Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to determine if graphic organizers are an effective tool in teaching morphological awareness to increase the retention of newly learned Tier 2 words in middle school students with mild to moderate language impairments. Method: Three 7th grade males participated in this ABA study. All three participants had a primary eligibility of Specific Language Disability (SLD) and secondary eligibility of Speech Language Impairment (SLI). This 8-week intervention included direct vocabulary instruction focused on morphological awareness with the use of a graphic organizer. Intervention occurred 2 times a week for 30-minutes a session. Data were collected on an expressive labeling task that required the students to identify the correct word following presentation of definitions. The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale, a self-assessment, was used as a pre-test and post-test measure. Results: The number of correct words increased during the intervention, with an accelerated trend throughout. Participant 1 used 7 of 10 words in a sentence accurately, participants 2 and 3 both used 5 of 10 words in sentences accurately. Participants 1 and 2 labeled greater than 80% of the words at follow-up. Conclusions: The study showed that targeting morphological awareness and utilizing graphic organizers may lead to increased vocabulary knowledge and use in middle school students with mild to moderate SLI. Future research should explore the effects of this treatment approach as a multi-component intervention to improve learning and retention.
