Semantic Deficits in Children With Language Impairments

2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Brackenbury ◽  
Clifton Pye
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Access ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Word Acquisition ◽  
Semantic Skills

Children with language impairments demonstrate a broad range of semantic difficulties, including problems with new word acquisition, storage and organization of known words, and lexical access/retrieval. Unfortunately, assessments of children’s semantic skills are often limited to measures of receptive and expressive vocabulary size. As a result, the semantic deficits of these children may not receive the attention they need. This article explores the word-learning, lexical storage, and lexical access skills of children with language impairments and the theories that account for their performance. Our review culminates with specific recommendations for speech-language pathologists to improve the breadth of their semantic assessments.

Comparing productive vocabulary measures from the CDI and a systematic diary study

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
BYRON F. ROBINSON ◽  
CAROLYN B. MERVIS
Keyword(s):  
Growth Curves ◽  
Diary Study ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Best Fitting ◽  
Fitting Model

Expressive vocabulary data gathered during a systematic diary study of one male child's early language development are compared to data that would have resulted from longitudinal administration of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories spoken vocabulary checklist (CDI). Comparisons are made for (1) the number of words at monthly intervals (9;10.15 to 2;0.15), (2) proportion of words by lexical class (i.e. noun, predicate, closed class, ‘other’), (3) growth curves. The CDI underestimates the number of words in the diary study, with the underestimation increasing as vocabulary size increases. The proportion of diary study words appearing on the CDI differed as a function of lexical class. Finally, despite the differences in vocabulary size, logistic curves proved to be the best fitting model to characterize vocabulary development as measured by both the diary study and the CDI. Implications for the longitudinal use of the CDI are discussed.

Word learning in a special population: do individuals with Williams syndrome obey lexical constraints?

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 737-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
TASSOS STEVENS ◽  
ANNETTE KARMILOFF-SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
Fast Mapping ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
New Words ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
Lexical Constraints

Williams syndrome (WS), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, is of special interest to developmental psycholinguists because of its uneven linguistico-cognitive profile of abilities and deficits. One proficiency manifest in WS adolescents and adults is an unusually large vocabulary despite serious deficits in other domains. In this paper, rather than focus on vocabulary size, we explore the processes underlying vocabulary acquisition, i.e. how new words are learned. A WS group was compared to groups of normal MA-matched controls in the range 3–9 years in four different experiments testing for constraints on word learning. We show that in construing the meaning of new words, normal children at all ages display fast mapping and abide by the constraints tested: mutual exclusivity, whole object and taxonomic. By contrast, while the WS group showed fast mapping and the mutual exclusivity constraint, they did not abide by the whole object or taxonomic constraints. This suggests that measuring only the size of WS vocabulary can distort conclusions about the normalcy of WS language. Our study shows that despite equivalent behaviour (i.e. vocabulary test age), the processes underlying how vocabulary is acquired in WS follow a somewhat different path from that of normal children and that the atypically developing brain is not necessarily a window on normal development.

The Use of Rating Scales With Children Who Have Language Impairments

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean M. Redmond
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Emotional Disorders ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Special Education Services ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Language Bias ◽  
Education Services ◽  
Behavioral Rating ◽  
Behavioral Rating Scales

Several reports suggest that socio-emotional disorders and language impairments frequently co-occur in children receiving special education services. One explanation for the high levels of co-occurrence is that limitations inherent to linguistic deficiencies are frequently misinterpreted as symptomatic of underlying socioemotional pathology. In this report, five commonly used behavioral rating scales are examined in light of language bias. Results of the review indicated that children with language impairments are likely to be overidentified as having socioemotional disorders. An implication of these findings is that speech-language pathologists need to increase their involvement in socioemotional evaluations to ensure that children with language impairments as a group are not unduly penalized for their language limitations. Specific guidelines for using ratings with children with language impairments are provided.

scholarly journals Infant-directed speech from seven to nineteen months has similar acoustic properties but different functions

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 1035-1053 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina KALASHNIKOVA ◽  
Denis BURNHAM
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Speech Quality ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Three Components

AbstractThis longitudinal study assessed three acoustic components of maternal infant-directed speech (IDS) – pitch, affect, and vowel hyperarticulation – in relation to infants’ age and their expressive vocabulary size. These three individual components were measured in IDS addressed to infants at 7, 9, 11, 15, and 19 months (N = 18). All three components were exaggerated at all ages in mothers’ IDS compared to their adult-directed speech. Importantly, the only significant predictor of infants’ expressive vocabulary size at 15 and 19 months was vowel hyperarticulation, but only at 9 months and beyond, not at 7 months, and not pitch or affect at any age. These results set apart vowel hyperarticulation in IDS to infants as the critical IDS component for vocabulary development. Thus IDS, specifically the degree of vowel hyperarticulation therein, is a vehicle by which parents can provide the most optimal speech quality for their infants’ linguistic and communicative development.

Early Vocabulary in Children With Cochlear Implants: A Comparison Between Three Assessment Methods

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-121
Author(s):  
Louise Duchesne ◽  
Natacha Trudeau ◽  
Andrea A. N. MacLeod ◽  
François Bergeron ◽  
Elin Thordardottir
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Parental Satisfaction ◽  
Parental Report ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Post Implantation ◽  
Language Sample

In children with a hearing loss who receive cochlear implants (CIs) under the age of 2, regular assessments are conducted to monitor auditory and linguistic progress. However, the collection of authentic, representative, and reliable expressive language data on young children with CIs remains a challenge. The purpose of the study was to determine whether data from parental report, language diary, and spontaneous language sample are equally representative of the development of expressive vocabulary over the first 12 months of CI use. Nine French-speaking children and their families participated in the study. We collected data at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-implantation, and we measured parental satisfaction regarding the use of a language diary. All three methods showed a progression in the total number of different words expressed over time and captured grammatical diversity. The findings suggest that when vocabulary size is still small, the diary might provide a more comprehensive picture of development than a vocabulary checklist.

scholarly journals Cross-modal generalization of receptive and expressive vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 239694151882449
Author(s):  
Pumpki L Su ◽  
George Castle ◽  
Stephen Camarata
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Unique Challenge ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Target Words

Background and aims Word learning is an area that poses a particular challenge to children with autism spectrum disorder. A unique challenge for this population is generalization of learned skills across new learning contexts. In clinical settings, a common assumption in teaching vocabulary for children with autism spectrum disorder is that learning in one modality will generalize incidentally to untreated modalities, but very few studies have evaluated the validity of this assumption. The purpose of this study was to investigate receptive and expressive word acquisition and cross-modal generalization in children with autism spectrum disorder. Methods A single-case parallel treatments design was used to compare word learning and cross-modal generalization in children with autism spectrum disorder. Ten children with autism spectrum disorder were taught unfamiliar vocabulary words in a combined storybook and play intervention. For each child, half of the target words were trained expressively and the other half were trained receptively by random assignment. No direct cross-modal instruction was delivered. A series of probe sessions were completed to assess participants’ within-modal learning and cross-modal generalization of vocabulary learning. Results All children learned target words in both receptive and expressive conditions, as evidenced by an average of 80% accuracy across three trials at the end of each intervention. Overall, cross-modal generalization was higher for the expressive-to-receptive direction than for the receptive-to expressive direction. Nine out of ten children demonstrated successful cross-modal generalization on the expressive-to-receptive probes and only three children demonstrated successful cross-modal generalization on the receptive-to-expressive probes. Large variability was observed with regard to number of intervention sessions needed to reach mastery criterion and there were individual patterns of word learning. Conclusion Contrary to the assumption that vocabulary learning will be “automatically” generalized across modalities, results from this study indicate that cross-modal generalization at the word level is not automatic nor consistent in children with autism spectrum disorder, particularly in the receptive-to-expressive direction. Implications The finding that more children demonstrated expressive-to-receptive generalization than the opposite direction suggests that targeting expressive vocabulary first with the goal of incidentally increasing receptive vocabulary may be more efficient than starting with the receptive modality. Additionally, the finding that not all children demonstrated successful expressive-to-receptive cross-modal generalization indicates that teaching vocabulary in the expressive modality exclusively does not guarantee receptive understanding in this population. We recommend that practitioners periodically monitor children’s vocabulary learning in both modalities or set an explicit generalization goal to ensure complete learning of trained words.

scholarly journals Orthographic knowledge and lexical form influence vocabulary learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES BARTOLOTTI ◽  
VIORICA MARIAN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Orthographic Knowledge ◽  
Bigram Frequency ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Repeated Testing ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Word Acquisition

ABSTRACTMany adults struggle with second language acquisition but learn new native-language words relatively easily. We investigated the role of sublexical native-language patterns on novel word acquisition. Twenty English monolinguals learned 48 novel written words in five repeated testing blocks. Half were orthographically wordlike (e.g., nish, high neighborhood density and high segment/bigram frequency), while half were not (e.g., gofp, low neighborhood density and low segment/bigram frequency). Participants were faster and more accurate at recognizing and producing wordlike items, indicating a native-language similarity benefit. Individual differences in memory and vocabulary size influenced learning, and error analyses indicated that participants extracted probabilistic information from the novel vocabulary. Results suggest that language learners benefit from both native-language overlap and regularities within the novel language.

A longitudinal study of vocabulary size and composition in low risk preterm children

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Pérez-Pereira ◽  
Raquel Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Growth Curve ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Preterm Children

The vocabulary size and composition of one group of full-term and three groups of low risk preterm children with different gestational ages (GA) were longitudinally compared at 10, 22 and 30 months of age. Expressive vocabulary development was assessed through the CDI. Cognitive development was also assessed at 22 months (Batelle Developmental Inventory), and data concerning biological and environmental characteristics of the children were also obtained. Growth curve analyses indicated that there were no significant differences in vocabulary size or percentage of word categories among GA groups. Regression analyses showed that word production and cognitive scores measured at 22 months were the main predictors of total vocabulary and word categories at 30 months. Gender, maternal education and GA did not contribute in a significant way to the variance of use of the vocabulary categories or vocabulary size. Therefore, GA does not seem to affect vocabulary development and composition when biomedical complications associated to prematurity are excluded.

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