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PubMed2004

Language development in children at risk for language impairment: cross-population comparisons.

At 3 years of age the spontaneous language of 17 typically developing children was compared to two groups of toddlers who were at risk for language delay for very different reasons. One at-risk group, late talkers, appeared normal in all respects except for their delayed language. These 20 children scored at or below the fifteenth percentile for expressive vocabulary on the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (Fenson et al., 1993) when originally identified at 20-27 months of age and within the normal range on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 1969). The other group, 21 children with unilateral focal brain injury, suffered localized damage to their brain prenatally, perinatally, or within the first 6 months of life. Results indicated that both of the at-risk groups were still significantly lower in vocabulary diversity and grammar at 3 years of age. There was also significantly greater variability in the at-risk groups than in the control groups, and in the children with focal brain injury than in the late talkers in both areas. The importance of language comprehension to development in this period was supported by two findings. First, children with focal brain injury had significantly lower scores than late talkers on the Index of Productive Syntax, a test of emerging grammar, and had been lower in comprehension on a standardized test of language comprehension a year earlier. Second, late talkers with delay in comprehension as well as production had significantly lower scores on IPSyn than those with normal comprehension, suggesting that they are at greater risk for continued delay. Qualitative analyses indicated that the at-risk groups produced the same kinds of errors, but that late talkers produced a substantially greater proportion of errors in obligatory contexts than did children with focal brain injury.

Brain Injuries↗

PubMed2003

Atypical hemispheric language dominance in left temporal lobe epilepsy as a result of the reorganization of language functions.

Hemispheric language dominance, as determined by intracarotid short-acting barbiturate injections (Wada testing), was retrospectively evaluated in 44 right-handed patients with medically intractable left (n=26) or right (n=18) temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Atypical hemispheric language dominance (right or bilateral) was revealed in 13.6% of all patients investigated. A significantly higher rate of deviance from complete left hemisphere dominance was observed in left TLE (23.1%) than in right TLE (0%). Patient age at the time of seizure onset was proven a critical variable affecting atypical speech development in left TLE. The mean patient age at the time of seizure onset in left TLE patients with atypical language representation was 5.61 years, but was 13.13 years in patients with left hemisphere language dominance. Our results strongly support the influential impact of epileptiform activity spreading from the left temporal lobe structures on the reorganization of language functions in patients with early brain injury.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1977

Influence of certain language and communication environments in early childhood on the development of language in deaf individuals.

Four groups of deaf subjects between the age of 10-0 and 18-11 years were tested, employing the Test of Syntactic Ability, and the language subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test, in a study of the influence of early language and communication environment on later syntactic language ability. The groups, 18 subjects in each, were dichotomized by whether the parents were hearing or deaf and further subgrouped by the language ability of the parents if the parents were deaf, and by the amount and intensity of oral preschool training provided by the parents if the parents were hearing. The groups were labeled by the type of language used with them in infancy and early childhood: manual English, average manual, intensive oral, and average oral. Results showed significant superiority of the manual English group over the two oral groups on five of the six major test structures of the Test of Syntactic Ability. On the Stanford Achievement Test, the manual English group performed significantly better than the other three groups on all four subtests. The two manual groups performed significantly better than the two oral groups on every test measure employed.

Achievement↗

PubMed1991

The use of an invented language rule in the differentiation of normal and language-impaired Spanish-speaking children.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the results of a language-teaching procedure could be used to identify specific language-impaired children in a group of bilingual children with limited English proficiency (LEP). An invented morpheme was taught to two groups of LEP children who had been previously identified as normal and specific language-impaired. The language-impaired group learned the morpheme at a slower rate than the normal children, thus allowing the two groups to be differentiated. The approach promises to circumvent many of the obstacles that impede current practices for identifying language impairment in the LEP population.

Child↗

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

Pragmatic language impairment and social deficits in Williams syndrome: a comparison with Down's syndrome and specific language impairment.

BACKGROUND: The social communication strength of individuals with Williams syndrome described by some researchers contrasts with the picture of social difficulties painted by others. AIMS: To study the pragmatic aspects of language, social relationships and unusual interests in a group of children and adults with Williams syndrome, and to compare them with a group of children and adults with Down's syndrome, children with specific language impairment, and a group of typically developing children. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Parents or teachers completed the Children's Communication Checklist or a modified version of it with wording appropriate for adults. Study groups consisted of 19 children and young adults with Williams syndrome, 24 with Down's syndrome, 17 children with specific language impairment and 32 typically developing children. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Checklist ratings for the group with Williams syndrome indicated significant levels of pragmatic language impairment, and difficulties with social relationships. Together with evidence of unusual or restricted interests, the results suggested deficits across all three domains covered by the checklist. CONCLUSIONS: Despite earlier reports that emphasize a strong social interest and empathy, this study suggests that individuals with Williams syndrome have pragmatic language impairments, poor social relationships and restricted interests. Far from representing the polar opposite of autism, as suggested by some researchers, Williams syndrome would seem to share many of the characteristics of autistic disorder.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[FOXP2: from the specific disorder to the molecular biology of language. II. Implications for the ontogenesis and phylogenesis of language].

INTRODUCTION: Cloning FOXP2, the first gene linked to a hereditary variant of specific language impairment (SLI), has allowed researchers to conduct more precise studies into the nature and developmental path of the molecular bases governing the organisation and functioning of the neuron centres responsible for language processing. DEVELOPMENT: The FOXP2 gene codes for a transcriptional repressor that regulates the proliferation and/or migration of certain neuronal populations in the basal ganglia, cortex, cerebellum and thalamus, and presumably plays a part in the organisation and/or functioning of the fronto-thalamic-striatal system. Moreover, the analysis of the developmental history of the gene suggests that the transcriptional factor FOXP2, although it is quite old, has undergone certain modifications in its secondary structure and has acquired a potential site for phosphorylation for protein kinase C during the recent developmental history of the human species. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence discussed in this article allows us to suggest FOXP2 plays a significant role in the ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of language. On the one hand, it seems to validate certain general models of linguistic processing that call for a more important role of the subcortical structures (above all for the basal ganglia) in that processing. On the other hand, it seems to suggest that the modifications undergone by FOXP2 would have also allowed certain regions (such as Broca's area) to be recruited for language, either by facilitating the appearance of syntax and/or verbal working memory or by transferring control of articulation to those regions, thereby laying down the foundations for the appearance of spoken language.

Brain↗

PubMed1996

Scope of practice in speech-language pathology. Ad Hoc Committee on Scope of Practice in Speech-Language Pathology.

This scope of practice in speech-language pathology statement is an official policy of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). It was developed by the Ad Hoc Committee on Scope of Practice in Speech-Language Pathology: Sarah W. Blackstone, chair; Diane Paul-Brown, ex officio; David A. Brandt; Rhonda Friedlander; Luis F. Riquelme; and Mark Ylvisaker. Crystal S. Cooper, vice president for professional practices in speech-language pathology, served as monitoring vice-president. The contributions of the editor, Jude Langsam, and select the widespread peer reviewers are grateful acknowledged. This statement supersedes the Scope of Practice, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology statement (LC 6-89), Asha, April 1990, 1-2.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association↗

PubMed1994

Bound-morpheme skills in the oral language of school-age, language-impaired children.

Bound-morphine skills of school-age, language-impaired (LI) children were explored with three tasks designed to assess multiple dimensions of this component of language. Ten English-speaking, school-age LI children (Mean age: 10:3) and ten children with normal language (Mean age: 9:9) served as subjects. A two-way analysis of variance revealed significant group differences. Fisher a priori testing documented significant group differences for a measure of English bound-morpheme skill levels, a measure of ability to generalize English bound-morphemes to novel words, and a measure of ability to learn novel bound-morphemes attached to novel words. The findings indicate that core features of developmental language impairment in preschool children--poor ability to learn, to use, and to generalize bound-morphemes--are also present in school-age, LI children.

Child↗

PubMed2006

Language acquisition is language change.

According to the theory of Universal Grammar, the primary linguistic data guides children through an innately specified space of hypotheses. On this view, similarities between child-English and adult-German are as unsurprising as similarities between cousins who have never met. By contrast, experience-based approaches to language acquisition contend that child language matches the input, with nonadult forms being simply less articulated versions of the forms produced by adults. This paper reports several studies that provide support for the theory of Universal grammar, and resist explanation on experience-based accounts. Two studies investigate English-speaking children's productions, and a third examines the interpretation of sentences by Japanese speaking children. When considered against the input children are exposed to, the findings of these and other studies are consistent with the continuity hypothesis, which supposes that child language can differ from the language spoken by adults only in ways that adult languages can differ from each other.

Child↗

PubMed1989

Electrocorticographic (ECoG) correlates of language. I. Desynchronization in temporal language cortex during object naming.

The electrocorticogram (ECoG) was recorded during a language task, silent naming, from sites identified as essential for naming by electrical stimulation mapping and from surrounding cortex of left dominant temporal cortex at craniotomies under local anesthesia. The ECoG was analyzed quantitatively for a reduction in spectral density in 7-12 Hz frequencies indicating 'desynchronization.' These measurements were made on the averaged ECoG in 3 subjects and on individual ECoG segments in 4. Statistically significant increases in desynchronization were identified during silent naming at most sites essential for language, most often in the epoch from 700 to 1200 msec after presentation of the item to be named. During silent naming, there was a greater degree of desynchronization at those sites than in surrounding cortex. At several sites essential for language in several subjects, significantly less desynchronization was evident during a spatial task using physically identical stimuli. Thus, localized desynchronization in temporal cortex is an ECoG change with temporal, anatomic, and sometimes behavioral specificity to a language task. This finding provides insights into cortical physiologic mechanisms active during human language.

Adult↗

PubMed1985

The relationship between auditory temporal analysis and receptive language development: evidence from studies of developmental language disorder.

The relationship between sensory, perceptual and motor abilities and receptive language abilities was studied in developmental dysphasic children. The tests administered included experimental auditory, visual and cross-modal perceptual tests. In addition, a battery of neurodevelopmental "soft sign" sensory, perceptual and motor tests were also given. Demographic and case history data were collected. Receptive language was derived based upon a battery of standardized language tests. Multivariate analyses were employed to examine the relationship between receptive language and sensory, perceptual and motor abilities. Results demonstrated that auditory perceptual variables, specifically those requiring rapid temporal analysis, were most highly correlated with the degree of receptive language deficit of the dysphasic children.

Aphasia↗

PubMed2006

Decreased white-matter density in a left-sided fronto-temporal network in children with developmental language disorder: evidence for anatomical anomalies in a motor-language network.

The neurophysiological and neuroanatomical foundations of developmental language disorder (DLD) are still a matter of dispute. A main argument is that children with DLD show atypical anatomical asymmetries of speech-relevant brain areas, which possibly affect efficient language processing. In contrast to previous anatomical studies in DLD children, this study employed voxel based morphometry (VBM) in order to search for brain anomalies outside the classical language areas. Children with DLD (n=21) and healthy children (n=21) matched for age, sex, hand preference, and education were studied using high-resolution MRI scans. Using a new variant of the voxel-based morphometry technique (augmented VBM), the brains of children with DLD and control children were compared with respect to white matter (WM) and grey matter (GM) differences. In addition, simple hand motor tests were used to uncover possible motor impairments in DLD children. We found decreased WM volumes in a left-hemispheric network comprising the motor cortex, the dorsal premotor cortex, the ventral premotor cortex, and the planum polare on the superior temporal gyrus. In addition, DLD children exhibited motor impairments in most of the applied motor tests. These results provide strong evidence that children with DLD have anomalous anatomy in a left-sided network comprising motor and language areas. Thus, this study supports the suggestion that motor and language functions are equally impaired because the underlying anatomical underpinnings are regionally identical.

Brain↗

PubMed2005

Effects of language experience: neural commitment to language-specific auditory patterns.

Linguistic experience alters an individual's perception of speech. We here provide evidence of the effects of language experience at the neural level from two magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies that compare adult American and Japanese listeners' phonetic processing. The experimental stimuli were American English /ra/ and /la/ syllables, phonemic in English but not in Japanese. In Experiment 1, the control stimuli were /ba/ and /wa/ syllables, phonemic in both languages; in Experiment 2, they were non-speech replicas of /ra/ and /la/. The behavioral and neuromagnetic results showed that Japanese listeners were less sensitive to the phonemic /r-l/ difference than American listeners. Furthermore, processing non-native speech sounds recruited significantly greater brain resources in both hemispheres and required a significantly longer period of brain activation in two regions, the superior temporal area and the inferior parietal area. The control stimuli showed no significant differences except that the duration effect in the superior temporal cortex also applied to the non-speech replicas. We argue that early exposure to a particular language produces a "neural commitment" to the acoustic properties of that language and that this neural commitment interferes with foreign language processing, making it less efficient.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1978

Verbal information gathering strategies: the child's use of language to acquire language.

Recent investigations suggest that normally developing infants are active participants in a language-transmission partnership with the mature speakers in their environments. In a recent paper, (Snyder, McLean, 1977) we noted that available data suggest several specific language acquisition strategies exhibited by children in these interactions. While the earlier paper focused on a set of posited nonverbal strategies, this sequel focuses on two broad types of early verbal behavior that function as effective strategies for the language-learning child. These posited verbal acquisition strategies are referred to as selective imitation and metalinguistic utterance production. The conflicting theory and data on the role of early verbal imitation are reviewed, and it is concluded that selective imitation is most functional at specific stages of the language acquisition process. A hierarchy of metalinguistic utterance types is suggested, ranging from those reflecting the highest apparent intentionality (that is, interrogative utterances) to those reflecting the least (referred to as evocative utterances). Suggestions for future research are offered and implications for language intervention are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioural patterns of conflict resolution strategies in preschool boys with language impairment in comparison with boys with typical language development.

BACKGROUND: Children with language impairment (LI) experience social difficulties, including conflict management. This paper is therefore motivated to examine behavioural processes guiding preschool peer conflict progression, which ultimately contributes to overall development. AIMS: To describe behavioural sequences in conflicts between children with typically developing language (TL) and between children with LI. Attention is particularly focused on the conflict resolution strategy reconciliation, i.e. friendly contact between former opponents shortly following conflict termination. It is hypothesized that children with LI, with weaker language skills, experience difficulties attaining effective reconciliation. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Unstructured play of 11 boys with LI (4-7-years-old), at a specialized language preschool, and 20 TL boys (4-6-years-old), at mainstream preschools, were video filmed. Conflicts were identified and recorded according to a validated coding system. Recorded conflict details included behavioural sequences constituting conflict cause (conflict period) and in the post-conflict period, reconciliatory behaviours that were classified into six 'categories' (Invitation to play, Body contact, Object offer, Verbal apology, Self-ridicule, Cognition, i.e. offering privileges/negotiating) and the verbal character of accepted behaviours were determined. The mean proportion of individual target children's conflicts in which specific behavioural sequences had occurred were calculated and thereafter compared between and within the groups. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Boys with LI reconcile fewer conflicts than TL boys (LI: 47.3 +/- 4.5%; TL: 63.6 +/- 2.0%). Contributory factors include the occurrence of conflicts caused by aberrance, i.e. conflicts initiated by inappropriate behavioural play intensities (i.e. 'a pillow fight' where one partner swings so intensively the other partner cannot participate as a player in the game) and protests that are no longer directed to the opponent within reciprocal exchanges, but escalate to screaming/physical ranting. Aberrant caused conflicts were rarely observed as the conflict cause for TL boys, but represent nearly 15% of LI conflicts and aberrant caused conflicts are reconciled at lower rates than conflicts not caused by aberrance. Displayed reconciliatory behaviours were accepted by opponents at similar rates in both groups and the distribution of reconciliatory behavioural 'categories' was similar between the groups. However, boys with LI attempt reconciliation in relatively fewer conflicts. In addition, the individual boys with LI attain reconciliation with strictly verbal reconciliatory behaviours in a smaller proportion of conflicts. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that in addition to traditional psycholinguistic remediation, intervention programmes for children with LI should address that learned language and communication skills are applied effectively in initiating and maintaining naturalistic peer interactions.

Case-Control Studies↗

PubMed2005

Comparing action gestures and classifier verbs of motion: evidence from Australian Sign Language, Taiwan Sign Language, and nonsigners' gestures without speech.

Recent research into signed languages indicates that signs may share some properties with gesture, especially in the use of space in classifier constructions. A prediction of this proposal is that there will be similarities in the representation of motion events by sign-naive gesturers and by native signers of unrelated signed languages. This prediction is tested for deaf native signers of Australian Sign Language (Auslan), deaf signers of Taiwan Sign Language (TSL), and hearing nonsigners using the Verbs of Motion Production task from the Test Battery for American Sign Language (ASL) Morphology and Syntax. Results indicate that differences between the responses of nonsigners, Auslan signers, and TSL signers and the expected ASL responses are greatest with handshape units; movement and location units appear to be very similar. Although not definitive, these data are consistent with the claim that classifier constructions are blends of linguistic and gestural elements.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Twins as a natural experiment to study the causes of mild language delay: I: Design; twin-singleton differences in language, and obstetric risks.

BACKGROUND: Twins tend to lag behind singletons in their language development, but the causes were unknown. The possibilities suggested include obstetric complications, twin-specific features, and postnatal differences in family interaction. The present study was designed to pit these alternatives against one another as possible causal influences. METHOD: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) was used to identify the 116 twin pairs (of whom 96 participated) and 114 pairs of singletons (of whom 98 participated) whose ages were no more than 30 months apart. The McArthur Communicative Development Inventory was completed at 20 months, and the Pre-School Language Scales (PLS-3), and the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities at 36 months. Obstetric and perinatal complications were assessed on the basis of detailed systematic parental reports, together with a systematic coded abstraction of all medical records dealing with pregnancy and the neonatal period. Family background details were assessed from parental reports, and the primary carer's verbal functioning was assessed by the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale. Congenital anomalies were assessed using the method of Waldrop and Halverson. RESULTS: The language of twins was 1.7 months below that of singletons at 20 months and 3.1 months at 3 years. The verbal cognitive score of twins was about half a standard deviation lower than that of singletons. The twin-singleton differences in language level were found tobe unassociated with obstetric/perinatal features as assessed from both parental reports and medical records, to birthweight or gestation, to birthweight discrepancy within the twin pair, or to congenital anomalies. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that obstetric/perinatal features do not account for the slower language development in twins as compared with singletons, within a sample born after at least 33 weeks gestation.

Case-Control Studies↗