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Mean length of utterance (MLU) is widely used as a diagnostic, monitoring and group matching measure. This study investigated methodological issues regarding the calculation of MLU. The aim was to establish whether different calculation procedures render different MLUs, and whether there is a high correlation between MLU measured in words (MLU-w) and in morphemes (MLU-m). Language samples from 15 Afrikaans-speaking 6-year-olds with and 15 without specific language impairment were analyzed. MLU was calculated eight times for each participant, varying sample size (50 or 100 utterances), unit counted (words or morphemes) and calculation method (traditional or alternate). Significant differences in resultant MLUs were due to the calculation method used, rather than sample size or unit counted. A high positive correlation (>0.96) between MLU-w and MLU-m was found. The results imply that researchers and clinicians should clearly state their MLU calculation procedures, otherwise reliable comparisons between MLU scores from different sources cannot be made. The results furthermore imply that, in order to generalize research results and make diagnostic decisions based on MLU, consistent procedures should be used, not only with regard to language sampling, but also to MLU calculation.

Sociocultural influences on the development of child language skills have been widely studied, but the majority of the research findings were generated in Northern contexts. The current crosslinguistic, multisite study is the first of its kind in South Africa, considering the influence of a range of individual and sociocultural factors on expressive vocabulary size of young children. Caregivers of toddlers aged 16 to 32 months acquiring Afrikaans (n = 110), isiXhosa (n = 115), South African English (n = 105), or Xitsonga (n = 98) as home language completed a family background questionnaire and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) about their children. Based on a revised version of Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) ecological systems theory, information was obtained from the family background questionnaire on individual factors (the child’s age and sex), microsystem-related factors (the number of other children and number of adults in the child’s household, maternal level of education, and SES), and exosystem-related factors (home language and geographic area, namely rural or urban). All sociocultural and individual factors combined explained 25% of the variance in expressive vocabulary size. Partial correlations between these sociocultural factors and the toddlers’ expressive vocabulary scores on 10 semantic domains yielded important insights into the impact of geographic area on the nature and size of children’s expressive vocabulary. Unlike in previous studies, maternal level of education and SES did not play a significant role in predicting children’s expressive vocabulary scores. These results indicate that there exists an interplay of sociocultural and individual influences on vocabulary development that requires a more complex ecological model of language development to understand the interaction between various sociocultural factors in diverse contexts.

Background Undergraduate speech-language therapy students often find it difficult to see the relevance of theoretical module content, which may negatively influence their motivation to learn. The real world of their future profession can be brought to life in the theory classroom by including authentic case study examples. Video case studies are well suited to illustrating communication disorders and may also be easier to remember and relate to information already in the long-term memory. Objectives This article describes the perceptions of undergraduate students regarding the inclusion of authentic video cases in a theoretical module on developmental communication disorders. Methods A qualitative, interpretivist research design was followed. Focus-group interviews were conducted with 22 second-year students in the programme B Speech-Language and Hearing Therapy. A modified contextualised content analysis approach was used to analyse interview data. Results The use of authentic video cases was perceived positively by participants. Seeing a realistic example of a person with communication difficulties made it easier to understand, remember and engage with the module content. Participants also felt they could more easily imagine themselves in that clinical context, which seemed to (re-) awaken in them a sense of purpose and motivation. Being presented with real-life communication problems made them realise the relevance of their profession. However, participants experienced cognitive overload at times when the processing requirements of a task exceeded their available cognitive capacity. Conclusion Video cases are valuable tools to enhance students’ engagement with theoretical content. To avoid cognitive overload, a scaffolded multimedia learning experience needs to be provided.

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