There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t hear an SLP out there cry in frustration: “I’m NOT a speech teacher! I’m a freaking SLP!”
And for good reason. No one likes to be mislabeled or misunderstood, and when it comes down to it, a lot of people don’t REALLY understand what we do all day.
“It’s all just games and stickers, right? Why do you need a master’s degree to do that?” (says unnamed school staff member as I try not to punch them in the face)
Do we need to chill out sometimes and just choose our battles on some days? You bet.
But would it be nice if people just recognized how unique and valuable we are? Yes. For real.
After all, we are in the trenches HUSTLING day after day just trying to give our students a fighting chance to get through school with passing grades and become productive members of society.
So what’s a poor “speech teacher labeled” SLP to do when no one has a clue what they’re doing behind the mysterious speech room doors?
It starts with being 100% rock solid in understanding exactly what we should be doing.
The sooner you get informed and recognize what you are (i.e., a bada$$ with amazing speechie superpowers), the sooner you can get around to helping other people get it.
That’s why I’m going to clear up some of that confusion with an epic list of vocabulary techniques from one of my favorite non-ASHA peer reviewed journals, Child Language Teaching and Therapy (published in the UK), and I’ll also share a free training to take it a step further once you’re done with this article.
In the tune of keeping to the “Research Summaries for People Who Hate Reading Research”, I’m going to give you a list of cutting edge therapy techniques backed by evidence that you can use right away in therapy.
This review is a bit different though, because this particular article is not a study itself, but rather a summary of studies that have stood the test of time.
This is how it’ll go down:
First I’ll give you the highlights of the literature review portion of the article, which will include some key big ideas you need to know as an SLP serving school age kiddos with language impairments.
Second, I’ll get to “the list”. This is where I’ll outline all of the techniques the authors of the article described, which were based on the past research supporting effective vocabulary intervention SPECIFICALLY for kids with language impairments.
Before we get started, let me give you the reference:
Steel, S. C. & Mills, M. T. (2011). Vocabulary intervention for school-age children with language impairment: A review of evidence and good practice, Child Language Teaching and Therapy 27, 354 –370. doi: 10.1177/0265659011412247
Before you can effectively build you students vocabulary, we need to be able to answer some key questions that plague us day by day as we scramble to help our students catch up to their peers.
Here’s the first question to ponder:
Kids in elementary school can learn between 3,000-5,000 words per year? How the heck is that even possible?
Yes, it’s true. This number has been cited across various published sources (Biemiller & Boote, 2006; Cain, 2007). It sounds crazy, but kids are “spongy” (I know, I’m being super official and technical here).
What I mean is that most typically developing students have the ability to learn language at a rapid rate because they can learn words incidentally. This means that most kids can remember aspects of words as they’re exposed to them during functional contexts.
This huge BOOM in vocabulary development continues throughout the elementary years as kids learn new words in language-rich school environments. Of those 3000-5000 words, about 800-1200 of those words can be learned through exposures during reading (Steele & Mills, 2011).
The answer to this question brings us to the first big idea:
Big Idea #1: Kids learn words incidentally
Before the next idea, you might have another question.
If “typically” developing students can learn words incidentally, what about my poor kiddos who are drowning?
You want the good news or the bad news first?
Let’s go with the good. Students with language impairments ALSO learn words incidentally through exposure.
Now, the bad news…which shouldn’t be a surprise.
Even though students with language impairments can learn words implicitly, they do so less effectively than other kids. This means that if they only get several exposures to a word, it might not “stick”.
A fancier, more “official” way of saying that would be that they don’t retain the linguistic features of the word (e.g., semantic, phonological, syntactic, morphologic, orthographic; Alt, Plante, Creusere, 2004; Gatherole & Baddeley, 1990; Rice, Cleave, & Oetting, 2000).
Students with language impairments may have incomplete or inaccurate information stored, which means they don’t always use words effectively.
They also have a difficult time retaining the phonological information about a word in their memory, as well as information about semantic features.
Verbs tend to be particularly difficult for students with language impairments, especially in comparison to nouns.
This makes sense if you think about it. For a noun, we need to use rules of morphology to change the word from a singular to a plural.
For verbs, we have to use rules of morphology too, but there are more options. There are so many verb tenses, and sometimes it’s just too many rules for our students to remember.
Hence, the next big idea:
Big Idea #2: Kids with language impairments learn words incidentally too.
They just can’t do it as well, which means they need some additional strategic word exposure. This is where SLPs come in.
Now, time for one more question.
If kids with language impairments don’t learn as well through incidental learning, then how DO they learn best?
This is one of my FAVORITE questions to answer because it validates SLPs and what they are doing in the schools on so many levels.
First of all, if you are beating yourself up because you feel like you’re doing too much pull-out therapy, STOP THAT NOW!
Students with language impairments respond well to structured learning situations that allow for intensive modeling, production probes (e.g., cues that get them to practice target words/tasks), and corrective feedback (Steele & Mills, 2011).
Sometimes pull-out therapy is the best setting to get all of this in. There are times that the classroom setting just doesn’t give us enough control to deliver the intensity and feedback that our students need.
I’m not knocking push-in or co-taught models, because they have an important place as well. But don’t just do it because it sounds sexy. Do it when your students are ready for it.
So the next time someone asks you why you’re doing so much pull out therapy, you can unapologetically say, “Because it’s EXACTLY what my students need.”
I’m going to get in to the nitty gritty and give you some tools for doing this in the next section, but first I’ll give you the last big idea:
Big Idea #3: Students with language impairments may need MORE exposure that most kids.
In this next section, I’m going to outline five of the techniques that Steele and Mills (2011) described.
They are deceptively simply, yet powerfully effective. And the best part is that they are exactly what you can be doing as the bada$$ SLP you know you are.
1. Pick right the words
This can often be the most challenging part for therapists, for several reasons. Ideally, you will want to select the words that you think are difficult for students, but also you think will be the most functional for your students across settings (Beck, Mckeown, & Kucan, 2002).
If you’ve followed my work for any length of time, you know I talk about word selection A LOT. While this is only the first step, it can be one of the most important things you do, because it lays the groundwork for everything you do beyond this point.
Another thing; sometimes SLPs get stuck here. The result is that they default back to their old habits, which sets them back down the path to “speech teacher” syndrome (because they don’t have a strategic plan).
You want to begin with the end in mind here, and ask yourself, “Will learning this word be helpful to my student’s life?” Let that be your guiding principle for word selection so you can move on to the next step.
2. Explain what the words mean
We know that many students with language impairments aren’t able to store and access semantic information given just a couple exposures to words.
What can make the difference for them is simply taking the time to tell them what a word means, rather than requiring them to always infer and learn implicitly.
This has proven to make a significant difference in word learning for students with weak vocabularies (Biemiller & Boote, 2006).
3. Show them how to use the words
A.K.A. Modelling. I couldn’t leave this one out because it is so insanely simple, yet so important. It’s not just enough to tell us what words mean; they have to see MULTIPLE examples of how to use a word (Nippold, 2006).
Sure, they are getting this incidentally in their language-rich classroom; but remember that you need to add that strategic element. What you can do is give them ADDITIONAL modeling.
And, because the therapy setting is more controlled, you can pay close attention to the types of contexts you are modeling. Teachers can do this as well, but because they have so many things going on in their classrooms, you will be able to make this more focused and strategic (and intensive).
You may also be able to provide modeling that is more varied and specific to the things your student is struggling with compared to the teacher.
Think about verb tenses, for example. We all have those students who get stuck on a particular grammatical rule; so what we can do in therapy is make sure that we model that language form over and over again for our students with target vocabulary.
4. Get ‘em to say the words
Here’s the next step, and if we’re getting official here, it’s called using “production probes”. You’ve picked the right words. You’ve explained what the word means, AND you’ve modeled use of the word.
Now, it’s time to give your student a chance to practice it (keep in mind that you don’t always have to strictly follow these “steps” in order all the time). Production probes are any type of cue or situation you can set up in order to get your students to say the target words.
This could include eliciting questions that require that the student say the words, they could include types of media (e.g., picture, video) relating to the word that you could discuss with your students, and can also include sentence frames or “fill-in-the-blanks” exercises (Steele & Mills, 2011).
5. Help them use the words the right way
Once you’ve given your students a chance to use the words, you’ll want to be aware that they might not always use the word effectively. Here’s where we want to scaffold, so that our students are more successful (Nelson & Van Meter, 2006).
There are a number of different supports you can have handy. This could include repeating the word/phrase back correctly for your students and having them repeat it back to you, providing part of the desired response and having your students complete the rest of it (instead of asking them to say the whole thing themselves), or providing sentence frames and “fill-in-the-blank” exercises.
I realized that I already mentioned some of these techniques in the “production probes” tip; however they can be considered a scaffold as well if they are used for the purpose of structuring a response for a student who is having difficulty.
So there you have it.
You can follow this crazy-simple solution and know that you’re giving your students exactly what they need.
If you liked this article, you may also like this free guide for SLPs.
It’s called The Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure.
Inside you’ll learn exactly how to focus your language therapy. Including:
- The hidden culprit behind unexplained “processing problems” that’s often overlooked.
- The deceptively simple way to write language goals; so you’re not spending hours on paperwork (goal bank included).
- The 4 sentence types often behind comprehension and expression issues and why they’re so difficult.
- An easy-to-implement “low-prep” strategy proven to boost sentence structure, comprehension, and written language (conjunctions flashcards included).
References
Alt M, Plante E, and Creusere M (2004) Semantic features in fast-mapping: Performance of preschoolers with specific language impairment versus preschoolers with normal language. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 47: 407–20.
Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Biemiller, A., & Boote, C. (2006). An effective method for building meaning vocabulary in primary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 44-62. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.44
Cain, K. (2007). Deriving word meanings from context: Does explanation facilitate contextual analysis? Journal of Research in Reading, 30, 347-359. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2007.00336.x
Gathercole, S. E., & Baddeley, A. D. (1990) Phonological memory deficits in language disordered children: Is there a causal connection? Journal of Memory and Language, 29, 336–60
Nelson NW and Van Meter AM (2006) Finding the words: Vocabulary development for young authors. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Nippold, M. A. (2016). Later language development: School-age children, adolescents, and young adults (4th Ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed. Inc.
Rice, M.L., Cleave, P. L., & Oetting, J.B. (2000) The use of syntactic cues in lexical acquisition by children with SLI. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 582–94.
Steel, S. C. & Mills, M. T. (2011). Vocabulary intervention for school-age children with language impairment: A review of evidence and good practice, Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 27, 354 –370. doi: 10.1177/0265659011412247
