The expressive vocabulary of children with Down Syndrome (DS) is generally measured with parental reports, such as the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI), given that standardized tests for assessing vocabulary levels may be too difficult for most young children with DS. The CDI provides important insight into the parents’ perception of their child’s vocabulary development. The CDI has proven to be a valid measurement of expressive vocabulary, spoken and gestural, in typical and atypical populations. The validity in children with DS is not well established and signed vocabulary is often not included. This longitudinal study examined the concurrent and predictive validity of the Dutch version of the CDI (N-CDI) in children with DS between 2;0 and 7;6 years old to assess spoken and signed vocabulary. N-CDI scores were assessed on strength of association with mental age,an expressive vocabulary test and spontaneous language analyses in a play setting with parents at T1 and T2 (1.5 years later), and a therapy setting with speech language pathologists at T1. The results of the present study show that the N-CDI is a valuable and valid measurement of expressive vocabulary in children with DS. Strengths and weaknesses of several assessment methods for expressive vocabulary are discussed.
The adoption of tablets by young children has raised enthusiasm and concern among speech and language pathologists. This study investigated whether tablet games can be used as effectively as real play objects in vocabulary intervention for children with developmental language disorder (DLD). A randomized, controlled non-inferiority trial was conducted with 70 3-year-old children with DLD. The novel intervention group (n = 35) received 12 10-min scripted intervention sessions with symbolic play using a tablet game spread out over 8–9 weeks. The standard intervention group (n = 35) received the same amount of intervention with real objects using the same vocabulary scripts. In each session, children were exposed to 22 target words. The primary outcome was the number of new target words learned. This was measured using a picture selection task including 22 target words and 22 control words at 3 time intervals: before the intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 5 weeks later. In both intervention groups, the children learned significantly more target words than control words. No significant differences in gains between the two intervention conditions were found. This study provides evidence that vocabulary intervention for toddlers with DLD using a tablet game is equally as effective as an intervention using real objects.
LINK
As entrepreneurship is seen as very important for economic growth the education of entrepreneurship is getting more interest, not only from business oriented schools, but also from non-business schools. It is widely recognized that entrepreneurship education needs other approaches of teaching. To teachers it means that they have to change their education. In 2013 we started an training program for teachers to teach more entrepreneurial. This program is designed around constructivistic teaching and action learning. One of the things we found out during the teachers program, is that non-business teachers and students have other experiences and use other words to describe entrepreneurship. To find the right language and therefore the right teaching program, it is valuable to find out the vocabulary that people use when they describe entrepreneurship. We developed a scale of different elements of entrepreneurship according to which people can score their view on entrepreneurship. Scoring the different elements of entrepreneurship will clear for example the differences of entrepreneurial view between business and non-business students. The entrepreneurial view can be used to design the teaching program for entrepreneurial students. That view can also be used to get a better understanding among different (business and non-business) students to help them to learn more from each other. Besides that, the entrepreneurial view can also be used to discuss about that view and develop a more complete and nuanced view of entrepreneurship. With the right vocabulary the model for entrepreneurship education can be tailor-made.
MULTIFILE
