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Episode
Kate Grandbois: Welcome to SLP Nerd Cast. We are here today with one of our unique SLPD on demand episodes. So these episodes are where we take questions from our members, so our members write in with their [00:02:00] clinical questions and our resident. Doctor of Speech language Pathology, Dr. Anna Paula Mui does some research, finds some answers, and we discuss them here on the show.
So I am here today with Dr. Anna Paula Mui. Welcome, Anna, Paula.
Ana Paula Mumy: Thank you.
Kate Grandbois: So today we are answering, uh, a, a member's question related to.
Services in schools. We're gonna read her question aloud in a moment. Uh, before we do that, I am gonna quickly read our learning objectives and cover a little bit of housekeeping. So today our learning objectives are, describe quick and effective tools to assess children's language abilities through language sampling and narrative context.
And learning. Objective two, describe components of specialized language instruction for anyone listening to today's episode, who would like to learn more about our financial and [00:03:00] non-financial disclosures, as well as any course disclosures. All of that information is available in the show notes as well as on the landing page on our website.
The link to that landing page is listed in the show notes. Also, if you are using this episode to earn Ash's. CEUs, you can go to our website through the link in the show notes to take the post-test. This course is being offered for 0.05 Ashe CEUs, which is a half hour of professional development. Okay, now that that is behind us, Anna.
Paula, do you wanna read us the question that our member wrote in?
Ana Paula Mumy: Yes. So our clinical problem comes to us from Sarah. And I'm just gonna read. A, a blurb and then give a little bit more context. Um, throughout my career, I have struggled with understanding my purpose in supporting general education students with expressive and receptive language needs. I often find myself questioning how to provide specialized techniques for these students, particularly [00:04:00] those with a language foundation, but who are still behind their peers.
My goal is to offer meaningful support without feeling like I'm merely acting as a teacher's assistant. And Sarah goes on to explain the language goals that she's worked on. Um, some of the resources that she has used to tackle things like WH, questions, vocabulary, descriptive language, basic concepts, and sentence expression and comprehension, which are areas that we know overlap with what, um, special and general education teachers address, um, through reading comprehension, through writing goals.
But she's questioning essentially how to differentiate her per her approach to benefit students. And one particular challenge that I wanna point out that she expressed was working on sentence comprehension in a way that demonstrates. Our specialization to better meet students' needs. So first I wanna say kudos to [00:05:00] Sarah for her drive to keep learning and growing because, um, language needs are so vast and complex.
Don't you agree?
Kate Grandbois: I do agree. And, you know, before we hit the record button, Anna, Paula, and I were talking about this question and how it is. So it, it is such a good question. Um, because in educational settings, we are not the quote unquote owners of language difficulties, right? We are not the owners of language acquisition.
Um, this is, uh, something that is shared across so many other stakeholders within a school setting. Not only that, but our training is so specialized and so unique that fitting ourselves into, mm-hmm. Classrooms where the, you know, the middle of the bell curve is, the focus is a really interesting kind of, it's a really interesting thing to navigate.
So I, I think that this is a great question. I'm very excited to learn about all of the things that you've researched to get [00:06:00] this question answered.
Ana Paula Mumy: I, I would say before I, I go into, um, assessment because I feel like that's where we need to start. Um, I'd say that we as SLPs are, um, m. More than anyone else able to provide explicit instruction on grammar, um, which ties to sentence structure, which then ties to sentence expression and comprehension, which is really a lot of what she's, you know, um, asking about.
And I, I love, um, one of my mentors, Dr. Kate Crowley. I participated in the Bilingual Extension Institute at Columbia years ago. She talks about how an SLP who doesn't understand grammar is like a surgeon who doesn't understand anatomy and physiology, and I just love that, um, through one of her initiatives because she's so passionate about this.
Um, the Leaders Project, she provides a really comprehensive, um, video series for SLPs of both basic and advanced grammar. Um, and it's [00:07:00] available for free, free CEUs, so it's a great resource. Um, there are six videos under grammar fundamentals. There are four under advanced grammar fundamentals, and I just, um, uh, we can link, um, to those, um, videos, but I just think it's a great place to start if you are feeling, um, maybe a little rusty, you know, when it comes to grammar and language, because we do, um, obviously we are.
We have extensive knowledge when it comes to language acquisition and grammatical acquisition, but sometimes I think, um, we, you know, it is kind of a continuum, right, in terms of how strong my skills or my knowledge base might be, um, in that area. So it's a great place to start for sure.
Kate Grandbois: I agree. And I was just thinking back to myself in graduate school, getting a seventh grade refresher on grammatical structures that I had completely forgotten and how important it really is as an underpinning, um, to really be able to get into the [00:08:00] weeds, particularly when you're in a context like a general education classroom.
So, go grammar. Hooray. We will list all of these references and resources in the show notes.
Ana Paula Mumy: Awesome. Yeah. So I, I, I do want to start by sharing some assessment resources, um, because it's difficult to tackle intervention targets, which is what Sarah is asking about. Um, if you don't really have a good sense of where the gaps are in the child's language.
So the first one, there are three that I want to highlight. Um, the first one is called the, um, sampling utterances and grammatical analysis revised or the sugar. Language sample analysis method. Um, and I don't know, some people are familiar with salt, which is the, um, alternative that a lot of, um, researchers use, and some clinicians I think do use it.
But it is very, um, extensive. It requires specialized program, um, specialized coding that you have to learn. So it's a little bit more involved. Um, [00:09:00] and so, um, what the researchers who, um, developed sugar. What they found based on, and I forget now exactly the study, but they, um, surveyed SLPs and found that a very small percentage of SLPs are actually doing language staple analysis in their assessments.
Um, which is kind of surprising. It's surprising and not surprising. Right? Surprising because it's such a key tool that we have to really analyze. Um, language, but it's not surprising in the sense that we have been told that we need to have, you know, a minimum of 200 to 300 utterances or we have to have Totally
Kate Grandbois: absurd.
Ana Paula Mumy: Yeah, just completely not accessible to the everyday. Um, workload of mm-hmm. An SLP, especially in the schools, right? And so what they've done is that they developed this method where you can quickly identify language impairments in children. Of course, you wouldn't use this as a standalone, but it's one that is very strong.[00:10:00]
Um, they've, uh, developed four different measures that you look into or that you measure to really come up with, um, or to get a good sense of where this child, where their, um, skills are. And so. It, um. You're able to essentially collect, transcribe, and analyze a 50 utterance sample in about 20 minutes. Um, and that's amazing.
Yeah, it's, it's really awesome. And what's even more awesome is there's no, nothing, um, required in terms of, of a special program. You can do it with Word, uh, and all of the materials that they supply are free. So you go to sugar language.org and you get everything the. Um, the, there's tutorials, you know, videos where they explain the entire process.
Um, and it's just a very much like a step-by-step and you can follow it, um, to then arrive at the four metrics that tap into, um, utterance length and [00:11:00] sentence complexity, which is essentially what we need to learn in order to see, you know, where um, treatment may be needed. And so. Um, there are, like I said, vi video tutorials, and then they have these handouts, um, outlining the process, um, norms by age for children ages three oh to 10 11.
Um, and then what's really nice is that they have this sub-analysis form or forms based on age that can help you then identify potential intervention targets. And then they have these corresponding resource materials for intervention, and it's all free downloads. So once you've made your. Determination and you've analyzed that child's language sample, then they have all these resources for intervention.
So it's a great place, um, if you are struggling to. Um, do language sampling or have just like given up on it because you're like, no, it's too much. So this is a perfect way.
Kate Grandbois: This seems like such a great resource, and as all of our listeners will soon learn, [00:12:00] this is the first of several wonderful easy to remember acronyms that we are going to cover in today's episode.
So sugar language. Great, um, great resource. We're gonna have that linked in the show notes and the first of many cute little words that we're gonna talk about today. Moving on. Yeah.
Ana Paula Mumy: So let's, let's get to our next one. Nap,
Kate Grandbois: thenar, nap, sugar, and Nap. I mean, it's, so I was looking at your notes before we started recording.
I was like, this is this. I can't not say something about these. It's too cute.
Ana Paula Mumy: That's right. Um, it's the Narrative assessment protocol, um, which is a direct assessment of children's language abilities within a narrative context. So you are able to examine. Five different aspects of language. Um, sentence structure, phrase structure, modifiers, nouns and verbs.
Um, there's a long form scoring option, um, a rubric, and then there's a short form. So of course if you're pressed for time, you can use the short form scoring rubric and you're able to still [00:13:00] get really good information. And they're both tapping into things like, um, is the child using compound sentences?
Um, complex sentences. Negative sentences. Um, are they using, um, elaborated noun phrases or pre prepositional phrases or any kind of modifiers, adjectives, you know, pluralized nouns and those kinds of things. So, um, and even like more advanced nouns and, and verbs. So when we talk about. Um, tier two, and I know we've done some episodes on tier two words and vocabulary.
So you're able to tap into are they using those tier two nouns and tier two verbs, um, and then verb tenses and all of that. So, great tool to get a really quick, um, assessment of their language skills within a narrative context. Then there's another one, um, that is also, um, related to narrative context. It is called the monitoring indicators of scholarly language.
So missile, [00:14:00]
Kate Grandbois: missile, not as l of an acronym, but probably also easy to remember.
Ana Paula Mumy: There you go. So here they split it into, um, assessing elements of macro structure and micro structure. So. Going back to, so if you need a refresher to, you know, what does that mean? Um, so macro structure being just that story level structure, right?
So overall organization of the story flow, um, coherence, um, things like story grammar elements. So, you know, character setting, problem, solution. The things that we kind of know as more the. The big picture, um, areas and then the micro structure being the sentence level structure. So things like word choice, um, lexical diversity, sentence structure, um, both in terms of are they using clauses, so thinking about like causal density and then also.
Syntactic complexities. So how are they, you know, moving around words, how are they combining words, [00:15:00] um, in different ways to show complexity? And then transition words. Are they using transition words to link ideas and events? So can they say, and then or so, um, or having, you know, other maybe more advanced ways of linking their ideas and events within the story.
Then also de uh, descriptive language. So adverbs, adjectives, and then. Representing mental states. So, um, internal thoughts and feelings of characters. Can they, they talk about those things, um, or can they identify those things in a narrative when we're talking about, you know, mental states or things that are maybe inferred So.
The scoring guide is really nice. Um, it gives you, um, the ability to, um, look at macro structure and micro structure. Um, and one of the acronyms that we were chuckling at is fanboy because we're looking at are they using coordinating conduct conjunctions. And so one, um, easy way to remember what are those coordinating [00:16:00] conjunctions is through this acronym of fanboy.
So four and
Kate Grandbois: fanboy. I mean, yes, I can't. Stand it if, if no one walks away from this episode remembering these ridiculous acronyms. It, it's just, I was chuckling really entirely too hard to my, to myself while I was reading your notes.
Ana Paula Mumy: Yeah. So, but it does help, right? Because we know it's for and nor but or yet.
And so, so those are kind of like the core coordinating conjunctions that we might use. Um, and then also you're looking at their ability to join. Um, subordinate clauses to main clauses. Understanding what those are, what is a, a main clause, what is a so, uh, subordinating clause. Um, and um, again, the use of metacognitive verbs.
So, um, verbs that show that we're thinking or that we are in a state of thinking, knowing, perceiving, and [00:17:00] so on. So, um, it's just a really nice, um, tool again for. Uh, looking at narrative complexity, but then also documenting change over time, right? Because if you're using this to assess, then you can also use it to, uh, monitor progress.
So wonderful resource, and I have links there for you to, um, add for our listeners.
Kate Grandbois: Amazing. So just to recap for a second, so we've been presented with this question, really unique question about our role in a context that might not understand our role or we're not really sure how to insert ourselves. We might be limited on time, right?
We might be limited on resources. You've given us a handful of doable, feasible, accessible, um, and several free. Resources that we can use. Mm-hmm. At least for the assessment portion. So, um, first and foremost, speech pathologists who are in this position, having a good [00:18:00] grasp of grammar in and of itself, which, you know.
Some of us may need a refresher. We're gonna list some links related to, um, refreshers on grammar, some really nice free videos. And then there are a handful of assessments that with these cute, easily memorable acronyms, so sugar, sugar language, which is an evaluative tool that allows you to do a language sample in a relatively short period of time.
We've got NAP Narrative Assessment Protocol, um, which looks at five different aspects of language. Um, there is a long form scoring rubric and a short form scoring rubric for that. All of those resources will be available in the show notes, um, including the. And then there is something called the monitoring indicators of scholarly language or missile, which looks at both macro and micro structures of language.
Um, and employs another cute little [00:19:00] acronym, fan Boys, F-A-N-B-O-Y-S, which stands for four and nor, but or. And so, um, in terms of those being the micro structures, so I, I think I've got it all. I think I've just recapped us. So let's put ourselves in Sarah's shoes. We're trying to figure out how to insert ourselves.
We now are armed with these accessible, uh, tools that we can do within a reasonable amount of time to assess what's going on in terms of. Language at both larger structures like the narrative structures and smaller structures like sentence structure, coordinating conjunctions and all of those kinds of things.
Now what? What do we do?
Ana Paula Mumy: Yes. So I wanna focus, of course, we could spend two hours talking about what do we do? Because there's so many different areas that could be potentially, um. Delayed or impaired. And so I wanna focus on two, um, one being supporting macro [00:20:00] and macro structure because I feel like, you know, so much of what we can bring to the table, I think, um, that where we can maybe go deeper than maybe teachers go, um, is looking at this.
Um, macro microstructure, um, maybe differently or going more in depth than they might go. And it really relates to what they need to be able to do and understand, not just in language arts, but they're gonna need to be able to do this in different subject areas, right? They have to be able to look at a text and pick out what is the overall.
You know, meaning or what is the big picture? Um, they're gonna have to be able to understand what are the main elements right, of this so that I can understand it. And then, um, if you can't also then look at that, that micro structure and understand, um, more complex language or more complex structure, that's gonna affect your ability to engage in lots of [00:21:00] different subject areas, right?
So it's of course, um. Applicable to many areas. Um, so I'm gonna start by talking about skill. Which is supporting knowledge in language and literacy. And the purpose of this, um, intervention is to essentially improve narrative macro structure and micro structure. So it's helping children to, um, produce one, I think first understand, but then produce complete coherent.
Complex narratives, um, whether it's a story retell or where, whether they're having to generate a story, because of course, we're asking students to do both of those things, right? We're asking them to not only, um, retell stories, um, but then also sometimes generate stories or to interpret stories, right?
That, that are, um, that they're reading, or sometimes it's maybe a word story. In a word problem for a class, right? So it's, it has, um, [00:22:00] relevance in, in lots of different areas. So phase one of this particular intervention, you're. Just teaching the basic story elements, right? So how do story elements, um, relate to each other?
Um, so understanding who are the characters, right? The, um, the setting of the story problem solution. I have a real cheesy way of, of teaching this. Um, and this of course applies more to, I think, younger kids, but you can still use it with, um, older. I use these, um, icons where, um, I show them a heart and then I, I ask, you know, what does a heart make you think of?
So generally when they think heart, they think, oh, a person and animal, right? People, animals have hearts. And so we connect the heart to people and animals. We connect that to characters. And then the question that's associated with that is, who is the story about? Right? So I go through this whole process of.[00:23:00]
Getting them to associate this heart icon to character and then to the WH question that goes with it, right? The who? And then I have two icons for setting, um, a triangle and a star. So a. I have this, um, brown triangle and I'll say, what does this make you think of? And they might say, A mountain, they might say a pyramid, they might say whatever, right?
Or maybe a rooftop. And then I'll say, well, those are places, right? So then the triangle becomes our code for. Place and then we tie place to where did the story happen. So we make that connection and then we go to Star. And the Star of course, we start talking about what does this make you think of? And they'll say, well, we see it at nighttime or whatever.
So we try to get them to, or I try to get the child to think about, um, time of day. And so then the star becomes our Q4 time, and then time we tie it to the [00:24:00] when. Right? So the wh question that's associated then is when did the story happen? So we have who is the story about when and where the, the story happen?
Um, and then we have for, um, the problem, I just use a, a square with a question mark and. I don't, it's not as, um, uh, clear or the connection's not as clear as the other three, but it works, you know, and the, the child sees the question mark and they're like, what happened in the story or what went wrong? And so we talk about, you know, usually, or sometimes, not always, but a lot of times something goes wrong or there's.
Um, an event, right? That happens that sets things into motion. And so we talk about how that generates kind of the plot. And so it just allows you to really talk about different aspects of the story, but then that, um, square with the question mark is our problem, right? And then. The last icon that I use is a, um, green circle, which again, [00:25:00] it doesn't have as clear of a, a connection in terms of the visual representation, but I, I, um, tie it to, you know, every problem generally needs a solution, right?
And so then we go into how was the problem solved? Or if there's not a problem per se, it's how did the story end? Right. So what happened? How did the story end? Or what was the problem and how was the problem solved? So that's just a very basic way that I might teach, um, story elements. Um, and of course if the child's older, I may have to do something a little bit different, um, with young ones.
Um, I, I have a little song sometimes that, that I use. I mean, you know, you can go all out. And, but as long as they're understanding and they're able to really have a clear sense of what those story elements are. Then you go into, oh, go ahead. Yes, I
Kate Grandbois: have a question. Oh, I was just gonna say, I, well, I, it was really more of a, I have a reflection, um, just [00:26:00] thinking about the power of visuals, right?
Ana Paula Mumy: Mm-hmm.
Kate Grandbois: Um, and I was also thinking about how. Important it is in these instances to collaborate with the classroom teacher. Right. So going back to this question from our member about how to provide services in a general education classroom, you know, the, the classroom may have similar visual supports that they are using.
Mm-hmm. To talk about stories. So in leveraging collaboration. Kind of extrapolating from what the classroom might already be doing in terms of visual supports, language stories that they use, and being able to be flexible with mapping that onto something like skill, right. Or, or mapping that onto something that, mm-hmm.
Our literature might use. Uh, to support teaching narratives. I, I just, you know, in, in terms of creating consistency for the child. Absolutely. Um, especially if you're trying to figure out, how do I provide these services? [00:27:00] How do I squeak myself in there? A lot of times it's being camouflaged and using the language or the culture of the classroom that the, that the child is in.
That's, that was my, the only thing I was thinking.
Ana Paula Mumy: No, that's a perfect point, and I'm so glad that you brought that up because absolutely they may already have a system in place, um, that they've learned. And so absolutely you can coordinate with the teacher to learn and then you utilize that, um, and hopefully bring that consistency or continuity, so absolutely.
Um. Phase two of skill, um, is about connecting an elaborating story. So you're teaching the child use of adjectives and adverbs and complex sentences to elaborate on the setting, the characters, the plans, the actions, the feelings, all those things. Um, and you're teaching the inclusion of dialogue. So where maybe when you are writing a story that you're including some kind of, you know, chatter or.
Um, talking, you know, [00:28:00] between the characters and so on. And so you're really just getting into the, um, nitty gritty of, um, elaboration. So what does that look like? And again, like you said, we, you can coordinate with the teacher to know like what are the things that they've already covered and then maybe you can go deeper, um, and you can.
Um, or elaborate further or maybe give them the strategies or, or even like a framework, if there isn't a clear framework that's being provided by the teacher, then you provide the framework or you provide the, the visuals or whatever it might be, that helps that child really understand it and be able to, um, make progress with it.
So. So that's what phase two encompasses. And then phase three is more about them learning how to create and then edit stories. So you're actually teaching the children to appraise the stories that they create, um, and stories created [00:29:00] by others. So, um, they use this self scoring rubric to help the child edit, um, the story retells or their self-generated stories.
Um. And so. If a child can assess their writing, right, that's like the next level and being able to really see like, oh, are you using more variety? Right. In your vocabulary, are you using, um, more of those tier two words, whether they be nouns or verbs? Um, are you using. Um, clauses to, and we're gonna talk about clauses here in a minute, more in detail, but are they using clauses to, um, expand on what they are saying?
Um, so instead of just saying the boy, you know, went to the store, you might say the boy, um, with, you know, reddish hair went to the store, or, you know, something like that where you're able to give a little bit more detail. And [00:30:00] so then there. Assessing themselves, like, what am I using now? Um, and then of course, that gives you another way to monitor progress because you can see where they started and where they end up after you've given them that explicit instruction.
And that's really what this is about. It's about explicit instruction in, um, story grammar, but then also in the grammatical components. Um, and I, I want to say. I think we take for granted that children are being taught grammar. Totally. And I say this because my children, my own children, you know, went from a classical, um, teaching model, which is very much, um, it, they infused a ton of grammar into, um, this model and they're learning how to dissect sentences and all of this, you know, but then they went to another school.
Which is more the typical way of [00:31:00] teaching language and it's really much more literature focused. It's not necessarily. Um, there is almost very, or there's very little that's happening when it comes to grammar. Um, and so, you know, kids understanding what is a noun, what is a verb, but what is an adjective?
What is an ad verb? You know, just being able to understand even like the function of those words and why do we have these different categories of words. It's not just learning. Oh, these are nouns. These are verbs, but these have different functions and I can use them in a way. To be clear or to express myself in a way that is more advanced or, or more elaborate, right?
So it's giving them that understanding. So in this whole process, we're essentially helping children move from basic. Um, to more complex episodes or, or, um, describing, you know, happenings or, or events. Um, and all of it includes, of course, the story, grammar piece, target vocabulary, [00:32:00] um, and then words that signal causal, um, relations.
So all the, the lexile and all the grammatical skills that are needed for telling coherent and cohesive stories.
Kate Grandbois: I think that, I just wanna make one quick comment about how good of a point, I just love the point that you made about not taking it for granted that someone's coming to the table with a set of knowledge.
Um, I think taking a second to reflect on how your particular school goes about, like what is the culture? Mm-hmm. What is the status quo? What is the, this is what we do here in terms of grammar instruction. Um, and then considering that coupled with the child in front of you, did they move and did, were they.
Previously at a different school. Mm-hmm. Have you been called in because like a lot of these kids, they've learned how to mask, they've gotten by and they kind of don't understand, but it's, they have a surface level understanding, but they don't really have that deeper understanding. And is that pro, you know, perhaps part of the reason why you've been called in as an [00:33:00] additional support?
Um, so I think the comment of not taking something for granted is, is not. Not law. It's, it's really very important. Um, and I know we only have one more intervention to go over. What can you tell us about working with students around more complex sentence structures?
Ana Paula Mumy: Yes. So there's this one, um, intervention method called Complex Sentence Intervention.
And it's. Aimed at improving the grammar, comprehension and expression skills, um, especially children with developmental language disorder. So, um, DLD is um, prevalent and um, some people may know it as SLI, specific language impairment. You know, there's a little bit of controversy. Which one is it? Um, I think researchers still tend to call it SLI, I think practitioners have moved more towards, um, DLD, but essentially.
These kids, [00:34:00] um, may have what appears to be normal conversational skills, but they really struggle when it comes to more complex language, more academic language. And so, um, you're looking at, you know, where are those gaps for these kids? Um, and. I, I just am gonna share this, um, briefly. I was listening to an adult actually, who was commenting on his experience as a child with where he was diagnosed with DLD, um, but not until later in life, and he was talking about how.
Um, people just said, well, they just thought his language structure was just kind of odd or that he was just slow or this or that. And then he said he got to college and, um, he had great ideas to share, but his grammar was atrocious. And he, um, to the point where they thought that his, [00:35:00] um, uh. They, they doubted that what he was turning in was his own because of the grammatical errors.
Wow. That were present and they were like. They, they thought he was like having somebody else do it that maybe didn't have maybe as much of command of the English language. I mean, it was like this whole thing, but he shares openly because he was like, this is what I've dealt with. And then he talked about, um, having to script sometimes, um, what he was going to say, even just going in to like a social, social situation because he didn't feel like he could just off the cuff, have a conversation because he felt that his, um.
Sometimes, you know, either the vocabulary wasn't there or he just had, um, difficulty being able to elaborate. So the very things that we're gonna be talking about, you know, he was talking about it as an adult having experienced it. And I think sometimes again, we. We think, oh, but isn't every child [00:36:00] struggling with grammar or isn't, you know, and I think we just have to really give these children, um, the tools that they need to be able to succeed.
And so anyway, um, what they need is really explicit instruction. Um, being able to understand and produce complex sentence structures. So. Identifying sentences, being able to deconstruct sentences, being able to combine them, generate them, and so on and so, but at the most basic level, we have to understand, right?
What is a simple sentence? It has one independent clause, right? And then no dependent clauses. And then what is a complex sentence? Well, that's when there's a main clause and then a subordinate clause. Right? And so, um, the research shows that there are three types of subordinate clauses. That really account for the majority of the subordinate clauses that are found in texts and in the spoken and written output of school-aged children.
So this is really helpful because you can [00:37:00] be really focused on, okay, if I'm gonna tackle some clauses, what is it that I should tackle? And so those are adv, proverbio clauses, object compliment clauses, and relative clauses. Um, and I'll go through each one of them, but you're essentially providing targeted instruction on the type of clauses that the child is struggling with or maybe isn't using spontaneously to be able to communicate more complex thoughts.
So I'm just gonna quickly go through the three main clauses that, um, were confirmed to be the most frequent.
Um, and those again are the adversial object, compliment and re relative clauses. Adv proverbial clauses are dependent clauses that answer questions like, when, where, why, how, or under what conditions. Something happens. We're thinking about time, place, and manner, and some of the common ones, um, that children might struggle with, um, or that they [00:38:00] need to learn to incorporate into their complex sentences might be conjunctions like, because when, if, although since after, before while, and so on.
So sentences like. She left because she was tired, or we can go to recess if we finish our work. So there's that conditional, right? So just those types of, um, clauses that add to and provide, you know, greater specificity or elaboration based on, you know, what it is that you're trying to share. Object compliment, uh, clauses are those that complete, um, the meaning of certain verbs.
Um, especially thinking, saying, feeling verbs. So, um, those are kind of some of those, you know, mental state verbs that we talked about earlier. Um. And common verbs that take compliment clauses are, um, verbs. Like, think, no, believe, say, understand, forget, [00:39:00] remember, feel, notice. And so these are the kinds, um, of sentences, like, I know that you're right, or I believe that early intervention makes a difference.
Or, you know, where you're, um, showing, knowing, believing, understanding, and so on. And then our last one, relative clauses. Um, that's a dependent clause that modifies a noun, um, by giving more information about who or what. Um, so starting with relative pronouns, like who or whom, who's which, or that those are generally the ones.
Um, so things like. The boy who raised his hand and answered the question correctly, or the girl who loves art, drew a beautiful picture. Um, so again, you're teaching. Students, um, how to provide just that extra bit of detail that might make their writing more interesting or more specific or complex. So that's it in a nutshell.[00:40:00]
Um, and again, just going back to our role, um, when we talk about, you know, how we are able to, um, address these things, you know, we're going deeper or providing. Frameworks or providing, um, that explicit instruction that's maybe more nuanced or more specific than they might be getting in a general ed classroom where maybe you're just skimming the surface or maybe, um, there's assumptions about what kids know.
Um, and you're not giving that more explicit instruction that really is beneficial. Um, specifically for kids who have, um, developmental language disorder. I love that you've pointed out how we have this specialized training. I, I think that is also something, I don't know, maybe a theme of this conversation is taking things for granted.
Kate Grandbois: Right. You know, you forget that you know specific things if it's what you do all day long. Um, I also think it's important not to take for granted what you. Teacher's background is. Mm-hmm. Um, in [00:41:00] terms of the level of specificity when it comes to linguistic structures, linguistic application, those kinds of things.
Um, I also think, you know, this is such a great opportunity for those collaborative conversations for asking your classroom teacher, well, I'm not sure how to enter, you know, insert myself. What is helpful to you? How can I, mm-hmm. Help extend what you know into the classroom to this one particular student or.
A group of particular students that have been identified. Um, I think having those open collaborative conversations is one of the things that it makes our skillset that much more accessible, uh, when you're doing it in conjunction with a context and, and other people who are in, who understand what we do, um, and can help reach mm-hmm.
More, more kids really. Mm-hmm. This has all been so interesting and so helpful. I love that you've given us a handful of, well, all of these [00:42:00] acronyms for first of all, but you know, these, these quick, um, doable and reasonable, um, action steps and. Frameworks, uh, and assessments. Um, as I've mentioned many times, all of these will be listed in the show notes as our last point of conversation.
Before we close out, I would love to hear your thoughts on just clinical action steps. So if someone is listening to this and now is like, oh, I should. Look into the skill, or I should look into nap, um, or, you know, fanboy, which is still my favorite acronym out of this entire episode. What would you say are some really nice next steps to start implementing some of these things for someone who may have resonate with the question from our member?
Ana Paula Mumy: I would say maybe one of the primary is if you're not doing language sampling because you were, um, just gave up and said, [00:43:00] this is not doable. I can't, um, I would say look into sugar because it's such a nice tool. Um, and it's super easy to learn. The four metrics are really helpful, um, that they essentially walk you through.
So that would be like first step, right? Because, um, it is a very, um, easy thing to just add to your battery of assessments, um, that might, you know, that you might already be doing. Um, especially if you are working with diverse learners or working with populations there. The standardized testing may not be the optimal option for really looking at their language performance.
And so, um, language sampling can really help you tease out some things. And so I would say sugar is, is definitely a starting place because if you can't, um, assess where the gaps are effectively, then you can't then come up with a good treatment plan. Um, and like I said, they have the. Um, the analysis [00:44:00] option that gives you essentially the intervention ideas and strategies and, you know, just.
Extra resources, you know, for you right there at your fingertips. So I would say that's probably one huge one that I would say absolutely go there, learn sugar, um, if you're not already comfortable with what you're doing with language sampling. Um, and really, you know, when it comes to intervention, it's hard to say like the one thing because.
It just so it, it's so dependent on what the student in front of you is, is needing, you know, from you. Um, I, I think I would just piggyback on what you said about, you know, working with the teacher, because I remember when I was in the schools. I would offer myself and say, especially when, when we, I started to push in more, um, particularly if I had like three or four students in the same classroom and I knew that those students were gonna be struggling throughout the day in different ways, um, I would go to her and say, you know, what is something that I can bring maybe to the whole [00:45:00] class, like, is there an area.
Um, that you would want me to address differently based on what you've already done? How can I supplement or add to, or, um, do you know, like a specialized lesson that would be specific to, uh. An area of struggle that you're seeing not just with these students, but other students are also struggling. So it's kind of like, you know, more bang for your buck.
How can I help you address this? Um, and sometimes it's helpful if it's coming from somebody else, if they have maybe a different way of presenting it, or they have maybe a framework that is new or, or maybe nuanced. Um. So talking to them and just figuring out like what are the things that might be helpful to you and being able to push it in that way.
So I would say maybe, um, those conversations, having that conversation with teachers, um, especially if you have multiple students in one classroom. I love that. I love that idea of bringing something to the whole class. I so appreciate that you, you know, bring up that important component of [00:46:00] collaboration.
Kate Grandbois: This has all been a tremendously helpful discussion. Thank you, Anna, Paula, so much for your time and your research efforts in finding all of these great resources. For anyone out there listening, if you are a member and you have a clinical question, go to your SLP Nerd Cast dashboard. There is a link for you to fill in a form to send in your clinical questions for us to answer here on the show.
For anyone listening who would like to use this episode for Asha eus, follow the link in your show notes or go to our website. Um, and thank you so much for your time today, Anna Apollo. We really appreciate it. You're welcome.
Outro
Announcer: Thank you so much for joining us in today's episode, as always, you can use this episode for ASHA CEUs. You can also potentially use this episode for other credits, depending on the regulations of your governing body. To determine if this episode will count towards professional development in your area of study.
Please check in with your governing bodies or you can go to our website, [00:47:00] www.slpnerdcast.com all of the references and information listed throughout the course of the episode will be listed in the show notes. And as always, if you have any questions, please email us at [email protected]
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