Bases of language intervention

Journal o f School Psychology 1980 • Vol. 18, No. 1

0 0 2 2 - 4405/80/1300- 0081 $00.95 © 1980 The Journal o f School Psychology, Inc.

REVIEWS OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGICAL MATERIALS JOHN R. BERGAN, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Schiefelbusch, R. L. (Ed.). Bases of language intervention. Baltimore: University Park Press, 1978. Pp.x & 476, $14.50 hard cover. The nine chapters that comprise this volume, ranging from discussion of neurophysiological processes to miniature linguistic systems, truly reflect the bases of language intervention strategies. Initial chapters cover a developmental view of cognition (Chapter 3) and the semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects of language (Chapters 4 and 5). Chapters 6, 7, and 8 address the more applied topics of assessment, planning strategies for intervention, and generalization of trained behaviors to spontaneous speech-use settings. The editor's concern with integration of chapter content is apparent in the 10-page introduction and 12-page summary and interpretation sections. While the topics of the chapter authors are quite distinct, the perspective of the majority of contributors is similar: the application of an environmentalist theoretical view to language training of special populations. This book is extremely well edited. The section and order of chapters reflects an organization from more general physiological factors, through descriptions of emerging speech, to program application. There is very little redundancy of information from chapter to chapter, and there are frequent references made to other sections of the volume. The book reads more like a text than an assortment of papers on the same topic. All authors clearly addressed the question of how their particular topic contributes to application in intervention programs. There is the realization that interventionists cannot afford to wait until there is a totally coherent theoretical base before designing intervention programs. This press for application, however, possibly has led to the contributors' failure to distinguish clearly between the areas of language acquisition and use of language. In the introduction, the editor comments on the distinction between language acquisition and language use. He suggests that the area of intervention needs a literature of its own, which relates the literature of language acquisition to the literature of language use. This important distinction, however, becomes less clear throughout the chapters. Such imprecision in the treatment of use and acquisition leads the reader to raise the question of whether the recipients of intervention programs make up a unique and distinct special population or represent one extreme end of a continuum. Nowhere in the volume is this issue discussed. The implications for intervention are obvious. If one's theoretical orientation favors a distinct population view, then intervention strategies would draw more heavily on the language use literature, i.e., emphasis would be placed on teaching those communication skills deemed most valuable for the particular client. If one's theoretical orientation favors an end-of-the-continuum view, intervention programs would rely more on the language acquisition literature. The focus would then be the training of language forms in the order in which they emerge in acquisition by the normal population. The reader may be disappointed that clarity is lacking on this most important point. Bases of Language Intervention does address the controversial issue of the relation of language and cognition. While those chapters that more specifically discuss application focus on a behaviorist view, in Chapter 3 Leonard states that an intervention program must be consistent with a Piagetian view of cognitive development; that is, language training can only assist the child in expressing linguistically those structures which are already understood. The unique importance of Chapter 3 is that it serves as a bridge between the organismic (stress of maturational and biological factors) view of language development and the environmentalist position. The reader 81

82

Journal o f School P s y c h o l o g y

realizes that these two approaches do not have to be mutually exclusive, but that they can contribute to a more complete perception of training implications. The reader may look forward to several other volumes in the Language Intervention series. A future volume titled Developmental Language Intervention: Psycholinguistic Applications suggests a continuing discussion of the combined contributions of organismic and environmental approaches. Other future volumes will emphasize early language intervention and the selection of intervention strategies. Margaret M. Bierly Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Psychology California State University, Chico Chico, CA 95929

Jessor, R., & Jessor, S. L. Problem behavior and psychosocial development: A longitudinal study of youth. New York: Academic Press, 1977. Pp. 281 + XV, $16.00. With the social turmoil of the last decade came a resurgence of social and behavioral scientists' interest in the study of youth. Particularly, efforts were made to predict "deviant" behavior in relation to other social, developmental and interpersonal factors, and to discover the interrelationship of these factors. Problem Behavior and Psychosocial Development: A Longitudinal Study of Youth is the result of one of these studies. This book is a report of social-psychological studies of behavior and development in adolescents and youths. The authors have studied the interrelationship of personality, the perceived social environment and behavior. Research reported in this book involves two separate longitudinal studies which took nearly a decade, one with a sample of high school students and one with a sample of college students. The book consists of four parts: in part one the social psychological framework and the design of research is discussed; part two deals with cross-sectional findings (personality and problem behavior, perceived environment and problem behavior); in part three longitudinal findings are discussed; and part four deals with studies in socialization and conclusion. The research started in the early 1970s with two groups of high school and college students who were tested over a period of four consecutive years. Together the two studies cover the age range from early adolescence to early adult life (from 12 to 22). The investigators employed a cohort-sequential longitudinal design and they report both cross-sectional and longitudinal findings. A multivariate approach predicting "problem behavior," including drug use, sexual intercourse, drinking, active protest, etc., is used, and like most other studies dealing with prediction of problem behaviors or delinquency, prediction is based, for the most part, on an actuarial and nomothetic approach. The theoretical foundation of the book is more sociological than psychological. From the psychological point of view, the book is based on field theory and a phenomenological approach, which limits the scope of the book. Youth is studied from a sociological perspective. From this standpoint, "Much of the behavior is problematic only in relation to age, and problem proneness can often mean no more than developmental precocity. It would be an important step forward for prevention and control if problem behavior in youth came to be seen as part of dialectic growth, a visible strand in the web of time." No attempt is made to look at "problem behavior" in this stage of life from psychodynamic, psychosocial, cognitive developmental points of view. In fact, throughout the book there is no reference to Freud's, Erikson's or Piaget's theories. A good portion of findings of the research has already been published in different reports; therefore, for the readers familiar with the literature, this book offers a comprehensive review of previously reported findings. In the first appendix the authors included a list of publications which have emerged from this theoretical framework. This list provides the reader with a quick reference to the works based on this theory. In summary, this book should be helpful for behavioral scientists and educators who have been trained to view problem behaviors from a strictly psychological approach in sensitizing them to social factors, forces, and the contexts within which ,"problem behavior" occurs. M. E. Fakouri, Ph.D. Professor of Educational Psychology Indiana State University Terre Haute, Indiana 47809