1
|
Ward L, Polišenská K, Bannard C. Sentence Repetition as a Diagnostic Tool for Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2024:1-31. [PMID: 38787301 DOI: 10.1044/2024_jslhr-23-00490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE This systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis examines the accuracy of sentence repetition (SR) tasks in distinguishing between typically developing (TD) children and children with developmental language disorder (DLD). It explores variation in the way that SR tasks are administered and/or evaluated and examines whether variability in the reported ability of SR to detect DLD is related to these differences. METHOD Four databases were searched to identify studies that had used an SR task on groups of monolingual children with DLD and TD children. Searches produced 3,459 articles, of which, after screening, 66 were included in the systematic review. A multilevel meta-analysis was then conducted using 46 of these studies. Multiple preregistered subgroup analyses were conducted in order to explore the sources of heterogeneity. RESULTS The systematic review found a great deal of methodological variation, with studies spanning 19 languages, 39 SR tasks, and four main methods of production scoring. There was also variation in study design, with different sampling (clinical and population sampling) and matching (age and language matching) methods. The overall meta-analysis found that, on average, TD children outperformed children with DLD on the SR tasks by 2.08 SDs. Subgroup analyses found that effect size only varied as a function of the matching method and language of the task. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that SR tasks can distinguish children with DLD from both age- and language-matched samples of TD children. The usefulness of SR appears robust to most kinds of task and study variation. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25864405.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leah Ward
- Division of Psychology, Communication and Human Neuroscience, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Kamila Polišenská
- Division of Psychology, Communication and Human Neuroscience, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom
- Department of Language and Communication Science, City University of London, United Kingdom
| | - Colin Bannard
- Department of Linguistics and English Language, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Huang TJ, Chang PH, Chiou HS, Hsu HJ. Nonlinguistic Cognitive Functions of Mandarin Speakers With Poststroke Aphasia. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2024; 33:756-773. [PMID: 38157289 DOI: 10.1044/2023_ajslp-23-00122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive functions of Mandarin speakers with poststroke aphasia and to investigate the relationship between nonlinguistic cognitive deficits and the severity of aphasia. METHOD Twenty-three adults with aphasia resulting from left-hemispheric stroke and 23 adults matched for age and educational level completed a series of six nonlinguistic cognitive tests measuring nonverbal intelligence, short-term memory, visual selective attention, visual alternating attention, auditory selective attention, and auditory alternating attention. A standardized aphasia assessment (Concise Chinese Aphasia Test [CCAT]) was also conducted to evaluate the severity of aphasia. Data analyses examined cognitive functions by comparing task performance of the two groups and examining the relationship between scores on the cognitive tasks and aphasia severity based on a hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS The aphasia group scored significantly lower than the control group on all nonlinguistic cognitive tasks with large effect sizes (d = 0.95 ~ 1.54). Significant associations between different nonlinguistic cognitive tasks and CCAT subtests were observed. Results from the hierarchical regression analysis showed that auditory alternating attention was the only factor that significantly predicted aphasia severity based on CCAT overall scores after age and education level were taken into account. CONCLUSIONS The findings align with prior research observing deficits in nonlinguistic cognition in individuals with aphasia. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tzu-Jung Huang
- Ph.D. Program in Education Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | | | - Hsinhuei Sheen Chiou
- Department of Speech, Hearing and Rehabilitation Services, Minnesota State University, Mankato
| | - Hsin-Jen Hsu
- Department of Special Education, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
- Research Center for Education and Mind Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Loutrari A, Alqadi A, Jiang C, Liu F. Exploring the role of singing, semantics, and amusia screening in speech-in-noise perception in musicians and non-musicians. Cogn Process 2024; 25:147-161. [PMID: 37851154 PMCID: PMC10827916 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-023-01165-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2023] [Accepted: 09/26/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023]
Abstract
Sentence repetition has been the focus of extensive psycholinguistic research. The notion that music training can bolster speech perception in adverse auditory conditions has been met with mixed results. In this work, we sought to gauge the effect of babble noise on immediate repetition of spoken and sung phrases of varying semantic content (expository, narrative, and anomalous), initially in 100 English-speaking monolinguals with and without music training. The two cohorts also completed some non-musical cognitive tests and the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA). When disregarding MBEA results, musicians were found to significantly outperform non-musicians in terms of overall repetition accuracy. Sung targets were recalled significantly better than spoken ones across groups in the presence of babble noise. Sung expository targets were recalled better than spoken expository ones, and semantically anomalous content was recalled more poorly in noise. Rerunning the analysis after eliminating thirteen participants who were diagnosed with amusia showed no significant group differences. This suggests that the notion of enhanced speech perception-in noise or otherwise-in musicians needs to be evaluated with caution. Musicianship aside, this study showed for the first time that sung targets presented in babble noise seem to be recalled better than spoken ones. We discuss the present design and the methodological approach of screening for amusia as factors which may partially account for some of the mixed results in the field.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ariadne Loutrari
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, WC1N 1PF, UK
| | - Aseel Alqadi
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK
| | - Cunmei Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Fang Liu
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Abd El-Raziq M. Morphosyntactic skills in Arabic-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from error patterns in the sentence repetition task. AUTISM & DEVELOPMENTAL LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENTS 2024; 9:23969415241234649. [PMID: 38616785 PMCID: PMC11015764 DOI: 10.1177/23969415241234649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
Background and aims Although autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has not traditionally been associated with morphosyntactic impairments, some children with ASD manifest significant difficulties in this domain. Sentence Repetition (SRep) tasks are highly reliable tools for detecting morphosyntactic impairment in different languages and across various populations, including children with ASD. This study is among the first to evaluate morphosyntactic abilities of Palestinian-Arabic (PA) speaking children using a PA SRep task. Methods A total of 142 PA-speaking children, aged 5-11, participated in the study: 75 children with typical language development (TLD) and 67 children with ASD. The PA SRep task targeted morphosyntactic structures of varying complexity (simple subject-verb-object [SVO] sentences, biclausal sentences, wh-questions, relative clauses). Children's accuracy scores were assessed across these structures and error patterns encompassing morphosyntactic and pragmatic aspects were analyzed. Results Two subgroups of ASD emerged: 43% showed age-appropriate language skills (ASD + NL) pairing up with TLD peers, while 57% showed signs of morphosyntactic impairment (ASD + LI). Children in both groups exhibited a higher frequency of morphosyntactic errors than pragmatic ones. Children with ASD + LI showed difficulties with producing complex morphosyntactic structures, such as relative clauses and object wh-questions. Error analysis revealed that children in the ASD + LI group produced sentence fragments and simplified constructions when complex structures were targeted. Conclusions The current study extends the cross-linguistic evidence of the heterogeneity of morphosyntactic profiles in children with ASD to Arabic-speaking children. Error analysis indicates that poor morphosyntax, rather than pragmatics, challenges children's performance on the SRep task. Implications Our results emphasize the importance of comprehensive language assessment in children with ASD and underscore the need for tailored intervention plans targeting impaired morphosyntactic structures in some children with ASD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Muna Abd El-Raziq
- Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Cerro NB, López-Villaseñor ML, Pascual IR, Altares SM. A Sentence Repetition Task in Spanish language: a valid tool for early language assessment. Codas 2023; 35:e20220164. [PMID: 37729255 PMCID: PMC10546988 DOI: 10.1590/2317-1782/20232022164en] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2022] [Accepted: 10/05/2022] [Indexed: 09/22/2023] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Sentence Repetition Tasks (SRT) have been widely used to assess early language abilities in different languages and populations. In addition, it has been proved that performance in SRTs serve as a clinical marker to detect language difficulties. However, most of the research has been conducted in English language and with children older than 4 years of age. Despite this scarcity, [1] developed a SRT for monolingual Spanish-speaking children between 2 and 4 years of age. Initial findings showed that it is a useful tool for discriminating children with different linguistic levels. In addition, the task showed concurrent validity with a nonword repetition task. In the current study we want to explore the predictive validity of this task. METHODS We conducted a longitudinal study including 20 monolingual Spanish-Speaking children who were tested twice, at 33 months of age and six months later. In addition to the SRT, participants completed a nonword repetition task [2] and the Spanish version of the Merrill-Palmer-R Developmental Scales [3]. RESULTS showed strong and positive relationships between the different tests when first assessed. We also found strong and predictive relationships between the SRT at time 1 and SRT and the Merrill-Palmer-R at time 2. CONCLUSION We conclude that the SRT developed [1] is a valid tool for examining early language abilities and its changes over time.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Natalia Bravo Cerro
- Departamento de Pedagogía, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Castilla la Mancha - UCLM - Talavera de la Reina, Toledo, España.
- Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia - UNED - Madrid, España.
| | - Miguel Lázaro López-Villaseñor
- Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Procesos Cognitivos y Logopedia, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid - UCM - Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, España.
| | - Irene Rujas Pascual
- Departamento de Investigación y Psicología en Educación, Universidad Complutense de Madrid - UCM - Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, España.
| | - Sonia Mariscal Altares
- Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia - UNED - Madrid, España.
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Fitton L, Goodrich JM, Thayer L, Pratt A, Luna R. Bilingual Vocabulary Assessment: Examining Single-Language, Conceptual, and Total Scoring Approaches. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:3486-3499. [PMID: 37541317 PMCID: PMC10558146 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2022] [Revised: 02/17/2023] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 08/06/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study explored approaches for measuring vocabulary among bilingual children with varying levels of proficiency in Spanish and English. METHOD One hundred fifteen kindergarten and first-grade Spanish-English-speaking children completed measures of vocabulary and sentence repetition in Spanish and English. Scores were derived from their responses to the vocabulary measure: Spanish-only vocabulary, English-only vocabulary, conceptual vocabulary, and total vocabulary. Best language sentence repetition was also obtained. Using both visualization of data and statistical analysis, we tested for potential associations between children's relative language skills in Spanish and English and the scores they received on each of the vocabulary metrics. RESULTS Participants' single-language vocabulary scores were linearly associated with their relative language scores. Higher relative Spanish language skills corresponded with higher Spanish-only vocabulary scores, and higher English language skills corresponded with higher English-only vocabulary scores. A quadratic association between children's relative language and their conceptual vocabulary scores was observed. Children with more balanced skills in Spanish and English received lower scores for conceptual vocabulary. No association between total vocabulary and relative language was observed. CONCLUSIONS Results revealed evidence of differential test bias for single-language vocabulary scores and conceptual vocabulary scores. Spanish-only vocabulary underestimated knowledge of participants with higher English proficiency, whereas English-only vocabulary underestimated knowledge of participants with higher Spanish proficiency. Conceptual scoring yielded lower values for participants with relatively balanced proficiency in Spanish and English. There is need for further consideration of score and test functioning across the full continuum of bilinguals with dynamic proficiencies in each of their languages. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23796330.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lisa Fitton
- Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia
| | - J. Marc Goodrich
- Department of Teaching, Learning & Culture, Texas A&M University, College Station
| | - Lauren Thayer
- Department of Teaching, Learning & Culture, Texas A&M University, College Station
| | - Amy Pratt
- Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Cincinnati, OH
| | - Rose Luna
- Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Bihovsky A, Ben-Shachar M, Meir N. Language abilities, not cognitive control, predict language mixing behavior in bilingual speakers with aphasia. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2023; 105:106367. [PMID: 37579674 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2022] [Revised: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 07/14/2023] [Indexed: 08/16/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Language Mixing (LM) occurs among neurotypical bilinguals as well as among bilingual persons with aphasia (BiPWAs). The current study aimed to investigate whether LM in BiPWAs stems from a linguistic impairment, an impairment in cognitive control, or both. METHOD Twenty Russian-Hebrew-speaking BiPWAs were split into two groups based on aphasia severity (Severe/Moderate vs. Mild). Frequencies and patterns of LM in narrative production by BiPWAs in L1-Russian and in L2-Hebrew were analyzed. To investigate the underlying mechanisms of LM, all participants completed linguistic background questionnaires, the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT) in both languages, and a battery of 10 cognitive tests. RESULTS The results indicated an effect of aphasia severity and an effect of language. Higher LM frequency was observed in BiPWAs with severe/moderate aphasia symptoms as compared to BiPWAs with mild symptoms. In both groups, higher LM frequency was observed in L2-Hebrew narratives, the weaker post-stroke language for most participants in the sample. The results also showed qualitative LM differences in L1-Russsian and L2-Hebrew contexts. In L1-Russian narratives, BiPWAs mainly switched to L2-Hebrew nouns, while in L2-Hebrew narratives, they mainly inserted L1-Russian discourse markers and function words. CONCLUSIONS Linguistic factors such as pre- and post-stroke self-rated language proficiency and level of language impairment due to aphasia were found to predict LM frequency in L1-Russian and in L2-Hebrew. Cognitive abilities did not predict LM frequency. Based on our findings, we suggest that LM behavior in BiPWAs might be primarily related to language skills in L1 and L2, rather than to cognitive control impairments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alina Bihovsky
- The Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; The Sheba Rehabilitation Hospital, Israel.
| | - Michal Ben-Shachar
- The Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; The Department of English Literature and Linguistics, The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Natalia Meir
- The Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; The Department of English Literature and Linguistics, The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Higashi S, Koshibe Y, Miyazaki T, Watanabe R, Nakanome H, Inoue T, Asada T, Arai T. Feasibility study of Internet video-based speech-language activity for outpatients with primary progressive aphasia. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0288468. [PMID: 37440500 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2022] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Primary progressive aphasia is a clinical dementia syndrome secondary to neurodegenerative disease characterized by language-related difficulties. Currently, there is no effective treatment for language impairment in primary progressive aphasia. In the present study, we investigated the feasibility of Internet video-based speech-language activities for this condition. METHODS Twenty-three people with primary progressive aphasia (pwPPA) participated in the study and were provided with twelve speech-language activity videos on a dedicated website, with three sessions per week. The group that chose to continue with participation after three months of intervention received Internet activities for one year. Cognitive domains associated with persistence, treatment motivation, and video difficulty settings were statistically analyzed. RESULTS After three months, 17 out of 23 participants opted to continue with the activities. The ability to follow oral commands which was measured pre intervention was higher in the group that continued compared with those participants who discontinued activity. The scores of two Standard Language Test of Aphasia subtests, sentence repetition and narrative writing-associated with the ability to comprehend and produce sentence structure-were highly correlated with motivation, interest and concentration in activity. Participants with different levels of primary progressive aphasia progression could participate in the same video-based activities when high-frequency words were used in the video. CONCLUSIONS Internet video-based speech-language activity at home has potential as a useful tool for future primary progressive aphasia treatment because it provides a cost-effective approach to intensive intervention and overcomes barriers associated with traditional therapy approaches.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shinji Higashi
- Department of Psychiatry, Ibaraki Medical Center, Tokyo Medical University, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Yuko Koshibe
- Department of Psychiatry, Ibaraki Medical Center, Tokyo Medical University, Ibaraki, Japan
- Memory Clinic Ochanomizu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- Division of Clinical Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Takehiro Miyazaki
- Department of Psychiatry, Ibaraki Medical Center, Tokyo Medical University, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Ryohei Watanabe
- Department of Psychiatry, Ibaraki Medical Center, Tokyo Medical University, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Hanako Nakanome
- Department of Psychiatry, Ibaraki Medical Center, Tokyo Medical University, Ibaraki, Japan
- Memory Clinic Ochanomizu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Takeshi Inoue
- Department of Psychiatry, Tokyo Medical University, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | | | - Tetsuaki Arai
- Division of Clinical Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Fiveash A, Ladányi E, Camici J, Chidiac K, Bush CT, Canette LH, Bedoin N, Gordon RL, Tillmann B. Regular rhythmic primes improve sentence repetition in children with developmental language disorder. NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING 2023; 8:23. [PMID: 37429839 PMCID: PMC10333339 DOI: 10.1038/s41539-023-00170-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2023] [Indexed: 07/12/2023]
Abstract
Recently reported links between rhythm and grammar processing have opened new perspectives for using rhythm in clinical interventions for children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Previous research using the rhythmic priming paradigm has shown improved performance on language tasks after regular rhythmic primes compared to control conditions. However, this research has been limited to effects of rhythmic priming on grammaticality judgments. The current study investigated whether regular rhythmic primes could also benefit sentence repetition, a task requiring proficiency in complex syntax-an area of difficultly for children with DLD. Regular rhythmic primes improved sentence repetition performance compared to irregular rhythmic primes in children with DLD and with typical development-an effect that did not occur with a non-linguistic control task. These findings suggest processing overlap for musical rhythm and linguistic syntax, with implications for the use of rhythmic stimulation for treatment of children with DLD in clinical research and practice.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Fiveash
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM U1028, F-69000, Lyon, France.
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France.
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
| | - Enikő Ladányi
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
| | - Julie Camici
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM U1028, F-69000, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Karen Chidiac
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM U1028, F-69000, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Catherine T Bush
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Laure-Hélène Canette
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM U1028, F-69000, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Nathalie Bedoin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM U1028, F-69000, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 2, Lyon, F-69000, France
| | - Reyna L Gordon
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM U1028, F-69000, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- Laboratory for Research on Learning and Development, LEAD - CNRS UMR5022, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Trau-Margalit A, Fostick L, Harel-Arbeli T, Nissanholtz-Gannot R, Taitelbaum-Swead R. Speech recognition in noise task among children and young-adults: a pupillometry study. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1188485. [PMID: 37425148 PMCID: PMC10328119 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1188485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2023] [Accepted: 06/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Children experience unique challenges when listening to speech in noisy environments. The present study used pupillometry, an established method for quantifying listening and cognitive effort, to detect temporal changes in pupil dilation during a speech-recognition-in-noise task among school-aged children and young adults. Methods Thirty school-aged children and 31 young adults listened to sentences amidst four-talker babble noise in two signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) conditions: high accuracy condition (+10 dB and + 6 dB, for children and adults, respectively) and low accuracy condition (+5 dB and + 2 dB, for children and adults, respectively). They were asked to repeat the sentences while pupil size was measured continuously during the task. Results During the auditory processing phase, both groups displayed pupil dilation; however, adults exhibited greater dilation than children, particularly in the low accuracy condition. In the second phase (retention), only children demonstrated increased pupil dilation, whereas adults consistently exhibited a decrease in pupil size. Additionally, the children's group showed increased pupil dilation during the response phase. Discussion Although adults and school-aged children produce similar behavioural scores, group differences in dilation patterns point that their underlying auditory processing differs. A second peak of pupil dilation among the children suggests that their cognitive effort during speech recognition in noise lasts longer than in adults, continuing past the first auditory processing peak dilation. These findings support effortful listening among children and highlight the need to identify and alleviate listening difficulties in school-aged children, to provide proper intervention strategies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Avital Trau-Margalit
- Department of Communication Disorders, Speech Perception and Listening Effort Lab in the Name of Prof. Mordechai Himelfarb, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
| | - Leah Fostick
- Department of Communication Disorders, Auditory Perception Lab in the Name of Laurent Levy, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
| | - Tami Harel-Arbeli
- Department of Gerontology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
- Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Reichman University, Herzliya, Israel
| | | | - Riki Taitelbaum-Swead
- Department of Communication Disorders, Speech Perception and Listening Effort Lab in the Name of Prof. Mordechai Himelfarb, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
- Meuhedet Health Services, Tel Aviv, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Baese-Berk MM, Levi SV, Van Engen KJ. Intelligibility as a measure of speech perception: Current approaches, challenges, and recommendations. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2023; 153:68. [PMID: 36732227 DOI: 10.1121/10.0016806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Accepted: 12/18/2022] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Intelligibility measures, which assess the number of words or phonemes a listener correctly transcribes or repeats, are commonly used metrics for speech perception research. While these measures have many benefits for researchers, they also come with a number of limitations. By pointing out the strengths and limitations of this approach, including how it fails to capture aspects of perception such as listening effort, this article argues that the role of intelligibility measures must be reconsidered in fields such as linguistics, communication disorders, and psychology. Recommendations for future work in this area are presented.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Susannah V Levi
- Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, New York, New York 10012, USA
| | - Kristin J Van Engen
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Smolak E, Helm JL, Patrucco-Nanchen T, Zesiger P, Friend M. Convergence and divergence in prediction from vocabulary and speed of word processing. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2022; 64:101249. [PMID: 36776150 PMCID: PMC9912382 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Toddler vocabulary knowledge and speed of word processing are associated with downstream language and cognition. Here, we investigate whether these associations differ across measures. At age two, 101 participants (55 monolingual French-speaking and 46 monolingual English-speaking children) completed a two-alternative forced choice task, yielding measures of decontextualized vocabulary (number of correct responses) and haptic speed of word processing (latency of correct responses). At ages three, four, and five children completed a battery of language assessments and an executive function task. Growth curve models revealed that age-two vocabulary significantly predicted age-three performance (but not growth from age three to four or four to five) across all language assessments but speed of processing did not predict language outcomes in final models. Finally, speed of processing was correlated with executive function at age three whereas vocabulary was not. Results suggest that vocabulary is associated with a range of downstream language abilities whereas haptic speed of processing may be associated with executive control.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Erin Smolak
- University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
- San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
| | - Jonathan Lee Helm
- San Diego State University, Center for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, 5500 Campanile Dr, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
| | | | - Pascal Zesiger
- University of Geneva, FPSE, rue du Général-Dufour, 24, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Margaret Friend
- San Diego State University, Center for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, 5500 Campanile Dr, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Stadtmiller E, Lindner K, Süss A, Gagarina N. Russian-German five-year-olds: What omissions in sentence repetition tell us about linguistic knowledge, memory skills and their interrelation. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2022; 49:869-896. [PMID: 34218821 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000921000325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
In error analyses using sentence repetition data, most authors focus on word types of omissions. The current study considers serial order in omission patterns independent of functional categories. Data was collected from Russian and German sentence repetition tasks performed by 53 five-year-old bilingual children. Number and positions of word omissions were analyzed. Serial order effects were found in both languages: medial errors made up the largest percentage of errors. Then, the position of omissions was compared to visuo-verbal n-back working memory and non-verbal visual forward short-term memory scores using stepwise hierarchical linear regression models, taking into account demographic variables and receptive language. The interaction differed between languages: there was a significant negative association between omissions in the medial position in German and the final position in Russian and the visuo-verbal n-back memory score. Our study contributes to the understanding of how working memory and language are intertwined in sentence repetition.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Assunta Süss
- Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin, Germany
| | | |
Collapse
|
14
|
Friesen DC, Ward O, Archibald LMD. Sentence Repetition Performance Differences in Bilingual and Monolingual Children. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:2948-2961. [PMID: 35858267 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-21-00596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study examined language group differences in English syntactic knowledge based on performance on a sentence repetition task. METHOD Fourth and sixth grade students who were monolinguals (n = 30), early bilinguals (i.e., simultaneous; n = 27), or late bilinguals (i.e., sequential; n = 29) completed an English sentence repetition task. Their responses were analyzed as a function of sentence length (short vs. long), sentence type (active vs. passive), phrase type (noun, verb, and prepositional), and word type (content vs. function). RESULTS Overall, early bilinguals' performance did not differ significantly from that of the monolinguals. However, these bilinguals recalled significantly more content words than function words on the long sentences. At each level of analysis, the late bilinguals' performance was less accurate than the other groups. The magnitude of these group differences was larger for passive sentences and prepositional phrases. CONCLUSION Findings highlight areas of syntactic development that differ among groups and should be targeted for additional instruction with English language learners in elementary school.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Deanna C Friesen
- Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Olivia Ward
- Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Lisa M D Archibald
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Soto-Corominas A, Daskalaki E, Paradis J, Winters-Difani M, Janaideh RA. Sources of variation at the onset of bilingualism: The differential effect of input factors, AOA, and cognitive skills on HL Arabic and L2 English syntax. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2022; 49:741-773. [PMID: 34034835 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000921000246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Despite growing research on individual differences in child bilinguals, few studies have focused on the development of syntax, included both languages, and studied newly arrived school-age migrant children. Accordingly, this study investigated the syntactic development of heritage language (HL) Syrian Arabic and L2 English by Syrian refugee children (N = 119) recently arrived in Canada using a sentence repetition task. Regression analyses showed that a partially overlapping set of child-level (input and cognitive skills) and language-level (syntactic structure) factors accounted for performance in each language. HL performance was particularly sensitive to language, cognitive, and input variables indexing cumulative HL exposure. L2 performance, however, was sensitive to cognitive and environmental variables indexing current and cumulative L2 use. Finally, despite stronger performance in Arabic than in English, results revealed interdependence between the two languages, indicating that participants with stronger syntactic abilities in their HL tended to have stronger syntactic abilities in their emerging L2.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Redab Al Janaideh
- Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Lum JAG, Clark GM, Bigelow FJ, Enticott PG. Resting state electroencephalography (EEG) correlates with children's language skills: Evidence from sentence repetition. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2022; 230:105137. [PMID: 35576738 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2021] [Revised: 05/02/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Spontaneous neural oscillatory activity reflects the brain's functional architecture and has previously been shown to correlate with perceptual, motor and executive skills. The current study used resting state electroencephalography to examine the relationship between spontaneous neural oscillatory activity and children's language skills. Participants in the study were 52 English-speaking children aged around 10-years. Language was assessed using a sentence repetition task. The main analysis revealed resting state theta power negatively correlated with this task. No significant correlations were found in the other studied frequency bands (delta, alpha, beta, gamma). As part of typical brain development, spontaneous theta power declines across childhood and adolescence. The negative correlation observed in this study may therefore be indicating children's language skills are related to the maturation of theta oscillations. More generally, the study provides further evidence that oscillatory activity in the developing brain, even at rest, is reliably associated with children's language skills.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jarrad A G Lum
- School of Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
| | - Gillian M Clark
- School of Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
| | - Felicity J Bigelow
- School of Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
| | - Peter G Enticott
- School of Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Wofford MC, Cano J, Goodrich JM, Fitton L. Tell or Retell? The Role of Task and Language in Spanish-English Narrative Microstructure Performance. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 2022; 53:511-531. [PMID: 35192374 DOI: 10.1044/2021_lshss-21-00055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE This study examined performance of dual language learners (DLLs) on Spanish- and English-language narrative story retells and unique tells. Transcription and analysis focused on comparisons of common microstructural language sample measures in Spanish and English across tasks. Each language sample measure was evaluated for its possible convergence with norm-referenced standardized assessments for DLL children. METHOD Spanish-English DLLs (N = 133) enrolled in English-only kindergarten or first-grade classrooms completed two-language sample tasks (one in each language), which were transcribed and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (Miller & Iglesias, 2017) for measures of syntactic complexity (mean length of utterance [MLU] in words), lexical diversity (number of different words [NDW]), and grammaticality (percent grammatical utterances [PGU]). Students also completed a norm-referenced sentence repetition task (Peña et al., 2014) and expressive vocabulary assessment (Martin, 2013). RESULTS Comparison of story retells and unique stories revealed similar performance on MLU, NDW, and PGU across elicitation techniques, with one exception: NDW in Spanish was higher in the story retell condition. Predictive models revealed several differences in the relations between the microstructure measures and norm-referenced language measures by elicitation technique, although neither context demonstrated a consistent advantage across all metrics. CONCLUSIONS Measures derived from story retells and unique tells offer practical findings for speech-language pathologists and other educators to use in assessment of early grade DLLs. This work increases knowledge of procedural differences across narrative assessments and their influence on language variables, supporting school-based speech-language pathologists in making assessment decisions for DLLs on their caseload. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19191278.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mary Claire Wofford
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
| | - Jessica Cano
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
| | - J Marc Goodrich
- Department of Teaching, Learning & Culture, Texas A&M University, College Station
| | - Lisa Fitton
- Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, University of South Carolina, Columbia
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Wang D, Zheng L, Lin Y, Zhang Y, Sheng L. Sentence Repetition as a Clinical Marker for Mandarin-Speaking Preschoolers With Developmental Language Disorder. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:1543-1560. [PMID: 35320679 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Sentence repetition (SR) is believed to be a clinical marker for developmental language disorder (DLD) across many languages. This study explored the potential of a self-designed Mandarin SR task (MSRT) to reflect Mandarin-speaking preschoolers' language ability and to differentiate children with and without DLD in this population. Furthermore, we aimed to compare five scoring systems for evaluating children's MSRT performance. METHOD In Study 1, the MSRT was administered to 59 typically developing (TD) children aged 3;6 (years;months) to 6;5 in China. The task was examined regarding its ability to correlate with language indices derived from children's narrative samples. In Study 2, both a TD and a DLD group were recruited to investigate the task's sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios to distinguish between children with and without DLD. RESULTS Study 1 showed that, using four of the five scoring methods, TD children's performance on the MSRT significantly correlated with all the language measures derived from narratives. Study 2 showed that the MSRT was able to differentiate children with and without DLD. CONCLUSION The MSRT is a promising tool to reflect language abilities and identify DLD in Mandarin-speaking preschoolers. Based on the current evidence, we recommend that researchers and clinicians select the number of errors in the syllable method or the binary method when scoring responses to meet their specific needs. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19386257.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Danyang Wang
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Delaware, Newark
| | - Li Zheng
- Nanjing Normal University, China
| | - Yuanyuan Lin
- Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China
| | - Yiwen Zhang
- Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China
- Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China
| | - Li Sheng
- Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, China
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Prentza A, Tafiadis D, Chondrogianni V, Tsimpli IM. Validation of a Greek Sentence Repetition Task with Typically Developing Monolingual and Bilingual Children. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH 2022; 51:373-395. [PMID: 35286538 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-022-09853-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/11/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
This study provides a preliminary validation of a Greek Sentence Repetition Task (SRT) with a sample of 110 monolingual and bilingual typically developing (TLD) children and examines the test's ability to distinguish between Greek monolingual children and age-matched Albanian-Greek bilinguals using a Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis. This is the first study to report on the psychometric evaluation of a Greek SRT and its discriminatory ability with typical populations. Since most language assessments are standardized with monolinguals and bilingual children tend to underperform on these compared to monolinguals, it is essential to establish the level of bilingual TLD children's ability on the same tests before moving on to diagnose language impairment in bilinguals. Results showed that the Greek SRT had very high validity and reliability scores, with Accuracy measures being more reliable than Grammaticality measures. The school-age monolingual and bilingual TLD children reached different cut-off scores on this task.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Prentza
- Department of Linguistics, School of Philology, Faculty of Philosophy, University Campus, 1186, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
| | - Dionysios Tafiadis
- Department of Speech & Language Therapy, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, University Campus, 1186, 45110, Ioannina, Greece
| | - Vasiliki Chondrogianni
- Department of Linguistics and English Language, School of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, Dugald Stewart Building, 3 Charles Street, EH8 9AD, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, University of Cambridge, English Faculty Building, Room TR-11, 9 West Road Cambridge, CB3 9DP, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Poulsen M, Nielsen JL, Vang Christensen R. Remembering sentences is not all about memory: Convergent and discriminant validity of syntactic knowledge and its relationship with reading comprehension. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2022; 49:349-365. [PMID: 33785087 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000921000210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Recent studies have found correlations between sentence-level tests and reading comprehension. However, the task demands of sentence-level tests are not well understood. The present study investigated syntactic knowledge as a construct by examining the convergent and discriminant validity of two sentence-level tasks, sentence comprehension and sentence repetition, designed to test syntactic knowledge and their relation with reading comprehension. Results from 86 Grade 6 students showed that the syntax tests were more highly correlated with each other than with tests of working memory and vocabulary. This suggests that the syntax measures tap into a set of skills that are at least partially separate from these other cognitive constructs. Furthermore, syntactic knowledge explained unique variance in reading comprehension beyond controls. The syntax tasks were working memory dependent, but working memory was not the primary reason why syntax tasks are correlated with reading comprehension.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mads Poulsen
- Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. E-mail: ; ;
| | - Jessie Leigh Nielsen
- Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. E-mail: ; ;
| | - Rikke Vang Christensen
- Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. E-mail: ; ;
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Grech H. The Association of Sentence Imitation with Other Language Domains in Bilingual Children. JOURNAL OF CHILD SCIENCE 2022. [DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1743528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThe association of sentence imitation with other language domains has been of interest to researchers and clinicians for decades. Sentence imitation taps both working memory and linguistic competence. Working memory refers to the ability to recall and manipulate linguistic information making sentence imitation a clinical marker for language ability. Meanwhile, research on the application of sentence imitation with bilingual language pairs is still emerging. This article reports a study on a large sample of Maltese children brought up in an early bilingual language acquisition context. It analyses correlations between a sentence imitation task, verbal comprehension, narrative (story retelling), phonological awareness, and two measures of a phonology test: percentage consonants correct and the inconsistency score. Data were collected from a total of 241 children, aged 24 to 72 months, who were selected randomly from the public birth register. The subtests administered were part of a test battery, namely, the Maltese–English Speech Assessment (MESA) and the Language Assessment for Maltese Children (LAMC). Correlations were calculated for the sentence imitation scores with specific language subtest scores; significant correlations were identified as well as with chronological age. Regression analysis indicated that the sentence imitation subtest of LAMC is a predictor for verbal comprehension and even stronger predictor for phonological awareness. It was concluded that performance on a sentence imitation task is a valid and reliable indication of Maltese bilingual children's language ability.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Helen Grech
- Department of Communication Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Taha J, Stojanovik V, Pagnamenta E. Sentence Repetition as a Clinical Marker of Developmental Language Disorder: Evidence From Arabic. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:4876-4899. [PMID: 34780284 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Research on the typical and impaired grammatical acquisition of Arabic is limited. This study systematically examined the morphosyntactic abilities of Arabic-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) using a novel sentence repetition task. The usefulness of the task as an indicator of DLD in Arabic was determined. METHOD A LITMUS (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings) sentence repetition task was developed in Palestinian Arabic (LITMUS-SR-PA-72) and administered to 30 children with DLD (M = 61.50 months, SD = 11.27) and 60 age-matched typically developing (TD) children (M = 63.85 months, SD = 10.16). The task targeted grammatical structures known to be problematic for Arabic-speaking children with DLD (language specific) and children with DLD across languages (language independent). Responses were scored using binary, error, and structural scoring methods. RESULTS Children with DLD scored below TD children on the LITMUS-SR-PA-72, in general, and in the repetition of language-specific and language-independent structures. The frequency of morphosyntactic errors was higher in the DLD group relative to the TD group. Despite the large similarity of the type of morphosyntactic errors between the two groups, some atypical errors were exclusively produced by the DLD group. The three scoring methods showed good diagnostic power in the discrimination between children with DLD and children without DLD. CONCLUSIONS Sentence repetition was an area of difficulty for Palestinian Arabic-speaking children with DLD. The DLD group demonstrated difficulties with language-specific and language-independent structures, particularly complex sentences with noncanonical word order. Most grammatical errors made by the DLD group resembled those of the TD group and were mostly omissions or substitutions of grammatical affixes or omissions of function words. SR appears to hold promise as a good indicator for the presence or absence of DLD in Arabic. Further validation of these findings using population-based studies is warranted. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16968043.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Juhayna Taha
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, United Kingdom
| | - Vesna Stojanovik
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, United Kingdom
| | - Emma Pagnamenta
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Brittain J, Rose Y. The development of preverbs in Northern East Cree: A longitudinal case study. FIRST LANGUAGE 2021; 41:376-405. [PMID: 35210669 PMCID: PMC8864667 DOI: 10.1177/0142723720969257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
This study is based on naturalistic speech samples produced by one child learning Cree as her first language (2;01-4;03) and presents the first investigation into the development of preverbs in the language. Preverbs are an optional class of morpheme which precede the lexical verb stem, dividing into grammatical, lexical and directional (deictic) subclasses. Of nine preverb types in the child's inventory, 47/48 tokens are grammatical. We argue that these appear early because they exhibit phonological transparency (do not alternate in form) and positional predictability (are restricted to preverb position). Lexical and directional preverbs, however, alternate in form and may appear in either preverb position or within the lexical stem. Furthermore, the child first began to use preverbs with the grammatically simpler independent (default) inflection (2;04), and 7 months later with the more syntactically restrictive conjunct inflection (2;11). She also used each preverb with one inflection type only, even where a choice of inflections was available, and she never produced more than one preverb per verb complex although multiple preverbs are common. In sum, grammatical complexity appears to be a driving factor in determining the child's development pattern.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Yvan Rose
- Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Özkan D, Baydar N. The roles of stimulating parenting and verbal development throughout early childhood in the development of mathematics skills. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
|
25
|
Morphosyntactic Development in First Generation Arabic—English Children: The Effect of Cognitive, Age, and Input Factors over Time and across Languages. LANGUAGES 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/languages6010051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
This longitudinal study examined morphosyntactic development in the heritage Arabic-L1 and English-L2 of first-generation Syrian refugee children (mean age = 9.5; range = 6–13) within their first three years in Canada. Morphosyntactic abilities were measured using sentence repetition tasks (SRTs) in English and Syrian Arabic that included diverse morphosyntactic structures. Direct measures of verbal and non-verbal cognitive skills were obtained, and a parent questionnaire provided the age at L2 acquisition onset (AOA) and input variables. We found the following: Dominance in the L1 was evident at both time periods, regardless of AOA, and growth in bilingual abilities was found over time. Cognitive skills accounted for substantial variance in SRT scores in both languages and at both times. An older AOA was associated with superior SRT scores at Time−1 for both languages, but at Time-2, older AOA only contributed to superior SRT scores in Arabic. Using the L2 with siblings gave a boost to English at Time−1 but had a negative effect on Arabic at Time-2. We conclude that first-generation children show strong heritage-L1 maintenance early on, and individual differences in cognitive skills have stable effects on morphosyntax in both languages over time, but age and input factors have differential effects on each language and over time.
Collapse
|
26
|
PoliŠenskÁ K, Chiat S, Szewczyk J, Twomey KE. Effects of semantic plausibility, syntactic complexity and n-gram frequency on children's sentence repetition. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2021; 48:261-284. [PMID: 32660666 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000920000306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Theories of language processing differ with respect to the role of abstract syntax and semantics vs surface-level lexical co-occurrence (n-gram) frequency. The contribution of each of these factors has been demonstrated in previous studies of children and adults, but none have investigated them jointly. This study evaluated the role of all three factors in a sentence repetition task performed by children aged 4-7 and 11-12 years. It was found that semantic plausibility benefitted performance in both age groups; syntactic complexity disadvantaged the younger group but benefitted the older group; while contrary to previous findings, n-gram frequency did not facilitate, and in a post-hoc analysis even hampered, performance. This new evidence suggests that n-gram frequency effects might be restricted to the highly constrained and frequent n-grams used in previous investigations, and that semantics and morphosyntax play a more powerful role than n-gram frequency, supporting the role of abstract linguistic knowledge in children's sentence processing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jakub Szewczyk
- Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | | |
Collapse
|
27
|
Salis C, Martin N, Reinert L. Sentence Recall in Latent and Anomic Aphasia: An Exploratory Study of Semantics and Syntax. Brain Sci 2021; 11:230. [PMID: 33673290 PMCID: PMC7917924 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11020230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2020] [Revised: 02/03/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated whether semantic plausibility and syntactic complexity affect immediate sentence recall in people with latent and anomic aphasia. To date, these factors have not been explored in these types of aphasia. As with previous studies of sentence recall, we measured accuracy of verbatim recall and uniquely real-time speech measures. The results showed that accuracy did not distinguish performance between latent aphasia and neurotypical controls. However, some of the real-time speech measures distinguished performance between people with latent aphasia and neurotypical controls. There was some evidence, though not pervasive, that semantic plausibility and syntactic complexity influenced recall performance. There were no interactions between semantic plausibility and syntactic complexity. The speed of preparation of responses was slower in latent aphasia than controls; it was also slower in anomic aphasia than both latent and control groups. It appears that processing speed as indexed by temporal speech measures may be differentially compromised in latent and anomic aphasia. However, semantic plausibility and syntactic complexity did not show clear patterns of performance among the groups. Notwithstanding the absence of interactions, we advance an explanation based on conceptual short-term memory as to why semantically implausible sentences are typically more erroneous and possibly also slower in recall.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christos Salis
- Speech & Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
| | - Nadine Martin
- Communication Sciences and Disorders, Eleanor M. Saffran Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadephia, PA 19122, USA; (N.M.); (L.R.)
| | - Laura Reinert
- Communication Sciences and Disorders, Eleanor M. Saffran Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadephia, PA 19122, USA; (N.M.); (L.R.)
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Andreou M, Tsimpli IM, Masoura E, Agathopoulou E. Cognitive Mechanisms of Monolingual and Bilingual Children in Monoliterate Educational Settings: Evidence From Sentence Repetition. Front Psychol 2021; 11:613992. [PMID: 33551924 PMCID: PMC7855031 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613992] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2020] [Accepted: 12/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Sentence repetition (SR) tasks have been extensively employed to assess bilingual children’s linguistic and cognitive resources. The present study examined whether monoliterate bilingual children differ from their monolingual (and monoliterate) peers in SR accuracy and cognitive tasks, and investigated links between vocabulary, updating, verbal and visuospatial working memory and SR performance in the same children. Participants were two groups of 35 children, 8–12 years of age: one group consisted of Albanian-Greek monoliterate bilingual children and the other of Greek monolingual children attending a monolingual-Greek educational setting. The findings demonstrate that the two groups performed similarly in the grammaticality scores of the SR. However, monolinguals outperformed the monoliterate bilinguals in SR accuracy, as well as in the visuospatial working memory and updating tasks. The findings did not indicate any bilingual advantage in cognitive performance. The results also demonstrate that updating and visuospatial working memory significantly predicted monolingual children’s SR accuracy scores, whereas Greek vocabulary predicted the performance of our monoliterate bilingual children in the same task. We attribute this outcome to the fact that monoliterate bilingual children do not rely on their fluid cognitive resources to perform the task, but instead rely on language proficiency (indicated by expressive vocabulary) while performing the SR.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maria Andreou
- Department of Philology, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.,Department of English, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Ianthi Maria Tsimpli
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Elvira Masoura
- Department of Developmental and School Psychology, School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Eleni Agathopoulou
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
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.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Filip Smolík
- Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | | |
Collapse
|
30
|
Theory of Mind, Executive Functions, and Syntax in Bilingual Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. LANGUAGES 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/languages5040067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Impairments in Theory of Mind (ToM) are a core feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ToM may be enhanced by various factors, including bilingualism, executive functions (EF), and complex syntax. This work investigates the language-cognition interface in ASD by exploring whether ToM can be enhanced by bilingualism, whether such ToM boosts would be due to EF or syntax, and whether routes to mentalizing would differ between bilinguals and monolinguals on the spectrum. Twenty-seven monolingual Greek-speaking and twenty-nine bilingual Albanian-Greek children with ASD were tested on ToM reasoning in verbal and low-verbal ToM tasks, an executive function 2-back task, and a sentence repetition task. Results revealed that bilingual children with ASD performed better than monolinguals with ASD in the low-verbal ToM and the 2-back tasks. In the sentence repetition task, bilinguals scored higher than monolinguals in complex sentences, and specifically in adverbials and relatives. Regarding the relations between ToM, EF, and sentence repetition, the monolingual group’s performance in the verbal ToM tasks was associated with complement syntax, whereas, for the bilingual children with ASD, performance in both verbal and low-verbal ToM tasks was associated with EF and adverbial clause repetition. The overall pattern of results suggests that mentalizing may follow distinct pathways across the two groups.
Collapse
|
31
|
Bogliotti C, Aksen H, Isel F. Language experience in LSF development: Behavioral evidence from a sentence repetition task. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0236729. [PMID: 33201887 PMCID: PMC7671551 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2020] [Accepted: 07/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In psycholinguistics and clinical linguistics, the Sentence Repetition Task (SRT) is known to be a valuable tool to screen general language abilities in both spoken and signed languages. This task enables users to reliably and quickly assess linguistic abilities at different levels of linguistic analysis such as phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax. To evaluate sign language proficiency in deaf children using French Sign Language (LSF), we designed a new SRT comprising 20 LSF sentences. The task was administered to a cohort of 62 children– 34 native signers (6;09–12 years) and 28 non-native signers (6;08–12;08 years)–in order to study their general linguistic development as a function of age of sign language acquisition (AOA) and chronological age (CA). Previously, a group of 10 adult native signers was also evaluated with this task. As expected, our results showed a significant effect of AOA, indicating that the native signers repeated more signs and were more accurate than non-native signers. A similar pattern of results was found for CA. Furthermore, native signers made fewer phonological errors (i.e., handshape, movement, and location) than non-native signers. Finally, as shown in previous sign language studies, handshape and movement proved to be the most difficult parameters to master regardless of AOA and CA. Taken together, our findings support the assumption that AOA is a crucial factor in the development of phonological skills regardless of language modality (spoken vs. signed). This study thus constitutes a first step toward a theoretical description of the developmental trajectory in LSF, a hitherto understudied language.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Bogliotti
- Laboratoire MODYCO CNRS & Paris Nanterre University, Nanterre, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Hatice Aksen
- Laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage CNRS & Saint Denis University, Paris, France
| | - Frédéric Isel
- Laboratoire MODYCO CNRS & Paris Nanterre University, Nanterre, France
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
A Sentence Repetition Task for Early Language Assessment in Spanish. SPANISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2020; 23:e39. [PMID: 33054889 DOI: 10.1017/sjp.2020.43] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Sentence repetition tasks have been widely used in the last years as a diagnostic tool in developmental language disorders. However in Spanish there are few (if any) of these instruments, especially for younger children. In this context, we develop a new Sentence Repetition Task for assessing language (morphosyntactic) abilities of very young Spanish children. A list of 33 sentences of different length and complexity was created and included in the task. A total of 130 typical developing children from 2 to 4 years of age were engaged in a play situation and asked to repeat the sentences. Children's answers were scored for accuracy at sentence and word level and error analysis at the word level was undertaken. Besides a subsample of 92 children completed a non-word repetition task. First results show its adequacy to children from 2 to 4 years of age, its capacity to discriminate between different developmental levels, and its concurrent validity with the nonword repetition task.
Collapse
|
33
|
Blom E, Boerma T. Do Children With Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) Have Difficulties With Interference Control, Visuospatial Working Memory, and Selective Attention? Developmental Patterns and the Role of Severity and Persistence of DLD. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2020; 63:3036-3050. [PMID: 32924889 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have weaknesses in executive functioning (EF), specifically in tasks testing interference control and working memory. It is unknown how EF develops in children with DLD, if EF abilities are related to DLD severity and persistence, and if EF weaknesses expand to selective attention. This study aimed to address these gaps. Method Data from 78 children with DLD and 39 typically developing (TD) children were collected at three times with 1-year intervals. At Time 1, the children were 5 or 6 years old. Flanker, Dot Matrix, and Sky Search tasks tested interference control, visuospatial working memory, and selective attention, respectively. DLD severity was based on children's language ability. DLD persistence was based on stability of the DLD diagnosis. Results Performance on all tasks improved in both groups. TD children outperformed children with DLD on interference control. No differences were found for visuospatial working memory and selective attention. An interference control gap between the DLD and TD groups emerged between Time 1 and Time 2. Severity and persistence of DLD were related to interference control and working memory; the impact on working memory was stronger. Selective attention was unrelated to DLD severity and persistence. Conclusions Age and DLD severity and persistence determine whether or not children with DLD show EF weaknesses. Interference control is most clearly impaired in children with DLD who are 6 years and older. Visuospatial working memory is impaired in children with severe and persistent DLD. Selective attention is spared.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Elma Blom
- Department of Special Education: Cognitive and Motor Disabilities, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
| | - Tessel Boerma
- Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Sze F, Wei MX, Lam D. Development of the Hong Kong Sign Language Sentence Repetition Test. JOURNAL OF DEAF STUDIES AND DEAF EDUCATION 2020; 25:298-317. [PMID: 32427328 DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enaa001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2019] [Revised: 01/14/2020] [Accepted: 01/30/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
This paper presents the design and development of the Hong Kong Sign Language-Sentence Repetition Test (HKSL-SRT). It will be argued that the test offers evidence of discriminability, reliability, as well as practicality and can serve as an effective global measurement of individuals' proficiency in HKSL. The full version of the test consists of 40 signed sentences of increasing length and complexity. Specifically, we will evaluate the manual and non-manual components of these sentences to find out whether and to what extent they can differentiate three groups of deaf signers, namely, native signers, early learners and late learners. Statistical analyses show that the test scores based on a correct repetition of the manual signs of each sentence bear a significant negative correlation with signers' age of acquisition. Including the correct repetition of non-manuals in the scoring scheme can result in higher reliability and separation index of the test in the Rasch model. This paper will also discuss how psychometric measures of Rasch analysis, including the concept of fit and the rankings of items/persons in the Wright map, have been applied to the original list of the 40 sentence items for the development of a shortened test.
Collapse
|
35
|
Pham G, Ebert KD. Diagnostic Accuracy of Sentence Repetition and Nonword Repetition for Developmental Language Disorder in Vietnamese. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2020; 63:1521-1536. [PMID: 32402221 PMCID: PMC7842123 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2019] [Revised: 01/28/2020] [Accepted: 02/14/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Sentence repetition and nonword repetition assess different aspects of the linguistic system, but both have been proposed as potential tools to identify children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Cross-linguistic investigation of diagnostic tools for DLD contributes to an understanding of the core features of the disorder. This study evaluated the effectiveness of these tools for the Vietnamese language. Method A total of 104 kindergartners (aged 5;2-6;2 [years;months]) living in Vietnam participated, of which 94 were classified as typically developing and 10 with DLD. Vietnamese sentence repetition and nonword repetition tasks were administered and scored using multiple scoring systems. Sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios were calculated to assess the ability of these tasks to identify DLD. Results All scoring systems on both tasks achieved adequate to excellent sensitivity or specificity, but not both. Binary scoring of sentence repetition achieved a perfect negative likelihood ratio, and binary scoring of nonword repetition approached a highly informative positive likelihood ratio. More detailed scoring systems for both tasks achieved moderately informative values for both negative and positive likelihood ratios. Conclusions Both sentence repetition and nonword repetition are valuable tools for identifying DLD in monolingual speakers of Vietnamese. Scoring systems that consider number of errors and are relatively simple (i.e., error scoring of sentence repetition and syllables scoring of nonword repetition) may be the most efficient and effective for identifying DLD. Further work to develop and refine these tasks can contribute to cross-linguistic knowledge of DLD as well as to clinical practice.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Giang Pham
- School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, CA
| | - Kerry Danahy Ebert
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
| |
Collapse
|
36
|
Matov J, Mensah F, Cook F, Reilly S, Dowell R. The development and validation of the Short Language Measure (SLaM): A brief measure of general language ability for children in their first year at school. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2020; 55:345-358. [PMID: 32043737 DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2018] [Revised: 12/06/2019] [Accepted: 12/19/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND There is no sufficiently accurate short-language measure that could be used by speech-language pathologists, teachers or paraprofessionals to screen young school-aged children to identify those requiring in-depth language evaluations. This may be due to poor development of the available measures, which have omitted crucial test development steps. Applying more stringent development procedures could result in a measure with sufficient accuracy. AIMS To create and validate a short-language measure that has acceptable accuracy, validity and reliability, and which can be used to identify children who require further assessment and/or referral to speech-language services. METHODS & PROCEDURES The study consisted of two phases. In Phase 1 (measure creation), 56 children were assessed with 160 direction-following and sentence-recall test items and a reference measure, the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition (CELF-4). Items were then examined for their individual characteristics (validity, reliability, difficulty and discrimination) via item analysis and the highest quality items were selected to form the Short Language Measure (SLaM). In Phase 2 (measure validation), 126 children were assessed with the SLaM and the reference measure (CELF-4) to determine SLaM's accuracy, validity and reliability. OUTCOMES & RESULTS A total of 40 test items were selected to form SLaM in Phase 1. Findings from Phase 2 indicated that SLaM had an accuracy of 94% (sensitivity = 94%, specificity = 93%), validity of 0.89 and reliability of 0.93. These values remained relatively consistent across both phases. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS The results indicated that SLaM has excellent psychometric properties. It can be used to identify children who need further evaluation by a speech-language pathologist. What this paper adds What is already known on this subject Prior research suggests that combining a direction-following and a sentence-recall task has sufficient discrimination accuracy and agreement with an omnibus language measure. Trialling a large set of direction-following and sentence-recall test items to select those with the highest individual characteristics could result in an effective short-language measure. What this paper adds to existing knowledge A short-language measure (SLaM) was created and validated on two independent samples of children. Items with the highest validities, reliabilities and discrimination capacities were selected to form SLaM. This procedure resulted in a measure with high validity and reliability that exceeded the criterion for adequate discrimination accuracy. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? SLaM is an effective measure that can accurately identify children who require detailed evaluations by speech-language pathologists.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Matov
- Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia
- Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Fiona Mensah
- Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Fallon Cook
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Sheena Reilly
- Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
- Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, QLD, Australia
| | - Richard Dowell
- Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia
- Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
37
|
Müsch K, Himberger K, Tan KM, Valiante TA, Honey CJ. Transformation of speech sequences in human sensorimotor circuits. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:3203-3213. [PMID: 31996476 PMCID: PMC7022155 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1910939117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
After we listen to a series of words, we can silently replay them in our mind. Does this mental replay involve a reactivation of our original perceptual dynamics? We recorded electrocorticographic (ECoG) activity across the lateral cerebral cortex as people heard and then mentally rehearsed spoken sentences. For each region, we tested whether silent rehearsal of sentences involved reactivation of sentence-specific representations established during perception or transformation to a distinct representation. In sensorimotor and premotor cortex, we observed reliable and temporally precise responses to speech; these patterns transformed to distinct sentence-specific representations during mental rehearsal. In contrast, we observed less reliable and less temporally precise responses in prefrontal and temporoparietal cortex; these higher-order representations, which were sensitive to sentence semantics, were shared across perception and rehearsal of the same sentence. The mental rehearsal of natural speech involves the transformation of stimulus-locked speech representations in sensorimotor and premotor cortex, combined with diffuse reactivation of higher-order semantic representations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kathrin Müsch
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218;
| | - Kevin Himberger
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218
| | - Kean Ming Tan
- Department of Statistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
| | - Taufik A Valiante
- Krembil Research Institute, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, ON M5T 2S8, Canada
| | - Christopher J Honey
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Silleresi S, Prévost P, Zebib R, Bonnet-Brilhault F, Conte D, Tuller L. Identifying Language and Cognitive Profiles in Children With ASD via a Cluster Analysis Exploration: Implications for the New ICD-11. Autism Res 2020; 13:1155-1167. [PMID: 31985169 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2019] [Revised: 10/08/2019] [Accepted: 01/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The new version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) mentions the existence of four different profiles in the verbal part of the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), describing them as combinations of either spared or impaired functional language and intellectual abilities. The aim of the present study was to put ASD heterogeneity to the forefront by exploring whether clear profiles related to language and intellectual abilities emerge when investigation is extended to the entire spectrum, focusing on verbal children. Our study proposed a systematic investigation of both language (specifically, structural language abilities) and intellectual abilities (specifically, nonverbal cognitive abilities) in 51 6- to 12-year-old verbal children with ASD based on explicitly motivated measures. For structural language abilities, sentence repetition and nonword repetition tasks were selected; for nonverbal cognitive abilities, we chose Raven's Progressive Matrices, as well as Matrix Reasoning and Block Design from the Wechsler Scales. An integrative approach based on cluster analyses revealed five distinct profiles. Among these five profiles, all four logically possible combinations of structural language and nonverbal abilities mentioned in the ICD-11 were detected. Three profiles emerged among children with normal language abilities and two emerged among language-impaired children. Crucially, the existence of discrepant profiles of abilities suggests that children with ASD can display impaired language in presence of spared nonverbal intelligence or spared language in the presence of impaired nonverbal intelligence, reinforcing the hypothesis of the existence of a separate language module in the brain. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1155-1167. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: The present work put Autism Spectrum Disorder heterogeneity to the forefront by exploring whether clear profiles related to language and cognitive abilities emerge when investigation is extended to the entire spectrum (focusing on verbal children). The use of explicitly motivated measures of both language and cognitive abilities and of an unsupervised machine learning approach, the cluster analysis, (a) confirmed the existence of all four logically possible profiles evoked in the new ICD-11, (b) evoked the existence of (at least) a fifth profile of language/cognitive abilities, and (c) reinforced the hypothesis of a language module in the brain.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Silleresi
- UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France.,Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Philippe Prévost
- UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| | - Racha Zebib
- UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| | | | - Donatello Conte
- Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale et Appliquée de Tours(LIFAT - EA 6300), Tours, France
| | - Laurice Tuller
- UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| |
Collapse
|
39
|
Erisman MC, Blom E. Reading outcomes in children with developmental language disorder: A person-centered approach. AUTISM & DEVELOPMENTAL LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENTS 2020; 5:2396941520979857. [PMID: 36381555 PMCID: PMC9620469 DOI: 10.1177/2396941520979857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS Many children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) develop reading difficulties. The purpose of this study is to better understand variation in the reading outcomes of children with DLD using a person-centered approach. METHOD 87 monolingual Dutch children diagnosed with DLD performed at ages 5 or 6 years nine tests of nonverbal IQ, oral language proficiency, phonological memory (PM) and executive functioning (EF). Two years later, the same children were tested on single (non-)word reading. Latent profile analyses were conducted to identify profiles based on oral language proficiency, phonological memory and executive functioning at age 5-6 years, which, in turn, were related to nonverbal IQ and to single-word reading two years later. RESULTS Four profiles were identified and labelled relative to their position within the DLD-sample: 1. Weak performance overall, 2. Strong EF-average language and PM, 3. Mild working memory (WM) deficiencies-average language and PM, 4. Strong development overall. Profiles 1 and 3 had below average nonverbal IQ scores and were associated with low word reading outcomes two years later. CONCLUSIONS Within the group of children with DLD, children with relatively weak oral language, phonological memory and executive functioning, or children with working memory deficiencies are most at risk for developing reading difficulties. The findings support a multiple risk framework and confirm that a person-centered approach is promising in predicting reading outcomes in DLD.Implications: Research into individual differences in DLD is dominated by variable-centered approaches. This study illustrates how a person-centered approach, which views variables as properties of individuals, captures variation in the DLD-population. Using this bottom-up approach, the study highlights how an individual's strengths and weaknesses across different developmental domains can be combined into profiles that relate to later reading outcomes. As such, it can provide an example for future DLD research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marja C Erisman
- Marja C Erisman, Faculty of Social and
Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS Utrecht, the
Netherlands.
| | | |
Collapse
|
40
|
Patrucco-Nanchen T, Friend M, Poulin-Dubois D, Zesiger P. Do early lexical skills predict language outcome at 3 years? A longitudinal study of French-speaking children. Infant Behav Dev 2019; 57:101379. [PMID: 31561147 PMCID: PMC6943201 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2018] [Revised: 07/12/2019] [Accepted: 09/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Early language development is considered critical for children's adjustment in school, for social adaptation and for later educational achievement. Despite the role of children's receptive skills as a foundation for later productive word use, receptive language skills have received surprisingly little attention. The present research extends recent work on the prediction of preschool language skills by exploring whether a decontextualized measure of lexical comprehension can account for unique variance in preschool language skills above and beyond parent report and how early such a prediction can be made. For this purpose, 65 French-speaking children have been tested at 16, 22, 29 and 36 months. The results of the current study suggest that up to the age of two, although parent reports of lexical comprehension and/or production account for a portion of variance in later receptive, productive or general language outcome, they have less predictive validity than a direct measure of early lexical comprehension. By contrast, after age two, parent reported vocabulary production is the strongest predictor of later language production skills.
Collapse
|
41
|
Hong T, Wang J, Zhang L, Zhang Y, Shu H, Li P. Age-sensitive associations of segmental and suprasegmental perception with sentence-level language skills in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2019; 93:103453. [PMID: 31421305 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2019.103453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2018] [Revised: 07/22/2019] [Accepted: 07/28/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM It remains unclear how recognition of segmental and suprasegmental phonemes contributes to sentence-level language processing skills in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs). Our study examined the influence of implantation age on the recognition of consonants, lexical tones and sentences respectively, and more importantly, the contribution of phonological skills to sentence repetition accuracy in Mandarin-speaking children with CIs. METHODS The participants were three groups of prelingually deaf children who received cochlear implants at various ages and their age-matched controls with normal hearing. Three tasks were administered to assess their consonant perception, lexical tone recognition and language skills in open-set sentence repetition. RESULTS Children with CIs lagged behind NH peers in all the three tests, and performances on segmental, suprasegmental and sentence-level processing were differentially modulated by implantation age. Furthermore, performances on recognition of consonants and lexical tones were significant predictors of sentence repetition accuracy in the children with CIs. CONCLUSION Overall, segmental and suprasegmental perception as well as sentence-level processing is impaired in Mandarin-speaking children with CIs compared with age-matched children with NH. In children with CIs recognition of segmental and suprasegmental phonemes at the lower level predicts sentence repetition accuracy at the higher level. More importantly, implantation age plays an important role in the development of phonological skills and higher-order language skills, suggesting that age-appropriate aural rehabilitation and speech intervention programs need to be developed in order to better help CI users who receive CIs at different ages.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tian Hong
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jiuju Wang
- Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Linjun Zhang
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Language Resources and College of Advanced Chinese Training, Beijing Language and Culture University, No.15 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China.
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences and Center for Neurobehavioral Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Hua Shu
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
| | - Ping Li
- Department of Psychology & Center for Brain, Behavior and Cognition, Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
42
|
Antonijevic-Elliott S, Lyons R, O' Malley MP, Meir N, Haman E, Banasik N, Carroll C, McMenamin R, Rodden M, Fitzmaurice Y. Language assessment of monolingual and multilingual children using non-word and sentence repetition tasks. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2019; 34:293-311. [PMID: 31291748 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2019.1637458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2019] [Revised: 06/16/2019] [Accepted: 06/25/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
The number of children speaking more than one language as well as the number of languages spoken in Ireland has increased significantly posing a problem for timely identification of children with language disorder. The current study aims to profile performance of monolingual and multilingual children on language processing tasks: non-word repetition (NWR) and sentence repetition (SR). We used: (1) Crosslinguistic (CL) and English Language-Specific (LS) NWR and (2) SR in English, Polish and Russian. Children's socioeconomic status, language emergence, the age of exposure (AoE) to English and the percentage of English spoken at home were recorded. The study included 88 children age 5-8 attending a school in a disadvantaged area.CL and LS NWR yielded similar distribution of scores for monolinguals and multilinguals. The tasks identified small number of children who performed significantly lower than the mean while there were no significant differences between the groups. In English SR, monolinguals significantly outperformed multilinguals. Comparison of SR in English and Polish/Russian indicated that some children showed balanced performance in both of their languages while others showed marked differences performing better in either Polish/Russian or English depending on their AoE to English and percentage of English spoken at home.The pilot study suggests that CL-NWR is a promising screening tool for identifying monolingual and multilingual children with language disorder while SR provides more detailed information on children's language performance relative to their language exposure. SR task is recommended to be used only if comparable tasks are available in all of children's languages.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Rena Lyons
- Discipline of Speech and Language Therapy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| | - Mary Pat O' Malley
- Discipline of Speech and Language Therapy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| | - Natalia Meir
- Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Ewa Haman
- Psycholinguistics Lab, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Natalia Banasik
- Institute for Psychology, Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Clare Carroll
- Discipline of Speech and Language Therapy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| | - Ruth McMenamin
- Discipline of Speech and Language Therapy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| | - Margaret Rodden
- Discipline of Speech and Language Therapy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| | - Yvonne Fitzmaurice
- Discipline of Speech and Language Therapy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| |
Collapse
|
43
|
Fitton L, Hoge R, Petscher Y, Wood C. Psychometric Evaluation of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment Sentence Repetition Task for Clinical Decision Making. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2019; 62:1906-1922. [PMID: 31145660 DOI: 10.1044/2019_jslhr-l-18-0354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study was (a) to examine the underlying components or factor structure of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA; Peña, Gutiérrez-Clellen, Iglesias, Goldstein, & Bedore, 2014 ) sentence repetition task and (b) to examine the relationship between Spanish-English speaking children's sentence repetition and vocabulary performance. Method Participants were 291 Spanish-English speaking children in kindergarten and 1st grade. Item analyses were used to evaluate the underlying factor structure for each language version of the sentence repetition tasks of the BESA. The tasks were then examined in relation to a measure of English receptive vocabulary. Results Bifactor models, which include a single underlying general factor and multiple specific factors, provided the best overall model fit for both the Spanish and English versions of the task. There was no relation between children's overall Spanish sentence repetition performance and their English vocabulary. However, children's pronoun, noun phrase, and verb phrase item scores in Spanish significantly predicted their English vocabulary scores. For English sentence repetition, both children's overall performance and their specific performance on the noun phrase items were predictors of their English vocabulary scores. Follow-up analyses revealed that, for the purposes of clinical assessment, the BESA sentence repetition tasks can be considered essentially unidimensional, lending support to the current scoring structure of the test. Conclusions Study findings suggest that sentence repetition tasks can provide insight into Spanish-English speaking children's vocabulary skills in addition to their morphosyntactic skills when used on a broad research scale. From a clinical assessment perspective, results indicate that the sentence repetition task has strong internal validity and support to the use of this measure in clinical practice.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lisa Fitton
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia
| | - Rachel Hoge
- Department of Communication Science and Disorders, Florida State University, Tallahassee
| | - Yaacov Petscher
- College of Social Work & the Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University, Tallahassee
| | - Carla Wood
- Department of Communication Science and Disorders, Florida State University, Tallahassee
| |
Collapse
|
44
|
Abed Ibrahim L, Fekete I. What Machine Learning Can Tell Us About the Role of Language Dominance in the Diagnostic Accuracy of German LITMUS Non-word and Sentence Repetition Tasks. Front Psychol 2019; 9:2757. [PMID: 30761060 PMCID: PMC6363680 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2018] [Accepted: 12/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study investigates the performance of 21 monolingual and 56 bilingual children aged 5;6-9;0 on German LITMUS-sentence-repetition (SRT; Hamann et al., 2013) and non-word-repetition-tasks (NWRT; Grimm et al., 2014), which were constructed in accordance with the LITMUS-principles (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings; Armon-Lotem et al., 2015). Both tasks incorporate phonologically and syntactically complex structures shown to be cross-linguistically challenging for children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and aim at minimizing bias against bilingual children while still being indicative of the presence of language impairment across language combinations (see Marinis and Armon-Lotem, 2015; for sentence-repetition; Chiat, 2015 for non-word-repetition). Given the great variability in bilingual language exposure and the potential effect of language experience on language performance in bilingual children, we examined whether background variables related to bilingualism, particularly, the degree language dominance as measured by relative amount of use and exposure, could compromise the diagnostic accuracy of the German LITMUS-SRT and NWRT. We further investigated whether a combination of the two tasks provides better diagnostic accuracy and helps avoid cases of misdiagnosis. To address this, we used an unsupervised machine learning algorithm, the Partitioning-Around-Medoids (PAM, Kaufman and Rousseeuw, 2009), for deriving a clinical category for the children as ± language-impaired based on their performance scores on SRT and NWRT (in isolation and combined) while withholding information about their clinical status based on standardized assessment in their first (home language, L1) and second language (societal language, L2). Subsequently, we calculated diagnostic accuracy and used regression analysis to investigate which background variables (age of onset, length of exposure, degree of language dominance, socio-economic-status, and risk factors for SLI) best explained clinical-group-membership yielded from the PAM-analysis based on the children's NWRT and SRT performance scores. Results show that although language-dominance clearly influences the performance of bilingual typically developing children, especially in the SRT, the diagnostic accuracy of the tools is not compromised by language dominance: while risk factors for SLI were significant predictors for clinical group membership in all models, language dominance did not contribute at all to explaining clinical cluster membership as typically developing or SLI based on any of the combinations of the SRT and NWRT variables. Additionally, results confirm that a combination of SRT scored by correct target structure and the structurally more complex language-dependent part of the NWRT yields better diagnostic accuracy than single measures and is only sensitive to risk factors for SLI and not to dominance levels or SES.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - István Fekete
- Department of Dutch, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
45
|
Silleresi S, Tuller L, Delage H, Durrleman S, Bonnet-Brilhault F, Malvy J, Prévost P. Sentence repetition and language impairment in French-speaking children with ASD. ON THE ACQUISITION OF THE SYNTAX OF ROMANCE 2018. [DOI: 10.1075/lald.62.11sil] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Silleresi
- UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours
| | - Laurie Tuller
- UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours
| | | | | | | | - Joëlle Malvy
- UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours
| | - Philippe Prévost
- UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
Rinaldi P, Caselli MC, Lucioli T, Lamano L, Volterra V. Sign Language Skills Assessed Through a Sentence Reproduction Task. JOURNAL OF DEAF STUDIES AND DEAF EDUCATION 2018; 23:408-421. [PMID: 29982547 DOI: 10.1093/deafed/eny021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2017] [Accepted: 06/04/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
The aim of this study is to analyze Italian Sign Language (LIS) linguistic skills in two groups of deaf signing children at different ages, and to compare their skills with those of a group of deaf signing adults. For this purpose, we developed a new Sentence Reproduction Task (SRT) for Italian Sign Language (LIS-SRT), which we administered to 33 participants. Participants' scores and type of errors were analyzed to investigate similarities and differences related to both chronological age and age of LIS acquisition. Results showed that signs tended to be omitted more frequently by the younger children than both the older children and adults and that non-manual components produced simultaneously with manual components appear to be the most difficult linguistic elements to be acquired and mastered. Our results are compared to those of previous studies using SRTs for other signed languages.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Pasquale Rinaldi
- Italian National Research Council, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies
| | | | - Tommaso Lucioli
- Italian National Research Council, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies
| | - Luca Lamano
- Italian National Research Council, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies
| | - Virginia Volterra
- Italian National Research Council, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies
| |
Collapse
|
47
|
Tuller L, Hamann C, Chilla S, Ferré S, Morin E, Prevost P, Dos Santos C, Abed Ibrahim L, Zebib R. Identifying language impairment in bilingual children in France and in Germany. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2018; 53:888-904. [PMID: 29790243 DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2017] [Revised: 04/19/2018] [Accepted: 04/20/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The detection of specific language impairment (SLI) in children growing up bilingually presents particular challenges for clinicians. Non-word repetition (NWR) and sentence repetition (SR) tasks have proven to be the most accurate diagnostic tools for monolingual populations, raising the question of the extent of their usefulness in different bilingual populations. AIMS To determine the diagnostic accuracy of NWR and SR tasks that incorporate phonological/syntactic complexity as discussed in recent linguistic theory. The tasks were developed as part of the Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) toolkit, in two different national settings, France and Germany, and investigated children with three different home languages: Arabic, Portuguese and Turkish. METHODS & PROCEDURES NWR and SR tasks developed in parallel were administered to 151 bilingual children, aged 5;6-8;11, in France and in Germany, to 64 children in speech-language therapy (SLT) and to 87 children not in SLT, whose first language (L1) was Arabic, Portuguese or Turkish. Children were also administered standardized language tests in each of their languages to determine likely clinical status (typical development (TD) or SLI), and parents responded to a questionnaire including questions about early and current language use (bilingualism factors) and early language development (risk factors for SLI). Monolingual controls included 47 TD children and 29 children with SLI. Results were subjected to inter-group comparisons, to diagnostic accuracy calculation, and to correlation and multiple regression analyses. OUTCOMES & RESULTS In accordance with previous studies, NWR and SR identified SLI in the monolingual children, yielding good to excellent diagnostic accuracy. Diagnostic accuracy in bilingual children was fair to good, generally distinguishing children likely to have SLI from children likely to have TD. Accuracy was necessarily linked to the determination of clinical status, which was based on standardized assessment in each of the child's languages. Positive early development, a composite risk factor for SLI, and not variables related to language exposure and use, generally emerged as the strongest predictor of performance on the two tasks, constituting additional, independent support for the efficacy of NWR and SR in identifying impairment in bilingual children. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS NWR and SR tasks informed by linguistic theory are appropriate for use as part of the diagnostic process for identifying language impairment in bilingual children for whom the language of assessment is different from the home language, in diverse sociolinguistic contexts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laurice Tuller
- UMR 1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| | | | | | - Sandrine Ferré
- UMR 1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| | - Eléonore Morin
- UMR 1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| | | | | | | | - Racha Zebib
- UMR 1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours, France
| |
Collapse
|
48
|
Novogrodsky R, Meir N, Michael R. Morphosyntactic abilities of toddlers with hearing impairment and normal hearing: evidence from a sentence-repetition task. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2018; 53:811-824. [PMID: 29635742 DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2017] [Revised: 03/06/2018] [Accepted: 03/10/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND While considerable research exists on morphosyntax of school-age children with hearing impairment (HI), little is known about development of morphosyntax at younger ages. Some studies show that young children with HI have a delay in language abilities compared with children with normal hearing (NH); conversely, other studies show evidence that they achieve age-appropriate language development. AIMS To investigate whether characteristics of morphosyntactic development displayed by young children with HI are unique or whether they are similar to those of NH children. METHODS & PROCEDURES Fifty-four Hebrew-speaking children (15 with HI and 39 with NH), aged 22-40 months, completed a novel Hebrew sentence repetition (SRep) task designed to evaluate morphosyntactic abilities. Accuracy on the total correct structure, repetition of content and function words, and repetition of specific morphemes were compared across groups. OUTCOMES & RESULTS At the earliest stages of combining words to sentences, toddlers in both groups showed a large variation in morphosyntactic development, with no significant difference between the two groups. Children with HI and NH showed similar results for the acquisition of morphemes and various syntactic structures. In the group of children with HI, hearing capability accounted for 28% of the variance of the SRep task. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS The findings suggest typical morphosyntax capacity at the onset of language development among of children with HI who are diagnosed early and receive intensive intervention.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rama Novogrodsky
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Natalia Meir
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Rachel Michael
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
49
|
Matov J, Mensah F, Cook F, Reilly S. Investigation of the language tasks to include in a short-language measure for children in the early school years. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2018; 53:735-747. [PMID: 29457324 DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2017] [Revised: 01/19/2018] [Accepted: 01/23/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The inaccurate estimation of language difficulties by teachers suggests the benefit of a short-language measure that could be used to support their decisions about who requires referral to a speech-language therapist. While the literature indicates the potential for the development of a short-language measure, evidence is lacking about which combination of language tasks it should include. AIMS To understand the number and nature of components/language tasks that should be included in a short-language measure for children in the early school years. METHODS & PROCEDURES Eight language tasks were administered to participants of the Early Language in Victoria Study (ELVS) at ages 5 (n = 995) and 7 (n = 1217). These included six language tasks measured by an omnibus language measure (which comprised a direction-following, morphological-completion, sentence-recall, sentence-formation, syntactic-understanding and word-association task) and a non-word repetition and a receptive vocabulary task, measured by two task-specific language measures. Scores were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA), the Bland and Altman method, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. OUTCOMES & RESULTS PCA revealed one main component of language that was assessed by all language tasks. The most effective combination of two tasks that measured this component was a direction-following and a sentence-recall task. It showed the greatest agreement with an omnibus language measure and exceeded the criterion for good discriminant accuracy (sensitivity = 94%, specificity = 91%, accuracy = 91%, at 1 SD (standard deviation) below the mean). CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS Findings support the combination of a direction-following and a sentence-recall task to assess language ability effectively in the early school years. The results could justify the future production of a novel short-language measure comprising a direction-following and a sentence-recall task to use as a screening tool in schools and to assess language ability in research participants.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Matov
- Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Fiona Mensah
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Fallon Cook
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Sheena Reilly
- Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Southport, QLD, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
50
|
Magimairaj BM, Nagaraj NK, Benafield NJ. Children's Speech Perception in Noise: Evidence for Dissociation From Language and Working Memory. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2018; 61:1294-1305. [PMID: 29800354 DOI: 10.1044/2018_jslhr-h-17-0312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2017] [Accepted: 01/12/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE We examined the association between speech perception in noise (SPIN), language abilities, and working memory (WM) capacity in school-age children. Existing studies supporting the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model suggest that WM capacity plays a significant role in adverse listening situations. METHOD Eighty-three children between the ages of 7 to 11 years participated. The sample represented a continuum of individual differences in attention, memory, and language abilities. All children had normal-range hearing and normal-range nonverbal IQ. Children completed the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech-in-Noise Test (BKB-SIN; Etymotic Research, 2005), a selective auditory attention task, and multiple measures of language and WM. RESULTS Partial correlations (controlling for age) showed significant positive associations among attention, memory, and language measures. However, BKB-SIN did not correlate significantly with any of the other measures. Principal component analysis revealed a distinct WM factor and a distinct language factor. BKB-SIN loaded robustly as a distinct 3rd factor with minimal secondary loading from sentence recall and short-term memory. Nonverbal IQ loaded as a 4th factor. CONCLUSIONS Results did not support an association between SPIN and WM capacity in children. However, in this study, a single SPIN measure was used. Future studies using multiple SPIN measures are warranted. Evidence from the current study supports the use of BKB-SIN as clinical measure of speech perception ability because it was not influenced by variation in children's language and memory abilities. More large-scale studies in school-age children are needed to replicate the proposed role played by WM in adverse listening situations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Beula M Magimairaj
- Cognition and Language Lab, Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Central Arkansas, Conway
| | - Naveen K Nagaraj
- Cognitive Hearing Science Lab, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences/University of Arkansas at Little Rock
| | - Natalie J Benafield
- Cognition and Language Lab, Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Central Arkansas, Conway
| |
Collapse
|