Effect of Implicit and Explicit "Rule" Presentation on Bound-Morpheme Generalization in Specific Language Impairment

1995 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Swisher ◽  
Maria Adelaida Restrepo ◽  
Elena Plante ◽  
Soren Lowell
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Rule Presentation ◽  
Explicit Rule

This study addressed whether generalization of a trained bound morpheme to untrained vocabulary stems differs between children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with normal language (NL) under two controlled instructional conditions. Twenty-five children with NL and 25 children with SLI matched for age served as subjects. Contrasts between affixed and unaffixed words highlighted the affixation "rule" in the "implicit-rule" condition. The "rule" was verbalized by the trainer in the "explicit-rule" condition. Bimodal generalization results occurred in both subject groups, indicating that generalization was not incremental. Chi-square analyses suggested that the SLI group generalized the bound morpheme less often than the NL group under the explicit-rule training condition. The findings add to those that indicate children with SLI have a unique language-learning style, and suggest that the explicit presentation of metalinguistic information during training may be detrimental to bound-morpheme generalization by preschool-age children with SLI.

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.

Learning and Generalization Components of Morphological Acquisition by Children With Specific Language Impairment

1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 1406-1413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Swisher ◽  
David Snow
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Rule Induction ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Skills Acquisition ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Chi Square Analysis

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have particular difficulty acquiring bound morphemes. To determine whether these morphological deficits spring from impairments of rule-induction or memory (storage/access) skills, 25 preschool-age children with normal language (NL) and 25 age-matched children with SLI were presented with a novel vocabulary and novel bound-morpheme learning task. A chi square analysis revealed that the children with SLI had significantly lower vocabulary learning levels than NL children. In addition, there was tentative evidence that a dependency relationship existed in some children between success in vocabulary learning and proficiency in generalizing a trained bound morpheme to untrained vocabulary stems. These findings are predicted by the storage/access but not the rule-induction theory of specific language impairment. They suggest that intervention targeting bound-morpheme skills acquisition in children with SLI might include attention to vocabulary development.

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.

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.

scholarly journals Alternative Tense and Agreement Morpheme Measures for Assessing Grammatical Deficits During the Preschool Period

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 542-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Gladfelter ◽  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Composite Measure ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Preschool Period ◽  
Preschool Age Children

Purpose P. A. Hadley and H. Short (2005) developed a set of measures designed to assess the emerging diversity and productivity of tense and agreement (T/A) morpheme use by 2-year-olds. The authors extended 2 of these measures to the preschool years to evaluate their utility in distinguishing children with specific language impairment (SLI) from their typically developing (TD) peers. Method Spontaneous speech samples from 55 children (25 with SLI, 30 TD) at 2 different age levels (4;0–4;6 [years;months] and 5;0–5;6) were analyzed, using a traditional T/A morphology composite that assessed accuracy, and the Hadley and Short measures of Tense Marker Total (assessing diversity of T/A morpheme use) and Productivity Score (assessing productivity of major T/A categories). Results All 3 measures showed acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity. In addition, similar differences in levels of productivity across T/A categories were seen in the TD and SLI groups. Conclusion The Tense Marker Total and Productivity Score measures seem to have considerable utility for preschool-age children, in that they provide information about specific T/A morphemes and major T/A categories that are not distinguished using the traditional composite measure. The findings are discussed within the framework of the gradual morphosyntactic learning account.

Emergent literacy profiles of preschool-age children with Specific Language Impairment

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 472-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Q. Cabell ◽  
Richard G. Lomax ◽  
Laura M. Justice ◽  
Allison Breit-Smith ◽  
Lori E. Skibbe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emergent Literacy ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Preschool Age Children ◽  
Literacy Profiles

Specific Language Impairment: Preliminary Investigation of Factors Associated With Family History and With Patterns of Language Performance

1995 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 643-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Lahey ◽  
Jan Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Specific Language

To examine patterns that might suggest etiologic subgroups of specific language impairment (SLI), information, including history of speech-language-learning (SLLD) problems in family members, was obtained on 53 children with SLI aged 4 to 9½ years. The results led to the generation of a number of hypotheses for future research. In particular, the findings suggested that family history is related to pattern of language performance. In comparison with children who had both expressive and receptive language deficits, children with deficits in only expressive language had a higher proportion of affected family members (.47 vs. .22), of affected mothers (.57 vs. .17), and of affected siblings (.53 vs. .27). These and other findings are discussed in terms of their consistency with other data, hypotheses relative to explanations of SLI, and their implications for further research.

Specific Language Impairment and Grammatical Morphology

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1185-1192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Bedore ◽  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Function Analysis ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Verb Morphology ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance ◽  
Finite Verb

Discriminant function analysis was employed to determine if grammatical morpheme production could be used to classify preschool-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typically developing language skills. Three variables were included in the discriminant analysis: a finite verb morpheme composite, a noun morpheme composite, and mean length of utterance in morphemes. The children with SLI and age-matched controls were discriminated with high levels of accuracy, though the three variables did not yield identical classifications. Across two samples of typically developing children and children with SLI, the verb morpheme composite showed sensitivity exceeding 85% and specificity of 100%. In light of these results and growing evidence that problems with finite verb morphology continue into the school years in children with SLI, the verb morpheme composite was considered to hold promise as a clinical marker for SLI.

Grammatical Morphology and the Lexicon in Children With Specific Language Impairment

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 678-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard ◽  
Carol Miller ◽  
Erika Gerber
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Verb Morphology ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Grammatical Morphology ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Related Morphology ◽  
Finite Verb

We examined the use of grammatical morphology by preschool-age English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) as a function of their lexical diversity. Relative to a group of normally developing (ND) preschoolers, these children's use of finite-verb morphology lagged behind expectations based on the number of different verbs they used. Noun-related morphology fell below expectations based on overall lexical diversity. Differences between the ND children and children with SLI were also seen for the slope of the increases in finite-verb morphology as a function of lexical diversity, with shallower slopes in the SLI data. The findings of this study add to existing evidence suggesting that a measure of finite grammatical-morphology use has promise as a clinical marker of SLI in English.

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