Karla N. Washington

Purpose: This preliminary investigation occurred across two studies and examined validity, discriminant accuracy, and feasibility of the Sentence Completion Expressive Language Task–Preschool (SCELT-P) for characterizing language production in a neuroimaging environment for typically developing (TD) preschoolers and those with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method: Two separate studies were completed. Study 1 (validity) included 82 preschoolers (50% female; 69 TD, 13 DLD) aged 4;0 (years;months) to 5;11 ( M _age = 4;7). All children were assessed using standardized language measures (e.g., Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool–Second Edition), a play-based language sample (analyzed using Developmental Sentence Scoring), and the 30-item SCELT-P (outside the neuroimaging environment), later streamlined to 20 items (SCELT-P Revised [SCELT-PR]). Study 2 (feasibility) included 14 preschoolers ( M _age = 4;9, 43% female; nine TD, five with DLD) that were assessed using the SCELT-P (inside the neuroimaging environment) and functional magnetic resonance imaging using a sparse acquisition approach with a “listen” (passive) and “listen + speak” (active) condition implemented using DirectRT software. Results: In Study 1, the SCELT-P and SCELT-PR demonstrated high reliability, including interrater (intraclass correlation coefficient = .99), test–retest ( r = .86 and .80, respectively), and internal consistency (Cronbach's α > .86 and .83, respectively), and similar strong criterion validity ( r = . 53–.84). Area under the curve analyses (.91) revealed both versions also evidenced fair sensitivity (.88 and .87) and specificity (.85) rates with a cutoff score of 15.5 and 9.5, respectively. In Study 2, 89% of TD preschoolers and 60% of preschoolers with DLD successfully completed the SCELT-P/R inside the neuroimaging environment, with activation maps illustrating relatively similar neurobiological characteristics across preschoolers in some brain regions. Conclusion: The SCELT-P, including its streamlined version, the SCELT-PR, holds promise as a reliable and valid task for including 4- to 5-year-olds in the neuroimaging environment to inform neural and cognitive systems involved in language development. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.34543209

In most societies, using more than one language or language variety is the norm, yet the reference data against which children’s speech is judged derive largely from monolingual speakers. Systematic cross-linguistic variation is therefore liable to be read as atypical development, placing multilingual children at risk of misdiagnosis of speech sound disorder (SSD). This risk is most acute for closely related, understudied varieties, where difference and disorder overlap and community-specific data are scarce. Acoustic measures (e.g., voice onset time, vowel formants, segment durations) quantify fine-grained, continuous properties of speech production that categorical, transcription-based description obscures. No existing review, however, has mapped which acoustic measures have been applied to multilingual children, across which language varieties, or against which reference baselines their productions are interpreted. The objective of this review is to provide that map, showing where acoustic evidence is concentrated and where it is absent, to support clinical assessment and to identify where community-specific reference data are most needed. The review will follow updated Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methodology and will be reported per the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. Searches will be conducted in MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), Web of Science Core Collection, and Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, with grey literature sought through ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global and conference proceedings; no date limits will be applied. Children from birth to 18 years are eligible regardless of clinical status, and a preschool subset (≤ 5;11) will be reported separately. After pilot calibration, two reviewers will independently screen and chart sources, resolving disagreements by discussion or a third reviewer. Charted data will be mapped through an acoustic-measure taxonomy crossed with language variety and reference baseline. This protocol has been registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/R2EX5 ).

Background/Objectives: Late talking in toddlerhood is a heterogeneous developmental phenomenon, with most children catching up while a meaningful subset later develops developmental language disorder (DLD). Despite considerable interest in identifying early developmental mechanisms that contribute to persistent language difficulties, theoretical frameworks linking late talking to later DLD remain limited. The Procedural circuit Deficit Hypothesis (PDH) has been influential in interrogating DLD in preschool- and school-aged children, but its potential relevance to late-talking toddlers has received limited attention. This viewpoint paper argues that the PDH can be meaningfully extended to toddlerhood as a developmentally plausible framework for understanding early language delay. Perspective: In this viewpoint paper, we propose that the PDH may provide a developmentally plausible framework for understanding late talking in a subset of toddlers. Drawing on evidence from developmental neuroscience, motor development, statistical learning, and early communication studies, we argue that individual differences in procedural learning mechanisms emerge early in development and may contribute to variability in language outcomes. We further suggest that these early differences may represent one pathway linking late talking to later DLD. Implications: Extending the PDH to late-talking toddlers provides a mechanistic, developmentally continuous account of early language development, generates testable hypotheses for future longitudinal research, and highlights the potential value of examining procedural learning processes alongside traditional language measures. We emphasize that this proposal remains a theoretical extension that requires empirical evaluation and should be considered alongside alternative developmental pathways contributing to language difficulties. If supported by future research, this framework may help advance understanding of heterogeneity among late talkers and inform approaches to early identification and intervention.

Accurate language assessment for bilingual children is a longstanding challenge in the field of speech-language pathology. Standardised language tests are widely used to assess children’s decontext...

The United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child recognises the importance of including children's voices in matters that concern them. Traditionally, parent-reported measures like the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS) have successfully been used to evaluate children's communication experiences through proxy means. However, available tools like the Speech Participation and Activity Assessment of Children (SPAA-C) and drawings remain underutilised as ways of listening to children's voices. This study explored whether relationships existed between tools designed to gather information about the child (i.e. proxy measurement) and activities designed to capture information with the child. Parents of 37 typically developing 4- to 6-year-old Jamaican Creole (JamC)-Jamaican English (JamE)-speaking children completed the FOCUS in English only, in keeping with previous work in the Jamaican context. Children completed the SPAA-C and drawings in both languages. Pearson correlations were used to describe relationships between the FOCUS and the SPAA-C. Children's drawings were analysed for themes and SPAA-C responses were categorised as positive, neutral, or negative. A Fisher's Exact Test explored associations between themes in children's drawings and SPAA-C responses. No significant correlations were observed between FOCUS scores, which are proxy-based and scores on the SPAA-C, which directly gather children's responses about their communication experiences. However, statistically significant associations were observed between SPAA-C responses and themes coded in children's drawings. These findings highlight the importance of extending beyond traditional proxy means of informing young Jamaican children's communication experiences by listening to children's voices directly.

This epilogue reviews key concepts and summarizes the seven articles presented in the forum focused on addressing childhood trauma and maltreatment through the lens of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework. Each of these articles presents information relevant to how the occurrence and subsequent effects of trauma and maltreatment can be conceptualized, realized, and mitigated. At its essence, this forum provides a collection of articles that underscore how to provide contextualized care by considering environment, social factors, individual characteristics, and so forth, as opposed to focusing on treatment in insolation. While different approaches are discussed, this epilogue highlights the central theme of the ICF and how speech-language pathologists can apply this framework to provide compassionate trauma-informed care to children with communication disorders who have experienced trauma and/or maltreatment.

Purpose: The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is increasing and is highest in minoritized ethnic/racial groups, most notably in Indigenous populations in the United States and Canada. Beyond ACEs, minoritized ethnic/racial groups have also experienced historical oppression, discrimination, and economic inequalities that can perpetuate ACEs and initiate intergenerational cycles of adversity. Children who have experienced multiple ACEs are at risk for learning and communication impairments that would qualify them for speech and language services. The purpose of this case study is to: (a) define ACEs, intergenerational and historical trauma, as well as describe the causes, consequences, and relationships among these three types of trauma; (b) describe the use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) for assessment of an Indigenous child who has experienced multiple ACEs that may be associated with historical trauma; and (c) describe implementation of the Attachment, Regulation, Competency intervention for children with complex posttraumatic stress disorder adapted for an Indigenous child. Conclusions: The concept of historical trauma arose with Indigenous populations, but it has been extended to many other populations that have experienced chronic trauma associated with oppression based on their ethnicity, race, or culture. The ICF provides a framework for conducting a comprehensive assessment and developing an intervention plan for a child who has experienced multiple ACEs, possibly related to intergenerational and historical trauma. To understand the child's strengths and needs, it is essential that clinicians consider the child's unique personal and environmental contextual factors. By considering these contextual factors, clinicians can identify which attributes serve as barriers or facilitators to children's functioning and how intervention programs may need to be adapted for the child's culture.

Purpose: This prologue introduces the Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools forum, Addressing Childhood Trauma and Maltreatment Through the Lens of the ICF. The goals of the forum are twofold: first, to draw attention to the prevalence of children who have experienced trauma and maltreatment and how it affects their language and literacy development, and second, to provide an overview of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework and how it can be used to conceptualize assessment procedures and tailor interventions to meet the individual needs of the child while providing compassionate trauma-informed care. Method: This prologue provides an overview of the prevalence of childhood trauma and how it affects children's language and literacy development. By extension, this prologue also underscores why speech-language pathologists (SLPs) should carefully consider this topic. Importantly, SLPs treat children in context, and although other professionals such as psychologists or social workers are the professionals expected to provide direct services in this area, SLPs still have an obligation to provide compassionate trauma-informed care, and they have expertise in areas that can support children in being able to better benefit from and participate in therapeutic treatments. To this point, this prologue also provides an overview of the ICF and provides examples of how the ICF may be used to support children with histories of trauma or maltreatment. As such, this prologue introduces the topics covered by seven articles as well as the epilogue. These articles cover reviews, tutorials, case studies, clinician development, and professional programming. Conclusion: Children who have experienced trauma or maltreatment are at an increased risk for experiencing neurological disruptions that affect their language and literacy development, which increases the likelihood SLPs will encounter children with these experiences on their caseloads. The articles included within this forum underscore the various ways children might be affected by traumatic experiences and how SLPs can use the ICF framework to identify barriers and facilitators when engaging in assessments and developing interventions.