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Biomedical subjects

G Conti-Ramsden

Publications and source records attributed to G Conti-Ramsden.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Mother-child dialogues: a comparison of normal and language impaired children.

This study explored similarities and differences in the dialogue of mother-child dyads with normal and language impaired children. The dialogue code used in this study assessed the child's ability to participate and sustain dialogue, and the mothers' ability to adjust to their children's level of functioning in discourse. It was found that: Language impaired children are not as skilled as younger normal language learning children of the same language stage in their ability to participate and maintain conversation; and that mothers of both normal and language impaired children adjust their language to meet the needs of their conversational partners. Implications for the language impaired mother-child dyad are discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1983

Mothers' discourse adjustments to language-impaired and non-language-impaired children.

Mother's discourse adjustments addressed to language-impaired children and non-language-impaired children were studied. Mother-child dyads with 14 language-impaired children and 14 MLU-matched non-language-impaired children served as subjects. The mothers' discourse was compared on the following measures: meaning illocutions, cohesion ilocutions, and dialogue participation. The children's participation in dialogue was also analyzed. Results indicated that the mothers' speech addressed to the two groups of children was highly similar, but the discourse performance of the language-impaired children was not like that of the non-language-impaired children. The clinical implications of these findings for the language-impaired population are discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Non-word repetition and language development in children with specific language impairment (SLI).

Non-word repetition has previously been found to correlate with language outcomes both in children who are language impaired and in those who are developing normally. This paper concerns a group of children identified as having specific language impairment (SLI) and follows the methods of Adams and Gathercole (2000) by taking children with the highest and the lowest non-word repetition scores at age 11. These children's language and literacy abilities were then compared. Despite the fact that high and low scorers were matched on Performance IQ tasks (Block Design and Picture Completion), all linguistic measures except for vocabulary assessments showed significant differences between the groups. The fact that these differences were present despite block design scores being identical for the two groups suggests that more than a general working memory deficit underlies the language difficulties. Furthermore, significant differences were noted on a digit-span task requiring processing and production of number words. A specific phonological memory difficulty may therefore be present over and above a subtle but more general processing limitation. The implications for SLI theory and practice are discussed.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Verb schema use and input dependence in 5-year-old children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI).

BACKGROUND: It has been argued that children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) use language in a conservative manner. For example, they are reluctant to produce word-plus-frame combinations that they have not heard in the input. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that their utterances replicate lexical and syntactic material from the immediate language environment. AIMS: This study investigated further the linguistic conservatism of children with SLI. It addressed the hypothesis that these children have difficulties using syntactic schemas in a verb-general manner. It employed a technique pioneered by Childers and Tomasello in 2001 that aims to develop verb-general representations through the presentation of appropriate exemplars. In addition, it tested the hypothesis that children with SLI present with input-dependent language use. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Twenty-four children with SLI (mean age 5;6 years) were matched to 23 typically developing children (mean age 3;5 years) on overall language abilities. The children experienced play sessions designed to simulate exemplar-based learning. Facilitative exemplars consisted of sentences that alternated between nouns and pronouns in the argument slots, e.g. 'Pooh's churning the plate. See, he's churning it'. The children were divided evenly into two groups. One group experienced facilitative exemplars, while the other group heard exemplars with no variation in the argument positions. The training effect was assessed with a procedure in which the children heard novel verbs in a non-transitive frame and were required to produce them in a transitive frame. In addition, the argument types of the children's responses (nouns versus pronouns) were analysed to investigate the issue of input dependence. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Few of the children produced novel verbs in the transitive. This result may indicate difficulties using the transitive, although a number of methodological difficulties may be responsible for this finding. As hypothesized, the children with SLI demonstrated greater input dependence in terms of the kind of arguments they used in responses during the training sessions. CONCLUSIONS: Potential reasons for the low response rate of both groups during the testing stage are explored and a number of methodological adjustments proposed. It is argued that the greater input dependence of the children with SLI may reflect a tendency to reduce processing load within a limited capacity system. It is proposed that input dependence could be a fruitful new area for SLI research and an important issue in the design and delivery of therapy programmes.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Characteristics of children attending language units in England: a national study of 7-year-olds.

The present investigation examined the characteristics of 7-year-old children attending language units in England. The study involved 242 participants who represented a randomized sample of all 7-year-old children spending 50% of more of the school week in a language unit. Results are discussed in terms of the following questions: what is the non-verbal ability of children attending language units?; do children attending language units fit the discrepancy criteria between verbal and non-verbal ability diagnostic of specific language impairment (SLI)?; and what types of language difficulties do children with SLI attending language units have?

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Follow-up of children attending infant language units: outcomes at 11 years of age.

A large cohort of 242 children who had been attending infants language units at 7 years of age was followed up when the children were in their final year of primary school. Two hundred (83%) of the children were reassessed at 11 years of age on a wide battery of language and literacy measures, on a test of non-verbal ability, an autism checklist and a communication checklist. In total, 89% of children still scored < 1 SD from the mean on at least one test of language and the majority (63%) scored poorly on three or more assessments demonstrating widespread difficulties. Compared with non-verbal abilities at 7 years of age, a large proportion of the cohort also performed poorly on performance IQ subtests (28%). A further 10 children scored highly on a checklist for autistic spectrum disorder. Thus, only 115 (58%) children could be said to meet criteria for specific language impairment. A small group of 16 children appeared to have entirely resolved their difficulties. These outcomes and their implications for education and long-term impact of the disorder are discussed.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Non-word repetition and grammatical morphology: normative data for children in their final year of primary school.

It is likely that tests of phonological short-term memory (non-word repetition) and grammatical morphology (past tense, third-person singular) are clinical markers for specific language impairment (SLI). The study provides normative data on three specific tests covering the aforementioned areas for 100 children attending the final year of primary schooling (10-11 year olds). Data from typically developing age controls can be used to provide a benchmark against which to compare the ability of language-impaired children. This is particularly important given that the transition from primary to secondary schooling is a key stage in a child's education.

Analysis of Variance↗