A longitudinal perspective on the study of specific language impairment: the long term follow-up of an Italian child

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are known to have limited lexicons. Previous studies implicate a possible processing problem, in the form of a limited ability to comprehend new words in settings that require Quick Incidental Learning (QUIL). This study investigates further the factors contributing to limited QUIL by examining the effects of input frequency and word type (nouns vs. verbs). In addition, immediate versus long-term memory was examined for possible problems with storage mechanisms. Subjects were 30 5-year-old SLI children with receptive and expressive language deficits and two comparison groups of normally developing children: 30 MLU-equivalent and 30 CA-equivalent. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which they viewed video story presentations in which targeted words were embedded. The conditions varied by number of word presentations, 0, 3, or 10. The 0 condition was a control condition in which familiar words were presented. Children’s word comprehension was tested immediately following viewing and again several days later. The findings confirm a strong frequency effect, but one that is influenced by group status, word type, and retention demands. There is evidence of a robust representational mapping ability for SLI, which is at the same time modulated by a minimum input constraint and apparent problems with storage into long-term memory.

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The acquisition of tense morphology over time by English second language children with specific language impairment: Testing the cumulative effects hypothesis

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716416000485 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (4) ◽

pp. 881-908 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

JOHANNE PARADIS ◽

RUITING JIA ◽

ANTTI ARPPE

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Early Years ◽

Cumulative Effects ◽

Long Term Outcomes ◽

Specific Language ◽

Grammaticality Judgments ◽

English Second Language

ABSTRACTThe cumulative effects hypothesis (CEH) claims that bilingual development would be a challenge for children with specific language impairment (SLI). To date, research on second language (L2) children with SLI has been limited mainly to their early years of L2 exposure; however, examining the long-term outcomes of L2 children with SLI is essential for testing the CEH. Accordingly, the present study examined production and grammaticality judgments of English tense morphology from matched groups of L2 children with SLI and L2 children with typical development (TD) for 3 years, from ages 8 to 10 with 4–6 years of exposure to English. This study found that the longitudinal acquisition profile of the L2 children with SLI and TD was similar to the acquisition profile reported for monolinguals with SLI and TD. Furthermore, L2-SLI children's accuracy with tense morphology was similar to that of their monolingual age peers with SLI at the end of the study, and exceeded that of younger monolingual peers with SLI whose age matched the L2 children's length of exposure to English. These findings are not consistent with the CEH, but instead show that morphological acquisition parallel to monolinguals with SLI is possible for L2 children with SLI.

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Marking of Tense and Agreement in Language Samples by Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment in African American English and Southern White English: Evaluation of Scoring Approaches and Cut Scores Across Structures

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00243 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 64 (2) ◽

pp. 491-509

Author(s):

Janna B. Oetting ◽

Andrew M. Rivière ◽

Jessica R. Berry ◽

Kyomi D. Gregory ◽

Tina M. Villa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

American English ◽

African American English ◽

Past Tense ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Cut Scores ◽

Specific Language

Purpose As follow-up to a previous study of probes, we evaluated the marking of tense and agreement (T/A) in language samples by children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls in African American English (AAE) and Southern White English (SWE) while also examining the clinical utility of different scoring approaches and cut scores across structures. Method The samples came from 70 AAE- and 36 SWE-speaking kindergartners, evenly divided between the SLI and typically developing groups. The structures were past tense, verbal – s, auxiliary BE present, and auxiliary BE past. The scoring approaches were unmodified, modified, and strategic; these approaches varied in the scoring of forms classified as nonmainstream and other. The cut scores were dialect-universal and dialect-specific. Results Although low numbers of some forms limited the analyses, the results generally supported those previously found for the probes. The children produced a large and diverse inventory of mainstream and nonmainstream T/A forms within the samples; strategic scoring led to the greatest differences between the clinical groups while reducing effects of the children's dialects; and dialect-specific cut scores resulted in better clinical classification accuracies, with measures of past tense leading to the highest levels of classification accuracy. Conclusions For children with SLI, the findings contribute to studies that call for a paradigm shift in how children's T/A deficits are assessed and treated across dialects. A comparison of findings from the samples and probes indicates that probes may be the better task for identifying T/A deficits in children with SLI in AAE and SWE. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13564709

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Specific language impairment in the long-term perspective – the importance of assessment procedures, reading skills, and communicative competence

Health Psychology Report ◽

10.5114/hpr.2017.69660 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 273-284 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eva Richterová ◽

Gabriela Seidlová Málková

Keyword(s):

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Reading Skills ◽

Communicative Competence ◽

Specific Language ◽

Assessment Procedures

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The interface between neighborhood density and optional infinitives: normal development and Specific Language Impairment

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000911000365 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 39 (4) ◽

pp. 835-862 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

JILL R. HOOVER ◽

HOLLY L. STORKEL ◽

MABEL L. RICE

Keyword(s):

Language Development ◽

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Normal Development ◽

Neighborhood Density ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Specific Language ◽

Third Person ◽

English Speaking

ABSTRACTThe effect of neighborhood density on optional infinitives was evaluated for typically developing (TD) children and children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Forty children, twenty in each group, completed two production tasks that assessed third person singular production. Half of the sentences in each task presented a dense verb, and half presented a sparse verb. Children's third person singular accuracy was compared across dense and sparse verbs. Results showed that the TD group was significantly less likely to use optional infinitives with dense, rather than sparse verbs. In contrast, the distribution of optional infinitives for the SLI group was independent of verb neighborhood density. Follow-up analyses showed that the lack of neighborhood density effect for the SLI group could not be attributed to heterogeneous neighborhood density effects or floor effects. Results were interpreted within the Optional Infinitive/Extended Optional Infinitive accounts for typical language development and SLI for English-speaking children.

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Limits to a Left Hemisphere Explanation for Specific Language Impairment

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.3704.824 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 37 (4) ◽

pp. 824-830 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

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.

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