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PubMedDate not supplied

Sensory, cognitive, and linguistic factors in the early academic performance of elementary school children: The Benton-IU project.

Standardized sensory, perceptual, linguistic, intellectual, and cognitive tests were administered to 470 children, approximately 96% of the students entering the first grade in the four elementary schools of Benton County, Indiana, over a 3-year period (1995--1997). The results of 36 tests and subtests administered to entering first graders were well described by a 4-factor solution. These factors and the tests that loaded most heavily on them were reading-related skills (phonological awareness, letter and word identification); visual cognition (visual perceptual abilities, spatial perception, visual memory); verbal cognition (language development, vocabulary, verbal concepts); and speech processing (the ability to understand speech under difficult listening conditions). A cluster analysis identified 9 groups of children, each with a different profile of scores on the 4 factors. Within these groups, the proportion of students with unsatisfactory reading achievement in the first 2 years of elementary school (as reflected in teacher-assigned grades) varied from 3% to 40%. The profiles of factor scores demonstrated the primary influence of the reading-related skills factor on reading achievement and also on other areas of academic performance. The second strongest predictor of reading and mathematics grades was the visual cognition factor, followed by the verbal cognition factor. The speech processing factor was the weakest predictor of academic achievement, accounting for less than 1% of the variance in reading achievement. This project was a collaborative effort of the Benton Community School Corporation and a multidisciplinary group of investigators from Indiana University.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A longitudinal perspective on the study of specific language impairment: the long-term follow-up of an Italian child.

Most of the literature on children with specific language impairment (SLI) is centred on the study of cross-sectional samples and little is known on how language develops in these children--that is, whether it occurs along steps and modes analogous to those observed in normal acquisition, the only difference being significant slowness, or following rather idiosyncratic courses leading to atypical results. This paper presents findings from a longitudinal study of the acquisition of formal aspects of Italian grammar in a child with severe SLI of the so-called phonologic-syntactic subtype or grammatical SLI. The analysis concerns a set of morphosyntactic phenomena sufficiently differentiated in terms of both grammatical properties and modes of acquisition in normal development, so as to offer a panorama that approximates to what can be thought of as an overall morphosyntactic competence: (1) free morphology (prepositions, clitics and articles); (2) bound morphology (verb inflection); (3) WH movement (questions and relative clauses) and (4) the evolution of complex sentences. These phenomena will be dealt with in four independent studies. This paper argues that each domain or even each sub-domain presents its own set of properties, some of which are common to other domains but some of which are not. The results reveal the existence of important dissociations among the various domains and even within specific sub-domains. These dissociations may be ascribed to deficits affecting specific properties of functors or constructions. The picture that emerges is one in which the deficit involves, rather than morphology in the strict sense of a bare set of paradigmatic forms, some properties or components of syntax which are involved in the use, not only of certain morphemes, but of certain extended syntactic constructions as well. This result will be checked against the most widely held current theoretical approaches to SLI.

Age Factors↗
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↗
PubMed1989

[Hearing handicap in childhood--responsibilities of public health, early diagnosis].

Serious congenital hearing impairment occur in 1 per 1,000 people. Hereditary disease, perinatal complications, and postnatal disease present particular risk factors. Children, who do not hear or are extremely hard of hearing are slow in their language development and thus become retarded in their mental growth if not given appropriate stimulation. The Counseling Center for the hearing impaired was stablished as a multidisciplinary institution of the Health Office of Berlin-Neukölln for early recognition of and therapy for hearing impaired children. The average age at initial diagnosis of children with hearing impairment in the Federal Republic of Germany is between 3.3-3.4 years according to statistics from 1981. An effort should be made, however, to use the time before the completion of the first year of on's life for an optimal early therapy. Statistics from the Counseling Center for the hearing impaired indicate that at the present time all children with distinct hearing impairments, born in the FRG and West-Berlin, are diagnosed before they reach 32 months of age and are then assigned to special education programs. The average age of recognizing hearing impairments is 13.4 months. This favorable, however not optimal result can be attributed to the situation of a metropolis and its population informed by special professional events for target groups including employees of theYouth Health Services, established pediatricians and ENT specialists, teachers, social workers, educators, and also to the model of the "Berlin-Neukölln Counseling Center" which has proven successful over the past 30 years.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2000

Impaired processing of complex auditory stimuli in rats with induced cerebrocortical microgyria: An animal model of developmental language disabilities.

Individuals with developmental language disabilities, including developmental dyslexia and specific language impairment (SLI), exhibit impairments in processing rapidly presented auditory stimuli. It has been hypothesized that these deficits are associated with concurrent deficits in speech perception and, in turn, impaired language development. Additionally, postmortem analyses of human dyslexic brains have revealed the presence of focal neocortical malformations such as cerebrocortical microgyria. In an initial study bridging these research domains, we found that male rats with induced microgyria were impaired in discriminating rapidly presented auditory stimuli. In order to further assess this anatomical- behavioral association, we designed two experiments using auditory-reflex modification. These studies were intended to assess whether auditory processing deficits in microgyric male rats would be seen in threshold detection of a silent gap in white noise, and in oddball detection of a two-tone stimulus of variable duration. Results showed no differences between sham and microgyric subjects on gap detection, but did show that microgyric subjects were impaired in the discrimination of two-tone stimuli presented in an oddball paradigm. This impairment was evident for stimuli with total duration of 64 msec or less, while both groups were able to discriminate stimuli with duration of 89 msec or greater. The current results further support the relationship between malformations of the cerebral cortex and deficits in rapid auditory processing. They also suggest that the parameters characterizing rapid auditory processing deficits for a specific task may be influenced by stimulus features and/or cognitive demand of that particular task.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

[Repetition of pseudo-words in Spanish children with specific language disorder: a psycholinguistic marker].

AIMS: To analyze whether repetition of nonwords (NWR) is a good method to differentiate between Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI), children with normal language development (NL), and children with articulation disorder (AD), and to study whether phonological and syllabical characteristics, which are present in nonwords used in this task, are compatible with a SLI explanation on the basis of the temporal auditory limitation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eighteen 5- and 6-year-old children with NL, 19 with SLI, and 19 with AD, performed verbal tasks (principally, lexical and verbal memory tasks), and two NWR tasks: one is formed by four nonwords series with frequent syllables, in accordance with the analysis of syllable frequency in Spanish, and the other task is formed by nonwords with infrequent syllables. RESULTS: Like in English, NWR is the best method to differentiate children with SLI and children with NL; yet children with a minor impairment, like AD, show deficits in this task. Therefore, this disorder could be considered as an 'intermediate zone' between NL and SLI. Then it seems that AD is not an unmixed impairment of production only, since in its origin there are difficulties linked with the formation of the phonological representations of the words. CONCLUSIONS: With regard to syllable frequency, results do not support the explanation on the basis of temporal auditory limitation in Spanish. Results are discussed in relation to other explanations: general limitation of processing, with special incidence of the phonological working memory, and connectionist perspectives.

Articulation Disorders↗
PubMed2001

Atypical "benign" partial epilepsy or pseudo-Lennox syndrome. Part I: symptomatology and long-term prognosis.

PURPOSE: Atypical benign partial epilepsy (ABPE) or pseudo-Lennox syndrome (PLS) is characterised by generalised minor seizures and focal sharp slow waves and spikes (SHW) as observed in Rolandic epilepsy (RE), but with exceptional pronounced activation during sleep. The aim of this study was to describe the full spectrum of ABPE in the hitherto largest group of patients. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed the clinical and EEG data of 43 children who fulfilled the following criteria: occurrence of generalised minor seizures as described for ABPE (i.e., atonicastatic seizures, myoclonic seizures, atypical absences) and focal SHW identical to those observed in RE, but with generalisation during sleep. RESULTS: Language development prior to onset of epilepsy was retarded in 26% of patients. In 74%, age at onset of epilepsy ranged from 2 to 6 years. Manifestation occurred earlier in boys than in girls. Generalised minor seizures constituted the predominating seizure type in 67% of patients. Twenty-eight percent of patients suffered from simple partial seizures of the oro-facial region or generalised tonic-clonic seizures originating from the oro-facial region. Additionally, generalised tonic-clonic (44%), unilateral (21%), partial motor (44%), versive (12%), focal atonic (9%), and complex-partial seizures (2%) were observed. A bioelectrical status was recorded in 56% of patients during sleep. No tonic seizures and no fast spike series (bursts of 10-20 Hz rhythms) were observed. At last follow-up, 84% of patients were in clinical remission. All subjects older than age 15 were seizure-free. However, 56% of patients attended a school for mentally handicapped children. CONCLUSIONS: ABPE or PLS broadly overlaps with RE, electrical status epilepticus during sleep, and Landau-Kleffner syndrome. Regarding the epilepsy, the prognosis is excellent, mental deficit, however, seems to be frequent. The differentiation from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and myoclonic astatic epilepsy is essential. Instead of ABPE, the term pseudo-Lennox syndrome is proposed.

Cerebral Cortex↗
PubMed2003

The impact of early literacy guidance on language skills of 3-year-olds.

The objective of this prospective study was to determine the impact of early literacy anticipatory guidance (AG) with provision of books on language development in 3-year-olds in an early literacy program at a University-affiliated inner-city pediatric clinic. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-III) and the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT-R) were administered to 33-39-month-old children exposed to an early literacy program, which included AG and provision of an age-appropriate book at each well-child visit starting at 2 months old. Children with developmental delays were excluded. Parental surveys on literacy and demographic data were obtained. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Sixty-four children were evaluated; 88% African American, 89% Medicaid recipients. Fifty-eight percent of families reported family-centered literacy orientation. The PPVT-III scores directly correlated with the number of AG visits with book given x number of books purchased (r2 = 0.025, p = 0.0006). Higher scores in EOWPVT-R were predicted by race and the number of visits with books given x number of books purchased (r2 = 0.182, p = 0.0009). All families reported reading together, half reporting positive family-centered literacy. Given the same number of books purchased for each child, the outcome scores were higher the greater the number of clinic visits wherein AG included early literacy and provision of books.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Magnetoencephalography identifies rapid temporal processing deficit in autism and language impairment.

Deficient rapid temporal processing may contribute to impaired language development by interfering with the processing of brief acoustic transitions crucial for speech perception. Using magnetoencephalography, evoked neural activity (M50, M100) to two 40 ms tones passively presented in rapid succession was recorded in 10 neurologically normal adults and 40 8-17-year-olds with autism, specific language impairment, Asperger syndrome or typical development. While 80% of study participants with intact language (Asperger syndrome, typical development, adults) showed identifiable responses to the second tone, which presented rapid temporal processing demands, 65% of study participants with impaired language (autism, specific language impairment) did not, despite having shown identifiable responses to the first tone. Rapid temporal processing impairments may be fundamentally associated with impairments in language rather than autism spectrum disorder.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1984

Prediction of reading disability in twin boys.

Thirty-six twin boys aged between nine and 13 were assessed for intelligence and reading disability. Records of their birth status, early language development and social demographic characteristics were also available. 72 per cent of the sample had an accuracy reading age below their chronological age, and 59 per cent had a comprehension reading age below their chronological age, despite above-normal IQ. The best predictor of reading disability was preschool language status, accounting for 33 per cent of the variance in accuracy reading age discrepancy, and 23 per cent in comprehension reading age discrepancy in regression equations. This study shows that male twins are at very high risk for reading disability, and also offers support for the claim that language disability is basic to the development of reading problems.

Achievement↗
PubMed2001

Receptive and expressive communication development of young males with fragile X syndrome.

We prospectively examined the developmental trajectories of receptive and expressive communication skills of 39 young males, 20 to 86 months of age, with fragile X syndrome. Eight showed features characteristic of autism. Children were tested one to three times using a standardized language test. They showed marked delays in language development, but substantial individual variability. Participants acquired expressive language skills more slowly than receptive language over time, gaining receptive language at about half the rate expected for typically developing children and expressive language at one third the rate. Both cognitive skills and autistic characteristics of the young males with fragile X syndrome related to receptive and expressive communication development, but neither predicted the discrepancies between expressive and receptive language acquisition over time.

Child↗
PubMed1986

Productive language of premature and physically handicapped two-year-olds.

Structural and functional features of the productive language of healthy and at-risk 2-yr-olds were compared. Subjects were normal, full-term toddlers (n = 15), toddlers with either cosmetic or orthopedic anomalies (n = 15), and premature toddlers (n = 15). Transcripts of the language of each child were compiled from 30-min videotapes of mother and child engaged in a variety of semistructured activities. Although premature and physically handicapped toddlers did not differ significantly from each other, both groups of medical risk toddlers were delayed in a variety of structural indices of their productive language. In comparison to normal children, they had a shorter MLU and upper bound, and a smaller vocabulary, including fewer verbs. On functional features of language usage, however, there were few differences between normal and high-risk toddlers. Results are discussed in the context of developmental and learning models that posit a relationship between maternal and child behavior.

Child Language↗
PubMed2005

Effects of otitis media with effusion on auditory temporal resolution.

OBJECTIVE: There is mounting evidence to suggest that otitis media with effusion (OME) is associated with auditory processing deficits that persist beyond the resolution of the peripheral hearing loss. This study investigated the residual effects of OME on auditory temporal resolution. EXPERIMENT 1: METHODS: Experiment 1 measured detection thresholds for a brief tone presented either before (backward masking) or during (simultaneous masking) a masking noise, in 6- and 8-year-old children. Six-year-olds were selected from a prospectively studied group with a lifetime known history of OME. Eight-year-old children, with a retrospectively determined history of OME, were also recruited. All children were free of OME at the time of testing. RESULTS: Regardless of OME history, 6-year-old children had similar tone thresholds on all masking tasks. In contrast, 8-year-olds with a history of recurrent OME had 18 and 4dB higher mean thresholds for the backward and simultaneous masking conditions, respectively, compared with age-matched controls. Possible explanations for these results included (i) recruitment bias, rather than OME, contributed to differences in auditory processing abilities amongst 8-year-old children, or (ii) OME impaired performance at both ages, but this was not seen in 6-year-olds due to 'ceiling' effects. EXPERIMENT 2: METHODS: To distinguish between these possibilities, Experiment 2 measured temporal resolution, using backward masking and amplitude modulation detection, in the prospectively studied group of children when they were 8 years old. RESULTS: Regardless of OME history, these 8-year-olds had similar auditory temporal processing abilities. Results from Experiment 2 suggested that recruitment bias was the most likely explanation for the difference in auditory processing abilities between 8-year-old children with and without a history of OME found in Experiment 1. Consistent with previous data, associations were found between backward masking, age and cognitive ability. CONCLUSION: There is no evidence to suggest that OME effects temporal resolution after the recovery of normal pure-tone thresholds.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2005

Motor function at school age in children with a preschool diagnosis of developmental language impairment.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate fine motor (FM) and gross motor (GM) function shortly after school entry in children with a preschool diagnosis of developmental language impairment (DLI). STUDY DESIGN: A cohort of children (n = 70) diagnosed at pre-school age with DLI was reevaluated in elementary school. Language, cognitive, and motor outcomes were assessed through the use of the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI). Language was further assessed through the use of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale, Peabody Picture Vocabulary, and Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Tests. Performance below -1.5 SD of the normative mean on any test was considered to represent impairment. RESULTS: Forty-three children (mean age, 7.4 +/- 0.7 years) underwent reassessment at a mean of 3.8 +/- 0.7 years after initial preschool assessment. Mean scores for BDI motor domains (FM, 78.3 +/- 11.4; GM, 84.9 +/- 13.3) fell below normative values. Twenty-two children (52%) had motor impairment (FM, 17 of 42; GM, 15 of 42); 35 of 43 (81%) continued to have language impairment. BDI communication raw scores correlated most strongly with FM (rho = 0.73, P < .001) and GM (rho = 0.58, P = .003) raw scores but showed only moderate correlations with cognitive raw scores (rho = 0.41, P = .05). CONCLUSIONS: Impaired motor function is an important comorbidity in DLI. Factors critical to motor performance may also contribute to language deficits in DLI.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2005

Hemispheric specialization for language in children with different types of specific language impairment.

The aim of the study was to investigate whether children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show reduced left hemisphere specialization for language and, if so, whether it is associated with a deficit in phonological encoding and a specific type of SLI (Mixed Receptive-Expressive, Expressive, Phonological). We adopted two dichotic listening paradigms, which differed in the phonological similarity of the presented words (Fused and Non-Fused dichotic words tests), as well as a phonological working memory test. Participants included 34 pre-school and school age children affected by SLI. On the dichotic tests, as a group the children with SLI showed a reduced pattern of left hemisphere specialization for language compared to age-matched normal children, with significant differences only in the Fused condition. However, the pattern of hemispheric specialization varied depending on the type of SLI, with reduced left hemisphere specialization in the Expressive type and, to a lesser extent, in the Phonological type of SLI, but not in the Receptive-Expressive type. The three subgroups also differed in phonological processing abilities and the incidence of a positive family history for language disorders: the Receptive-Expressive group performed worse on the working memory and dichotic tests and the Expressive and Phonological groups presented high frequency for familial language disorder. These results suggest that different subtypes of SLI are not different manifestations of the same underlying disorder, but represent pathological conditions that have distinct markers both at the behavioral and neurofunctional level.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An intervention technique for children with autistic spectrum disorder: joint attentional routines.

Virtually all children with autism are deficient in joint attentional skills. The impact of this deficit may be understood in the context of pragmatically based explanations of language acquisition. In this view, each step in the ontongeny of joint attention is consequential for language development. Thus, it is important that speech-language pathologists understand the developmental course of joint attention so that intervention may start at the earliest step possible. In this article, we review the literature on joint attention and its relationship with other rule systems of language. We discuss the ontogeny of joint attention in typical children. Finally, we describe the developmental course of joint attention as a framework for language intervention through the study of one case.

Attention↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Academic outcomes in children with histories of speech sound disorders.

Tests of phonology, semantics, and syntax were administered to 52 preschool children (19 girls and 33 boys, age 4-6 years) with moderate to severe speech sound disorders. The children's performance on these tests was used to predict language, reading, and spelling abilities at school age (age 8-11 years). Language impairment at school age was related to poor performance on preschool tests of syntax and nonsense word repetition, while reading impairment was predicted by poor performance in all preschool test domains (phonology, semantics, and syntax). In contrast, spelling impairment was predicted by deficits in preschool tests of phonological processing as measured by the Word Discrimination subtest of the Test of Language Development - Primary 2. Family history for speech and language disorders did not predict language, reading, or spelling impairment at school age. However, family history for reading disorders was a good predictor of school-age spelling difficulties.

Child↗