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PubMed1996

Early passive acquisition in Inuktitut.

Passive structures are typically assumed to be one of the later acquired constructions in child language. English-speaking children have been shown to produce and comprehend their first simple passive structures productively by about age four and to master more complex structures by about age nine. Recent crosslinguistic data have shown that this pattern may not hold across languages of varying structures. This paper presents data from four Inuit children aged 2;0 to 3;6 that shows relatively early acquisition of both simple and complex forms of the passive. Within this age range children are productively producing truncated, full, action and experiential passives. Some possible reasons for this precociousness are explored including adult input and language structure.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Language abilities following prematurity, periventricular brain injury, and cerebral palsy.

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.

Brain↗
PubMed2000

Child speech and language assessment and measurement.

The necessity of using standardized and norm-referenced tests in assessing speech and language of impaired children has now been recognized. Thus it seems useful to summarize based on the literature principles for founding such testing methods. These include: a) the necessity for a neuropsycholinguistic model that allows the speech-language pathologist to relate the observed linguistic behavior to underlying language processes, b) the knowledge of the psychometric characteristics required for language tests, and c) a discussion of some of the difficulties or controversed points from clinical practice. Among these latter the following are discussed: 1) measurement versus clinical observation, 2) screening versus exhaustive assessment, 3) language linguistic aspects versus pragmatic dimension, 4) formal tasks versus spontaneous language analysis, 5) linguistic versus metalinguistic assessment, 6) "knowledge-dependent" versus "processing-dependent" tests, 7) early detection of at risk children versus diagnosis of developmental language disorders. Diagnosticians are advised to be aware of the principles to respect when assessing child language.

Child↗
PubMed1992

Language development after unilateral brain injury.

This longitudinal study describes the growth of syntactic abilities and vocabulary size in nine children with unilateral antepartum or perinatal brain injury. Five children with left hemisphere damage (LHD) and four with right hemisphere damage (RHD), ages 15 to 48 months, were evaluated on three or more occasions. Language samples generated from parent-child interaction were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using the Child Language Data Exchange System. Individual growth trajectories were constructed by graphing three dependent variables--MLU, scores on the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSYN), and number of different words--as a function of the child's age. One subject remained in a prelinguistic stage throughout the study. Simple linear functions best described the growth of MLU, IPSYN scores, and vocabulary in the other eight children. The slopes of the individual growth trajectories, the graphic representations of rates of progress, were comparable in the eight children. Seven children showed developmental delays in initial word use and five in the onset of multiword utterances. However, by age 24 months, four children with LHD and two children with RHD had syntactic capabilities comparable to those of children without brain injuries. The developmental patterns suggested that both cerebral hemispheres may play critical roles in the very earliest stages of language acquisition. Some unilateral lesions caused little discernible effect on language outcome in the toddler-preschool years after the initial developmental delays.

Brain Damage, Chronic↗
PubMed1990

Socio-perceptual bases for the emergence of language: an alternative to innatist approaches.

Recent challenges from a variety of fields suggest a re-examination of the nativist position and its implications for child language and communication research and theory. Basic assumptions crucial to the innatist position influence researchers to ignore the source of input, its characteristics, and its impact on language development. In contrast, from a socio-perceptual/ecological position, the linchpin of the emergence of language is the dynamic structure of the social-interactive environment in which the child develops. Evidence from a series of studies investigating the social and perceptual bases of the emergence of the lexicon is marshaled to support and illustrate this perspective. Parallel arguments can and ought to be constructed to explain other aspects of language learning.

Child Language↗
PubMed1997

Optimality: from neural networks to universal grammar.

Can concepts from the theory of neural computation contribute to formal theories of the mind? Recent research has explored the implications of one principle of neural computation, optimization, for the theory of grammar. Optimization over symbolic linguistic structures provides the core of a new grammatical architecture, optimality theory. The proposition that grammaticality equals optimality sheds light on a wide range of phenomena, from the gulf between production and comprehension in child language, to language learnability, to the fundamental questions of linguistic theory: What is it that the grammars of all languages share, and how may they differ?

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Literacy promotion in primary care pediatrics: can we make a difference?

BACKGROUND: Reading skills are critical to children's success in school and the increasingly technologic workforce. Children from low-income families are at risk for home environments that fail to promote emergent literacy and for reading failure. A home environment that encourages learning and parents who are involved in their children's education are important factors in school achievement. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of a literacy promoting intervention delivered by pediatric providers as part of well-child care on parent attitudes and behaviors and on child language. DESIGN/METHODS: A multicultural group of 205 low-income families with 5- to 11-month-olds were prospectively enrolled, interviewed, and randomized to intervention (n = 106) or control (n = 99) groups. Families in the intervention group received developmentally appropriate children's books and educational materials and advice about sharing books with children, while those in the control group received no books or materials relevant to literacy. After an average of 3.4 well-child visits in both groups, 153 (75%) were reinterviewed and the children's receptive and expressive vocabulary was tested using a modified version of the MacArthur Communication and Development Inventory (Short Form). Parents were asked if their child understood (receptive vocabulary) or said (expressive vocabulary) each of 100 words, half of which were in the books given. Families were found to have a Child-Centered Literacy Orientation if they mentioned reading aloud as one of their child's favorite activities or as one of their own favorite joint activities or if they usually read together at bedtime. At follow-up toddlers were 18.4 months old on average. RESULTS: Intervention and control groups had similar literacy related characteristics at baseline. There was a 40% increase in Child-Centered Literacy Orientation among intervention families compared with 16% among controls. Intervention families read more with their toddlers (4.3 vs 3.8 days/week). Both receptive and expressive vocabulary scores were higher in older intervention toddlers (18-25 months old; n = 88), but not in younger intervention toddlers (13-17 months old; n = 62). This significant effect of the intervention on vocabulary scores in older toddlers was found for both the 50 words in the books and those not in the books. After parent education, foreign birth and language proficiency, and child age were statistically controlled, the intervention remained significantly associated with higher language outcomes in older toddlers. However, when reading aloud was added to the multivariate analysis, the influence of the intervention was no longer evident, suggesting the intervention's effect on child language was mediated through increased shared reading with these toddlers. CONCLUSION: This simple and inexpensive intervention, delivered as part of well-child care, changed parent attitudes toward the importance of reading with their infants and toddlers. These intervention parents and their children read more together and this was associated with enhanced language development in older toddlers in this diverse group of low-income families.

Books↗
PubMed1997

Some aspects of language development in normal-hearing children and children with cochlear implants.

OBJECTIVE: This article presents some important processes of normal child language acquisition and applies them to language acquisition data of children with cochlear implants. DATA SOURCES: Modern studies of language acquisition, covering various languages, have demonstrated a close link between linguistic and cognitive development. Sensorimotor intelligence provides a construction of reality on which the first grammatical structures are built, encoding a number of relations which hold between objects, persons, events, and localizations. When acquiring the more complex morphological and syntactic aspects of their mother-tongue, children use a number of characteristic information processing strategies which make some formal markings easier to learn than others. There is considerable variability across children with respect to rate of acquisition, the use of imitation, and analytic versus holistic processing strategies. Caregivers' language input can facilitate language acquisition, notably the use of expansions and reformulations, and a generally accepting style. EMPIRICAL STUDY OF CHILDREN WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANTS: Language acquisition data from two children with cochlear implants show great differences with respect to rate of acquisition, construction of the German case system, and syntax. Whereas one child discovers the regularities of the case inflectional system quickly, the other child appears to prefer holistic and rote learning processes and uses a sequential strategy for combining words. It is suggested that variability between children with cochlear implants may be due to different frequencies of actually processed linguistic items. CONCLUSIONS: Future research should compare language development in children with cochlear implants and those with normal hearing making use of psycholinguistic methods of research design and analysis.

Child↗
PubMed1975

Language therapy for children: some thoughts on context and content.

A presentation of ideas on the ideal context for language therapy for children, this paper explores in detail the importance of teaching child language, centering language therapy in the present, teaching words with empirical significance to the child, attempting to provide a language context which is generative to unassisted later language learning, and finally, teaching communication, not merely to language skills. In addition a sample core lexicon is presented which was designed to relate the above contextual aspects of therapy to psycholinguistic strategies of language therapy.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

When novel sentences spoken or heard for the first time in the history of the universe are not enough: toward a dual-process model of language.

Although interest in the language sciences was previously focused on newly created sentences, more recently much attention has turned to the importance of formulaic expressions in normal and disordered communication. Also referred to as formulaic expressions and made up of speech formulas, idioms, expletives, serial and memorized speech, slang, sayings, clichés, and conventional expressions, non-propositional language forms a large proportion of every speaker's competence, and may be differentially disturbed in neurological disorders. This review aims to examine non-propositional speech with respect to linguistic descriptions, psycholinguistic experiments, sociolinguistic studies, child language development, clinical language disorders, and neurological studies. Evidence from numerous sources reveals differentiated and specialized roles for novel and formulaic verbal functions, and suggests that generation of novel sentences and management of prefabricated expressions represent two legitimate and separable processes in language behaviour. A preliminary model of language behaviour that encompasses unitary and compositional properties and their integration in everyday language use is proposed. Integration and synchronizing of two disparate processes in language behaviour, formulaic and novel, characterizes normal communicative function and contributes to creativity in language. This dichotomy is supported by studies arising from other disciplines in neurology and psychology. Further studies are necessary to determine in what ways the various categories of formulaic expressions are related, and how these categories are processed by the brain. Better understanding of how non-propositional categories of speech are stored and processed in the brain can lead to better informed treatment strategies in language disorders.

Aphasia↗
PubMed2006

The use of nouns and verbs by Japanese children and their caregivers in book-reading and toy-playing contexts.

Japanese provides a valuable contrast for crosslinguistic studies of noun and verb dominance in early child language, and the effect of input on the early lexicon. In this study, 31 Japanese children between 1;0 and 2;0 and their caregivers were recorded in two contexts: joint bookreading and play with toys. Context had the largest effect, as nouns were much more frequent in the book context. Noun dominance was constant across development in the book context, but in the toy context there was a shift away as children developed from single words through the presyntactic stage to the syntactic stage. Caregiver language was verb dominant in a number of respects across development in the toy context, and thus was not closely related to child lexical balance. We conclude that in early lexical development, all children have a conceptual disposition to learn nouns. With vocabulary growth and the emergence of grammar, the proportion of verbs increases substantially, and at this stage properties of the input language may influence development.

Caregivers↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Genotype-environment correlations for language-related abilities: implications for typical and atypical learners.

Recent behavioral genetic research has shown that genetic propensities are associated with individual differences in experiences, and thus, what may appear to be environmental effects can reflect genetic influence. This study examines passive genotype-environment correlations (GECs) for language-related abilities by comparing environment-child language associations in adoptive and nonadoptive families. The results provide evidence for the genetic mediation of the association between home environmental variables, such as the provision of toys and games, maternal involvement, and degree of intellectual/cultural orientation with children's language-related abilities. Developmental changes in passive GECs are considered, and the implications for typical and atypical learners are discussed.

Adoption↗
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↗
PubMed2006

The composition of normative groups and diagnostic decision making: shooting ourselves in the foot.

PURPOSE: The normative group of a norm-referenced test is intended to provide a basis for interpreting test scores. However, the composition of the normative group may facilitate or impede different types of diagnostic interpretations. This article considers who should be included in a normative sample and how this decision must be made relative to the purpose for which a test is intended. METHOD: The way in which the composition of the normative sample affects classification accuracy is demonstrated through a test review followed by a simulation study. The test review examined the descriptions of the normative group in a sample of 32 child language tests. The mean performance reported in the test manual for the sample of language impaired children was compared with the sample's norms, which either included or excluded children with language impairment. For the simulation, 2 contrasting normative procedures were modeled. The first procedure included a mixed group of representative cases (language impaired and normal cases). The second procedure excluded the language impaired cases from the norm. RESULTS: Both the data obtained from test manuals and the data simulation based on population characteristics supported our claim that use of mixed normative groups decreases the ability to accurately identify language impairment. Tests that used mixed norms had smaller differences between the normative and language impaired groups in comparison with tests that excluded children with impairment within the normative sample. The simulation demonstrated mixed norms that lowered the group mean and increased the standard deviation, resulting in decreased classification accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: When the purpose of testing is to identify children with impaired language skills, including children with language impairment in the normative sample can reduce identification accuracy.

Child↗
PubMed1989

Contrast: a semantic constraint?

This article challenges the position of Clark (1988) with regard to Contrast. The evidence cited in support of this theory from adult languages is far from clear, and the evidence coming from child language admits of alternative explanations. In addition, the 'logic' of assuming Contrast leads to insurmountable difficulties in the acquisition of irregular forms and allomorphs. An alternative to Contrast is proposed. This draws on the drive towards the adult system, the development of non-linguistic concepts, the acquisition of language in context, and the use of the Co-operative Principle by participants in conversational exchanges to account for those features of language and language acquisition that Contrast was designed to explain.

Child↗