Preferences for Verb Interpretation in Children With Specific Language Impairment

1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna J. Kelly ◽  
Mabel L. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
State Activity ◽  
Interpretation Biases ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Verb Categories

This study examined initial preferences for verb interpretation by children with specific language impairment (SLI), MLU-matched children, and age-matched children. Each child watched motion and change-of-state activity scenes on videotape and was then asked to point to the scene that depicted a novel verb, thereby indicating a preferred interpretation. The children were also asked to label the same activity scenes on a second tape. The findings indicated that the 5-year-old age-matched children exhibited a significant verb interpretation preference for the change-of-state scenes, whereas the children with specific language impairment and their 3-year-old MLU-matched peers did not have an interpretation preference for either the motion or change-of-state scenes. The children’s labeling of the activity scenes yielded findings that further supported group differences on the two semantic verb categories. The findings suggest that children’s initial verb interpretation biases vary relative to age and language proficiency.

Learning, Forgetting, and Relearning: Skill Learning in Children With Language Impairment

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 696-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Adi-Japha ◽  
Haia Abu-Asba
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skills ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Retention Testing ◽  
Over Time

Purpose The current study tested whether the difficulties of children with specific language impairment (SLI) in skill acquisition are related to learning processes that occur while practicing a new skill or to the passage of time between practice and later performance. Method The acquisition and retention of a new complex grapho-motor symbol were studied in 5-year-old children with SLI and peers matched for age and nonverbal IQ. The children practiced the production of the symbol for 4 consecutive days. Retention testing took place 10 days later. Results Children with SLI began each practice day slower than their peers but attained similar levels of performance by its end. Although they increased their performance speed within sessions more than their peers, they did not retain their learning as well between sessions. The loss in speed was largest in the 10-day retention interval. They were also less accurate, but accuracy differences decreased over time. Between-session group differences in speed could not fully be accounted for based on fine motor skills. Conclusions In spite of effective within-session learning, children with SLI did not retain the new skill well. The deficit may be attributed to task forgetting in the presence of delayed consolidation processes.

Word Learning by Preschoolers With Specific Language Impairment

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1452-1467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Gray
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Semantic Condition ◽  
Drawing Task ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Language Modality

Purpose: This study investigated whether phonological or semantic encoding cues promoted better word learning for children with specific language impairment (SLI) and whether this treatment differentially affected children with SLI and normal language (NL). Method: Twenty-four preschoolers ages 4;0 (years;months) to 5;11 with SLI and 24 age- and gender-matched children with NL participated. The between-group factor was language group (NL, SLI) and within-group factors were language modality (comprehension, recognition, production) and treatment condition (phonological, semantic). Word learning was assessed during fast mapping, word learning, and posttesting with trials to criterion calculated for the number of words learned. A drawing task assessed the change in semantic representation of words. Results: The SLI group comprehended more words in the semantic condition and produced more words in the phonological condition, but the NL group performed similarly in both. The NL group required significantly fewer trials than the SLI group to comprehend words in the semantic and phonological conditions and to produce words in the semantic condition, but between-group differences for production were not significant for the phonological condition. Conclusions: The results suggest that preschoolers with SLI may benefit from cues that highlight the phonological or semantic properties of words but that different cues may aid different aspects of word learning.

Assessing English Language Learners: A Perplexing Puzzle

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margo Gottlieb ◽  
Cristina Sanchez-Lopez
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Full Complement

Abstract The intersection of language education and special education is not clearly marked for linguistically and culturally diverse students; some qualify as English language learners; others as English language learners with disabilities or specific language impairment; still others with only disabilities or specific language impairment. It is often perplexing to try to decipher which category is most appropriate and, consequently, how best to serve these students. Assessment data, if reliable and valid, coupled with historical information, can help define the pathway to educational success for the fastest growing segment of our school population. This article shares the challenges facing educators of English language learners and attempts to show how proper assessment can guide educational decision making. We pose that for English language learners, assessment must entail the gathering of information from multiple sources on their language proficiency and academic achievement in both English and their native language. In that way, we obtain a comprehensive portrait of the students' full complement of knowledge and skills. Ultimately, English as a Second Language or bilingual teachers working along with speech-language pathologists need to collaborate in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data to afford English language learners optimal opportunities for success in school.

Morphology in incipient bilingual Spanish-speaking preschool children with specific language impairment

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
PEGGY F. JACOBSON ◽  
RICHARD G. SCHWARTZ
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Experimental Task ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Verb Inflections

This study examined the use of clitic pronouns by incipient bilingual Spanish-speaking 4- and 5-year-old children with and without language impairments. Incipient bilingualism refers to the initial stages of contact between two languages, when an individual still has only passive knowledge of a second language. The participants included 10 children with typical language development and 10 children with specific language impairment (SLI). The experimental task elicited clitic pronouns serving as direct objects with finite verbs (lo, la, los, and las). The children who had SLI used clitic pronouns less frequently than their age-matched peers and were less accurate in their use of gender agreement for clitics. No group differences were found for third person singular and plural verb inflections in the preterite tense. These results were compared to previous studies of Spanish- and Italian-speaking children with SLI.

scholarly journals An Initial Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Word Processing in Preschoolers With Specific Language Impairment

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 729-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Haebig ◽  
Laurence Leonard ◽  
Evan Usler ◽  
Patricia Deevy ◽  
Christine Weber
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Typical Development ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Positive Component ◽  
Late Positive Component ◽  
Specific Language

Purpose Previous behavioral studies have found deficits in lexical–semantic abilities in children with specific language impairment (SLI), including reduced depth and breadth of word knowledge. This study explored the neural correlates of early emerging familiar word processing in preschoolers with SLI and typical development. Method Fifteen preschoolers with typical development and 15 preschoolers with SLI were presented with pictures followed after a brief delay by an auditory label that did or did not match. Event-related brain potentials were time locked to the onset of the auditory labels. Children provided verbal judgments of whether the label matched the picture. Results There were no group differences in the accuracy of identifying when pictures and labels matched or mismatched. Event-related brain potential data revealed that mismatch trials elicited a robust N400 in both groups, with no group differences in mean amplitude or peak latency. However, the typically developing group demonstrated a more robust late positive component, elicited by mismatch trials. Conclusions These initial findings indicate that lexical–semantic access of early acquired words, indexed by the N400, does not differ between preschoolers with SLI and typical development when highly familiar words are presented in isolation. However, the typically developing group demonstrated a more mature profile of postlexical reanalysis and integration, indexed by an emerging late positive component. The findings lay the necessary groundwork for better understanding processing of newly learned words in children with SLI.

scholarly journals Specific Language Impairment and Reading Disability: Categorical Distinction or Continuum?

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
George C. Spanoudis ◽  
Timothy C. Papadopoulos ◽  
Spyroula Spyrou
Keyword(s):  
Reading Disability ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Cognitive Level ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Specific Language

Specific language impairment (SLI) and reading disability (RD) are familial, moderately heritable comorbid developmental disorders. The key deficit of SLI is oral language, whereas children with RD exhibit impairment in learning to read. The present study examines the possible co-occurrence of RD and SLI and the nature of this co-occurrence at a linguistic and a cognitive level in an orthographically consistent language. Four groups of children participated in the study: an RD group ( n = 10), an SLI group ( n = 13), a possible comorbid group ( n = 9), and a control–no deficit group ( n = 20). Analysis showed that all three clinical groups in our sample performed similarly in phonological awareness and naming-speed tasks. However, significant group differences were observed in orthographic processing, reading, semantics, and phonological memory measures, thus supporting the view that SLI and RD are distinct disorders. Results are in line with previous findings indicating that SLI and RD share common characteristics, although the two conditions are manifested with different symptoms.

Patterns in verb use by preschoolers with normal language and specific language impairment

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna J. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Cross Domain ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Semantic Errors ◽  
Video Program

ABSTRACTPreschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI) and two groups of children developing language normally (age-equivalent and MLU-equivalent) described motion and change-ofstate scenes while viewing a video program in a controlled experimental setting.Patterns of verb use were then analyzed across the three groups of children. Two findings were of particular interest. First, while the children with SLI relied heavily on the use of general all-purpose (GAP) verbs while describing the video scenes, the normally developing children produced an even higher percentage of CAP verbs. Second, the children with SLI made significantly more semantic errors in verb use. Unlike the normally developing children, the children with SLI were much more likely to produce a change-of-state verb. Hence, they produced cross-domain errors for motion-eliciting scenes (e.g., a moving figure was said to be “cracking” or “changing color”) and within-domain errors for change-of-state-eliciting scenes (e.g., a figure changing shape was said to be “changing to green”).

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