SLP Pediatric Language Intervention 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A school-age child struggles with making inferences from text. Which intervention technique directly targets this inferencing skill?
- Phonological awareness drills
- Question-answer relationships (QAR) instruction (Correct answer)
- Narrative macrostructure retelling
- Oral reading fluency practice
Correct answer: Question-answer relationships (QAR) instruction
QAR instruction teaches children to identify where answers come from (in the text vs. in their head), directly building inferential comprehension strategies.
Question 2: Which theoretic framework underlies the use of script therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder?
- Social cognitive theory
- Schema theory and script knowledge (Correct answer)
- Generativist nativist theory
- Operant conditioning exclusively
Correct answer: Schema theory and script knowledge
Script therapy is grounded in schema/script theory, leveraging children's knowledge of predictable event sequences to scaffold functional communication.
Question 3: When selecting vocabulary for intervention with a child with DLD, the SLP should prioritize words that are:
- Rare and low-frequency to expand exposure
- High utility across multiple contexts and content areas (Correct answer)
- Only nouns to build a semantic foundation first
- Matched to the child's current MLU level
Correct answer: High utility across multiple contexts and content areas
Tier 2 words—high-utility, cross-context vocabulary—are the primary intervention targets because they most efficiently support academic and communicative success.
Question 4: Which augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategy is most appropriate for a minimally verbal 5-year-old with autism to expand utterance length?
- Core vocabulary combined with aided language stimulation (Correct answer)
- Picture exchange for single-word requests only
- Sign language exclusively
- High-tech AAC withheld until verbal speech plateaus
Correct answer: Core vocabulary combined with aided language stimulation
Core vocabulary on a robust AAC system paired with aided language stimulation models multi-word combinations and promotes expressive language growth.
Question 5: A 7-year-old has difficulty with narrative coherence. Which narrative element should the SLP target FIRST according to story grammar development?
- Resolution
- Internal response
- Initiating event (Correct answer)
- Evaluative devices
Correct answer: Initiating event
Initiating events emerge earlier in narrative development and serve as the catalyst for the story, making them an appropriate first story grammar target.
Question 6: Which factor most strongly predicts long-term language outcomes for a late talker at age 2?
- Birth order
- Comprehension skills and symbolic play (Correct answer)
- Socioeconomic status alone
- Number of siblings
Correct answer: Comprehension skills and symbolic play
Strong receptive language and symbolic play in late talkers predict better long-term language outcomes, as these indicate intact underlying language processing.
Question 7: During intervention for morphosyntax, which evidence-based approach involves the clinician producing many repetitions of a target form within meaningful exchanges without requiring a response?
- Milieu teaching
- Focused stimulation (Correct answer)
- Verbal operant training
- Expansion plus extension
Correct answer: Focused stimulation
Focused stimulation repeatedly exposes the child to a target grammatical form in meaningful contexts to facilitate implicit learning without direct elicitation.
SLP Pediatric Language Intervention 3
A school-age child struggles with making inferences from text.
Which intervention technique directly targets this inferencing skill?