THE ULTIMATE GUIDE

TO SENTENCE
STRUCTURE
THE SLP'S GUIDE TO IMPROVING LANGUAGE
COMPREHENSION AND EXPRESSION

DR. KAREN DUDEK-BRANNAN

Hey there...
I'M SO GLAD
YOU'RE HERE

I'm Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan, and I experiences designed to help

help pediatric clinicians become clinicians and educators feel more
better leaders, so they can make a confident in the way they serve their
bigger impact with their services. I caseloads, so they can help school-
have over 15 years of experience age kids grow up to be successful,
supporting school-age kids with kind, well-adjusted people.
diverse learning needs, and now I

Dr. Karen
spend my time sharing up-to-date
evidence-based practices and my own
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: The Truth about Language Processing Problems
In this chapter you’ll learn the hidden culprit behind processing problems that don’t respond to traditional
reading comprehension strategies, and why it’s such an essential piece to language therapy.

Chapter 2: Taking the Guesswork out of Goal-Writing

You’ll learn a simple technique for writing goals, so you don’t spend all night and weekend doing paperwork
and stressing about data collection.

Chapter 3: Building Comprehension with Passive Voice

In this chapter, you’ll learn about the first sentence type that’s challenging for students with language disorders
and why it’s so difficult to understand.

Chapter 4: Studying Complex Sentences and Conjunctions

You’ll learn one of the most important skills for solid writing and reading comprehension in academic settings.

Chapter 5: Supporting Working Memory with Relative Clauses

Working on this sentence type is a must; especially if you have students with working memory problems. In
this chapter I’ll walk you through all the important pieces you need to know.

Chapter 6: Deconstructing Advanced Sentence Types

Here we’ll dive in to an advanced sentence type your students need to know to succeed in school.

Chapter 7: How do I Teach Complex Sentences?

In this chapter you’ll learn an easy-to-implement evidence-based strategy that will build comprehension and
expression; and it’s possible to get it done in a 30-40 minute session every week.

Chapter 8: Conjunctions Flashcards

In this section, you’ll get “print-and-go” coordinating and subordinating conjunctions flashcards you’ll be able
to use to boost sentence structure.

Chapter 9: IEP Goals for Sentence Structure

We’ll wrap up our discussion about goals with a go-to goal bank with sentence structure objectives you can use
to boost syntax.

Chapter 10: How do I know what is EBP?

You don’t have to stress about whether or not you’re using EBP. I’ll give you the list of references with links
that went in to building this guide.

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 Chapter 1:
The Truth about Language Processing Problems

If you’re working with school-aged kids, you’ve probably had a lot of referrals for “processing” concerns.

We often get these referrals, do our best to determine what we should be working on…and then start therapy.
But that’s the problem. Many times, we feel like we’re guessing, jumping around from skill to skill, not really
improving much of anything.

It seems like there’s no way to get to all the skills holding our students back. After all, when we get these
referrals, we also get a laundry list of concerns about what students can't do. Which means our list of
therapy activities is also massive; and we often struggle to make headway with every single skill on the list.

It may be a little like this:

Students give irrelevant answers to “wh” questions, no matter how many times you model the right
answer and reword the question. Your “wh” question flashcards are falling apart because you’ve used them
so much.

Reading comprehension isn’t improving, no matter how many times you practice “stating the main idea”.

When you ask students to retell a story, they look at you like a deer in headlights. So you get out some
sequencing card deck and practice telling stories…but their sentences aren’t sounding right and you can’t
quit put your finger on why.

They struggle with answer inferencing questions, and their teacher keeps telling you how badly they’re
doing on all of their reading assignments. So you work inferencing questions some more with different
stories, but they’re still not getting it.

Written language and essays are full of of grammatical errors and sentences that don’t make sense, or the
same simple structure over and over again. You’ve worked on verb tenses and pronouns because that’s all
you can think to do…but you know there’s something else holding them back.

Students may have weak grammar in general, and when you ask them to “use a vocabulary word in a
sentence”, you get the same sentence structure over and over again. The only technique in your toolbox for
working getting better sentences is saying, “Can you use that word in a sentence?”

Your students struggle to follow directions in class, and you’ve worked on the “Will follow 2-step directions
with 80% accuracy” goal until you’re blue in the face. And they still can’t follow directions with 80% accuracy.

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When I used to get these cases, I used to spend tons of time working on the same “comprehension” strategies
that teachers were using, like stating the main idea, recalling details from a story, or answering inferencing
questions.

I used my sequencing, “wh” question, pronouns, and verb tenses card decks until they literally fell apart. My IEPs
looked reasonable on the surface, because I’d written goals with the right format and I’d even figured out which
curriculum standard went with my objectives.

But I had a big problem.

It might have looked good on paper; but my students weren’t getting any better. I was working on the same
things over and over again to improve “language processing”. I was taking the behaviors my student couldn’t do
(like answering comprehension questions), and I was working on them over and over, year after year.

But they weren’t improving.

Why?

Because I was treating the SYMPTOM, not the CAUSE.

So what was I missing?

Syntax.

The rules that explain how to use a vocabulary word correctly in a sentence, or how to use grammatically correct
sentences in essays.

The rules that emphasize what words in a sentence are important, so we can make sense of what we’re
reading and the directions we hear in class.

The rules that help us make sense of sequence, and that help us stay organized when we’re speaking; so what
we’re saying is understood by others.

The rules that show us how to comprehend a question, and that show us how to answer it. I was working on
SYMPTOMS, but had completely neglected the CAUSE.

No wonder my students were suffering. I knew that sentence structure was important. I just didn’t realize HOW
important. And once I realized it, I wasn’t sure where to start.

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I hadn’t thought about deconstructing sentences since junior high English. Chances are if you’re reading this,
you may be in the same boat.

Many of us have also forgotten those more advanced sentence types that our students actually need to
succeed in school, which is why most school language IEPs completely skim over this skill. Or, we might not see
this skill addressed on IEPs until secondary school…which is too little too late.

We start to use complex sentences in oral language as early as 5-6 years old (Dudek-Brannan, 2018). If your
students don’t have a grasp on these syntactic structures…they’re already headed down the path to a miserable
school experience.

That's why you need a roadmap to guide you through the types of sentences likely to hold your students back,
which is exactly what I’m going to give you in this guide.

But before we get to that, we’ll talk about some seminal research that’s essential to understanding why syntax is
the culprit behind so many “language processing” problems. Let’s talk about Loban (1977), who did a massive
longitudinal study where he looked at language development from Kindergarten through 12th grade.

Loban wanted to see what skills stood out over the course of the years. And there was one language skill that
stood out over all the rest.

That skill was syntax. Specifically, it was the use of subordination to form complex sentences. This means that
as we get older and our language skills get more advanced, we use subordination more in both oral and written
language.

We use subordination when we attach a subordinate, or dependent clause to an independent clause (we’ll get
in to these terms more in chapter 4).

When we do this, we form complex sentences.

People with stronger language skills use more complex sentences than people who don’t. Many Kindergarteners
are even starting to use complex sentences in oral language. If you have a school-age student who isn’t doing
this, or isn’t doing often, that’s a definite red flag that syntax could be the cause of their processing issues.

A poor sense of sentence structure can be a huge problem when it comes to anything “academic” we have to
do, like reading a textbook or participating in a class discussion.

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Complex sentences are seen often in academic texts; yet they’re extremely difficult for students with
language disorders to process (Balthazar & Scott, 2018).

Research has also shown us that syntax a necessary skill for reading comprehension (Nippold, 2017), Scott
(2009) said it best in her paper "A case for the sentence in reading comprehension" when said that we
won’t be able to understand what we read if we can’t understand one sentence at a time.

The good news is that working on problem sentence types not only improves sentence production (Balthazar
&Scott, 2009), but it can also have carryover effects on reading abilities (Gillon & Dodd,1995).

So if syntax is so important, why aren’t we addressing it more often?

I’ll tell you why I didn’t: I didn’t know how.

Syntax is one of the most overlooked and underserved areas. Rarely do I come across detailed language therapy
goals on an IEP that address syntax.

There are often some general goals about verb tenses, or maybe a broad comprehension goal…but nothing that
addresses the types of sentences that are actually causing students to have comprehension breakdowns.

Why are so many of us missing this? Mostly because it comes so easy to us. We’re competent language users.
So competent, in fact, that we use complex sentences structures without even thinking about it.

Because these sentences are so easy for us, we never really have to “get meta” about them. Which means we
don’t know what sentence types to teach our students who haven’t caught on to the rules of syntax yet.

We know syntax so well IMPLICITLY, that we aren’t explaining it EXPLICITLY, which is what our students
need.

There are two essential first steps to solving this problem:

1. Figure out what types of sentences are hard for students

2. Write IEP goals to guide us through teaching those sentence types

That’s why this entire guide is dedicated to doing those two things.

Yes, we also have to have the right therapy techniques, and I’ll share some materials and examples of that as
well. But figuring out the problem and creating a plan with the right objectives is half the battle. That’s why I
want to set you on the right path.

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I even promise what you could call an "IEP Goal Bank" for syntax, plus some ideas about how to help students
meet the goals in therapy. Let me say first, I don’t use a goal bank. Instead, I use a process I’m going to talk you
through in this guide.

If you understand this process, you will rarely ever need a goal bank. Regardless, I’m going to give one to you
to help you learn the ropes; but make sure you’re using it as a tool to guide you rather than a crutch.

Before I wrap up this first chapter, I’m going to give you an overview of the sentence structures that will follow in
this guide.

If your students are struggling with sentence structure, the list of error patterns they make can seem endless.
We don't have time to get to them all, nor do we need to.

That’s why for syntax, it’s necessary to examine the types of sentences that are MOST difficult to process,
because these are the ones that will give our students with language disorders the biggest headaches.

If we're aware of the biggest culprits behind their processing difficulties, this can narrow our focus considerably.
It can also make our therapy more effective, because we're hitting the skills holding them back in the first place.

Thankfully, Dr. Richard Zipoli Jr. cleared up some confusion with an article he wrote in Intervention in School and
Clinic.

According to Zipoli (2017), sentences with the following can be really difficult:

1. Sentences with passive voice

2. Sentences with adverbial clauses and causal/temporal conjunctions
3. Sentences with relative clauses
4. Sentences with three or more clauses

Don’t worry if you don't know what these are off the top of your head.

I’ll be walking you through each of these and explaining what they are; but first I’m going to start us off with
the first thing I do when writing any language therapy goal.

So that’s what we’ll do in the next chapter.

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 Chapter 2:
Taking the Guesswork out of Goal-Writing

Before we continue, I have to address an elephant in the room:

I'm actually not a huge fan of using goal-banks.

I've seen them become highly problematic because they can often result in goals that are not very functional.
They can also serve as a crutch to the goal-writing process, which takes the problem-solving element out of your
clinical practice.

However, when used appropriately, a simplified version of a "goal-bank" can be a useful tool when used in
conjunction with a solid decision-making process. That's why I've made a version of "goal-bank" you can use to
help understand how to think through not just syntax goals, but language goals in-general.

That’s why this guide is designed to give you a roadmap using those four sentence types I mentioned in the
second chapter.

Before we take any of that into account, let me walk you through the first step of writing language goals.

When I write IEP goals for language, I typically start out with a “base goal.”

A base goal is a simple statement that identifies a behavior that you can physically observe. It’s pretty general,
and it's our starting point.

I use the mantra, "If you can't see it, you can't measure it".

While it's true that we will never be able to measure all of the internal cognitive processes going on when it
comes to language, we do need to operationalize this as much as possible; which is why my starting point is
always to start with the things we can actually see-which is how we start with this concept of a base goal.

All of the IEP goal banks that I create start out with a few base goals. You'd be surprised how few base goals
you need for language goals.

The base goal helps to keep you focused on the “big picture”, and helps organize you as you sort through the
massive number of syntax goals you COULD be working on. My base goal for syntax is this:

"Student will say/write sentences."

I know that sounds so simple, but if you can remember this one behavior when writing your syntax goals, you are
well ahead of the game. Understanding those base behaviors is the "meat" of writing good goals, and it really is
easier than most people think.

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The reason we start so simple is because it eliminates the “IEP mega goal” that’s so long and complicated that it
makes sense to no one and is impossible to track. But...just in case you're thinking that this seems too easy, or
that this statement seems too general; don’t worry. I’ll show you how to make it more specific.

Your next step once you’ve identified the basic behavior you’re wanting to see is to customize your goal
statement.

Let’s go back to that base goal behavior:

"Student will say/write sentences."

If we want our student to say or write sentences correctly, there could be a number of different things we might
want to see. We might want to see correct grammatical markers, or we might want to hear target vocabulary or
sounds. If we're working on sentence structure, we want to hear correct syntax, so the first obvious
customization for syntax would look like this:

“Student will say/write sentences with correct syntax.”

You’d obviously want to make sure you add the appropriate level of accuracy at the end of it as well (e.g., “4 out
of 5 trials”, “80% accuracy”).

Second, you’d consider whether you want to write a separate goal for oral vs. written language, or if you’d
rather target them within the same goal.

I’d say for syntax, that’s one of our biggest considerations.

To be honest, I usually favor efficiency. I’m more likely to write one goal for syntax and target both oral and
written within that goal. This way I can track and target them simultaneously in therapy, since I often toggle back
and forth between the two.

These are the three questions I usually ask myself when I decide whether or not to separate the two:

1. Is another person targeting syntax?

If a special education teacher has written a goal for syntax in essays, I may only write my goal for oral language. If
not, I may include both oral/written.

2. How many other language goals does the student have?

If this is a kid who needs help with EVERYTHING, I’ll keep this syntax goal as efficient as possible. I will write more
general goals so that I can cover more linguistic elements (e.g., semantics, syntax, morphology).

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3. Is syntax the main area of need?
If it is, then I might want to put other language skills on hold for the time being and make my IEP goals dive
deeper in to specific syntactic skills, like the 4 difficult sentence types Zipoli (2017) pinpointed.

Even though there are benefits to writing fewer goals, there are times when we need to break them apart by
specific sentence types of syntax is the key problem or if there is one sentence type causing huge problems for
students.

In general, I tend to make my goals as efficient as possible and only break them down to multiple goals
when it’s absolutely necessary.

I’ve even combined syntax and grammar together because they’re so interrelated, which could look like this:

“Student will say sentences with appropriate grammar/syntax on 4 out of 5 trials.”

I know some people will be uncomfortable with the efficiency rule.

The drawback to going the “efficiency” route for goals is that sometimes students will only have met part of
the goal; for example if they’ve met the goal for oral but not written.

But if that’s the case, I provide data for each one when tracking the goal. If it feels like I'm covering too much
with one IEP goal, I tweak the goal as needed when I revise the IEP. The point here is not to be lazy, but rather to
prioritize and focus.

The point to take away from it is that when you are writing your syntax goals for speech therapy, you want
to keep it as simple as possible.

The simpler your goals are, the easier to they will be to track. This means more time with your students and less
time plugging away at your laptop writing reports.

This one simple goal could, in theory, meet a lot of your students’ needs; especially if you are working on
different sentence types throughout the year. The goal will give you some flexibility to work on multiple skills
under the same goal; and you can simply report progress on the ones you’ve worked on with your students.

But what if you have students that have one particular sentence type that’s giving them trouble?

In that case, we can write that sentence type in to our goal; which is what the next few chapters will cover.

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3. Is syntax the main area of need?
If it is, then I might want to put other language skills on hold for the time being and make my IEP goals dive
deeper in to specific syntactic skills, like the 4 difficult sentence types Zipoli (2017) pinpointed.

Even though there are benefits to writing fewer goals, there are times when we need to break them apart by
specific sentence types of syntax is the key problem or if there is one sentence type causing huge problems for
students.

In general, I tend to make my goals as efficient as possible and only break them down to multiple goals
when it’s absolutely necessary.

I’ve even combined syntax and grammar together because they’re so interrelated, which could look like this:

“Student will say sentences with appropriate grammar/syntax on 4 out of 5 trials.”

I know some people will be uncomfortable with the efficiency rule.

The drawback to going the “efficiency” route for goals is that sometimes students will only have met part of
the goal; for example if they’ve met the goal for oral but not written.

But if that’s the case, I provide data for each one when tracking the goal. If it feels like I'm covering too much
with one IEP goal, I tweak the goal as needed when I revise the IEP. The point here is not to be lazy, but rather to
prioritize and focus.

The point to take away from it is that when you are writing your syntax goals for speech therapy, you want
to keep it as simple as possible.

The simpler your goals are, the easier to they will be to track. This means more time with your students and less
time plugging away at your laptop writing reports.

This one simple goal could, in theory, meet a lot of your students’ needs; especially if you are working on
different sentence types throughout the year. The goal will give you some flexibility to work on multiple skills
under the same goal; and you can simply report progress on the ones you’ve worked on with your students.

But what if you have students that have one particular sentence type that’s giving them trouble?

In that case, we can write that sentence type in to our goal; which is what the next few chapters will cover.

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 Chapter 3:
Building Comprehension with Passive Voice

In this chapter we're going to talk about the first sentence type.

Sentences with passive voice.

The first problem sentence type for students with language disorders according to Zipoli (2017) are sentences
with passive verbs, or passive voice.

(I will go back and forth between the terms "passive voice" and "passive verbs").

A sentence has a passive voice when the agent, or doer of an action, and the recipient of that action are
reversed (Zipoli, 2017).

The easiest way to deconstruct passive voice is to look at another, less complex type of sentence: sentences
with active voice. When we use active voice, the “doer” of an action (or the agent) comes before the receiver of
the action.

This is relatively easy to process because the word order is logical and in a sequence we’d expect.

Here are some examples of sentences active voice:

"The boy threw the ball."

"The students completed the assignment."

In both sentences, we hear the agent first (“boy”, “students”). Then we hear what they did (“threw”, “completed”)
and to what (“ball”, “assignment”).

Students with language processing issues are heavily reliant on this order. This type of sentence allows them to
process one thing at a time, and doesn’t require them to retain and transpose a significant amount of information
in their heads (this will make more sense in a minute).

This difficulty with word order can help us understand what language we need to use when defining our
observable behaviors.

I can take the sentences I just gave you in the active voice example and change them to use passive voice:

"The ball was thrown by the boy."

"The assignment was completed by the students."

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In these two sentences, we hear the receiver of the action first (“ball”, “assignment”), even though we may be
expecting the “doer” (the boy) to come first.

In order to process this sentence effectively, we need to hold the receiver in our memory long enough to hear
the agent. Then we need to transpose the order of the agent/action/receiver and make sense of it.

This also requires taking note of words like “was” and “by the”, which are necessary in order to make passive voice
make sense.

Our students are overly reliant on word order because they are often hanging on by a thread trying to remember it
all (Owens, 2006; Scott, 2009).

Asking them to think about subtle cues like connecting words, or asking that they retain information and reorder
it mentally are a lot to ask.

Yet written language is loaded with passive voice, which means that our students need to be able to recognize,
process, and possibly use it.

Our base goal was “Student will say/write sentences.” The rest of our IEP goal bank will have some variations of
this same goal that will make it more specific.

I’m going to keep oral and written combined, but know you can make the decision about whether or not to
separate that.

One way to help your students understand passive voice is to have them work on using it. Since that’s the
case, we could go with this goal:

“Student will say/write sentences that have passive voice with 80% accuracy.”

It’s actually pretty easy. All we did was add this clause at the end of the base goal: “that have passive voice”

Since syntax is correlated with listening and reading comprehension, we may want to consider a
comprehension goal as well.

We also want to consider whether or not our students are understanding syntax.

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Here's what you should NOT add to the IEP goal bank: “Student will understand sentences with passive voice.”

The problem with this goal is that you can’t observe someone “understanding.” Same goes for verbs like
"comprehend" or "process."

Instead, you want to define an observable behavior that shows us that they’re understanding.
Remember, if you can't see it, you can't measure it.

One of my go-to “understanding” base behaviors in my current IEP goal bank is: “Student will answer questions.”

How do you know if someone understood you? You can ask them a question about what you said. Truth be told, I
would probably keep this goal general and say something like:

“Student will answer questions about sentences with 80% accuracy.”

Or, to make it a little more challenging:

“Student will answer questions about short paragraphs (3-4 sentences) with 80% accuracy.”

Then, what I would do is make sure I was targeting a number of different types of sentences within that ONE goal.

With students who have syntactic issues, there are often so many we could drive ourselves crazy writing goals for
every single one. If that’s the case, keep the goal general and just be mindful of the types of skills you introduce
within that goal.

The only time I WOULD recommend writing specific sentence types if there are clear problems with specific
structure, but more often than not there are multiple sentences types we need to address.

However, if you did need to do it, it could look like this:

“Student will answer questions about sentences with passive voice with 80% accuracy.”

Now, let's keep on moving to the next chapter where I’ll talk about one of my favorite sentence types to target.

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 Chapter 4:
Studying Complex Sentences and Conjunctions

Remember in the first chapter of this book where I told you about the one skill that’s correlated with overall
language skills? Or that sentence type that’s all over academic texts?

This is it.

Complex sentences can be a culprit behind comprehension issues for students with language disorders, because
there’s so many things they have to process at once.

We can examine this by defining what we're talking about:

Sentences with adverbial clauses and temporal/causal conjunctions

I will admit that before I worked on this one, I had to look some of these things up. I don’t just walk around all
day thinking about adverbial clauses.

This is actually part of our problem…this stuff is so easy for us we don’t always know how to break it down for our
students. The sentences types we use with ease have come to us naturally, so we never really have to get “meta”
and think about the individual parts.

But our students need us to do this for them, so let’s define some key terms.

Clauses
Clauses are groups of words with a subject and a predicate. Some can stand alone as sentences, while others
can’t.

An independent clause is a clause that can be a stand-alone sentence. For example, “The children ate breakfast,”
or, “Let’s go home.”

A subordinate clause (a.k.a. dependent clause) cannot stand alone. It must be attached to an independent
clause. For example, “because it was morning,” or “after we go home.”

Subordinate Conjunctions
There are two types of conjunctions: coordinating and subordinate.

Coordinating conjunctions are cohesive devices that connect parts of sentences together (see the
“coordinating conjunctions” flashcards).

Subordinate conjunctions are conjunctions that explain relationships between parts of sentences; such as
“why” or “when” something happened (see the “subordinating conjunctions flashcards).

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The clause is “subordinate” because it’s the less important part of the sentence. The “independent” clause is
the primary message, and subordinate clauses just provide additional information.

There is always a subordinate conjunction in a complex sentence as part of the subordinate clause; which I
already mentioned. When you’re attaching a subordinate clause to an independent clause, you are using
subordination to form a complex sentence.

Temporal and causal conjunctions, which are part of the sentence type I’m describing in this chapter, are types
of subordinating conjunctions. Temporal conjunctions are words that connect clauses or words within clauses
(like the subject or verb of a sentence). They explain “when”. This includes words like "before", "after", or "while."

Causal conjunctions also connect clauses or words, but they explain “why”. This includes words like "because",
"since", or "therefore." Adverbial clauses are clauses that contain adverbs. The adverb is often describing how
something is done. For example, “if we go home soon”, or “because you moved slowly.”

An adverb is a word that describes a verb, adjectives, or another adverb. Examples include words like
"randomly", or "excitedly"; or from the previous example, "soon", and "slowly."

Part of writing effective sentence structure goals is having a firm grasp on all of these terms so you can explain
them to your students.

At first glance, it’s easy to see why this sentence structure might be difficult for students with language
processing problems. There’s a lot of different terms they need to process at once all within one sentence. If
they misunderstand just one of those things, it can throw everything off.

The key for us defining what exactly should be in the sentence structure goals is understanding which part is
tripping them up. Let's see if you can pick out each element in a couple of examples.

Here an example of one with a causal conjunction:

“Since we got ready quickly, we had time to go out to breakfast.”

See if you can pick out the following:

1. Causal conjunction
2. Subordinate/dependent clause
3. Adverbial clause
4. Independent clause

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Ready for the answers?

Causal conjunction: “Since". This word explains why we were able to go out to breakfast.

Subordinate/dependent clause: “Since we got ready quickly,”

This has a subject and a predicate, but can't stand alone without the attached dependent clause. The rule is that
coordinating conjunctions can’t start sentences, and subordinate conjunctions can only start sentences when
they’re in a subordinate clause attached to an independent clause

In my writing on this blog, I break this rule all the time and start sentences with subordinate conjunctions without
attaching them to independent clauses.

It’s become more acceptable in conversational speech to break this rule, or even during less formal written
language (like blogs). But technically, it’s not syntactically correct. It’s important our students can code switch
and make that distinction.

Adverbial clause: “Since we got ready quickly,”

The subordinate (or dependent) clause is also an adverbial clause, because it describes how we got ready
(quickly).

Independent clause: “We had time to go out to breakfast.”

There’s a subject and a predicate, and this could function alone as a sentence.

Just to make sure you have a clear picture of how to apply this to writing sentence structure goals for speech
therapy, let’s do one more example with a temporal conjunction. Here's your example, following by the answers:

“I passed my test after studying consistently all semester.”

Temporal conjunction: “After”

Subordinate Clause/Adverbial Clause: “after studying all semester.”

Independent Clause: “I passed my test.”

This type of sentence is difficult because students with language processing issues may be reliant on “order of
mention” (Owens, 2006; Paul & Norbury, 2012; Westby, 2012).

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Let’s look at our first example so I can show you what I mean:

"Since we got ready quickly, we had time to go out to breakfast."

In this sentence, the cause (getting ready quickly) came before the result (having time to go out to breakfast).
We could rearrange these clauses and say:

"We had time to go out to breakfast since we got ready quickly."

The meaning is the same, but the result comes before the cause. In either cause, we need to pay close attention
to what is causing what.

Students who are overly reliant on order of mention may only notice the order of events. They may not fully
understand the function of words like “since”, which is why I often write sentence structure goals for speech
therapy that mention conjunctions directly.

Students may also not grasp the meaning behind the clauses that tells us which event would logically cause
another; another consideration when writing IEP goals.

Relying on order of mention can be an even bigger problem when we have a sentence with a temporal
conjunction.

Let’s go back to our temporal conjunction example:

"After studying consistently all semester, I passed my test."

In this instance, the events are mentioned in chronological order. First, I studied, then I passed my test. You can
pay attention to the order of events and get the gist.

Now let’s switch it:

"I passed my test after studying consistently all semester."

We need to pay attention to the word “after” and hold the information from the clauses in our working
memory. Then we need to mentally flip the two events around so we understand that the studying came before
the passing.

This is considerably harder, especially if you’re expecting to hear things in the order they happened.

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Another issue is that your students might not process modifiers like adverbs, so words like “consistently” could be
difficult as well.

They might not be able to explain why I was able to pass my test, nor would they be able to explain how you would
need to study in order to pass. They may not notice that the word “consistently” explains that I was studying
often, and not doing it carelessly.

Our base goal for targeting syntax was:

“Student will say/write sentences.”

One of the challenges for our students will be using adverbs, so we need to think about how we'd fit that in to
sentence structure goals for speech therapy. I have never written an individual goal for adverbs. When I have
worked on them, I usually addressed them under this goal:

"Student will use grade-level (or age-appropriate) vocabulary words in sentences with 80% accuracy."

I typically either write “grade-level” or “age-appropriate”. Or I might specifically write an actual grade (e.g., “second
grade”). What I don’t do is write a goal I don’t think they can meet. For example, if I don’t think they’ll be able to do
this at an age-appropriate level by the end of the IEP, I won’t write it in to the goal.

This is confusing to some people because they feel like it isn’t “aligned” with curriculum. It’s totally fine to write a
goal for a skill you’d expect at a lower grade level if it’s a necessary step towards getting to “age- appropriate.”

This goal could include target words from varying classes, so it allows me to target more than one word type. You
could make it more specific and say something like:

"Student will use grade level vocabulary words in sentences with correct grammar/syntax with 80% accuracy."

This goal is okay, but we could make it a little more focused.

When syntax is an issue, part of the problem is that students tend to overuse simple sentence forms (Zipoli,
2017). Because of that, we need to encourage them to use more compound and complex sentences.

One of the critical skills required for creating more sophisticated sentences is understanding and using
conjunctions; so this is what I usually state in my sentence structure goals.

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That might look like this:

“Student will say/write sentences with conjunctions on 4 out of 5 trials.”

We still use conjunctions in simple sentences (for example, the word "and" in this sentence: "Mom and dad went
to the store."), so this goal could cover conjunctions in simple, complex, and compound sentences.

If you wanted your goal to be more specific and clarify that you want a complex sentence, you could say any of
the following:

“Student will say/write complex sentences with conjunctions on 4 out of 5 trials.”

“Student will say/write complex sentences with temporal/causal conjunctions on 4 out of 5 trials.”

“Student will say/write complex sentences with temporal/causal conjunctions and adverbial clauses on 4 out of 5
trials.”

As you can see, we can mix, match, and pick apart these skills to death. That’s why I recommend making it
specific enough, but not so specific that you have too many goals.

In a way, these are a little redundant because we need a temporal or causal conjunction to make a complex
sentence (so we could in theory just list one skill or the other skill, rather than both). But sometimes it’s nice to
have it all written out to remind you why you're working on the IEP goal in the first place.

With most of my students, I go with the first example (“Student will say/write complex sentences with
conjunctions on 4 out of 5 trials.”).

This goal encompasses multiple sentence types, and sometimes my students need work on using conjunctions
with simple sentences before we move to complex.

Leaving this room for flexibility covers my bases enough that I know what I should track, but also leaves it open for
progress throughout the year.

And with that, we’re on to the next sentence type.

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 Chapter 5:
Supporting Working Memory with Relative Clauses

The next sentence type is sentences with center-embedded relative clauses.

When clauses are “embedded” it means they’re wedged in the middle of the independent clause; essentially
“interrupting” the primary message in the sentence.

Not so great if you struggle with language, because by the time you get past the interruption you may have
forgotten the subject of the sentence. You might not remember who did what, or when they did it.

This means if someone asked you a question about what you just read/heard, you may just utter something about
the last few words you heard or say anything you can think of that may remotely relate to the topic of
conversation.

Before we go any further, let’s have a mini-syntax lesson so you can recognize this sentence type when you see it.

A relative clause is a phrase that acts as an adjective. It's a dependent clause, and it usually starts with relative
pronouns such as “that”, “who”, or “which”.

If a relative clause is “center-embedded”, it means that it's placed in the middle of an independent clause. This
distinction is important, because the order of words is often difficult to process for our students.

The fact that this type of clause happens in the middle of an independent clause requires us to hold certain
pieces of information in our working memory and refer back to them later, which is a struggle for students with
language processing issues.

Let’s look at a couple examples so you can see what I mean.

“The boy who was sick went to the doctor.”

The relative clause here is “who was sick.” This functions like an adjective because it’s describing a noun (“the
boy”).

The relative clause is embedded in the center of an independent clause that could stand alone as a sentence
("The boy went to the doctor.").

Before we go on to another example, let’s think about why this might be difficult to process.

First, we hear “the boy”. The main idea in the sentence is that he went to the doctor. “The doctor” is the receiver
of the action in the independent clause.

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The tricky part is that the relative clause that "interrupts" the message to let us know that he was sick when he
went to the doctor.

This “interruption” can be difficult for students with language processing issues because they rely too much on
order of mention. In other words, they may focus solely on the main content words of the sentence and the order
they were said, rather than the other function words giving additional information.

If we were to ask a student with a processing difficulty what the boy did, they may just say something vague
about him being sick, because that’s what they heard immediately after “the boy”.

Or, if we ask them why the boy went to the doctor, they might not be able to infer that he went probably went
because he was sick.

Last, what if we ask who was sick?

When you hear the relative clause “who was sick”, you need to be able to refer back to the noun. This requires
considerable working memory skills. They might not be able to answer this question accurately.

Before we move on to the goals, let’s go through a couple more examples of this sentence type.

“The new puppy that lives next door was barking at the children.”

The independent clause here is: “The new puppy was barking at the children.” The relative clause that describes
the agent (the puppy) is: “that lives next door” Here’s another example:

“The girl who forgot her homework asked the boy for a pencil.”

The independent clause: “The girl asked the boy for a pencil.”

The relative clause: “Who forgot her homework”

Now that we’ve gone through the basics, let’s talk about how we might write this in to a syntax goal so you can
plan appropriate syntax activities for therapy.

I will admit that I have never written a specific IEP goal for this sentence type. If you have global issues with syntax,
your students could likely use some work on some of the goals I’ve already given you for your IEP goal bank for
syntax.

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Many of the goals I've already mentioned may be appropriate for your students if they need work on sentences
with center-embedded relative clauses.

When planning syntax activities, we can often tie them back to any goal that requires your students to pay closer
attention to word order. This could result in carryover to relative clauses, however it's possible they may need to
be targeted directly.

Like the other sentence types I’ve mentioned (i.e., sentences with passive voice, sentences with adverbial
clauses with temporal or causal conjunctions), you could target this skill under this broad goal for syntax:

“Student will say/write sentences with correct syntax on 4/5 trials.”

You could target comprehension with this goal:

“Student will answer questions about sentences on 4/5 trials.”

With these two basic goals, you would be covered. Yet if you wanted to make it more specific so that it's clear
what sentence type you’re addressing, you could do that like this:

"Student will use grade level vocabulary in sentences with correct grammar/syntax on 4/5 trials." "Student will
say/write complex sentences with temporal/causal conjunctions on 4/5 trials."

This leaves us with one more sentence type (sentences with three or more clauses).

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 Chapter 6:
Deconstructing Advanced Sentence Types

Here’s what we’ve covered so far in this guide:

In the first chapter you learned why syntax is often the missing piece in “language processing” interventions,
and in the second chapter you learned how to simplify your goal-writing with a “base goal.”

In the third chapter you learned that addressing passive voice can boost comprehension, and in the fourth and
fifth chapters you learned how you can improve processing by working on complex sentences with subordinate
and embedded clauses.

You’ve also gotten a handful of therapy goals to use when working on any one of the 4 challenging sentences. In
this chapter, we’ll dive in to the remaining sentence type:

Sentences with three or more clauses.

We already know that our students tend to stick to simple sentences.

It’s considerably harder for them to comprehend and use complex sentences with two clauses; so a large
portion of your therapy will likely center around building sentences with two clauses.

But sometimes we really need to challenge students. If we give students targeted interventions in elementary
school, they’ll be able to improve their understanding and use of subordination. They’ll be able to create longer
sentences with different types of conjunctions.

Eventually, they’ll need to understand and use sentences with three or more clauses; especially as they
get in to more challenging academic content in secondary schools.

Students need to be able to both understand and use sophisticated sentences if they're going to succeed in
school. Chances are, they’re being ask to do this already; even if they’re still in elementary school.

Many students are able to use multiple clauses in oral language by this time; so we need to equip our students
with the skills needed to keep up in class.

Yet students with language disorders tend to have poor working memory, and just can’t remember all of the
details when there are multiple pieces of information (Owens, 2016).

We also know that students with language disorders tend to use fewer complex sentences, so it’s likely the
sentences they are using are less detailed and less organized than their peers’ sentences (Marinellie, 2004).

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One of the most valuable things we can do is learn to break it down for them so they can process each piece of
information and make their sentences more detailed.

Let’s see if we can deconstruct a couple examples of sentences that have three or more clauses:

"We went home before we finished our picnic because it started raining." Can you count the clauses?

Here they are:

Independent clause: "We went home."

Dependent clause with temporal conjunction: "before we finished our picnic"

Dependent clause with causal conjunction: "because it started raining"

Here we have a total of three clauses, so it’s possible that the student may not remember the agent and
receiver of the action for each one.

They also have to understand the meaning behind the temporal conjunction (before) that tells us when we went
home and the causal conjunction (because) that helps explain why we went home when we did.

This is a lot to process at once.

Here’s another example:

"Mom called me yesterday before she made dinner because she wanted me to get home on time."

Let’s count the clauses again (and see if we can find some of those other syntactic structures I’ve talked about
in the last few articles:

Here they are:

Independent adverbial clause: "Mom called me yesterday."

Dependent clause with temporal conjunction: "before she made dinner"

Dependent clause with causal conjunction: "because she wanted me to get home on time"

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Our students can have the same issues here as with the first example. There are multiple agents and receivers
within this sentence.

And will our students understand that mom had to call me FIRST, and THEN she made dinner? Will they get that
the call from mom caused me to get home on time?

Will they understand that all of these events happened YESTERDAY, and not TODAY?

Just for fun, let’s do one more:

“After eating lunch, I cleaned the dishes while our guests who were visiting ate dessert.”

The clauses are:

Independent clause: "I cleaned the dishes"

Dependent clause with temporal conjunction: "after eating lunch"

Dependent clause with temporal conjunction: "While our guests ate dessert"

Center-embedded relative clause: "who were visiting"

With four clauses total, and one of them being embedded, this will challenging.

If you want your students to improve their ability to starting using and understanding more sophisticated
sentences, I’d recommend focusing your goal on complex sentences and conjunction use.

In the fourth chapter, I talked about how we could include either complex sentences, conjunctions, or BOTH in
our goal statement.

The reason I say you can do either when writing therapy goals for syntax is because we need to use conjunctions
when we say complex sentences. Therefore, if you have a goal for complex sentences it will be assumed that
you’re working on conjunctions too.

If we were to write a goal that address conjunctions, this could cover complex sentences, and it could also cover
compound sentences or simple sentences with compound subjects or verbs. It’s not as specific, but you’re still
covered under that goal.

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That all being said, if you’re main focus in writing the goal is to get your students to say more sophisticated
sentences (like sentences with three or more clauses), I’d go with something like this:

“Students will write/say complex sentences on 4/5 trials.”

I’d recommend mentioning complex sentences in the goal statement so you know the main focus is to use
multiple clauses, and simply getting your students to use conjunctions alone may not require this (for example,
when you use "and" in a compound subject).

Now, let’s say you’ve got a student who might be able to push this goal a bit further and start working on
sentences with more than two clauses? You could be covered with the goal I’ve stated above, but to make it
more specific you could say:

“Student will say/write complex sentences with 3 or more clauses on 4/5 trials.”

Remember that targeting this goal in expressive language will have an impact on comprehension, and may be
enough. If you did want to write a separate comprehension goal, you could go with something like this:

For our comprehension goal, what I’d be likely to write would be this:

“Student will answer questions about complex sentences on 4/5 trials.”

Or even something broader like:

“Student will answer “wh” questions about sentences or short paragraphs (3-4 sentences) on 4/5 trials.”

If I wrote this broader goal, I’d really make sure that I used a variety of sentence types to ensure we were
hitting everything the student needed.

Finally, if you absolutely felt that you needed a comprehension goal for sentences with three or more clauses, you
could say:

"Student will answer "wh" questions about sentences with 3 or more clauses on 4/5 trials."

This brings us to the end of our discussion on goals. I know it was a long one; but it was just one of those things
we had to address head-on. The good thing is that it will save you from stressing out about language goals for
sentence structure in the future.

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As I said before, identifying the challenging sentences and writing the goals is half the battle. Now that you have
this information, you should be well on your way.

However, before we bring this guide to an end I want to leave you with a simple, effective therapy technique you
can use right away to improve both comprehension and expression. It’s called sentence combining, and it’s been
proven to boost sentence structure in students with language disorders (Balthazar & Scott, 2018).

In the upcoming chapters, I’ll also share an IEP goal bank with the goals we’ve discussed; plus some flashcards you
can print and use right away.

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 Chapter 7:
How do I Teach Complex Sentences?

You’ve done your evaluation. You’ve figured out what skills your students need (that they don’t yet have). You’ve
written your goals, and your report is ready to print.

Now all you have to do is your therapy. Now what?

If you’ve done everything right up until this point, you’ve managed to get past some of the most challenging parts
of your job.

Still, it’s easy to get stuck at this point.

I’ve made the mistake of skimming over syntax and going right to comprehension strategies many times.

In many of those cases, I needed to back up and address those issues before he could benefit from high-level
comprehension strategies.

One way to do that is with a technique called sentence combining.

If you read this guide and implement just one thing I’ve recommended, or if you could add ONE new therapy
technique to your set of strategies this month that could get you the biggest bank for your buck, this would be it.

Sentenced combining exercises can improve revision ability and writing quality in school-age children with
language difficulties (Saddler & Graham, 2005).

It can improve overall writing quality (not just quality of individual sentences), so we it can have carryover effects
on other skills (Datchic & Kabina, 2013; Graham & Perrin, 2007).

Another study found sentence combining to be as effective as some narrative-based therapy (To, Lui, Li, & Lam,
2015), and Gillon and Dodd (1995) included it in a set of strategies that resulted in improvements in reading
comprehension.

It’s possible to use sentence combining to improve both comprehension and expression, and it will work with
three out of the four sentence types I’ve described in this guide.

I’d recommend starting out by trying it with the two sentence types I mention in this chapter, but you can
build from there once you get the hang of it.

The best thing about sentence combining is that it’s something we can feasible do in a 30-40 minute session
each week.

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Sentence combining also enables you to teach a skill that most likely no one else is addressing as well as you can;
and that might be holding students back from making progress.

I’m going to cover two different types of tasks:

1. Putting two simple sentences together to form a compound sentence using a coordinating conjunction.
2. Putting two simple sentences together to form a complex sentence using a subordinate conjunction.

These are not the only two types of sentences you’ll need to address, but if you had to pick just two to start with,
these would be it. You’ll notice that the first sentence type (the compound sentence) is not on the list of 4
difficult sentence types.

However, I’m showing you how to do this one because it’s often a good starting point for introducing sentence
combining tasks.

Putting a compound sentence together may be easier than a complex sentence; so it may be necessary to work
on compound sentences first while your students are getting the hang of it.

Technically speaking the only materials you REALLY need to do sentence combining effectively are a pencil and a
piece of paper.

If you get good enough at this that you have the activity “in your head”, you’ll be able to do a good therapy
session without any fancy “materials”; however you're welcome to incorporate other activities if you want to.

But, since I know you may want to save some brainpower and have a few things on hand, here are some materials
that could come in handy when doing and activity for syntax:

• Pencil
• Markers
• Paper
• Dry Erase Board
• List of conjunctions
• List of simple sentences

*I’ve provided you with some conjunctions flashcards in this guide, so you’ve got a head start.

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Sentence combining for compound sentences is a good introductory skill to teach when getting your students
used to combining sentences because they’re less difficult that complex sentences, but still require a similar
skillset.

All we’re doing here is combining two simple sentences (which are independent clauses) to form a compound
sentence using a coordinating conjunction.

The coordinating conjunctions simply join two pieces of information together. They are considered “cohesive
devices” that join words or part of sentences together

You can use the FANBOYS acronym to remember what those coordinating conjunctions are:

For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So

I’ve also included flashcards with coordinating and subordinating conjunctions at the end of this book so you
have examples of each.

Subordinating conjunctions, which are used in complex sentences, both join pieces of information AND
communicate relationships (such as temporal and causal information).

Since we don’t have to worry about causal or temporal relationships when forming compound sentences, this
skill is considerably easier than complex sentences.

Here’s an example of how it’s done. We start off with two independent clauses:

“The children will go to sleep.” “The adults will watch a movie.”

We then want to decide which coordinating conjunction to use. At this point, you can have these sentences
written for your students so that can be thinking about how to put them together.

You can either tell them what conjunction to use, or just give them the sentences and see if they can come up
with something on their own.

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In this example, if we were going to use “but”, our end goal would be to write this sentence:

“The children will go to sleep, but the adults will watch a movie.”

I recommend starting with 1-3 conjunctions at a time. When I first start doing syntax in speech therapy for most
kids, I usually start with “and” and “but” and build from there.

This is where we get in to those difficult sentence types we’re been covering in this guide:

Sentence combining for complex sentences

It’s possible for you to use sentence combining for sentences with adverbial clauses with temporal/causal
conjunctions, sentences with center-embedded relative clauses, and sentences with three or more clauses.

I’m going to show you how to use it for just one: sentences with adverbial clauses with temporal/causal
conjunctions.

Here’s how you’d do it:

You start with two independent clauses, like this:

“Amy read the book.” “She wanted to learn about history.”

Next, we figure out what conjunction to use. You’ll most likely need to start out by telling your students what
subordinating conjunction to use. In this case, we’ll use “because”, which is a causal subordinating conjunction.

Since the word “because” explains why something happens, we need to look for the sentence that explains a
reason and attach the sentence to that clause to form the subordinate clause.

That sentence would be “she wanted to learn about history”, because that’s the reason that “Amy read the book.”
This is a great exercise for students who struggle with “wh” questions.

Confusion about these terms is often the culprit for students who struggle with “wh” words because they don’t
know what’s being asked or what words can explain “why”, “when”, or the other “wh” words.

Now that we know what sentence belongs with “because”, we create our subordinate clause (a.k.a.
dependent clause):

“because she wanted to learn about history”

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This is a subordinate clause because it can’t stand alone as a sentence, and must be attached to an
independent clause. We do that either of these two ways:

“Because she wanted to learn about history, Amy read the book.”
“Amy read the book because she wanted to learn about history.”

One way to make this easier is to form the subordinate clause for them instead of separating it, or starting the
sentence for them and having them finish it. One way to do that would be to give them a sentence starter than
contained one of the clauses like these two examples:

“Because she wanted to learn about history…”

“Amy read the book…”

Throughout this process, I typically use the technical terms with the students, such as “conjunction”, “simple
sentence”, and “compound sentences”.

Students are required to know the difference in these terms based on the Common Core Standards by late
elementary school; so I want to make sure they have an accurate understanding.

This means I take the time to explain the real terminology, rather than giving them some “easier” alternative
word to describe each of these terms. Explaining with analogies is fine, as long as you use the real terms.

If you’re feeling unsure about how to start working on syntax in therapy, sentence combining is an
ideal place to start. You (and your students) will be well ahead of the game.

The only thing you needs now are your goal bank and flashcards, so you can keep moving to the next chapters to
grab those.

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 Chapter 8:
Conjunctions Flashcards
Coordinating Conjunctions
A coordinating conjunction joins words, phrases, or sentences that are “grammatically equal”. When sentences
are “grammatically equal, it means that they are both independent clauses and are equally important to the
overall message of the sentence.

F For

A And

N Nor

B But

O Or

Y Yet
S So
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 Chapter 8:
Conjunctions Flashcards
Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions describe relationships between clauses in complex sentences; such as explaining
“when” or “why” something occurred.

They are used as part of a subordinate clause that’s attached to an independent clause. The clause is
“subordinate” because the main message of the sentence is in the “independent” clause; the subordinate clause
is simply providing additional clarifying information.

Because the emphasis is primarily on the independent clause, the clauses in the sentence are not considered
“grammatically equal”. The flashcards below are not an exhaustive list of all the subordinating conjunctions.

after although as

as if as long as as though

as long as as much as as soon as

because before even if

how if if only
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 Chapter 9:
IEP Goals for Sentence Structure
1. If you can’t see it, you can’t measure it.
You can customize these goals as much as you need; but make sure you always use an observable verb. In
other words, a verb you can physically see someone doing (hint: you can’t see someone “comprehending”). There
may be other instances where it might be appropriate to write strategy-based goals that represent internal
cognitive processes, but this is not one of them.

2. Keep it simple.
Keep with the main observable behavior clear, and don’t make the goal so wordy that this part gets lost. You
should be able to sum it up in a short statement using this format: “Student will (observable verb) with (level of
accuracy) on (number of trials/consecutive sessions required).” You don’t have to write statements about
prompts in to the goal (e.g., “with visuals). You’ll be giving a lot of different types of prompts in therapy, and
there’s no way to write all of them in the goal. Also, the goal is more about what THE STUDENT is doing, not what
YOU are doing. You can always take note of prompts needed in your data collection.

3. Be efficient.
It’s okay to combine a few things in to one goal if they’re clearly related. For example, if your student needs work
on relative clauses, adverbial clauses, and passive voice, it may be okay to work that all in to one goal for syntax.

4. Don’t write too many goals to track.

Don’t create more work for yourself. For most language cases, you can get buy on just 3-4 goals. Pick just a few
key behaviors that will be the most meaningful, and focus on using those to gauge progress.

5. A goal about syntax is automatically “Common Core Aligned”.

Syntactic skills are essential to an academic setting. They are all extremely relevant to the curriculum. If your goal
relates to sentence structure, it’s guaranteed that you’ll be able to tie it to a curriculum standard, so don’t stress
about curricular alignment. Anyone who says otherwise is clueless about how language works.

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Here’s the format for your goal statement:

“Student will (observable behavior) with (level of accuracy) on (number of trials/consecutive sessions required.”

For example: “Student will say complex sentences with 80% accuracy on 3 consecutive sessions.”

You may separate oral vs. written language when needed. To keep this concise, I’m going to put them
together (see chapter 2 to learn when you should distinguish between the two). See chapter 2 to learn what a
base goal is. You can also use this same framework for other, simpler sentence types when these challenging
sentence types are too difficult.

Goals for Language Expression

Base Goal #1 : Student will say/write sentences

To make goals more specific to syntax/grammar, but not specific to sentence type:

Student will say/write sentences with appropriate syntax/grammar.

(you can use just “syntax” or just “grammar” in the goal if needed) To make goals relevant to a specific
sentence type/skill:

Student will say/write sentences with conjunctions.

Student will say/write complex sentences with correct conjunctions.
Student will say/write complex sentences with temporal/causal conjunctions.
Student will say/write complex sentences with 3 or more clauses.
Student will say/write complex sentences with temporal/causal conjunctions and adverbial clauses.
Student will say/write complex sentences with relative clauses.
Student will say/write complex sentences with 3 or more clauses.

Goals for Language Comprehension

Base Goal #2: Student will answer questions about sentences.

To make goals relevant to a specific sentence type/skill:

Student will answer questions about sentences.

Student will answer questions about sentences with passive voice.
Student will say/write sentences with correct syntax.
Student will answer questions about sentences.
Student will answer questions about complex sentences.
Student will answer questions about sentences with relative clauses.
Student will answer questions about sentences with temporal/causal conjunctions.

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 Chapter 10:
How do I know what is EBP?
If you ever find yourself perusing the internet or any other materials catalog and thinking, “Hmm…this activity
looks interesting…but how do I know it will work?” Or maybe, “Is this EBP? And if it is, will I be able to prove to other
people (like my supervisor) that I’m doing EBP?”

If so, you’re not the only one. That’s why I’m ending this guide with the list of references I used to put
it together; so you can rest-assured that you’ve covered on the EBP end.

References
Balthazar, C. H., & Scott, C. M. (2018). Targeting complex sentences in older school children with specific
language impairment: Results from an early-phase treatment study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing
Research, 61, 713-728. doi:10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-17-0105

Datchic, S. M., & Kabina, R. M. (2013). A review of teaching sentence-level writing skills to students with writing
difficulties and learning disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 34(3), 180–192. doi:
10.1177/0741932512448254

Dudek-Brannan, K. L. (2018). Language development: An ultimate guide. Retrieved from:

https://drkarenspeech.com/language-development-ultimate-guide/

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 99, 445–476. doi: 10.1037%2F0022-0663.99.3.445

Gillon, G, Dodd, B (1995). The effects of training phonological, semantic, and syntactic processing skills in spoken
language on reading ability. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 26, 58-68. doi:10.1044/0161-
1461.2601.58

Loban, W. (1976). Language development: Kindergarten through grade twelve. (Research Report No 18).
Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Marinellie, S. (2004). Complex syntax used by school-age children with specific languageimpairment (SLI) in child-
adult conversation. Journal of Communication Disorders, 37, 517–533. doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2004.03.005

Nippold, M. A. (2017). Reading comprehension issues in adolescents: Addressing underlying language abilities.
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 48, 125-131. doi:10.1044/2016_LSHSS-16- 0048

Paul, R., & Norbury, C. F. (2012). Language disorders from infancy through adolescence: Listening, speaking,
reading, writing, and communicating (4th Ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.

Owens, R. E. (2016). Language development: An introduction (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

DRKARENSPEECH.COM
Saddler, B., & Graham, S. (2005). The effects of peer-assisted sentence combining instruction on the writing of
more and less skilled young writers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 43–54.
doi/abs/10.1177/0022466907310371

To, C. K. S., Lui, H. M., Li, X. X., & Lam, G. Y. H. (2015). A randomized controlled trial of two syntactic treatments
with Cantonese-speaking school-age children with language disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing
Research, 58, 1258–1272. doi:10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-14-0140

Westby, C. (2012). Assessing and remediating text comprehension problems. In A. G. Kamhi & H. W. Catts (Eds.),
Language and reading disabilities (3rd ed., pp. 1–23). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Zipoli, R. P. (2017). Unraveling difficult sentences: Strategies to support reading comprehension, Intervention in
School and Clinic, 52, 218–227. doi: 10.1177/1053451216659465

DRKARENSPEECH.COM
THANK YOU!
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