An Examination of the Morpheme BE in Children With Specific Language Impairment

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 480-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia L. Cleave ◽  
Mabel L. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Omission Error ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Status ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Omission Errors

This study examined the production of the morpheme BE, focusing on the influence of contractibility, the relationship between copula and auxiliary forms, and the occurrence of non-omission errors. Language samples collected from children with SLI and from normal language learners at equivalent MLU levels were analyzed. Three levels of contractibility were examined: contractible, syntactically uncontractible, and phonetically uncontractible. Contractible contexts were produced significantly more accurately than uncontractible contexts by both groups. There was no difference between the two forms of uncontractibility. Furthermore, there were no significant interactions between language status and contractibility, suggesting that contractibility influenced both groups equally. Copula forms were produced more consistently than auxiliary. There was no interaction between BE type and language status. The groups did not differ in proportion or type of non-omission error. The results are discussed in relation to accounts of morphological deficits in SLI.

Pragmatics and SLI

1993 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 777-789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly K. Craig ◽  
Julia L. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Status ◽  
Pragmatic Research ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Selected discourse behaviors of children with specific language impairment (SU) presenting expressive (E:SLI) or combined expressive-receptive deficits (E-R:SLI) were compared to each other and to chronological age-mates and younger mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched children with normal-language skills. The two SLI subgroups varied from each other on specific measures of tum-taking and cohesion. These findings imply the need for future normative work with SLI subgroups differing in receptive skill, and indicate that, in the interim, pragmatic research with this population will need to consider potential effects of receptive language status when interpreting variations in outcomes for discourse-based variables.

Word-Learning by Preschoolers With Specific Language Impairment

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Gray
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Fast Mapping ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
New Words ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
The Relationship

Thirty preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 30 agematched controls with normal language (NL) participated in a study to compare group performance and to examine the relationship between fast mapping and word learning and between comprehension and production of new words. The groups performed similarly on the fast-mapping task. The NL group comprehended and produced significantly more words than the SLI group, and did so in fewer trials. Language test scores did not predict word-learning performance for either group. Some children with SLI may need to hear a new word twice as many times as their NL peers before comprehending it and may need twice as many opportunities to practice producing the word before using it independently.

Auditory Evoked Responses to Frequency-Modulated Tones in Children With Specific Language Impairment

1995 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bruce Tomblin ◽  
Paul J. Abbas ◽  
Nancy L. Records ◽  
Lynn M. Brenneman
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Center Frequency ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Frequency Shifts ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Auditory Evoked Responses ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Large Response

Averaged cortically evoked potentials to frequency-modulated tones (±100 Hz around a center frequency of 1 kHz) were obtained from 12 children with SLI and 12 age-matched children who were normal language learners. It was hypothesized, based on Stefanatos, Green, and Ratcliff (1989), that the children with receptive and expressive specific language impairment (SLI) would show very small or no measurable averaged response amplitudes. Also, it was predicted that children who were normal language learners would show large response amplitudes that were both significantly greater than those obtained during a stimulus control condition and greater than those obtained from the children with SLI. The prediction concerning children with SLI proved incorrect. The responses of the children with SLI were no different from those obtained from the normal language learners, and responses from both groups were significantly greater than those obtained in the control condition. These results indicate that, with respect to neural systems involved with selective response to auditory frequency shifts of approximately 100 Hz and occurring over 250 msec, children with SU are not different from children who are normal language learners.

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.

Cognition and Communication

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 964-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith R. Johnston ◽  
Linda B. Smith ◽  
Peggy Box
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Object Type ◽  
Attentional Capacity ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Normal Language

Ten children with specific language impairment and 10 children with normal language development were asked to describe objects so that a listener could select them. Each trial targeted two out of a group of three toys. The targeted objects were identical or were similar in size or color. Children in the two groups did not differ in referential success, although children in both groups found the size items more difficult. Content analysis of the messages did reveal differences in the referential strategies used most frequently. Children with specific language impairment were more likely to mention the attributes of each object separately, rather than to describe the characteristics common to a pair of objects. Children in both groups talked about separate objects more often when talking about size than about color or object type. Use of this strategy could indicate the effects of attentional capacity on children's solutions to communication tasks.

scholarly journals Comprehension and production of relative clauses: a comparison between Swedish impaired and unimpaired children

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
GISELA HÅKANSSON ◽  
KRISTINA HANSSON
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Target Structure ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between language comprehension and language production in Swedish children. This was done longitudinally with 10 children with specific language impairment (SLI), aged 4;0 to 6;3 at Time I, and 10 children with unimpaired language development, aged 3;1 to 3;7 at Time I. The target structure was subordination, more precisely relative clauses. The children's comprehension was tested with picture pointing, act-out and oral response tests. Their production was tested with elicited imitation and sentence completion tests. Data were collected twice, with an interval of six months. The results from the unimpaired children at Time I showed a difference between comprehension and production. At Time II these children scored higher on production than on comprehension. The children with SLI scored significantly higher on comprehension than on production at Time I. In half of the SLI group there was a clear development between the two data collection sessions, diminishing the dissociation. On neither testing did the children with SLI differ significantly from the unimpaired children in comprehension. At both testings, however, the children with SLI had significantly more responses where they did not insert the complementizer in relative clauses. The results indicate that the relationship between comprehension and production is different at different stages in development. They also show that structures involving dependency relations are particularly difficult to produce for children with SLI.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document