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PubMed1988

Language and gesture in late talkers.

The relationship between language and symbolic gesture was studied in a group of young children who were in the lowest 10% for language production for their age based on information obtained from language inventories filled out by their parents. On a single scheme imitation task, designed to be a gestural analog of lexical production, subjects performed like controls matched for language production. On a multischeme imitation task, designed to be a gestural analog of syntax, subjects performed like age-matched controls, and significantly better than language-matched controls. Potential reasons for this dissociation are discussed in the context of predictors of early language success or impairment.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1991

Social interactions of speech- and language-impaired children.

Social interactions among preschool children were classified into four groups according to language ability: normally developing English, specific language impairment (SLI), speech impairment (SI), and English as a second language (ESL). The children were observed in naturalistic classroom interactions on three occasions. Conversational turns were coded according to initiations and responses, and addressee. The results reveal differences across the groups of children. Normal language peers initiate interactions with each other and have a higher percentage of longer responses; normal language peers were the preferred addressee in peer initiations. In contrast, children with limited communication skills were more likely than their normal language peers to initiate with adults and to shorten their responses or use nonverbal responses. ESL children were the least likely to initiate interactions and were the most likely to be avoided as the recipient of an initiation. The findings are interpreted as evidence that preschool children are sensitive to relative communication skills and make adjustments in their social interactions accordingly. Multiple contributing factors are implicated, including intelligibility, limited linguistic flexibility, limited discourse skills, and self-consciousness about communicative competence.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Perception of formant transition cues to place of articulation in children with language impairments.

Discrimination and phonetic identification abilities of 5- to 6-year-old children with language impairments were compared to those of 4-year-olds with normally developing language and to previous findings from 5- to 6-year-olds and adults for synthetic stimuli ranging from [ba] to [da]. Results showed similar discrimination sensitivity to the second- and third-formant transition cues of stimuli by all children, with poorest sensitivity by the youngest. Phonetic categorization by children with language impairments was most different from the groups with normal language abilities, evidenced by a difference in the percent of tokens labeled as "BA" and by greater variability in labeling and in placement of phonetic category boundaries. Results support hypotheses by Gathercole and Baddeley (1990) suggesting that the phonological component of working memory may be disordered in children with language impairments. Results are also suggestive of specific difficulties with left-hemisphere processing associated with language learning rather than with problems related to sensitivity to formant transitions of the speech tokens.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1997

The influence of peer models on the play scripts of children with specific language impairment.

This investigation included two phases of inquiry that examined the effects of peer modeling upon the play scripts of children with specific language impairment (SLI). The first study employed a pretest-posttest control group design involving two groups of children with SLI (10 who participated in the experimental treatment and 10 controls) and a group of peer models (10 children with normal language development). The treatment involved dyadic play sessions in which children with SLI were paired with a normal language peer model. Significant differences were found between the play script reports of the experimental (SLI-E) and control groups (SLI-C) of children with specific language impairment. The second study, utilizing single-case methodology, involved 6 children with SLI who participated in the control group of Study 1, plus 2 peer models. Play dyads consisted of either two children with SLI or one child with SLI and a normal language peer. Results of this study provided support for the contention that play interactions with normal language peers facilitates increases in the play-script reports of children with SLI.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1999

Validity of a parent report measure of vocabulary and syntax for preschool children with language impairment.

Previous research has documented the validity of parent report for measuring vocabulary and grammar in typically developing toddlers. In this project, two studies examined the validity of parent report for measuring language in children with specific language delay who are older than the normative group, but who have language levels within the range measured by the instruments. In Study 1, scores on the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences were compared to behavioral measures of production of vocabulary and grammar in 39- to 49-month-old children with language delay. Results indicated moderately high to high concurrent validity correlations in both domains (.67-.86). In Study 2, scores on the MacArthur Communicative Inventory: Words and Gestures were compared to behavioral measures of vocabulary comprehension and production and gesture production in 24- to 32-month-old children with language delay. Results indicated a moderately high concurrent validity correlation for vocabulary production (.66). Parent report of comprehension and gesture scores did not correlate significantly with their behavioral counterparts, but gesture scores were moderately highly correlated with language comprehension (.65).

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed2000

The acquisition of a second language.

It is claimed that if children can begin to acquire a second language at an early age they will find it easier to develop fluency, and will speak it without an accent. Age is a factor in acquiring one's mother tongue, and this also applies when learning a second language. One essential to developing such a skill is the ability to switch from one language to the other, as appropriate. Studies on the effects of age on this learning are reviewed. Techniques such as positron emission tomography can now be used to show which areas of the brain are involved in developing new skills, and much has been learnt in this way. Differences can be demonstrated between the cerebral function of the children who learn a second language at an early age and those who do this when they are older, and also between those who acquire a high degree of fluency and those who never do. If children speak a second language by hearing it in the environment in which they live, they are acquiring it as they do their mother tongue, but if they start at the age of 12 years they are learning it like any other subject they study. If the opportunity is present, surely it is better to acquire a second language than learn it.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

New arrivals: speech and language assessment for internationally adopted infants and toddlers within the first months home.

Speech-language pathologists are increasingly requested to assess development in newly arrived internationally adopted children. These infants and toddlers typically arrive home with developmental delays and a lack of proficiency in any language, making it difficult to make objective service delivery decisions. This article reports the results of speech and language assessments for a group of 28 children aged 12 to 24 months who were newly adopted from Eastern Europe. Most of the children did well, with average English language standard scores within normal limits on the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scale-Developmental Profile. The majority of children were also rapidly learning to understand and produce English words as measured on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory. These findings were used to develop peer-based infant-toddler guidelines for early speech and language intervention. Using these guidelines, 65% of the internationally adopted children did not require early intervention, 7% were borderline and recommended for follow-up assessments within 2 to 3 months, and 28% were recommended for speech and language early intervention.

Adoption↗

PubMed2006

[Are the language skills of our children declining? Results based on the examinations at school enrollment of the years 1999 to 2004 in Münster].

The physical examinations at school enrollment of the years 1999 to 2004 were subjected to comparative analysis to help clarify whether children's language performance at enrollment has significantly decreased in recent years or not. This question has indeed been a matter of public debate for some time. Furthermore, potential influencing factors, in particular social environment, were to be examined as regards their effects on language performance. The results indicate that the children's performance level has not significantly decreased over the six-year period of observation. Instead, rather an increase can be observed over this period of time. If, nevertheless, more and more and, in particular, more significant language deficits continue to be observed, one explanation for this may be seen in a changing assessment of children's needs for therapy or remedial education. The performance level of children who were recommended therapy or means of remedial education in 2004 is significantly higher than that of children for whom such recommendations were given in 1999 or 2000. Perhaps an increased sensitivity for those performance areas where performance levels are found to be deficient should be postulated, and, consequently, a more differentiated assessment of diagnostic findings should be assumed. The results of the examinations once again demonstrate the enormous influence that social factors have on language performance. Children growing up in a less advantaged social environment tend to achieve significantly lower performance marks in language tests than children from more privileged social environments. Also the duration of kindergarten education appears to be relevant to children's language performance: children who have visited institutions of preschool-education for three or more years achieve higher performance marks than children who have spent no ore only little time in these institutions. When seen against the background of circa one in four children with a migration background (around 8% of persons of the same age in Münster's population) having unsatisfactory knowledge of German at school enrollment, there appear to be efficient prevention measures available here.

Child↗

PubMed1982

Language development at the age of 3 years of infants malnourished in utero.

To evaluate if language testing might provide useful information about the developmental outcome at pre-school age of term infants malnourished in utero, a group of these infants was studied in combination with a group of normally grown term infants matched for age, sex, birth rank and social class. Both groups were free from significant neonatal morbidity and debilitating diseases. Intrauterine malnutrition was defined as underweight for gestational age and the presence of wasting to select those S.G.A. infants with easily recognizable signs of malnutrition at birth. The Reynell Developmental Language Scales were used to test language and the results were related to a separate assessment of behaviour and neurology. Both verbal comprehension and expressive language were significantly less developed in infants malnourished in utero. A firm relation was established between language delay and behaviour problems. It was concluded that language development can be used to assess the developmental progress of infants malnourished in utero if performed in combination with behaviour assessment. Many of these infants will benefit by speech therapy during behaviour therapy at pre-school age.

Brain↗

PubMed1995

The responsibilities of speech-language pathologists toward children with ADHD.

The speech-language pathologist has the skills needed to be an active participant in both the diagnostic and intervention phases of the treatment of children with ADHD. Many of the behaviors that define ADHD are directly linked to communication. Westby and Cutler (1994) assert that "the strong association between language disorders and ADHD suggests the possibility of a common antecedent to both disorders, perhaps a temperamental or neurological characteristic linked to deficits in behavioral regulation" (p. 61). Although the speech-language pathologist may not have the security of standardized test scores to support his or her diagnosis, behaviors that cannot be tested (e.g., pragmatics and social interactions) may be keys to a child's classroom difficulties. As discussed, many of the criteria found in the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for ADHD are characteristics of pragmatic skills. Supported by Barkley's (1993) new theory of ADHD which is based on poor response inhibition or inability to delay responses, the speech-language pathologist can be an important resource to both the teacher and parents by helping them understand the behaviors exhibited by an ADHD child. The impulsivity that is so disruptive in the classroom is directly linked to the inability to delay responses. It is agreed that continued research into the behavioral characteristics associated with ADHD as well as their long-term implications for learning is needed. ADHD is a multifaceted developmental disorder. There is no known cure for ADHD, and we are dependent on early diagnosis and ongoing intervention to reduce its lifelong effects. Effective treatment must be multi-modal and involve the coordination of a professional team as well as the child's family. It is vital that we help children with ADHD develop positive self-esteem, effective social skills, and good pragmatic language skills that will eventually have a positive impact on their functioning in all aspects of their interactions with their environment. If this is accomplished, the effects of ADHD will be minimized. The speech-language pathologist needs to take a leadership role in this process.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Becoming a manual occupation? The construction of a therapy manual for use with language impaired children in mainstream primary schools.

BACKGROUND: The construction of therapy protocols for a large-scale randomized controlled trial comparing speech and language therapists and assistants, and group and individual therapy approaches for children aged 6-11 in mainstream schools is outlined. AIMS: The aim was to outline the decision-making processes that led to the construction of the research therapy manual, and to give a preliminary report on compliance with the manual. METHODS & PROCEDURES: A search of the research and professional literature and of published therapy materials was conducted to locate usable examples of effective language therapy for primary school children. Results were collated into a manual of therapy principles and activities to structure research intervention. The use of the manual with children (n=30) receiving individual or group direct therapy from a speech and language therapist in the first phase of intervention was audited. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Very few high-level research studies were found, but the professional literature gave added information. Therapies for comprehension monitoring, vocabulary development, later grammar and narrative were adapted for the research intervention, and procedures compiled into a manual to guide research speech and language therapists and assistants. The audit of direct therapy suggested that the manual was useable, providing a suitable range of activities and materials for therapy intervention. Its use helped to record the therapy offered to research children, and formed a sound basis for discussion amongst speech and language therapists and between speech and language therapist/assistant pairs. CONCLUSIONS: The construction and use of a therapy manual allowed the provision of replicable therapy within the research project whilst maintaining flexibility.

Child↗

PubMed1996

Language performance of severely closed head injured children.

The language functioning of a group of children who had sustained a severe closed head injury (CHI) was evaluated. The subjects were administered a battery of language assessments including measures of syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Performance of the experimental group was compared with that of a control group matched for age and sex. Results indicated that all areas of language competence assessed (syntax, semantics, pragmatics) appeared to be compromised by the childhood CHI. The findings of this study are considered in light of the implications for the existence of different language components (syntax, semantics, pragmatics) as opposed to a unified concept of language. Also considered is the evidence of a specific linguistic impairment in the childhood CHI population as opposed to a more generalized cognitive decline expressed as an overall decrease in performance across all domains of language skill.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Language skills of adolescents with Tourette Syndrome.

A multiple single-case study investigated language characteristics of adolescents with Tourette Syndrome (TS). Ten adolescent subjects with diagnosed TS were evaluated on a test battery sensitive to high level language and discourse impairment. Results were compared to established norms or, where no norms have been established, with results obtained by 15 non-neurologically impaired adolescent subjects. Five subjects were differentiated from normal communicative performance by their test results. Although language profiles were variable, disorganized output, concreteness of language and poor language formulation abilities were apparent in these subjects. This symptomatology may reflect prefrontal disturbance and can possibly be explained by the pathogenesis of the disorder. This finding adds to literature regarding subcortical and frontal cortex language involvement and indicates further research.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Some evidence for distinctive language use by children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

This paper reports early findings from a wider study that sought to test the hypothesis that differences in language use exist between children who have a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and their non-ADHD peers. Twenty-two, 8 to 12 year-old children (11 with a diagnosis of ADHD and 11 matched peers) comprised the community-based sample. There were nine boys and two girls in each group. All the children were ranked at least average for their language ability on standardised language testing. This case-control study used an approach derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to examine and then compare spoken and written elicited language samples. SFL was thought to be particularly suitable because of its potential to richly describe language in use while taking contextual variation into account. Statistically significant overall differences between the subject and the control groups were found for the measure of grammatical intricacy (GI). Further analyses revealed these differences to be largely attributed to differences between group scores for written material. Discussion explores the potential relevance of these findings to the clinical evaluation of language ability in young school-aged children who have been diagnosed with ADHD.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMedDate not supplied

'I never even gave it a second thought': PGCE students' attitudes towards the inclusion of children with speech and language impairments.

Approximately 7% of young school-aged children have specific language impairments. Many such children are now being educated in mainstream settings. However, there is a dearth of up-to-date and valid research that considers UK (student) teachers' attitudes towards such children. This study aimed to investigate trainee teachers' attitudes towards teaching children with speech and language impairments, to investigate the reported effects of those attitudes on participants' acceptance of teaching such children, and to consider any implications for speech and language therapy (SLT) services and inclusive education. Nineteen trainee teachers (PGCE students) from a university in the North West of England took part in semistructured group interviews. The data were transcribed and analysed qualitatively, and recurrent themes identified. A range of attitudes was expressed, and six major themes were identified from the data. Participants discussed concerns about the resources and knowledge they considered necessary to support fully children with specific language impairments. There was some differentiation of attitudes related to the types of disability that a child may have and the subject being taught. Much of the discussion was about disabilities in general rather than specific to speech and language impairments. Many of the participants reflected on their own previous experiences to inform their opinions. Although many of the participants expressed positive attitudes, some had concerns about workload and at least one was openly hostile to the idea of teaching children with disabilities within mainstream settings. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to previous research, the quantitative data obtained in this project, SLT services and the increases in the inclusion of children with specific language impairments into mainstream educational settings.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of sentence length and complexity on working memory performance in Hungarian children with specific language impairment (SLI): A cross-linguistic comparison.

BACKGROUND: English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) perform more poorly than their typically developing peers in verbal working memory tasks where processing and storage are simultaneously required. Hungarian is a language with a relatively free word order and a rich agglutinative morphology. AIMS: To examine the effect of linguistic structure on working memory performance. It was examined whether syntactic complexity has a larger impact on working memory performance than sentence length in Hungarian-speaking children, similar to the findings in English speaking children. METHODS & PROCEDURES: In Experiment 1, performance accuracy was measured with two linguistic span tasks that included stimuli with varying sentence length and syntactic complexity. Experiment 2 examined the impact of sentence length and morphological complexity on working memory performance. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Children with SLI performed more poorly than their age-matched peers in all working memory tasks. Their error patterns differed from those of children with typical language development. Children with SLI produced a high number of interference errors that indicate poor executive functions. The findings were compared with previous results of English-speaking children. Complexity affected working memory performance accuracy differently across languages. In English, it was the increase of syntactic complexity that resulted in a decrease in performance accuracy, whereas in Hungarian, it was the morphological complexity that had a large impact on working memory performance. CONCLUSIONS: Working memory performance depends on the linguistic characteristics of the language tested. In both English- and Hungarian-speaking children, complexity has a larger effect on verbal working memory performance than the length of the stimuli. However, complexity affects working memory performance accuracy differently across languages.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2000

The relationship between language and reading. Preliminary results from a longitudinal investigation.

This longitudinal study investigated the relationship between language and reading from three perspectives. First, we examined the reading and writing outcomes of children identified with spoken language impairments (LIs). Second, the early language abilities of children identified as poor readers were investigated. Finally, reading and language abilities were treated as continuous variables and the developmental relationship between them was studied. In general, the results indicated that language abilities (both phonological processing and oral language) significantly contributed to achievement in the early stages of reading (2nd grade) and had an even stronger effect as children acquired greater reading proficiency (4th grade).

Achievement↗

PubMed1999

Language outcome following multiple subpial transection for Landau-Kleffner syndrome.

Landau-Kleffner syndrome is an acquired epileptic aphasia occurring in normal children who lose previously acquired speech and language abilities. Although some children recover some of these abilities, many children with Landau-Kleffner syndrome have significant language impairments that persist. Multiple subpial transection is a surgical technique that has been proposed as an appropriate treatment for Landau-Kleffner syndrome in that it is designed to eliminate the capacity of cortical tissue to generate seizures or subclinical epileptiform activity, while preserving the cortical functions subserved by that tissue. We report on the speech and language outcome of 14 children who underwent multiple subpial transection for treatment of Landau-Kleffner syndrome. Eleven children demonstrated significant postoperative improvement on measures of receptive or expressive vocabulary. Results indicate that early diagnosis and treatment optimize outcome, and that gains in language function are most likely to be seen years, rather than months, after surgery. Since an appropriate control group was not available, and that the best predictor of postoperative improvements in language function was that of length of time since surgery, these data might best be used as a benchmark against other Landau-Kleffner syndrome outcome studies. We conclude that multiple subpial transection may be useful in allowing for a restoration of speech and language abilities in children diagnosed with Landau-Kleffner syndrome.

Adolescent↗