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Published on: January 23, 2017
Investigating Variability and Malleability of Speech-Language Pathologists' Responsive Talk With Children: An
Laura M Justice1, Jared Duval2, Rong-An Jhuo1
1Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, The Ohio State University, Columbus.
Purpose:
The purposes of this early-stage efficacy study were to examine speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') use of responsive talk with children and to determine the extent to which responsive talk can be modified through brief clinician education or an in situ, tablet-based feedback system, GENIE, that provided real-time prompts to use responsive talk.
Method:
Eleven SLPs (certified clinicians and graduate students) and 11 typically developing preschool-aged children participated in a quasi-experimental study. SLPs were paired with a randomly assigned child to complete two structured intervention sessions to assess responsive talk. In the first session, SLPs used their business-as-usual practices, whereas in the second session, SLPs were randomly assigned to receive clinician education or the in situ GENIE prompts, representing a planned variation in instructing SLPs to use responsive talk during intervention. SLP responsive talk was coded from video-recorded interactions to establish the frequency of use.
Results:
SLPs demonstrated substantial variability in the baseline use of responsive talk. Responsive talk increased substantially from baseline for those receiving clinician education or the in situ GENIE prompts: Increases in responsive talk for the clinician education group represented a very large-sized effect (d = 2.1), whereas increases for the GENIE group represented a moderately sized effect (d = 0.6).
Conclusions:
The primary conclusion to be drawn from this study is that SLPs' use of responsive talk during intervention is both variable and malleable. Findings suggest that brief clinician education and in situ technological supports are promising strategies for increasing SLPs' use of responsive talk, and directions for future research are discussed.
