No access
Tutorial
August 1997

The Use of Contrastive Analysis in Distinguishing Difference From Disorder: A Tutorial

Publication: American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Volume 6, Number 3
Pages 45-56

Abstract

Contrastive analysis aids the identification of true speech-language errors in cases where there is a mismatch between the linguistic communities of the clinician and the client. This tutorial illustrates the procedure via three case studies of preschoolers who speak African American English (AAE). In these case studies, there was good agreement between the results of contrastive analysis and the results of more well-established comparison metrics, suggesting that contrastive analysis can yield valid profiles that aid in distinguishing difference from disorder in children who speak a nonstandard dialect.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

References

Adler, S. (1990). Multicultural clients: implications for the SLP. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 21, 135–139.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1983, September). Position of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association on social dialects. Asha, 25, 23–25.
Battle, D. (1993). Communication disorders in multicultural populations. Boston: Andover Medical Publishers.
Bleile, K. M., & Wallach, H. (1992). A sociolinguistic investigation of the speech of African American preschoolers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 1(2), 54–62.
Campbell, L. R. (1996). Issues in service delivery to African American children. In Kamhi, A. G. Pollack, K. E. & Harris, J. L. (Eds.), Communication development and disorders in African American children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Cole, L. T. (1980). A developmental analysis of social dialect features in the spontaneous language of preschool Black children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Colon, M. (1992). Bilingual speech and language assessment and treatment. In Recommended practices in the identification, assessment, and provision of special education for culturally and linguistically diverse students (pp. 61–82). Illinois State oard of Education.
Damico, J. S. (1991). Descriptive assessment of communicative ability in limited English proficient students. In Hamayan, E. V. & Damico, J. S. (Eds.), Limiting bias in the assessment of bilingual students. Austin: Pro-Ed.
Damico, J. S., Oller, J., & Storey, M. (1983). The diagnosis of language disorders in bilingual children: Surface-oriented and pragmatic criteria. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 48, 385–394.
Dickson, S. (1984). Communication disorders: Remedial principles and practices. Glenville: Scott Foresman.
Erickson, J. G., & Omark, D. R. (Eds.) (1981). Communication assessment of the bilingual bicultural child. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
Fasold, R. W. (1969). Tense and the form BE in Black English. Language, 45, 763–776.
Freeman, D. (1968). Corduroy. New York: Penguin.
Hamayan, E., & Damico, J. (1991). Limiting bias in the assessment of bilingual students. Austin: Pro-Ed.
Hanyak, B., & Roseberry-McKibbin, C. (1994, November). Authentic assessment: Identifying language-learning disabled primary grade children. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, New Orleans, LA.
Hegde, M. M., & Davis, D. (1995). Clinical methods and practicum in speech-language pathology (2nd ed.). San Diego: Singular.
Kamhi, A. G., Pollock, K. E., & Harris, J. L. (Eds.). (1996). Communication development and disorders in African American children: Research, assessment, and intervention. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
Klee, T. (1992). Developmental and diagnostic characteristics of quantitative measures of children’s language production. Topics in Language Disorders, 12, 28–41.
Klee, T., Schaffer, M., May, S., Membrino, I., & Mougey, K. (1989). A comparison of the age-MLU relation in normal and specifically language-impaired preschool children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54, 226–232.
Labov, W. (1969). Contraction, deletion, and the inherent variability of the English copula. Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America, 45(4), 715–762.
Lanza, E. (1992). Can bilingual two-year-olds code-switch? Journal of Child Language, 19, 633–658.
Leonard, L. B., & Weiss, A. L. (1983). Application of non-standardized assessment procedures to diverse linguistic populations. Topics in Language Disorders, 3(3), 35–45.
Miller, J. F., & Chapman, R. (1992). Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts for the Apple Macintosh computer (MACSALT, Computer software). Madison, WI: Language Analysis Laboratory, Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development.
Mount-Weitz, J. (1996). Vocabulary development and disorders in African American children. In Kamhi, A. G. Pollack, K. E. & Harris, J. L. (Eds.), Communication development and disorders in African American children (pp. 155–188). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Nelson, N. W. (1993). Childhood language disorders in context: Infancy through adolescence. New York: Macmillan.
Norris, M. K., Juarez, M. J., & Perkins, M. (1989). Adaptation of a screening test for bilingual and bidialectal populations. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools, 20, 381–389.
Owens, R. E. (1991). Language disorders a functional approach to assessment and intervention. New York: Merrill.
Paul, R. (1995). Language disorders from infancy through adolescence assessment and intervention. St. Louis: Mosby.
Pendergast, K., Dickey, S. E., Selman, J. W., & Sorder, A. L. (1969). Photo Articulation Test. Danville, IL: Interstate Printers and Publishers.
Peters-Johnson, C. A., & Taylor, O. L. (1986). Speech, language, and hearing disorders in Black populations. In Taylor, O. L. (Ed.), Nature of communication disorders in culturally and linguistically diverse populations. San Diego: College-Hill.
Proctor, A. (1994). Phonology and cultural diversity. In Lowe, R. J. (Ed.), Phonology: Assessment and intervention implications in speech pathology (pp. 207–245). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Reed, V. A. (1994). An introduction to children with language disorders (2nd ed.). New York: Merrill.
Rice, M., Sell, M. A., & Hadley, P. A. (1991). Social interactions of speech-and-language-impaired children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 34, 1299–1307.
Roseberry, C., & Connell, P. J. (1991). The use of an invented language rule in the differentiation of normal and language-impaired Spanish-speaking children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 34, 596–603.
Roseberry-McKibbin, C. A. (1994). Assessment and intervention for children with limited English proficiency and language disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 3(3), 77–88.
Roseberry-McKibbin, C. A. (1995). Multicultural students with special language needs. Oceanside, CA: Academic Communication Associates.
Ruhlen, M. (1976). Guide to the languages of the world. San Diego: Los Amigos Research Associates.
Seymour, H. N., & Seymour, C. M. (1981). Black English and Standard American English contrasts in consonantal development of four and five year old children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 46, 274–280.
Shames, G. H., Wiig, E. H., Secord, W. A. (Eds.). (1994). Human communication disorders: An introduction (4th ed.). New York: Merrill.
St. Louis, K. O., & Ruscello, D. M. (1987). Oral Speech Mechanism Screening Examination–Revised. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Stockman, I. J. (1986). Language acquisition in culturally diverse populations: The black child as a case study. In Taylor, Orlando L. (Ed.), Nature of communication disorders in culturally and linguistically diverse populations) pp. 117–155). San Diego: College-Hill.
Stockman, I. J. (1996). Phonological development and disorders in African American children. In Kamhi, A. G. Pollack, K. E. & Harris, J. L. (Eds.), Communication development and disorders in African American children (pp. 117–154). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Taylor, O. (1986a). Language and communication differences. In Shames, G. H. Wiig, E. H. & Secord, W. A. (Eds.), Human communication disorders: An introduction (pp. 136–173). New York: Merrill.
Taylor, O. (1986b). Nature of communication disorders in culturally and linguistically diverse populations. San Diego: College-Hill.
Terrell, S. L., Arensberg, K., & Rosa, M. (1992). Parent-child comparative analysis: A criterion-referenced method for the nondiscriminatory assessment of a child who spoke a relatively uncommon dialect of English. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 23, 34–42.
Terrell, S., & Terrell, F. (1983). Distinguishing linguistic difference from disorders: The past, present and future of nonbiased testing. Topics in Language Disorders, 3, 1–7.
Terrell, S., & Terrell, F. (1993). African-American cultures. In Battle, D. (Ed.), Communication disorders in multicultural populations (pp. 3–37). Stoneham, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Washington, J. A., & Craig, J. K. (1994). Dialectal forms during discourse of poor, urban, African American preschoolers. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 37, 816–823.
Wiener, F., Lewnau, E. L., & Erway, E. (1983). Measuring language competency in speakers of Black American English. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 48, 76–84.
Wiig, E. H., Secord, W., & Semel, E. (1992). Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals–Preschool. Chicago: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
Wolfram, W. (1986). Language variation in the United States. In Taylor, O. L. (Eds.), Nature of communication disorders in culturally and linguistically diverse populations. San Diego: College-Hill.
Wolfram, W., & Clarke, N. H. (Eds.) (1971). Black and White speech relationships. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.
Wyatt, T. A. (1996). Acquisition of the African American English copula. In Kamhi, A. G. Pollack, K. E. & Harris, J. L. (Eds.), Communication development and disorders in African American children (pp. 95–116). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Volume 6Number 3August 1997
Pages: 45-56

History

  • Received: Jul 9, 1996
  • Accepted: Mar 4, 1997
  • Published in issue: Aug 1, 1997

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Keywords

  1. contrastive analysis
  2. African American English
  3. diagnosis
  4. nonstandard varieties

Authors

Affiliations

Karla K. McGregor [email protected]
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Danielle Williams
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Sarah Hearst
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Amy C. Johnson
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Notes

Contact author: Karla K. McGregor, 2299 Campus Dr. N, Evanston, IL 60208. Email: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Article Metrics
View all metrics



Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.

Citing Literature

  • Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Speech Sound Assessment Considerations for Speakers of Trinidadian English and Trinidadian English Creole, Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 10.1044/2024_PERSP-24-00074, 10, 2, (595-607), (2025).
  • Diagnosing speech sound disorder in bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children, Multilingual Acquisition and Learning, 10.1075/sibil.67.08mar, (217-245), (2024).
  • Overview, Language Development and Language Impairment: A Problem‐Based Introduction, 10.1002/9781394260287.ch1, (1-31), (2024).
  • Multilingual Speech Acquisition by Vietnamese-English–Speaking Children and Adult Family Members, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-21-00669, 66, 7, (2184-2229), (2023).
  • A Critical Analysis of State-Level Policies Impacting Racialized Emergent Bilinguals Suspected or Labeled as Dis/abled, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 10.1044/2023_LSHSS-22-00137, 54, 3, (729-745), (2023).
  • Teaching Phonemic and Phonological Awareness to Children Who Speak African American English, The Reading Teacher, 10.1002/trtr.2200, 76, 6, (765-774), (2023).
  • Estimating Early Language Input in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children With the Language Access Profile Tool, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10.1044/2022_AJSLP-21-00222, 31, 5, (2132-2144), (2022).
  • Gunther De Vogelaer, Dietha Koster & Torsten Leuschner: German and Dutch in Contrast. Synchronic, Diachronic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives, Glottotheory, 10.1515/glot-2021-2017, 13, 1, (97-110), (2022).
  • Effect of dialect on identification and severity of speech sound disorder in Fijian children, Speech, Language and Hearing, 10.1080/2050571X.2022.2052506, 26, 1, (48-60), (2022).
  • Language and Dialect of African American Children, Handbook of Literacy in Diglossia and in Dialectal Contexts, 10.1007/978-3-030-80072-7_2, (11-32), (2022).

View Options

Sign In Options

ASHA member? If so, log in with your ASHA website credentials for full access.

Member Login

View options

PDF

View PDF

Full Text

View Full Text

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share