Summing up problems in bilingual specific language impairment: Why multiple influences may not be additive

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Conti-Ramsden
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Compensatory Mechanisms ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Bilingual Development

The Keynote Article is a very welcomed, timely, and incisive review article that examines theoretical and clinical implications of research on bilingual development and specific language impairment (SLI). Paradis provides a considered examination of the available evidence and takes into account a number of potential influencing factors. In particular, I want to commend her discussion of potential compensatory mechanisms that may play a role in bilingual development in SLI. This is often a neglected area in discussions concerning SLI. I also want to highlight that I agree wholeheartedly with her conclusion that the evidence to date “leans toward a positive attitude toward dual language learning for children with SLI who are in a supportive context for bilingualism.” This message is by no means universally accepted, nor is it put into action in therapeutic contexts across the United Kingdom and Europe. There is still much debate as to what type of advice should be given to parents and what the target language or languages of therapy should be (Harulow, 2008). This review article has therefore the potential not only to make a significant contribution to theory but also to practice.

Deficits in Explicit Language Problem Solving Rather Than in Implicit Learning in Specific Language Impairment: Evidence From Learning an Artificial Morphological Rule

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (10) ◽  
pp. 3790-3807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Ferman ◽  
Liat Kishon-Rabin ◽  
Hila Ganot-Budaga ◽  
Avi Karni
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Procedural Memory ◽  
Procedural Learning ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Problems ◽  
Morphological Rule ◽  
Semantic Distinction

Purpose The purpose of this study was to delineate differences between children with specific language impairment (SLI), typical age–matched (TAM) children, and typical younger (TY) children in learning and mastering an undisclosed artificial morphological rule (AMR) through exposure and usage. Method Twenty-six participants (eight 10-year-old children with SLI, 8 TAM children, and ten 8-year-old TY children) were trained to master an AMR across multiple training sessions. The AMR required a phonological transformation of verbs depending on a semantic distinction: whether the preceding noun was animate or inanimate. All participants practiced the application of the AMR to repeated and new (generalization) items, via judgment and production tasks. Results The children with SLI derived significantly less benefit from practice than their peers in learning most aspects of the AMR, even exhibiting smaller gains compared to the TY group in some aspects. Children with SLI benefited less than TAM and even TY children from training to judge and produce repeated items of the AMR. Nevertheless, despite a significant disadvantage in baseline performance, the rate at which they mastered the task-specific phonological regularities was as robust as that of their peers. On the other hand, like 8-year-olds, only half of the SLI group succeeded in uncovering the nature of the AMR and, consequently, in generalizing it to new items. Conclusions Children with SLI were able to learn language aspects that rely on implicit, procedural learning, but experienced difficulties in learning aspects that relied on the explicit uncovering of the semantic principle of the AMR. The results suggest that some of the difficulties experienced by children with SLI when learning a complex language regularity cannot be accounted for by a broad, language-related, procedural memory disability. Rather, a deficit—perhaps a developmental delay in the ability to recruit and solve language problems and establish explicit knowledge regarding a language task—can better explain their difficulties in language learning.

Dynamic Temporal Processing of Nonspeech Acoustic Information by Children With Specific Language Impairment

1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 510-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane C. Visto ◽  
Jerry L. Cranford ◽  
Rosalind Scudder
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Precedence Effect ◽  
Complex Sound ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Acoustic Information ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
Spectral Components ◽  
Normal Language

The present study investigated whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) differed from children with normal language learning in their ability to process binaural temporal information. The SLI group was matched with peers of the same chronological age, as well as peers with similar language age. All three subject groups were tested with measures of complex sound localization involving the precedence effect phenomenon. Subjects were required to track the apparent motion of a “moving” fused auditory image (FAI). Movement of the FAI was simulated by varying the delay incrementally between pairs of clicks presented, one each, from two matched loudspeakers placed on opposite sides of the child’s head. With this task, the SLI subjects’ performances were found to be similar to their language age-matched but chronologically younger peers. Both groups exhibited tracking skills that were statistically poorer than that of the chronologically age-matched group. Additional tests indicated this effect was not due to differences in motoric tracking abilities nor to the SLI subjects’ abilities to perceive small binaural time cues. Thus, children with SLI appear to be impaired in their ability to use binaural acoustic information in a dynamic ongoing fashion. The requirements for processing such nonlinguistic acoustic information in a “dynamic and ongoing” fashion may be similar to those involved in the ongoing processing of rapid changes in the temporal and spectral components of the speech chain.

Specific Language Impairment as a Clinical Category

1991 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
Central Mechanism ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Language Measures ◽  
Clinical Category

Many children are diagnosed as "specifically language-impaired" principally on the basis of their low scores relative to the norm on language measures. Yet it is often assumed that such children must suffer from a subtle disruption or defect in some peripheral or central mechanism that is involved in language learning. In this paper, an alternative view is offered: Many of these children may simply be limited in language ability in much the same way that others may be poor in musical, spatial, or bodily kinesthetic abilities.

Bilingualism as a kind of therapy?

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aafke Hulk ◽  
Sharon Unsworth
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Bilingual Development ◽  
Challenging Question

In her very interesting Keynote Article, Johanne Paradis gives a clear overview of recent research at the interface of bilingual development and child language disorders, and highlights its theoretical and clinical implications. She raises the challenging question of “whether bilingualism can be viewed as a kind of ‘therapy’ for SLI.” At first sight, this is perhaps a surprising question, because one of the predominant views in the literature is that bilingual children with specific language impairment (SLI) will exhibit difficulties and perhaps a “double delay.” It is this challenging question that we consider in more detail here.

Beyond morphosyntax in developing bilinguals and “specific” language impairment

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Kohnert ◽  
Kerry Danahy Ebert
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Processing Capacity ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Behavioral Profile ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Primary Language Impairment

In the Keynote Article, “The Interface Between Bilingual Development and Specific Language Impairment,” Johanne Paradis considers issues and evidence at the intersection of children learning two languages and primary or specific language impairment (SLI). The review focuses on morphosyntactic evidence and the fit of this evidence with maturational (domain-specific) and limited processing capacity (LPC; domain-general) theories of language impairment. We agree with Paradis that studies that systematically and simultaneously investigate the behavioral profile of dual-language learners and children with language impairment are of significant theoretical and practical value. In our commentary we aim to broaden the behavioral profile to be considered in these populations, beyond the level of morphosyntax. In line with this aim we use the term primary language impairment (PLI) for the same population referred to as SLI by Paradis.

Specific Language Impairment: Preliminary Investigation of Factors Associated With Family History and With Patterns of Language Performance

1995 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 643-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Lahey ◽  
Jan Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Specific Language

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 9½ 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.

The interface between bilingual development and specific language impairment

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHANNE PARADIS
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Processing Capacity ◽  
Typical Development ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Bilingual Development

ABSTRACTResearch at the interface of bilingual development and child language disorders has increased greatly in the past decade. The purpose of this article is to highlight the theoretical and clinical implications of this research. Studies examining the similarities in linguistic characteristics between typically developing sequential bilingual children and monolingual children with specific language impairment (SLI) the same age are reviewed in light of predictions from a maturational model of SLI. Studies examining the linguistic characteristics of bilingual children with SLI compared to monolinguals with SLI and their bilingual peers with typical development are reviewed in light of predictions of limited processing capacity theories of SLI. It is shown that data from bilingual children pose interesting challenges to both theoretical perspectives, although in different ways. Finally, the findings from this research are discussed in terms of their relevance for assessment of SLI in bilingual children.

Verb Use in Specific Language Impairment

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1298-1313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Conti-Ramsden ◽  
Melanie Jones
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Verb Morphology ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Matched Samples

The aim of the present study was to use longitudinal data to provide a detailed profile of early word combinations by children with SLI. Three children with SLI were videotaped during mother-child interactions in the home over a 2-year period. The data obtained were compared to MLU-matched samples of normal language-learning children from Wells’ (1981) longitudinal database, which provided a control for the linguistic measures used in this study. A range of analyses were carried out on controlled data samples in order to determine how the children with SLI’s early utterances compared with those of MLU-matched normal language peers. The measures were specifically designed to assess the children’s use of verbs and verb morphology because recent research has suggested that verbs may play a central role in the acquisition process, and children with SLI may have particular problems with verbs. We found that children with SLI used verbs less frequently, nouns more frequently, and were more input-dependent than their MLU-matched peers. The children with SLI used verb bare stems incorrectly more often than their MLU-matched counterparts. However, further analyses showed that this high frequency of incorrect bare stems may be at least partly due to the fact that children with SLI have particular difficulties using auxiliaries. Furthermore, the proportion of verb use that consisted of General All Purpose (GAP) verbs for children with SLI was similar to that of the MLU-matched children. The above findings were compared with those from other relevant studies of lexical diversity in children with SLI, and the potential implications of these data for theories of SLI language development were discussed, particularly with reference to Marchman and Bates’ (1994) "critical mass" hypothesis.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document