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PubMed1994

Subject pronoun and article omissions in the speech of children with specific language impairment: a phonological interpretation.

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their MLU-matched normally developing (ND) peers imitated proper nouns, the pronouns he and you, and the article the in subject phrases. Although all of these word types were phonological phrase-initial syllables, the proper nouns received strong stress, but the function words received weak stress. Both groups of children showed significantly more omissions of the function words than the proper nouns. There was no significant difference amongst the imitations of the two pronouns or the article; all were omitted frequently by both groups. This suggests that the status of subject articles and pronouns as weak syllables in the initial position of phonological phrases may in some cases constitute a more important factor than the distinctive grammatical roles they play. A phonological explanation of subject article and pronoun omissions is explored.

Child Language↗

PubMed1994

Preferences for verb interpretation in children with specific language impairment.

This study examined initial preferences for verb interpretation by children with specific language impairment (SLI), MLU-matched children, and age-matched children. Each child watched motion and change-of-state activity scenes on videotape and was then asked to point to the scene that depicted a novel verb, thereby indicating a preferred interpretation. The children were also asked to label the same activity scenes on a second tape. The findings indicated that the 5-year-old age-matched children exhibited a significant verb interpretation preference for the change-of-state scenes, whereas the children with specific language impairment and their 3-year-old MLU-matched peers did not have an interpretation preference for either the motion or change-of-state scenes. The children's labeling of the activity scenes yielded findings that further supported group differences on the two semantic verb categories. The findings suggest that children's initial verb interpretation biases vary relative to age and language proficiency.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1994

Effect of adult continuing wh-questions on conversational participation in children with developmental disabilities.

Children with developmental disabilities often converse less frequently than their developmentally matched peers. This low conversational participation can cause problems for the children's future language and discourse development. The purpose of this experimental study was to test the hypothesis that adult topic-continuing wh-questions would elicit topic continuations in children with relatively low language ability, but not in children with relatively high language ability. Twenty-three children with developmental delays interacted with an adult who conducted two play sessions. In each session, the adult used a different interaction style. The two styles differed in the adult's use of topic-continuing wh-questions. Results indicate that adult use of topic-continuing wh-questions supported the use of child continuations in children at all language levels. The type of continuations (single word versus multiword) that were elicited depended on the language level of the children. Clinical implications are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Speech sample size and test-retest stability of connected speech measures for adults with aphasia.

The effect of speech sample size on the test-retest stability of two measures of connected speech--words per minute (WPM) and percent of words that are correct information units (Percent CIUs)--was evaluated. A standard set of 10 stimuli was used to elicit connected speech from 20 non-brain-damaged adults and 20 adults with aphasia. Each subject's responses to the 10 stimuli were transcribed and scored for WPM and Percent CIUs. Then each subject's responses to the 10 stimuli were randomly divided to produce smaller speech samples representing his or her responses to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 stimuli. The test-retest stability of the WPM and Percent CIUs measures was then evaluated for each of the smaller sample sizes and for the complete 10-stimulus sample. For both groups, the test-retest stability of the two measures increased as sample size increased, with the greatest increases occurring as samples increased in size from those representing 1 stimulus to those representing 4 or 5 stimuli, with smaller increases in stability thereafter. In general, these results suggest that the best balance between high test-retest stability and the time and effort required to transcribe and score speech samples can be achieved with samples representing 4 or 5 stimuli (an average of 300 to 400 words for aphasic subjects), although this will vary across individuals.

Aged↗

PubMed1994

Emergence of visual-graphic symbol combinations by youth with moderate or severe mental retardation.

Research and practice on augmentative communication for persons with moderate or severe mental retardation have primarily targeted the acquisition and use of single symbols. Symbol combinations, however, provide insight into how augmented communicators use individual symbols to build more complex communications. In Study 1, untaught symbol combinations produced during natural communication interactions by 7 subjects with mental retardation were examined for their semantic, ordering, and generalization patterns. The symbol combinations largely resembled those produced by young speaking language learners, suggesting that the augmented communicators were following typical patterns of communication in generating their symbol combinations. In Study 2, we examined the symbol combinations modeled for subjects by their partners. The structure of the modeled combinations did not resemble the children's productions, indicating that the children could not have relied on simple rote imitation for their combination production. These results suggest that augmented communicators with mental retardation may use their symbols as speaking children use oral words in the development of complex communications.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Influence of communicative competence on peer preferences in a preschool classroom.

Recent research suggests that children's linguistic competence may play a central role in establishing social acceptance. That possibility was evaluated by examining children's peer relationships in a preschool classroom attended by children with varying degrees of communication ability. Three groups of children were compared: children with normally developing language skills (ND), children with speech and/or language impairments (S/LI), and children learning English as a second language (ESL). Two sociometric tasks were used to measure peer popularity: positive nominations and negative nominations. Children in the ND group received more positive nominations than the children in either the ESL or S/LI groups. When the children's positive and negative nominations were combined to classify them as Liked, Disliked, Low Impact, or Mixed, the ND children predominated in the Liked cell, whereas the other two groups of children fell into the Disliked or Low Impact cells. In addition, the PPVT-R, a receptive measure of single-word vocabulary, was found to be the best predictor of peer popularity. The findings are discussed in terms of a social consequences account of language limitations.

Child Language↗

PubMed1994

Changes in the generativity and use of semantic relationships concurrent with milieu language intervention.

Changes associated with a milieu language intervention implemented to teach productive semantic relationships (e.g., action-object combinations) were investigated. Subjects were 11 young children with borderline to moderate levels of mental retardation, all in the early stages of language development. Following a baseline period, each subject received three to four training sessions per week in a small group interactive play situation. Measures of generativity were analyzed via pre/post group comparisons. Concurrent with the intervention subjects showed substantial gains in their ability to generatively produce semantic relationships in the intervention context and across settings, adults, and interaction styles. Subjects also correctly responded to an increasing proportion of target probe questions in both the intervention and generalization settings. The results suggest that, for most of the subjects, milieu teaching was associated with enhanced generativity and use of semantic relationships.

Child↗

PubMed1994

Generalized effects of enhanced Milieu teaching.

The primary and generalized effects of Enhanced Milieu Teaching were examined with six preschool children with significant language delays. In a multiple baseline design across children, trainers implemented the naturalistic language intervention during play-based interaction sessions in the children's preschool classrooms. Children systematically increased their use of targeted language skills during the intervention sessions, and these changes were maintained when the treatment was discontinued. Generalized changes in children's communication resulting from the intervention were examined with untrained teachers, peers, and parents. Some generalization to untrained partners was observed for all children. Correlational analyses indicated that greater numbers of child utterances and greater diversity in vocabulary were associated with increased talking and mands for verbalization presented by partners.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1994

Use of phonological information in a word-finding treatment for children.

Two children with word-finding deficits characterized largely by semantic substitutions participated in a treatment involving phonological information about target words. The treatment was motivated by models of naming where semantic information and phonological information are stored in independent ordered components. Given such models, it is possible to characterize some semantic word-finding substitutions as well as phonological word-finding substitutions as the result of breakdown at the level of the phonological output representation. The treatment was organized according to a single-subject multiple baseline design across behaviors and subjects. As hypothesized, the phonologically based treatment resulted in reduction not only of occasional phonological word-finding substitutions but also of the large number of semantic word-finding substitutions displayed during baseline and control measures of confrontation naming. In light of these data, the possible source of word-finding breakdowns in these children is explored.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1994

Learning and generalization components of morphological acquisition by children with specific language impairment: is there a functional relation?

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have particular difficulty acquiring bound morphemes. To determine whether these morphological deficits spring from impairments of rule-induction or memory (storage/access) skills, 25 preschool-age children with normal language (NL) and 25 age-matched children with SLI were presented with a novel vocabulary and novel bound-morpheme learning task. A chi square analysis revealed that the children with SLI had significantly lower vocabulary learning levels than NL children. In addition, there was tentative evidence that a dependency relationship existed in some children between success in vocabulary learning and proficiency in generalizing a trained bound morpheme to untrained vocabulary stems. These findings are predicted by the storage/access but not the rule-induction theory of specific language impairment. They suggest that intervention targeting bound-morpheme skills acquisition in children with SLI might include attention to vocabulary development.

Child↗

PubMed1994

Comparison of conversational-recasting and imitative procedures for training grammatical structures in children with specific language impairment.

The recent literature on language intervention has become increasingly focused upon developing treatments that more closely parallel normal language acquisition. However, there have been relatively few reports that directly compare imitative procedures to conversational-interactive interventions. The purpose of the present study was to compare the relative effectiveness of imitative intervention and conversational recast language intervention applied to a wide range of grammatical morpheme and complex sentence targets in 21 children with specific language impairment. The results indicated that although both kinds of treatments were effective in triggering acquisition of most targets, consistently fewer presentations to first spontaneous use were required in the conversational procedure. In addition, the transition from elicited production to generalized spontaneous production was more rapid under conversation-interactive treatment. Finally, although imitation treatment was more effective in generating elicited production, a significantly greater number of spontaneous productions occurred under the conversational training procedures. The theoretical and applied ramifications of these findings are discussed.

Child↗

PubMed1995

Sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment: the role of phonological working memory.

This study examined the influence of phonological working memory on sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Fourteen children with SLI and 13 with normal language (NL) participated in two tasks. In the first, a nonsense word repetition task (index of phonological working memory), subjects repeated nonsense words varying in length from one syllable to four. In a sentence comprehension task, subjects listened to sentences under two conditions varying in linguistic redundancy (redundant, nonredundant). On the nonsense word repetition task, between- and within-group analyses revealed that subjects with SLI repeated significantly fewer 3-syllable and 4-syllable nonsense words. On the sentence comprehension task, between- and within-group analyses determined that subjects with SLI comprehended significantly fewer redundant (longer) sentences than nonredundant (shorter) sentences. A positive correlation was found between subjects' performance on the nonsense word repetition and sentence comprehension tasks. Results were interpreted to suggest that children with SLI have diminished phonological working memory capacity and that this capacity deficit compromises their sentence comprehension efforts.

Child↗

PubMed1995

Auditory evoked responses to frequency-modulated tones in children with specific language impairment.

Averaged cortically evoked potentials to frequency-modulated tones (+/- 100 Hz around a center frequency of 1 kHz) were obtained from 12 children with SLI and 12 age-matched children who were normal language learners. It was hypothesized, based on Stefanatos, Green, and Ratcliff (1989), that the children with receptive and expressive specific language impairment (SLI) would show very small or no measurable averaged response amplitudes. Also, it was predicted that children who were normal language learners would show large response amplitudes that were both significantly greater than those obtained during a stimulus control condition and greater than those obtained from the children with SLI. The prediction concerning children with SLI proved incorrect. The responses of the children with SLI were no different from those obtained from the normal language learners, and responses from both groups were significantly greater than those obtained in the control condition. These results indicate that, with respect to neural systems involved with selective response to auditory frequency shifts of approximately 100 Hz and occurring over 250 msec, children with SLI are not different from children who are normal language learners.

Child↗

PubMed1995

Grammatical characteristics of Swedish children with SLI.

Spontaneous speech samples from 10 Swedish children were collected and analyzed grammatically. The subjects consisted of 5 children with SLI and 5 MLU matched controls with normal grammatical development. The children with SLI differed significantly from the controls in their more restricted usage of word order patterns and in number of grammatical errors. As in studies on English-speaking children with SLI, the Swedish children with SLI had a large number of omissions of grammatical morphemes. Verb-related errors were more common than noun-related errors. Contrary to reports on children with SLI acquiring other languages, however, word order errors were also very common in the Swedish children with SLI. A restricted usage of word order pattern in combination with errors of word order indicates that not only morphological deficits but also syntactic difficulties can be found in children with SLI relative to MLU controls, depending on the target language. The findings show the importance of cross-linguistic comparisons of children with SLI.

Child↗

PubMed1995

Conflict resolution abilities of children with specific language impairment and children with normal language.

This study explored the conflict resolution ability of 30 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 30 children with normal language (NL) in grades 3 through 7. The children participated in a hypothetical problem-solving activity in which an imaginary conflict was presented and a hypothetical solution was required. They also engaged in role enactments of conflicts. The children with SLI suggested fewer types of strategies to resolve hypothetical conflicts than their peers with NL. The groups did not differ in the number of strategy types used in the role-enactment contexts. The children with receptive and expressive SLI performed more poorly than the children with primarily expressive language deficits only on the role-enactment task. Similarities and differences in types of strategy used by the children with SLI and those with NL were found in both tasks. Explanations are offered for these findings.

Child↗

PubMed1995

Specific language impairment: preliminary investigation of factors associated with family history and with patterns of language performance.

To examine patterns that might suggest etiologic subgroups of specific language impairment (SLI), information, including history of speech-language-learning (SLLD) problems in family members, was obtained on 53 children with SLI aged 4 to 9 1/2 years. The results led to the generation of a number of hypotheses for future research. In particular, the findings suggested that family history is related to pattern of language performance. In comparison with children who had both expressive and receptive language deficits, children with deficits in only expressive language had a higher proportion of affected family members (.47 vs. .22), of affected mothers (.57 vs. .17), and of affected siblings (.53 vs. .27). These and other findings are discussed in terms of their consistency with other data, hypotheses relative to explanations of SLI, and their implications for further research.

Birth Order↗

PubMed1995

Specific language impairment as a period of extended optional infinitive.

English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) are known to have particular difficulty with the acquisition of grammatical morphemes that carry tense and agreement features, such as the past tense -ed and third-person singular present -s. In this study, an Extended Optional Infinitive (EOI) account of SLI is evaluated. In this account, -ed, -s, BE, and DO are regarded as finiteness markers. This model predicts that finiteness markers are omitted for an extended period of time for nonimpaired children, and that this period will be extended for a longer time in children with SLI. At the same time, it predicts that if finiteness markers are present, they will be used correctly. These predictions are tested in this study. Subjects were 18 5-year-old children with SLI with expressive and receptive language deficits and two comparison groups of children developing language normally: 22 CA-equivalent (5N) and 20 younger, MLU-equivalent children (3N). It was found that the children with SLI used nonfinite forms of lexical verbs, or omitted BE and DO, more frequently than children in the 5N and 3N groups. At the same time, like the normally developing children, when the children with SLI marked finiteness, they did so appropriately. Most strikingly, the SLI group was highly accurate in marking agreement on BE and DO forms. The findings are discussed in terms of the predictions of the EOI model, in comparison to other models of the grammatical limitations of children with SLI.

Child↗

PubMed1995

Speaking rate, articulatory speed, and linguistic processing in children and adolescents with severe traumatic brain injury.

Two studies were conducted to examine speaking rate following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in childhood and adolescence. Study 1 focused on longitudinal changes in speaking rate in 9 subjects with severe TBI and their age-matched control subjects. Physical measurements of speaking rate (in syllables/sec) were made from spontaneous speech samples obtained from each subject during three sampling sessions over a 13-month period. Although the average speaking rate of the group with TBI was slower than that of the control group at all three sampling sessions, an examination of the data from individual subject pairs revealed markedly slower speaking rates in only 5 of the 9 subjects with TBI at the final sampling session. The perceptual significance of slowed speaking rates in these 5 subjects was confirmed through subjective ratings by naive listeners. In Study 2, the contributions of two potential causes of slowed speaking rate were explored: reduced articulatory speed and increased pausing believed to be associated with linguistic processing difficulties. It is hypothesized that articulatory speed and linguistic processing speed may contribute independently to slowed speaking rates more than 1 year after TBI.

Adolescent↗