Naming errors of children with specific language impairment

Exploring Spanish writing abilities of children with developmental language disorder in expository texts

Introduction

Numerous studies have shown that children with developmental language disorder (DLD), in addition to oral language difficulties, exhibit impaired writing abilities. Their texts contain problems in grammar, organization, cohesion, and length of written output. However, most of these studies have been conducted with English speakers. English is characterized by complex phonological structure, opaque orthography, poor morphology and strict word order. The aim of this research is to observe the writing abilities of children with DLD in a language with simple phonological structure, transparent orthography, rich morphology and flexible word order like Spanish in the production of expository texts.

Methods

Twenty-six children with DLD (mean age in months = 128.85) and 26 age-and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children (mean age in months = 124.61) wrote an expository text about their favorite animal.

Results

In order to analyze how the two groups plan and encode written texts, we looked at word frequency and sentence structure, grammatical complexity and lexical density, and omissions and errors. Compared to the TD group, the children with DLD omitted more content words; made more errors with functional words, verb conjugation and inflectional morphemes, and made a large number of spelling errors. Moreover, they wrote fewer words, fewer sentences, and less structurally and lexically complex texts.

Discussion

These results show that children with DLD who speak a transparent orthography language such as Spanish also have difficulties in most language areas when producing written texts. Our findings should be considered when planning and designing interventions.

What Children with Developmental Language Disorder Teach Us About Cross-Situational Word Learning

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) served as a test case for determining the role of extant vocabulary knowledge, endogenous attention, and phonological working memory abilities in cross‐situational word learning. First‐graders (M_age = 7 years; 3 months), 44 with typical development (TD) and 28 with DLD, completed a cross‐situational word‐learning task comprised six cycles, followed by retention tests and independent assessments of attention, memory, and vocabulary. Children with DLD scored lower than those with TD on all measures of learning and retention, a performance gap that emerged in the first cycle of the cross‐situational protocol and that we attribute to weaknesses in initial encoding. Over cycles, children with DLD learned words at a similar rate as their TD peers but they were less flexible in their strategy use, demonstrating a propose‐but‐verify approach but never a statistical aggregation approach. Also, they drew upon different mechanisms to support their learning. Attention played a greater role for the children with DLD, whereas extant vocabulary size played a greater role for the children with TD. Children navigate the problem space of cross‐situational learning via varied routes. This conclusion is offered as motivation for theorists to capture all learners, not just the most typical ones.

Factors Explaining Deficits in Reading Acquisition: The Case of Williams Syndrome

Purpose Multiple factors impact reading acquisition in individuals with reading disability, including genetic disorders such as Williams syndrome (WS). Despite a relative strength in oral language, individuals with WS usually have an intellectual disability and tend to display deficits in areas associated with reading. There is substantial variability in their reading skills. While some authors have postulated that phonological deficits are at the source of their reading deficits, others have suggested that they can be attributed to visuospatial deficits. This study was the first to undertake an in-depth exploration of reading skills among French-speaking children and adults with WS. We tested the assumption that some factors influence performance on single-word identification among individuals with WS, with a focus on the roles of phonological awareness and visuospatial skills. Method Participants were 29 French-speaking adults with WS and 192 controls matched for nonverbal mental age and reading level. We administered tests assessing reading (decoding and word recognition), vocabulary (expressive and receptive), and phonological and visuospatial skills. We also controlled for chronological age and nonverbal reasoning. Results Phonemic awareness was the most predictive factor of single-word identification in the WS group. Visuospatial skills also contributed, but not more or beyond other factors. More broadly, reasoning skills may also have accounted for the variability in single-word identification in WS, but this was not the case for either chronological age or vocabulary. Conclusions There is considerable heterogeneity among adults with WS, who may be either readers or prereaders. Similar profiles identified among individuals with other specific learning disabilities suggest that high reading variability is not specific to the neuropsychological profile of WS. We discuss a multidimensional approach to the factors involved in reading deficits in WS.

Compensation to Altered Auditory Feedback in Children With Developmental Language Disorder and Typical Development

Purpose Developmental language disorder (DLD), an unexplained problem using and understanding spoken language, has been hypothesized to have an underlying auditory processing component. Auditory feedback plays a key role in speech motor control. The current study examined whether auditory feedback is used to regulate speech production in a similar way by children with DLD and their typically developing (TD) peers. Method Participants aged 6-11 years completed tasks measuring hearing, language, first formant (F1) discrimination thresholds, partial vowel space, and responses to altered auditory feedback with F1 perturbation. Results Children with DLD tended to compensate more than TD children for the positive F1 manipulation and compensated less than TD children in the negative shift condition. Conclusion Our findings suggest that children with DLD make atypical use of auditory feedback.

Lexical-Semantic Cues Induce Sound Pattern Stability in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose When learning novel word forms, preschoolers with developmental language disorder (DLD; also known as specific language impairment) produce speech targets inaccurately and with a high degree of intraword variability. The aim of the current study is to specify whether and how layering lexical-semantic information onto novel phonological strings would induce increased organization of sound production patterns. Method Twenty-one preschoolers with DLD and 21 peers with typical language (ranging in age from 4;1 to 5;11 [years;months]) imitated multiple renditions of novel words, half with (i.e., words) and half without (i.e., nonwords) a linked visual referent. Methods from network science were used to assess the stability and patterning of syllable sequences. Sound accuracy was also measured. Results Children with DLD were less accurate and more variable than their typical peers. However, once word forms were associated with a visual referent, network stability, but not accuracy, improved for children with DLD. Conclusions Children with DLD showed significant word form deficits as they acquired novel words and nonwords. The inclusion of a meaningful referent resulted in increased sound sequence stability, suggesting that lexical-semantic information provides a bootstrap for phonological organization in children with DLD.

Lexical Access in Persian Speaking Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment

INTRODUCTION

Word retrieval problems are among the limitations observed in children with specific language impairment during the initial schooling years. These restrictions are predictive of reading problems and poor performance at school. Additionally, studies on lexical access in Persian speaking children are scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate and compare naming accuracy and latency in children with and without specific language impairment.

METHODS

Twenty 7-9-year-old children with specific language impairment and 20 age-matched peers were recruited as the study participants. They were requested to name the 128 black and white line-drawing pictures from a Persian picture naming set for children, as rapidly as possible. We compared the effects of psycholinguistic variables on naming latency in the explored children with and without specific language impairment.

RESULTS

Linear mixed-effects modeling presented an interaction between the research groups and the psycholinguistic variables. Significant main effects were found for name agreement (P≤0.00) and the age of acquisition (P=0.05) in children with typical language development; significant effects for name agreement (P≤0.00) and log frequency (P≤0.00) were revealed in children with specific language impairment.

CONCLUSION

The obtained models indicated that psycholinguistic factors could differently affect the naming latency in children with and without specific language impairment. Factors that may have accounted for the findings are discussed in this paper.

Real time comprehension of Spanish articles in children with developmental language disorder: Empirical evidence from eye movements

Function words and, more specifically, articles have been widely indicated as one of the main sources of difficulty for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The present study is the first to assess the online comprehension of Spanish articles in bilingual children with DLD. In an eye tracking experiment, we monitored participants' eye movements as they listened to Spanish articles embedded in structurally simple sentences. Ninety-six subjects from four different groups were evaluated: 24 children with DLD (average age 7;08), 24 children with the same chronological age (average age 7;08), 24 younger children matched for mean length utterance (average age 6;08), and 24 adults (average age 22;05). We calculated the proportion between the preference for the correct visual referent and a competitor object. Our results suggest that children with DLD are capable of timely comprehension of Spanish articles in real time and within simple sentence structures. However, we observed a strong effect of chronological age in the sample of interest; younger children with DLD are able to identify the correct referent, but this preference is weaker compared to the older children with DLD. We also observed local differences between the DLD group, and the other two children control groups, particularly when the chronological age group is introduced as a factor. These findings suggest a developmental trajectory that is different in the DLD group relative to children with typical language development. Notwithstanding, in spite of the article production difficulties previously reported, children with DLD in the present sample appear to be able to comprehend Spanish articles in the current experimental conditions.

The Utility of an English Semantics Measure for Identifying Developmental Language Disorder in Spanish-English Bilinguals

Purpose We examined the English semantic performance of three hundred twenty-seven 7- to 10-year-old Spanish-English bilinguals with (n = 66) and without (n = 261) developmental language disorder (DLD) with varying levels of English experience to classify groups. Method English semantic performance on the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment-Middle Extension Experimental Test Version (Peña et al., 2008) was evaluated by language experience, language ability, and task type. Items that best identified DLD for children with balanced and high English experience were selected. Separately, items that best identified children with high Spanish experience were selected. Results Typically developing bilingual children performed significantly higher than their peers with DLD across semantic tasks, with differences associated with task type. Classification accuracy was fair when item selection corresponded to balanced or high level of experience in English, but poor for children with high Spanish experience. Selecting items specifically for children with high Spanish experience improved classification accuracy. Conclusions Tailoring semantic items based on children's experience is a promising direction toward organizing items on a continuum of exposure. Here, classification effectively ruled in impairment. Future work to refine semantic items that more accurately represent the continuum of exposure may help rule out language impairment.

"Did I Say Cherry?" Error Patterns on a Blocked Cyclic Naming Task for Bilingual Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose Using a blocked cyclic picture-naming task, we compared accuracy and error patterns across languages for Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Pictured stimuli were manipulated for semantic similarity across two (Same and Mixed) category contexts. Children's productions were scored off-line for accuracy, error frequency, and error type. Results Typically developing children were more accurate and produced fewer errors than their peers with DLD; however, this was moderated by task language and semantic context. Children were generally more accurate when naming pictures in English compared to Spanish and in the Mixed-category context compared to the Same-category context. Analyses of error types further showed that children with less English language exposure specifically produced more nonresponses in English than in Spanish. Children with DLD produced more of each error type than their typically developing peers, particularly in Spanish. Conclusions Regardless of language ability, bilingual children demonstrated greater difficulty with lexical retrieval for pictured items in the semantically related context than in the unrelated context. However, bilingual children with DLD produced more errors of all types than is typical for children developing more than one language. Their greater error rates are not secondary to limited second language exposure but instead reflect deficits inherent to the nature of language impairment. Results from this study are discussed using a framework of semantic constraint, where we propose that because bilingual children with DLD have impoverished semantic networks, and this knowledge insufficiently constrains activation for lexical selection, thereby increasing error production.

The Effectiveness of Classroom Vocabulary Intervention for Adolescents With Language Disorder

Purpose Phonological-semantic intervention has been shown to be effective in enhancing the vocabulary skills of children with language disorder in small-group or individual settings. Less is known about vocabulary interventions for adolescents with language disorder in whole-class models of delivery. The current study investigated the effectiveness of phonological-semantic vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder, delivered by secondary school teachers within science lessons. Method Seventy-eight adolescents with language disorder, aged 11-14 years, were taught science curriculum words by teachers in class, under 2 conditions: (a) 10 words taught through usual teaching practice and (b) 10 matched words taught using an experimental intervention known as Word Discovery, which embedded phonological-semantic activities into the teaching of the syllabus. Ten similar control words received no intervention. Word knowledge was assessed pre-intervention, postintervention, and follow-up. Results At pre-intervention, measures of depth of word knowledge and expressive word use did not differ between usual teaching practice and experimental words. At postintervention, depth of knowledge of experimental words was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words. This significant advantage was not maintained at follow-up, although depth of knowledge for experimental words remained significantly higher at follow-up than at pre-intervention. At postintervention, expressive use of experimental words was significantly greater than that of usual teaching practice words, and this significant difference was maintained at follow-up. There was no change in students' depth of knowledge or expressive use of no-intervention words over time, confirming that the findings were not due to maturity or practice effects. Conclusion The experimental intervention was more effective than usual teaching practice in increasing the word knowledge of participants. Clinical and teaching implications include the importance of intervening during the adolescent years, with classroom vocabulary intervention being a viable option for collaborative teacher and speech and language therapy/pathology practice.

An Initial Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Word Processing in Preschoolers With Specific Language Impairment

Purpose

Previous behavioral studies have found deficits in lexical-semantic abilities in children with specific language impairment (SLI), including reduced depth and breadth of word knowledge. This study explored the neural correlates of early emerging familiar word processing in preschoolers with SLI and typical development.

Method

Fifteen preschoolers with typical development and 15 preschoolers with SLI were presented with pictures followed after a brief delay by an auditory label that did or did not match. Event-related brain potentials were time locked to the onset of the auditory labels. Children provided verbal judgments of whether the label matched the picture.

Results

There were no group differences in the accuracy of identifying when pictures and labels matched or mismatched. Event-related brain potential data revealed that mismatch trials elicited a robust N400 in both groups, with no group differences in mean amplitude or peak latency. However, the typically developing group demonstrated a more robust late positive component, elicited by mismatch trials.

Conclusions

These initial findings indicate that lexical-semantic access of early acquired words, indexed by the N400, does not differ between preschoolers with SLI and typical development when highly familiar words are presented in isolation. However, the typically developing group demonstrated a more mature profile of postlexical reanalysis and integration, indexed by an emerging late positive component. The findings lay the necessary groundwork for better understanding processing of newly learned words in children with SLI.

What we can learn from naming errors of children with language impairment at preschool age

Naming is a complex, multi-level process. It is composed of distinct semantic and phonological levels. Children with naming deficits produce different error types when failing to retrieve the target word. This study explored the error characteristics of children with language impairment compared to those with typical language development. 46 preschool children were tested on a naming test: 16 with language impairment and a naming deficit and 30 with typical language development. The analysis compared types of error in both groups. In a group level, children with language impairment produced different error patterns compared to the control group. Based on naming error analysis and performance on other language tests, two case studies of contrasting profiles suggest different sources for lexical retrieval difficulties in children. The findings reveal differences between the two groups in naming scores and naming errors, and support a qualitative impairment in early development of children with naming deficits. The differing profiles of naming deficits emphasise the importance of including error analysis in the diagnosis.

Quantitative and qualitative differences in the lexical knowledge of monolingual and bilingual children on the LITMUS-CLT task

While bilingual children follow the same milestones of language acquisition as monolingual children do in learning the syntactic patterns of their second language (L2), their vocabulary size in L2 often lags behind compared to monolinguals. The present study explores the comprehension and production of nouns and verbs in Hebrew, by two groups of 5- to 6-year olds with typical language development: monolingual Hebrew speakers (N = 26), and Russian-Hebrew bilinguals (N = 27). Analyses not only show quantitative gaps between comprehension and production and between nouns and verbs, with a bilingual effect in both, but also a qualitative difference between monolinguals and bilinguals in their production errors: monolinguals' errors reveal knowledge of the language rules despite temporary access difficulties, while bilinguals' errors reflect gaps in their knowledge of Hebrew (L2). The nature of Hebrew as a Semitic language allows one to explore this qualitative difference in the semantic and morphological level.

Picture naming in typically developing and language-impaired children: the role of sustained attention

BACKGROUND

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have problems not only with language performance but also with sustained attention, which is the ability to maintain alertness over an extended period of time. Although there is consensus that this ability is impaired with respect to processing stimuli in the auditory perceptual modality, conflicting evidence exists concerning the visual modality.

AIMS

To address the outstanding issue whether the impairment in sustained attention is limited to the auditory domain, or if it is domain-general. Furthermore, to test whether children's sustained attention ability relates to their word-production skills.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Groups of 7-9 year olds with SLI (N = 28) and typically developing (TD) children (N = 22) performed a picture-naming task and two sustained attention tasks, namely auditory and visual continuous performance tasks (CPTs).

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Children with SLI performed worse than TD children on picture naming and on both the auditory and visual CPTs. Moreover, performance on both the CPTs correlated with picture-naming latencies across developmental groups.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

These results provide evidence for a deficit in both auditory and visual sustained attention in children with SLI. Moreover, the study indicates there is a relationship between domain-general sustained attention and picture-naming performance in both TD and language-impaired children. Future studies should establish whether this relationship is causal. If attention influences language, training of sustained attention may improve language production in children from both developmental groups.

Nonword Repetition and Vocabulary Knowledge as Predictors of Children's Phonological and Semantic Word Learning

Purpose

This study examined the unique and shared variance that nonword repetition and vocabulary knowledge contribute to children's ability to learn new words. Multiple measures of word learning were used to assess recall and recognition of phonological and semantic information.

Method

Fifty children, with a mean age of 8 years (range 5-12 years), completed experimental assessments of word learning and norm-referenced assessments of receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge and nonword repetition skills. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses examined the variance in word learning that was explained by vocabulary knowledge and nonword repetition after controlling for chronological age.

Results

Together with chronological age, nonword repetition and vocabulary knowledge explained up to 44% of the variance in children's word learning. Nonword repetition was the stronger predictor of phonological recall, phonological recognition, and semantic recognition, whereas vocabulary knowledge was the stronger predictor of verbal semantic recall.

Conclusions

These findings extend the results of past studies indicating that both nonword repetition skill and existing vocabulary knowledge are important for new word learning, but the relative influence of each predictor depends on the way word learning is measured. Suggestions for further research involving typically developing children and children with language or reading impairments are discussed.

Lexical conflict resolution in children with specific language impairment

The aim of our study is to examine the effect of conflict on naming latencies in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing (TD) children and to explore whether deficits in conflict resolution contribute to lexical problems in SLI. In light of previous results showing difficulties with inhibitory functions in SLI, we expected higher semantic conflict effect in the SLI than in the TD group. To investigate this question 13 children with SLI and 13 age- and gender-matched TD children performed a picture naming task in which the level of conflict was manipulated and naming latencies were measured. Children took longer to name pictures in high conflict conditions than in low conflict conditions. This effect was equally present in the SLI and TD groups. Our results suggest that word production is more effortful for children when conflict resolution is required but children with SLI manage competing lexical representations as efficiently as TD children. This result contradicts studies, which found difficulties with inhibitory functions and is in line with findings of intact inhibitory abilities in children with SLI. Further studies should rule out the possibility that in SLI lower level of conflict resulting from weaker lexical representations masks impairments in inhibition, and investigate the effect of linguistic conflict in other areas.

Lexical Processing in School-Age Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Children with Specific Language Impairment: The Role of Semantics

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) often have immature lexical-semantic knowledge; however, the organization of lexical-semantic knowledge is poorly understood. This study examined lexical processing in school-age children with ASD, SLI, and typical development, who were matched on receptive vocabulary. Children completed a lexical decision task, involving words with high and low semantic network sizes and nonwords. Children also completed nonverbal updating and shifting tasks. Children responded more accurately to words from high than from low semantic networks; however, follow-up analyses identified weaker semantic network effects in the SLI group. Additionally, updating and shifting abilities predicted lexical processing, demonstrating similarity in the mechanisms which underlie semantic processing in children with ASD, SLI, and typical development.

Novel word learning: An eye-tracking study. Are 18-month-old late talkers really different from their typical peers?

Infants, 18-24 months old who have difficulty learning words compared to their peers are often referred to as "late talkers" (LTs). These children are at risk for continued language delays as they grow older. One critical question is how to best identify which LTs will have language disorders, such as Specific Language Impairment (SLI) at school age, in order to maximize the opportunity for early and appropriate intervention and support. Recent research suggests that LTs are not only slower to learn and speak words than their peers, but are also slower to recognize and interpret known words in real time. This investigation examined online moment-by-moment processing of novel word learning in 18-month-olds. A low vocabulary, late talking group (LT, N=14) and an age and cognitive-level matched typical group (TYP, N=14) of infants participated in an eye-tracked novel word learning task and completed standardized testing of vocabulary and cognitive ability. Infants were trained on two novel word-picture pairs and then were tested using an adaptation of the looking while listening paradigm. Results suggest that there are differences between groups in the time-course of looking to the novel target picture during testing. These findings suggest that LTs and typical infants developed strong enough representations to recognize novel words using traditional measures of accuracy and reaction time, however interesting group differences emerge when using additional fine-grained processing measures. Implications for differences in emerging knowledge and learning patterns are discussed.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The reader will be able to understand many benefits of using eye-tracking methods to study young infant and toddler populations with and without language disorders. Readers will learn that examining moment-by-moment time course of novel word learning allows additional insight into different learning patterns. Finally, readers should understand the data from this article suggest late talkers may have different emerging representations of novel words than their typical peers, which may contribute to their difficulty learning new words.

What can errors tell us about specific language impairment deficits? Semantic and morphological cuing in a sentence completion task

The lexical retrieval ability of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical language development was compared. Fifty Hebrew-speaking children participated: 15 school-age with SLI, 20 typically developing, matched on age to the SLI group and 15 younger, typically developing matched on naming performance to the SLI group. Participants were tested in a sentence completion task with semantic cuing and with morphological cuing. SLI children performed poorer than the chronological-age group and similarly to the naming-matched group. Error patterns showed a qualitative difference between the SLI and naming-matched groups. The results suggest that lexical retrieval of children with SLI is delayed and qualitatively different from that of typically developing children.

The use of sophisticated words with children with specific language impairment during shared book reading

In the context of the use of sophisticated (i.e., low-frequency) words with children with specific language impairment (SLI), the present study investigates the relationship between maternal interactive support for meaning and both conversational responsiveness and lexical development of children with SLI. Fifteen Italian-speaking children with SLI (age range: 3;4-5;6) and two groups of typically developing children--15 chronological age (CA)-matched (3;8-5;8) and 15 language age (LA)-matched (1;10-3;5)--were videotaped during shared book reading with their mothers. Maternal utterances which included or were related to a sophisticated word were coded on the basis of informativeness and scaffolding provided; child utterances were coded for complexity. In addition, child's lexical development was assessed three months later. Mothers of children with SLI produced a higher percentage of directly informative utterances with gestural scaffolding than did mothers of CA-matched children, and only in the SLI group this kind of utterances were significantly followed by child's extended utterances. Child's lexical development (production) was related to direct maternal informativeness in both the SLI- and CA-matched groups, and to gestural scaffolding only in the SLI group. On the whole, these findings suggest that mothers of children with SLI attune their language to their children's linguistic limitations and that the gestural quality of the interactive scaffolding is related to these children's conversational participation and their level of lexical progress.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The reader will recognize the importance of maternal support for the meaning of low-frequency words in promoting the child's conversational responsiveness and lexical development, particularly with children with SLI. These children seem to benefit when provided with direct information accompanied by gestural scaffolding. These findings, if replicated with a larger group of participants, could help clinicians develop improved strategies for teaching parents.

Triggering word learning in children with Language Impairment: the effect of phonotactic probability and neighbourhood density

The effect of phonotactic probability (PP) and neighbourhood density (ND) on triggering word learning was examined in children with Language Impairment (3;04-6;09) and compared to Typically Developing children. Nonwords, varying PP and ND orthogonally, were presented in a story context and their learning tested using a referent identification task. Group comparisons with receptive vocabulary as a covariate found no group differences in overall scores or in the influence of PP or ND. Therefore, there was no evidence of atypical lexical or phonological processing. 'Convergent' PP/ND (High PP/High ND; Low PP/Low ND) was optimal for word learning in both groups. This bias interacted with vocabulary knowledge. 'Divergent' PP/ND word scores (High PP/Low ND; Low PP/High ND) were positively correlated with vocabulary so the 'divergence disadvantage' reduced as vocabulary knowledge grew; an interaction hypothesized to represent developmental changes in lexical-phonological processing linked to the emergence of phonological representations.

The receptive-expressive gap in bilingual children with and without primary language impairment

PURPOSE

In this study, the authors examined the magnitude of the discrepancy between standardized measures of receptive and expressive semantic knowledge, known as a receptive-expressive gap, for bilingual children with and without primary language impairment (PLI).

METHOD

Spanish and English measures of semantic knowledge were administered to 37 Spanish-English bilingual 7- to 10-year old children with PLI and to 37 Spanish-English bilingual peers with typical development (TD). Parents and teachers completed questionnaires that yielded day-by-day and hour-by-hour information regarding children's exposure to and use of Spanish and English.

RESULTS

Children with PLI had significantly larger discrepancies between receptive and expressive semantics standard scores than their bilingual peers with TD. The receptive-expressive gap for children with PLI was predicted by current English experience, whereas the best predictor for children with TD was cumulative English experience.

CONCLUSIONS

As a preliminary explanation, underspecified phonological representations due to bilingual children's divided language input as well as differences in their languages' phonological systems may result in a discrepancy between standardized measures of receptive and expressive semantic knowledge. This discrepancy is greater for bilingual children with PLI because of the additional difficulty these children have in processing phonetic information. Future research is required to understand these underlying processes.

Word production errors in children with developmental language impairments

This review focuses on the errors that children with developmental language impairments make on three types of word production tasks: lexical retrieval, the elicitation of derivationally complex forms and the repetition of non-sense forms. The studies discussed in this review come principally from children with specific language impairment, and from children who are English-speakers or deaf users of British sign language. It is argued that models of word production need to be able to account for the data presented here, and need to have explanatory power across both modalities (i.e. speech and sign).

Why words are hard for adults with developmental language impairments

PURPOSE

To determine whether word learning problems associated with developmental language impairment (LI) reflect deficits in encoding or subsequent remembering of forms and meanings.

METHOD

Sixty-nine 18- to 25-year-olds with LI or without (the normal development [ND] group) took tests to measure learning of 16 word forms and meanings immediately after training (encoding) and 12 hr, 24 hr, and 1 week later (remembering). Half of the participants trained in the morning, and half trained in the evening.

RESULTS

At immediate posttest, participants with LI performed more poorly on form and meaning than those with ND. Poor performance was more likely among those with more severe LI. The LI-ND gap for word form recall widened over 1 week. In contrast, the LI and ND groups demonstrated no difference in remembering word meanings over the week. In both groups, participants who trained in the evening, and therefore slept shortly after training, demonstrated greater gains in meaning recall than those who trained in the morning.

CONCLUSIONS

Some adults with LI have encoding deficits that limit the addition of word forms and meanings to the lexicon. Similarities and differences in patterns of remembering in the LI and ND groups motivate the hypothesis that consolidation of declarative memory is a strength for adults with LI.

Language, reading, and math learning profiles in an epidemiological sample of school age children

Dyscalculia, dyslexia, and specific language impairment (SLI) are relatively specific developmental learning disabilities in math, reading, and oral language, respectively, that occur in the context of average intellectual capacity and adequate environmental opportunities. Past research has been dominated by studies focused on single impairments despite the widespread recognition that overlapping and comorbid deficits are common. The present study took an epidemiological approach to study the learning profiles of a large school age sample in language, reading, and math. Both general learning profiles reflecting good or poor performance across measures and specific learning profiles involving either weak language, weak reading, weak math, or weak math and reading were observed. These latter four profiles characterized 70% of children with some evidence of a learning disability. Low scores in phonological short-term memory characterized clusters with a language-based weakness whereas low or variable phonological awareness was associated with the reading (but not language-based) weaknesses. The low math only group did not show these phonological deficits. These findings may suggest different etiologies for language-based deficits in language, reading, and math, reading-related impairments in reading and math, and isolated math disabilities.

Developmental change is key to understanding primary language impairment: the case of phonotactic probability and nonword repetition

PURPOSE

In this study, the authors aimed to explore the relationship between lexical and phonological knowledge in children with primary language impairment (PLI) through the application of a developmental methodology. Specifically, they tested whether there is evidence for an impairment in the process of phonological abstraction in this group of children over and above that which would be predicted by their vocabulary growth.

METHOD

The authors measured developmental change in the abilities of typically developing (TD) children ( n = 38, chronological age [CA] = 3;0-5;6 [years;months]) and those with PLI ( n = 13, CA = 3;0-6;6 and 4;6-8;0) to repeat nonwords with high and low phonotactic probability (PP) to uncover group differences in the process of abstraction of phonological representations.

RESULTS

Cross-sectional developmental trajectories of change in nonword repetition abilities were compared across CA and vocabulary growth. Unlike TD children, the children with PLI did not evince a narrowing gap in the influence of PP across development, and they reached a plateau in their development.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest slowed emergence of phonological representations in PLI, with a plateau in the development of lexical-phonological representations. This plateau may represent entrenchment and "fixing" due to a missed critical period and/or atypical word learning biases in PLI.

Lexical activation during sentence comprehension in adolescents with history of Specific Language Impairment

One remarkable characteristic of speech comprehension in typically developing (TD) children and adults is the speed with which the listener can integrate information across multiple lexical items to anticipate upcoming referents. Although children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show lexical deficits (Sheng & McGregor, 2010) and slower speed of processing (Leonard et al., 2007), relatively little is known about how these deficits manifest in real-time sentence comprehension. In this study, we examine lexical activation in the comprehension of simple transitive sentences in adolescents with a history of SLI and age-matched, TD peers. Participants listened to sentences that consisted of the form, Article-Agent-Action-Article-Theme, (e.g., The pirate chases the ship) while viewing pictures of four objects that varied in their relationship to the Agent and Action of the sentence (e.g., Target, Agent-Related, Action-Related, and Unrelated). Adolescents with SLI were as fast as their TD peers to fixate on the sentence's final item (the Target) but differed in their post-action onset visual fixations to the Action-Related item. Additional exploratory analyses of the spatial distribution of their visual fixations revealed that the SLI group had a qualitatively different pattern of fixations to object images than did the control group. The findings indicate that adolescents with SLI integrate lexical information across words to anticipate likely or expected meanings with the same relative fluency and speed as do their TD peers. However, the failure of the SLI group to show increased fixations to Action-Related items after the onset of the action suggests lexical integration deficits that result in failure to consider alternate sentence interpretations.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

As a result of this paper, the reader will be able to describe several benefits of using eye-tracking methods to study populations with language disorders. They should also recognize several potential explanations for lexical deficits in SLI, including possible reduced speed of processing, and degraded lexical representations. Finally, they should recall the main outcomes of this study, including that adolescents with SLI show different timing and location of eye-fixations while interpreting sentences than their age-matched peers.

Language aspects of children infected with HIV

PURPOSE: to assess the lexical proficiency and the incidence of phonologic disorders in the language of children infected with HIV. METHOD: the study population consisted of 31 children between three and seven year-old. For evaluation purposes the Test of Infantile Language - ABFW was applied in the areas of phonology and vocabulary. RESULTS: the results obtained were analyzed according to the clinical criteria for the classification of the disease proposed by the CDC and regarding the immunological profile and the viral burden using the Mann-Whitney test for statistical analysis. In the vocabulary evaluation, 100% of the children presented an inappropriate response for their age in at least two distinct conceptual fields. In the phonologic evaluation, 67.7% of the assessed children were considered to be affected by some phonologic disorder. When we compared adequate and inadequate results of phonologic evaluation to the clinical and immunological parameters of AIDS such as clinical classification (p=0,16), CD4 count (p=0,37) and viral burden (p=0,82), we did not detect a statistically significant relation between language alterations and disease severity. CONCLUSION: this research has shown that the studied group presents a high risk for language disorders and that constant phonoaudiological follow-up is essential to identify the alterations in early stage.

Effect of verb argument structure on picture naming in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI)

BACKGROUND

This study investigated verb argument structure effects in children with specific language impairment (SLI).

AIMS

A picture-naming paradigm was used to compare the response times and naming accuracy for nouns and verbs with differing argument structure between Spanish-speaking children with and without language impairment.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Twenty-four children with SLI (ages 5;3-8;2 [years;months]), 24 age-matched controls (ages 5;3-8;2), 24 MLU-w controls (ages 3;3-7;1 years), and 31 adults participated in a picture-naming study.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

The results show all groups produced more correct responses and were faster for nouns than all verbs together. As regards verb type accuracy, there were no differences between groups in naming one-argument verbs. However, for both two- and three-argument verbs, children with SLI were less accurate than adults and age-matched controls, but similar to the MLU-matched controls. For verb type latency, children with SLI were slower than both the age-matched controls and adults for one- and two-argument verbs, while no differences were found in three-argument verbs. No differences were found between children with SLI and MLU-matched controls for any verb type.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

It has been shown that the naming of verbs is delayed in Spanish children with SLI. It is suggested that children with SLI may have problems encoding semantic representations.

Effectiveness of semantic therapy for word-finding difficulties in pupils with persistent language impairments: a randomized control trial

BACKGROUND

Word-finding difficulties (WFDs) in children have been hypothesized to be caused at least partly by poor semantic knowledge. Therefore, improving semantic knowledge should decrease word-finding errors. Previous studies of semantic therapy for WFDs are inconclusive.

AIMS

To investigate the effectiveness of semantic therapy for secondary school-aged pupils with WFDs using a randomized control trial with blind assessment.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Fifteen participants with language impairments and WFDs (aged 9;11-15;11) were randomly assigned to a therapy versus waiting control group. In Phase 1 the therapy group received two 15-min semantic therapy sessions per week for 8 weeks with their usual speech and language therapist. Therapy for each participant targeted words from one of three semantic categories (animals, food, clothes). All participants were tested pre- and post-phase 1 therapy on the brief version of the Test of Adolescent Word Finding (TAWF), semantic fluency and the Test of Word Finding in Discourse (TWFD). In Phase 2 the waiting control group received the same therapy as the original therapy group, which received therapy targeted at other language areas. Testing after Phase 2 aimed to establish whether the waiting control group made similar progress to the original therapy group and whether the original therapy group maintained any gains.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

The original therapy group made significant progress in standard scores on the TAWF (d= 0.94), which was maintained 5 months later. However, they made no progress on the semantic fluency or discourse tests. Participants in the waiting control group did not make significant progress on the TAWF in Phase 1 when they received no word-finding therapy. However, after Phase 2, when they received the therapy, they also made significant progress (d= 0.81). The combined effect of therapy over the two groups was d= 1.2. The mean standard scores on the TAWF were 67 pre-therapy and 77 post-therapy.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Four hours of semantic therapy on discrete semantic categories led to significant gains on a general standardized test of word finding, enabling the participants to begin to close the gap between their performance and that of their typically developing peers. These gains were maintained after 5 months. A small amount of therapy can lead to significant gains even with secondary aged pupils with severe language difficulties. However, further studies are needed to find ways of improving word-finding abilities in discourse.

Relation between language, audio-vocal psycholinguistic abilities and P300 in children having specific language impairment

Specific language impairment is a relatively common developmental condition in which a child fails to develop language at the typical rate despite normal general intellectual abilities, adequate exposure to language, and in the absence of hearing impairments, or neurological or psychiatric disorders. There is much controversy about the extent to which the auditory processing deficits are important in the genesis specific language impairment. The objective of this paper is to assess the higher cortical functions in children with specific language impairment, through assessing neurophysiological changes in order to correlate the results with the clinical picture of the patients to choose the proper rehabilitation training program.

SUBJECTS AND METHOD

This study was carried out on 40 children diagnosed to have specific language impairment and 20 normal children as a control group. All children were subjected to the assessment protocol applied in Kasr El-Aini hospital. They were also subjected to a language test (receptive, expressive and total language items), the audio-vocal items of Illinois test of psycholinguistic (auditory reception, auditory association, verbal expression, grammatical closure, auditory sequential memory and sound blending) as well as audiological assessment that included peripheral audiological and P300 amplitude and latency assessment. The results revealed a highly significant difference in P300 amplitude and latency between specific language impairment group and control group. There is also strong correlations between P300 latency and the grammatical closure, auditory sequential memory and sound blending, while significant correlation between the P300 amplitude and auditory association and verbal expression.

CONCLUSION

Children with specific language impairment, in spite of the normal peripheral hearing, have evidence of cognitive and central auditory processing defects as evidenced by P300 auditory event related potential in the form of prolonged latency which indicate a slow rate of processing and defective memory as evidenced by small amplitude. These findings affect cognitive and language development in specific language impairment children and should be considered during planning the intervention program.

Narrative comprehension and production in children with SLI: an eye movement study

This study investigates narrative comprehension and production in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Twelve children with SLI (mean age 5;8 years) and 12 typically developing children (mean age 5;6 years) participated in an eye-tracking experiment designed to investigate online narrative comprehension and production in Catalan- and Spanish-speaking children with SLI. The comprehension task involved the recording of eye movements during the visual exploration of successive scenes in a story, while listening to the associated narrative. With regard to production, the children were asked to retell the story, while once again looking at the scenes, as their eye movements were monitored. During narrative production, children with SLI look at the most semantically relevant areas of the scenes fewer times than their age-matched controls, but no differences were found in narrative comprehension. Moreover, the analyses of speech productions revealed that children with SLI retained less information and made more semantic and syntactic errors during retelling. Implications for theories that characterize SLI are discussed.

Semantic abilities in children with pragmatic language impairment: the case of picture naming skills

PURPOSE

The semantic abilities of children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI) are subject to debate. The authors investigated picture naming and definition skills in 5-year-olds with PLI in comparison to typically developing children.

METHOD

84 children with PLI and 80 age-matched typically developing children completed receptive vocabulary, picture naming, and definition tasks.

RESULTS

The PLI group scored lower on the receptive vocabulary and picture naming tasks. Word length and frequency affected naming accuracy in both groups. Children with PLI showed higher numbers of semantic errors, nonrelated errors, and omissions and circumlocutions. The error-type distribution differed between groups: PLI children showed disproportionate levels of nonrelated errors. In the definition task, PLI children showed lower information accuracy for accurately named pictures and comparable accuracy for incorrectly named pictures. Qualitative analysis suggested a high incidence of pragmatically inappropriate definitions for the PLI group. Naming accuracy for both groups improved equally after giving semantic cues.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest a deficit in object identification and/or naming selection. It might be premature to conclude that children with PLI show normal semantic abilities. The results are largely consistent with a general language delay; however, there is also some evidence of a qualitative difference between both groups.

Spoken word recognition in school-age children with SLI: semantic, phonological, and repetition priming

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the current understanding of how children with specific language impairment (SLI) organize their mental lexicons. The study examined semantic and phonological priming in children with and without SLI.

METHOD

Thirteen children (7;0-11;3 [years;months]) with SLI and 13 age-matched children with typical language development participated in this study. Prime-target pairs (semantic, phonological, and repetition) were embedded within a running list of words so that the actual pairs were imperceptible. Reaction times to an animacy judgment (alive vs. not alive) were analyzed. The experiment featured 500-ms and 1,000-ms interstimulus intervals (ISIs) between primes and targets.

RESULTS

Children with SLI exhibited priming effects in the repetition condition at both ISIs; however, phonological and semantic effects were absent. Typically developing children exhibited effects in the repetition at both ISIs. Semantic and phonological effects were absent at 500 ms ISIs, but present at 1,000 ms ISIs.

CONCLUSIONS

Although children with SLI have priming mechanisms similar to those of their age-matched peers, the absence of semantic and phonological priming suggests that these connections are not strong enough by themselves to yield priming effects. These findings are discussed in the context of semantic and phonological priming, representation, and generalized slowing.

Beyond capacity limitations II: effects of lexical processes on word recall in verbal working memory tasks in children with and without specific language impairment

PURPOSE

This study investigated the impact of lexical processes on target word recall in sentence span tasks in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI).

METHOD

Participants were 42 children (ages 8;2-12;3 [years;months]): 21 with SLI and 21 typically developing peers matched on age and nonverbal IQ. Children completed a sentence span task in which target words to be recalled varied in word frequency and neighborhood density. Two measures of lexical processes were examined: the number of nontarget competitor words activated during a gating task (lexical cohort competition) and word definitions.

RESULTS

Neighborhood density had no effect on word recall for either group. However, both groups recalled significantly more high- than low-frequency words. Lexical cohort competition and specificity of semantic representations accounted for unique variance in the number of target word recalled in the SLI and chronological age-matched (CA) groups combined.

CONCLUSIONS

Performance on verbal working memory span tasks for both SLI and CA children is influenced by word frequency, lexical cohorts, and semantic representations. Future studies need to examine the extent to which verbal working memory capacity is a cognitive construct independent of extant language knowledge representations.

Explaining lexical-semantic deficits in specific language impairment: the role of phonological similarity, phonological working memory, and lexical competition

PURPOSE

In this study, the authors investigated potential explanations for sparse lexical-semantic representations in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing peers. The role of auditory perception, phonological working memory, and lexical competition were investigated.

METHOD

Participants included 32 children (ages 8;5-12;3 [years;months]): Sixteen children with SLI and 16 typically developing age- and nonverbal IQ-matched peers (CA). Children's word definitions were investigated. The words to be defined were manipulated for phonological neighborhood density. Nonword repetition and two lexical competition measures were tested as predictors of word definition abilities.

RESULTS

Children with SLI gave word definitions with fewer content details than children in the CA group. Compared with the CA group, the definitions of children in the SLI group were not disproportionately impacted by phonological neighborhood density. Lexical competition was a significant unique predictor of children's word definitions, but nonword repetition was not.

CONCLUSIONS

Individual differences in richness of lexical semantic representations as well as differences between children with SLI and typically developing peers may-at least, in part-be explained by processes of competition. However, difficulty with auditory perception or phonological working memory does not fully explain difficulties in lexical semantics.

Object and action naming in children with specific language impairment

PURPOSE

In this study, the authors aimed to examine the accuracy, latency, and errors of noun (object) and verb (action) naming in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI) and to determine whether children with SLI have a particularly large noun-verb performance gap.

METHOD

Children with SLI, age-matched peers (AM), and expressive vocabulary-matched peers (VM) named 120 matched object and action pictures in a computerized confrontation naming task.

RESULTS

The SLI and VM groups demonstrated comparable naming latency and accuracy; both were slower and less accurate than the AM group. Object naming was more accurate than action naming in the SLI and VM groups; their noun-verb performance gaps were comparable. Object naming was faster than action naming in all children. In comparison with the AM group, the SLI group made proportionally fewer taxonomic errors and more omission errors when naming objects, and fewer misperception errors when naming actions.

CONCLUSIONS

The naming abilities of children with SLI, although deficient given their chronological age, are commensurate with their vocabulary level. Their naming errors suggest immaturities in semantic representation. Action naming is significantly more difficult than object naming, but the noun-verb gap that characterizes the performance of children with SLI is appropriate for their vocabulary level.

Syllable deletion in spontaneous speech of children with specific language impairment

BACKGROUND

syllable deletion (SD) frequently occurs in Specific Language Impairment and can indicate a deviant factor in the phonologic acquisition process of these subjects.

AIM

to verify the occurrence of SD in the spontaneous speech of children with SLI and to verify the influence of word extension and syllable stress in this process.

METHODS

participants were 27 children with SLI, aged between 3:0 and 5:11 years, in a weekly speech treatment, who presented 50% of correct answers in specific phonology assessment tasks or who presented speech intelligibility within levels that allowed assessment through spontaneous speech. Speech samples were obtained during a play interaction situation between the researcher and the child and through speech elicited by the presentation of a picture. The occurrence of SD was analyzed considering the following parameters: extension of the produced words, preference for stressed or unstressed syllables, position of the syllable within the word were SD occurred.

RESULTS

there was a preference for the production of dissyllabic words (X2 = 72,49; p < 0,001); the occurrence of SD was significantly higher in polysyllabic words (X2 = 11,22; p < 0,004) and on initial syllables (X2 = 34,99; p < 0,001). Unstressed syllables were more often reduced (Z= -5.79, p <0001).

CONCLUSION

the preference for the production of dissyllabic words reassures the difficulty of these children with complex syllabic structures and, in part, explains their spontaneous speech unintelligibility. The predominance of unstressed syllable deletion indicates the preference for producing the nucleus of words, where emphasis is given to the stressed syllable during language expression.

The role of phonotactic frequency in sentence repetition by children with specific language impairment

PURPOSE

Recent work suggests that specific language impairment (SLI) results from a primary deficit in phonological processing. This deficit is most striking in nonword repetition tasks, where semantic and syntactic demands are eliminated. Children with SLI repeat nonwords less accurately than do their unimpaired peers, which may reflect difficulty extracting phonological regularities from their lexicons. However, recent evidence suggests that having children with SLI respond to meaningless syllables such as nonwords underestimates their language abilities. Therefore, phonological processing was measured by having children repeat meaningful sentences containing target words differing in phonotactic pattern frequency (PPF).

METHOD

Eighteen children with SLI (mean age=9;0 [years;months]) and 18 age-matched controls repeated acoustically degraded sentences containing CVC target words differing in PPF, occurring in either subject position or sentence-final position.

RESULTS

Accuracy results revealed significant main effects due to group, PPF, and sentence position (sentence final>subject). Further, the nonsignificant Group×PPF interaction suggests that both groups of children were similarly affected by PPF.

CONCLUSION

Children with SLI repeated CVC target words less accurately overall but showed similar sensitivity to PPF as typical controls, suggesting that PPF affects repetition of real words embedded in sentential contexts by both children with SLI and typically developing peers.

Semantic abilities predict expressive lexicon in children with typical and atypical language development

In this study we used a semantic battery assessing the conceptual, lexical, and metacognitive level in semantic relationships to predict expressive lexicon in preschool children with typical and atypical language development. Our regression analyses showed that the tests of our semantic battery altogether accounted for 24% of variance in expressive lexicon after controlling for age and phonological short-term memory. The ability to memorize picture-cue/word pairs that were linked by taxonomic relations made a unique contribution to the expressive lexicon, and was a reliable marker of delayed expressive vocabulary in a group of children with specific language impairment.

Semantic representation and naming in children with specific language impairment

BACKGROUND

children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show lexical deficits as the first noticeable sign of such disorder, characterized as difficulties in lexical access during naming and speech tests. Studies that compare picture naming and drawings seem perfect to clarify lexical deficits.

AIM

to compare the performance of children with normal language development (NLD) to that of children with SLI in naming, drawing and definition tasks, aiming to explore the the quality of semantic representation of the lexicon.

METHOD

Two groups were involved in this study: the Control Group (CG), with no language disorders, composed by 40 subjects, and the Research Group (RG), with 20 subjects, all diagnosed with SLI, aging from five to seven years. Tasks of naming, picture drawing and definition were performed, using 20 different pictures. In the naming task, the types of errors were analyzed and sorted as follows: semantic, phonological, none specified and others. The analysis of the drawing and definition tasks was based only on the correct answers, semantic and none specified errors.

RESULTS

children of the RG presented a greater number of semantic errors in the picture naming task when compared to the CG. Besides that, definitions presented by the RG seemed more simple and incomplete even when the child was capable of naming the picture correctly. Drawings of correctly named objects were better than those that were named incorrectly.

CONCLUSIONS

it was possible to discriminate within SLI children those that present greater lexical deficits. It was also possible to explore the possible reasons for failures in naming tasks.

Verbal and nonverbal semantic processing in children with developmental language impairment

In an effort to clarify whether semantic integration is impaired in verbal and nonverbal auditory domains in children with developmental language impairment (a.k.a., LI and SLI), the present study obtained behavioral and neural responses to words and environmental sounds in children with language impairment and their typically developing age-matched controls (ages 7-15 years). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while children performed a forced-choice matching task on semantically matching and mismatching visual-auditory, picture-word and picture-environmental sound pairs. Behavioral accuracy and reaction time measures were similar for both groups of children, with environmental sounds eliciting more accurate responses than words. In picture-environmental sound trials, behavioral performance and the brain's response to semantic incongruency (i.e., the N400 effect) of the children with language impairment were comparable to those of their typically developing peers. However, in picture-word trials, children with LI tended to be less accurate than their controls and their N400 effect was significantly delayed in latency. Thus, the children with LI demonstrated a semantic integration deficit that was somewhat specific to the verbal domain. The particular finding of a delayed N400 effect is consistent with the storage deficit hypothesis of language impairment (Kail & Leonard, 1986) suggesting weakened and/or less efficient connections within the language networks of children with LI.

The utility of school-age narrative microstructure indices: INMIS and the proportion of restricted utterances

PURPOSE

This research investigated the applicability of the index of narrative microstructure (INMIS; L. M. Justice et al., 2006) system for narratives that were elicited through a wordless picture book context. In addition, the viability of an alternative, simpler metric was explored.

METHOD

Narrative transcripts using the Frog, Where Are You? (M. Mayer, 1969) wordless picture book with 48 school-age children with and without language impairment were analyzed using the INMIS productivity and complexity indices and a proportion of restricted utterances metric. Roy-Bargmann stepdown F calculations, effect sizes, confidence intervals, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were analyzed to examine the statistical and clinical significance of each narrative metric.

RESULTS

The INMIS complexity metric and the proportion of restricted utterances metric yielded statistically significant differences between the two language ability groups and are likely to have good potential as research and clinical tools within the wordless picture book narrative elicitation context. The INMIS productivity metric did not differentiate between the language groups.

CONCLUSION

The results support the use of the INMIS complexity metric in a wordless picture book elicitation context and introduce an alternative microstructure analysis metric, the proportion of restricted utterances, which uses a logically transparent scale and may meet research and clinical needs without requiring the use of specialized software or complex calculations.

Effects of onset- and rhyme-related distractors on phonological processing in children with specific language impairment

PURPOSE

This study used the cross-modal picture-word interference task of P. J. Brooks and B. MacWhinney (2000) to compare effects of phonologically related words on lexical access in children with specific language impairment (SLI).

METHOD

Children (7;1 [years;months]-11;2) named pictures while ignoring auditory distractors. Three stimulus asynchrony conditions varied the timing of distractors relative to the pictures. Experiment 1 presented onset-related (bell-bed), unrelated (clown-bed), neutral (go-bed), and identical (bed-bed) distractors. Experiment 2 presented rhyme-related instead of onset-related distractors (clock-sock).

RESULTS

Children with SLI produced longer reaction times (RTs) and more errors than their typical language development (TLD) peers. For children with SLI, onset-related distractors led to slower RTs than unrelated distractors (inhibition) when presented before the picture, and faster RTs (facilitation) when presented after the picture. Children with TLD showed facilitation from onset-related distractors when presented after the picture but no inhibition when presented before the picture. Both groups failed to show facilitation from rhyme-related distractors.

CONCLUSIONS

The priming effects from onset-related distractors and lack of effects from rhyme-related distractors in SLI supports "just-in-time" incremental processing, similar to children with TLD. However, children with SLI experience phonological interference from members of a lexical cohort while accessing words. Results are discussed with respect to observed word finding and word learning difficulties in SLI.

Lexical representations in children with SLI: evidence from a frequency-manipulated gating task

PURPOSE

This study investigated lexical representations of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing, chronological age-matched (CA) peers on a frequency-manipulated gating task. The study tested the hypothesis that children with SLI have holistic phonological representations of words, that is, that children with SLI would exhibit smaller effects of neighborhood density on gating durations than CA peers and that children with SLI would be as efficient as CA peers in accessing high-frequency words but that they would differ from their age-matched peers in accessing low-frequency words.

METHOD

Thirty-two children (ages 8;5-12;3 [years;months]) participated: 16 children with SLI and 16 typically developing peers matched on age and nonverbal IQ. Children's word guesses after different gating durations were investigated.

RESULTS

Contrary to predictions, no group differences in effects of distributional regularity were found: Children in both groups required equally longer acoustic chunks to access words that were low in frequency and came from dense neighborhoods. However, children with SLI appeared to vacillate between multiple word candidates at significantly later gates when compared with children in the CA group.

CONCLUSIONS

Children with SLI did not exhibit evidence for phonologically holistic lexical representations. Instead, they appeared more vulnerable to competing words.

Desempenho de crianças com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem em prova de vocabulário expressivo

OBJETIVO: obter o perfil de crianças com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem em prova de vocabulário expressivo, e verificar os tipos de desvios semânticos mais utilizados por elas. MÉTODOS: participaram do estudo 400 crianças com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem, entre três anos e seis anos. Foi aplicado protocolo de avaliação lexical com 100 itens. Para cada faixa etária, foi efetuado estudo estatístico, comparando-se as faixas etárias por meio de teste não paramétrico. RESULTADOS: as crianças de cinco e seis anos obtiveram desempenho semelhante e superior às crianças de três e quatro anos quanto ao número de itens nomeados, e o número de itens não nomeados aumentou conforme diminuiu a idade. Não houve diferença estatisticamente significante apenas entre as idades de cinco e seis anos quanto aos itens nomeados e não nomeados. O número total de desvios semânticos das crianças de três anos foi superior às de quatro, que por sua vez foi superior às de cinco e seis anos. Os desvios de maior ocorrência foram os de superextensão e por contigüidade, sendo que as crianças menores tiveram um número maior de ocorrência que as maiores nos dois tipos de desvio. A ocorrência dos desvios de proximidade morfológica, fonológica, antonísia, dêitico, perífrase e designação não verbal foram insignificantes. CONCLUSÃO: com o avanço da idade, maior foi o número de ocorrência do vocábulo esperado e quanto menor a idade, maior a ocorrência de itens não nomeados. Dentre os desvios semânticos, os de maior ocorrência foram superextensão e por relação de contigüidade.