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PubMed2003

Neural mechanisms of language-based learning impairments: insights from human populations and animal models.

The acquisition of speech perception and consequent expression of language represent fundamental aspects of human functioning. Yet roughly 7% to 8% of children who are otherwise healthy and of normal intelligence exhibit unexplained delays and impairments in acquiring these skills. Ongoing research has revealed several key features of language disability that may provide more direct insight into underlying anomalous neural functioning. For example, evidence supports a strong association between basic defects in processing rapidly changing acoustic information and emergent disruptions in speech perception, as well as cascading effects on other forms of language development (including reading). Considerable neurobiological research has thus focused on developmental factors that might deleteriously influence rapid sensory processing. Additional research focuses on mechanisms of neural plasticity, including how such brains might be "retrained" for improved processing of language. These and related findings from human clinical studies, electrophysiological studies, neuroimaging studies, and animal models are reviewed.

Animals↗

PubMed1996

Is breastfeeding beneficial and maternal smoking harmful to the cognitive development of children?

The effects of breastfeeding on cognitive, visuomotor and language development were examined in healthy children born at full term, after they had reached 56 months of age. Three hundred and sixty-three children were breastfed for less than 5 months, and 363 for 5 months or more. The groups were matched pairwise having regard to maternal education and sex of the child. Significant differences were found in relation to scores reflecting general cognitive capacity, and the results of the visuomotor integration test between children breastfed for less than 5 months and those breastfed for 5 months or more, and between children of mothers who had smoked during pregnancy and non-smoking mothers. In multiple linear regression analysis prolonged breastfeeding was significantly related to scores reflecting general cognitive capacity and results of the visuomotor integration test. However, smoking by mothers during pregnancy was not significantly related to scores in cognitive tests. Biological factors, and factors such as lifestyle and social background, may be more important determinants of a child's development than breastfeeding.

Breast Feeding↗

PubMed2002

[Test set for the evaluation of hearing and speech development after cochlear implantation in children].

BACKGROUND: Since autumn 1998 the multicenter interdisciplinary study group "Test Materials for CI Children" has been compiling a uniform examination tool for evaluation of speech and hearing development after cochlear implantation in childhood. METHODS USED: After studying the relevant literature, suitable materials were checked for practical applicability, modified and provided with criteria for execution and break-off. For data acquisition, observation forms for preparation of a PC-version were developed. RESULTS: The evaluation set contains forms for master data with supplements relating to postoperative processes. The hearing tests check supra-threshold hearing with loudness scaling for children, speech comprehension in silence (Mainz and Göttingen Test for Speech Comprehension in Childhood) and phonemic differentiation (Oldenburg Rhyme Test for Children), the central auditory processes of detection, discrimination, identification and recognition (modification of the "Frankfurt Functional Hearing Test for Children") and audiovisual speech perception (Open Paragraph Tracking, Kiel Speech Track Program). The materials for speech and language development comprise phonetics-phonology, lexicon and semantics (LOGO Pronunciation Test), syntax and morphology (analysis of spontaneous speech), language comprehension (Reynell Scales), communication and pragmatics (observation forms). The MAIS and MUSS modified questionnaires are integrated. CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation set serves quality assurance and permits factor analysis as well as controls for regularity through the multicenter comparison of long-term developmental trends after cochlear implantation.

Child↗

PubMed1998

On having complex representations of things: preschoolers use multiple words for objects and people.

Applying several names to an entity (polynomy) reflects the ability to categorize entities in different ways. Two experiments demonstrate preschoolers' abilities to apply multiple labels to representational objects and to people. In Experiment 1, 3- and 4-year-olds labeled representational objects and verified labels for story characters. In both tasks children reliably produced or accepted several words per entity and accepted a high percentage of both class-inclusive and overlapping word pairs. These results were replicated in Experiment 2; 3- to 5-year-olds also completed appearance-reality and receptive vocabulary tests. The mean number of words produced in the labeling task was significantly related to receptive vocabulary, but not to appearance-reality performance. The results indicate that preschoolers represent an entity as belonging to multiple categories (e.g., dinosaur and crayon). Implications for cognitive and language development, particularly the appearance-reality distinction and the mutual exclusivity bias, are discussed.

Child Behavior↗

PubMed1996

Update on cochlear implantation.

Cochlear implants are computerized devices that partially replace the transduction and encoding functions of the cochlea. Over the past 20 years studies have demonstrated that cochlear implants are safe and effective, with modern computer-based multichannel devices providing open-set word understanding for the majority of implanted postlingually deafened adults as well as pre- and postlingually deafened children. Advances in word processing strategy have led to ever-improving word recognition skills and recent studies have demonstrated that oral language develops in congenitally deaf children who use cochlear implants.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

A pilot randomised control trial of a parent training intervention for pre-school children with autism. Preliminary findings and methodological challenges.

Few attempts have been made to conduct randomised control trials (RCTs) of interventions for pre-school children with autism. We report findings of a pilot RCT for a parent training intervention with a focus on the development of joint attention skills and joint action routines. Twenty-four children meeting ICD-10 criteria for childhood autism (mean age = 23 months) were identified using the CHAT screen and randomised to the parent training group or to local services only. A follow-up was conducted 12 months later (mean age = 35 months). There was some evidence that the parent training group made more progress in language development than the local services group. However, the present pilot study was compromised by several factors: a reliance on parental report to measure language, non-matching of the groups on initial IQ, and a lack of systematic checking regarding the implementation of the parent training intervention. Furthermore, three parents in the local services group commenced intensive, home-based behavioural intervention during the course of the study. The difficulties encountered in the conduct of RCTs for pre-school children with autism are discussed. Methodological challenges and strategies for future well-designed RCTs for autism interventions are highlighted.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed1998

Specific language impairment and grammatical morphology: a discriminant function analysis.

Discriminant function analysis was employed to determine if grammatical morpheme production could be used to classify preschool-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typically developing language skills. Three variables were included in the discriminant analysis: a finite verb morpheme composite, a noun morpheme composite, and mean length of utterance in morphemes. The children with SLI and age-matched controls were discriminated with high levels of accuracy, though the three variables did not yield identical classifications. Across two samples of typically developing children and children with SLI, the verb morpheme composite showed sensitivity exceeding 85% and specificity of 100%. In light of these results and growing evidence that problems with finite verb morphology continue into the school years in children with SLI, the verb morpheme composite was considered to hold promise as a clinical marker for SLI.

Child↗

PubMed1990

Symmetry and quasi-symmetry: an example in modelling pairs of sounds from children's early speech.

The models of symmetry and quasi-symmetry may have use in the analysis of categorical data in square tables where the row and column classifications are the same. Under the model of symmetry, the probability that an observation falls in, say, the (i,j) cell of a square table is the same as the probability that it falls in the (j,i) cell. The model of symmetry requires that the expected marginal total for any one row of the table be the same as the expected marginal total for the corresponding column. The model of quasi-symmetry, which is a generalization of the model of symmetry, does not require this equality of expected row and column totals. In this paper, we illustrate the use of the models of symmetry and quasi-symmetry in the analysis of categorical data that summarize pairs of sounds in infants' and toddlers' early utterances. In the past, the complexity of infants' early vocalizations has been difficult to measure because of a lack of methods to quantify prelinguistic phonetic variables. We use the models of symmetry and quasi-symmetry as a first attempt to quantify the complexity of infants' early speech. We hope that the discovery of models appropriate for quantification of language development in normal children will have later use in identification of children at risk for communicative disorders.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed2005

Brain potentials to native and non-native speech contrasts in 7- and 11-month-old American infants.

Abstract Behavioral data establish a dramatic change in infants' phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months of age. Foreign-language phonetic discrimination significantly declines with increasing age. Using a longitudinal design, we examined the electrophysiological responses of 7- and 11-month-old American infants to native and non-native consonant contrasts. Analyses of the event-related potentials (ERP) of the group data at 7 and at 11 months of age demonstrated that infants' discriminatory ERP responses to the non-native contrast are present at 7 months of age but disappear by 11 months of age, consistent with the behavioral data reported in the literature. However, when the same infants were divided into subgroups based on individual ERP components, we found evidence that the infant brain remains sensitive to the non-native contrast at 11 months of age, showing differences in either the P150-250 or the N250-550 time window, depending upon the subgroup. Moreover, we observed an increase in infants' responsiveness to native language consonant contrasts over time. We describe distinct neural patterns in two groups of infants and suggest that their developmental differences may have an impact on language development.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1982

Short-term release cues to stop-consonant place of articulation in child speech.

In recent work Blumstein and Stevens (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 66, 1001-1017 (19179); 67, 648-662 (1980) have proposed that the short-term onset spectra at stop-consonant releases provide invariant cues for the perception of place of articulation, and that the salient acoustic characteristics of these cues can be characterized by a set of templates. The present study investigated the suitability of these templates for characterizing place of articulation in utterance-initial voiced stop consonants produced by two children 71-75 weeks old in spontaneous discourse. The overall correct categorization rate for the templates was 65%, with 70% correct categorizations for the bilabial template, 85% for the alveolar template, and 40% for the velar template. The results of a perceptual study in which listeners were asked to identify place of articulation for computer-edited 15-, 25-, 40-, and 135-ms samples of the initial parts of these utterances were compared with the results of the template matching study. Although listeners' identification of place of articulation was at well above chance level on even the 15-ms tokens, there was no correlation between the results of the template-matching study and the perceptual data. The perceptual data thus indicate that short-term onset cues exist in the spontaneous speech of children at an early stage of language development, however, these cues do not appear to be adequately characterized by the Blumstein-Stevens templates.

Alveolar Process↗

PubMed1977

Nager acrofacial dysostosis: early intervention and long-term planning.

Nager acrofacial dysostosis is an extremely rare syndrome combining craniofacial features similar to Treacher Collins mandibulofacial dysostosis with the additional features of thumb and radial bone hypoplasia. The clinical and prognostic aspects of two unrelated infants with Nager acrofacila dysostosis are presented. A vigorous early intervention program of habilitation is described with emphasis on the facilitation of speech and language development in children with multiple morphological and developmental problems.

Female↗

PubMed1982

The development of an objective observation tool for parent-child interaction.

To address the need for objective evaluation of parent-child interactions, the investigators created a taxonomy of interactional behaviors used by parents and preverbal/early verbal children. This taxonomy was used by four judges to rate 40 1-min videotaped segments of parent-child freeplay, and the results were compared to four judges' subjective ratings of the same segments. Based on statistical analysis, the taxonomy was shortened to include only those objective behaviors that were highly correlated with the overall subjective ratings. The resultant 10-item taxonomy is discussed in relation to language development and to implications for therapy.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

60- and 72-month follow-up of children prenatally exposed to marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol: cognitive and language assessment.

Cognitive and receptive language development were examined in 135 60-month-old and 137 72-month-old children for whom prenatal exposure to marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol had been ascertained. Discriminant Function analysis revealed an association between prenatal cigarette exposure and lower cognitive and receptive language scores at 60 and 72 months. This paralleled and extended observations made with this sample at annual assessments at 12 to 48 months of age. Unlike observations made at 48 months, prenatal exposure to marijuana was not associated with the cognitive and verbal outcomes. Relatively low levels of maternal alcohol consumption did not have significant relationships with the outcome variables. The importance of assessing subtle components rather than global cognitive and language skills to detect potential behavioral teratogenic effects of the drugs being examined is discussed.

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMed1997

Rhythm and language in children with moderate learning difficulties.

The relationship between rhythmic ability, syllabic structure in the production of single words and two-word phrases, and overall language ability was assessed in a group of 22 children, aged between 4;0-8;0, with moderate learning difficulties in the absence of gross sensory, motor or behavioural difficulties. It was predicted that rhythmic ability would correlate significantly both with syllable production and with overall language attainment. We further predicted that clapping to highlight syllable number and rhythm would significantly improve syllable production. The first hypothesis was supported in so far as rhythmic ability correlated significantly with syllable production. However, rhythmic ability did not correlate significantly with overall language attainment. The second hypothesis was supported. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for our understanding of language development in children with moderate learning difficulties and in terms of their practical implications for therapy.

Child↗

PubMed1991

[Speech cannula for children with tracheotomy and oxygen inhalation therapy].

Because of various possible problems tracheotomy in children should be performed only in urgent cases and should be sewed up as soon as possible. Early language therapy and the use of cannulas with speaking device promote language development. We propose a special silver cannula with speaking device for children with oxygen dependence due to bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia↗

PubMed1999

Human simulations of vocabulary learning.

The work reported here experimentally investigates a striking generalization about vocabulary acquisition: Noun learning is superior to verb learning in the earliest moments of child language development. The dominant explanation of this phenomenon in the literature invokes differing conceptual requirements for items in these lexical categories: Verbs are cognitively more complex than nouns and so their acquisition must await certain mental developments in the infant. In the present work, we investigate an alternative hypothesis; namely, that it is the information requirements of verb learning, not the conceptual requirements, that crucially determine the acquisition order. Efficient verb learning requires access to structural features of the exposure language and thus cannot take place until a scaffolding of noun knowledge enables the acquisition of clause-level syntax. More generally, we experimentally investigate the hypothesis that vocabulary acquisition takes place via an incremental constraint-satisfaction procedure that bootstraps itself into successively more sophisticated linguistic representations which, in turn, enable new kinds of vocabulary learning. If the experimental subjects were young children, it would be difficult to distinguish between this information-centered hypothesis and the conceptual change hypothesis. Therefore the experimental "learners" are adults. The items to be "acquired" in the experiments were the 24 most frequent nouns and 24 most frequent verbs from a sample of maternal speech to 18-24-month-old infants. The various experiments ask about the kinds of information that will support identification of these words as they occur in mother-to-child discourse. Both the proportion correctly identified and the type of word that is identifiable changes significantly as a function of information type. We discuss these results as consistent with the incremental construction of a highly lexicalized grammar by cognitively and pragmatically sophisticated human infants, but inconsistent with a procedure in which lexical acquisition is independent of and antecedent to syntax acquisition.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Lexically-based learning and early grammatical development.

Pine & Lieven (1993) suggest that a lexically-based positional analysis can account for the structure of a considerable proportion of children's early multiword corpora. The present study tests this claim on a second, larger sample of eleven children aged between 1;0 and 3;0 from a different social background, and extends the analysis to later in development. Results indicate that the positional analysis can account for a mean of 60% of all the children's multiword utterances and that the great majority of all other utterances are defined as frozen by the analysis. Alternative explanations of the data based on hypothesizing underlying syntactic or semantic relations are investigated through analyses of pronoun case marking and of verbs with prototypical agent-patient roles. Neither supports the view that the children's utterances are being produced on the basis of general underlying rules and categories. The implications of widespread distributional learning in early language development are discussed.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1988

Early receptive and productive language skills in preterm and full-term 8-month-old infants.

Early receptive and productive language skills were examined for preterm low birthweight infants and full-term normal birthweight infants from middle-class homes. Nineteen preterm infants and 19 full-term infants were observed in a laboratory setting at the gestationally corrected age of 8 months. To avoid the frequent confound between prematurity and low socioeconomic status, mothers of the two groups of infants were matched on educational levels. Regression analyses were used to assess the relative influence of infant cognitive skills, infant sociability, infant birth status, and the mothers' language input as possible predictors of infant receptive language and vocal behavior. Receptive language skills were associated with higher cognitive performance, greater sociability, and preterm birth. Productive language skills were associated with higher cognitive performance. On the basis of this research, the prognosis for language development in preterm infants raised in middle-class homes appears to be excellent.

Child Language↗