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Pearson's EBP Briefs: A Clinical Language/Literacy Decision: Evidence-Based Story Grammar Instruction

Pearson's EBP Briefs: A Clinical Language/Literacy Decision: Evidence-Based Story Grammar Instruction
Kimberly Murza, PhD, CCC-SLP, Chad Nye, PhD
May 6, 2015
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Editor's Note:  The content of this article was published by Pearson in the journal EBP Briefs. It is offered for CEUs through SpeechPathology.com in cooperation with Pearson. The following supplemental material is available for download: Appendix A: CONSORT Criteria (Law & Plunkett, 2006).

Learning Objectives

  • After this course, participants will be able to identify the clinical question for an example case scenario.
  • After this course, participants will be able to list relevant search criteria for retrieving evidence related to the clinical question.
  • After this course, participants will be able to identify factors to consider when evaluating the evidence.
  • After this course, participants will be able to describe a clinical decision based on the evidence analysis.

Problem

Bryan is an SLP working at a small urban elementary school in a large local district. Most of his students come from lower socio-economic homes; 90% of them receive free or reduced lunch. Bryan’s school is feeling a lot of pressure to make annual yearly progress as stated in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). On last year’s statewide test, the majority of students in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades at Bryan’s school were not performing at grade level. While the statewide test evaluates students’ comprehension of both narrative and expository texts, younger elementary grades primarily focus on narrative text. Bryan understands that language plays an important role, especially in early reading skills, and wants to ensure that he is having an impact on his students’ academic performance. In particular, one group of his language impaired second graders is struggling with reading comprehension. They are reading fluently and accurately but their reading comprehension is not commensurate with their fluency. They are not able to answer questions based on narrative text and are especially struggling with story prediction, main idea, and story vocabulary. The statewide test requires students to read a passage, interpret it, and demonstrate understanding by answering a variety of questions on these areas.

Several months before the statewide testing, the school reading specialist discovered through the school interim testing program that several students on Bryan’s caseload demonstrated high-risk performance in the area of reading comprehension. After consulting with the reading specialist, Bryan realized that he needed to learn more about how to provide appropriate literacy intervention to support the reading comprehension skills of his students.

Bryan’s school district has provided a series of professional development programs for the SLPs that address many areas of language and literacy. One of the programs dealt specifically with reading comprehension and strategies the SLP might use to support the classroom curriculum. The type of strategy that seemed to best fit Bryan’s situation was the story grammar approach. The question Bryan needs to answer is: Does explicit instruction in story grammar positively impact elementary school students’ comprehension abilities in reading narrative text?


Kimberly Murza, PhD, CCC-SLP

Kim Murza, PhD, CCC-SLP, received her doctorate in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Centrl Florida, where she specialized in language and literacy with a focus on autism spectrum disorder. She is currently an assistant professor in the department of Audiology and Speech-Language Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in language and literacy, evidence-based practice, and phonetics. Dr. Murza has worked privately and in the public school system as a speech-language pathologist with children and adolescents in pre-school through high school and more recently with adults with autism spectrum disorder. She is currently the University of Northern Colorado Scottish Rite Program Director and a member of the Colorado Department of Education Speech-Language Advisory Council. Dr. Murza has participated in numerous research projects and co-authored peer-reviewed journal articles and presentations.  She has been an invited author and presenter for several topics including adolescent language and literacy and the Common Core State Standards. Her main research area is pragmatic language intervention and vocational support for individuals with high-functioning forms of autism spectrum disorder. Additional research interests include systematic review and meta-analysis, strategic learning, inference generation, disciplinary literacy, and the delivery of high-quality professional development.


Chad Nye, PhD

Dr. Chad Nye is recently retired as a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Executive Director of the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities at the University of Central Florida.  During the past 15 years, Dr. Nye has served as the Editor and subsequently the Co-Chair of the Campbell Collaboration (C2) Education Coordinating Group, as well as an external reviewer for the Cochrane Collaboration.   In addition he was the Editor of the Evidence Based Practice Briefs and an Associate Editor for the Evidence-based Communication Assessment and Intervention journal.  He has been an author/co-author of three Cochrane Collaboration reviews and three Campbell Collaboration reviews in addition to several print journal publications of systematic reviews and meta-analysis.  He has served as a Principal investigator, Co-Principle investigator, or consultant for grants funded by US Dept. of Education, NIH, NHS, and NIDRR.  He served as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in the country of Jordan 1995 and a University of Pennsylvania/Campbell Collaboration/Robert Wood Johnson Post-Doctoral Fellow in 2001-2002.  He has also taught courses in evidence based research and practice, and served as dissertation committee chair and member for post graduate research candidates.



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