Limits to a Left Hemisphere Explanation for Specific Language Impairment

1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 824-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy M. Aram ◽  
Julie A. Eisele
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Learning Disorders ◽  
Learning Deficits ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Measures ◽  
Neurologically Intact

The hypothesis of unilateral left hemisphere damage as an explanatory model for the neurological basis of specific language impairment (SLI) does not appear to be sufficient for most children with SLI. Children with unilateral brain lesions have been shown to function significantly lower than their neurologically intact peers on a variety of language measures, yet few of the deficits noted are as persistent or severe as those seen in SLI. In at least two instances, however, language symptomatology following unilateral lesions in children does parallel some types of SLI. The first occurs following subcortical damage to anterior grey and white matter structures that typically results in pronounced language and learning disorders. The second parallel lies in the similar developmental course shared by children with “delayed” language and children with known unilateral lesions, whereby language onset and development is slow in the preschool years but normalizes by school age, with minimal long-term language-learning deficits.

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.

The role of phonological storage deficits in specific language impairment: A reconsideration

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 556-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Ellis Weismer ◽  
Jan Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Learning Disorders ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Nonword Processing

In her Keynote Article, Gathercole (2006) presents a theoretical framework intended to account for evidence regarding the relation between nonword repetition and word learning. This framework stems from an impressive amount and breadth of research on this topic, including findings from adults and children with typical language abilities as well as language learning disorders. In this commentary we focus on claims relative to the interpretation of nonword repetition deficits in children with specific language impairment (SLI). One issue we address pertains to the nature of the proposed model of nonword processing and word learning, particularly with respect to phonological sensitivity and storage. The second issue we address relates to the assumption that a phonological storage deficit, although not sufficient, is necessary for SLI.

Nonword repetition and language learning disorders: A developmental contingency framework

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 588-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret J. Snowling
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Learning Disorders ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Strong Hypothesis ◽  
Development Support ◽  
Laboratory Training

In 1990 Gathercole and Baddeley proposed a strong hypothesis that has generated a wealth of research in the field of language development and disorder. The hypothesis was that phonological memory, as indexed by nonword repetition, is causally related to vocabulary development. Support for the hypothesis came from an impressive range of longitudinal, correlational, and laboratory training studies, and from studies of specific language impairment (SLI). However, more recently, Gathercole, Tiffany, Briscoe, Thorn, and The ALSPAC Team (2005), directly tested the causal hypothesis by following a cohort of children from age 5 to 8 years. Contrary to prediction, children with poor nonword repetition abilities at age 5 had normal vocabulary at the age of 8.

Deficits in Explicit Language Problem Solving Rather Than in Implicit Learning in Specific Language Impairment: Evidence From Learning an Artificial Morphological Rule

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (10) ◽  
pp. 3790-3807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Ferman ◽  
Liat Kishon-Rabin ◽  
Hila Ganot-Budaga ◽  
Avi Karni
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Procedural Memory ◽  
Procedural Learning ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Problems ◽  
Morphological Rule ◽  
Semantic Distinction

Purpose The purpose of this study was to delineate differences between children with specific language impairment (SLI), typical age–matched (TAM) children, and typical younger (TY) children in learning and mastering an undisclosed artificial morphological rule (AMR) through exposure and usage. Method Twenty-six participants (eight 10-year-old children with SLI, 8 TAM children, and ten 8-year-old TY children) were trained to master an AMR across multiple training sessions. The AMR required a phonological transformation of verbs depending on a semantic distinction: whether the preceding noun was animate or inanimate. All participants practiced the application of the AMR to repeated and new (generalization) items, via judgment and production tasks. Results The children with SLI derived significantly less benefit from practice than their peers in learning most aspects of the AMR, even exhibiting smaller gains compared to the TY group in some aspects. Children with SLI benefited less than TAM and even TY children from training to judge and produce repeated items of the AMR. Nevertheless, despite a significant disadvantage in baseline performance, the rate at which they mastered the task-specific phonological regularities was as robust as that of their peers. On the other hand, like 8-year-olds, only half of the SLI group succeeded in uncovering the nature of the AMR and, consequently, in generalizing it to new items. Conclusions Children with SLI were able to learn language aspects that rely on implicit, procedural learning, but experienced difficulties in learning aspects that relied on the explicit uncovering of the semantic principle of the AMR. The results suggest that some of the difficulties experienced by children with SLI when learning a complex language regularity cannot be accounted for by a broad, language-related, procedural memory disability. Rather, a deficit—perhaps a developmental delay in the ability to recruit and solve language problems and establish explicit knowledge regarding a language task—can better explain their difficulties in language learning.

Dynamic Temporal Processing of Nonspeech Acoustic Information by Children With Specific Language Impairment

1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 510-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane C. Visto ◽  
Jerry L. Cranford ◽  
Rosalind Scudder
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Precedence Effect ◽  
Complex Sound ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Acoustic Information ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
Spectral Components ◽  
Normal Language

The present study investigated whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) differed from children with normal language learning in their ability to process binaural temporal information. The SLI group was matched with peers of the same chronological age, as well as peers with similar language age. All three subject groups were tested with measures of complex sound localization involving the precedence effect phenomenon. Subjects were required to track the apparent motion of a “moving” fused auditory image (FAI). Movement of the FAI was simulated by varying the delay incrementally between pairs of clicks presented, one each, from two matched loudspeakers placed on opposite sides of the child’s head. With this task, the SLI subjects’ performances were found to be similar to their language age-matched but chronologically younger peers. Both groups exhibited tracking skills that were statistically poorer than that of the chronologically age-matched group. Additional tests indicated this effect was not due to differences in motoric tracking abilities nor to the SLI subjects’ abilities to perceive small binaural time cues. Thus, children with SLI appear to be impaired in their ability to use binaural acoustic information in a dynamic ongoing fashion. The requirements for processing such nonlinguistic acoustic information in a “dynamic and ongoing” fashion may be similar to those involved in the ongoing processing of rapid changes in the temporal and spectral components of the speech chain.

Long-term reading and spelling outcome in Italian adolescents with a history of specific language impairment

Cortex ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 955-973 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Brizzolara ◽  
Filippo Gasperini ◽  
Lucia Pfanner ◽  
Paola Cristofani ◽  
Claudia Casalini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
Italian Adolescents ◽  
Reading And Spelling

Brain Morphology in Children With Specific Language Impairment

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1272-1284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie M. Gauger ◽  
Linda J. Lombardino ◽  
Christiana M. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Brain Morphology ◽  
Planum Temporale ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Pars Triangularis ◽  
The Right

The planum temporale and pars triangularis have been found to be larger in the left hemisphere than the right in individuals with normal language skills. Brain morphology studies of individuals with developmental language disorders report reversed asymmetry or symmetry of the planum, although the bulk of this research has been completed on adults with dyslexia. Pars triangularis has not been studied in the developmental language impaired population. In this study, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used for quantitative comparisons of the planum temporale (Wernicke’s area) and pars triangularis (Broca’s area) in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with normal language skills. The subjects were 11 children with SLI and 19 age- and sex-matched controls between 5.6 and 13.0 years old. Each subject received a neurolinguistic battery of tests and a high resolution volumetric MRI scan. Major results were that (a) pars triangularis was significantly smaller in the left hemisphere of children with SLI, and (b) children with SLI were more likely to have rightward asymmetry of language structures. Furthermore, anomalous morphology in these language areas correlated with depressed language ability. These findings support the hypothesis that language impairment is a consequence of an underlying neurobiological defect in areas of the brain known to subserve language.

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