The Impact of Manipulating Attentional Shifting Demands on Preschool Children With Specific Language Impairment

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 324-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yara Aljahlan ◽  
Tammie J. Spaulding
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Response Speed ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Load Shifting ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Attentional Shifting

Purpose This study investigated attentional shifting in preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) compared to their typically developing peers. Children's attentional shifting capacity was assessed by varying attentional demands. Method Twenty-five preschool children with SLI and 25 age-matched, typically developing controls participated. A behavioral task measuring attentional shifting within and across multiple dimensions (auditory, linguistic, and visual) was employed. Demands on attentional shifting were increased based on input dimension (low load: staying within dimension; medium load: shifting between 2 dimensions; and high load: shifting among 3 dimensions). Results Compared to controls, the group with SLI made more erroneous responses and exhibited longer response times. Although both groups' error rates were similarly affected by shifting compared to nonshifting trials, their response speed was not. The group with SLI exhibited a larger comparative decrement to their response speed in the high–attentional load condition. Discussion When demands on attentional shifting increase, children with SLI struggle to shift their attention as efficiently to changing stimuli as their unimpaired peers. Potential implications for the assessment and treatment of this population are discussed.

scholarly journals Association of epileptiform brain activity and specific language impairment (SLI) in preschool children

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Esmael ◽  
Sara Elsherbeny ◽  
Mohammed Abbas
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Significant Relationship ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Intelligence Quotient ◽  
Epileptiform Activity ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Cognitive Age ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Epileptiform activities can cause transient or permanent deficits that affect the children during development and may be accompanied by neurodevelopmental disorders like specific language impairment. Objectives The objective of this study was to find if there is a possible association and the impact of epilepsy and epileptiform activity in children with specific language impairment. Patients and methods The study was conducted on 80 children suffering from specific language impairment and 80 age and sex match healthy control children. Computed tomography brain was performed and electroencephalography was recorded for children. Intelligence quotient level, cognitive age, social, and phoniatric assessment were done for all patients. Results Eighty children with specific language impairment (51 males and 29 females) with a mean age of 4.11 ± 1.93. Patients with specific language impairment showed significantly higher rates of abnormal electroencephalography (P = 0.006) and epilepsy (P < 0.001) compared to the control group. Spearman correlation demonstrated a highly negative significant relationship linking the language, intelligence quotient with abnormal electroencephalography and epilepsy (r = − 0.91, P < 0.01 and r = − 0.91, P < 0.01 respectively). Also, there was a moderately inverse significant relationship linking the cognitive age, social with abnormal electroencephalography, and epilepsy (r = − 0.70, P < 0.05 and r = − 0.65, P < 0.05 respectively). Conclusion Epileptiform activities even without epilepsy in preschool children may alter normal language function. Specific language impairment was associated with lower intelligence quotient levels, social, and cognitive age. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04141332

Examination of Creative Abilities of Preschool Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33
Author(s):  
Mark Leikin ◽  
Esther Tovli
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Degree Of Dissociation ◽  
Language Deficit ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Creativity Task

The present study aims to examine the relationship between developmental language deficit and children’s creative ability. For this purpose, we compared the performance of preschool children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) on general and mathematic creativity tests with that of typically developing children. The findings demonstrated that children with SLI performed almost identically on the general creativity task, compared with older preschoolers, and did generally better than children from the younger age group. However, on the mathematic creativity task, they did significantly better statistically than the younger children and worse than children from the older control groups. Thus, the results showed that creativity as a specific cognitive ability seems to develop in children with SLI in the same way as in their typically developing peers but at a slower rate. In addition, our findings demonstrate some degree of dissociation between the cognitive and linguistic abilities of children with SLI.

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.

Another Look at Nonverbal Rule Induction in Children With SLI

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Kiernan ◽  
David Snow ◽  
Linda Swisher ◽  
Rebecca Vance
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Discrimination Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Rule Induction ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Groups

This study focuses on the ability of preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) to extract target regularities from recurring nonverbal stimuli. As a step beyond previous methodologies, we also assessed their ability to shift and extract other regularities after feedback indicated that their choices were no longer correct. This step was motivated by Connell and Stone's (1994) hypothesis that difficulties manifested by children with SLI in extracting nonverbal "rules" from multiple problem sets may reflect difficulties in "flexible reconceptualization," that is, in the ability to flexibly shift across regularities. Thirty 4- and 5-year-olds with SLI and 30 age-matched children developing language normally participated in a discrimination learning-shift paradigm. Findings indicated that both language groups were successful in extracting regularities and making shifts. In fact, language groups did not differ in number of regularities extracted, number of shifts completed, or trials to criterion. As a consequence, findings failed to provide evidence that children with SLI are limited in either the ability to extract nonverbal regularities or to flexibly reconceptualize them. From a larger theoretical perspective, the findings fail to support theories positing that generalized "rule-induction" deficits underlie the verbal and nonverbal impairments of SLI.

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