| Recent oral language assessment models have emphasized the need to assess language in dynamic and authentic ways. This study examined the usefulness of one genre--children's repeated pretend reading--in assessing the emerging oral language skills of children with specific language impairment. The purpose of the study was to characterize the linguistic complexity of a sample of preschool children with mild- to moderate specific language impairment as they pretended to read an unfamiliar storybook. Across three readings during a one-week period, results indicated significant increases in the average length of utterances, the percentage of revisions, and the production of essential story elements across the series of pretend readings. A profile analysis and two case studies revealed individual differences in the children's strategies for constructing the story, but profiles of similar degree and direction of change emerged for all children. These analyses identified the range of potential for change that can be revealed by the pretend reading task even among children with widely different language proficiencies. Implications of the uses of the pretend reading genre for language assessment are discussed. |
