The Vocabularies of Beginning Writers: Implications for Students Who Use AAC

1. The Vocabularies of Beginning Writers: Implications for Students Who Use AAC Sally A Clendon, MSLT Center for Literacy and Disability Studies & Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, UNC: Chapel Hill Janet Sturm, PhD Department of Communication Disorders, Central Michigan University Kathleen Cali, MA Department of Education, UNC: Chapel Hill

2. Barriers to Literacy Development for Students who use AAC • Parent, teacher, and learner expectations (Koppenhaver & Yoder, 1993) • Quantity and quality of literacy-related experiences (Light & McNaughton, 1993) • Individual cognitive (Dorman, 1987) and perceptual capabilities (Danilova, 1983) • Physical constraints (Schonell, 1956) • Linguistic constraints (e.g., Berninger & Gans, 1986)

3. Vocabulary and AAC • Acquiring new vocabulary is a fairly static process (Carlson, 1981; Light, 1997) • Reliant on adults to determine what vocabulary is necessary and appropriate (Light, 1997) • Typically have vocabularies which are “grossly inadequate to meet their communication needs” (Light, 1997, p. 164) • Vocabulary words selected are often inappropriate (Carlson, 1981) • Often do not have access to vocabulary that is needed to compose text across a variety of topics and genres

4. Research in Education

5. Rinsland’s (1945) Study • Largest analysis. • Obtained writing samples from 780 elementary schools across the United States. • Produced a corpus of 6,012,359 words written by just over 100,000 students. • Identified 25,632 different words from the total corpus. • Different words ranged from 5,099 in Grade 1 to 17,930 in Grade 8. • Total words ranged from 353,874 in Grade 1 to 1,088,343 in Grade 8.

6. Key Findings from Review of 11 Studies • Vocabulary lists based on typically developing children’s writing samples are likely to be more representative of children’s current experiences than those based on basal reading materials (Shapiro & Gunderson, 1988) • There is greater variability in the content words that have been included in frequency-based vocabulary lists than there is in the structure words that have been included (Reich & Reich,1979)

7. Vocabulary lists based on written language are less variable than vocabulary lists based on spoken language (Reich & Reich, 1979) • The vocabulary that children choose to write or say is influenced by the manner in which it is collected (Reich & Reich, 1979) • Vocabulary lists derived from spoken language may not differ significantly according to children’s SES or ethnic backgrounds (Reich & Reich ,1979)

8. Research in AAC

9. McGinnis & Beukelman (1989) • Examined the writing vocabularies of typically developing children. • Collected writing samples from: 70 2nd graders 79 3rd graders 80 4th graders 68 5th graders 77 6th graders

10. Writing samples taken from: - letter writing activities - science project assignments - language arts assignments

11. 374 writing samples. • Analyzed using SALT (Miller & Chapman, 1984). • 161 words occurred at least once per 1000 words. These words accounted for 70% of sample. • 92 out of the 161 words were used by children in at least 4 out of the 5 grade levels.

12. Shared vocabularies: letter writing and language arts assignments (62%) letter writing and science project assignments (37%). • Fewer structure words in science project assignments.

13. Research Needs Research is needed which: • Involves children that represent a variety of different geographic, ethnic, and cultural groups. • documents the vocabulary used when children self-select writing topics. • documents the vocabulary used across different writing topics and genres. • examines the use of phrases or multi-word sequences (McGinnis & Beukelman, 1989).

14. Research Questions • What content and structure words do typically developing kindergarten and first-grade children use when composing using self-selected writing topics? • Do the children use different vocabulary words when they write about different topics? • Do the children use different vocabulary words when they write in different genres? • Do the children use different word frames for different writing genres, e.g., for a description piece, “This is ____. It looks like ____”?

15. Recruitment • 114 kindergarten and 1st grade children. • Recruited from 10 classrooms in 3 Southeastern school districts. Districts represented wide range of ethnic and SES backgrounds. • Teachers provided writing workshop sessions where students wrote about topics of their choice.

16. Writing Samples • Teachers collected 2-6 writing samples from each child. • Total of 482 writing samples. • Teachers provided weekly classroom context logs.

17. Analyses • Each writing sample was entered into the Child Language Analysis (CLAN) (MacWhinney, 1991) software program. • Freq command used to generate frequency word counts. • CLAN word lists used to separate content words from structure words in Excel. • Combo command used to find word frames and document frequency.

18. Results • 11673 total words • 1590 unique words • Type token ratio = .136

19. Top 40 Words

20. going went fun got house mom school play said very Easter played day love go not dad frogs get dog Top 20 Content Words

21. I the and my to a we is it in was me are on have with of will at they Top 20 Structure Words

22. Cumulative Frequency

23. Genres

24. Topics

25. Top 10 Content Words Across Genre

26. Top 10 Structure Words Across Genre

27. Top 10 Content Words Across Topic

28. Top 10 Structure Words Across Topic

29. This is _____ • Label 3 • Plan 1

30. Thes is fun. Thes is me haveing fun out sid playing with my frins. Thes is me on the swing haveing fun. Haveing fun is the grats thing. You can have fun play with youow frins. This is fun. This is me having fun outside playing with my friends. This is me on the swing having fun. Having fun is the greatest thing. You can have fun playing with your friends.

31. Once upon a time _____ • Story 3

32. Once opan a time that lived a widee mouwthd frog. Her name is Martha. She has three frinds thar name's are Kaitlyn, Claire and Laney. One day all for of them went to see toad. Toad has a vary mesy house. His roomis vary mesy to. His parints wont him to clen it. Toad live's ner the pond. Once upon a time that lived a wide mouthed frog. Her name is Martha. She has three friends. Their names are Kaitlyn, Claire and Laney. One day all four of them went to see toad. Toad has a very messy house. His room is very messy too. His parents want him to clean it. Toad lives near the pond.

33. I like _____ because _____ • Recount 1 • Description 1 • Report 1 • Opinion 23

34. I like cheatas because they are cool and they eat meat and they can run like the wind and they are scary. I like cheetahs because they are cool and they eat meat and they can run like the wind and they are scary.

35. I think _____ • Plan 2 • Procedure 1 • Description 2 • Report 1 • Opinion 1

36. I thing that a frog's egg. Is hog kode a egg. Because it is not shete like a it is shete like a uvol. When it is a tatploe it levse. in the water. It grow's two frote and dack lagse and a tale. It grows a hade the. Tela gits little. a am a frog now. I got a gell so I can brev he live out. of the pode now. I think that a frog's egg is not called an egg because it is not shaped like a circle it is shaped like an oval. When it is a tadpole it lives in the water. It grows two front and back legs and a tail. It grows a head. The tail gets little. I am a frog now. I've got a gill so I can breathe. He live out of the pond now.

37. Summary of Findings • A significant portion of writing samples can be represented by a limited set of words. • Structure words tend to be used more frequently. • The frequency with which content words and structure words are used varies across genres and topics. The degree of variation is greater for particular vocabulary words.

38. Summary of Findings • Some word frames are used predominantly within one or two genres, others are not.

39. References Berninger, V.W., & Gans, B.M. (1986). Language profiles in nonspeaking individuals of normal intelligence with severe cerebral palsy. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 2, 45-50. Carlson, F. (1981). A format for selecting vocabulary for the nonspeaking child. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 12, 140-145. Danilova, L.A. (1983). Methods of improving the cognitive and verbal development of children with cerebral palsy (R.H. Silverman, Trans., Monograph No. 23). New York: World Rehabilitative Fund. Dorman, C. (1987). Verbal, perceptual and intellectual factors associated with reading achievement in adolescents with CP. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 64, 671-678. Erickson, K. & Hanser, G. (2002). The adolescent literacy learning link: An alternative teaching model. Paper presented at the meeting of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Odense, Denmark. Flower, L., & Hayes, J.R. (1994). A cognitive process theory of writing. In R.B. Ruddell, M.R. Ruddell, & H. Singer (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (4th ed., pp. 928-950). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Kelford-Smith, A., Thurston, S., Light, J., Parnes, P., & O’Keefe, B. (1989). The form and use of written communication produced by physically disabled individuals using microcomputers. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 5, 115-124.

40. References Koppenhaver, D.A., & Yoder, D.E. (1993). Classroom literacy instruction for children with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI): What is and what might be. Topics in Language Disorders, 13 (2), 1-15. Light, J. (1997). “Let’s go star fishing”: Reflections on the contexts of language learning for children who use aided AAC. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 13, 158-171. Light, J., & McNaughton, D. (1993). Literacy and augmentative communication (AAC): The expectations and priorities of parents and teachers. Topics in Language Disorders, 13 (2), 33-46. McGinnis, J.S., & Beukelman, D.R. (1989). Vocabulary requirements for writing activities for the academically mainstreamed student with disabilities. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 5, 183-191. Reich, C.M., & Reich, P.A. (1979). The construction of an orally based sight-word vocabulary list and its relationship to the vocabularies of beginning readers. Journal of Educational Research, 72 (4), 198-204. Rinsland, H.D. (1945). A basic vocabulary of elementary school children. New York: Macmillan. Schonell, F.E. (1956). Educating spastic children: The education and guidance of the cerebral palsied. London: Oliver and Boyd. Shapiro, J., & Gunderson, L. (1988). A comparison of vocabulary generated by grade 1 students in whole language classrooms and basal reader vocabulary. Reading Research and Instruction, 27 (2), 40-46.n: The education and guidance of the cerebral palsied. London: Oliver and Boyd.