RARE VOCABULARY USE IN THE NARRATIVES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN

Publication Date

4-5-2019

Document Type

Poster

Degree Type

Undergraduate

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Mentor

Jamie Mahurin-Smith

Mentor Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Abstract

Children who are raised in low-income backgrounds are frequently underrepresented in gifted education and overrepresented in special education (Hamilton 2018). The purpose of this research was to describe a tool for dialect-neutral assessment of language abilities. Specifically, a child's academic success stems from the language skills they have cultivated; however, some standardized language assessments may penalize African American children because their dialect may be Nonmainstream American English (NMAE). The aim of this project was to understand whether the utilization of rare vocabulary increased with age, if it was associated with performance on standardized tests, and if there was a relationship between NMAE and rare vocabulary. Results indicated that rare vocabulary use grows with age and is correlated with standardized test scores but is not associated with dialect use. This project highlighted the importance of the role educators and speech-language pathologists play by observing best practices of evaluating language in school-age African American children using culturally fair strategies to limit overrepresentation in special education classrooms.

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