There is a need for a universally agreed-upon classification system that is useful to clinicians and researchers. The resulting classification system needs to be robust, reliable and valid. A universal classification system would allow for improved tailoring of treatments to subgroups of SSD which may, in turn, lead to improved treatment efficacy.

SStructured 'communicative temptation' procedures administered by a clinician were compared to unstructured parent-child interactions in sampling intentional communicative acts in 11 subjects with intellectual disability. The subjects were assessed twice over a 5-7-month period. The results indicated that the structured condition was more effective in sampling Requests and Comments, with more Requests than Comments produced. The unstructured condition was more effective in sampling responses, but only during the second assessment. Although there was no difference in the total number of intentional communicative acts produced across assessment times, there was an increase in the use of linguistic forms during the second assessment: that is, the subjects used more speech and signs and fewer gestures and general vocalisations during the second assessment than the first. The findings suggest the usefulness of combining structured and unstructured conditions in providing information on the variety of children's communicative acts and the linguistic level at which these are expressed.L'on a compare' des proctde's structure's 'd'incitation a la communication' administre's par un clinicien a des interactions non structure'es entre parents et enfants lors d'une collecte d'actes communicatifs intentionnels auprb de 11 subjets souffrant de de'ficits intellectuels. Les sujets ont recu deux e'valuations successives au cours d'une pe'riode de 5 d 7 mois. Les re'sultats indiquent que l'e'tat structure' Ctait plus efficace pour ricolter des demandes et des commentaires, et que davantage de demandes avaient e'te' produites que de commentaires. L'e'tat non structuri n'e'tait plus efficace pour la re'colte de re'ponses que lors de la deui2me Cvaluation. I1 n'y a pas eu de diffe'rence dans le nombre total d'actes communicatifs intentionnels d'une Cvaluation d l'autre; cependant on a assist6 d un acroissement de l'usage de formes linguistiques lors de la seconde, en ce que les sujets ont utilisk a ce moment-la davantage de langage et de signes, et moins de gestes et de vocalisations ge'ne'rales. Ces re'sultats donnent une indication de l'utilite' qu'il y a a combiner la structure et l'absence de structure pour obtenir des renseignements sur la varie'te' des actes communicatifs des enfants et sur le niveau linguistique de leur expression.In einer Stichprobe intendierter Kommunikationshandlungen von 11 geistig behinderten Kindern wurden strukturierte Verfahren zum 'kommunikativen Entlocken' von klinishem Personal durchgefiihri und mit den unstrukturierten Interacktionen zwischen Eltern und Kindern verglichen. Die Kinder wurden zweimal wahrend einer 5-7-monatigen Periode bewertet. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dap die strukturierte Bedingung fiir die Elizitation von Bitten und Kommentaren effektiver war; es wurden mehr Bitten a[s Kommentare ausgesprochen. Die unstrukturierte Bedingung rief insgesamt mehr Enviderungen hevor, jedoch nur wahrend der zweiten Bewertungsphase. Obwohl SAMPLING COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOURS 107 insgesamt die Anzah...

While little is known about why children make speech errors, it has been hypothesized that cognitive-linguistic factors may underlie phonological speech sound disorders. This study compared the phonological short-term and phonological working memory abilities (using immediate memory tasks) and receptive vocabulary size of 14 monolingual preschool children with phonological delay with individually matched peers with typical speech development. The immediate memory tasks examined forward recall of familiar words (pointing response), reverse recall of familiar words (pointing response), and reverse recall of digits (spoken response). The results indicated that children with typical speech development had larger receptive vocabularies and performed significantly better than children with phonological delay on all immediate memory tasks. Qualitative error analyses revealed that while the two groups made similar errors on the forward memory task, children with phonological delayed performed differently on reverse recall of spoken digits. These findings suggest a link between immediate memory and delayed phonological development.

Previous research indicates that children with speech sound disorders (SSD) have underlying phonological memory deficits. The SSD population, however, is diverse. While children who make consistent atypical speech errors (phonological disorder/PhDis) are known to have executive function deficits in rule abstraction and cognitive flexibility, little is known about their memory profile. Sixteen monolingual preschool children with atypical speech errors (PhDis) were matched individually to age-and-gender peers with typically developing speech (TDS). The two groups were compared on forward recall of familiar words (pointing response), reverse recall of familiar words (pointing response), and reverse recall of digits (spoken response) and a receptive vocabulary task. There were no differences between children with TDS and children with PhDis on forward recall or vocabulary tasks. However, children with TDS significantly outperformed children with PhDis on the two reverse recall tasks. Findings suggest that atypical speech errors are associated with impaired phonological working memory, implicating executive function impairment in specific subtypes of SSD.

A group of five preschool children with developmental disability and their mothers participated in a study into the efficacy of a parent-implemented language intervention. Each parent was included in the team as a consultee, with a speech pathologist and special educator acting as consultants within a collaborative consultation process. Treatment for each child was developed using this process, with specific strategies to increase language production skills decided by the team. Strategies were used within an interactive model of early language intervention. The effectiveness of treatment was determined within a multiple baseline design. For three children, the impact of treatment was evident, but the results were not replicated for the other two children. Descriptive analysis of mothers' communicative behaviours indicated that, following treatment, they tended to direct more utterances to their children, used more models, fewer questions and directives, and more (although limited) teaching strategies.