The ability of language-disordered children to use and modify hypotheses in discrimination learning

1985 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan G. Kamhi ◽  
Lauren K. Nelson ◽  
René Friemoth Lee ◽  
Barry Gholson
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Learning ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Blank Trial ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Learning Set ◽  
Better Than

AbstractBlank-trial probe discrimination learning tasks were used to evaluate the hypothesis-testing abilities of 15 language-disordered and 30 normally developing children matched for mental age and language age. Children were presented with a series of two-dimensional learning set and orthogonal problems. No significant group differences were found in the learning set problems. All the children reached learning set criterion quickly, used a high proportion of simple object hypotheses, and maintained a high proportion of confirmed hypotheses. On the orthogonal problems, however, the language-disordered and mental-aged- (MA) matched children performed significantly better than the younger normal children. These findings suggest that the cognitive and linguistic deficits language-disordered children exhibit do not reflect an underlying failure to generate and test hypotheses. This conclusion, however, does not seem to apply to all language-disordered children. In the final section of the paper, language-disordered children's cognitive strengths and weaknesses are interpreted within the context of an information-processing model.

Cognitive Strengths and Weaknesses in Language-Impaired Children

1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren K. Nelson ◽  
Alan G. Kamhi ◽  
Kenn Apel
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Learning ◽  
Correct Response ◽  
The Other ◽  
Learning Problems ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Response Choice ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Better Than

The hypothesis-testing abilities of 15 language-impaired and 15 normally developing children matched for mental age were investigated using discrimination-learning tasks. The subjects in both groups were presented with two sets of discrimination-learning problems. One set of problems featured explicit input concerning the correct response choice. The other set of problems featured nonexplicit input. The results revealed both differences in the performance of the MA-matched and language-impaired children and differences in performance on the two types of problems. The children in both groups solved more of the explicit input problems than the nonexplicit input problems. In addition, the MA-matched children performed significantly better than the language-impaired children, particularly on the nonexplicit problems. The findings suggested that the language-impaired children exhibited deficits in solving discrimination-learning problems. The deficits exhibited by the language-impaired children seemed related to deficits in their ability to encode information.

scholarly journals Do you have a question for me? How children with Williams syndrome respond to ambiguous referential communication during a joint activity

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 266-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIELA PLESA SKWERER ◽  
EMILY AMMERMAN ◽  
HELEN TAGER-FLUSBERG
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Object Locations ◽  
Comparison Groups ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Initial Focus

ABSTRACTResearch on language in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) has been fueled by persistent theoretical controversies for two decades. These shifted from initial focus on dissociations between language and cognition functions, to examining the paradox of socio-communicative impairments despite high sociability and relatively proficient expressive language. We investigated possible sources of communicative difficulties in WS in a collaborative referential communication game. Five- to thirteen-year-old children with WS were compared to verbal mental age- and to chronological age-matched typically developing children in their ability to consider different types of information to select a speaker's intended referent from an array of items. Significant group differences in attention deployment to object locations, and in the number and types of clarification requests, indicated the use of less efficient and less mature strategies for reference resolution in WS than expected based on mental age, despite learning effects similar to those of the comparison groups, shown as the game progressed.

Intermodal perception of affect in persons with autism or Down syndrome

1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine A. Loveland ◽  
Belgin Tunali-Kotoski ◽  
Richard Chen ◽  
Kristin A. Brelsford ◽  
Juliana Ortegon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
The Other ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Linguistic Information ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Autism Group ◽  
Intermodal Perception ◽  
Better Than

AbstractPersons with autism (n = 28) or Down syndrome (n = 30) took part in a study of the ability to detect intermodal correspondence between facial and vocal/linguistic information for affect. Participants viewed 24 split-screen images of an individual talking and displaying a different affect on each side of the display (happy, sad, angry, surprised, or neutral). The vocal track, matching one affect (i.e., one side of the split-screen) but not the other, was played from a central speaker. Subjects were asked to point to the side matching the vocal track. The vocal track was desynchronized with both sides, so that rhythmic synchrony was greatly reduced and subjects must use affect to make their choices. In the first control condition, rhythmic synchrony information was restored. In a second control condition, inanimate objects and their sounds were presented. In the experimental condition, when verbal mental age and IQ were taken into account, the autism group performed more poorly than did the Down syndrome group in detecting intermodal correspondence of face and voice. When rhythmic synchrony information was available, both groups' performances improved, with the Down syndrome group performing slightly better than the group with autism. There were no group differences in the condition using inanimate objects. Results suggest that persons with autism may have difficulty detecting intermodal correspondence of facial and vocal/linguistic affect.

Surprise and Memory as Indices of Concrete Operational Development

1973 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Achenbach
Keyword(s):  
Group Differences ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Verbal Responses ◽  
Conservation Task ◽  
Continuous Quantity ◽  
Number Conservation ◽  
Quantitative Properties ◽  
Concrete Operational ◽  
Operational Development

Normal and retarded children's use of color, number, length, and continuous quantity as attributes of identity was assessed by presenting them with contrived changes in these properties. Mean Binet MAs were 6.3 for normals and 6.2 for retardates. Surprise to the change of color occurred at lower MAs than surprise to all quantitative properties among normals and to continuous quantity and (nonsignificantly) to length among retardates. More retardates than MA-matched normals were surprised at the change of quantity ( p = .058), but there were no other significant group differences. Study II employed normal children with mean MA = 5.2. Significant relations between surprise and both recognition and reconstruction memory were found for color and number. Surprise and correct memory responses for color preceded those to number, which preceded logical verbal responses to a conventional number-conservation task.

Comparison of Auditory, Language, Memory, and Attention Abilities in Children With and Without Listening Difficulties

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-727
Author(s):  
Beula M. Magimairaj ◽  
Naveen K. Nagaraj ◽  
Alexander V. Sergeev ◽  
Natalie J. Benafield
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Memory And Attention ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

Objectives School-age children with and without parent-reported listening difficulties (LiD) were compared on auditory processing, language, memory, and attention abilities. The objective was to extend what is known so far in the literature about children with LiD by using multiple measures and selective novel measures across the above areas. Design Twenty-six children who were reported by their parents as having LiD and 26 age-matched typically developing children completed clinical tests of auditory processing and multiple measures of language, attention, and memory. All children had normal-range pure-tone hearing thresholds bilaterally. Group differences were examined. Results In addition to significantly poorer speech-perception-in-noise scores, children with LiD had reduced speed and accuracy of word retrieval from long-term memory, poorer short-term memory, sentence recall, and inferencing ability. Statistically significant group differences were of moderate effect size; however, standard test scores of children with LiD were not clinically poor. No statistically significant group differences were observed in attention, working memory capacity, vocabulary, and nonverbal IQ. Conclusions Mild signal-to-noise ratio loss, as reflected by the group mean of children with LiD, supported the children's functional listening problems. In addition, children's relative weakness in select areas of language performance, short-term memory, and long-term memory lexical retrieval speed and accuracy added to previous research on evidence-based areas that need to be evaluated in children with LiD who almost always have heterogenous profiles. Importantly, the functional difficulties faced by children with LiD in relation to their test results indicated, to some extent, that commonly used assessments may not be adequately capturing the children's listening challenges. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12808607

Examining the Role of Language in Play Among Children With and Without Developmental Disabilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 795-806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. Short ◽  
Rachael Cooper Schindler ◽  
Rita Obeid ◽  
Maia M. Noeder ◽  
Laura E. Hlavaty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Disabilities ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Play Skills ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Better Than

Purpose Play is a critical aspect of children's development, and researchers have long argued that symbolic deficits in play may be diagnostic of developmental disabilities. This study examined whether deficits in play emerge as a function of developmental disabilities and whether our perceptions of play are colored by differences in language and behavioral presentations. Method Ninety-three children participated in this study (typically developing [TD]; n = 23, developmental language disorders [DLD]; n = 24, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]; n = 26, and autism spectrum disorder [ASD]; n = 20). Children were videotaped engaging in free-play. Children's symbolic play (imagination, organization, elaboration, and comfort) was scored under conditions of both audible language and no audible language to assess diagnostic group differences in play and whether audible language impacted raters' perception of play. Results Significant differences in play were evident across diagnostic groups. The presence of language did not alter play ratings for the TD group, but differences were found among the other diagnostic groups. When language was audible, children with DLD and ASD (but not ADHD) were scored poorly on play compared to their TD peers. When language was not audible, children with DLD were perceived to play better than when language was audible. Conversely, children with ADHD showed organizational deficits when language was not available to support their play. Finally, children with ASD demonstrated poor play performance regardless of whether language was audible or not. Conclusions Language affects our understanding of play skills in some young children. Parents, researchers, and clinicians must be careful not to underestimate or overestimate play based on language presentation. Differential skills in language have the potential to unduly influence our perceptions of play for children with developmental disabilities.

Phonological and Spatial Processing Abilities in Language- and Reading-Impaired Children

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan G. Kamhi ◽  
Hugh W. Catts ◽  
Daria Mauer ◽  
Kenn Apel ◽  
Betholyn F. Gentry
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Word Repetition ◽  
Paper Folding ◽  
Syllable Segmentation ◽  
Processing Abilities ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Better Than

In the present study, we further examined (see Kamhi & Catts, 1986) the phonological processing abilities of language-impaired (LI) and reading-impaired (RI) children. We also evaluated these children's ability to process spatial information. Subjects were 10 LI, 10 RI, and 10 normal children between the ages of 6:8 and 8:10 years. Each subject was administered eight tasks: four word repetition tasks (monosyllabic, monosyllabic presented in noise, three-item, and multisyllabic), rapid naming, syllable segmentation, paper folding, and form completion. The normal children performed significantly better than both the LI and RI children on all but two tasks: syllable segmentation and repeating words presented in noise. The LI and RI children performed comparably on every task with the exception of the multisyllabic word repetition task. These findings were consistent with those from our previous study (Kamhi & Catts, 1986). The similarities and differences between LI and RI children are discussed.

Behavioral and emotional differences between children of divorce and children from intact families: Clinical significance and mediating processes *This study is part of a dissertation () supported from the German research community.

2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Schick
Keyword(s):  
Self Esteem ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Children Of Divorce ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Intact Families ◽  
Divorce Adjustment ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
German Research ◽  
Clinically Significant

The following study is based on a sample of 241 9-13-year-old children (66 children from divorced parents, 175 children from non divorced parents). They were examined for differences regarding anxiety, self-esteem, different areas of competence, and degree of behavior problems. With a focus on the children’s experiences, the clinically significant differences were examined. Clinically significant differences, revealing more negative outcomes for the children of divorce, were only found for social anxiety and unstable performance. The frequency of clinical significant differences was independent of the length of time the parents had been separated. The perceived destructiveness of conflict between the parents one of four facets of interparental conflict in this study functioned as a central mediator of the statistically significant group differences. The children’s perception of the father’s social support was a less reliable indicator of variance. Further studies should try to make underlying theoretical assumptions about the effects of divorce more explicit, to distinguish clearly between mediating variables, and to investigate them with respect to specific divorce adjustment indicators.

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