| The purpose of this research project was to assess and describe the spoken and written language of 8- to 10-year-old children with language impairment from a naturalistic perspective. The literature indicates that children with a history of early language delay or deficit are at risk for later spoken and written language disorder and diminished academic achievement. A multiple-case study design was used to investigate the spoken and written language of 8- to 10-year-old children who manifested early spoken language impairment.;The study involved four children from three elementary classrooms in a county school system in the Southeastern United States. Children who met the inclusion criteria were selected to participate. A 100-utterance conversational spoken language sample was elicited from each subject. Samples of writing for one school year were collected from natural classroom activities engaged in by the children.;Multiple analyses of the corpus of spoken and written language of each subject were incorporated in the study. Linguistic characteristics of spoken and written language were investigated. Written language was examined as to mechanical characteristics, forms and functions, and developmental change in written language characteristics. The analysis of data examined the relative value to informed practice of a standardized test instrument, the Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS, Carrow-Woolfolk, 1996), which was administered to the subjects, in addition to the analysis of their spontaneously generated spoken and written language.;The findings of the study included: (a) the participants' written language was surprisingly robust in comparison to their spoken language, although they continued to experience difficulty with the linguistic aspects of both spoken and written language; (b) areas of strength were found for each of the subjects' written language; and (c) analysis of the variability of written language from sample-to-sample indicated that assessment of written language may be compromised unless it is comprehensive and individualized. Information resulting from the study analyses contributes to informing practice to a much greater extent than does the information obtained from administration of the standardized test instrument, OWLS. |
