Language disorders in childhood and adolescence: implications for learning and socialization

Articulation Speaks to Executive Function: An Investigation in 4- to 6-Year-Olds

Executive function (EF) and language learning play a prominent role in early childhood development. Empirical research continues to point to a concurrent relation between these two faculties. What has been given little attention, however, is the association between EF and speech articulation abilities in children. This study investigated this relation in children aged 4-6 years. Significant correlations indicated that children with better EF [via parental report of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) inventory] exhibited stronger speech sound production abilities in the articulation of the "s" and "sh" sounds. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed that the Global Executive Composite (GEC) of EF as measured by the BRIEF, served as a predictor for speech sound proficiency and that speech sound proficiency served as a predictor for the GEC. Together, these results demonstrate the imbricated nature of EF and speech sound production while bearing theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical standpoint, the close link between EF and speech articulation may indicate a common ontogenetic pathway. From a practical perspective, the results suggest that children with speech difficulties could be at higher risk for EF deficits.

Do Adolescents With Specific Language Impairment Understand Driving Terminology?

Purpose

This study examined if adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI) understand driving vocabulary as well as their typically developing (TD) peers.

Method

A total of 16 adolescents with SLI and 16 TD comparison adolescents completed a receptive vocabulary task focused on driving terminology derived from statewide driver's manuals.

Results

The SLI group understood fewer driving-related terms when compared with the TD comparison group. Although both groups performed comparably in understanding simple noun driving terminology, the SLI group had greater difficulty comprehending compound noun and verb driving terms.

Discussion

The decreased understanding of terms found in driver's manuals for adolescents with SLI has implications for how they access necessary information for learning the driving rules, regulations, and procedures important for securing a driver's license.

Literacy as a Leisure Activity

Purpose: Literacy plays an important role in the development of language in school-age children and adolescents. For example, by reading a variety of books, magazines, and newspapers, students gain exposure to complex vocabulary, and reading becomes a prime opportunity for learning new words. Despite the importance of reading for lexical development, little is known about the pleasure reading habits of today’s youth. The first goal of this investigation was to examine the preferences of older children and young adolescents with respect to reading as a leisure-time activity and its relationship to other free-time options that are likely to compete for their attention. The second goal was to examine the amount of time that young people spend reading for pleasure each day and the types of materials they most enjoy reading. The third goal was to determine if preferences for free-time activities and reading materials would evince age- and gender-related differences during the period of development from late childhood through early adolescence (ages 11–15 years). The findings could serve as a reference point for understanding what is reasonable to expect of students during this age range.

Method: The participants were 100 sixth graders (mean age=11;7 [years;months]) and 100 ninth graders (mean age=14;8) attending public schools in western Oregon. Each group contained an equal number of boys and girls, all of whom spoke English as their primary language and were considered to be typical achievers. All participants completed a survey concerning their preferred free-time activities and reading materials. They also reported the average amount of time they spent reading for pleasure each day.

Results: The most popular free-time activities were listening to music/going to concerts, watching television or videos, playing sports, and playing computer or video games. Least preferred activities were cooking, running or walking, writing, and arts and crafts. Reading was moderately popular. The most popular reading materials were magazines, novels, and comics; least popular were plays, technical books, and newspapers. Interest in pleasure reading declined during this age range (11–15 years), and boys were more likely than girls to report that they spentno time reading for pleasure.

Clinical Implications: Given the importance of reading tolexical development in school-age children and adolescents, reading should be promoted as a leisure activity during these years. School-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs), in their role as language consultants, can benefit from understanding the pleasure-reading patterns of today’s youth. It is especially important for SLPs to monitor these patterns in students who have language disorders, as it is common for these young people to experience deficits in reading and in lexical development. Fortunately, much can be done in school settings to encourage strong literacy habits in all students if SLPs work collaboratively with teachers, principals, psychologists, librarians, parents, and students. Suggestions are offered for ways to encourage young people to spend more time reading for pleasure.

Is a Question a Question? Passage Understanding by Preadolescents With Learning Disabilities

This study explored the act of understanding and the ability to answer questions in response to an academic passage in 15 students with learning disabilities (LD), aged 9.4 to 13:4 (years:months). The response measures for subjects with LD were compared with those of academic achievers, matched for gender and age (age match), and younger academic achievers matched for gender and basic reading skills (grade 3), aged 8:10 to 9:11 (reading match). All were administered (a) a passage, Wind , presented in simultaneous spoken and read forms, (b) three Piagetian tasks (seriation, classification, and conservation of weights), and (c) the Matrix Analogies Test-EF The passage was associated with 15 questions, 3 each for the knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, and synthesis levels, based on Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom, 1956). Students with LD performed significantly poorer than the chronological age (CA)-match controls on the total set of questions and on Bloom’s lower- (knowledge, comprehension) and higher-level (application, analysis, synthesis) questions. They performed poorer than the CA- and reading-match groups on the comprehension questions and poorer than the CA-match groups on the synthesis questions. Responses to the knowledge, application, and analysis questions did not differ significantly. The findings suggest that individual assessment of levels of understanding and question answering (Bloom, 1956) may assist in planning intervention objectives and instructional strategies for students with LD.

Neurodevelopmental assessment of behaviorally disordered inner city boys

The purpose of this study was to assess the usefulness of a recently developed neurodevelopmental instrument (Pediatric Early Education Exam "PEEX") for evaluating inner city boys thought to be "hyperactive" by their teachers. Thirty-nine boys (age x = 102.5 months, sd = 11.9; IQ x = 98, sd = 10; 97%, black) were evaluated. No relationship was found between overflow movements and neurodevelopmental subtest performance, intelligence, or educational functioning. The development of laterality was positively related to success in reading (t = 2.21, p less than 0.05). A sentence-copying task was related to success in reading (r = .38 p less than 0.01). The ability to answer questions about complex sentences was related to mathematical success (r = .32 p less than 0.05). A task involving the ability to follow verbal directions proved most sensitive to educational, intellectual, and social functioning.