Accuracy of Four Language Analysis Procedures Performed Automatically

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven H. Long ◽  
Ron W. Channell

Most software for language analysis has relied on an interaction between the metalinguistic skills of a human coder and the calculating ability of the machine to produce reliable results. However, probabilistic parsing algorithms are now capable of highly accurate and completely automatic identification of grammatical word classes. The program Computerized Profiling combines a probabilistic parser with modules customized to produce four clinical grammatical analyses: MLU, LARSP, IPSyn, and DSS. The accuracy of these analyses was assessed on 69 language samples from typically developing, speech-impaired, and language-impaired children, 2 years 6 months to 7 years 10 months. Values obtained with human coding and by the software alone were compared. Results for all four analyses produced automatically were comparable to published data on the manual interrater reliability of these procedures. Clinical decisions based on cutoff scores and productivity data were little affected by the use of automatic rather than human-generated analyses. These findings bode well for future clinical and research use of automatic language analysis software.

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 1563-1569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Vendeville ◽  
Nathalie Blanc ◽  
Claire Brechet

Purpose Studies investigating the ability of children with language impairment (LI) to infer emotions rely on verbal responses (which can be challenging for these children) and/or the selection of a card representing an emotion (which limits the response range). In contrast, a drawing task might allow a broad spectrum of responses without involving language. This study used a drawing task to compare the ability to make emotional inferences in children with and without LI. Method Twenty-two children with LI and 22 typically developing children ages 6 to 10 years were assessed in school during 3 sessions. They were asked to listen to audio stories. At specific moments, the experimenter stopped the recording and asked children to complete the drawing of a face to depict the emotion felt by the story's character. Three adult study-blind judges were subsequently asked to evaluate the expressiveness of the drawings. Results Children with LI had more difficulty than typically developing children making emotional inferences. Children with LI also made more errors of different valence than their typically developing peers. Conclusion Our findings confirm that children with LI show difficulty in producing emotional inferences, even when performing a drawing task—a relatively language-free response mode.


2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1458-1484 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSANNE VOGT ◽  
CHRISTINA KAUSCHKE

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.


1987 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-130
Author(s):  
Mary Ann Romski ◽  
Sharon Ellis Joyner ◽  
Rose A. Sevcik

Studies of first-word acquisition in typical language-learning children frequently take the form of diary studies. Comparable diary data from language-impaired children with developmental delays, however, are not currently available. This report describes the spontaneous vocalizations of a child with a developmental delay for 14 months, from the time he was age 6:5 to age 7:7. From a corpus of 285 utterances, 47 phonetic forms were identified and categorized. Analysis focused on semantic, communicative, and phonological usage patterns.


1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan G. Kamhi ◽  
Hugh W. Catts ◽  
Daria Mauer ◽  
Kenn Apel ◽  
Betholyn F. Gentry

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.


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