Using DISTAR Language

Reynell LDS Comprehension

in a unit for children with language disorders PAUL GREGORY, Psychologist, Birmingham Child Guidance and Psychological Services CHRISTINE RICHARDS, Teacher in Charge, Ley Hill Language Unit, Ley Hill First School,

MARY HADLEY, Speech Therapist, Bonshaw House, Birmingham Sutton Coldfield

Reynell LDS Stan ford Biner Edinburgh Expression Mental Age Articulation

SUMMARY DISTAR Language was used to teach half the children

in a unit for language disordered chiklren. Although some children in bdtr groups received speech

therapy from the speech therapist and general rsngUage work from the teacher, the greatest difference between the groups was in the use of DISTAR Language by the experi- mental group. The resuh show that the language of both groups improved to a similar degree, M only the experi- mental group (which ineluded the most severely affected language and speech disordered children) Lmproved Signi- ficantly in intelligence. The results are compared with other studies of DISTAR Language and the conclusion is that furthex shdies would be prditabk.

The intention of this paper is to describe the trial use of DISTAR Language I (a language programme available from Science Research Associates (SRA)) with children aged between five and eight years attending a day unit for children with language disorders. The endeavour was to compare the progress of children using DISTAR with other children at the unit receiving the current language work. LI

DISTAR (the letters stand for direct instructional systems for teaching and remediation) consists of nine programmes - Language I, I1 and 111, Reading I, I1 and 111, and Arithmetic I, I1 and 111. They were designed in the United States of America under the Follow-through project, for socially disadvantaged children in normal schools aged between five and nine years. Follow-through was a project in which 22 educational programmes were compared nationally to find the most effective way of accelerating the academic progress of backward children. The project eventually came to involve 180 communities,

Gains t Gains Gains Gains Age at YearsIMonths in I YearsIMonths post-test in pre-test post-test in

pre-test post-test 1.2 mths pre-test Post-test 12 MA IQ 12 mths Oct '79 Apr '80 6 mths

75,000 children, and an annual budget of 59 million dollars for nine years, and it has been described as the longest and most expensive social experiment ever launched. The DISTAR programmes were the most successful programmes of the project (Becker, 1977).

DISTAR Language was designed to teach the language of instruction. If children do not understand the language of their teacher they are likely to fail in school. Teachers use many parts of speech in everyday communication with children. Unless the children have a precise understanding their academic progress will be hindered. DISTAR Language is based on an analysis of the skills and concepts required to understand and follow basic instructions presented by a teacher. The directions in each lesson (160 in all) are detailed, specifying what the teacher says and does for the clear and unambiguous presentation of each concept.

The programme is divided into five areas: (a) description of objects (b) actions (c) instruction words, including words describing similarities (d) classification, including names of animals, foods, and furniture (e) information, including personal and school information.

Each presentation lesson is followed-up by "Take Home" activities which provide opportunities for using a different mode of response to express the understanding of concepts. They also act as a vehicle for the involvement of other teachers and parents.

No. of DISTAR sessions

TABLE 1. Results for language, intelligence and articulation for experimental and comparison groups.

I I I I I I

Experimental Group I 6-00 M' 2 6-05 M' 3 6-03 M* 4 6-10 M* 5 6-09 M Mean

6-06

Comparison Group I 7-04 M* 2 6-01 M 3 5-11 M 4 5-11 M 5 7-10 M' 6 8-01 M 7 5-05 F* Mean

6-08

4-01% 544% 15 4-051% 6-00 446% 5.08% 14 3-05 3-01 444% 5-08% 16 4-05% 6-00 3-07s 5-1 I % 28 3-00 3-04 2-08 3-07% ll'h 3-05 3-10

3-10 5-3.3 16.9 3-09 4-5.4

3-04 5-01 21 4-01% 6-00 446% 6-00 17% 3-10% 4-08 5-01 6-00 I I 4-08 6-00 4-l0% 6-00 13% 5-1055 6-00 4-10 5-08'/2 10% 4-11 546% 3-07% 5-11 % 28 4-03% 4-08 3-09 4-07 10 3-00 3-06

4-03% 5-7.4 15.9 4-4.1 5-2.4

18% 4-07Ih -4 4-IO'h 18% 4-101~ 4 3-10 5 344%

8.4 4-3.8

22% 4.07% 9% 4.09%

16 5-07% I % 6-l0% 7 % 5-01% 4% 5-06 6 4-00

9.6 5-2.6

76 5-09 80 13% 6.0 6.0 - I25 73 5-l0% 76 12 3.0 3.0 0 144 76 5-09 77 10% 3.0 3.0 0 I21 52 444% 52 6% 4.375 4.875 6 I50 45 4-09 58 16% 6.0 6.0 - I38

64.4 5-3.6 68 .6 11.8 2

60 7-03 85 31% 4.75 6.0 12.25 - 78 5-03 72 5% 6.0 6.0 - - 96 6-00 85 4% 6.0 6.0 - -

120% 7-06 108 7% 5.5 ? ? 63 5-09 63 7% 5.5 6.0 6 65 5-01 54 -5 4.0 ? ? 71 4-07% 69 7% 3.125 3.625 6

79.0 5-11.7 76.5 8.5 8

- - - -

*Received speech therapy

102 Mental Handicap, 1982; 1 0 3

Method SCHOOL

The language unit (subject of this present study) is attached to a normal first school, and is under the direction of its headteacher. It takes 12 children, aged between five and eight years of age, and is staffed by a teacher and a nursery nurse. The unit is intended for children with specific speech and/or language difficulties who are likely to achieve normal school by the age of eight. SUBJ ECTS

Five children, all boys, were selected for an experimental group. They were to be taught using DISTAR Language 1. Their ages ranged from 6 years 0 months to 6 years 9 months, with a mean of 6 years 6 months. They tended to be the youngest and most severely disordered children (a) to avoid the likelihood of leaving part-way through the programme because of becoming eight and (b) because it was considered that the benefit of the programme - if it is that DISTAR Language works as well as other researchers have found - should go to those most in need.

The remaining seven children, six boys and a girl, made up the comparison group. They were taught language by the unit's current programme only. Their ages ranged from 5 years 5 months to 8 years 1 month, with an average of 6 years 8 months.

Home circumstances were similar for both groups, with one child in each group coming from a socially disadvan- taged home (as indicated by receipt of free school meals).

I t can be seen from Table 1 that the children in the experimental group were worse than those in the com- parison group on initial level of language and intelligence.

All the children were checked for vision and hearing difficulties and ere found to have no outstanding prob- lems. Two of t e comparison group had a history of hearing loss.

DISTAR Language I was used with the experimental group nearly every day for 20 minutes. The children sat in a semi-circle around the teacher, with the weakest children at arms length in the middle. The group reached lesson 56 by the time of post-testing.

Both groups received the current language work of the unit, taught by the same teacher. This consisted of general conversation and talking time every morning, singing, counting, diary news, and talking with pictures as a group. Overall both groups received the same amount of time in language work. Comparison group children 3, 4, and 6 left the unit before the end of the trial, the first two going on to normal school and the third to a school for ESN(M) children.

Children 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the experimental group received speech therapy for half-an-hour per week from September 1979 to July 1980. They were considered by the speech therapist to have disordered speech. Subjects 1, 5, and 7 in the comparison group received a similar amount of speech therapy, again aimed at improving speech and language. These children's speech was not disordered but delayed, the less problematic of the two conditions.

In summary, the experimental group received DISTAR and some general language work, and four members were given speech therapy. The comparison group received general language work, and three members were given speech therapy. The great difference between the two groups was the use of DlSTAR Language.

TESTS Pre-test measures of language were taken in October

1979 using the Reynell Developmental Language Scales - Expression and Comprehension. To test for generali- sation of the language learned the Stanford Binet Test of Intelligence was administered. Both tests were given by

TABLE 2. Children with Sfanford Binet mental age gains greater than than or equal to 10% months, and less than IOYz months, for

Experimental and Comparison groups

equal to 10% months

Experimental Group

Comparison Croup I

Fisher'\ Exact Probability Test P = , 0 4 5 5 . There are signiticantl) more children making 101': months gainr in the Experimental group than in the Comparison group.

the psychologist. For articulation the speech therapist administered the Edinburgh Articulation Test to measure the extent to which articulation improved as a result of the language programmes.

The post-test was carried out in July 1980 for the Edinburgh Articulation Test, and October 1980 for the rest.

Results Table 1 indicates that the difference between the gains

for the experimental and comparison groups is small for comprehension, expression of language, and articulation. For articulation the results were disappointing. Three children in the experimental group had an articulation problem, and five in the comparison group. One improved in the experimental group, and three improved in the comparison group. The effect of DISTAR Language on children with defective articulation has yet to be investi- gated in Britain. Certainly they appear to slow down the teaching group and may be better served in a slower moving group of their own.

The Stanford Binet results are the most impressive, with the experimental group gaining nearly one month per month on average and four out of the five pupils showing gains of this magnitude. The comparison group has only one pupil showing such gains (see Table 2).

The question is, to what does one attribute these differences? The experiment can be criticised on the grounds that the experimental group received DISTAR, general language work and speech therapy, and the comparison group received the same except for the DlSTAR teaching. The comparison group suffered the loss of three children, who were followed up in their new schools at post-test. The experimental group was the more severely affected with regard to intelligence, language, and speech disorders, and yet this group showed improved intelligence. Assuming the groups are broadly equal in their receipt of general language work and speech therapy, it can be tentatively concluded that the difference in the numbers of children gaining in IQ points can be attributed to DISTAR teaching. Without doubt the gains in intelli- gence shown by experimental child 5 can be attributed to DISTAR since he did not receive speech therapy. He was the most severely affected child in the unit.

Such a result is very similar to those of Maggs and Morath ( 1976) in which severely mentally handicapped pupils, on average, gained 22: months in 24 months of teaching. Table I shows that, in the present study, two pupils in the experimental group had an intelligence quotient which indicated severe mental handicap whilst the rest were only mildly handicapped. The results show that gains in language skills are generalised to performance on tests of general intelligence more so for the experimental group than for the comparison group. In fact, six of the seven children in the comparison group lost I0 points in the year, whilst all those in the experimental group kept pace.

Mental Handicap, 1982; 10:3 I03

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Discussion In this study gains in mental age similar to those of

Maggs and Morath (1976) were achievcd with childrcn predominantly in the ESN(M) range who were being taught for a third of the time given by Maggs and Morath. It may be that children in the ESN(M) range have a greater aptitude for the learning of language than children in the ESN(S) range knd therefore require less lesson time to achieve similar gains.

The results also compare well with those of Maggs and Morath (1975), for whom 90 per cent of ESN(S) children improved on re-test on the Stanford Binet though it is not clear whether this was in mental age or 10. In the present study, 80 per cent of the experimental group showed an increased I 0 at post-test, with only 14 per cent of the comparison group doing so. Maggs and Morath (1975) achieved their results with daily academic engaged time

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varying from 30 minutes to two-and-a-half hours per day, much more time than given in this study.

Both groups in ‘the present study improved in language but only the experimental group reflected generalisation of this improved skill in increased IQ scores on the Stanford Binet.

Important in making comparisons between language studies are the following issues:

(a) the aptitude of the pupils for learning language - pupils will differ in this skill which will affect the extent of gains achieved; (b) the amount of time spent in teaching language - if this time is increased it may be that greater gains can be achieved; (c) generalisation of the language learnt in the training sessions to solution of other cognitive problems needs to be investigated: (d) whether DISTAR Language is taught in isolation, or along with DISTAR Reading or Arithmetic; (e) once a programme has ceased to be taught fading out of gains may occur; (f) the extent of parental involvement - certainly this can make a great difference in reading attainment (Wilby, 1981).

Conclusion The experimental and comparison groups differed most

in mental age gains on the Stanford Binef. However, caution is required in interpreting these results. If it is assumed that the groups were broadly similar in their receipt of general language work and speech therapy, then this difierence is likely to be attributable to the DISTAR teaching. A review of language training programmes for language disordered children (Gregory, 198 1 ) rcvcals thc difficulties in achieving any gains with such children. I n that paper experimental group child nunibcr 5 was discussed more fully as a case study - he received no speech therapy, yet showed the largest gain in intelligence in the experimental group.

Overall the results suggest that it is worthwhile continuing to investigate the effects of DISTAR Language 1 on children with language disorders. The “Take-Homcs” were issued in this study but no attempt was made to ascertain the extent to which they were used by parents. Their use, and therefore parental involvement, may account in part for the gains made in the experimental group.

References Becker, W. C. Teaching reading and language to the disadvantaged

-- what wc have learnt from field research. Hurvurd Educationd Review. 1977: 41 14, 518-543.

Gregory. R . P. DISTAR Langrroge I : A case study evnluation of N child in u unir for rhe langiruge disordered. (Unpublished paper.) Birmingham : Child Guidance and School Psychological Service, 1981.

Maggs, A,. Morath, P. Improving problem-solving in 130 moderately and severely mentally retarded school age children. Rehabilitation in Austrolio. 1975: July : 22-24.

Maggs. A,. Morath, P. Effects of direct verbal instruction on thc intellectual development of institutionalised moderately retarded children: a two year study. J . Spec. Educut., 1976; 10:4, 357- 363.

Wilby. P. “The Bellfield Experiment”. Sunday Times Weekly Rei,ieir., 1981; 29th March.

Any correspondence conccrninp this article should be addressed to Mr. Paul Gregory at the Child Guidance Centre, New Station House, 60 Anchorage Road, Sutton Coldfield, B74 2PG.

104 Mental Handicap, 1982; 10:3