Educational attainments of children with specific language impairment at year 6

Abstract

The present study examined the performance of a group of children with Speci c Language Impairment (SLI) in National Curriculum Key Stage 2 (KS2) assessments of key curricular subjects. One hundred children (86 boys and 14 girls), who previously had all been in full-time attendance at specialist provision in the form of language units, participate d in the study. The sample of participants were recruited in their nal year of primary school education (year 6) and were divided into two groups, matched for ability, de ned by the nature of their current educational placement. The Mainstream Education group comprised 50 children attending mainstream education with or without some level of additiona l support. The Special Education group consisted of 50 children attending special education in the form of either a language unit, a language school, or a special school. Participants ' performance in the National Curriculum KS2 assessments was measured, together with an examination of assessment procedures concerning the applicatio n of special testing arrangements. It was found that participants performed poorly relative to national levels of expectation and achievement across the curricular subjects of English, mathematics and science in both KS2 tests and teacher assessments. The Mainstream Education group of participants was found to perform signi cantly better than the Special Education group in the mathematics and science tests. Furthermore, special arrangements were made for a large number of participants who did take the tests.

The kid's speech: The effect of stuttering on human capital acquisition

“…Using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we explore the relationship between stuttering, a common speech impairment, and three outcomes: high school grade point average, the probability of high school graduation, and the probability of college attendance. Consistent with the results of previous studies (Catts 1993;Walker et al 1994;Stothard et al 1998;Snowling et al 2001;Catts et al 2002;Knox 2002;Nathan et al 2004;Catts et al 2008;Harrison et al 2009;Eide and Showalter 2010;Law et al 2010;Johnson et al 2010), baseline OLS estimates produce evidence that stuttering is negatively related to all three of these outcomes. However, propensity score matching and family fixed effects estimates produce small, often statistically insignificant estimates.…”

“…Although previous studies have shown that children with speech impairments score lower on tests of reading and math (Catts 1993;Walker et al 1994;Stothard et al 1998;Catts et al 2002;Knox 2002;Nathan et al 2004;Catts et al 2008;Harrison et al 2009;Eide and Showalter 2010;Law et al 2010) and go on to receive fewer years of education than their counterparts without speech impairments (Snowling et al 2001;Johnson et al 2010), their results could easily have been driven by unobservables at the individual, family, school, or neighborhood level. Using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we explore the relationship between stuttering, a common speech impairment, and three outcomes: high school grade point average, the probability of high school graduation, and the probability of college attendance.…”

“…There is a large body of work showing that speech impairments are associated with sharply lower scores on tests of reading and math (Catts 1993;Walker et al 1994;Stothard et al 1998;Catts et al 2002;Knox 2002;Nathan et al 2004;Catts et al 2008;Harrison et al 2009;Eide and Showalter 2010;Law et al 2010). There is also evidence, albeit weaker, that children with speech impairments go on to receive fewer years of education than their counterparts without speech impairments (Snowling et al 2001;Johnson et al 2010).…”

Constructing Preschool Communities of Learners that Afford Alternative Language Development

“…Discussions about inclusion have mainly been concerned with the ethical and ideological bases of inclusion and the influences of educational settings on traditional academic achievement (e.g., Daniels & Garner, 1999;Guralnick, 2001b;Knox, 2002;Pijl, Meijer, & Hegarty, 1997). This is also true for inclusion involving children who are developing alternative means of communication (e.g., Baumgart et al, 1990;Beukelman, Mirenda & Sturm, 1998;Harris, 1982).…”

The impact of specific language impairment on performance in science and suggested implications for pedagogy

“…The core subjects of the National Curriculum (NC) in England are English, maths and science; each of these subjects require a high level of language skills (Dockrell et al, 2007) and they make increasing linguistic demands on children as they get older (Knox, 2002). Longitudinal studies of children with specific language impairment (SLI) have found that they perform less well than their TD peers in the core subjects in KS 2 and 3 SATs and at GCSE (Conti-Ramsden et al, 2002;2009;Dockrell et al, 2007), although they achieve better in science than in English and maths, a finding that these authors do not discuss in detail.…”