L K Swank | Search PubMed

PubMed1999

Specific developmental disorders. The language-learning continuum.

The goal of this article is to inform and educate those who work with children who present with language-learning disorders about phonologic processing deficits, because this area has been shown to have a significant impact on children and adults who exhibit reading disabilities. Mental health professionals who work with children with reading problems need to be aware of what is known about this source of reading disorders and the implications of this knowledge for prevention and treatment. Advocating for appropriate instruction for children with reading problems is an important role mental health professionals can play in working with this population.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Quick Incidental Learning (QUIL) of words by school-age children with and without SLI.

This study examined Quick Incidental Learning (QUIL) of novel vocabulary by two groups of school-age children, those who were developing language normally and those who demonstrated a specific language impairment (SLI). The experimental items consisted of 20 words that referred to one of four semantic classes: object, attribute, action, and affective state. Videotaped stories were used to introduce the novel words, and word learning was measured by a picture-pointing task. For the normally developing children, the results documented a robust ability to learn words in the early school years. Comprehension gains were observed for all four word types, with the greatest gain made on the object labels. The children with SLI also demonstrated some word-learning ability, but their gain was significantly less than that of their normally developing peers. Although the general pattern of word effects was similar across the two groups, the children with SLI demonstrated a particularly low gain on words from the action class.

Age Factors↗