Universal strategies for the improvement of expressive language skills in the primary classroom: A systematic review

Oral language skills underpin children’s educational success and enhance positive life outcomes. Yet, significant numbers of children struggle to develop competence in speaking and listening, especially those from areas of high economic deprivation. A tiered intervention model, graduating the level of provision in line with levels of need, has been posited as most appropriate for supporting children’s language development. The first tier, or universal provision, is characterised by high-quality, evidence-informed language teaching for all. To date, our understanding of effective universal language delivery remains limited, particularly in the primary-school age range. This systematic review addresses this gap by identifying and evaluating existing evidence with the aim of informing practice and future research. Following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, a systematic search protocol was used to identify experimental and quasi-experimental studies evaluating universal approaches designed to support children’s oracy skills. Thirty-one studies were identified for inclusion and their characteristics and findings are reported and their reliability evaluated. Studies provide indicative evidence for the effectiveness of interactive book reading, structured vocabulary programmes, manualised curricula and approaches involving speech and language therapists. The strengths and weaknesses of our current knowledge are outlined and implications for practice and research are discussed. </jats:p

The identification of speech and language problems in elementary school: Diagnosis and co-occurring needs

BACKGROUND: Oral language skills are the foundation for success at school and in employment. A significant minority of children experience difficulties in the acquisition of oral language resulting in speech and language needs (SLN). There are disjunctures between clinical studies using standardised assessment and educational studies. The current study examines teacher reported SLN alongside assessments of language and cognitive skills to explore children's profiles of needs, developmental trajectories and risk factors. PROCEDURE: Data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study were used to examine teacher identification of SLN at seven (n = 8658) and 11 years (n = 7275). RESULTS: There were high levels of co-occurrence between SLN and other special educational needs at seven and 11 years, with SLN being less common at 11. Vocabulary levels and parental concerns at three and five and educational attainment at seven were highly predictive of SLN at seven, slightly less so at 11. However, a significant proportion of parents of children who scored in the bottom 2nd centile on vocabulary measures did not report their child as experiencing a language problem. Gender and disadvantage were also predictive of SLN but were mediated by the cognitive and behavioural variables. IMPLICATIONS: These results raise questions about whether children's language needs at age 11 are recognised in schools. The extent of co-occurrence challenges the way diagnostic categories should be used and supports the value of profiling of dimensions of need

Teachers' reported practices for teaching writing in England

To date there have been no systematic studies examining the ways in which teachers in England focus and adapt their teaching of writing. The current study addresses this gap by investigating the nature and frequency of teachers' approaches to the teaching of writing in a sample of English primary schools, using the 'simple view of writing' as a framework to examine the extent to which different aspects of the writing process are addressed. One hundred and eighty-eight staff from ten different schools responded to an online questionnaire. Only the data from class teachers (n = 88) who responded to all items on the questionnaire were included in the final analyses. Respondents enjoyed teaching writing and felt prepared to teach it. However, despite feeling that they were effective in identifying approaches to support students' writing, nearly half reported that supporting struggling writers was problematic for them. Overall teachers reported more work at word level, occurring several times a week, than with transcription, sentence or text levels, which were reported to occur weekly. Planning, reviewing and revising occurred least often, only monthly. For these variables no differences were found between teachers of younger (age 4-7) and older students (age 8-11). By contrast, an examination of specific aspects of each component revealed differences between the teachers of the two age groups. Teachers of younger students focused more frequently on phonic activities related to spelling, whereas teachers of older students focussed more on word roots, punctuation, word classes and the grammatical function of words, sentence-level work, and paragraph construction

Supporting early oral language skills for English language learners in inner city preschool provision

BACKGROUND: A significant number of children now enter formal education in England with reduced levels of proficiency in oral language. Children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and who are English language learners (ELL) are at risk of limited oral language skills in English which impacts on later educational achievement. AIMS: This paper reports the development of a theoretically motivated oral language intervention, Talking Time, designed to meet the needs of preschool children with poor language skills in typical preschool provision. SAMPLE: One hundred and forty-two 4-year-old children attending three inner city preschools in a disadvantaged area of London, England. METHOD: This is a quasi-experimental intervention study comparing children exposed to Talking Time with children exposed to a contrast intervention and children receiving the statutory early years curriculum. Measures were taken of both targeted and non-targeted language and cognitive skills. RESULTS: Data were analysed for the ELL. The intervention had a significant effect on vocabulary, oral comprehension, and sentence repetition but not narrative skills. As predicted, there were no effects on the skills which were not targeted. CONCLUSIONS: Regular evidence-based oral language interactions can make significant improvements in children's oral language. There is a need to examine the efficacy of more intensive interventions to raise language skills to allow learners to access the curriculum

Capturing the Nature of the Spelling Errors in Developmental Language Disorder: A Scoping Review

Purpose: This scoping review aims to identify and analyze the nature of the spelling errors produced by children with developmental language disorder (DLD) across different orthographies. Building on a previous meta-analysis identifying the extent of the spelling difficulties of children with DLD, the review extends our understanding of the nature of the spelling errors produced by children with DLD. Three questions are addressed: Do spelling difficulties in children with DLD stem from weak phonological, orthographic, or morphological representations? What are the patterns of spelling performance in DLD depending on orthographic depth? Do comorbid difficulties with DLD impact spelling? / Method: The scoping review followed the five phases outlined by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) and extended by Levac et al. (2010): (a) specifying the research question; (b) identifying relevant studies; (c) selecting studies; (d) charting the data; and (e) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. / Results: Eighteen studies that provided a qualitative description of the nature of spelling errors produced by children and adolescents with DLD were identified. Spelling performance was examined in relation to control groups that were matched on age, on language features (language, spelling, or reading age), or on co-occurring difficulties. / Conclusions: This review article highlights the key elements that need to be considered when practitioners examine spelling difficulties and provides benchmarks for assessment in a range of alphabetic languages for school-age children. The qualitative analyses indicated that when practitioners evaluate spelling performance in children or adolescents with DLD, three factors should be considered: phonological representations, morphological awareness, and reading skills

Children's Plans for Writing: Characteristics and Impact on Writing Performance

Planning plays an important role in the production of written texts. Little is known about why children plan and the plans they create when they are not explicitly instructed. This study explores the plans that elementary school children in Years 1, 3, and 5 create before writing a text. We compared performance of children educated in Catalan and in English (the United Kingdom) and examined whether the plans were related to their language and literacy skills. Children of all ages produced plans before writing either by producing a draft or an organizer. The types of plan changed with age and were influenced by the educational context. Plans were not associated with either the text length or the text quality. Nor were language, literacy, and transcription skills associated with the plans. School instruction is important for producing plans but, at this stage, children’s self-generated plans do not impact on the texts produced

Measurement issues: Assessing language skills in young children

Background: Language and communication skills are central to children's ability to engage in social relationships and access learning experiences. This paper identifies issues which practitioners and researchers should consider when assessing language skills. A range of current language assessments is reviewed. Key findings: Current screening measures do not meet psychometric prerequisites to identify language problems. There are significant challenges in the interpretation of language assessments, where socioeconomic status, language status and dialect, hearing impairment and test characteristics impact results. Conclusions: Psychometrically sound assessments of language are an essential component of developing effective and efficient interventions. The language trajectories of preschool children vary substantially; current screening measures have significant limitations. Composite measures of language performance are better indicators of language problems and disorders than single measures of component skills

Multilingual Classrooms—Danish Teachers’ Practices, Beliefs and Attitudes

Multilingualism is a major feature of European schools. The current study examines Danish data regarding teachers’ behaviours, beliefs and attitudes about multilingualism. Data were collected using the Multilingual Classroom Questionnaire (MCQ) devised by the European Literacy Network. Sixty-one participants contributed to the Danish sample (85% females). The teachers who completed the questionnaire had a positive attitude to multilingualism, the value of maintaining and supporting children’s first language1 (L1), and the importance of proficiency in L1 for developing language and literacy in children’s second language (L2). Teachers’ attitudes were influenced by their competence in a foreign language. Limitations and pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed

Emotional competence mediates the relationship between communication problems and reactive externalizing problems in children with and without developmental language disorder: A longitudinal study

Language problems are a risk factor for externalizing problems, but the developmental path remains unclear. Emotional competence may mediate the relationship, especially when externalizing problems are reactive in nature, such as in Oppositional Deviant Disorder (ODD) and reactive aggression. We examined the development of reactive and proactive externalizing problems in children with (n = 98) and without (n = 156) Developmental Language Disorder (DLD; age: 8–16 years) over 18 months. Relationships with communicative risk factors (structural, pragmatic and emotion communication) and the mediating role of emotional competence (emotion recognition and anger dysregulation) were examined. Multi-level analyses showed that increasing emotion recognition and decreasing anger dysregulation were longitudinally related to decreasing ODD symptoms in both groups, whereas anger dysregulation was related to more reactive aggression in children with DLD alone. Pragmatic and emotion communication problems were related to more reactive externalizing problems, but these relationships were mediated by emotional competence, suggesting that problems in emotional competence explain the communication problems of children with DLD. Therefore, in addition to interventions for communication skills, there is a need to address the emotional competence of children with DLD, as this decreases the risk for reactive externalizing problems