Abilities of children with developmental language disorders in perceiving phonological, grammatical, and semantic structures

Cognitive vs. Linguistic Training in Children with Developmental Language Disorder: Exploring Their Effectiveness on Verbal Short-Term Memory and Verbal Working Memory

The present study explores comparatively the effectiveness of a cognitive (verbal short-term memory (vSTM), verbal working memory (vWM)) and of a linguistic training (10-week duration each) in the diffusion of gains in cognitive abilities (vSTM and vWM) of in school-aged Greek-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD). To this purpose, two computerized training programs i.e., a linguistic and a cognitive one, were developed and applied to three groups (A, B, and C) of children with DLD (N = 49, in total). There were three assessments with two vSTM tasks (non-word repetition and forward digit span) and a vWM task (backward digit span): pre-therapeutically (time 1), where no significant between-group differences were found, post-therapeutically I (time 2), and post-therapeutically II (time 3) and two training phases. In phase Ι, group A received meta-syntactic training, whereas group B vSTM/vWM training and group C received no training. In phase ΙΙ, a reversal of treatment was performed for groups A and B: group A received vSTM/vWM while group B meta-syntactic training. Again, group C received no training. Overall, the results indicated a significant performance improvement for the treatment groups and revealed beneficial far-transfer effects as language therapy can affect vSTM and vWM in addition to direct and near transfer effects. In addition, the intervention type order affected performance as follows: first, better performance on the vSTM task (non-word repetition) was shown when the linguistic treatment was delivered first; second, better performance on the vWM in Time 2 and Time 3 was shown by group B, for which the cognitive treatment was delivered first. Concluding, not only intervention type but also intervention type order can affect performance in DLD.

Acquisition of Mandarin long passives by children with developmental language disorder

This study investigated the comprehension and production of long passives (i.e. bei-constructions with an overt agent) in Mandarin-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Seventeen preschool children with DLD (1 female; mean age: 61 months old) and 23 typically developing (TD) children (6 females; mean age: 62 months old) participated in a sentence-picture matching task (for comprehension) and an elicited production task. Their nonverbal working memory (NVWM) was measured with the fourth edition of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Results showed that children with DLD were less accurate and more likely to choose the picture with reversed thematic roles than their TD peers on passives in the sentence-picture matching task; in the elicited production task, they produced fewer target responses than TD children in passives. For NVWM, although that of the DLD group was lower than that of TD children, most children in the DLD group were within the average range. Furthermore, their performance on passives in the comprehension and production tasks was significantly correlated with their NVWM, which adds to the body of work suggesting links between complex syntax and working memory. However, the fact that NVWM could be preserved in the face of difficulties with passives suggests that this link may be due to NVWM enhancing performance during tasks with a high visual component, while it may not be underlyingly responsible for syntactic impairments in children with DLD.

Comprehension of complex syntax by non-English-speaking children with developmental language disorder: A scoping review

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are characterised by impaired language abilities both in comprehension and production. Complex syntax is a specific domain which is often considered challenging for children with DLD. Research regarding complex syntax is mostly concerned with the production patterns of speakers and usually employs English-speaking populations. This scoping review aims to systematically map the abilities of non-English-speaking children with DLD to comprehend complex syntactic structures, comparing these results with the broader literature on English-speaking children with DLD. It also aims to consider the account (i.e. grammatical vs processing) by which these abilities can be explained. Four online databases were used to extract original research articles published between 2011 and 2021. Of the 264 studies initially identified, 20 studies were included in the review. The results demonstrated that children with DLD present with difficulties in comprehending object relative clauses, wh-questions, sentences with non-canonical word order, passives, and other types of complex syntax. All of these challenges are also evident in English-speaking children with DLD and can be mainly attributed either to the inability of children to assign thematic roles, their restricted working memory capacities, or a combination thereof. It is concluded that the comprehension of complex syntax might be a universal marker of DLD, which can be explained on the basis of either a grammatical or a processing account, or both. Common challenges in certain structures across languages can be used to design a comprehension assessment tool that can be applied in several languages.