Language comprehension in old age.
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Autistic children were compared with retarded and normal control groups in a verbal comprehension task. Subjects were asked to select from four pictures the one that illustrated a two-word intransitive or three-word transitive phrase which was described verbally. Distractor pictures differed from the target picture by one, two, or all three features. Autistic children were poorer in performance than the control groups; however, the hierarchy of difficulty of discrimination was common to all three groups, with transitive phrases more difficult than intransitive phrases. Word type did not affect comprehension for the autistic children, although control children evidenced most difficulty with the verb or middle word. Results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that a severe and global language disorder is characteristic of autism.
The purpose of this article is to discuss a cognitive approach to therapy with a language impaired adult. Two types of productive thinking are explored in this research: concept awareness and problem solving. These are dynamic and creative processes underlying the development and use of cognition and language. This single subject study follows an ABAB design and describes techniques used in therapy and methods for measuring productive thinking in a 66-yr-old moderately language impaired adult. Results indicate a sharp increase in the subject's thought productivity in a variety of contexts. A critical appraisal of reasons for therapy effectiveness are given.
Standardized screening and assessment measures for language development do not take into account Black English responses. This study was designed to determine the extent to which normal and language impaired black preschool children respond in Black English and Standard English on selected screening instruments. Developmental differences in the usage of Standard English and Black English were also investigated. The results indicate that black normal and language impaired preschool children are both Standard English and Black English on screening tests. Developmental differences were noted. The results suggest that tests for language development need to be standardized on speakers of Black English and also should include Black English response alternatives.
The importance of ascertaining the validity of clinical instruments used to make decisions about individuals is discussed and the need for additional validation studies is emphasized. Steps that can be taken to confirm the validity for a particular application, setting, or population are described. As an example, the concurrent validity of two language screening instruments, the Fluharty Preschool Screening Test and the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test, and their subtests was examined. Decisions from these screening tests and subtests were compared to a validity criterion of passing or failing the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development for 182 white middle-class children, ages 36-47 months. The results showed that the screening tests differed in their validity, depending upon the content of the test and each subtest. The consequences of using either screening test are explored, to illustrate how the outcomes of such studies should be interpreted.
This investigation examined the effect of kindergarten experience on the performance of two groups of children on the Bankson Language Screening Test. One group of children was tested at the beginning of their kindergarten experience and a second group was tested five months later. Performance of the two groups on the Bankson was determined to be significantly different, independent of age. The different performance pattern for each group is described as well as the possible implications. There may be a need for different sets of language test norms for children with kindergarten experience and for children without this experience.
The production of word classes in eight 53-62-month-old specific language-impaired (SLI) children was described and compared with that of 30 normal 24-33-month-old children in the same play situation. SLI subjects and nonimpaired children were selected within specified mean length of utterance ranges (low MLU versus high MLU). Production of word classes by subjects was evaluated in order to determine (1) whether SLI children showed a similar or a different word-class profile among themselves and when compared with non-impaired children and (2) whether MLU related to word classes would be useful as a single clinical index in assessment of language acquisition. Results showed that scores of SLI children in production of word classes reflect important individual differences among subjects. In the high-MLU sample, all SLI children produced each word class relatively within the same range as the nonimpaired group. In the low-MLU sample two SLI children were very different in their word-class profile and individual differences were further confirmed by a discriminant function analysis. Correlations between MLU and word classes were significant in nonimpaired children for all variables except Questions and Onomatopoeia and were only significant in SLI children for Verbs, Prepositions, and Personal Pronouns. Such findings contribute support to the view that there is "deviant" pattern of language in SLI children and once again questions whether MLU is one of the best discriminating indicators to use in the clinical assessment of language organization.
The spoken language skills of 20 elementary students with verified learning disabilities were explored using a story format and discourse analysis procedure. The purpose was to compare the performance of LD students on three types of story tasks (story generation from a picture, story generation from memory, and story generation based on a game) over a one-year period. Results indicated statistically significant main effects for approximately half (9/17) of the discourse variables by task and one main effect for time. Overall, stories from memory were longer and characterized by more as well as different types of errors than were stories from pictures or stories based on games. Implications for use of stories and type of story collection task in language sampling are discussed.
Earlier comparative studies of language-impaired and normal children involved semantic-relational analyses of broad categories (e.g., action, locative action, and so on) in which utterance types were not differentiated. In this study, locative action utterances were differentiated by the types of locative words used singly and in combination. The types of utterances used by a language-impaired child were tracked between 1 year 6 months and 3 years and compared with those of three age- and MLU-matched normal children. The results suggested that differences in the semantic properties of language-impaired and normal children's utterances may go undetected unless a fine-grained analysis is performed on the types of expressions used within a global relational category. The potential value of extending semantic-relational analyses by exploring word use in syntactic contexts is addressed.
The FG syndrome is characterized by unusual facies, sudden infant death, developmental delay, and abnormalities of the cardiac, gastrointestinal, and central nervous systems. No longitudinal data on development in surviving patients are currently available. Serial evaluations of a patient with FG syndrome, whose sole central nervous system anomaly was agenesis of the corpus callosum, showed a consistent pattern over time. Specific language impairments in syntactic and pragmatic-semantic areas are emerging. These findings represent the first detailed data on which expectations for children with the FG syndrome can be based. The findings also fit theoretical constructs on the function of the corpus callosum and may therefore be generalized to provide expectations for other patients with isolated agenesis of the corpus callosum. Given the information gained from this case, it is clear that language intervention/consultation should be a pivotal service for such children, and that the speech-language pathologist should play a role in the development of an integrated educational services plan.
This report analyzes the performances of a group of 104 mildly to moderately impaired probable Alzheimer's disease patients (Mini Mental Examination 10 to 23) on linguistic tasks exploring written and oral language. A principal component analysis showed a two-factor solution including 14 out of the 15 linguistic tasks. Each factor is characterized by a type of operation required to process language material: "operativeness factor," where verbal material receives a transformation; "transcoding factor," where verbal material is processed without any structural modification. Oral verbal repetition remained isolated from the solution.
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Several accounts of specific language impairment (SLI) in children have appeared in the recent literature. One of the most explicit is that of Locke. The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate some of the details of Locke's proposal. In the first of two studies, it was found that children with SLI who were limited to single-word utterances showed deficits in their lexical comprehension. In the second study, a number of children with SLI who had reached the grammatical stage of development showed age-appropriate levels of lexical comprehension. Although the first of these findings was in keeping with Locke's account, the second was not. Additional provisions for this proposal are suggested.
Nineteen students (ages 10-14) who were previously identified as at risk for language problems were examined after a period of five to seven years. Information concerning cognitive, academic, and linguistic skills was collected using standardized and informal measures. Results were analyzed for the total group and also for two subgroups. At the time of follow-up, seven subjects (37%) who had not been served by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) were unidentified with language impairments (LI); two subjects (11%) were being seen by a SLP; one subject (5%) was identified as mentally handicapped, and nine subjects (47%) did not exhibit language problems. Subgroup comparisons between the seven unidentified language impaired subjects (LI) and the nine without language impairments (contrast = CG) revealed lower language scores, especially for receptive and composite language as measured by the CELF-R and TLC-E. Teachers rated these two groups (LI and CG) differently in the areas of following/giving directions, initiating/maintaining conversation, and taking turns. Parents also reported greater concerns for the LI group in the areas of listening, communication, and social skills. Issues concerning identification of at-risk groups and future studies using at-risk populations are discussed.
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.
This study compares language abilities in three groups of children who were born prematurely: children with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy associated with perinatal injury to the periventricular white matter of the brain; a group with similar brain injury but no motor impairment; and a group of controls with no brain injuries. Six boys in each group were 36 to 39 months of age at the time of the study. All achieved a standard score above 80 on the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities at the same age. Language samples, generated during parent-child interaction, were analyzed using the Child Language Data Exchange System. The size and diversity of the lexicon was assessed using types and tokens per minute. Morpho-syntactic skills were assessed using number of grammatical morphemes, mean length of utterance and the Index of Productive Syntax. Verbal productivity was assessed using number of utterances per minute. No significant differences were observed among any of the groups on any measure. Measures of the lexicon and morpho-syntactic skills were highly correlated with the scores on the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities. The data demonstrated that specific language impairments were not associated with cerebral palsy or brain injury after prematurity at this early stage of language development. However, individual children within each of the groups had delays in skill attainment that warranted language intervention.
The communicative abilities of six sets of same-sex, dizygotic twins (CAs 2;1-4;1) were examined. In each dyad, one sibling had a strong positive history of recurrent otitis media (ROM), while the other twin had a negative or minimal history of ROM. Standardized test performance and spontaneous speech and language abilities were examined. Results suggest that although a history of ROM is associated with lowered receptive vocabulary scores in these dyads, no consistent effects of ROM could be detected in expressive speech and language tasks. In two dyads, the ROM-positive twin did score lower on articulation and language measures; however, in two dyads, children with equivalent histories of ROM outscored their ROM-negative siblings. In the remaining dyads, little difference was observed between the siblings on the measures we used. We suggest that the effects of ROM on communicative development are complex and subtle, and that control of home and day care environment may minimize some of the previously documented associations between ROM and speech-language development.