CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children

Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet thereis little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments inchildren. Children's language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicineand the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them.Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possibleto achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying childrenwho might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representingten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatricsand child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland,New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing onthis topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a sevenpointscale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the firsttwo authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus.The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation(round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting 'agree' or 'strongly agree') was at least 80 percentfor 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their responsewith written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resultingconsensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and aconcluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base.</p

Phase 2 of CATALISE: a multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development: Terminology.

Background: Lack of agreement about criteria and terminology for children’s language problems affects access to services as well as hindering research and practice. We report the second phase of a study using an online Delphi method to address these issues. In the first phase, we focused on criteria for language disorder. Here we consider terminology.Methods: The Delphi method is an iterative process in which an initial set of statements is rated by a panel of experts, who then have the opportunity to view anonymised ratings from other panel members. On this basis they can either revise their views or make a case for their position. The statements are then revised based on panel feedback, and again rated by and commented on by the panel. In this study, feedback from a second round was used to prepare a final set of statements in narrative form. The panel included 57 individuals representing a range of professions and nationalities. Results: We achieved at least 78% agreement for 19 of 21 statements within two rounds of ratings. These were collapsed into 12 statements for the final consensus reported here. The term ‘Language Disorder’ is recommended to refer to a profile of difficulties that causes functional impairment in everyday life and is associated with poor prognosis. The term, ‘Developmental Language Disorder’ (DLD) was endorsed for use when the language disorder was not associated with a known biomedical aetiology. It was also agreed that (a) presence of risk factors (neurobiological or environmental) does not preclude a diagnosis of DLD, (b) DLD can co-occur with other neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. ADHD) and (c) DLD does not require a mismatch between verbal and nonverbal ability. Conclusions: This Delphi exercise highlights reasons for disagreements about terminology for language disorders and proposes standard definitions and nomenclature. </p

Preschool and Kindergarten Predictors of 6th Grade Reading Comprehension in Monolingual English and Spanish-English Bilingual Children

1. Aims Our aim is to identify and estimate the impact of potential predictors of performance in measures of Grade 6 reading comprehension outcomes, given data on measurements of reading-related abilities taken in the same children at earlier time points: prekindergarten (PK) and kindergarten (K). We propose that, in addition to measurements of ability taken at single time points, we should find that PK-to-K changes in ability scores will predict variance in Grade 6 reading comprehension outcomes. Research Question: Which language, cognitive, decoding skills, and home environment variables in preschool or kindergarten, or growth in language, cognitive, and decoding skills from preschool to kindergarten, best predict reading comprehension in Grade 6 for the English or for the Spanish-English (Dual-Language Learner, DLL) group? 2. Outline of analysis approach In our analyses, we will focus on data recorded from the Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC) sample of children at PK and K, continuing into Grade 6 in the MBRC project. Relevant previous research findings are presented in LARRC (2015a, 2015b, 2015c), LARRC and Chiu (2018), and LARRC, Mesa, and Yeomans-Maldonado (2021). We shall use WRMT Passage Comprehension raw scores taken at Grade 6 as the outcome measure in analysis. Our plan will be to model item- or trial-level response accuracy: the accuracy of the response made by each child to each item in the WRMT, recorded when the child was in Grade 6. We will use Bayesian Generalized Linear Mixed-effects models to predict the log odds that a response will be correct given population level effects (associated with variation between children in abilities) and varying or group-level effects (associated with random differences between children in intercepts or between WMRT items in intercepts or in the slopes of the population effects). We will assume a Bernoulli likelihood function, and weakly informative priors on parameters. -- These methods are preferred because model fits are more likely to be successful. Models will be fit using the Stan probabilistic programming language, coded in R using {brms} library functions for interpretation. Models will be fit on the Lancaster University High-end Computing (HEC) facility

Preschool and Kindergarten Predictors of 6th Grade Reading Comprehension in Monolingual English and Spanish-English Bilingual Children

Given the relatively unchanged National Assessment of Educational Practice (NAEP) scores over the past two decades it is fair to ask whether anything can be done to improve reading comprehension in the U.S., especially for Spanish-English bilingual students who score significantly lower than their monolingual English peers. Prevention is one key (McCardle et al., 2001; Snow et al., 1998), with convincing evidence that early identification and intervention can reduce the number of children with significant reading problems (Linan-Thompson et al., 2006; McMaster et al., 2005). Because Head Start preschools and 73% of public schools offer kindergarten screening (Shields et al., 2016), accurate early identification is a promising approach for identifying children who need tailored instruction early in schooling. The problem is that the best combination of predictors for later reading comprehension has not yet been identified for either monolingual or bilingual children for several reasons. First, most longitudinal studies focus on word reading rather than testing a more comprehensive set of predictors including oral language (vocabulary, grammar, higher-level oral language), cognitive (verbal and nonverbal IQ, working memory), and home literacy predictors. Second, studies focused on reading comprehension often enroll students in early elementary grades when reading comprehension can only be assessed with simple texts versus the more complex texts that older students must read. Third, studies investigating reading comprehension in intermediate and middle school grades (e.g. Cain et al., 2004; Deacon et al., 2014; Kim &amp; Wagner, 2015; Mancilla-Martinez &amp; Lesaux, 2010; Veenendaal et al., 2016;) or in high school (e.g. Mancilla-Martinez et al., 2011; Reynolds &amp; Turek, 2012) typically focus on a small set of predictors within a single construct such as morphology; however, research shows that reading comprehension is a complex skill involving multiple constructs (e.g. LARRC &amp; Logan, 2017; Ortiz et al., 2012). To identify the best early indicators of later reading comprehension we must sample a broad range of constructs when children are young. We plan to report results for two parallel studies. The first study reports planned analyses for our monolingual English participant group. The second study reports planned analyses for our Spanish-English bilingual group. We cannot test between-group differences or directly compare performance between these two groups because the same measures were not given to children in each grade. In preschool, the bilingual group spoke only Spanish; thus, measures were administered in Spanish. Similarly, in kindergarten we cannot assume that the English language skills of children in the bilingual group are comparable to those children in the monolingual English group, even if children were assessed in English

The Process and Product of Coherence Monitoring in Young Readers: Effects of Reader and Text Characteristics

The pre-registration for this paper can be found at: https://osf.io/r69a