ASHA Learning Pass

This session summarizes a study of two groups of college students (25 with developmental language disorder [DLD], 25 with typical language [TL]) who were compared on measures of length, complexity, and quality of their expository written language. Results suggest that college students with DLD are likely to write expository samples with fewer words and more syntactic errors than their peers with TL. All other measures of length, complexity, and quality were relatively similar across groups. This session discusses the practical implications of these findings and the importance of individual strengths-and-needs assessment and intervention for this population.

This course is a recorded session from the 2022 ASHA Convention Virtual Library (session 5547V).

Related Courses

See more sessions from the 2022 ASHA Convention.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• Explain the similarities and differences between the expository writing of college students with and without developmental language disorder
• Apply information about writing abilities for college students with developmental language disorder to their assessment and intervention in this population
• Interpret the results of Bayesian general linear mixed models for language research

Presenter Information

Alexander Tucci (presenting author) is a doctoral candidate (graduating May 2022) in speech, language, and hearing sciences at the University of Arizona. The data discussed in this presentation is part of Tucci's dissertation project. Tucci has co-authored several papers and presentations focused on intervention for developmental language disorders, language sample analysis, and psychometrics.

Financial Disclosures:

• This project was partially funded by a University of Arizona Graduate and Professional Student Council Research and Project Grant. Grant funds were used for analysis tools and participant compensation from Fall 2020 to Fall 2021.

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• None

Elena Plante, PhD, CCC-SLP (nonpresenting author) conducts assessment and treatment research with developmental language disorders in children and adults, with over 100 publications. Her work has been funded by the NIDCD and IES. She is an ASHA Fellow, has been awarded Honors of the Association, and has both an earned doctorate from the University of Arizona and an honorary doctorate from the University of Bergen.

Financial Disclosures:

• Royalties from Brookes Publishing for the TILLS test, which was used in this study

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• None

Rebecca Vance, MS, CCC-SLP (nonpresenting author) is a certified speech-language pathologist who earned her BA in speech and hearing sciences and MS in speech-language pathology from The University of Arizona. She worked as a school-based speech-language pathologist for several years before returning to the University as a clinical instructor. Over the past 20 years, she has worked alongside Elena Plante, PhD, to publish numerous articles in the areas of assessment and intervention of individuals with developmental language disorder.

Financial Disclosures:

• None

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• None

Assessment Type

Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

To earn continuing education credit, you must complete the learning assessment by the end date below. 

Program History and CE Information

Content origination date: November 2022
End date: February 1, 2029.

This course is offered for 0.05 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level, Professional area).