Genes, specificity, and the lexical/functional distinction in language acquisition

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Stromswold
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Specific Language

AbstractContrary to Müller's claims, and in support of modular theories, genetic factors play a substantial and significant role in language. The finding that some children with specific language impairment (SLI) have nonlinguistic impairments may reflect improper diagnosis of SLI or impairments that are secondary to linguistic impairments. Thus, such findings do not argue against the modularity thesis. The lexical/functional distinction appears to be innate and specifically linguistic and could be instantiated in either symbolic or connectionist systems.

scholarly journals Heritability of Specific Language Impairment and Nonspecific Language Impairment at Ages 4 and 6 Years Across Phenotypes of Speech, Language, and Nonverbal Cognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 793-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabel L. Rice ◽  
Catherine L. Taylor ◽  
Stephen R. Zubrick ◽  
Lesa Hoffman ◽  
Kathleen K. Earnest
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Weighted Least Squares ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Assessment Protocol ◽  
Causal Pathway

Purpose Early language and speech acquisition can be delayed in twin children, a twinning effect that diminishes between 4 and 6 years of age in a population-based sample. The purposes of this study were to examine how twinning effects influence the identification of children with language impairments at 4 and 6 years of age, comparing children with specific language impairment (SLI) and nonspecific language impairment (NLI); the likelihood that affectedness will be shared within monozygotic versus dizygotic twin pairs; and estimated levels of heritability for SLI and NLI. Twinning effects are predicted to result in elevated rates of language impairments in twins. Method The population-based twin sample included 1,354 children from 677 twin pairs, 214 monozygotic and 463 dizygotic, enrolled in a longitudinal study. Nine phenotypes from the same comprehensive direct behavioral assessment protocol were investigated at 4 and 6 years of age. Twinning effects were estimated for each phenotype at each age using structural equation models estimated via diagonally weighted least squares. Heritabilities were calculated for SLI and NLI. Results As predicted, the twinning effect increased the percentage of affected children in both groups across multiple language phenotypes, an effect that diminished with age yet was still not aligned to singleton age peers. Substantial heritability estimates replicated across language phenotypes and increased with age, even with the most lenient definition of affectedness, at −1 SD . Patterns of outcomes differed between SLI and NLI groups. Conclusions Nonverbal IQ is not on the same causal pathway as language impairments. Twinning effects on language acquisition affect classification of 4- and 6-year-old children as SLI and NLI, and heritability is most consistent in the SLI group. Clinical practice requires monitoring language acquisition of twins to avoid misdiagnosis when young or a missed diagnosis of language impairments at school entry.

scholarly journals Causal Pathways for Specific Language Impairment: Lessons From Studies of Twins

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 3224-3235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabel L. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Twin Data ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Causal Pathways ◽  
Longitudinal Investigation ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
High Heritability ◽  
Consistent Support

Purpose This review article summarizes a program of longitudinal investigation of twins' language acquisition with a focus on causal pathways for specific language impairment (SLI) and nonspecific language impairment in children at 4 and 6 years with known history at 2 years. Method The context of the overview is established by legacy scientific papers in genetics, language, and SLI. Five recent studies of twins are summarized, from 2 to 16 years of age, with a longitudinal perspective of heritability over multiple speech, language, and cognitive phenotypes. Results Replicated moderate-to-high heritability is reported across ages, phenotypes, full population estimates, and estimates for clinical groups. Key outcomes are documentation of a twinning effect of risk for late language acquisition in twins that persists through 6 years of age, greater for monozygotic than dizygotic twins (although zygosity effects disappear at 6 years); heritability is greater for grammar and morphosyntax than other linguistic dimensions, from age 2 years through age 16 years, replicated within twin samples at subsequent age levels and across twin samples at age 16 years. Conclusion There is consistent support for legacy models of genetic influences on language acquisition, updated with a more precise growth signaling disruption model supported by twin data, as well as singleton data of children with SLI and nonspecific language impairment. Presentation Video https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13063727

scholarly journals Dwujęzyczność u progu edukacji szkolnej – interdyscyplinarny projekt badawczy

Neofilolog ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 7-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Otwinowska ◽  
Natalia Banasik ◽  
Marta Białecka-Pikul ◽  
Dorota Kiebzak-Mandera ◽  
Katarzyna Kuś ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Bilingual Child ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
European Cooperation ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
School Entrance ◽  
Natural Settings

The paper describes a Polish research project which aims at creating a cognitive and linguistic profile of the Polish-English bilingual child at the school entrance age. With the increase in the number of bilingual children due to economic migrations, researchers, educators and practitioners are often faced with diagnostic dilemmas which arise from similarities in bilingual language acquisition in natural settings and Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The study, which aims at disentangling the effects of bilingualism from those of SLI, is a part of European cooperation programme COST Action IS0408/Bi-SLI. The aim of the Polish team is to create and test a set of tools which can be used for developing norms of typical bilingual development for Polish-English children entering school education.

scholarly journals Evaluating maturational parallels in second language children and children with specific language impairment

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabel L. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Growth Trajectories ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
English Speaking

In her Keynote Article in this issue, Paradis explores the nature of bilingual language acquisition by examining the question of possible similarities between children learning a second language (L2) and children with specific language impairment (SLI) who are monolingual or bilingual. She evaluates the maturation model of Rice (2004), the extended optional infinitive (EOI) model, that focuses on children's acquisition of finiteness marking during the early childhood period. Paradis alludes to the issue of how to deal with the nonparallels between chronological age and acquisition in the comparison of L2 and SLI language acquisition within maturational models. I explore that issue further in this Commentary, using the available growth templates drawn from the work on English-speaking typically developing children and children with SLI for projected possible growth trajectories for bilingual and L2 children, with and without SLI.

An integrated approach to the study of specific language impairment and bilingualism

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen F. Peets ◽  
Ellen Bialystok
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
L2 Learning

The debate over the characterization of specific language impairment (SLI) is fundamental to theoretical linguistics and, more broadly, to the whole of cognitive science. It is built directly out of the pervasive question regarding the extent to which language ability is best considered as a domain-specific set of skills or as the outcome of various domain-general processes. Therefore, an examination of this issue in conjunction with bilingual language acquisition, a situation that naturally entangles both linguistic and cognitive systems, is a powerful forum for exploring these basic theoretical questions. Paradis' Keynote Article is a substantial contribution to this enterprise: it provides a thorough review of the literature on bilingualism and SLI, and in so doing, evaluates the evidence in terms of its consistency with the maturational model that follows from the tradition of domain-specific language acquisition and the limited processing capacity (LPC) theory, a more domain-general approach. Her extensive review of the literature shows that both second language (L2) learning and bilingualism produce language proficiency profiles that are not identical to those found in SLI, and therefore support neither approach. In our view, the problem is in the attempt to dichotomize language ability as being controlled by either domain-specific or domain-general factors. A more inclusive approach to language ability, especially regarding bilingualism and L2 learning, would set out different criteria for evaluating language development other than the strictly linguistic features used in Paradis' analyses. Such an analysis may lead to a clearer identification of how these experiences uniquely affect language outcomes.

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