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PubMed1996

Consonant-vowel interdependencies in babbling and early words: preliminary examination of a locus equation approach.

Consonant-vowel productions at two distinct stages of language development were studied in a single female child. At 12 months canonical babbling syllables (N = 144) identified by a panel of listeners as comprising [bV], [dV], and [gv] tokens were acoustically analyzed by measuring F2 transition onset and F2 midvowel frequencies and plotting their relationship as locus equations for each stop category. A regression analysis performed on these scatterplots revealed differential slopes and y-intercepts as a function of stop place. The same analysis was performed 9 months later on CV utterances (N = 243) produced as syllable-initial segments of real words by the same child. Whereas labial and velar locus equation parameters moved toward more adult-like values, alveolar slope and y-intercept moved away from adult values and more in the direction of decreased coarticulation between vowel and consonant. There was greater scatter of data points around the regression line for production of words compared to babbling. These results are compared to locus equations obtained from 3-5-year-olds and adults. Locus equations appear to be useful as an empirical developmental probe to document how CV productions gradually approach adult categorical standards.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗
PubMed1999

A comparison of language achievement in children with cochlear implants and children using hearing aids.

English language achievement of 29 prelingually deaf children with 3 or more years of cochlear implant (CI) experience was compared to the achievement levels of prelingually deaf children who did not have such CI experience. Language achievement was measured by the Rhode Island Test of Language Structure (RITLS), a measure of signed and spoken sentence comprehension, and the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn), a measure of expressive (signed and spoken) English grammar. When the CI users were compared with their deaf age mates who contributed to the norms of the RITLS, it was found that CI users achieved significantly better scores. Likewise, we found that CI users performed better than 29 deaf children who used hearing aids (HAs) with respect to English grammar achievement as indexed by the IPSyn. Additionally, we found that chronological age highly correlated with IPSyn levels only among the non-CI users, whereas length of CI experience was significantly correlated with IPSyn scores for CI users. Finally, clear differences between those with and without CI experience were found by 2 years of post-implant experience. These data provide evidence that children who receive CIs benefit in the form of improved English language comprehension and production.

Achievement↗
PubMed2000

The effects of inflectional variation on fast mapping of verbs in English and Spanish.

To use morphological cues for syntactic bootstrapping, children must recognize that inflectionally varying words (e.g., pushes, pushed) are instances of the same word. Children who are exposed to languages with richer inflectional morphologies than English, such as Spanish, encounter instances of inflectional variation more often. Thus they may learn to recognize inflectionally varying words as instances of the same word at an earlier age than do learners of English. English-and Spanish-learning 3-year olds were taught novel verbs in a fast mapping task under two conditions: no-inflectional variation in which inflections did not vary between exposure and testing (e.g., neps, neps) and inflectional variation in which inflections alternated between exposure and testing (e.g., neps, nepped). Children's scores were significantly higher in the no-variation condition than in the variation condition. There were no significant differences between the performance of the language groups. These findings suggest that even children acquiring languages with relatively rich verbal inflection paradigms may not be able to consistently parse stems and inflections to associate inflectionally varying forms.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2000

General language performance measures in spoken and written narrative and expository discourse of school-age children with language learning disabilities.

Language performance in naturalistic contexts can be characterized by general measures of productivity, fluency, lexical diversity, and grammatical complexity and accuracy. The use of such measures as indices of language impairment in older children is open to questions of method and interpretation. This study evaluated the extent to which 10 general language performance measures (GLPM) differentiated school-age children with language learning disabilities (LLD) from chronological-age (CA) and language-age (LA) peers. Children produced both spoken and written summaries of two educational videotapes that provided models of either narrative or expository (informational) discourse. Productivity measures, including total T-units, total words, and words per minute, were significantly lower for children with LLD than for CA children. Fluency (percent T-units with mazes) and lexical diversity (number of different words) measures were similar for all children. Grammatical complexity as measured by words per T-unit was significantly lower for LLD children. However, there was no difference among groups for clauses per T-unit. The only measure that distinguished children with LLD from both CA and LA peers was the extent of grammatical error. Effects of discourse genre and modality were consistent across groups. Compared to narratives, expository summaries were shorter, less fluent (spoken versions), more complex (words per T-unit), and more error prone. Written summaries were shorter and had more errors than spoken versions. For many LLD and LA children, expository writing was exceedingly difficult. Implications for accounts of language impairment in older children are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed2000

Specific language impairment in Swedish: the status of verb morphology and word order.

Several competing proposals have been offered to explain the grammatical difficulties experienced by children with specific language impairment (SLI). In this study, the grammatical abilities of Swedish-speaking children with SLI were examined for the purpose of evaluating these proposals and offering new findings that might be used in the development of alternative accounts. A group of preschoolers with SLI showed lower percentages of use of present tense copula forms and regular past tense inflections than normally developing peers matched for age and younger normally developing children matched for mean length of utterance (MLU). Word order errors, too, were more frequent in the speech of the children with SLI. However, these children performed as well as MLU-matched children in the use of present tense inflections and irregular past forms. In addition, the majority of their sentences containing word order errors showed appropriate use of verb morphology. None of the competing accounts of SLI could accommodate all of the findings. In particular, these accounts--or new alternatives-must develop provisions to explain both the earlier acquisition of present tense inflections than past tense inflections and word order errors that seem unrelated to verb morphology.

Child Language↗
PubMed2000

Verb and noun morphology in the spoken and written language of children with language learning disabilities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of verb and noun morphology in school-age children's spoken and written language. Sixty children, with and without language learning disabilities (LLD), each produced 2 spoken and 2 written language samples. The children's accuracy in using morphemes that mark verb finiteness (regular past tense, 3rd person singular present tense, copula, and auxiliary BE) was compared with their accuracy in using noun morphology (regular plural, possessive, articles). As would be expected, the typically achieving children, who were aged 7 to 12 years, had mastered the verb and noun morphology in spoken and written samples. The children with LLD, aged 10 to 12 years, also showed high accuracy in the spoken samples. On the other hand, they showed substantial difficulty in the written samples with the regular past tense, with errors in 26% of obligatory contexts. However, the children with LLD also had difficulty with the regular plural, with errors in 12% of obligatory contexts. For both the regular past tense and plural, all errors were errors of omission. These results indicate that finiteness marking remains an area of relative difficulty, but perhaps not the only grammatical difficulty, for children with language impairments in the school years.

Child↗
PubMed1995

Young children's behavioural responses to acute pain: strategies for getting better.

Behavioural responses of hospitalized young children in acute pain were examined and described. Eleven children, aged 24-79 months, who experienced acute pain in response to surgical intervention, and their parents, participated in the study. A qualitative, naturalistic methodology was used. Participant observation and child and parent interviews were the primary data collection methods. The constant comparative method of data analysis was employed to identify beginning behavioural response categories. Findings revealed that the children used the process of 'getting better' in response to pain. This process involved three strategies: 'hiding away', 'fighting it' and 'making it good'. Each of these strategies was characterized by specific behaviours. The more pain the children experienced, the more frequently these strategies were employed. Recommendations specific to assessing behavioural responses in young children experiencing acute pain are offered.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed2002

Word-length effect in verbal short-term memory in individuals with Down's syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Many studies have indicated that individuals with Down's syndrome (DS) show a specific deficit in short-term memory for verbal information. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of the length of words on verbal short-term memory in individuals with DS. METHODS: Twenty-eight children with DS and 10 control participants matched for memory span were tested on verbal serial recall and speech rate, which are thought to involve rehearsal and output speed. RESULTS: Although a significant word-length effect was observed in both groups for the recall of a larger number of items with a shorter spoken duration than for those with a longer spoken duration, the number of correct recalls in the group with DS was reduced compared to the control subjects. The results demonstrating poor short-term memory in children with DS were irrelevant to speech rate. In addition, the proportion of repetition-gained errors in serial recall was higher in children with DS than in control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that poor access to long-term lexical knowledge, rather than overt articulation speed, constrains verbal short-term memory functions in individuals with DS.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Language development and emergent literacy in preschool.

To promote school readiness, preschool and Head Start teachers are incorporating more emergent literacy activities into their curriculum. This article argues that emergent literacy is subordinate to oral language development, rather than language development being subordinate to emergent literacy. Literature on components of emergent literacy is reviewed and a framework for a preschool curriculum that promotes oral language development and emergent literacy is presented. The article concludes with the recommendation that phonologic sensitivity and letter knowledge be taught in developmentally appropriate ways within the context of a language-rich preschool environment that specifically targets vocabulary enrichment.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2000

All children are ready to learn: an emergent versus readiness perspective in early literacy assessment.

Assessment of emergent literacy is relatively new to the field of communication disorders. Traditional approaches to reading assessment evaluated mastery of reading readiness skills. By contrast, emergent literacy assessment evaluates the increased awareness and understanding of print that begin early in development. One of the most influential figures in emergent literacy assessment has been Marie M. Clay. She has defined critical components of emergent literacy and, in so doing, has played an integral role in the paradigm shift from a reading readiness to an emergent literacy perspective. This article is intended to distinguish emergent literacy from reading readiness, explicate Marie Clay's contribution to our current understanding of effective emergent literacy assessment, and provide some guidance in using her assessment techniques with children with significant disabilities.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2000

Assessing socially situated participation: a way of integrating communication and social assessment approaches.

We have long treated communication and social assessment as related but separate domains. Theorizing by George Herbert Mead on "the social self" offers an alternative to this conceptual separation and a means of evaluating children's social interaction, social participation, and communication simultaneously. This article describes Mead's thinking and presents a framework for assessing children's social reciprocity, interactive stances, and role participation as they participate in everyday life contexts.

Child↗
PubMed2000

Dynamic assessment: an approach to assessing children's language-learning potential.

Dynamic assessment represents an alternative approach to traditional language assessments. In dynamic assessment, the examiner attempts to assess the child's potential for language change or modifiability. This article discusses the development of this approach from its early psychological applications to current models of dynamic assessment as they apply to the assessment of child language. Dynamic assessment is particularly useful in addressing cultural differences that may influence children's assessment performance. The approach involves a test-teach-retest paradigm that includes mediated learning experiences, measures of test score gains, ratings of modifiability and language-learning strategies, as well as analyses of qualitative changes in children's responses.

Child↗
PubMed2001

Spelling and the speech-language pathologist: there's more than meets the eye.

Interest in spelling and spelling difficulties has increased in recent years. Like reading, spelling is no longer viewed as a strictly visual process. Rather, the language basis of spelling is evident in the phonological, orthographic, morphological, and even syntactic knowledge required to be a good speller. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have expertise in basic language processes that enable them to play an important role in assessment and intervention for spelling problems. Underscoring the importance of this effort are the serious social and vocational consequences attached to poor spelling and the intractable nature of spelling problems. This article reviews information about spelling-language connections, the nature of spelling problems, and assessment and intervention principles or procedures that represent best practices based on current spelling research. Implications for SLPs working with students who have spelling difficulties are suggested throughout.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Phonemic carryover perseveration: word blends.

This article will outline and describe the aphasic disorder of recurrent perseveration and will demonstrate how it interacts with the retrieval and production of spoken words in the language of fluent aphasic patients who have sustained damage to the left (dominant) posterior temporoparietal lobe. We will concentrate on the various kinds of sublexical segmental perseverations (the so-called phonemic carryovers of Santo Pietro and Rigrodsky) that most often play a role in the generation of word blendings. We will show how perseverative blends allow the clinician to better understand the dynamics of word and syllable production in fluent aphasia by scrutinizing the "onset/rime" and "onset/superrime" constituents of monosyllabic and polysyllabic words, respectively. We will demonstrate to the speech language pathologist the importance of the trochee stress pattern and the possibility that its metrical template may constitute a structural unit that can be perseverated.

Aphasia↗
PubMed2005

Does my identity speak English? A pragmatic approach to the social world of an English language learner with language impairment.

The case description provides a comprehensive picture of the complex social and linguistic factors that shape the social identity of an English language learner with the additional challenge of language impairment (LI). These issues were explored over 6 months with Fernando, an 8-year-old, Spanish-speaking male with LI in grade 3. A pragmatic, or practical, approach to problem solving was developed for two purposes: first, to obtain a multifaceted understanding of Fernando's world at school, and second, to arrive at possible educational/clinical solutions that met a standard of cultural appropriateness and practicality. The patterns found that, contrary to teacher interpretations of Fernando as inattentive, he employed both perseverance and saving face strategies, which appeared to function as practices for preserving his self-esteem in different situations. These patterns led to specific recommendations for collaborative instruction and intervention that would better integrate and support Fernando's social and bilingual learning needs while also meeting standards of cultural appropriateness and practicality.

Child↗
PubMed1997

[Neuroradiologic activation studies of cerebral organization of language capacities. A review of the literature].

Models on the cerebral organisation of speech and language capacities are predominantly based on lesion studies. Neuroradiological activation methods using positron emission or magnetic resonance tomography provide a further means to investigate brain-behaviour relationships. The present paper reviews the available data obtained with functional imaging during speech and language tasks. The classical connectionist model suggests several distinct language centres within the perisylvian area of the dominant hemisphere. Especially the processing of complex verbal stimuli yields haemodynamic and metabolic reactions outside this area. At least partially, these extrasylvian foci might reflect paralinguistic functions such as motivational or attentional aspects of speech production, or the processing of emotions conveyed by verbal utterances. As far as linguistic capacities are concerned, functional imagery has yielded two results which extend the classical connectionist model of speech and language functions: (a) the medial part of the occipital lobe of the dominant hemisphere seems to comprise representations of visual word forms; (b) word generation yields activation of cerebellar structures. In contrast to the classical connectionist model, reading did not cause reactions of the angular region of the left hemisphere. Furthermore, phonological and semantic processing of verbal stimuli include the anterior perisylvian language zones. The interpretation of discrepancies between data derived from lesion studies and those obtained with functional imaging is still unsettled. First of all, rapid cognitive processes do not necessarily give rise to a detectable significant haemodynamic or metabolic response. Secondly, highly automatised language processes such as inner speech are difficult to control.

Brain↗
PubMed2003

Understanding neural system dynamics through task modulation and measurement of functional MRI amplitude, latency, and width.

Estimates of hemodynamic amplitude, delay, and width were combined to investigate system dynamics involved in lexical decision making. Subjects performed a lexical decision task using word and nonword stimuli rotated 0 degrees, 60 degrees, or 120 degrees. Averaged hemodynamic responses to repeated stimulation were fit to a Gamma-variate function convolved with a heavyside function of varying onset and duration to estimate each voxel's activation delay and width. Consistent with prolonged reaction times for the rotated stimuli and nonwords, the motor cortex showed delayed hemodynamic onset for both conditions. Language areas such as the lingual gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, and precuneus all showed delayed hemodynamic onsets to rotated stimuli but not to nonword stimuli. The inferior frontal gyrus showed both increased onset latency for rotated stimuli and a wider hemodynamic response to nonwords, consistent with prolonged processing in this area during the lexical decision task. Phonological processing areas such as superior temporal and angular gyrus showed no delay or width difference for rotated stimuli. These results suggest that phonological routes but not semantic routes to the lexicon can proceed regardless of stimulus orientation. This study demonstrates the utility of estimating hemodynamic delay and width in addition to amplitude allowing for more quantitative measures of brain function such as mental chronometry.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Decrease in performance on the verbal fluency test as a function of time: evaluation in a young healthy sample.

Participants were asked to generate as many words as possible using large and small category sizes with the initial letter and semantic category search strategies. The production of each participant for each 15-s time slice on each task was recorded. The results revealed that on all fluency tasks, the production in the initial time slice was highest and also of greatest frequency. As time on task increased the production decreased, as did the word frequency of the items produced. The results are consistent with the notion that there is a store of high-frequency words accessed during the early trials of the fluency tasks and as this store becomes exhausted the production and the word frequency decreases.

Adolescent↗