Lexical retrieval difficulties in children: a new approach combining modelling of impairment and intervention to help word-finding (Part 2)

Data was collected via a confrontation naming task, presented on a computer. Target items were drawn from the following word sets: Funnell, Hughes and Woodcock (2006) and Druks and Masterson (2000). The materials consisted of 100 black and white line drawings of objects.
The picture naming task was programmed using the experimental software DMDX (Forster & Forster, 2003) running on a laptop computer with a 15.4-inch screen. Naming responses were scored contemporaneously and were recorded using an external microphone connected to the laptop.
All 100 items were presented in a single session divided into four blocks of 25 items each. The child was asked to provide a single word for each picture. The tester moved to the next item as soon as the child named the picture. Four fixed randomized orders were rotated across children during testing.
Each trial began with the presentation of a fixation cross in the centre of the screen for 500 msecs. Then the picture appeared and stayed on the screen for a maximum of 10000 msecs. Three items, not used in the main testing session, were presented for practice. Feedback on accuracy was given during the practice trials but not during the main task.

Participant selection: children were referred by the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators / Inclusion Managers at their schools. 20 children were included in the trial from 24 originally referred to the study. The children were aged from 6 to 8 years and had WFDs based on their performance on the Test of Word Finding Second Edition (TWF-2; German, 2000). The TWF-2 test assesses a potential disparity between word production and word comprehension. All children scored in the normal range on the comprehension component of the test, with a word-finding quotient of below 90. None of our sample had a diagnosis of dyspraxia, autistic spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or global developmental delay. Our consideration of WFDs does not entail that WFDs are the sole language deficit that these children experienced, although for many of the children study, it was the most salient. Children were not recruited if they were having one-to-one intervention for language during the period of the study.

Please see the following publication for full details of our data collection methods: W. Best, A. Fedor, L. Hughes, A. Kapikian, J. Masterson, S. Roncoli, L. Fern-Pollak & M.S.C. Thomas (2015): Intervening to alleviate word-finding difficulties in children: case series data and a computational modelling foundation(see Related Resources).