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Chapter 5
Children Learning Language: Participating in Language Samples
Chapter Overview
It makes sense that the best way we can know how a particular child is doing on his language journey at any
moment in time is to take a careful look at his expressive language. What he says and how he says it will speak
volumes about what he knows and the development of his sounds, vocabulary, grammar, expression of meaning, and
social use of language during communication.
Learning Outcomes
• Explain the purposes of language sampling.
• Describe the methods researchers and clinicians use to obtain language samples from children.
• Discuss the analysis and interpretation of morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics within language
samples.
• Use a sample to practice analyzing and interpreting language sample information.
Key Terms and Concepts
• Reliability, p. 182
• Validity, p. 182
• Glossing, p. 185
• Morphemes, p. 186
• Grammatical analysis, p. 186
• 14 grammatical morphemes, Table 5.1, p. 187
• Rules for counting morphemes, Figure 5.2, p. 188
Points of Emphasis
1. There are several purposes and benefits of sampling a child’s language.
a. The first purpose is to document a child’s abilities at a particular point in time. The sample may be
analyzed to determine the child’s abilities as compared to typical peers.
c. Researchers use language samples to select children who qualify for studies about language
acquisition.
do.
3. Validity is the concept of getting a language sample that truly provides a glimpse of the full range of a child’s
language skills.
4. At least 50-100 utterances is the minimum for any language sample, but there are more important
considerations to insure reliability and validity.
a. It is often necessary to eliminate sections of the sample, so you should seek to have 75-100 usable
utterances for analysis. Strive for 100-150 utterances at the outset.
6. It is good practice to have a conversation with the parents ahead of time to note the child’s interests and favorite
activities, toys, and books.
a. Ask parents to bring some favorite items and plan to have several materials available.
7. If you are able, moving around to different settings affords opportunities to experience the child interacting in
natural environments.
9. A way to engage children in conversation is with questions or statements that encourage a topic.
11. It is necessary to audio record or video record the language sample session. This allows you to capture exactly
12. The goal of transcription is to accurately transfer the contents of the recording to a written document. Once the
content of the sample is written, it can be analyzed. The person who collected the sample should transcribe it if
possible. See Figure 5.1 on p. 185 for a detailed description on how to create a language sample transcription.
13. The purpose of the analysis of a language sample is to describe the child’s productive language during
conversational exchanges.
14. Grammatical analysis lets us know what advances a child has made in her ability to put words together in
phrases and sentences.
a. Because language sophistication involves the addition of meaning to words, we count morphemes in a
systematic procedure so that our results are consistent and valid from one sample to another.
b. Table 5.1 on p. 187 shows 14 grammatical morphemes with examples.
c. Figure 5.2 on p. 188 is the list of rules we follow to count them.
e. When all the morphemes have been counted, add them all up. Divide the number of morphemes by the
number of sentences to obtain the average (mean) number of morphemes in the sample.
f. An MLU is used as an indicator of language development during an initial assessment and as a
measure of progress during language intervention. It also is a goalpost for establishing the outcomes of
therapy.
g. MLU is most valuable for children between two and five years or up to an average of five morphemes.
It can also be useful for children who are older and still acquiring sentence constructions.
15. Semantic analysis is a way to determine what the child knows from what he says.
a. It affords us the opportunity to document the types of meaning being conveyed.
b. Tables 4.5 and 4.6 (pp. 161-162) in Chapter 4 can be used to help interpret the meaning of the child’s
language from the context of the exchange.
i. When children are producing word combinations, the semantic analysis must account for the
meaning of each word in the utterance.
c. One procedure to determine word diversity is called the Type-Token Ratio. It is determined from the
number of different words in the sample divided by the total number of words.
i. A typical ratio is about .50 during early childhood. So, about half the words a child uses are
different words and about half are the same words.
16. Pragmatic analysis assists us in determining whether the verbal exchanges between the child and others is
appropriate and functional.
a. Figure 5.3 on p. 190 displays some pragmatic functions.
b. The items in Figure 5.5 on p. 194 can be used as a checklist during observation of a child in his normal
environment. A clinician may also set up situations to observe any of these skills if they do not occur
during the language sample.
Discussion Topics
• Discuss what might make a language sample reliable or unreliable, and how a clinician would attempt to
determine the reliability of a sample.
• Brainstorm the kinds of activities or routines that might make a language sample valid or invalid. How could
these be used or avoided during a language sample collection?
• On p. 183, there are 2 suggested questions/statements to encourage a child to converse about a topic. Brainstorm
additional questions, statements and activities to encourage language sample elicitation. How might these
Suggested Activities
• Provide a paragraph reading and count the morphemes using the rules noted in Figure 5.2 on p. 188.
• Form groups of 2. Take turns eliciting a 100-utterance language sample while practicing waiting, listening,
prompting, avoiding a lot of questions and avoiding the “name game.” Analyze the sample and determine the
MLU, Type-Token Ratios and pragmatic analysis using Figure 5.5 on p. 192.
• Collect a 150-utterance language sample from a child between ages two and six years. Analyze the language
sample using the grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic analyses described throughout the chapter. Note
whether you believe your sample to be reliable and valid, and why or why not. Determine if the child is
exhibiting expressive language skills consistent for his or her age.
• Split class into groups of 3-5 students and have groups count off 1 to 4. Using a home video or online video,
transcribe a 5-minute language sample of a child between two and six years. Groups with number 1 will
Assignment Suggestions
• Video Example 5.1 (p. 184): Watch the video of a father’s conversation with his three-year-old son, Micah.
Notice how the parent uses open-ended questions and a conversational style to prompt Micah to talk about hard
jobs.
• Readers may assess their understanding by completing these brief, self-check quizzes:
o 5.1 (p. 181): purposes of language sampling
o 5.3 (p. 191): analysis and interpretation of morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics within
language samples
o 5.4 (p. 195): analysis of language sample transcripts
• Chapter Review 5.1 (p. 195)
Websites to Explore
• See the page “Easy Language Sample Analysis” on the website Speechy Musings for an interesting to take on a
quicker method for calculating MLU using Microsoft Word.
• Explore the page “10 Best Books for Obtaining Language Sample” on the website Virtual Speech Center to find
some good suggestions for books to use during language sample collection. The website Speechy Musings also
has a post called “Best Wordless Picture Books for Speech and Language Therapy” that offers some nice
wordless books good for language sampling.
• The website Study.com offers a video lesson called “The Relationship Between Reliability and Validity” that
