A Variety Of Approaches Help Children Overcome Auditory Processing And Language Problems

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130150529.htm

A Variety Of Approaches Help Children Overcome Auditory Processing And

Language Problems

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2008) --- For children who struggle to learn

language, the choice between various interventions may matter less than

the intensity and format of the intervention, a new study suggests.

The study compared four intervention strategies in children who have

unusual difficulty understanding and using language, and found that all

four methods resulted in significant, long-term improvements in the

children's language abilities. The aim of the study was to assess

whether children who used commercially available language software

program Fast ForWord-Language had greater improvement in language skills

than children using other methods. This program was specifically

designed to improve auditory processing deficits which may underlie some

language impairments. Children who have auditory processing deficits can

jumble the order of sounds that are heard in close sequence. Researchers

believe that this deficit can interfere with vocabulary and grammar

development.

" These results show that any of a number of intensive educational

approaches can make a tremendous difference for children whose language

and auditory processing skills are lagging, " says NIDCD director

F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. " Even play with peers seemed to support the

improvements the children in this study made. "

The study, led by B. Gillam, Ph.D., of Utah State University is

online in the February 2008 Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing

Research. " We had a very positive outcome, " says Dr. Gillam. " Our

results tell us that a variety of intensive interventions that we can

provide kids will improve auditory processing and language learning. "

While most children are chattering easily by the time they are toddlers,

about 7 percent struggle to speak, read and understand language despite

having adequate hearing, intelligence and motor skills. Children with

language impairment have trouble learning language or expressing their

thoughts through language. They often have difficulty learning new

vocabulary words or sentence structures, comprehending what's said to

them, holding conversations, or telling stories. These children tend to

perform poorly on measures of auditory processing and standardized tests

of language development. Many of these children are hindered

academically throughout their formal education, explains Dr. Gillam.

To address auditory processing problems, a different group of language

researchers developed the computer software package called Fast

ForWord-Language several years ago. The program uses slow and

exaggerated speech to improve a child's ability to process spoken

language. As children advance through the program, subsequent language

exercises use gradually faster and less exaggerated speech.

Dr. Gillam's team designed a study that would compare Fast

ForWord-Language to three other interventions. He and colleagues at the

University of Kansas, the University of Texas at Austin and the

University of Texas at Dallas enrolled 216 children in the trial. All

were between ages 6 and 9 and had been diagnosed with language impairment.

The children, from Northeast Kansas, Central Texas or North Texas, were

randomly assigned to receive one of four possible interventions. In

addition to Fast ForWord-Language, the trial included another

computer-assisted language intervention, an individual language

intervention with a speech-language pathologist, and a nonlanguage

academic enrichment intervention that focused only on math, science and

geography.

The other computer-assisted language intervention, which used Earobics

and Laureate Learning Systems software, differed from Fast

ForWord-Language in not using slow or exaggerated speech. Groups of

children worked on the computer intervention exercises at their own pace

wearing headphones and supervised by a speech-language pathologist.

Children assigned to the individual language intervention worked

one-on-one with a speech-language pathologist for the duration of the

trial. In their sessions, the children read picture books that contained

a variety of age-appropriate vocabulary words.

In the academic enrichment intervention, children worked on educational

computer games designed to teach math, science and geography. This

intervention was delivered in the same way as the language-focused

computer interventions. It served as a comparison group against which

the researchers could measure the results of the language interventions.

All of the interventions were delivered in an intensive, six-week,

summer program that also included day camp activities such as arts and

crafts, outdoor games, board games and snack time. The children attended

the program five days per week for three and a half hours per day. They

practiced their assigned interventions for an hour and forty minutes

each day. The children took a standard language test--the Comprehensive

Test of Spoken Language-- and completed a variety of auditory processing

measures at the beginning and end of the program as well as three and

six months afterward. The children in all four groups demonstrated

statistically significant improvement on the auditory processing

measures and the language measures immediately after their six-week program.

The children showed even greater improvement when their language skills

were tested again six months later. Even a subgroup of children with

very poor auditory processing skills made improvements on the auditory

processing tasks and the language measures. About 74 percent of children

in the Fast ForWord-Language group made large improvements on the

language measures. Sixty-three percent of children in the

computer-assisted language intervention group made large improvements.

Of those who worked with a speech-language pathologist, 80 percent made

large gains, and in the general academic enrichment group, almost 69

percent made large gains. These gains are much larger than the

improvements that have been reported in long-term studies of children

who have received language therapy in public school settings.

The researchers were surprised that such a large percentage of the

children who worked on the math, science and geography computer games

improved their auditory processing and language skills. They speculate

that all the children may have benefited from the opportunities to

listen carefully, to decide on an appropriate response based on what

they heard, and to practice language skills with each other. The

recreation and play time built into each day of the six-week program

gave the children the chance to form friendships with peers who were

functioning at similar language levels.

The intensive delivery of the interventions--500 minutes per week--may

also have benefited kids in every intervention group. In comparison,

school systems typically offer speech-language pathology services to

students with language impairment for 30 minutes twice per week.

" I urge speech-language pathologists to engage children with auditory

processing problems and language impairments in activities in which they

have to listen carefully, attend closely and respond quickly, and to do

it in an intense manner, " says Dr. Gillam. " And clinicians should

provide children with ample opportunity to converse, socialize and

interact with kids at their same developmental level. "

The study was sponsored by the National Institute on Deafness and Other

Communication Disorders (NIDCD). NIDCD is one of the National Institutes

of Health.

The language intervention trial was also supported by a grant from the

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to the

Kansas Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Center

at the University of Kansas. NICHD is also part of the National

Institutes of Health.

/Adapted from materials provided by NIH/National Institute on Deafness

and Other Communication Disorders <http://www.nidcd.nih.gov>, via

EurekAlert! <http://www.eurekalert.org>, a service of AAAS/.

NIH/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

(2008, January 31). A Variety Of Approaches Help Children Overcome

Auditory Processing And Language Problems. /ScienceDaily/. Retrieved

March 25, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­

/releases/2008/01/080130150529.htm

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[Guest guest]

Thanks for posting this. It really speaks to the need for greater

frequency regardless of the method you choose. It is a no-brainer to

see kids improve more with 500 minutes of therapy compared to the 30-

60 minutes provided by many schools. Add personalization and one-on-

one work (vs. group), and you're sure to improve more quickly. The

greatest speech improvements we saw with were when we did

homework from " Moving Across Syllables " (provided by our SLP) several

times per day, every day. (Other people have similar success with

very different programs, like Kaufman cards, Prompt therapy, etc.)

If she had given us an equal amount of oral-motor sensory activities

and digit spans, I think we would have made even greater strides. 20-

20 hindsight. With Tyler's NACD program, we are working the oral-

motor areas right now in the hopes of needing less of the other stuff

later. Wish us luck!

If any of you are doing many hours of work per week one-on-one and

still not seeing improvements, the method (or therapist) is

definitely the wrong one for your child. If you are only doing 30-60

minutes per week and not seeing improvements, the method/therapist

could be right or wrong. Kick up the frequency first before dumping

your method/therapist. Just my two cents...

in NJ

>

> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130150529.htm

>

> A Variety Of Approaches Help Children Overcome Auditory Processing

And

> Language Problems

>

> ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2008) --- For children who struggle to learn

> language, the choice between various interventions may matter less

than

> the intensity and format of the intervention, a new study suggests.

>

> The study compared four intervention strategies in children who

have

> unusual difficulty understanding and using language, and found that

all

> four methods resulted in significant, long-term improvements in the

> children's language abilities. The aim of the study was to assess

> whether children who used commercially available language software

> program Fast ForWord-Language had greater improvement in language

skills

> than children using other methods. This program was specifically

> designed to improve auditory processing deficits which may underlie

some

> language impairments. Children who have auditory processing

deficits can

> jumble the order of sounds that are heard in close sequence.

Researchers

> believe that this deficit can interfere with vocabulary and grammar

> development.

>

> " These results show that any of a number of intensive educational

> approaches can make a tremendous difference for children whose

language

> and auditory processing skills are lagging, " says NIDCD director

> F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. " Even play with peers seemed to support

the

> improvements the children in this study made. "

>

> The study, led by B. Gillam, Ph.D., of Utah State University

is

> online in the February 2008 Journal of Speech, Language, and

Hearing

> Research. " We had a very positive outcome, " says Dr. Gillam. " Our

> results tell us that a variety of intensive interventions that we

can

> provide kids will improve auditory processing and language

learning. "

>

> While most children are chattering easily by the time they are

toddlers,

> about 7 percent struggle to speak, read and understand language

despite

> having adequate hearing, intelligence and motor skills. Children

with

> language impairment have trouble learning language or expressing

their

> thoughts through language. They often have difficulty learning new

> vocabulary words or sentence structures, comprehending what's said

to

> them, holding conversations, or telling stories. These children

tend to

> perform poorly on measures of auditory processing and standardized

tests

> of language development. Many of these children are hindered

> academically throughout their formal education, explains Dr. Gillam.

>

> To address auditory processing problems, a different group of

language

> researchers developed the computer software package called Fast

> ForWord-Language several years ago. The program uses slow and

> exaggerated speech to improve a child's ability to process spoken

> language. As children advance through the program, subsequent

language

> exercises use gradually faster and less exaggerated speech.

>

> Dr. Gillam's team designed a study that would compare Fast

> ForWord-Language to three other interventions. He and colleagues at

the

> University of Kansas, the University of Texas at Austin and the

> University of Texas at Dallas enrolled 216 children in the trial.

All

> were between ages 6 and 9 and had been diagnosed with language

impairment.

>

> The children, from Northeast Kansas, Central Texas or North Texas,

were

> randomly assigned to receive one of four possible interventions. In

> addition to Fast ForWord-Language, the trial included another

> computer-assisted language intervention, an individual language

> intervention with a speech-language pathologist, and a nonlanguage

> academic enrichment intervention that focused only on math, science

and

> geography.

>

> The other computer-assisted language intervention, which used

Earobics

> and Laureate Learning Systems software, differed from Fast

> ForWord-Language in not using slow or exaggerated speech. Groups of

> children worked on the computer intervention exercises at their own

pace

> wearing headphones and supervised by a speech-language pathologist.

>

> Children assigned to the individual language intervention worked

> one-on-one with a speech-language pathologist for the duration of

the

> trial. In their sessions, the children read picture books that

contained

> a variety of age-appropriate vocabulary words.

>

> In the academic enrichment intervention, children worked on

educational

> computer games designed to teach math, science and geography. This

> intervention was delivered in the same way as the language-focused

> computer interventions. It served as a comparison group against

which

> the researchers could measure the results of the language

interventions.

>

> All of the interventions were delivered in an intensive, six-week,

> summer program that also included day camp activities such as arts

and

> crafts, outdoor games, board games and snack time. The children

attended

> the program five days per week for three and a half hours per day.

They

> practiced their assigned interventions for an hour and forty

minutes

> each day. The children took a standard language test--the

Comprehensive

> Test of Spoken Language-- and completed a variety of auditory

processing

> measures at the beginning and end of the program as well as three

and

> six months afterward. The children in all four groups demonstrated

> statistically significant improvement on the auditory processing

> measures and the language measures immediately after their six-week

program.

>

> The children showed even greater improvement when their language

skills

> were tested again six months later. Even a subgroup of children

with

> very poor auditory processing skills made improvements on the

auditory

> processing tasks and the language measures. About 74 percent of

children

> in the Fast ForWord-Language group made large improvements on the

> language measures. Sixty-three percent of children in the

> computer-assisted language intervention group made large

improvements.

> Of those who worked with a speech-language pathologist, 80 percent

made

> large gains, and in the general academic enrichment group, almost

69

> percent made large gains. These gains are much larger than the

> improvements that have been reported in long-term studies of

children

> who have received language therapy in public school settings.

>

> The researchers were surprised that such a large percentage of the

> children who worked on the math, science and geography computer

games

> improved their auditory processing and language skills. They

speculate

> that all the children may have benefited from the opportunities to

> listen carefully, to decide on an appropriate response based on

what

> they heard, and to practice language skills with each other. The

> recreation and play time built into each day of the six-week

program

> gave the children the chance to form friendships with peers who

were

> functioning at similar language levels.

>

> The intensive delivery of the interventions--500 minutes per week--

may

> also have benefited kids in every intervention group. In

comparison,

> school systems typically offer speech-language pathology services

to

> students with language impairment for 30 minutes twice per week.

>

> " I urge speech-language pathologists to engage children with

auditory

> processing problems and language impairments in activities in which

they

> have to listen carefully, attend closely and respond quickly, and

to do

> it in an intense manner, " says Dr. Gillam. " And clinicians should

> provide children with ample opportunity to converse, socialize and

> interact with kids at their same developmental level. "

>

> The study was sponsored by the National Institute on Deafness and

Other

> Communication Disorders (NIDCD). NIDCD is one of the National

Institutes

> of Health.

>

> The language intervention trial was also supported by a grant from

the

> National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to

the

> Kansas Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research

Center

> at the University of Kansas. NICHD is also part of the National

> Institutes of Health.

>

> /Adapted from materials provided by NIH/National Institute on

Deafness

> and Other Communication Disorders <http://www.nidcd.nih.gov>, via

> EurekAlert! <http://www.eurekalert.org>, a service of AAAS/.

>

>

> NIH/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication

Disorders

> (2008, January 31). A Variety Of Approaches Help Children Overcome

> Auditory Processing And Language Problems. /ScienceDaily/.

Retrieved

> March 25, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­

> /releases/2008/01/080130150529.htm

>

> ____________________________________________________________

> FREE ONLINE PHOTOSHARING - Share your photos online with your

friends and family!

> Visit http://www.inbox.com/photosharing to find out more!

>

>

>