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PubMed2006

Jumping to conclusions: "language loss" versus "language impairment".

This paper discusses the impact of different metaphors of language dysfunction, with particular notice taken of the contribution of Marshall's work. This is especially the case regarding the notable paper on semantic error patterns (Marshall and Newcombe, 1973), and his later commentary on Chomsky's Rules and Representations (1980) with his elaboration of the conceptual commitments of The New Organology (1980). Examples of language performance provided by two sets of studies are used to illustrate the view that talk of language "loss" is hard to differentiate from the effects of concomitant processing mechanisms such as working memory. These examples are taken from studies of English and Turkish dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) patients (March, 2004), and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients (Field, 2001). Much contemporary neuropsychological research seems focussed on issues which assume that we already know how to describe the behaviours and processes we are interested in, and thus we can now concentrate on how and where in the brain these processes are handled. This perspective is examined from the points of view both that we do not yet have a sufficiently precise application of descriptions which utilise Linguistic constructs, and also that the available models of such processes as memory do not yet allow us to interpret task effects independently of the theoretician's intuitions.

Dementia↗
PubMed2004

Semantic features in fast-mapping: performance of preschoolers with specific language impairment versus preschoolers with normal language.

This study examined the receptive language skills of young children (4-6 years old) with specific language impairment (SLI). Specifically, the authors looked at their ability to fast-map semantic features of objects and actions and compared it to the performance of age-matched peers with normally developing language (NL). Children completed a computer task during which they were exposed to novel objects and actions with novel names. The children then were asked questions about the semantic features of these novel objects and actions. Overall, the questions about actions were more difficult for children than objects. The children with SLI were able to recognize fewer semantic features than were their peers with NL. They also performed poorly relative to their peers on a lexical label recognition task. These results lend support to the idea that children with SLI have broader difficulties with receptive vocabulary than simply a reduced ability to acquire labels.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2002

The language of flowers. Freud's adolescent language of love, lust, and longing.

This paper traces the influence of Freud's adolescent language of flowers, a symbolic, metaphoric language of love, lust, and longing, from his youthful letters to Eduard Silberstein to later conceptualizations of his theory of sexuality, especially his 1905 theory of the transformations of puberty. In addition, information discovered by Boelich, editor of the Silberstein letters, sheds new light on the impetus for Freud's vigorous suppression of his adolescent poetic imagination and his adolescent crush on Gisela Fluss. The paper demonstrates that Freud's adolescent poetic imagination was transformed into a scientific imagination; the imagery and metaphors derived from the language of flowers were incorporated into his theory of masculinity, equated with aggressive sexuality, differentiated from femininity, characterized by submission and masochistic fantasies. By presenting details of Freud's experience from his autobiographic writings, the paper demonstrates his use of his personal struggle with adolescent fantasies in drawing generalizations about the role of fantasy in mental life.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

A comparative study of the phonology of pre-school children with specific language impairment (SLI), language delay (LD) and normal acquisition.

The phonology of two groups of SLI (n = 5) and LD (n = 5) children was analysed at age 3 and compared with two control groups: an age control (n = 5) and a language level control (measured using the MLU-W) (n = 5). Children with SLI and LD showed a delay in the acquisition of segments, syllabic structures and word structures, and in the simplification processes, compared with their age control group. However, SLI children also displayed significant differences vis-à-vis their language level controls, mainly in early acquisitions: vowels, nasals and stops at the segmental level, and in CV structures at the syllabic level. There is also a simplification process that seems to be more prevalent in these children than in their language level controls, namely, the deletion of unstressed syllables, mainly initial ones. The results enable SLI to be distinguished from LD and suggest that the development of SLI phonology is deviant. This deviation is interpreted as being a plateau in early acquisitions when later acquisitions have already appeared. The results are considered in the light of Leonard's surface hypothesis and an exclusively linguistic cause for this disorder is ruled out.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2003

Learning the language of abstinence in addiction treatment: some similarities between relapse-prevention with disulfiram, naltrexone, and other pharmacological antagonists and intensive "immersion" methods of foreign language teaching.

Relapse-prevention (RP) is an educational process. Learning to abstain from alcohol or opiates after years of dependence involves selectively suppressing old, maladaptive habits of thought and behavior and establishing new, adaptive ones. This process resembles foreign language (FL) learning. Effective FL teaching techniques are relevant to RP. "Immersion," the most effective FL teaching method, discourages students from using their first language ab initio, requiring them to use the FL instead, however inexpertly. It resembles exposure and response-prevention for phobic or compulsive disorders. Supervised disulfiram aids RP by discouraging alcoholics from responding to real-life drinking cues in the "language" of excessive drinking, requiring them, ab initio, to practice new, alcohol-free responses. Supervised or depot naltrexone acts similarly in opiate dependence. We discuss the concept of antagonist-assisted abstinence.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

Language level and nonverbal social-communicative behaviors in autistic and language-delayed children.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship of general expressive language delay to nonverbal social-communicative deficits and repetitive behaviors associated with autism in preschool children. METHOD: Interviews of the parents of 51 autistic and 43 nonautistic 3- to 5-year-olds with language impairments were compared. RESULTS: Main effects of the children's language level occurred for the majority of social and nonverbal communication items but not for restricted, repetitive behaviors or showing and directing attention, socially directed gaze, or range of facial expression. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to the specific impairments of autism, a broader conceptualization of communication handicap is urged for preschool children with developmental delays.

Attention↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Genetic influences in different aspects of language development: the etiology of language skills in 4.5-year-old twins.

The genetic and environmental etiologies of diverse aspects of language ability and disability, including articulation, phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and verbal memory, were investigated in a U.K. sample of 787 pairs of 4.5-year-old same-sex and opposite-sex twins. Moderate genetic influence was found for all aspects of language in the normal range. A similar pattern was found at the low end of the distribution with the exception of two receptive measures. Environmental influence was mainly due to nonshared factors, unique to the individual, with little influence from shared environment for most measures. Genetic and environmental influences on language ability and disability are quantitatively and qualitatively similar for males and females.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1997

Cross-language analysis of phonetic units in language addressed to infants.

In the early months of life, infants acquire information about the phonetic properties of their native language simply by listening to adults speak. The acoustic properties of phonetic units in language input to young infants in the United States, Russia, and Sweden were examined. In all three countries, mothers addressing their infants produced acoustically more extreme vowels than they did when addressing adults, resulting in a "stretching" of vowel space. The findings show that language input to infants provides exceptionally well-specified information about the linguistic units that form the building blocks for words.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

The development of language-like communication without a language model.

Deaf children who are unable to acquire oral language naturally and who are not exposed to a standard manual language can spontaneously develop a structured sign system that has many of the properties of natural spoken language. This communication system appears to be largely the invention of the child himself rather than of the caretakers.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2000

The sign language skills classroom observation: a process for describing sign language proficiency in classroom settings.

In collaboration with teachers and students at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), the Sign Language Skills Classroom Observation (SLSCO) was designed to provide feedback to teachers on their sign language communication skills in the classroom. In the present article, the impetus and rationale for development of the SLSCO is discussed. Previous studies related to classroom signing and observation methodology are reviewed. The procedure for developing the SLSCO is then described. This procedure included (a) interviews with faculty and students at NTID, (b) identification of linguistic features of sign language important for conveying content to deaf students, (c) development of forms for recording observations of classroom signing, (d) analysis of use of the forms, (e) development of a protocol for conducting the SLSCO, and (f) piloting of the SLSCO in classrooms. The results of use of the SLSCO with NTID faculty during a trial year are summarized.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Language dominance in dual language children--do we need to bother assessing it?

As part of a doctoral investigation, the receptive lexical proficiency of 392 Dual Language (DL) primary school children in Gibraltar was studied. Using the resultant data, the subjects' lexical proficiency was measured in Gibraltarian Spanish (Yanito) their first language (L1) and in English their second language (L2). Their receptive lexical dominance was also calculated. This paper focuses on the results of analyses conducted to calculate the subjects' receptive lexical dominance and dominance shift over the years. The results of these analyses are reported and some implications briefly discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1998

A "word length effect" for sign language: further evidence for the role of language in structuring working memory.

We report a sign length effect in deaf users of American Sign Language that is analogous to the word length effect for speech. Lists containing long signs (signs that traverse relatively long distances) produced poorer memory performance than did lists of short signs (signs that do not change in location). Further, this length effect was eliminated by articulatory suppression (repetitive motion of the hands), and articulatory suppression produced an overall drop in performance. The pattern of results, together with previous findings (Wilson & Emmorey, 1997), provides evidence for a working memory system for sign language that consists of a phonological storage buffer and an articulatory rehearsal mechanism. This indicates a close equivalence of structure between working memory for sign language and working memory for speech. The implications of this equivalence are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Approach to functional magnetic resonance imaging of language based on models of language organization.

Functional MR imaging (fMRI) has been a useful tool in the evaluation of language both in normal individuals and patient populations. The purpose of this article is to use various models of language as a framework to review fMRI studies. Specifically, fMRI language studies are subdivided into the following categories: word generation or fluency, passive listening, orthography, phonology, semantics, and syntax.

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed1984

Sign language as a communication prosthesis with language-impaired children.

Many language-impaired children rely on telegraphic speech for expression. Functors such as prepositions and pronouns are mostly absent from their utterances. In an experimental analogue to clinical work, 14 3- to 11-year-old children with various levels of language impairment were exposed to drawings portraying a single scene. A meaningful sentence including either a pronoun or a preposition, which the children were not spontaneously using at pretesting, was associated with each drawing. Training the children to use the functors followed one of two approaches. The experimenter either vocalized the functor, or she vocalized and signed it. Results revealed that, for both functor acquisition and functor recall, speech and sign training was superior to speech training. Type of functor trained was also important, with prepositions faring better than pronouns. Reasons for this speech facilitation through signs, and issues related to implementation, are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1998

Treatment research in speech, language and swallowing: lessons from child language disorders.

Three major types of treatment research methodologies are described. Studies on child language intervention are reviewed as examples of trends and methodological issues characterizing treatment research in speech, language, and swallowing within the last 2-3 decades. Principles are drawn from that literature and suggestions for future directions are discussed with particular attention to recent efforts to support clinical trials and treatment outcomes research.

Child Language↗
PubMed1998

An alternate route for preparing deaf children for BiBi programs: the home language as L1 and cued speech for conveying traditionally spoken languages.

This article focuses on nonsigning hearing parents of deaf children who share the goals of bilingual-bicultural (BiBi) programs for their child, opt for their home language to be their deaf child's first language (L1), and have questions about communication options (e.g., oral methods, manually coded English [MCE] systems, or Cued Speech) for conveying that language. We present research findings related to the effectiveness of MCE systems and Cued Speech for conveying English and developing deaf children's reading abilities. We compare the cueing of English and the signing of MCE systems in terms of theoretical and practical advantages. Finally, we suggest research needs.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1996

Nursing diagnosis--a language of nursing; a language for powerful communication.

Nurses are required by practice standards to be competent diagnosticians. We must be able to complete the diagnostic process and utilize the diagnostic language. Nursing diagnosis, a language developed by nurses, specifies the independent domain of our professional practice: the identification of clients' responses to actual or potential health problems, or life processes. The language describes our students' and families' health issues and specifies that the focus of nursing is holistic and different from that of other professional providers. Nursing diagnosis facilitates efficient and effective communication with nurses and non-nurses.

Child↗