JCPSLP Vol 21 No 2 2019 DIGITAL Edition

Measurement and evaluation in practice

The perspectives of students involved in a classroom-based oral language intervention in their first formal year of schooling Maria Lathouras, Susanne Garvis, Marleen Westerveld and David Trembath

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in school settings are faced with many considerations when selecting appropriate interventions to support positive educational outcomes for students commencing school, within an evidence-based practice framework and accounting for service delivery constraints. However, decisions regarding interventions are often made without taking into consideration the views and perspectives of students who have received the interventions in the past. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of students in their first formal year of schooling involved in a 24-week, book-based, oral language and early literacy intervention. The participants were nine students, aged between 5 and 6 years from three different classrooms, in the same school. Student responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Several key themes emerged, including the importance of students being actively involved in the program, parental involvement, and the students identifying the relationship between their own behaviour and engagement during the program. The results suggest that SLPs and other staff who facilitate classroom-based oral language programs should ensure that program goals are clearly communicated and engagement explicitly encouraged. Oral language is a precursor to literacy development It is well-established that the development of oral language and early literacy skills in the first year of formal schooling is influenced by a number of variables, including attendance at pre-primary educational settings, cultural and linguistic diversity, socioeconomic status, and maternal education status (Harrison & McLeod, 2010). Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who work in school settings often

deliver oral language and early literacy interventions in the early years at the classroom level to ensure a successful foundation for literacy acquisition, especially for those students considered at risk of persistent oral language and literacy difficulties (Justice, Kaderavek, Fan, Sofka, & Hunt, 2009; Lennox & Westerveld, 2014; Phillips, Clancy- Menchetti, & Lonigan, 2008). These classroom-based interventions have been effective in enhancing the skills of these students (Henning, McIntosh, Arnott, & Dodd, 2010; Lennox & Westerveld, 2014; Lennox, Westerveld, & Trembath, 2018). However, it is also recognised that a number of factors may impact on the success of these classroom-based interventions such as; student attendance, engagement, and group size (Cirrin et al., 2010; National Institute for Literacy, 2008). The effectiveness of classroom- based interventions to facilitate oral language and early literacy skills There have been international efforts investigating the effectiveness of classroom-based interventions over the past decade (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000; Rose, 2006). The outcomes of such efforts have clearly identified that effective classroom-based interventions must include both word-related skills (e.g., syllables, first sounds, letter-sound correspondence) and meaning-related skills (e.g., vocabulary, story retells). Despite this finding, many studies continue to investigate interventions for word-related skills (Kruse, Spencer, Olszewski, & Goldstein, 2015; Phillips et al., 2008) and meaning-related skills separately (Lever & Sénéchal, 2011; Pollard-Durodola et al., 2011). More recently, interventions have focused on a combination of these skills (Gillam, Olszewski, Fargo, & Gillam, 2014; Lennox & Westerveld, 2014; Wheldall et al., 2016; Wilcox, Gray, Guimond, & Lafferty, 2011). The results of such interventions have shown significant short-term improvements in oral language and literacy (Suggate, 2016). However, such studies have not investigated the perspectives of the students involved. Children’s voices Although there is now a substantial body of research related to classroom-based oral language interventions (Justice et al., 2009; Lennox et al., 2018; Wheldall et al., 2016; Zucker, Cabell, Justice, Pentimonti, & Kaderavek, 2013), there is little research on the perspectives of the students who receive these interventions. This is despite the United

KEYWORDS SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN EDUCATION ORAL LANGUAGE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PEER- REVIEWED

Maria Lathouras, (top) and Susanne Garvis

94

JCPSLP Volume 21, Number 2 2019

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology