scholarly journals Procedural learning across modalities in French-speaking children with specific language impairment

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 747-769 ◽  
Author(s):  
AUDREY GABRIEL ◽  
THIERRY MEULEMANS ◽  
CHRISTOPHE PARISSE ◽  
CHRISTELLE MAILLART
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Procedural Memory ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Specific Sequence ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Problems ◽  
Serial Reaction ◽  
French Speaking

ABSTRACTIt has been suggested that the language problems encountered in specific language impairment (SLI) arise from basal ganglia abnormalities that lead to impaired procedural memory. However, recent serial reaction time (SRT) studies did not reveal any differences between the SLI and typically developing (TD) groups on the measures of procedural memory linked to visual sequence learning. In this paper, 16 children with and without SLI were compared on two versions of SRT tasks: a visual task and an auditory one. The results showed that children with SLI were as fast as their TD peers in both modalities. All of the children obtained similar specific sequence learning indices, indicating that they were able to detect regularities in both modalities. Although children with SLI were as accurate as their TD peers for the visual SRT task, they made more errors than their TD peers in auditory SRT conditions. The results indicate that, in relation to procedural memory, the core of the impairment in SLI is not linked to difficulties in the detection of regularities. We argue that when children with SLI present some difficulties, the children's weaknesses might depend on the type of processing involved (e.g., tasks involving auditory sequences).

scholarly journals Procedural Learning in Specific Language Impairment: Effects of Sequence Complexity

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Gabriel ◽  
Christelle Maillart ◽  
Nicolas Stefaniak ◽  
Caroline Lejeune ◽  
Lise Desmottes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Procedural Memory ◽  
Abnormal Development ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Serial Reaction ◽  
Procedural Deficit Hypothesis ◽  
Specific Learning

AbstractAccording to the procedural deficit hypothesis (PDH), abnormal development in the procedural memory system could account for the language deficits observed in specific language impairment (SLI). Recent studies have supported this hypothesis by using a serial reaction time (SRT) task, during which a slower learning rate is observed in children with SLI compared to controls. Recently, we obtained contrasting results, demonstrating that children with SLI were able to learn a sequence as quickly and as accurately as controls. These discrepancies could be related to differences in the statistical structure of the SRT sequence between these studies. The aim of this study was to further assess, in a group of 21 children with SLI, the PDH with second-order conditional sequences, which are more difficult to learn than those used in previous studies. Our results show that children with SLI had impaired procedural memory, as evidenced by both longer reaction times and no sign of sequence-specific learning in comparison with typically developing controls. These results are consistent with the PDH proposed by Ullman and Pierpont (2005) and suggest that procedural sequence-learning in SLI children depends on the complexity of the to-be-learned sequence. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–8)

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.

Specific language impairment at adolescence: Avoiding complexity

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURICE TULLER ◽  
CÉLIA HENRY ◽  
EVA SIZARET ◽  
MARIE-ANNE BARTHEZ
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Complex Structures ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Syntactic Development ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Language Characteristic ◽  
Syntactic Derivation

ABSTRACTThis study explores complex language in adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI) with the aim of finding out how aspects of language characteristic of typical syntactic development after childhood fare and, in particular, whether there is evidence that individuals with SLI avoid using structures whose syntactic derivation involves greater computational complexity. An analysis of spontaneous language samples of 18 French-speaking adolescents with SLI, compared to groups of typically developing speakers, showed that whereas complexity increases with age in the latter, behaviors of avoidance are clear in the former, in the form of low frequencies of complex structures, but also frequency of failed attempts and alternative strategies. Whereas increasing complexity is the hallmark of syntactic development after childhood, avoidance of complexity appears to characterize SLI after childhood.

scholarly journals Annoying Danish relatives: Comprehension and production of relative clauses by Danish children with and without SLI

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
KRISTINE JENSEN DE LÓPEZ ◽  
LONE SUNDAHL OLSEN ◽  
VASILIKI CHONDROGIANNI
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Avoidance Strategies ◽  
Reversal Errors ◽  
Object Relative

ABSTRACTThis study examines the comprehension and production of subject and object relative clauses (SRCs, ORCs) by children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and their typically developing (TD) peers. The purpose is to investigate whether relative clauses are problematic for Danish children with SLI and to compare errors with those produced by TD children. Eighteen children with SLI, eighteen TD age-matched (AM) and nine TD language-matched (LM) Danish-speaking children participated in a comprehension and in a production task. All children performed better on the comprehension compared with the production task, as well as on SRCs compared to ORCs and produced various avoidance strategies. In the ORC context, children with SLI produced more reversal errors than the AM children, who opted for passive ORCs. These results are discussed within current theories of SLI and indicate a deficiency with the assignment of thematic roles rather than with the structural make-up of RCs.

Implicit Spoken Words and Motor Sequences Learning Are Impaired in Children with Specific Language Impairment

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 520-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Desmottes ◽  
Thierry Meulemans ◽  
Christelle Maillart
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Implicit Sequence Learning ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Serial Search ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Spoken Words ◽  
Procedural Deficit Hypothesis ◽  
Simultaneous Assessment

AbstractObjectives: This study aims to compare verbal and motor implicit sequence learning abilities in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Methods: Forty-eight children (24 control and 24 SLI) were administered the Serial Search Task (SST), which enables the simultaneous assessment of implicit spoken words and visuomotor sequences learning. Results: Results showed that control children implicitly learned both the spoken words as well as the motor sequences. In contrast, children with SLI showed deficits in both types of learning. Moreover, correlational analyses revealed that SST performance was linked with grammatical abilities in control children but with lexical abilities in children with SLI. Conclusions: Overall, this pattern of results supports the procedural deficit hypothesis and suggests that domain general implicit sequence learning is impaired in SLI. (JINS, 2016, 22, 1–10)

Gesture and speech during shared book reading with preschoolers with specific language impairment

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1191-1218 ◽  
Author(s):  
MANUELA LAVELLI ◽  
CHIARA BARACHETTI ◽  
ELENA FLORIT
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
Book Reading ◽  
Shared Book Reading ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Potential Effectiveness ◽  
Maternal Speech ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTThis study examined (a) the relationship between gesture and speech produced by children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing (TD) children, and their mothers, during shared book-reading, and (b) the potential effectiveness of gestures accompanying maternal speech on the conversational responsiveness of children. Fifteen preschoolers with expressive SLI were compared with fifteen age-matched and fifteen language-matched TD children. Child and maternal utterances were coded for modality, gesture type, gesture–speech informational relationship, and communicative function. Relative to TD peers, children with SLI used more bimodal utterances and gestures adding unique information to co-occurring speech. Some differences were mirrored in maternal communication. Sequential analysis revealed that only in the SLI group maternal reading accompanied by gestures was significantly followed by child's initiatives, and when maternal non-informative repairs were accompanied by gestures, they were more likely to elicit adequate answers from children. These findings support the ‘gesture advantage’ hypothesis in children with SLI, and have implications for educational and clinical practice.

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