Vocabulary

Expressive and receptive vocabulary skills are important for facilitating academic and social success. In addition to working with students individually or in small groups, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can collaborate with teachers to provide large-group vocabulary instruction (Cirrin & Gillam, 2008). Whole-class vocabulary interventions can be effective as part of a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework, in which high quality evidence-based instruction is provided to a whole class (Tier 1), students needing extra help are given small-group or individual instruction (Tier 2), and children who need more individualized programing in order to make progress are given more intensive intervention by a professional (Tier 3).

When teaching new vocabulary, using high variability of exemplars facilitates better generalization of word-learning (Aguilar et al., 2018). Intervention programs that focus on deep learning have been found to be successful in improving vocabulary skills in children and adolescents. Deep learning of vocabulary involves focusing intensely on a given word, providing opportunities to understand and use the word in multiple contexts, and learning to apply strategies, such as phonological and morphological analysis, to learning new words (Spencer et al., 2017). Spencer and colleagues have provided sample lesson plans for deep learning of vocabulary words here:  The following paragraphs describe effective deep-learning protocols for vocabulary.

Whole-Class Vocabulary Interventions

Once example of a collaborative vocabulary approach between SLPs and teachers is Word Discovery. Word Discovery is a vocabulary intervention that utilizes a phonological-semantic approach, meaning that the sound structure and word meaning are linked (Lowe et al., 2019). Word Discovery consists of seven components. First, students are given a self-rating checklist, on which they rate their understanding of given words as no knowledge, some knowledge, or secure knowledge. The next component of Word Discovery is visual image displayed with written word, for which the teachers are given a laminated sheet with the written word and a pictorial representation of the word. Word detective refers to using four key strategies when a new word is encountered: look for morphological cues, look for contextual cues, ask another person, and use a dictionary. A word map is used to teach new concepts. On the word map, the target word is written in the center. On one side, the student writes the number of syllables, initial phoneme, and rhyming words. On the other side, the student writes or draws the word’s function, location, category, and something relating to the student’s own experience. Word wise quickie refers to an activity in which a student is given a word and thinks of a meaning and a sound (initial phoneme, rhyme, or number of syllables) and then uses the word in a sentence. Sound and meaning bingo is an activity in which the teacher gives a sound and a meaning, and the students find the word on their bingo cards. The key word sheet is comprised of 10 boxes and the letters of the alphabet down the center of a page. On the key word sheet, the student writes the word in a box and places a dot under each syllable, writes or draws the meaning of the word, and then draws a line connecting the word to its initial letter. Lowe and colleagues revealed that use of Word Discovery resulted in greater in-depth knowledge and expressive use of science curriculum words in adolescents than typical teacher practices.

Eising and Karasinski (2022) provided a whole-class vocabulary intervention targeting spatial terms to a developmental kindergarten class. Each 30-minute lesson targeted 3-4 spatial terms. The lessons began with an introduction of the new words and a review of the words targeted previously. The clinician read a storybook containing the target words for the lesson, asking wh-questions requiring use of the target words throughout the book. At the end of the session, children engaged in motor activities that involved demonstrating understanding of the terms. At the end of six weeks, a poem incorporating all of the terms was read to the children as a review of the new words.

Small-Group and Individual Vocabulary Interventions

Wonderful Words is a small-group intervention program for vocabulary acquisition (Dyson et al., 2018). Wonderful Words sessions last 20-25 minutes and focus on deep understanding of a single word. The target word is first introduced in both written and spoken form, and children are encouraged to repeat the word. The clinician then reads a “student-friendly” definition, rather than a dictionary definition. Next, the clinician presents the target word in multiple paragraphs and sentences. The clinician emphasizes the word, and the students are encouraged to indicate when they hear it. Children then play word games to practice identifying and using the target word in a variety of contexts. In the first game, children identify which situations are positively associated with a word, such as answering, “Which object is [attribute]?” In the second game, children create their own examples with the target word. At the end of the session, children complete a word map, which consists of writing the word, identifying a pictorial representation of the word, selecting synonyms and antonyms, and writing their own examples. Children who finished the word map earlier than the others were given the opportunity to draw a picture of the target word or write a sentence using the word. As the children completed the word map, the clinician answered their questions or asked probing questions about why the children chose their answers.

Wright et al. (2017) described a similar effective individual intervention for vocabulary acquisition. Students participated in 30-minute sessions with an SLP. During each of the first five sessions, two target words are introduced. The SLP presents the word in spoken and written form, and the student writes the word on a “new word poster.” Phonological features are discussed. The student predicts whether the word was a noun or a verb and usesprior knowledge to predict the word’s meaning. The SLP provides the word’s dictionary definition in spoken and written form. The SLP and the student discuss the student’s predictions as related to the actual definition. The student records the definition on the “new word poster.” The SLP and the student discuss the meaning of the word and contexts in which it may be used that are relevant to the student. The student makes two cue cards, one with the written word and one with a pictorial representation of the word. The second target word is then introduced and the same procedure is followed. During the last 10 minutes of the session, the phonologic, orthographic, semantic, and syntactic features of the target words are reinforced by playing games, including definition cards, definition production, sentence starters, sentence production, and spelling. Definition cards is played by giving the child two definitions for each word, and asking the child to match the definitions to the words. The use of the two definitions is to avoid memorization of a specific definition and to facilitate actual understanding of the word meanings. For definition production, the student provides a definition for one of the words. In sentence starters, the student is shown a card with a beginning of a sentence that includes one of the target words, and the student generates an ending to the sentence. For sentence production, the student generates a sentence using one of the words. In spelling, the student spells one of the words. At the conclusion of the session, the student recalls the two target words and provides a summary of what was learned during the session.

A five-minute “revision session” is held between sessions, during which the SLP and the student play a matching game with the cue cards. “Matches” consist of the word card and picture card. For each card selected, the student recalls the word and its meaning.

During the final two sessions, the SLP and student review all 10 words learned during the previous sessions. These sessions begin with the matching game, as played during the revision sessions. Next, the student plays a game in which a picture card and an instruction/question card are selected, and the student follows the instruction or answers the question relative to the target word. The instructions and questions used are as follows (Wright et al., 2017, p. 486):

• Spell the word
• Make a sentence using the word
• Explain the meaning of the word
• Is the word a noun or a verb?
• How many syllables are in the word?
• What sounds are in the word?
• If your word is a noun, what does it look like?
• If your word is a verb, when might someone do this?

Interactive book-reading is another effective method for teaching vocabulary to children with DLD. Voelmle and Storkel (2015) described a method in which the clinician reads two books to the child, one at the beginning of the 15-20-minute session, and one at the end. There were three parts to the treatment: pre-book reading, book reading, and post-book reading. During the pre-book reading, the clinician discussed six target words, showed a picture representing each word, and provided a definition and synonym for each word. During book reading, the clinician provided supplemental information, such as a synonym or definition, for the target words as they were encountered in the book. The post-book reading portion of the session was comprised of discussion of the target words in context sentences, providing a definition, and showing a different pictorial representation than the one shown during pre-book reading. Voelmle and Storkel noted that this intervention could be delivered by caregivers, as well as SLPs, facilitating family involvement in intervention.

Adjectives

Most children produce a variety of adjectives prior to kindergarten entry. Using adjectives facilitates children’s’ ability to specify, evaluate, and discriminate between things, and they are also crucial for academic success. A perusal of academic standards finds a number of standards across subject areas for comparing/contrasting, categorizing, and describing. Adjectives are particularly challenging for children with DLD (Davies et al., 2021).

Inferences

In addition to understanding vocabulary words to facilitate language comprehension, children also need to be able to make inferences. Inference generation is frequently deficient in children with DLD (Bishop et al., 2017). Constructing inferences is particularly difficult for children with DLD when the information needed to make the inference is not adjacent within a passage, as this places an extra load on working memory (Karasinski & Ellis Weismer, 2010). Book-sharing activities lend themselves well to intervention for inferencing. Kelley (2015) developed scripts for story books, and lists of questions that included both literal and inferential questions. She included options for confirmations of correct answers (e.g., “yes because…”), and prompts for incorrect answers, including expansions and cloze prompts. Kelly also included “think alouds,” which involve modeling how to make an inference by restating key information needed to make the inference.

Idioms

Another type of nonliteral language that school-age children need to understand is idioms. There are four components to idiom skills. Idiom identification is the ability to recognize idioms as figurative expressions that do not make literal sense in a given context. Idiom interpretation encompasses ascertaining the meaning of the idiom using contextual and pragmatic cues. Idiom explanation is comprised of the ability to describe differences in an idiom’s meaning across contexts. Idiom use refers to producing the idiom in the correct context to convey the intended meaning (Benjamin et al., 2020). Benjamin and colleagues provided the following example of a session targeting idioms: jlcd12519-sup-0001-suppmat.

References

Aguilar, J., Plante, E., & Sandoval, M. (2018). Exemplar variability facilitates retention of word learning by children with specific language impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 49, 72-84.

Benjamin, L., Newton, C., & Ebbels, S. (2020). Investigating the effectiveness of idiom intervention for 9-16-year-olds with developmental language disorder. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 55, 266-286.

Bishop, D.V.M., Snowling, M.J., Thompson, P.A., Greenhalgh, T., & the CATALISE-2 consortium. (2017). Phase 2 of CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development: Terminology. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(10), 1068-1080.

Cirrin, F.M., & Gillam, R.B. (2008). Language intervention practices for school-age children with spoken language disorders: A systematic review. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 39, S110-S137.

Davies, C., Ebbels, S., Nicoll, H., Syrett, K., White, S., & Zuniga-Montanez, C. (2021). Supporting adjective learning by children with DLD: Enhancing metalinguistic approaches.

Dyson, H., Solity, J., Best, W., & Hulme, C. (2018). Effectiveness of a small-group vocabulary intervention program: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 53, 947-958.

Eising, M., & Karasinski, C. (2022). Developmental kindergarten classroom intervention for spatial relational terms. CoDAS, 34(6): e20210176. doi: 10.1590/2317-1782/20212021176.

Karasinski, C., & Ellis Weismer, S. (2010). Comprehension of inferences in discourse processing by adolescents with and without language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 1268-1279.

Kelley, E. S. (2015). An evidence-based approach to teach inferential language during interactive storybook reading with. young children. EBP Briefs, 10, 1-10.

Lowe, H., Henry, L., & Joffe, V. (2019). The effectiveness of classroom vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62, 2829–2846.

Spencer, S., Clegg, J., Lowe, H., & Stackhouse, J. (2017). Increasing adolescents’ depth of understanding of cross-curriculum words: An intervention study. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 52, 652-668.

Voelmle, K., & Storkel, H. (2015). Teaching new words to children with specific language impairment using interactive books reading. Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, 22, 131-137.

Wright, L., Pring, T., & Ebbels, S. (2017). Effectiveness of vocabulary intervention for older children with (developmental) language disorder. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 53, 480-494.