Luigi Girolametto

Bio: Luigi Girolametto is an academic researcher from University of Toronto. The author has contributed to research in topics: Early childhood & Vocabulary. The author has an hindex of 32, co-authored 63 publications receiving 3596 citations. Previous affiliations of Luigi Girolametto include Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Interactive Focused Stimulation for Toddlers With Expressive Vocabulary Delays

Abstract: This study explores the effects of training parents to administer focused stimulation intervention to teach specific target words to their toddlers with expressive vocabulary delays. Twenty-five mo...

Responsiveness of Child Care Providers in Interactions With Toddlers and Preschoolers

Abstract: Purpose: This exploratory study investigated the responsive language input of 26 child care providers to young children enrolled in community child care centers. Method: Three subtypes of responsiv...

Training day care staff to facilitate children's language.

Abstract: This exploratory study investigated the outcome of in-service training on language facilitation strategies of child care providers in day care centers. Sixteen caregivers were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Caregivers were taught to be responsive to children's initiations, engage children in interactions, model simplified language, and encourage peer interactions. At posttest, the experimental group waited for children to initiate, engaged them in turn-taking, used face to face interaction, and included uninvolved children more frequently than the control group. In turn, children in the experimental group talked more, produced more combinations, and talked to peers more often than the control group. The results support the viability of this training model in early childhood education settings and suggest directions for future research.

Parent education in early intervention: A call for a renewed focus

Abstract: Parent education as a key component of early intervention has been greatly deemphasized during the past 15 years, we believe, because of the perceived inconsistencies between the purposes and goals of parent education and family-centered approaches to early intervention. We argue that research indicating that parent involvement is critical to early intervention effectiveness and that parents want information about specific ways they can help their children's development supports the need for parent education in early intervention. We propose that the early intervention field address the concerns expressed about the lack of sensitivity in parent education approaches, develop strategies for parent education that are consistent with contemporary family service concepts, address the need for explicit instruction of service providers in parent education strategies, and conduct research on the immediate and long-term effects of parent education on children and families.

Improving the Social-Conversational Skills of Developmentally Delayed Children

Abstract: Twenty mothers and their preschool-aged, developmentally delayed children participated in this parent-focused intervention study. Nine mother-child dyads received an ll-week training program that espoused a social-conversational approach, while 11 dyads served as controls. Pre- and posttest videotapes were transcribed and coded to yield measures of turn taking, as well as indexes of responsiveness, topic control, and uninvolvement. Following treatment, the mothers in the experimental group were more responsive to and less controlling of their children's behavior than the mothers in the comparison group. The children initiated more topics, were more responsive to their mother's preceding turns, and used more verbal turns and a more diverse vocabulary than the control group children. No differences in language development, as measured by a standardized test, were found. Individual maternal responses to intervention as well as implications for modifying parent training programs are discussed.

Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition

Abstract: Child psychiatrists, pediatricians, and other child clinicians need to have a solid understanding of child language development. There are at least four important reasons that make this necessary. First, slowing, arrest, and deviation of language development are highly associated with, and complicate the course of, child psychopathology. Second, language competence plays a crucial role in emotional and mood regulation, evaluation, and therapy. Third, language deficits are the most frequent underpinning of the learning disorders, ubiquitous in our clinical populations. Fourth, clinicians should not confuse the rich linguistic and dialectal diversity of our clinical populations with abnormalities in child language development. The challenge for the clinician becomes, then, how to get immersed in the captivating field of child language acquisition without getting overwhelmed by its conceptual and empirical complexity. In the past 50 years and since the seminal works of Roger Brown, Jerome Bruner, and Catherine Snow, child language researchers (often known as developmental psycholinguists) have produced a remarkable body of knowledge. Linguists such as Chomsky and philosophers such as Grice have strongly influenced the science of child language. One of the major tenets of Chomskian linguistics (known as generative grammar) is that children’s capacity to acquire language is “hardwired” with “universal grammar”—an innate language acquisition device (LAD), a language “instinct”—at its core. This view is in part supported by the assertion that the linguistic input that children receive is relatively dismal and of poor quality relative to the high quantity and quality of output that they manage to produce after age 2 and that only an advanced, innate capacity to decode and organize linguistic input can enable them to “get from here (prelinguistic infant) to there (linguistic child).” In “Constructing a Language,” Tomasello presents a contrasting theory of how the child acquires language: It is not a universal grammar that allows for language development. Rather, human cognition universals of communicative needs and vocal-auditory processing result in some language universals, such as nouns and verbs as expressions of reference and predication (p. 19). The author proposes that two sets of cognitive skills resulting from biological/phylogenetic adaptations are fundamental to the ontogenetic origins of language. These sets of inherited cognitive skills are intentionreading on the one hand and pattern-finding, on the other. Intention-reading skills encompass the prelinguistic infant’s capacities to share attention to outside events with other persons, establishing joint attentional frames, to understand other people’s communicative intentions, and to imitate the adult’s communicative intentions (an intersubjective form of imitation that requires symbolic understanding and perspective-taking). Pattern-finding skills include the ability of infants as young as 7 months old to analyze concepts and percepts (most relevant here, auditory or speech percepts) and create concrete or abstract categories that contain analogous items. Tomasello, a most prominent developmental scientist with research foci on child language acquisition and on social cognition and social learning in children and primates, succinctly and clearly introduces the major points of his theory and his views on the origins of language in the initial chapters. In subsequent chapters, he delves into the details by covering most language acquisition domains, namely, word (lexical) learning, syntax, and morphology and conversation, narrative, and extended discourse. Although one of the remaining domains (pragmatics) is at the core of his theory and permeates the text throughout, the relative paucity of passages explicitly devoted to discussing acquisition and proBOOK REVIEWS

Health literacy interventions and outcomes: an updated systematic review.

Abstract: Objectives To update a 2004 systematic review of health care service use and health outcomes related to differences in health literacy level and interventions designed to improve these outcomes for individuals with low health literacy. Disparities in health outcomes and effectiveness of interventions among different sociodemographic groups were also examined. Data sources We searched MEDLINE®, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Cochrane Library, PsychINFO, and the Educational Resources Information Center. For health literacy, we searched using a variety of terms, limited to English and studies published from 2003 to May 25, 2010. For numeracy, we searched from 1966 to May 25, 2010. Review methods We used standard Evidence-based Practice Center methods of dual review of abstracts, full-text articles, abstractions, quality ratings, and strength of evidence grading. We resolved disagreements by consensus. We evaluated whether newer literature was available for answering key questions, so we broadened our definition of health literacy to include numeracy and oral (spoken) health literacy. We excluded intervention studies that did not measure health literacy directly and updated our approach to evaluate individual study risk of bias and to grade strength of evidence. Results We included good- and fair-quality studies: 81 studies addressing health outcomes (reported in 95 articles including 86 measuring health literacy and 16 measuring numeracy, of which 7 measure both) and 42 studies (reported in 45 articles) addressing interventions. Differences in health literacy level were consistently associated with increased hospitalizations, greater emergency care use, lower use of mammography, lower receipt of influenza vaccine, poorer ability to demonstrate taking medications appropriately, poorer ability to interpret labels and health messages, and, among seniors, poorer overall health status and higher mortality. Health literacy level potentially mediates disparities between blacks and whites. The strength of evidence of numeracy studies was insufficient to low, limiting conclusions about the influence of numeracy on health care service use or health outcomes. Two studies suggested numeracy may mediate the effect of disparities on health outcomes. We found no evidence concerning oral health literacy and outcomes. Among intervention studies (27 randomized controlled trials [RCTs], 2 cluster RCTs, and 13 quasi-experimental designs), the strength of evidence for specific design features was low or insufficient. However, several specific features seemed to improve comprehension in one or a few studies. The strength of evidence was moderate for the effect of mixed interventions on health care service use; the effect of intensive self-management inventions on behavior; and the effect of disease-management interventions on disease prevalence/severity. The effects of other mixed interventions on other health outcomes, including knowledge, self-efficacy, adherence, and quality of life, and costs were mixed; thus, the strength of evidence was insufficient. Conclusions The field of health literacy has advanced since the 2004 report. Future research priorities include justifying appropriate cutoffs for health literacy levels prior to conducting studies; developing tools that measure additional related skills, particularly oral (spoken) health literacy; and examining mediators and moderators of the effect of health literacy. Priorities in advancing the design features of interventions include testing novel approaches to increase motivation, techniques for delivering information orally or numerically, "work around" interventions such as patient advocates; determining the effective components of already-tested interventions; determining the cost-effectiveness of programs; and determining the effect of policy and practice interventions.

Language Basis of Reading and Reading Disabilities: Evidence From a Longitudinal Investigation

Abstract: This study examined the contributions of phonological processing and oral language abilities to reading and reading disabilities in young children. Two approaches were taken. First, 604 participants were divided into good and poor readers on the basis of reading performance in second grade. Reading groups were then compared in terms of kindergarten phonological processing and other language abilities. In a second approach, multiple regression was employed to investigate the relative contributions of phonological processing and oral language abilities in predicting second-grade reading achievement across reading groups. Results indicated that over 70% of poor readers had a history of language deficits in kindergarten. Most of these children had problems in both phonological processing and oral language. Regression analyses further indicated that oral language and phonological processing abilities each accounted for unique variance in reading achievement. These results suggest that language-based theories o...

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System: Findings from the prekindergarten year.

Abstract: Research on teacher-child relationships, classroom environments, and teaching practices provided the rationale for constructing a system for observing and assessing emotional and instructional elements of quality in early childhood educational environments: the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). The CLASS provides a framework for observing key dimensions of classroom processes, such as emotional and instructional support, that contribute to quality of the classroom setting from preschool through third grade. This article provides information about the development, field testing, and use of this instrument in prekindergarten. Data from a national sample of 224 prekindergarten classrooms in 6 states are presented to provide reliability and validity information. The full range of the scale was used for the majority of ratings. Ratings reflected generally positive impressions of the classroom environment and teacher-child interactions. Factor scores from the CLASS were related to the Early Childhood...