Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Committee Chair

Jayne Brandel

Committee Co-Chair

Michelle Moore

Committee Member

Michelle Moore

Committee Member

Alex Hollo

Committee Member

John Oughton

Abstract

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) play an integral role in identification and treatment of developmental language disorders (DLD). Best practices include the use of language sample analysis (LSA) as part of a comprehensive evaluation. However, LSA requires a specific set of foundational morphological and syntactic knowledge. Previous studies have shown a knowledge gap for both SLPs and SLP graduate students for other areas of morphosyntax and phonology. This study examined the language analysis skills of current SLP graduate students on a test of Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) analysis and Clausal Density (CD) and whether there were possible factors associated with performance outcomes.

Method: A national web-based survey was distributed to accredited US SLP graduate programs to disseminate to their students. From the 37 programs which participated, 239 individual students completed they survey. Respondents answered questions about their experiences with LSA, didactic course instruction, and completed a skills test that examined their knowledge of MLU, grammatical morphemes, independent and dependent clauses, and CD. The students’ previous experiences with LSA were examined as potential factors affecting performance outcomes.

Results: The majority of students (88.3%) failed to obtain a mastery level of 80% on MLU skills and none of the students achieved a mastery level of 80% in the CD skills. Previous coursework and general LSA experience had no effect on scores while the use of specific LSA tools and protocols had a significant relationship.

Conclusion: The lack of mastery for MLU and CD skills by the SLP graduate students indicate that the ability to reliably analyze language samples is not present. Current instructional practices at the undergraduate and graduate level would indicate that students lack the clinical skills to accurately evaluate language samples for the morphosyntactic structures that are clinical markers of DLD. Implications include the examination of current graduate education and continuing development for practicing SLPs.

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