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PubMed1993

Grammatical morpheme acquisition in 4-year-olds with normal, impaired, and late-developing language.

The production of the grammatical morphemes studied by Brown and his colleagues was examined in free speech samples from a cohort of 4-year-olds with a history of slow expressive language development (SELD) and a control group of normal speakers. Results suggest that children with SELD acquire morphemes in an order very similar to that shown in previous acquisition research. Children who were slow to begin talking at age 2 and who continued to evidence delayed expressive language development by age 4 showed mastery of the four earliest acquired grammatical morphemes, as would be expected, based on their MLUs, which fell at Early Stage IV. Four-year-olds with normal language histories produced all but one of the grammatical morphemes with more than 90% accuracy, as would be expected based on their late Stage V MLUs. Children who were slow to acquire expressive language as toddlers, but who "caught up" in terms of sentence length by age 4 did not differ in MLU from their peers with normal language histories. However, they had acquired fewer of the grammatical morphemes. The implications of these findings for understanding the phenomenon of slow expressive language development are discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1999

Derivational suffix productivity for students with and without language-learning disabilities.

The effect of productivity (a correlate of suffix frequency) on students' derivational suffix use was investigated with students with and without language-learning disabilities (LLD). Sixty-nine elementary- to middle-school-age students participated in an elicitation task (in which they produced derived forms) and a forced-choice task (in which they selected derived forms) to label nonsense objects and events. In each task, students used highly productive suffixes to convey a given meaning. For example, students used the highly productive suffix er rather than the less productive suffix ant to convey an agentive meaning and used the more productive suffix let instead of the unproductive suffix kin to convey a diminutive meaning. Also, productivity appeared to guide accuracy of suffix use across meanings. For example, the agentive suffix er was produced with much higher accuracy than the less productive diminutive suffix let. In general, patterns of performance within and across meanings were the same for students with and without LLD. LLD students were less accurate in determining the meanings conveyed by derivational suffixes than typically achieving students matched for chronological age. However, their performance was similar to typically achieving students with comparable language skills.

Child↗
PubMed1999

Effects of treatment on linguistic and social skills in toddlers with delayed language development.

This study investigated the effects of early language intervention on various linguistic and social skills of late-talking toddlers. The 21 children who participated in the investigation were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 11) or a control (delayed-treatment) group (n = 10). The experimental group participated in a 12-week clinician-implemented language intervention program. Groups were compared at pretest and posttest on five linguistic variables: Mean Length of Utterance, Total Number of Words, Number of Different Words, Lexical Repertoire, and Percentage of Intelligible Utterances, as well as on Socialization and Parental Stress. Significant group differences were found for each of the variables, indicating facilitative effects of the treatment. Notably, increases were observed in areas that were not specifically targeted by the intervention. Implications of these results are discussed with respect to considerations regarding clinical management decisions for toddlers with delayed language development.

Child Language↗
PubMed2000

Factors affecting language development in West African children: a pilot study using a qualitative methodology.

Data on referral patterns to pre-school facilities for speech- and language-delayed children suggest that West African children are over represented relative to other ethnic/language groups. This study was set up as a pilot to explore some of the issues which distinguish this group of children and their families. A qualitative methodology was adopted to access the views of a small group of parents (nine) and professionals with direct experience of these services (three). Between them the parents had a total of 11 children who had received speech and language therapy services. Extensive in-depth interviews were transcribed and coded. The families are predominantly well educated with high expectations for their children. Their beliefs about child development in general and language development often differed from those of the professionals interviewed. For example, parents saw little direct link between very early language stimulation and subsequent school performance. West African parents also perceived that they had different (higher) expectations of behaviour than other families. It was generally accepted by all parties that the West African community experiences a high degree of stress resulting from a combination of interacting factors, namely pressures relating to employment, to immigration status, to matters financial and to expectations from family back in their own country. It is unclear exactly how these impact on the development of the child but there is an awareness that there may be a negative effect of such stress and that children's speech and language development may be one aspect of development that is affected. As a result of this pilot study a number of mechanisms relating to the relationship between environment factors and language development are proposed and suggestions are made regarding service provision for this community.

Africa↗
PubMed2005

New arrivals: speech and language assessment for internationally adopted infants and toddlers within the first months home.

Speech-language pathologists are increasingly requested to assess development in newly arrived internationally adopted children. These infants and toddlers typically arrive home with developmental delays and a lack of proficiency in any language, making it difficult to make objective service delivery decisions. This article reports the results of speech and language assessments for a group of 28 children aged 12 to 24 months who were newly adopted from Eastern Europe. Most of the children did well, with average English language standard scores within normal limits on the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scale-Developmental Profile. The majority of children were also rapidly learning to understand and produce English words as measured on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory. These findings were used to develop peer-based infant-toddler guidelines for early speech and language intervention. Using these guidelines, 65% of the internationally adopted children did not require early intervention, 7% were borderline and recommended for follow-up assessments within 2 to 3 months, and 28% were recommended for speech and language early intervention.

Adoption↗
PubMed2005

Adoption age effects on english language acquisition: infants and toddlers from China.

Children adopted from China represent the single largest group of internationally adopted children in this country. Because the adoptive families typically do not speak any Chinese language or dialect, most of these children experience an abrupt shift in their language environment. How age of adoption affects the course of English language development of children adopted from China is the focus of this study. All of the children in this study were either infants or toddlers at the time of adoption and all came from the same orphanage. The results showed that the older children (toddlers) were at both an advantage and a disadvantage when it came to English language development. The advantage of being older was that they learned faster. The disadvantage of being older was that there was more for them to learn to become age-appropriate in their English language development. There was, however, no evidence to suggest that the language switch from a Chinese- to an English-language environment was a formidable obstacle for either the infants or the toddlers.

Adoption↗
PubMed2005

Linguistic interference between L1 and L2 in internationally adopted children.

Bilingual children learning two languages either simultaneously or successively experience patterns of cross-language interference or facilitation due to similarities and differences between the languages. Internationally adopted toddlers are only truly bilingual for a short period of time because the first language disappears quickly after adoption. Yet residual effects of the disappearing first language might impact patterns of learning the new language. To determine if cross-language patterns affected language learning in very young children, language samples were collected from 23 children adopted from Eastern Europe between 11 and 23 months of age. Samples were collected at 6-month intervals during the first year after adoption, then annually up through age 4. Age and order of acquisition of several grammatical morphemes including V + ing, articles, contracted and uncontracted copulas, and contracted and uncontracted auxiliary were explored. These morphological structures developed in the same sequence observed in monolingual children speaking English and were not notably impacted by cross-linguistic factors from language 1. Guidelines for professionals and parents are discussed.

Adoption↗
PubMed2006

[Are the language skills of our children declining? Results based on the examinations at school enrollment of the years 1999 to 2004 in Münster].

The physical examinations at school enrollment of the years 1999 to 2004 were subjected to comparative analysis to help clarify whether children's language performance at enrollment has significantly decreased in recent years or not. This question has indeed been a matter of public debate for some time. Furthermore, potential influencing factors, in particular social environment, were to be examined as regards their effects on language performance. The results indicate that the children's performance level has not significantly decreased over the six-year period of observation. Instead, rather an increase can be observed over this period of time. If, nevertheless, more and more and, in particular, more significant language deficits continue to be observed, one explanation for this may be seen in a changing assessment of children's needs for therapy or remedial education. The performance level of children who were recommended therapy or means of remedial education in 2004 is significantly higher than that of children for whom such recommendations were given in 1999 or 2000. Perhaps an increased sensitivity for those performance areas where performance levels are found to be deficient should be postulated, and, consequently, a more differentiated assessment of diagnostic findings should be assumed. The results of the examinations once again demonstrate the enormous influence that social factors have on language performance. Children growing up in a less advantaged social environment tend to achieve significantly lower performance marks in language tests than children from more privileged social environments. Also the duration of kindergarten education appears to be relevant to children's language performance: children who have visited institutions of preschool-education for three or more years achieve higher performance marks than children who have spent no ore only little time in these institutions. When seen against the background of circa one in four children with a migration background (around 8% of persons of the same age in Münster's population) having unsatisfactory knowledge of German at school enrollment, there appear to be efficient prevention measures available here.

Child↗
PubMed2006

[Validity of a short form of the ELFRA-2 (German Version of the CDI-Toddler Form) for early identification of late talkers].

BACKGROUND: Parents' questionnaires are assumed to be reliable instruments for early identification of language retardation. The general use of the ELFRA-2 in practice, however, is limited by its length. The goal of the study was to construct and to evaluate a short version. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The ELFRA-2 was sent to 1397 parents shortly before their child's second birthday. The return rate of the questionnaire was 71%. Questionnaires of monolingual German speaking children were included in the study (n=866) and randomly divided into two samples. From the first sample the most informative word categories were extracted by means of regression analysis and were used to compose a short form. With the second independent sample the validity of the short version was determined. RESULTS: By means of stepwise regression analysis within the first sample a short version consisting of 42 items was developed. The correlation between scores of the short and the long version was high (r=0.95) and the classification (no language retardation vs. late talker) was congruent for most children. The sensitivity and the specifity of the short form were 83% and 97%, respectively. For the prediction of language impairment at the age of three years the short and the long version reached similar detection rates. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the validity of the short and the long form are comparable with respect to detection of late talkers. The time necessary to complete the short version allows its application during standard check-up examinations of children at the age of two years, and also to immediately discuss its result with the parents. Before the short form can be applied in pediatric practice, however, a standardization is necessary.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2000

Executive functions in dyslexia.

This study focused on executive functions in dyslexia. A group of 43 heavily-affected young dyslexics, divided into two groups based on the results of a receptive language test, and 20 non-dyslexic controls, were tested with a Dichotic Listening Test, the Stroop Color Word Test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. The dyslexic subjects demonstrated significant impairment on all tasks, but with different patterns of impairment according to the subgrouping. The subgroups were equally impaired on the Dichotic Listening Test, but differed on the Stroop and the Wisconsin Tests. The data support a hypothesis suggesting executive problems in dyslexia, depending on receptive language skills.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Effects of test administration order on children's neuropsychological performance: emerging one-word expressive and receptive language skills.

Differences in neuropsychological performance associated with specific test presentation sequences have been reported in adults. However, these effects have received little attention in children. The EOWPVT-R, a measure of one-word expressive language, and the PPVT-R, a measure of receptive language, were administered to 6- to 14-year-olds (control [n = 17] and experimental [n = 22] groups) in a counterbalanced fashion to investigate the potential effects of test presentation sequence on neuropsychological performance. Group findings were not evidenced subsequent to variation in test administration sequence. In contrast, order of test presentation revealed differences in performance. Administration of the PPVT-R prior to the EOWPVT-R resulted in enhanced EOWPVT-R expressive language scores in both groups of participants. Presentation of the PPVT-R after the EOWPVT-R did not affect performance. Applied and theoretical implications associated with these findings are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

The implications of childhood bacterial meningitis for language development.

Bacterial meningitis is a life threatening infection of the central nervous system. This illness is most prevalent early in life when the healthy child is rapidly acquiring language. This study investigated whether children with a history of bacterial meningitis were at risk for language difficulties post illness. Thirty post-meningitic children, aged between 9 years 0 months and 11 years 0 months, participated in this study. Each subject was administered a measure of non-verbal cognitive ability and a range of language tasks. These children performed poorly on applied language tasks, which tap skills used in effective discourse. These deficits occurred despite age appropriate performances on measures of linguistic/grammatical knowledge. These findings clearly illustrate that bacterial meningitis has implications for ongoing language development, which emphasises the importance of long term follow up. In developmental terms, this discrepancy between verbal knowledge and problem solving represents a dissociation between language skills which develop early in life and those which emerge later. This pattern of results suggests that bacterial meningitis may result in a delay in language development. A young age at illness was identified as an additional risk factor for adverse outcome. This study highlights the need to inform parents/guardians that post-meningitic children are at risk for experiencing language difficulties throughout childhood.

Brain Damage, Chronic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Low-level lead exposure in the prenatal and early preschool periods: language development.

Inconsistent results continue to be reported from studies linking low-level lead exposure and child development. This inconsistency is seen for both prenatal exposure and exposure in the preschool years. The primary outcome measures in most reports are indices of cognitive development, including IQ. Verbal skills may be particularly vulnerable to toxic insult. The fact that 2 y of age is both a time of peak exposure and also a time of rapid language development suggests that this may be a critical period for such an effect. The later prenatal and early infancy period, at which time the nervous system is developing rapidly, may also be critical exposure period. We examined the relationship of maternal and cord blood lead (PbB) at birth and venous PbB at 6 mo, 2 y, and 3 y with language measures at 1, 2, and 3 y of age. The sample consisted of disadvantaged urban children. Multivariate analyses revealed no statistically significant relationship of either prenatal PbB or early preschool PbB with language measures after control of cofactors. Supplementary partial correlations revealed a marginal relationship of cord PbB and mean length of utterance (MLU), which describes a child's ability to form meaningful word combinations. Because this analysis was one of a large number of analyses with both positive and negative regression coefficients, the possibility that this was a chance effect was considered. If there is an effect of low-level lead exposure on language development, that effect is not robust.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1983

Test performance of language-handicapped children with familiar and unfamiliar examiners.

The importance of examiner familiarity to children's performance on tasks requiring high or low levels of symbolic mediation was investigated. Thirty-four handicapped preschool children were examined within a repeated measures crossover design, once by one of two familiar classroom teachers and once by one of four strange teachers. Subjects performed significantly better with familiar than with unfamiliar examiners on high symbolic mediation tasks; no such differential performance was obtained on low symbolic mediation items. Findings are related to current efforts to identify procedural and situational variables in assessment, uncontrolled by present standard test administrations, that may preclude children's optimal performance.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Becoming a manual occupation? The construction of a therapy manual for use with language impaired children in mainstream primary schools.

BACKGROUND: The construction of therapy protocols for a large-scale randomized controlled trial comparing speech and language therapists and assistants, and group and individual therapy approaches for children aged 6-11 in mainstream schools is outlined. AIMS: The aim was to outline the decision-making processes that led to the construction of the research therapy manual, and to give a preliminary report on compliance with the manual. METHODS & PROCEDURES: A search of the research and professional literature and of published therapy materials was conducted to locate usable examples of effective language therapy for primary school children. Results were collated into a manual of therapy principles and activities to structure research intervention. The use of the manual with children (n=30) receiving individual or group direct therapy from a speech and language therapist in the first phase of intervention was audited. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Very few high-level research studies were found, but the professional literature gave added information. Therapies for comprehension monitoring, vocabulary development, later grammar and narrative were adapted for the research intervention, and procedures compiled into a manual to guide research speech and language therapists and assistants. The audit of direct therapy suggested that the manual was useable, providing a suitable range of activities and materials for therapy intervention. Its use helped to record the therapy offered to research children, and formed a sound basis for discussion amongst speech and language therapists and between speech and language therapist/assistant pairs. CONCLUSIONS: The construction and use of a therapy manual allowed the provision of replicable therapy within the research project whilst maintaining flexibility.

Child↗
PubMed1984

Phonological error patterns in developmental verbal dyspraxia.

Phonological error patterns are analyzed in a group of 10 children presenting symptoms consistent with Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia. Results indicate a dominance of "sequentially constrained" errors primarily involving sound and syllable omissions and timing errors. Rank-order correlations among the phonological errors and between phonological errors and developmental indices suggest that these children have a specific expressive language problem dominated by phonological errors of sequential reduction. Interpretation of the data points to a central motor planning deficit. Comparisons are made with other studies depicting neuropsychological deficits in similar children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Neuroplasticity following non-penetrating traumatic brain injury.

The primary objective of this review is to examine the methodology and evidence for neuroplasticity operating in recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI), as compared with previous findings in patients sustaining perinatal and infantile focal vascular lesions. The evidence to date indicates that the traditional view of enhanced reorganization of function after early focal brain lesions might apply to early focal brain lesions, but does not conform with studies of early severe diffuse brain injury. In contrast to early focal vascular lesions, young age confers no advantage in the outcome of severe diffuse brain injury. Disruption of myelination could potentially alter connectivity, a suggestion which could be confirmed through diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Initial reports of DTI in TBI patients support the possibility that this technique can demonstrate alterations in white matter connections which are not seen on conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and might change over time or with interventions. Preliminary functional MRI studies of TBI patients indicate alterations in the pattern of brain activation, suggesting recruitment of more extensive cortical regions to perform tasks which stress computational resources. Functional MRI, coupled with DTI and possibly other imaging modalities holds the promise of elucidating mechanisms of neuroplasticity and repair following TBI.

Adolescent↗