The Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation

1
The Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation

• Presenters 2003 NYSSLHA Convention
• Harry 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
• webpagewww.umass.edu/aae

2
Definition
3
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.

4
Clinical Problem

• Standardized tests for children who speak African
  American English
• The deficit/difference dilemma
• Too Many African American children fail

5
Misdiagnosis

• Over-representation
• 14.8 of general population
• 20.2 of special education
• Under-representation
• Unclear

6
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

7
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.

8
Collaborators

• Peggy Speas Angelika Kratzer Christina
  Foreman
• Barbara Pearson Eliane Ramos Lisa
  Selkirk
• Lisa Green Lamya Abdulkarim Shelley
  Velleman
• Toya Wyatt Bart Hollebrandse Fred
  Hall
• Mike Dickey Linda Bland Debra
  Garrett
• Mike Terry Tempe Champion Minjoo Kim
• Janice Jackson Laura Wagner Ida
  Stockman
• DJaris Coles Robin Schafer Deanna
  Moore
• Valerie Johnson Kristen Asplin Joe
  Pater
• Tim Bryant Frances Burns
  Caroline Jones
• The Psychological Corporation Uri
  Strauss

9
Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation
(DELV)

• Variation in speech and language development
• Variation in speech and language disorders
• Variation in speech and language dialects

10
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

11
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.

12
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.

13
Screener Morphosyntax Identifier Items

• Have/has (The girl have (has) a big kite)
• 3rd person present tense s (The girl always
  sleep(s).)
• Doesnt/dont (This girl dont (doesnt) like to
  play basketball.)
• Be copula forms (They was (were) sick)

14
Screener Phonology Identifier Items

• Substitution f/th bath ---gtbaf
• Substitution v/th breathe ---gtbreav or bread
• Zero Cluster Element gift---gtgif

15
Language Variation Status

• Mainstream American English (MAE)
• Some Variation from MAE
• Strong Variation from Mae

16
Performance of the different dialect and
impairment status groups on the Identifier Items
on the DELV-SCR (Non-mainstream responses).
17
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)

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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)

19
Performance of typically developing and language
impaired children on the Diagnostic Items on the
DELV-SCR (Errors)
20
Performance of MAE and AAE speaking children on
the Diagnostic Items on the DELV-SCR (Errors)
21
Is a screener enough?

• A screener is just that it does not diagnose.
• A practitioner needs to know more precisely what
  the childs 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.

22
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

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Components of The DELV SYNTAX Domain
Question Type Core Concepts
WH-QUESTION COMPREHENSION Variables Movement
PASSIVES Movement Hidden properties
ARTICLES Discourse properties (something in a prior sentence making requirements on an element in a subsequent sentence)
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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?
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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)

26
Wh-factors Query what is that Echo you ate
WHAT Exclamative What nice clothes you
have! Indirect question he knows what to
do gt not answered Relative clause the man
who you saw Discourse connected John has 3
hats. Which is best?
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Core CONCEPT 1 IN SYNTAX on the DELV

• I. Principles of MOVEMENT
• Simple
• I saw a boy, a girl, and a dog. gt
• What did I see ( - ) ?
• Complex
• What did she say she saw ( - )?
• Does the child get complex movement right?

28
Core Syntactic Concept 1 on the DELV (cont)

• 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?

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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

30
Core Syntactic CONCEPT 2 on the DELV (cont)

• 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?

31
Core Syntactic CONCEPT 2 on the DELV (cont)

• 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.

32
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 doesnt allow, i.e.when there is a
  barrier?

33
Wh-Question ComprehensionTesting 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.

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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.

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Double WH Response Types by Age and Language
Status (N 1014, 708 Typically Developing,306
Language Impaired)
36
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 dont know.

37
LD False Clause Response Types by Age and
Language Status (N 1014)
38
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?

39
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 didnt know how.

40
WH Barrier Response Types by Age and Language
Status (N 1014)
41
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.

42
The Echo-Exhaustive distinction

• Echo questions differ from real wh questions in
  several ways
• What did the children eat?
• The children ate what?

43
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?

44
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.

45
Echo/Exhaustive Distinction by age
46
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.

47
Wh-Question production in MAE and AAE speaking
children following all prompts.
48
Wh-Question production in typically developing
and language impaired children following all
prompts.
49
Production of Double Wh-Questions by
Typically-developing and Language-impaired
Children following all prompts
50
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.

51
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

52
Syntactic Bootstrapping and Fast Mapping of Word
Meanings from Context

• Children acquire a verbs 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.

53
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.

54
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

55
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)?

56
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. plant?flower?rose
• 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.

57
Procedure

• The child sees a picture (of a man crawling out
  of a building) and is told e.g.
• The man is not WALKING, hes?
• 
  (crawling)
• THEN, for the same picture
• The man is not ENTERING the building,
• hes? (going out)

58
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.

59
Prompts to picture

• Shes not looking at the radio, shes listening
  . . . (to the radio)
• Shes not lifting the chair, shes sitting . .
  .
• (under the chair)

60
Development of MAE and AAE speaking children on
the Semantics Domain Score
61
Development of typically developing and language
impaired children on the Semantics Domain Score
62
Double Questions

• Among the questions we elicited were double
  wh-questions such as
• Who is eating what?
• Or
• Which person is eating which food?

63
Singleton answers by age
64
II. General BackgroundQuantification

• 1. Problems with quantification (Roeper and
  DeVilliers (1991)
• a. A boy saw every fish. He raised his eyebrow.
  
• gt fish,
  not boy

65
(No Transcript)
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Mathematics Does every boy have
three shovels? gt 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
68
(No Transcript)
69
No Quantifier Hypothesis Wh- Singletons and
Control-No Failure
70
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

71
Significance

• Results are highly significant (statistically)
• Chi-squared analysis result p lt 0.001
• (i.e. probability that the 2 effects are
  independent and only appear to be related by
  accident is less than 0.1.

72
Wh without every?

• Singleton gt wh-without "every"
• Control-no gt no comprehension of every
• Conclusion Children must learn gt wh- contains
  hidden "every"
• LI children fail to recognize this factor

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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

75
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.

76
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.

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(No Transcript)
78
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.

79
Narrative Samples from the DELV-CR

• I want my train. Im gonna hide the train from
  him. Im gonna play out of the toy box. Im gonna
  find that train. Bring that train. (C 42)
• 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 wasnt there. (SC 49)

80
More Narrative Samples from theDELV-CR

• The big boy came into the little boys room and
  took away the little boys train. Then he hid it
  under the boys bed where he couldnt 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 wasnt there.
• (A 64)
• 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 63)

81
Development of reference contrast in narratives
(contrasting the two main characters) in
typically developing MAE and AAE speaking
children.
82
Development of reference contrast in narratives
(contrasting the two main characters) in
typically developing and language impaired
children.
83
Development of the expression of temporal links
between events in the narratives of typically
developing MAE and AAE speaking children.
84
Development of the expression of temporal links
between events in the narratives of typically
developing and language impaired children.
85
Development of theory of mind explanations for
the characters mistaken action in the picture
narrative (typically developing MAE versus AAE
speaking children).
86
Development of theory of mind explanations for
the characters mistaken action in the picture
narrative (typically developing versus language
impaired children).
87
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.

88
Development of appropriate speech act production
in a communicative role taking context (MAE
versus AAE speaking children)
89
Development of appropriate speech act production
in a communicative role taking context (typically
developing versus language impaired children).
90
Phonology Structure

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

91
Phonology Format

• Sentence repetition
• Cartoon illustrations
• Carrier Phrase--I see

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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
94
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 dont know.

95
WH-False Clause Example Responses from field
testing
CHILD B (18221) Paper towels
CHILD A (12663) A cake
2-clause answer (long distance) 1 point
1 clause answer 0 points
96
Item Type 3 Barrier to Long Distance Movement
Note Childrens 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.
97
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 didnt know how.

98
WH-barrier Example Responses 2Who did she ask
what to buy?
CHILD B (18221) The grocery store lady
CHILD A (12663) bologna
Short Distance 1 point
Medial 0 points
99
Other WH Example Responses
CHILD B (18221) 4 correct barriers 1 medial
CHILD A (12663) 2 correct barriers, 2 barrier
violations 1 other
4 points (of 5) Total 12 of 14
2 points (of 5) Total4 of 14
100
Who are these children?
CHILD A (12663) 5 years old White Female From
South Parents w/ HS education Mainstream English
speaker Not receiving speech or language services
CHILD B (18221) 4 years old African American
boy From north Central US Parents w/ HS
education Some difference from MAE Not
receiving speech or language services
101
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.

102
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.

103
Six AAE-speaking children
104
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.

105
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.

106
Examples

• The child sees a picture (of a man crawling out
  of a building) and is told e.g.
• The man is not WALKING, hes?
• 
  (crawling)
• THEN, for the same picture
• The man is not ENTERING the building,
• hes? (going out)
• The child is shown a picture of a woman buttoning
  her coat as she walks out the door.
• The child is told,
• Shes not taking off her coat, shes?
• (putting it on)
• And then
• She not undressing, shes?
• (dressing)

107
Six AAE-speaking children
108
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 dont 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.

109
Prompts to picture

• Shes not looking at the radio, shes listening
  . . . (to the radio)
• Shes not lifting the chair, shes sitting . .
  .
• (under the chair)

110
Six AAE-speaking children
111
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.

112
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.

113
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.

114
Four-year-old AAE Children
115
Six-year-old AAE Children
116
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.

117
Four-year-old AAE Children
118
Six-year-old AAE Children
119
Conclusions

• We have shown that the assessment of complex
  aspects of childrens 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.