Biomedical subjects

H K Craig

Publications and source records attributed to H K Craig.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

An assessment battery for identifying language impairment in African American children.

This investigation compares the performances of 24 African American children, diagnosed as language impaired (LI) and receiving school-based language therapy, to 2 groups of typically developing peers (N = 48) on 5 traditional types of language assessment measures. Three of the measures were derived from child-centered free play language sample analyses and included average length of communication units (MLCU), frequencies of complex syntax, and numbers of different words. Two of the measures examined language comprehension and included responses to requests for information in the form of Wh-questions and responses to probes of active and passive sentence constructions. The performances of the group of children with language impairments were significantly lower on each measure than that of chronological age matched African American children who were typically developing. Sensitivity and specificity of the battery appeared excellent. The findings are discussed in terms of the potential of these informal language measures to contribute to a culturally fair assessment protocol for young African American children.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1998

Average C-unit lengths in the discourse of African American children from low-income, urban homes.

This investigation reports average length of communication units (C-units) in words and in morphemes for 95 4- to 6 1/2-year-old African American boys and girls from lower-income homes in metropolitan Detroit. Mean C-units increased across the age span of this sample, and kindergartners produced significantly longer C-units than preschoolers. The syntactic complexity of the children's language samples correlated positively with increases in C-unit length, and regression analyses revealed that syntactic complexity was the best predictor of mean C-unit length. Children with longer average C-unit lengths produced greater frequencies of all types of syntactic complexity. Their language samples were distinguished from children with shorter mean C-unit lengths by clauses linked with coordinate and subordinate conjunctions. The findings indicate that average C-unit length will be useful as a quantitative index of linguistic growth in research designs focusing on young school-age African American children living in poverty.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1998

Performances of young African American children on two comprehension tasks.

This investigation examines the performances of 63 urban 4- to 7-year-old African American children from middle-income homes on two tasks designed to assess the development of comprehension skills. Performances on a task designed to elicit responses to wh-questions, and another to distinctions between active and passive sentence constructions, revealed grade effects and a positive relationship to age. The findings are discussed in terms of the appropriateness of using tasks of these types with young African American boys and girls who are dialect users.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1998

Socioeconomic status and gender influences on children's dialectal variations.

This investigation compares dialect use by African American children differing in socioeconomic status (SES) and gender. Subjects were 5- and 6-year-old boys (n = 30) and girls (n = 36), who were kindergartners attending schools in the Metropolitan Detroit area. Comparisons of the amount of dialect in the children's spontaneous discourse revealed systematic differences relative to SES and gender in the frequencies but not the forms of dialect in use. Children from lower-income homes, and boys, were more marked dialect users than their middle-class peers or girls. The sociolinguistic implications of the findings are discussed.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1998

Variable use of African American English across two language sampling context.

This investigation compares the impact of two language sampling elicitation contexts, free play and picture description, on variability in the use of African American English (AAE). Subjects were 65 normally-developing African American 4;4- to 6;3-year-old boys and girls from lower socioeconomic status homes. Comparisons of AAE production in the first 50 C units revealed significant differences by context. Picture descriptions elicited more AAE usage overall, a larger set of AAE types, and took less time. Gender differences in the use of AAE tokens were also apparent, with the boys using significantly more tokens than girls in the free play context. The use of AAE types and tokens was comparable for boys and girls in the picture description context. The advantages of language sampling with pictures to determine dialect usage is discussed.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1994

Dialectal forms during discourse of poor, urban, African American preschoolers.

This study describes nonstandard syntactic and morphological forms used by 45 poor, urban, 4- to 5.5-year-old African American boys and girls. Distributional analyses revealed three subgroups distinguished by the percentage frequencies of occurrence of utterances containing specific forms, and by the predominant types used by each group. Implications for characterizing the linguistic productions of young African American children are discussed.

Black or African American↗

PubMed1993

Access behaviors of children with specific language impairment.

The verbal and nonverbal behaviors used by 5 children with specific language impairment (SLI) to attempt to gain access into established interactions were described and compared with those of chronological-age-mates and language-similar control subjects. Three of the children with SLI were unsuccessful. Two of the children with SLI achieved access but did so without using linguistic forms like those most normal-language children use. All of the children with normal language accessed, and most did so quickly and easily using an orderly and sequential set of indirect behaviors. The findings contribute to social-linguistic characterizations of SLI and clarify specific aspects of access described in the normal-language literature.

Child↗

PubMed1993

Pragmatics and SLI: within-group variations in discourse behaviors.

Selected discourse behaviors of children with specific language impairment (SLI) presenting expressive (E:SLI) or combined expressive-receptive deficits (E-R:SLI) were compared to each other and to chronological age-mates and younger mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched children with normal-language skills. The two SLI subgroups varied from each other on specific measures of turn-taking and cohesion. These findings imply the need for future normative work with SLI subgroups differing in receptive skill, and indicate that, in the interim, pragmatic research with this population will need to consider potential effects of receptive language status when interpreting variations in outcomes for discourse-based variables.

Child↗

PubMed1992

Language sample collection and analysis: interview compared to freeplay assessment contexts.

Spontaneous language samples elicited during freeplay and interview contexts were compared for 10 children who were specifically language impaired (SLI). Clinician-child videotaped interactions were analyzed for both structural and conversational behaviors. The results indicated that the interview was a reliable and valid assessment context, eliciting the same profile of behaviors as the freeplay context without altering diagnostic classifications. Most behaviors occurred significantly more often during the interview than during the freeplay context, indicating further that interviews are an efficient language sampling alternative for assessment purposes with elementary school-aged children with language disorders.

Child↗

PubMed1991

Turn exchange behaviors of children with normally developing language: the influence of gender.

The turn exchanges of normally developing 8-year-old boys and girls were examined within adult-child dyadic interaction. Videotaped language samples were analyzed for gender differences in the children's production of simultaneous and nonsimultaneous speech. The results indicated no gender differences for nonsimultaneous turn exchange behaviors but significant differences in the overlap subtypes and simultaneous resolution patterns between the boys and the girls. Sex of the adult partner influenced the negotiation and ultimate length of the children's turns. The children's gender differences were consistent with the adult literature that characterizes men as more assertive conversationally than women.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Turn exchange characteristics of SLI children's simultaneous and nonsimultaneous speech.

The specifically language impaired (SLI) child's turn exchange behaviors were examined in adult-child interaction and compared to those of children of similar chronological ages or language structural levels. Videotaped language samples were analyzed for verbal and nonverbal behaviors associated with the children's production of simultaneous and nonsimultaneous speech. The results indicated qualitative differences from those of the normal language children in terms of turn errors, interruptions, interactive attention, responsiveness, and turn switch times, as well as variability related to SLI subtype.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1986

Interactive play: the frequency of related verbal responses.

The potential relationship between interactive play and the frequency of related responding to comments was investigated within the dyadic interactions among a 4-year-old Specifically Language Impaired (SLI) boy and normal-language users. The normal-language users were of similar chronological age or language level to the SLI boy. The results indicated that the SLI boy's frequency of related responding was variable but consistently associated with the following: the ratio of other-directed partner turns in play; the frequency of a particular discourse pattern; and the frequency of shared reference across the discourse pattern. Unlike related responses of the SLI child, the frequencies of related responses of normal children were essentially stable. Implications of the differences are discussed.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1984

Pragmatic assessment: analysis of a highly frequent repeated utterance.

The present study examined the pragmatic role of a frequently repeated utterance, "it's gone," within the multiple context conversational interactions of a 4-year-old specifically language-impaired boy. The data indicate that the phrase was an interactive access strategy to engage his partners in a nonexistence/disappearance game, a frequent type of early mother-child interaction. The assessment and intervention implications of these data are discussed.

Child Language↗

PubMed1982

Gaze and proximity as turn regulators within three-party and two-party child conversations.

Gaze and proximity as nonverbal turn-taking behaviors were investigated within the three-party and two-party conversations of normal children. Subjects were six 4-year-old girls matched for familiarity. Alternations of 20-min three-party and 15-min two-party interactions were videotaped and transcribed. The data indicate that within nonsimultaneous language events, gaze and proximity relate to changes in speaker turn and conversational role, with gaze functioning as a current-speaker-selects-next-speaker turn option and proximity functioning as both a current-speaker-selects-next-speaker and a listener self-selection turn option. The data are discussed in terms of the sociocentric character of children's conversations.

Child Language↗

PubMed1979

The structural characteristics of monologues in the speech of normal children: syntactic nonconversational aspects.

The syntactic nonconversational features of monologue speech were investigated as a companion paper to Gallagher and Craig's (1978) study of the semantic and conversational aspects of monologues. The monologue-dialogue language samples collected by Gallagher and Craig from nine normal subjects, three at Brown's language stages I, II, and III, were analyzed syntactically. The original procedure consisted of the collection of a two-hour language sample from each child containing alternations of dialogue with the examiner and monologue produced during independent play. The results indicate that the syntactic categories that occurred in monologue speech were similar to those appearing in dialogue speech but the percentage frequencies differed. Monologue subsamples can be characterized syntactically as highly structured sequences of revision behavior reflecting a basic metalinguistic performative. The clinical implications of the naturally occurring analysis procedures observed are discussed.

Child Language↗

PubMed1978

Structural characteristics of monologues in the speech of normal children: semantic and conversational aspects.

Semantic and conversational aspects of monologues in the speech of normal children were investigated. Subjects were nine children, three each at Brown's language Stages I, II, and III. A two-hour language sample, containing alternations of dialogue with the examiner and monologue produced during independent play, was collected from each child. Results indicate that the semantic and conversational categories that occurred in monologue speech were similar to those that appeared in contextually matched dialogue speech but the proportional frequencies differed. Monoloque subsamples were generally short in length and had a sequencing pattern that was highly consistent and sematically organized. Results are discussed in terms of Piagetian cognitive theory and pragmatic language models.

Child, Preschool↗