Language, Cognitive Flexibility, and Explicit False Belief Understanding: Longitudinal Analysis in Typical Development and Specific Language Impairment

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia are distinct developmental disorders. Method: Study 1 investigated the overlap between SLI identified in kindergarten and dyslexia identified in 2nd, 4th, or 8th grades in a representative sample of 527 children. Study 2 examined phonological processing in a subsample of participants, including 21 children with dyslexia only, 43 children with SLI only, 18 children with SLI and dyslexia, and 165 children with typical language/reading development. Measures of phonological awareness and nonword repetition were considered. Results: Study 1 showed limited but statistically significant overlap between SLI and dyslexia. Study 2 found that children with dyslexia or a combination of dyslexia and SLI performed significantly less well on measures of phonological processing than did children with SLI only and those with typical development. Children with SLI only showed only mild deficits in phonological processing compared with typical children. Conclusions: These results support the view that SLI and dyslexia are distinct but potentially comorbid developmental language disorders. A deficit in phonological processing is closely associated with dyslexia but not with SLI when it occurs in the absence of dyslexia.

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Production and Processing of Subject–Verb Agreement in Monolingual Dutch Children With Specific Language Impairment

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2014_jslhr-l-13-0104 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 57 (3) ◽

pp. 952-965 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Elma Blom ◽

Nada Vasić ◽

Jan de Jong

Keyword(s):

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Typical Development ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Specific Language ◽

Verb Agreement ◽

Test Sensitivity ◽

Third Person ◽

Listening Task ◽

Dutch Children

Purpose In this study, the authors investigated whether errors with subject–verb agreement in monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) are influenced by verb phonology. In addition, the productive and receptive abilities of Dutch acquiring children with SLI regarding agreement inflection were compared. Method An SLI group (6–8 years old), an age-matched group with typical development, and a language-matched, younger, typically developing (TD) group participated in the study. Using an elicitation task, the authors tested use of third person singular inflection after verbs that ended in obstruents (plosive, fricative) or nonobstruents (sonorant). The authors used a self-paced listening task to test sensitivity to subject–verb agreement violations. Results Omission was more frequent after obstruents than nonobstruents; the younger TD group used inflection less often after plosives than fricatives, unlike the SLI group. The SLI group did not detect subject–verb agreement violations if the ungrammatical structure contained a frequent error (omission), but if the ungrammatical structure contained an infrequent error (substitution), subject–verb agreement violations were noticed. Conclusions The use of agreement inflection by children with TD or SLI is affected by verb phonology. Differential effects in the 2 groups are consistent with a delayed development in Dutch SLI. Parallels between productive and receptive abilities point to weak lexical agreement inflection representations in Dutch SLI.

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The Relationship Between Nonlinguistic False Belief Tasks, Visual Processing Capacity, and Language Ability in Children With Specific Language Impairment

Journal of speech-language & hearing disorders ◽

10.15724/jslhd.2019.28.4.101 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 101-110

Author(s):

Su Yeon Lee ◽

Dong Sun Yim

Keyword(s):

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Language Ability ◽

False Belief ◽

Processing Capacity ◽

Specific Language ◽

False Belief Tasks ◽

The Relationship

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Influence of Language Load on Speech Motor Skill in Children With Specific Language Impairment

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2017_jslhr-l-17-0066 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 61 (3) ◽

pp. 675-689 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Meredith Saletta ◽

Lisa Goffman ◽

Caitlin Ward ◽

Jacob Oleson

Keyword(s):

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Load Condition ◽

Procedural Memory ◽

High Load ◽

Motor Deficits ◽

Typical Development ◽

Specific Language ◽

Low Load ◽

Speech Motor

Purpose Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show particular deficits in the generation of sequenced action: the quintessential procedural task. Practiced imitation of a sequence may become rote and require reduced procedural memory. This study explored whether speech motor deficits in children with SLI occur generally or only in conditions of high linguistic load, whether speech motor deficits diminish with practice, and whether it is beneficial to incorporate conditions of high load to understand speech production. Method Children with SLI and typical development participated in a syntactic priming task during which they generated sentences (high linguistic load) and, then, practiced repeating a sentence (low load) across 3 sessions. We assessed phonetic accuracy, speech movement variability, and duration. Results Children with SLI produced more variable articulatory movements than peers with typical development in the high load condition. The groups converged in the low load condition. Children with SLI continued to show increased articulatory stability over 3 practice sessions. Both groups produced generated sentences with increased duration and variability compared with repeated sentences. Conclusions Linguistic demands influence speech motor production. Children with SLI show reduced speech motor performance in tasks that require language generation but not when task demands are reduced in rote practice.

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