Comments on Specific Language Impairment as a Clinical Category

1991 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy M. Aram
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Heterogeneous Group ◽  
Intervention Programs ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Clinical Category

This paper views specific language disorders as a heterogeneous group of language-impaired children consisting of distinct subtypes, each potentially accounted for by differing causal factors. Identifying causal factors for subgroups of children with specific language impairment is important (a) to extend our discipline beyond the descriptive stage of science, (b) to address questions motivating referrals from parents and professionals, (c) to plan intervention programs, and to prevent specific language disorders.

Lexical Imitation and Acquisition in Language-Impaired Children

1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Schwartz ◽  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Lexical Acquisition ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Novel Words

This investigation examined the influence of unsolicited lexical imitation on the comprehension and on the production of novel words by language-impaired children. Subjects were 13 children (2:8–3:1) exhibiting specific language impairment who were presented with 16 unfamiliar words referring to unfamiliar objects or actions over 10 experimental sessions. Unsolicited imitations appeared to facilitate subsequent production of these words on a posttest. This effect was greatest when these words were also produced spontaneously prior to the posttest. Words that were produced imitatively and spontaneously also appeared more frequently in spontaneous usage than words that were only produced spontaneously. No relationship between such imitations and comprehension was observed. These findings suggest that unsolicited imitations benefit children's lexical acquisition primarily by providing them with additional opportunities to produce words that are in the process of being established in their expressive lexicons.

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.

Conversational Replies of Children with Specific Language Impairment

1986 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Considerable Variability ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Impaired Children

Conversational replies were examined in two groups of children with comparable vocabularies and speech limited to single-word utterances: children with specific language impairment, ages 2:10 to 3:6 (years:months); and children, ages 1:5 to 1:11, who were developing language normally. In interactions with adults the language-impaired children produced a greater number and variety of replies to both questions and statements than the normal-language children. The findings suggest that language-impaired children can serve as responsive conversationalists when syntactic skill is not a factor and that comprehension, world knowledge, and/or experience with conversations permit considerable variability in conversational skill even within the same level of expressive language ability.

Observing iconic gestures enhances word learning in typically developing children and children with specific language impairment

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1458-1484 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSANNE VOGT ◽  
CHRISTINA KAUSCHKE
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Iconic Gesture ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
New Words ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Impaired Children

AbstractResearch has shown that observing iconic gestures helps typically developing children (TD) and children with specific language impairment (SLI) learn new words. So far, studies mostly compared word learning with and without gestures. The present study investigated word learning under two gesture conditions in children with and without language impairment. Twenty children with SLI (age four), twenty age-matched TD children, and twenty language-matched TD children were taught words that were presented with either iconic or non-iconic gestures. Results showed that children of all groups benefited more successfully from observing iconic gestures for word learning. The iconic gesture advantage was similar across groups. Thus, observing iconic gestures prompts richer encoding and makes word learning more efficient in TD and language impaired children.

Familial Aggregation in Specific Language Impairment

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Tallal ◽  
Randal Ross ◽  
Susan Curtiss
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Familial Aggregation ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Report Data ◽  
Self Report Data ◽  
Impaired Children

Self-report data from the families of children participating in the San Diego Longitudinal Study of specific developmental language impairment were used to assess familial aggregation in the disorder. Families of impaired children reported higher rates of affected first-degree relatives than did families of matched controls. Significantly higher incidence of maternal and paternal childhood language and/or learning disabilities, as well as sibling disability rates, were reported. The extent to which famtiial aggregation reflects genetic or environmental influences in specific language disorders remains to be determined.

What do referential communication tasks measure? A study of children with specific language impairment

1991 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. V. M. Bishop ◽  
C. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Communication Performance ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Task Requirements ◽  
Impaired Children

ABSTRACTA group of 54 children with specific language impairment was compared with a control group on a referential communication task in which the child was asked to describe a picture from an array of eight similar items so that the listener could identify it. The language-impaired children performed more poorly than age-matched controls. However, there was no relationship between referential communication performance and conversational ability. Children who provided excessive and irrelevant information in conversation did not show the same characteristics in the experimental setting. Formal task requirements, such as the need to scan an array, appeared to be a major determinant of performance on structured referential communication tasks. These tasks are not sensitive to the types of pragmatic difficulty that some children have in open-ended conversation.

Speaking for Language-Impaired Children

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-373
Author(s):  
Paula Tallal
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Multidisciplinary Research ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Impaired Children

Larry Leonard's new book, Children With Specific Language Impairment, has the potential to become the definitive text and scholarly resource for students, clinicians, and scientists concerned with these children. This six-part book (comprising 14 chapters) provides a complete, detailed, and even-handed review of the multidisciplinary research in this field.

An Effect of Modeling and Imitation Teaching Procedures on Children with and without Specific Language Impairment

1987 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil J. Connell
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Treatment Program ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Normal Group ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Learning Language ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Abnormal Group

Following a treatment program in which an invented morpheme was taught through either imitation or modeling procedures, the generalization of 40 specific language-impaired children was compared to that of 40 children learning language normally. The results of the comparison indicated that the two teaching procedures have opposite relative effects on the two groups. The abnormal group generalized more extensively following imitation teaching while the normal group generalized more extensively following modeling teaching. The opposing results of the two procedures on the two groups suggest that language-impaired children will benefit more from teaching strategies that are adapted to their unique learning styles than from strategies fashioned after the styles of children who learn language normally.

Clinical Lessons From Studies of Children With Specific Language Impairment

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabel L. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Speech Impairments ◽  
Media Advocacy ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Causal Pathways ◽  
Clinical Category

Purpose This clinical focus article addresses a current debate contrasting the long-standing label of “specific language impairment” (SLI) with a recent alternative, “developmental language disorders” (DLDs); the criteria for SLI yields a subset of children defined as DLD. Recent social media advocacy for DLD asserts that the two categories of children are clinically equivalent, and therefore, DLD can be used as a label for which SLI criteria would hold. Coupled with DLD advocacy is the assumption that research on SLI has not yielded clinically relevant outcomes. This clinical focus article challenges those assumptions. The clinical focus article is framed as parallels between precision medicine and evidence-based practice. The purposes of this clinical focus article are as follows: (a) revisit the legacy of research on SLI; (b) describe language development in children with SLI into adulthood; (c) address widespread but erroneous assumptions about relationships between speech impairments and language impairments, and relationships between nonverbal IQ and language impairments; (d) briefly review evidence for causal pathways; and (e) present clinical lessons from research on children with SLI. Method Narrative review is the method used in the study. Conclusions The purposes of the clinical focus article were met by reviews, commentary, and supporting arguments in each section. The conclusions are that the research and clinical category of SLI is needed for accurate and precise clinical practice, including diagnosis, prognosis, clinical goals, sequencing of tasks for success, and consideration of language disorders in the context of a broad thicket of related consequences.

Language learnability and specific language impairment in children

1989 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Language Functioning ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Language Learnability

ABSTRACTTheories of language learnability have focused on “normal” language development, but there is a group of children, termed “specifically language-impaired,” for whom these theories are also appropriate. These children present an interesting learnability problem because they develop language slowly, the intermediate points in their development differ in certain respects from the usual developmental stages, and they do not always achieve the adult level of language functioning. In this article, specifically language-impaired children are treated as normal learners dealing with an input that is distorted in principled ways. When the children are viewed from this perspective, Pinker's (1984) theory can account for many of the features of their language.

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