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Biomedical subjects

L B Leonard

Publications and source records attributed to L B Leonard.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Conversational replies of children with specific language impairment.

Conversational replies were examined in two groups of children with comparable vocabularies and speech limited to single-word utterances: children with specific language impairment, ages 2:10 to 3:6 (years:months); and children, ages 1:5 to 1:11, who were developing language normally. In interactions with adults the language-impaired children produced a greater number and variety of replies to both questions and statements than the normal-language children. The findings suggest that language-impaired children can serve as responsive conversationalists when syntactic skill is not a factor and that comprehension, world knowledge, and/or experience with conversations permit considerable variability in conversational skill even within the same level of expressive language ability.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1985

Unusual and subtle phonological behavior in the speech of phonologically disordered children.

Evidence is reviewed regarding three types of unusual and/or subtle phonological behaviors in the speech of phonologically disordered children. The models of child phonology that are compatible with these behaviors are then discussed. Considered are the nature of the child's stored forms for words, the types of rules operating on these forms as well as those responsible for the surface form of the words, and the nature of the phonological categories reflected in the child's usage. The paper concludes with the implications these considerations have for assessment and treatment.

Child↗
PubMed1985

Lexical imitation and acquisition in language-impaired children.

This investigation examined the influence of unsolicited lexical imitation on the comprehension and on the production of novel words by language-impaired children. Subjects were 13 children (2:8-3:1) exhibiting specific language impairment who were presented with 16 unfamiliar words referring to unfamiliar objects or actions over 10 experimental sessions. Unsolicited imitations appeared to facilitate subsequent production of these words on a posttest. This effect was greatest when these words were also produced spontaneously prior to the posttest. Words that were produced imitatively and spontaneously also appeared more frequently in spontaneous usage than words that were only produced spontaneously. No relationship between such imitations and comprehension was observed. These findings suggest that unsolicited imitations benefit children's lexical acquisition primarily by providing them with additional opportunities to produce words that are in the process of being established in their expressive lexicons.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1985

Perceived contrastive stress production in hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children.

Contrastive stress production patterns of 20 moderate-to-severely hearing-impaired children, aged 4:5-18:2 (years:months), were compared with those of 20 normal-hearing children, aged 3:7-6:7. The groups were matched on the basis of a linguistic measure, mean length of utterance. Analyses of judges' responses to the speakers' audiotapes recorded during a conversation-based task yielded evidence of similar production patterns for the groups although considerable individual performance variation was noted. This finding supports the view that language-matched normal and hearing-impaired children may not be very different in their production of this prosodic cue. Results of this study further support the idea that prosodic features of the speech signal enhance intelligibility, a factor which merits consideration in the intelligibility assessment and training of hearing-impaired children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Homonymy and the voiced-voiceless distinction in the speech of children with specific language impairment.

Two studies are reported in which homonymy in the speech of children with specific language impairment (SLI) was examined. In the first study, the degree of homonymy reflected in the speech of 14 SLI children was found to resemble that seen in the speech of a group of language-matched children with normal language (NL). Within each group there was considerable variation in the degree of homonymy observed. An examination of the sound changes that contributed to the children's use of homonymy suggested that homonyms arising from prevocalic voicing were more frequent in the speech of the NL children. The second study represented a more systematic examination of prevocalic voicing differences between NL and SLI children. Minimal pairs differing only in the voicing feature of the initial consonant were produced by four SLI and four language-matched NL children. The SLI children showed greater ability to distinguish the minimal pairs by means of a voiced-voiceless initial consonant contrast, as measured by voice onset time as well as by phonetic transcription. The linguistic and neuromotor factors contributing to the findings are discussed.

Articulation Disorders↗
PubMed1984

Nature and boundaries of phonologic categories: a case study of an unusual phonologic pattern in a language-impaired child.

This paper presents a detailed examination of an unusual phonologic pattern reflected in the speech of a language-impaired child. The most salient characteristic of this child's speech was the use of [s] in final position of all words except those containing final oral or nasal bilabials. Her pattern seemed best described as reflecting only two canonical forms for word production, CVC and CVCVC, and a dominant word-final category possessing a family resemblance structure with [s] as the prototype. Training was instituted to increase the number of appropriate categories in the child's phonologic system. Training on word-final [f] and [d] was successful. However, training on [d] seemed to result in the creation of a second category with family resemblance structure. The clinical and theoretical implications of this child's phonologic pattern are discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1984

Words, objects, and actions in early lexical acquisition.

The influences of referent type (Objects vs. Actions) and within-category referent relationships (functionally similar vs. perceptually similar) upon children's acquisition of lexical concepts were examined. Twelve children aged 12 1/2-15 1/2 months at the outset served as subjects. During 10 experimental sessions over a period of 3-4 months the children were presented with 16 contrived lexical concepts. Each concept consisted of a nonsense word and four objects or four actions which served as the referents for that word. The children acquired object words and concepts in greater numbers than action words and concepts, suggestive of differences in the underlying complexity or structure of object and action concepts. The lack of significant differences in the acquisition of perceptually based and functionally based concepts suggests that children at this point in development may base lexical concepts on perceptual or functional attributes.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed1984

Syntactic and conceptual factors in children's understanding of metaphors.

A multiple-choice listening task was designed in which 7- and 9-year-old children (n = 30 per group) were presented with nine instances of four different types of metaphoric sentences: perceptual-predicative, psychological-predicative, perceptual-proportional, and psychological-proportional. When factors of memory and attention, sentence length, semantics, and novelty were controlled for, proportional metaphors proved to be significantly more difficult than predicative, but perceptual did not differ from psychological in ease of understanding. No interactions were significant. Nine-year-olds demonstrated metaphoric understanding superior to that of 7-year-olds, despite the fact that children of both ages were familiar with the underlying semantic features of the metaphors and understood all key words at a literal level. Implications for future research are discussed.

Attention↗
PubMed1984

Partner age as a variable in the conversational performance of specifically language-impaired and normal-language children.

The language used by a group of 4 1/2-6-year-old specifically language-impaired (SLI) children, a group of same-aged normal-language (NL) children, and a group of younger NL children were observed in three dyadic contexts: with an adult female, with a peer, and with a toddler. Ten measures were selected to analyze the children's performance across partner contexts. The results revealed that the SLI children were as assertive in the conversations as were the children in the same-aged NL group. Further, the SLI children modified their language in the same manner and to the same extent as the same-aged NL children on all but three measures: use of internal state questions, mean length of utterance, and mean preverb length. Their ability to adapt their speech based on the age-related characteristics of the partner appeared at times to be greater than that of the younger NL children.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Returning meaning to semantic relations: some clinical applications.

Two approaches for analyzing the meanings reflected in children's early word combinations are illustrated for possible application in the clinical setting. The first approach is interpretive in nature and involves detailed analysis of spontaneous speech. The second approach uses individualized probes that are designed to isolate the semantic factors involved in children's word combination patterns. Although both approaches have limitations, it is argued that each provides significantly more clinical information than assigning a child's utterances to predetermined semantic relation categories.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1983

Inappropriate word extensions in the speech of young language-disordered children.

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of inappropriate word extensions in the spontaneous speech of young language-disordered children, and how these extensions should be characterized. Inappropriate word extensions were identified and tested, first in a production task and then in a comprehension task for nine language-disordered children (age 2:8 to 3:4). Results indicated that the percentage of inappropriate word extensions seen in the speech of these children was comparable to that seen in normal children at the same level of linguistic development. As with normal children, these inappropriate word extensions reflected varying levels of lexical knowledge. The findings of this study are discussed in terms of their clinical applicability for lexical training with language-disordered children.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1983

Linguistic and nonlinguistic features of style in normal and language-impaired children.

This study explored two questions concerning the language-learning styles described in recent investigations of early child language. The first question was whether features suggestive of language-learning style, for example, extent of pronoun use, jargon-like speech, formulaic speech, and certain play behaviors occurred in clusters consistent with the specific lexical distribution patterns of young normal children delineated by Nelson (1973). The second portion of the study addressed whether language-impaired children could be characterized as reflecting the same language-learning styles attributed to normal children. Eight children, four normally-developing and four language-impaired, were classified as "referential" or "expressive" speakers on the basis of their lexical distribution. For both the normal and language-impaired children, linguistic features suggested in the literature as correlating to one or another language-learning style were found to exist in clusters consistent with the children's pattern of lexical distribution. In addition, analyses of videotaped samples coded for the focus and context of the normal and language-impaired children's play behaviors revealed object-based and social-interaction-based activities that were generally consistent with the children's lexical distribution.

Child Language↗
PubMed1983

Performative and presuppositional skills in language-disordered and normal children.

The presuppositional and performative abilities of language-disordered and normal children were compared, controlling for the children's ability to use the lexical items required in the experimental tasks. Subjects were 36 children, 18 normal and 18 language-disordered, functioning at a single-word level of linguistic development. Results revealed that both the language-disordered and the normal children showed a tendency to encode changing rather than unchanging situational elements. The two groups of children also demonstrated similar levels of imperative and declarative performance intent. For both groups, performative and presuppositional behaviors were usually in the form of word productions. Discrepancies between the findings of this and other investigations are discussed with respect to the size of the children's lexicons, their expressive command of the lexicon, chronological age, and representational skills.

Child Language↗
PubMed1983

Picture naming in language-impaired children.

A picture-naming task was used to examine word-finding problems in language-impaired children. The subjects included 20 language-impaired children, 20 normal children matched to the language-impaired children for chronological age, and 20 normal children matched to the language-impaired children on a composite index of language age. Children were shown 64 pictures of objects and asked to name each as rapidly as possible. The principal findings were that (a) pictures of objects with more frequently occurring names were named more rapidly than pictures of objects with less frequently occurring names; (b) language-imparied children named pictures less rapidly than their chronological-age peers but more rapidly than their language-age peers; and (c) the effects of frequency of occurrence on naming time were comparable for all three groups of children. Factors that may have accounted for the findings are discussed.

Child↗