Tilgangur rannsóknarinnar var að bera saman áhrif beinnar og óbeinnar
orðaforðakennslu hjá börnum með málþroskaröskun. Einkenni málþroskaröskunar er
slök færni í tungumálinu, bæði í málskilningi og máltjáningu. Beina orðaforðakennslan
fólst í að lesa sögubók og skoða hvort börn lærðu ný orð með því að útskýra og vinna
sérstaklega með ákveðin markorð sem komu fyrir í textanum. Við óbeina kennslu
var sama bók lesin án þess að staldra við markorðin eða útskýra þau. Þátttakendur
voru tveir, báðir í elsta árgangi í leikskóla, og höfðu niðurstöður málþroskamælinga
fyrir íhlutun sýnt slaka færni, bæði í málskilningi og máltjáningu. Kennslan fór fram
í leikskóla barnanna fjórum sinnum í viku, í sex vikur. Niðurstöður leiddu í ljós að
góður árangur náðist með þann orðaforða sem kenndur var með beinni kennslu.
Orðaforði barnanna jókst hins vegar mun minna við óbeina kennslu. Sú þekking
sem börnin höfðu tileinkað sér að lokinni íhlutun hélst að nokkru leyti mánuði eftir
að íhlutun lauk. Mikilvægt er að lesa fyrir leikskólabörn og skapa aðstæður þar sem
markvisst er verið að kenna ný orð. Jafnframt er nauðsynlegt að huga sérstaklega vel
að börnum með slaka málfærni og auðvelda þeim að hlusta á sögu með því að útskýra
orð jafnóðum. Þessar niðurstöður gefa vísbendingar um að til að auka orðaforða
barna við sögulestur þurfi að útskýra ný orð sérstaklega. Foreldrar, kennarar og
talmeinafræðingar geta ekki gert ráð fyrir að börn tileinki sér ný orð með því að
heyra þau lesin í sögubók og geti sér til um þýðingu þeirra út frá samhengi.
Children diagnosed with developmental language disorders (DLD) have difficulty
learning language. This affects both language comprehension and expression and
occurs without any obvious explanation. Many children with DLD have coexisting
conditions, such as attentional or emotional problems. Children with DLD can
have different types of difficulties learning language and the severity varies. The
symptoms are numerous, including problems with learning and applying the rules of
grammar, sentence construction, and language use. One common symptom is limited
vocabulary. Children with DLD have smaller receptive and expressive vocabularies
than their peers. They learn new words at slower rate and forget newly acquired
words more rapidly. They know fewer words and have weaker semantic connections
within their lexical system. This deficit is visible in their expressive language as they
often use simple, high frequency vocabulary. This lack of vocabulary diversity can
affect their future reading comprehension and academic performance. Research have
shown that DLD is common, with approximately 9% of children displaying signs of
language impairment without other coexisting difficulties. Considered in the context
of the population of Iceland, this means that approximately 400 children in every
year-based age group could be affected by DLD.
The aim of this project was to examine the effect of an intervention which aimed
to increase the vocabulary of two children diagnosed with DLD. Both attended the
same preschool and were in their last year in the preschool where the training took
place. The training involved reading a story book where two different methods of
teaching target words were compared. The words were either (a) explained explicitly
and directly when they occurred in the text, or (b) indirectly when the children were
exposed to the words in the text but without explicit teaching. A multiple baseline
design was employed by comparing the intervention methods between the children.
The intervention took place four times a week for six weeks. Child A received
indirect teaching in the first week, then two weeks of direct teaching, followed by
three weeks of indirect teaching. As regards Child B, indirect teaching occurred in
the first four weeks, followed by direct teaching during the last two weeks. The effect
of the intervention was measured by testing how well the children could define the
target words and by language samples of spontaneous speech. Measurements were
made before, during, and immediately following training, as well as a month after
training ended.
Expanding vocabulary by direct teaching was found to be a more powerful method
than indirect teaching. Vocabulary training using direct teaching had a positive effect
with regard to the words taught. Measurements showed that when direct teaching
was conducted the children in this study knew the words and were able to explain them, whereas their vocabulary improved only slightly when indirect teaching
methods were applied. Measurements taken a month after intervention showed that
the children did not fully retain the newly gained vocabulary. It is clear, however, that
to maintain the newly gained vocabulary repeated reading, including discussion of
target words, is necessary for children with DLD. Reading storybooks with or without
direct teaching of target words did not affect the children’s spontaneous vocabulary
use as measured by language samples; that is, they did not begin to use more complex
and different words when speaking spontaneously. However, on average the children
produced more grammatically correct sentences and made fewer morphemic errors.
The findings of this study show the importance of reading story books to children
during their preschool years. The findings demonstrate that for learning new words
children with poor language skills need direct teaching and repeated intensive
instruction. It is not enough merely to read the stories without explaining unknown
new words. Furthermore, repeated measurements showed that during and after the
intervention the children spoke with fewer grammatical errors. This is probably
because the researcher made intensive use of the method of recasting during the
intervention. Recasting has been shown to be an effective way of correcting syntactic
and grammatical errors.
The study also demonstrated the importance of supporting children with poor
language skills and facilitating their language acquisition. These results can be used
for the benefit of parents, teachers and speech pathologists alike.
