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Biomedical subjects

B Y Terrell

Publications and source records attributed to B Y Terrell.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1988

Patterns of discourse cohesion and coherence in Alzheimer's disease.

Patterns of discourse--as reflected in the use of propositions, cohesion devices, and in judgments of coherence--in the speech of 6 well elderly and 6 patients with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) during topic-centered interviews were compared. Compared to the well elderly, SDAT patients used significantly more words and conversational turns. The interviewer also used more words and turns when interviewing SDAT patients, making those interviews more lengthy and more interactive than those of the elderly comparison group. Although significant differences in propositional form and cohesion devices were not found, a pattern of cohesion disruptions in SDAT patients was identified that appears consistent with previously noted patterns of language dissolution. Coherence judgements by four listeners showed significant differences between the two groups. The breakdowns in coherence were related to one subtype of cohesion disruption, missing element. This suggests that incoherence may result in part from a loss of the ability to take the listener's perspective in developing thematic structure during conversation. It is argued that SDAT results not only in the impairment of linguistic abilities but also in the impairment of discourse abilities that contribute to Alzheimer patients' incoherent speech.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Object transformations in the play of language-impaired children.

The play behavior of 10 language-impaired children was observed. Their performances in play were compared to those of 10 normal-language children matched for chronological age as well as to those of 10 normal-language children matched for mean length of utterance. The children were observed as they played spontaneously with a standard group of toys and as they played with objects that required object transformations for successful play. The chronological age-matched normal subjects showed a trend toward performance of more object transformations in play than either the language-impaired or younger normal-language children. Additionally, although object transformations were observed in both segments, all children performed more object transformations with objects than with toys.

Child↗
PubMed1985

Facilitating word combination in language-impaired children through discourse structure.

The influence of an adult-child discourse structure on the production of early word combinations was examined in language-impaired children. The subjects were 10 children (2:8-3:4) at the single-word utterance level. Eight of the children were engaged in 10 experimental sessions utilizing vertical structures (e.g., Adult: "Who's this?" Child: "Daddy." Adult: "What's Daddy throwing?" Child: "Ball." Adult: "Yeah, Daddy's throwing the ball."), while the remaining children, serving as controls, were engaged in an alternate activity. Examination of pretest and posttest data as well as session data revealed a substantial increase in the number of multiword productions for most of the children in the experimental group but not for the children serving as controls. These findings indicate that vertical structures have a facilitating effect on the multiword productions of language-impaired children comparable to that found in an identical procedure with normally developing children. The use of a naturally occurring adult-child discourse structure as an intervention procedure is discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1984

Symbolic play in normal and language-impaired children.

The symbolic play of 15 normally developing (CA, 16-22 months) and 15 language-impaired children (CA, 32-49 months), whose productive language skills were at the single-word utterance level, was compared. Symbolic play was assessed formally through the Symbolic Play Test and informally through the observation of spontaneous play. The language-impaired children were found to be developmentally advanced when compared to the language-matched normal children in the level and direction of their symbolic play. Relative to age norms, however, the language-impaired children evidenced deficits in symbolic play. Thus, their linguistic and symbolic play abilities were not equally impaired. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the relationship between symbolic play and language and for the nature of specific language impairment.

Child Behavior↗