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PubMed1990

Imitation of intonation by infants.

Children between 9 and 12 months of age were studied to determine if they would spontaneously imitate either the average fundamental frequency or the fundamental frequency contour of their speaking partners. In the first experiment, children were recorded at home as they interacted with their fathers and mothers. Acoustic analyses failed to reveal any tendency on the part of the infants to adjust vocal pitch, amplitude, or duration to those of their speaking partners. In a second experiment, children were recorded while interacting with their parents in a laboratory setting. Again, there were no indications that the children imitated the vocal patterns of their speaking partners.

Conditioning, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Echolalic responses by a child with autism to four experimental conditions of sociolinguistic input.

Studies of the immediate verbal imitations (IVIs) of subjects with echolalia report that features of linguistic or social input alone affect the number of IVIs elicited. This experimental study of a child with echolalia and autism controlled each of these variables while introducing a systematic change in the other. The subject produced more (p less than .05) IVIs in response to unknown lexical words presented with a high degree of directiveness (Condition D) than in response to three other conditions of stimulus presentation (e.g., unknown lexical words, minimally directive style.) Thus, an interaction between the effects of linguistic and social input was demonstrated. IVIs were produced across all conditions, primarily during first presentations of lexical stimuli. Only the IVIs elicited by first presentations of the lexical stimuli during Condition D differed significantly (p less than .05) from the number of IVIs elicited by first presentations of lexical stimuli in other conditions. These findings viewed together suggest that the occurrence of IVIs was related, at least for this child, to an uncertain or informative event and that this response was significantly greater when the lexical stimuli were unknown and presented in a highly directive style.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Morpheme learning of children with specific language impairment under controlled instructional conditions.

Three groups of children were exposed to instances of a novel morpheme under controlled experimental conditions. The performance of 32 children with specific language impairment (SLI), aged 5:0 to 7:0 years (years:months), was compared to that of 24 normally developing children matched for age and nonverbal ability and 20 younger normally developing children matched for language development and nonverbal ability. The children were taught under two instructional conditions that differed only in whether the child was asked to imitate the new language form after each instance (imitation) or just to observe its use (modeling). Consistent with past research (Connell, 1987b), the children with SLI performed significantly better under the imitation condition than under modeling, but the age-matched controls showed no difference in response to instruction. The performance of the language-matched controls was similar to that of the age-matched controls, suggesting that the instruction-specific effect for the children with SLI is not merely a function of general language immaturity. Although the superiority of the imitation condition for the children with SLI was evident for test trials requiring production of the new morpheme (as in past research), no such effect was evident for comprehension trials. This differing effect of output demands suggests that the SLI-specific response to instruction is not a matter of different mastery of the new rule but rather is specific to the need to access the newly induced rule on production trials. The accessing of phonological representations as a possible explanation for the effect is discussed.

Audiovisual Aids↗
PubMed1993

Preschoolers' imitation of intonation contours.

This study evaluated normally developing preschoolers' imitation of intonation contours modeled in a sentence elicitation task. Three intonation contours (declarative, interrogative, and monotone) were presented to 3- and 5-year-old children. Acoustic analyses using the Visi-Pitch and Apple IIe computer system, along with perceptual ratings, measured the extent to which preschoolers imitated a modeled intonation contour. The results indicated that, as a group, the children were perceived to imitate or partially imitate the preceding intonation contour modeled by the adult. The 5-year-old children imitated modeled contours more frequently than did the 3-year-old children. In contrast, the 3-year-old children primarily partially imitated the intonation contours. Further analysis revealed that between-group differences were due largely to accuracy in imitating the interrogative contour. These findings establish reference data on normal children and implicate the use of both acoustic and perceptual analyses in order to develop and interpret intervention strategies aimed at children with prosodic problems.

Child Language↗
PubMed1993

Induction of a visual symbolic rule in children with specific language impairment.

In a design modeled after that of Connell and Stone (1992), two alternative instructional conditions (Modeling and Imitation) were used to teach a novel morpheme to a group of 21 children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) (ages 5:0 to 6:11) and to 25 age- and ability-matched peers and 21 language-matched younger peers. In contrast to the use of the auditory modality in the Connell and Stone study, in the present study, the morphemes were embodied in a visual symbol system. The objects and meanings conveyed by the symbols were identical to those used in the earlier study. The present results indicated that both the children with SLI and their age-matched peers showed a benefit to their morpheme production from the requirement to imitate the use of the morpheme during learning trials. These results were interpreted as indicating that the group-specific benefit from imitation instruction on the part of the children with SLI found by Connell and Stone with their auditory task is unique to morpheme learning in the auditory modality. As in the earlier study, the children with SLI also tended to learn less than their age-matched peers in all conditions, indicating a possible general deficiency with symbolic rule induction.

Child↗
PubMed1994

Relationships between language and gesture in normally developing and late-talking toddlers.

Seventeen toddlers with specific expressive language delay (14 boys and 3 girls between 18 and 33 months of age) were compared to two control groups, one matched for language production and the other matched for age and language comprehension, on measures of spontaneous and imitated gesture production. Late talkers performed like age/comprehension-matched controls on all experimental measures of gesture production and on production of later appearing, more symbolic gestures as reported by parents. Late talkers performed like language-matched controls on earlier appearing communicative gestures and gestural routines as reported by parents. All three groups produced more gestures in canonical imitation conditions than spontaneously. Results are discussed in the contexts of the Local Homology Model and characteristics of toddlers with specific expressive language delay.

Child Language↗
PubMed1994

Subject pronoun and article omissions in the speech of children with specific language impairment: a phonological interpretation.

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their MLU-matched normally developing (ND) peers imitated proper nouns, the pronouns he and you, and the article the in subject phrases. Although all of these word types were phonological phrase-initial syllables, the proper nouns received strong stress, but the function words received weak stress. Both groups of children showed significantly more omissions of the function words than the proper nouns. There was no significant difference amongst the imitations of the two pronouns or the article; all were omitted frequently by both groups. This suggests that the status of subject articles and pronouns as weak syllables in the initial position of phonological phrases may in some cases constitute a more important factor than the distinctive grammatical roles they play. A phonological explanation of subject article and pronoun omissions is explored.

Child Language↗
PubMed1994

Comparison of conversational-recasting and imitative procedures for training grammatical structures in children with specific language impairment.

The recent literature on language intervention has become increasingly focused upon developing treatments that more closely parallel normal language acquisition. However, there have been relatively few reports that directly compare imitative procedures to conversational-interactive interventions. The purpose of the present study was to compare the relative effectiveness of imitative intervention and conversational recast language intervention applied to a wide range of grammatical morpheme and complex sentence targets in 21 children with specific language impairment. The results indicated that although both kinds of treatments were effective in triggering acquisition of most targets, consistently fewer presentations to first spontaneous use were required in the conversational procedure. In addition, the transition from elicited production to generalized spontaneous production was more rapid under conversation-interactive treatment. Finally, although imitation treatment was more effective in generating elicited production, a significantly greater number of spontaneous productions occurred under the conversational training procedures. The theoretical and applied ramifications of these findings are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1996

Effects of imitative and conversational recasting treatment on the acquisition of grammar in children with specific language impairment and younger language-normal children.

The purpose of the study was to compare the relative effectiveness of imitative treatment and conversational recast treatment in children with language impairment and in a group of children with normal language skills. Language treatment outcomes were compared between a group of older (4.7 to 6.7) specifically-language-impaired (SLI) children and a group of younger (2.2 to 4.2) language-normal (LN) children matched on language levels and on intervention targets. The results indicated: (a) Target acquisition was more rapid under conversational recast treatment for both groups: (b) This outcome held for targets absent initially (in pretreatment sampling and probing) as well as for initially partially mastered targets. (c) SLI children sometimes can learn grammatical structures as efficiently as language-normal children if similar language input is tailored to their specific developmental language levels. Implications of these findings for language treatment strategies with SLI children are discussed. Theoretical models compatible with the data also are considered.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

Look who's talking: a prospective study of familial transmission of language impairments.

Language impairments have been hypothesized to have a genetic component. Previous studies of the familial aggregation of language impairments have relied on a retrospective approach based on parental/self-reported history of language development. This study examined familial aggregation prospectively, by investigating language acquisition and cognitive development in the younger siblings and offspring of individuals with well-defined language impairments. It was predicted that children with a positive family history for language impairments would be more likely to show delays in language acquisition than would age- and gender-matched controls. Similar delays were not expected in nonlinguistic domains, such as conceptual, gestural, or general cognitive development. Ten children with a positive family history and 10 age- and gender-matched controls were tested. Analyses of linguistic and cognitive assessments at 16 to 26 months confirmed the predictions. Children with a family history of language impairments had lower receptive and expressive language scores than controls, with 50% of them scoring at least 1.5 SD below the mean for their age. At the same time, performance on a number of tasks that did not rely on language abilities did not differ as a function of family history. These results indicate that children with a positive family history for language impairments are at risk for language delay; the results also support a familial component to language impairments.

Birth Order↗
PubMed1995

Heavy drinking in the restaurant business: the role of social modelling and structural factors of the work-place.

The role of social modelling and structural factors of the work-place in predicting the probability of heavy drinking was investigated in a sample of 3267 Norwegian male and female waiters and cooks. In the logistic regression analysis, the probability of heavy drinking was increased by two social modelling factors and one structural factor. Having co-workers who, at least weekly, took an end-of-work drink at the work-place gave an odds ratio for heavy drinking of 2.8 (95% CI 1.9-4.1), and having co-workers who went out after work at least every week gave an odds ratio of 1.8 (95% CI 1.2-2.8). Working at a place with a liberal alcohol policy gave an odds ratio 1.5 (95% CI 1.1-2.2). Among the background factors, only household type significantly predicted heavy drinking. As compared with living with children, the odds for heavy drinking when living alone was 4.3 (95% CI 2.9-6.4). The results indicate that preventive measures in the restaurant business should not only concentrate on the individual, but also deal with factors related to the occupational activity that promote and sustain heavy drinking.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

The first hit: circumstances surrounding initiation into injecting.

Initiation into injecting is a crucial event for continued reproduction of an injecting drug using (IDU) population and for exposure to blood-borne viruses, but little is known about how this happens. Three hundred young injectors were interviewed in Melbourne by peer workers within the first few years of beginning to inject, about the circumstances surrounding their initiation. Most had indications of social disruption, including having left school early, unemployment, family disruption, homelessness and incarceration. First drug injected was most often amphetamines (average age 16 years), most having already used amphetamines by a different route of administration, but with a steady movement thereafter to heroin as the drug of choice. The most common scenario was one in which injecting was unplanned but the person was active in bringing about the initiation. Most identified a significant other who initiated them (few of whom were dealers), and over half had subsequently initiated others into injecting, on average 0.6 per year; after 5 years 237 young injectors had initiated at least 420 others. Those who initiated multiple others were more likely to be unemployed, to inject multiple drugs and to have dealt. Modelling injecting as a communicable phenomenon, where appropriate, may help estimate population dynamics among IDUs. Peer education programmes are likely to be the most effective harm reduction approach among new injectors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Do the younger siblings of learning-disabled children see them as similar or different?

Pre-school siblings' comments about, and behaviour towards, their older, learning-disabled brothers and sisters are reported. Initially, some of the very young siblings want to be similar, and attempt to imitate their brothers and sisters, particularly if he or she is also physically disabled; this may be because of the immediate visibility of physical disability, which makes it appear interesting and important to the younger child. Before they are 2 years old, children are able to recognize that their older brothers and sisters are different, and often imitate the parents' behaviour towards the older child.

Attitude↗
PubMed1996

Piagetian principles: simple and effective application.

A simplified version of Piaget's sensorimotor levels was employed to teach a group of 25 extremely impaired individuals who live in a large residential facility. Throughout the facility, all available formal assessments using the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales (VABS) were compared. Using this tool, an average of 13% of individuals from the common population pool increased their scores over a 6-year time period. All of the individuals who received training within the experimental group demonstrated increased scores. Scores increased such that an average gain of nearly 1 month in overall age equivalency per individual per year was realized. A matched group comparison, a prediction test for like sensorimotor skill attainment (the primary distinction of this curriculum methodology), and an historical review of subject skill training, all support the cognitively geared methodology as being primarily responsible for this accelerated progress.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2003

The essential role of Broca's area in imitation.

The posterior sector of Broca's area (Brodmann area 44), a brain region critical for language, may have evolved from neurons active during observation and execution of manual movements. Imaging studies showing increased Broca's activity during execution, imagination, imitation and observation of hand movements support this hypothesis. Increased Broca's activity in motor task, however, may simply be due to inner speech. To test whether Broca's area is essential to imitation, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), which is known to transiently disrupt functions in stimulated areas. Subjects imitated finger key presses (imitation) or executed finger key presses in response to spatial cues (control task). While performing the tasks, subjects received rTMS over the left and right pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus (where Brodmann area 44 is probabilistically located) and over the occipital cortex. There was significant impairment in imitation, but not in the control task, during rTMS over left and right pars opercularis compared to rTMS over the occipital cortex. This suggests that Broca's area is a premotor region essential to finger movement imitation.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Mirror neurons responding to the observation of ingestive and communicative mouth actions in the monkey ventral premotor cortex.

In the ventral premotor cortex (area F5) of the monkey there are neurons that discharge both when the monkey performs specific motor actions and when it observes another individual performing a similar action (mirror neurons). Previous studies on mirror neurons concerned hand actions. Here, we describe the mirror responses of F5 neurons that motorically code mouth actions. The results showed that about one-third of mouth motor neurons also discharge when the monkey observes another individual performing mouth actions. The majority of these 'mouth mirror neurons' become active during the execution and observation of mouth actions related to ingestive functions such as grasping, sucking or breaking food. Another population of mouth mirror neurons also discharges during the execution of ingestive actions, but the most effective visual stimuli in triggering them are communicative mouth gestures (e.g. lip smacking). Some also fire when the monkey makes communicative gestures. These findings extend the notion of mirror system from hand to mouth action and suggest that area F5, the area considered to be the homologue of human Broca's area, is also involved in communicative functions.

Action Potentials↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The effect of prior practice on memory reactivation and generalization.

Three experiments examined the effect of practice on memory performance by 18-month-old infants. Infants were tested using an imitation paradigm; an adult demonstrated a series of actions with objects and infants were given the opportunity to reproduce those actions following a delay. Some infants practiced the target actions before the retention interval (practice) and some did not (no practice). In Experiment 1, a reminder treatment alleviated forgetting by infants who practiced but failed to alleviate forgetting by infants who did not practice. In Experiments 2A and 2B, infants who practiced generalized to novel test stimuli after a 24-hr delay, whereas infants without practice did not. Results suggest practice influences the accessibility and generality of infants' memories.

Attention↗