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Svaldi C, Paquier P, Keulen S, van Elp H, Catsman-Berrevoets C, Kingma A, Jonkers R, Kohnen S, de Aguiar V. Characterising the Long-Term Language Impairments of Children Following Cerebellar Tumour Surgery by Extracting Psycholinguistic Properties from Spontaneous Language. CEREBELLUM (LONDON, ENGLAND) 2024; 23:523-544. [PMID: 37184608 PMCID: PMC10951034 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-023-01563-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/26/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Following cerebellar tumour surgery, children may suffer impairments of spontaneous language. Yet, the language processing deficits underlying these impairments are poorly understood. This study is the first to try to identify these deficits for four levels of language processing in cerebellar tumour survivors. The spontaneous language of twelve patients who underwent cerebellar tumour surgery (age range 3-24 years) was compared against his or her controls using individual case statistics. A distinction was made between patients who experienced postoperative cerebellar mutism syndrome (pCMS) and those who did not. Time since surgery ranged between 11 months and 12;3 years. In order to identify the impaired language processing levels at each processing level (i.e., lexical, semantic, phonological and/or morphosyntactic) nouns and verbs produced in the spontaneous language samples were rated for psycholinguistic variables (e.g., concreteness). Standard spontaneous language measures (e.g., type-token ratio) were calculated as well. First, inter-individual heterogeneity was observed in the spontaneous language outcomes in both groups. Nine out of twelve patients showed language processing deficits three of whom were diagnosed with pCMS. Results implied impairments across all levels of language processing. In the pCMS-group, the impairments observed were predominantly morphosyntactic and semantic, but the variability in nature of the spontaneous language impairments was larger in the non-pCMS-group. Patients treated with cerebellar tumour surgery may show long-term spontaneous language impairments irrespective of a previous pCMS diagnosis. Individualised and comprehensive postoperative language assessments seem necessary, given the inter-individual heterogeneity in the language outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cheyenne Svaldi
- Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen, PO box 716, 9700 AS, Groningen, the Netherlands.
- Clinical and Experimental Neurolinguistics (CLIEN), Brussels Centre for Language Studies (BCLS), Language, Brain and Cognition, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
- School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, University Avenue, Macquarie Park, NSW, 2109, Australia.
- International Doctorate for Experimental Approaches to Language and Brain (IDEALAB), Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK; Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany; University of Groningen, , Groningen, the Netherlands.
| | - Philippe Paquier
- Clinical and Experimental Neurolinguistics (CLIEN), Brussels Centre for Language Studies (BCLS), Language, Brain and Cognition, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
- Centre for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt 50, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Translational Neurosciences (TNW), Universiteit Antwerpen (UA), Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Stefanie Keulen
- Clinical and Experimental Neurolinguistics (CLIEN), Brussels Centre for Language Studies (BCLS), Language, Brain and Cognition, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Henrieke van Elp
- Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen, PO box 716, 9700 AS, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Coriene Catsman-Berrevoets
- Department of Paediatric Neurology Erasmus Medical Centre, Sophia Children's Hospital Rotterdam, Dr Molewaterplein 40, 3015 GD, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Annet Kingma
- Department of Paediatrics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, 9700 RB, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Roel Jonkers
- Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen, PO box 716, 9700 AS, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Saskia Kohnen
- School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, University Avenue, Macquarie Park, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Vânia de Aguiar
- Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen, PO box 716, 9700 AS, Groningen, the Netherlands
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Rice ML, Earnest KK, Hoffman L. Longitudinal Grammaticality Judgments of Tense Marking in Complex Questions in Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment, Ages 5-18 Years. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:3882-3906. [PMID: 37607389 PMCID: PMC10713023 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2022] [Revised: 12/19/2022] [Accepted: 06/09/2023] [Indexed: 08/24/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Identification of children with specific language impairment (SLI) can be difficult even though their language can lag that of age peers throughout childhood. A clinical grammar marker featuring tense marking in simple clauses is valid and reliable for young children but is limited by ceiling effects around the age of 8 years. This study evaluated a new, more grammatically challenging complex sentence task in children affected or unaffected with SLI in longitudinal data, ages 5-18 years. METHOD Four hundred eighty-three children (213 unaffected, 270 affected) between 5 and 18 years of age participated, following a rolling recruitment longitudinal design encompassing a total of 4,148 observations. The new experimental grammaticality judgment task followed linguistic concepts of syntactic sites for finiteness and movement within complex clauses. Growth modeling methods evaluated group differences over time for four different outcomes; three were hypothesized to evaluate optional omissions of overt finiteness forms in authorized sentence sites, and one evaluated an overt error of tense marking. RESULTS As in earlier studies of younger children, growth models for the SLI group were consistently lower than the unaffected group, although the growth trajectories across groups did not differ. The results replicated across four item types defined by omissions with minor differences for an item with an overt error of tense marking. Covariates of child nonverbal IQ, mother's education, and child sex did not significantly moderate these effects. CONCLUSION The outcomes support the task as having potential screening value for identification of children with SLI and are consistent with linguistic interpretations of task demands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mabel L. Rice
- Child Language Doctoral Program, University of Kansas, Lawrence
| | | | - Lesa Hoffman
- College of Education, University of Iowa, Iowa City
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Vaughn LE, Oetting JB, McDonald JL. Grammaticality Judgments of Tense and Agreement by Child Speakers of African American English: Effects of Clinical Status, Surface Form, and Grammatical Structure. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:1755-1770. [PMID: 37120833 PMCID: PMC10457090 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Revised: 02/06/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE We examined the grammaticality judgments of tense and agreement (T/A) structures by children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) within African American English (AAE). The children's judgments of T/A forms were also compared to their judgments of two control forms and, for some analyses, examined by surface form (i.e., overt, zero) and type of structure (i.e., BE, past tense, verbal -s). METHOD The judgments were from 91 AAE-speaking kindergartners (DLD = 34; typically developing = 57), elicited using items from the Rice/Wexler Test of Early Grammatical Impairment. The data were analyzed twice, once using General American English as the reference and A' scores and once using AAE as the reference and percentages of acceptability. RESULTS Although the groups differed using both metrics, the percentages of acceptability tied the DLD T/A deficit to judgments of the overt forms, while also revealing a general DLD weakness judging sentences that are ungrammatical in AAE. Judgments of the overt T/A forms by both groups correlated with their productions of these forms and their language test scores, and both groups showed structure-specific form preferences ("is": overt > zero vs. verbal -s: overt = zero). CONCLUSION The findings demonstrate the utility of grammaticality judgment tasks for revealing weaknesses in T/A within AAE-speaking children with DLD, while also calling for more studies using AAE as the dialect reference when designing stimuli and coding systems. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22534588.
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Factor L, Goffman L. Phonological characteristics of novel gesture production in children with developmental language disorder: Longitudinal findings. APPLIED PSYCHOLINGUISTICS 2022; 43:333-362. [PMID: 35342208 PMCID: PMC8955622 DOI: 10.1017/s0142716421000540] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Children with developmental language disorder (DLD; aka specific language impairment) are characterized based on deficits in language, especially morphosyntax, in the absence of other explanatory conditions. However, deficits in speech production, as well as fine and gross motor skill, have also been observed, implicating both the linguistic and motor systems. Situated at the intersection of these domains, and providing insight into both, is manual gesture. In the current work, we asked whether children with DLD showed phonological deficits in the production of novel gestures and whether gesture production at 4 years of age is related to language and motor outcomes two years later. Twenty-eight children (14 with DLD) participated in a two-year longitudinal novel gesture production study. At the first and final time points, language and fine motor skills were measured and gestures were analyzed for phonological feature accuracy, including handshape, path, and orientation. Results indicated that, while early deficits in phonological accuracy did not persist for children with DLD, all children struggled with orientation while handshape was the most accurate. Early handshape and orientation accuracy were also predictive of later language skill, but only for the children with DLD. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
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Smolík F, Matiasovitsová K. Sentence Imitation With Masked Morphemes in Czech: Memory, Morpheme Frequency, and Morphological Richness. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:105-120. [PMID: 33285077 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Purpose This study examined two markers of language impairment (LI) in a single experiment, testing sentence imitation and grammatical morphology production using an imitation task with masked morphemes. One goal was to test predictions of the morphological richness account of LI in Czech. We also tested the independent contributions of language and memory skills to sentence imitation performance. Method Seventeen children with LI (5;1-7;6 [years;months]) and 17 vocabulary-matched typically developing (TD) children (3;8-4;11) were administered a sentence imitation task where each sentence had one noun or verb ending replaced by a coughing sound. In addition, a receptive vocabulary and the digit span (backward and forward) tasks were administered. Results Children with LI were significantly less accurate than TD children in sentence imitation task. Both vocabulary and digit span had unique effects on sentence imitation scores. Children with LI were less successful in imitating the target words, especially verbs. However, if they succeeded, their completions of the masked morphemes were no less accurate than in TD children. The accuracy of completions was affected by the morpheme frequency and homophony, but these effects were similar in TD and affected children. Conclusions Sentence imitation is a measure of language skills and verbal memory. Results on morpheme completions are consistent with processing models of LI, but some predictions of the morphological richness model were not confirmed. The results suggest that children with LI might have a deficit in organizing morphosyntactic relations in sentences, rather than in morphological processing proper.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filip Smolík
- Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
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Wagley N, Perrachione TK, Ostrovskaya I, Ghosh SS, Saxler PK, Lymberis J, Wexler K, Gabrieli JDE, Kovelman I. Persistent Neurobehavioral Markers of Developmental Morphosyntax Errors in Adults. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2019; 62:4497-4508. [PMID: 31825709 PMCID: PMC7201328 DOI: 10.1044/2019_jslhr-19-00154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2018] [Revised: 05/17/2019] [Accepted: 09/03/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Child language acquisition is marked by an optional infinitive period (ages 2-4 years) during which children use nonfinite (infinitival) verb forms and finite verb forms interchangeably in grammatical contexts that require finite forms. In English, children's errors include omissions of past tense /-ed/ and 3rd-person singular /-s/. This language acquisition period typically ends by the age of 4 years, but it persists in children with language impairments. It is unknown if adults still process optional infinitives differently than other kinds of morphosyntax errors. Method We compared behavior and functional brain activation during grammaticality judgments across sentences with developmental optional infinitive tense/agreement errors ("Yesterday I play the song"), nondevelopmental agreement errors ("He am tall") that do not occur in typical child language acquisition, and grammatically correct sentences. Results Adults (N = 25) were significantly slower and less accurate in judging sentences with developmental errors relative to other sentences. Sentences with developmental errors yielded greater activation in bilateral inferior frontal gyri relative to nondevelopmental error sentences in both auditory and visual modalities. Conclusions These findings suggest that the heightened computational demands for finiteness extend well beyond early childhood and continue to exert their influence on grammatical mental and brain function in adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neelima Wagley
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
| | | | - Irina Ostrovskaya
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
| | - Satrajit S. Ghosh
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
| | - Patricia K. Saxler
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
| | - John Lymberis
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
| | - Kenneth Wexler
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
| | - John D. E. Gabrieli
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
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Owen Van Horne AJ, Curran M, Larson C, Fey ME. Effects of a Complexity-Based Approach on Generalization of Past Tense -ed and Related Morphemes. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 2019; 49:681-693. [PMID: 30120446 DOI: 10.1044/2018_lshss-stlt1-17-0142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2017] [Accepted: 02/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Purpose In a previous article, we reported that beginning treatment for regular past tense -ed with certain types of verbs led to greater generalization in children with developmental language disorder than beginning treatment with other types of verbs. This article provides updated data from that study, including the addition of data from 3 children, results from naturalistic language samples, and data from a third time point. Method Twenty 4- to 9-year-old children with developmental language disorder (10 per condition) were randomly assigned to receive language intervention in which the verbs used to teach regular past tense -ed were manipulated. Half received easy first intervention, beginning with highly frequent, telic, phonologically simple verbs, and half received hard first intervention, beginning with less frequent, atelic, and phonologically complex verbs. The design used a train-to-criterion approach, with children receiving up to 36 visits. Performance was assessed using elicited production probes and language samples before intervention, immediately following intervention and 6-8 weeks later. Results Children in the hard first group showed greater gains on the use of regular past tense -ed in both structured probes (at immediate post only) and in language samples (at both immediate and delayed post). Gains attributable to therapy were not observed in untreated morphemes. Conclusions This study suggests that the choice of therapy materials, with an eye on the role that treatment stimuli play in generalization, is important for treatment efficacy. Clinicians should consider early selection of atelic, lower-frequency, phonologically complex verbs when teaching children to use regular past tense -ed. Further work expanding this to other morphemes and a larger population is needed to confirm this finding.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Marc E Fey
- University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City
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Jung J, Ertmer DJ. Grammatical Abilities in Young Cochlear Implant Recipients and Children With Normal Hearing Matched by Vocabulary Size. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2018; 27:751-764. [PMID: 29625430 PMCID: PMC6105123 DOI: 10.1044/2018_ajslp-16-0164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2016] [Revised: 05/30/2017] [Accepted: 12/17/2017] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study sought to expand understanding of the impact of cochlear implantation on grammatical acquisition by comparing young children who have vocabularies of comparable size. Two research questions were investigated: (a) Do young cochlear implant (CI) recipients have grammatical skills comparable to those of children with normal hearing (NH) matched by spoken vocabulary size? (b) Do these groups show associations between vocabulary size and grammatical measures? METHOD The participants included 13 CI recipients at 24 months postactivation (chronological ages = 33-60 months; M = 44.62) and 13 children with NH between 27 and 30 months old (M = 20.69). The 2 groups were matched by their vocabulary size. Four grammatical outcomes were analyzed from the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (Fenson, Marchman, Thal, Dale, & Reznick, 2007) and 20-min language samples: (a) grammatical complexity, (b) mean length of utterances, (c) tense marker total, and (d) productivity scores. RESULTS The 2 groups showed comparable grammatical skills across the 4 measures. Consistently significant associations between vocabulary size and grammatical outcomes were found in the CI group, with fewer associations in the NH group. CONCLUSIONS The 2 groups showed similar grammatical abilities. The young CI recipients appeared to be following a typical pattern of linguistic development.
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Van Horne AJO, Fey M, Curran M. Do the Hard Things First: A Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Effects of Exemplar Selection on Generalization Following Therapy for Grammatical Morphology. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2017; 60:2569-2588. [PMID: 28796874 PMCID: PMC5831620 DOI: 10.1044/2017_jslhr-l-17-0001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2017] [Accepted: 05/08/2017] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Complexity-based approaches to treatment have been gaining popularity in domains such as phonology and aphasia but have not yet been tested in child morphological acquisition. In this study, we examined whether beginning treatment with easier-to-inflect (easy first) or harder-to-inflect (hard first) verbs led to greater progress in the production of regular past-tense -ed by children with developmental language disorder. METHOD Eighteen children with developmental language disorder (ages 4-10) participated in a randomized controlled trial (easy first, N = 10, hard first, N = 8). Verbs were selected on the basis of frequency, phonological complexity, and telicity (i.e., the completedness of the event). Progress was measured by the duration of therapy, number of verb lists trained to criterion, and pre/post gains in accuracy for trained and untrained verbs on structured probes. RESULTS The hard-first group made greater gains in accuracy on both trained and untrained verbs but did not have fewer therapy visits or train to criterion on more verb lists than the easy-first group. Treatment fidelity, average recasts per session, and verbs learned did not differ across conditions. CONCLUSION When targeting grammatical morphemes, it may be most efficient for clinicians to select harder rather than easier exemplars of the target.
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Haebig E, Weber C, Leonard LB, Deevy P, Tomblin JB. Neural patterns elicited by sentence processing uniquely characterize typical development, SLI recovery, and SLI persistence. J Neurodev Disord 2017. [PMID: 28630655 PMCID: PMC5470275 DOI: 10.1186/s11689-017-9201-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Background A substantial amount of work has examined language abilities in young children with specific language impairment (SLI); however, our understanding of the developmental trajectory of language impairment is limited. Along with studying the behavioral changes that occur across development, it is important to examine the neural indices of language processing for children with different language trajectories. The current study sought to examine behavioral and neural bases of language processing in adolescents showing three different trajectories: those with normal language development (NL), those exhibiting persistent SLI (SLI-Persistent), and those with a history of SLI who appear to have recovered (SLI-Recovered). Methods Through a sentence judgment task, we examined semantic and syntactic processing. Adolescents judged whether or not each sentence was semantically and syntactically correct. Stimuli consisted of naturally spoken sentences that were either correct, contained a semantic verb error, or contained a syntactic verb agreement error. Verb agreement errors consisted of omission and commission violations of the third-person singular -s. Behavioral button-press responses and electroencephalographic recordings were collected. Behavioral judgments and mean amplitude of the N400 and P600 components were examined. Results Adolescents in the SLI-Persistent group had lower sentence judgment accuracy overall, relative to the NL and SLI-Recovered groups. Accuracy in judging omission and commission syntactic errors were marginally different, with marginally lower accuracy for commission errors. All groups demonstrated an N400 component elicited by semantic violations. However, adolescents in the SLI-Persistent group demonstrated a less robust P600 component for syntactic violations. Furthermore, adolescents in the SLI-Recovered group exhibited a similar neural profile to the NL group for the semantic and syntactic omission violations. However, a unique profile with initial negativity was observed in the SLI-Recovered group in the commission violation condition. Conclusions Adolescents with persistent language impairment continue to demonstrate delays in language processing at the behavioral and neural levels. Conversely, the adolescents in the SLI-Recovered group appear to have made gains in language processing skills to overcome their initial impairments. However, our findings suggest that the adolescents in the SLI-Recovered group may have compensatory processing strategies for some aspects of language, as evidenced by a unique event-related potential profile.
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Fey ME, Leonard LB, Bredin-Oja SL, Deevy P. A Clinical Evaluation of the Competing Sources of Input Hypothesis. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2017; 60:104-120. [PMID: 28114610 PMCID: PMC5533554 DOI: 10.1044/2016_jslhr-l-15-0448] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2015] [Accepted: 06/07/2016] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Our purpose was to test the competing sources of input (CSI) hypothesis by evaluating an intervention based on its principles. This hypothesis proposes that children's use of main verbs without tense is the result of their treating certain sentence types in the input (e.g., Wasshe laughing?) as models for declaratives (e.g., She laughing). METHOD Twenty preschoolers with specific language impairment were randomly assigned to receive either a CSI-based intervention or a more traditional intervention that lacked the novel CSI features. The auxiliary is and the third-person singular suffix -s were directly treated over a 16-week period. Past tense -ed was monitored as a control. RESULTS The CSI-based group exhibited greater improvements in use of is than did the traditional group (d = 1.31), providing strong support for the CSI hypothesis. There were no significant between-groups differences in the production of the third-person singular suffix -s or the control (-ed), however. CONCLUSIONS The group differences in the effects on the 2 treated morphemes may be due to differences in their distribution in interrogatives and declaratives (e.g., Ishe hiding/Heishiding vs. Doeshe hide/He hides). Refinements in the intervention could address this issue and lead to more general effects across morphemes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc E. Fey
- Department of Hearing and Speech, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City
| | - Laurence B. Leonard
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
| | | | - Patricia Deevy
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
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Quémart P, Maillart C. The sensitivity of children with SLI to phonotactic probabilities during lexical access. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2016; 61:48-59. [PMID: 27023739 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2016.03.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2015] [Revised: 03/08/2016] [Accepted: 03/16/2016] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
UNLABELLED The procedural deficit hypothesis (Ullman & Pierpont, 2005) has been proposed to account for the combination of linguistic and nonlinguistic deficits observed in specific language impairment (SLI). According to this proposal, SLI results from a deficit in procedural memory that prevents children from developing sensitivity to probabilistic sequences, amongst other deficits. We tested the ability of children with SLI to rely on a specific type of probabilities characterizing sequences that occur in a given language: phonotactic probabilities. Twenty French-speaking children with SLI (M=10;1), 20 typically developing children matched for chronological age (M=10;0) and 20 typically developing children matched for receptive vocabulary (M=7;4) performed an auditory lexical decision task. Pseudoword stimuli were built with combinations of either frequently associated phonemes (high phonotactic probability) or infrequently associated phonemes (low phonotactic probability). Phonotactic probabilities had a significant impact on the accuracy and speed of pseudoword rejection in children with SLI, but not in the two control groups. SLI children's greater reliance on phonotactic probabilities relative to typically developing children appears to contradict the PD hypothesis. Phonotactic probabilities may help them to partially overcome their difficulties in developing and accessing the phonological lexicon during spoken word recognition. LEARNING OUTCOMES After reading this article, readers will understand the importance of sensitivity to phonotactic probabilities in language processing. They will also learn that such sensitivity is preserved in children with SLI. Finally, readers will understand that children with SLI are more prone to use phonotactic information when accessing their lexicon than typically-developing children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pauline Quémart
- University of Liège, Department of Psychology: Cognition and Behaviour, Unité de Logopédie clinique, 30, rue de l'Aunaie, B.38, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
| | - Christelle Maillart
- University of Liège, Department of Psychology: Cognition and Behaviour, Unité de Logopédie clinique, 30, rue de l'Aunaie, B.38, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
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Coloma CJ, Araya C, Quezada C, Pavez MM, Maggiolo M. Grammaticality and complexity of sentences in monolingual Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2016; 30:649-662. [PMID: 27128985 DOI: 10.3109/02699206.2016.1163420] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
This study examined grammaticality and complexity of sentences in monolingual Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). A group of SLI children (n = 13), mean age 6, was compared to a control group (CCG) matched by age (n = 11), and a younger control group (LCG) with similar linguistic development (n = 13). Grammaticality and complexity of sentences were analysed including identification and counting of: a) simple and complex sentences, b) grammatical and ungrammatical sentences, and c) types of grammatical errors. SLI children were found to be more ungrammatical than CCG in both simple and complex sentences. Considering the number of errors in all sentences produced, SLI children commit more errors than both control groups. Complexity of sentences did not show statistical differences among groups. Future research should explore in further detail the types of errors made by monolingual Spanish-speaking SLI children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carmen Julia Coloma
- a School of Communication Sciences , Universidad de Chile , Santiago de Chile , Chile
- b Advanced Research Centre on Education , Universidad de Chile , Santiago de Chile , Chile
| | - Claudia Araya
- a School of Communication Sciences , Universidad de Chile , Santiago de Chile , Chile
| | - Camilo Quezada
- a School of Communication Sciences , Universidad de Chile , Santiago de Chile , Chile
| | - Maria Mercedes Pavez
- a School of Communication Sciences , Universidad de Chile , Santiago de Chile , Chile
| | - Mariangela Maggiolo
- a School of Communication Sciences , Universidad de Chile , Santiago de Chile , Chile
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Owen Van Horne AJ, Green Fager M. Quantifying the relative contributions of lexical and phonological factors to regular past tense accuracy. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2015; 17:605-616. [PMID: 25879455 PMCID: PMC4608859 DOI: 10.3109/17549507.2015.1034174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Children with specific language impairment (SLI) frequently have difficulty producing the past tense. This study aimed to quantify the relative influence of telicity (i.e. the completedness of an event), verb frequency and stem final phonemes on the production of past tense by school-age children with SLI and their typically-developing (TD) peers. METHOD Archival elicited production data from children with SLI between the ages of 6-9 and TD peers aged 4-8 were re-analysed. Past tense accuracy was predicted using measures of telicity, verb frequency measures and properties of the final consonant of the verb stem. RESULT All children were highly accurate when verbs were telic, the inflected form was frequently heard in the past tense and the word ended in a sonorant/non-alveolar consonant. All children were less accurate when verbs were atelic, rarely heard in the past tense or ended in a word final obstruent or alveolar consonant. SLI status depressed overall accuracy rates, but did not influence how facilitative a given factor was. CONCLUSION Some factors that have been believed to be useful only when children are first discovering past tense, such as telicity, appear to be influential in later years as well.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda J. Owen Van Horne
- Dept. Of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Iowa
- Member, DeLTA Center, University of Iowa
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Abstract
Children described as poor comprehenders (PCs) have reading comprehension difficulties in spite of adequate word reading abilities. PCs are known to display weakness with semantics and higher-level aspects of oral language, but less is known about their grammatical skills, especially with regard to morphosyntax. The purpose of this study was to examine morphosyntax in fourth grade PCs and typically developing readers (TDs), using three experimental tasks involving finiteness marking. Participants also completed standardized, norm-referenced assessments of phonological memory, vocabulary, and broader language skills. PCs displayed weakness relative to TDs on all three morphosyntax tasks and on every other assessment of oral language except phonological memory, as indexed by nonword repetition. These findings help to clarify the linguistic profile of PCs, suggesting that their language weaknesses include grammatical weaknesses that cannot be fully explained by semantic factors. Because finiteness markers are usually mastered prior to formal schooling in typical development, we call for future studies to examine whether assessments of morphosyntax could be used for the early identification of children at risk for future reading comprehension difficulty.
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Leonard LB, Fey ME, Deevy P, Bredin-Oja SL. Input sources of third person singular -s inconsistency in children with and without specific language impairment. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2015; 42:786-820. [PMID: 25076070 PMCID: PMC4430448 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000914000397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
We tested four predictions based on the assumption that optional infinitives can be attributed to properties of the input whereby children inappropriately extract non-finite subject-verb sequences (e.g., the girl run) from larger input utterances (e.g., Does the girl run? Let's watch the girl run). Thirty children with specific language impairment (SLI) and thirty typically developing children heard novel and familiar verbs that appeared exclusively either in utterances containing non-finite subject-verb sequences or in simple sentences with the verb inflected for third person singular -s. Subsequent testing showed strong input effects, especially for the SLI group. The results provide support for input-based factors as significant contributors not only to the optional infinitive period in typical development, but also to the especially protracted optional infinitive period seen in SLI.
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Pawlowska M. Evaluation of three proposed markers for language impairment in English: a meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy studies. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2014; 57:2261-2273. [PMID: 25198731 DOI: 10.1044/2014_jslhr-l-13-0189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2013] [Accepted: 08/25/2014] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The goal of the study was to determine to what extent 3 proposed markers of language impairment (LI) in English (verb tense, nonword repetition, and sentence repetition) accurately distinguish affected and unaffected English-speaking individuals. METHOD Electronic databases were searched for diagnostic accuracy studies involving the 3 markers. Quality of relevant studies was described. Numbers of true and false positives and negatives were extracted and used to calculate likelihood ratios (LRs). RESULTS Thirteen studies met the selection criteria. The majority were based on clinically ascertained samples. Pooled LRs and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for tense (LR+) and sentence repetition (LR+ and LR-) were suggestive of presence (LR+) or absence (LR-) of LI. Wide CIs around the value of inconsistency I2 index reduced reliability of pooled values for sentence repetition. High between-study heterogeneity precluded pooling of LR values for tense (LR-) and nonword repetition (LR+ and LR-). CONCLUSION The limited evidence available suggests that the proposed markers may be at best suggestive of LI in English. Future research may refine existing marker tasks to increase their accuracy and test the most promising tasks in unselected samples of participants with and without LI.
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Blom E, Vasic N, de Jong J. Production and processing of subject-verb agreement in monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2014; 57:952-965. [PMID: 24686724 DOI: 10.1044/2014_jslhr-l-13-0104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE In this study, the authors investigated whether errors with subject-verb agreement in monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) are influenced by verb phonology. In addition, the productive and receptive abilities of Dutch acquiring children with SLI regarding agreement inflection were compared. METHOD An SLI group (6-8 years old), an age-matched group with typical development, and a language-matched, younger, typically developing (TD) group participated in the study. Using an elicitation task, the authors tested use of third person singular inflection after verbs that ended in obstruents (plosive, fricative) or nonobstruents (sonorant). The authors used a self-paced listening task to test sensitivity to subject-verb agreement violations. RESULTS Omission was more frequent after obstruents than nonobstruents; the younger TD group used inflection less often after plosives than fricatives, unlike the SLI group. The SLI group did not detect subject-verb agreement violations if the ungrammatical structure contained a frequent error (omission), but if the ungrammatical structure contained an infrequent error (substitution), subject-verb agreement violations were noticed. CONCLUSIONS The use of agreement inflection by children with TD or SLI is affected by verb phonology. Differential effects in the 2 groups are consistent with a delayed development in Dutch SLI. Parallels between productive and receptive abilities point to weak lexical agreement inflection representations in Dutch SLI.
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Purdy JD, Leonard LB, Weber-Fox C, Kaganovich N. Decreased sensitivity to long-distance dependencies in children with a history of specific language impairment: electrophysiological evidence. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2014; 57:1040-59. [PMID: 24686983 PMCID: PMC4433008 DOI: 10.1044/2014_jslhr-l-13-0176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE One possible source of tense and agreement limitations in children with specific language impairment (SLI) is a weakness in appreciating structural dependencies that occur in many sentences in the input. This possibility was tested in the present study. METHOD Children with a history of SLI (H-SLI; n = 12; M = 9;7 [years;months]) and typically developing same-age peers (TD; n = 12; M = 9;7) listened to and made grammaticality judgments about grammatical and ungrammatical sentences involving either a local agreement error (e.g., "Every night they talks on the phone") or a long-distance finiteness error (e.g., "He makes the quiet boy talks a little louder"). Electrophysiological (ERP) and behavioral (accuracy) measures were obtained. RESULTS Local agreement errors elicited the expected anterior negativity and P600 components in both groups of children. However, relative to the TD group, the P600 effect for the long-distance finiteness errors was delayed, reduced in amplitude, and shorter in duration for the H-SLI group. The children's grammaticality judgments were consistent with the ERP findings. CONCLUSION Children with H-SLI seem to be relatively insensitive to the finiteness constraints that matrix verbs place on subject-verb clauses that appear later in the sentence.
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Noonan NB, Redmond SM, Archibald LMD. Contributions of children's linguistic and working memory proficiencies to their judgments of grammaticality. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2014; 57:979-989. [PMID: 24686570 DOI: 10.1044/2014_jslhr-l-12-0225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The authors explored the cognitive mechanisms involved in language processing by systematically examining the performance of children with deficits in the domains of working memory and language. METHOD From a database of 370 school-age children who had completed a grammaticality judgment task, groups were identified with a co-occurring language and working memory impairment (LI-WMI; n = 18) or specific language impairment (SLI) with typical working memory skills ( n = 60) and matched control groups. Correct and incorrect use of grammatical markers occurred either early or late in sentence stimuli, imposing a greater working memory load for late-marker sentences. RESULTS Children with SLI showed a lower preference for grammatical items than typically developing controls, regardless of error marker position. Children with LI-WMI demonstrated a performance pattern modulated by error marker position: Their preference for grammatical items was lower than typically developing controls for late but not early marker sentences. CONCLUSION This pattern of results suggests that there are distinct and dissociable impacts of working memory and linguistic skills on metalinguistic functioning through a grammatical judgment task.
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Pawłowska M, Robinson S, Seddoh A. Detection of lexical and morphological anomalies by children with and without language impairment. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2014; 57:236-246. [PMID: 24687474 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2013/12-0241)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The abilities of 5-year-old children with and without language impairment (LI) to detect anomalies involving lexical items and grammatical morphemes in stories were compared. The influence of sentence versus discourse context on lexical anomaly detection rates was explored. METHOD The participants were read 3 story scripts and asked to detect the anomalies embedded in them. RESULTS Typically developing (TD) children outperformed their peers with LI across the board. For both groups, lexical anomalies were easier to detect than morphological anomalies. Similarly, anomalous nouns were easier for both groups to detect compared with anomalous verbs. The latter presented a particular challenge to the children with LI. Both groups had greater difficulty with lexical anomaly detection in discourse relative to sentence context. CONCLUSION These outcomes suggest that children's ability to detect anomalies is sensitive to the nature of the anomaly and the linguistic context involved in anomaly detection. Future research may address the relative role of linguistic and cognitive factors in anomaly detection.
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Bishop DVM. Problems with tense marking in children with specific language impairment: not how but when. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2013; 369:20120401. [PMID: 24324242 PMCID: PMC3866428 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) have persisting problems in the correct use of verb tense, but there has been disagreement as to the underlying reason. When we take into account studies using receptive as well as expressive language tasks, the data suggest that the difficulty for children with SLI is in knowing when to inflect verbs for tense, rather than how to do so. This is perhaps not surprising when we consider that tense does not have a transparent semantic interpretation, but depends on complex relationships between inflections and hierarchically organized clauses. An explanation in terms of syntactic limitations contrasts with a popular morpho-phonological account, the Words and Rules model. This model, which attributes problems to difficulties with applying a rule to generate regular inflected forms, has been widely applied to adult-acquired disorders. There are striking similarities in the pattern of errors in adults with anterior aphasia and children with SLI, suggesting that impairments in appreciation of when to mark tense may apply to acquired as well as developmental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dorothy V M Bishop
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, , Oxford, UK
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Blom E, Paradis J. Past tense production by English second language learners with and without language impairment. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2013; 56:281-294. [PMID: 22744133 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2012/11-0112)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study investigated whether past tense use could differentiate children with language impairment (LI) from their typically developing (TD) peers when English is children's second language (L2) and whether L2 children's past tense profiles followed the predictions of Bybee's (2007) usage-based network model. METHOD A group of L2 children with LI (L2-LI) and a matched group of L2-TD peers were administered the past tense probe from the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (Rice & Wexler, 2001) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Dunn & Dunn, 1997). A representative input corpus provided distributional information for each verb used. Background information was obtained via parent questionnaire. RESULTS The L2-LI group used fewer tense-marked verbs than did the L2-TD group. In both groups, vocabulary size and word frequency predicted accuracy with regular and irregular verbs. Children omitted regular past tense marking most often after alveolar stops, dropping the allomorph /Id/; L2-TD children omitted /t/ more often than /d/. Finally, first language typology predicted past tense accuracy. CONCLUSIONS Past tense use could potentially differentiate between English L2 children with and without LI. The impact of vocabulary, frequency, and phonological factors supported the network model and indicated profile differences between L2-LI and L2-TD children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elma Blom
- University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Vang Christensen R, Hansson K. The use and productivity of past tense morphology in specific language impairment: an examination of Danish. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2012; 55:1671-1689. [PMID: 22653917 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2012/10-0350)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The authors' primary goal was to investigate the potential of past tense inflection as a clinical marker of Danish specific language impairment (SLI). They also wished to test the predictions of the extended optional infinitive (EOI) account and processing based accounts of SLI on Danish. METHOD Using sentence completion and sentence repetition tasks, the authors investigated the use of past tense by 3 groups ( n = 11 in each group): (a) children with SLI whose ages ranged from 5;2 (years;months) to 7;11; (b) children with typical language development matched on chronological age; and (c) children with typical language development matched on vocabulary. RESULTS Participants with SLI were less likely to produce past tense than were both typically developing control groups. In particular, only the children with SLI had difficulties with accurately producing past tense verbs during the sentence repetition task. Past tense accuracy was associated with children's productive vocabulary levels and proficiency with a nonword repetition task. CONCLUSION Past tense use is potentially a clinical marker of Danish SLI, but more research is needed to confirm this. Results provided mixed support for competing accounts of SLI.
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Spoelman M, Bol GW. The use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure in monolingual and bilingual children with specific language impairment. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2012; 26:357-79. [PMID: 22404865 DOI: 10.3109/02699206.2011.637658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
This study investigates the use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure in the spoken Dutch of monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) and bilingual Frisian-Dutch children with SLI. Both SLI groups appeared to be less efficient in their use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure than the control group (consisting of monolingual typically developing Dutch children matched on mean length of utterance in morphemes) in that they showed significantly more agreement errors as well as a relation between verb agreement structure complexity and omission, a relation that the typically developing children failed to show. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the monolingual and the bilingual SLI group. These findings indicate that subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure are both affected in SLI, but not more severely in bilinguals than in monolinguals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marianne Spoelman
- Department of Finnish as a Second or Foreign Language, University of Oulu, Finland
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Moyle MJ, Karasinski C, Ellis Weismer S, Gorman BK. Grammatical morphology in school-age children with and without language impairment: a discriminant function analysis. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 2011; 42:550-60. [PMID: 21969530 PMCID: PMC3570044 DOI: 10.1044/0161-1461(2011/10-0029)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to test Bedore and Leonard's (1998) proposal that a verb morpheme composite may hold promise as a clinical marker for specific language impairment (SLI) in English speakers and serve as an accurate basis for the classification of children with and without SLI beyond the preschool level. METHOD The language transcripts of 50 school-age children with SLI (M(age) = 7;9 [years;months]) and 50 age-matched typically developing peers (M(age) = 7;9) were analyzed. Following the Bedore and Leonard (1998) procedure, 3 variables were measured: a finite verb morpheme composite, a noun morpheme composite, and mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLU(m)). RESULTS Overall findings indicated that neither grammatical morpheme composite alone adequately discriminated the groups at this developmental level. However, combining the verb and noun grammatical morpheme composite measures with MLU(m) resulted in good discriminant accuracy in classifying subgroups of the youngest children with and without SLI in the school-age sample. CONCLUSION Verb morphology alone is not a useful clinical marker of SLI in school-age children. Potential explanations for these findings and ideas for future research are discussed.
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Owen AJ. Proficiency with tense and aspect concordance: children with SLI and their typically developing peers. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2011; 38:675-699. [PMID: 21050500 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000910000279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Children with SLI have difficulty with tense and agreement morphology. This study examined the proficiency of these children and their typically developing peers with the coordination of tense and aspect markers in two-clause sentences. Scenarios designed to elicit past tense were presented to five- to eight-year-old children with SLI (n=14) and their normally developing age- and MLU-matched peers (n=24) to examine the omission of tense markers in complex sentences (Owen, 2010). Responses with overt tense/aspect morphology in both clauses were recoded for how similar the use of tense and aspect was across the two clauses. Tense and aspect concordance was high across both sentence types, but aspect-only mismatches were more common than tense mismatches. The three groups of children did not differ from each other on any comparisons. Coordination of temporal information in sentences with more than one time marker does not appear to be especially difficult for these children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda J Owen
- University of Iowa, Communication Sciences & Disorders; Member, DeLTA Center
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Leonard LB, Deevy P. Input Distribution Influences Degree of Auxiliary Use by Children with Specific Language Impairment. COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS 2011; 22:247-273. [PMID: 23750074 PMCID: PMC3673736 DOI: 10.1515/cogl.2011.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show a protracted period of inconsistent use of tense/agreement morphemes. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether this inconsistent use could be attributed to the children's misinterpretations of particular syntactic structures in the input. In Study 1, preschool-aged children with SLI and typically developing peers heard sentences containing novel verbs preceded by auxiliary was or sentences in which the novel verb formed part of a nonfinite subject-verb sequence within a larger syntactic structure (e.g., We saw the dog relling). The children were then tested on their use of the novel verbs in contexts that obligated use of auxiliary is. The children with SLI were less accurate than their peers and more likely to produce the novel verb without is if the verb had been heard in a nonfinite subject-verb sequence. In Study 2, children with SLI and typically developing peers were tested on their comprehension of sentences such as The cow sees the horse eating. The children with SLI were less accurate than their peers and were disproportionately influenced by the nonfinite subject-verb clause at the end of the sentence. We interpret these findings within the framework of construction learning.
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Owen AJ. Factors affecting accuracy of past tense production in children with specific language impairment and their typically developing peers: the influence of verb transitivity, clause location, and sentence type. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2010; 53:993-1014. [PMID: 20605944 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2009/09-0039)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The author examined the influence of sentence type, clause order, and verb transitivity on the accuracy of children's past tense productions. All groups of children, but especially children with specific language impairment (SLI), were predicted to decrease accuracy as linguistic complexity increased. METHOD The author elicited past tense productions in 2-clause sentences from 5- to 8-year-old children with SLI (n=14) and their typically developing peers (n=24). The target sentences varied in the type and obligatory nature of the second clause and the number of arguments. RESULTS On average, 85% of the responses across all groups and sentence types contained 2 clauses. Fewer 2-clause sentences were produced in the complement clause condition than in the other conditions. Sentence type and clause order, but not argument structure, influenced use of past tense. Children with SLI had a similar but less accurate profile as compared with the age-matched group. The younger mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched group reflected decreased accuracy with each additional source of linguistic complexity. CONCLUSIONS Increased syntactic difficulty decreases use of morphology for all children, supporting the hypothesis that processing demands influence morphological accuracy. MLU-matched children, but not children with SLI, were more affected by changes in linguistic complexity. Further work on age-related changes in sentence production is necessary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda J Owen
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 250 Hawkins Drive, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
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Kan PF, Windsor J. Word learning in children with primary language impairment: a meta-analysis. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2010; 53:739-756. [PMID: 20530386 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0248)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 120] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The present study is a meta-analysis that examines the difference in novel word learning performance between children with primary language impairment (LI) and typically developing children. Participant and task characteristics were examined as variables that potentially moderated children's word learning. METHOD Eight hundred and forty-six published studies were retrieved from conventional databases (PsycINFO, MEDLINE, and Web of Science). Of these studies, 28 met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis, yielding 244 effect sizes across experimental conditions. RESULTS LI groups showed significantly lower word learning performance than typical age-matched groups and equivalent performance to typical language-matched groups. Moderator analyses showed that the magnitude of the group difference relative to age peers was significantly associated with participants' chronological age, receptive language and cognitive abilities, task and novel word type, and the extent of novel word exposure. CONCLUSION The difference in novel word learning performance between children with LI and age-matched children is strongly affected by task and participant characteristics in the primary studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pui Fong Kan
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, 2501 Kittredge Loop Road, 409 UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
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Leonard LB, Miller CA, Finneran DA. Grammatical Morpheme Effects on Sentence Processing by School-Aged Adolescents with Specific Language Impairment. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2009; 24:450-478. [PMID: 19690626 DOI: 10.1080/01690960802229649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Sixteen-year-olds with specific language impairment (SLI), nonspecific language impairment (NLI), and those showing typical language development (TD) responded to target words in sentences that were either grammatical or contained a grammatical error immediately before the target word. The TD participants showed the expected slower response times (RTs) when errors preceded the target word, regardless of error type. The SLI and NLI groups also showed the expected slowing, except when the error type involved the omission of a tense/agreement inflection. This response pattern mirrored an early developmental period of alternating between using and omitting tense/agreement inflections that is characteristic of SLI and NLI. The findings could not be readily attributed to factors such as insensitivity to omissions in general or insensitivity to the particular phonetic forms used to mark tense/agreement. The observed response pattern may represent continued difficulty with tense/agreement morphology that persists in subtle form into adolescence.
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McDonald JL. Grammaticality judgments in children: the role of age, working memory and phonological ability. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2008; 35:247-268. [PMID: 18416859 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000907008367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
This paper examines the role of age, working memory span and phonological ability in the mastery of ten different grammatical constructions. Six- through eleven-year-old children (n=68) and adults (n=19) performed a grammaticality judgment task as well as tests of working memory capacity and receptive phonological ability. Children showed early mastery of some grammatical structures (e.g. word order, article omissions) while even the oldest children differed from adults on others (e.g. past tense, third person singular agreement). Working memory capacity and phonological ability accounted for variance in grammaticality judgments above and beyond age effects. In particular, working memory capacity correlated with structures involving verb morphology and word order; phonological ability was important for structures with low phonetic substance. Children's relative difficulty with the different constructions showed parallels to adult performance under memory load stress, indicating working memory capacity may be a limiting factor in their performance. Implications for performance by memory and phonologically impaired populations are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janet L McDonald
- Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
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Nicoladis E, Palmer A, Marentette P. The role of type and token frequency in using past tense morphemes correctly. Dev Sci 2007; 10:237-54. [PMID: 17286847 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00582.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Type and token frequency have been thought to be important in the acquisition of past tense morphology, particularly in differentiating regular and irregular forms. In this study we tested the role of frequency in two ways: (1) in bilingual children, who typically use and hear either language less often than monolingual children and (2) cross-linguistically: French and English have different patterns of frequency of regular/irregular verbs. Ten French-English bilingual children, 10 French monolingual and 10 English monolingual children between 4 and 6 years watched a cartoon and re-told the story. The results demonstrated that the bilingual children were less accurate than the monolingual children. Their accuracy in both French and English regular and irregular verbs corresponded to frequency in the input language. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that children learn past tense morphemes by analogy with other words in their vocabularies. We propose a developmental sequence based on conservative generalization across a growing set of verbs.
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Gutiérrez-Clellen VF, Restrepo MA, Simón-Cereijido G. Evaluating the discriminant accuracy of a grammatical measure with Spanish-speaking children. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2006; 49:1209-23. [PMID: 17197491 PMCID: PMC3373311 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2006/087)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the discriminant accuracy of a grammatical measure for the identification of language impairment in Latino Spanish-speaking children. The authors hypothesized that if exposure to and use of English as a second language have an effect on the first language, bilingual children might exhibit lower rates of grammatical accuracy than their peers and be more likely to be misclassified. METHOD Eighty children with typical language development and 80 with language impairment were sampled from 4 different geographical regions and compared using linear discriminant function analysis. RESULTS Results indicated fair-to-good sensitivity from 4;0 to 5;1 years, good sensitivity from 5;2 to 5;11 years, and poor sensitivity above age 6 years. The discriminant functions derived from the exploratory studies were able to predict group membership in confirmatory analyses with fair-to-excellent sensitivity up to age 6 years. Children who were bilingual did not show lower scores and were not more likely to be misclassified compared with their Spanish-only peers. CONCLUSIONS The measure seems to be appropriate for identifying language impairment in either Spanish-dominant or Spanish-only speakers between 4 and 6 years of age. However, for older children, supplemental testing is necessary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vera F Gutiérrez-Clellen
- School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, and SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders, San Diego State University 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-1518, USA.
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Redmond SM, Johnston SS. Evaluating the morphological competence of children with severe speech and physical impairments. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2001; 44:1362-1375. [PMID: 11776371 DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2001/106)] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Reports present mixed findings on the extent to which the development of receptive language skills in children with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI) is compromised by their difficulty with speaking (V. W. Berninger & B. M. Gans, 1986; D. V. M. Bishop, B. Byers Brown, & J. Robson, 1990; O. Udwin & W. Yule, 1990). In this study, grammaticality judgments were used to measure the sensitivity of 4 school-age children with SSPI to different morphological errors. These errors included violations of agreement between the subject and auxiliary verbs (e.g., she are falling), the marking of aspect (e.g., she is play the horn), and the marking of past tense on regular and irregular verbs (e.g., he jump, he fall, he falled). Performance of the participants with SSPI was compared to groups of typically developing children and adults. Results indicated that children in the SSPI and control groups made similar judgments. All groups showed high levels of sensitivity to agreement violations, aspect-marking errors, and tense-marking errors involving irregular verbs. Participants with SSPI had greater difficulty detecting tense-marking errors involving regular verbs. Implications for improving clinical assessments within this population are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- S M Redmond
- Department of Communication Disorders, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112, USA.
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