment sessions over a long period of time. Related disciplines, such as second language learning and word reading instruction, have found that explicit instructional approaches in which language patterns are directly presented to learners are more beneficial than implicit approaches similar to those used in child language interventions. This study directly compares the efficacy of explicit and implicit techniques when teaching a novel grammatical marking to children with specific language impairment.
Method. Thirty-two 6-, 7-, and 8-year old children with specific language impairment were randomly assigned to either an implicit or explicit treatment group. Each participant completed four teaching sessions to learn a novel gender agreement morpheme. Participants in the Explicit Group were presented with models of the novel marking plus the rule guiding the form. Participants in the Implicit Group received only models of the novel form. Learning was assessed in three different production probes given during each treatment session.
Results. Significantly more participants in the Explicit Group than the Implicit Group acquired the novel morpheme based on a Teaching Probe and a Generalization Probe (both ps = 0.03, Φs = 0.44 and 0.45, respectively). On a Maintenance Probe a greater number of participants in the Explicit Group acquired the novel morpheme compared to the Implicit Group; however, this difference was marginally significant ( p = 0.05, Φ = 0.41).
Conclusions. A clear advantage was identified for the explicit language teaching approach over the implicit approach in this study. However, there were several limitations to this advantage because treatment gains varied across participants, testing contexts, and sessions. Future studies should continue to examine the efficacy of explicit techniques for children with language impairment when targeting true grammatical morphemes with focus on the generalization of the targeted forms and long-term learning effects
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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