Publication Date

1987

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Stephens, M. Irene (Mary Irene)

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Communicative Disorders

LCSH

Language disorders in children--Diagnosis; Storytelling ability in children

Abstract

As a step in developing a language screening instrument for use in upper elementary grades, a story solution task was presented to 30 language-impaired and 30 nonimpaired children, ages 9-12. In an attempt to get a representative range of performances in each group, teachers were asked to rate nonimpaired subjects' language abilities according to a 3-point scale. Similarly, speech-language clinicians were asked to rate language-impaired subjects' deficiencies also according to a 3-point scale. An incomplete story was presented orally to each child who was asked to retell the story and provide an ending. Written transcripts were made of the retellings, a scoring system was devised, and this was applied to the solutions. The scoring system involved two domains and two categories within each domain. One domain was related to the scope of information offered, and the other was related to the quality of the solution. Results showed that the total scores of the language-impaired group were significantly lower than those of the nonimpaired group. However, there was a considerable overlap of the groups in the moderate range of 5-8 total points, suggesting that a range of abilities was present in the two populations. A moderate correlation was found between the teachers' ratings and the total scores of the nonimpaired subjects, but a very poor match was found between the clinicians' ratings and the total scores of the language-impaired subjects. It was concluded that directions for assigning ratings were probably too global, especially those given to clinicians.

Comments

Bibliography: pages [31]-32.

Extent

32 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

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