Home

Abstract

Biography

Research

References

Links

Augmentative Communication – A low or high-tech method of communication which allows a non-verbal person to communicate. For this website, augmentative communication will mean pictures used to represent words.

Boardmaker – A computer software program created by the Mayer-Johson company to assist in creating picture boards used in communciation.

Community Role Models – A child who is “typically” developing. Screenings in the areas of gross and fine motor skills and speech and language skills indicate age-appropriate skills.

Expressive Language –The ability to use language to share throughts, ideas, and feelings both orally and written. For this document,expressive language will refer to spoken language.

IDEA – The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 were signed into law on June 4, 1997. This Act strengthens academic expectations and accountability for the nation's 5.8 million children with disabilities and bridges the gap that has too often existed between what children with disabilities learn and what is required in regular curriculum.

Individual Education Plan (IEP) – A document created between a school system and parents which outline a child’s edcuational support program. It might include speech/language therapy, occupational therapy, physcial therapy, and special education services. Goals and objectives are incorporated into the plan as well as the amount of time for each support service.

Language – According The American Speech-Langauge Hearing Association languge is a code made up of rules that include what words mean, how to make new words (friend, friendly, unfriendly), how to combine words together ("Peg walked to the new store." not "Peg walk store new"), and what word combinations are best in what situations.

Language Delay – A child’s language is like that of a younger child.

Literacy – The literacy dictionary states that there is no “consensual agreement on a single definition of literacy. Soares (1992) observes that the concept of literacy involves a set of structures ranging from individual skills, abilities, and knowledge to social practices and functional competence to ideological values and political goals (Harris & Hodges , 1995).

Oral Language – Language that is spoken versus written.

Phoneme – A minimal sound unit of speech that when contrasted with another phoneme, affects the meaning of words in a language, i.e., /b/ in book contrasts with /t/ in took.

Phonemic Awareness – The awareness of sounds that make up spoken words. Phonemic awareness is important in learning to read. It differs from phonics in that phonics uses letter sounds and rules in decoding. The first step on the hierarchy is rhyming.

Phonological Awareness – Awareness of the constituent sounds of words in learning to read and spell.

Receptive Language – The ability to understand and process language that is heard, often referred to as comprehension of language.

Semantics – Knowledge of vocabulary and knowledge about objects and events.

Shared Reading – An early childhood instructional strategy in which the teacher involves a group of young children in the readin gof a paricular big book in order to help them learn aspects of beginning literacy.

Speech – The movement of body parts to produce sounds in order to produce expressive language, often referred to as articulation. The language code can be correct, but if the right body parts are not moved at the right time, then the message will not sound right. People who stutter and whose voices sound rough, hoarse or nasal all have speech problems.

Spontaneous Language – Language a child uses naturally.

Syntax – Sentence structure or order of words in a sentence.

Scientific

This is the scientific glossary used during research

Box score, vote counting – the researcher counts the number or proportion of studies that arrived at a particular result

Content analyses – examine what the texts are about from a specific perspective, i.e., culture or gender

Discriminant function analysis – also known as discriminant analysis or DA; used to classify research cases into values of a specific depended in a category-usually there are two dependents being reviewed in a study

Effect size statistic – method for synthesizing research findings based on the number of participants and sizes of relationships or differences evident in primary studies

Historiographic analysis – analysis of historical facts and determination of accuracy

Homeorhetic – a type of growth in literacy theory, rather than being stage-like, the movement increases by spurts and hesitations rather than with uniformity

Literary analyses – examine texts to describe what the authors do by looking at various characteristics of the text

Mathemagenic – any behaviors that lead to learning in an instructional setting

Meta-analysis – the statistical analysis of the summary findings of many empirical studies

Meta-analysis technique – any of several methods that combine results from a program evaluation to reach a conclusion about a program or intervention

Metacognition – awareness of mental processes so that they can be monitored, regulated and directed to a specific end.

Metalanguage – language used to describe natural language

Metalinguistic - referring to language in relation to culture

Monograph – a detailed, well-documented study in one or more volumes of a limited subject

Nonparametric statistics – methods used to analyze data that are not assumed to be in a normal distribution

Quantitative reviews – pool data from original studies and statistically analyze the effect of contextual factors and confounds on the dependent measures of interest

Qualitative or narrative reviews – intuitive description and analysis of findings-dependent upon researcher’s judgment and insight vs. data

Research synthesis, integrative review, research integration, literature review – methods of inquiry used to derive generalizations from the collective findings of a body of existing studies

Semiotics – the study of signals or signs as a form of communication

Shared Language – practice of building vocabulary that students and teacher understand to discuss stories and build reading comprehension

Substantive theory – describes everyday or real life situations

Synthesis methodology – allows for systematic analysis of research studies in order to pool results and draw more reliable conclusions

Theoretical sampling – collecting, coding, and analyzing data to create a theory and decide what data to collect next