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Abstract: 

On a day-to-day basis, administrators and educators are challenged with planning programs and providing services for at-risk adolescents who struggle to learn. One group of adolescents that has a high incidence of language and learning problems is girls who are in trouble with the law and reside in a correctional facility. Over the past 16 years, researchers at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and staff at one correctional facility have collaborated to understand the communication and language behaviors among incarcerated adolescent girls. This piece outlines the authors’ research which explains the challenges that professionals encounter in identifying those in need of language services and the planning of programs to address those who struggle with speaking, listening, reading, writing and thinking.

Keywords: learning; female inmates

Affiliations:  1: University of Nebraska–Lincoln; 2: University of Nebraska–Lincoln; 3: University of Nebraska at Omaha.