scholarly journals The Croatian adaptation of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives*

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Gordana Hržica ◽  
Jelena Kuvač Kraljević
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Age Range

This paper presents the Croatian version of the Multilingual Assessment tool for Narratives (MAIN), outlines its development and describes the research that has used it to assess narrative skills in monolingual and bilingual speakers. The Croatian version of MAIN has so far been used in three research projects and results have been presented in five peer-reviewed articles (published or in press) covering a total of 175 children in the age range from 5;0 to 9;0 (20 with developmental language disorder) and 60 adults, age range from 22 to 76. The accumulated results indicate that MAIN can differentiate narrative skills of speakers in distinct age groups and can distinguish children with language disorders form children with typical language development.

A 200-Year History of the Study of Childhood Language Disorders of Unknown Origin: Changes in Terminology

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Unknown Origin ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many

Purpose The current “specific language impairment” and “developmental language disorder” discussion might lead to important changes in how we refer to children with language disorders of unknown origin. The field has seen other changes in terminology. This article reviews many of these changes. Method A literature review of previous clinical labels was conducted, and possible reasons for the changes in labels were identified. Results References to children with significant yet unexplained deficits in language ability have been part of the scientific literature since, at least, the early 1800s. Terms have changed from those with a neurological emphasis to those that do not imply a cause for the language disorder. Diagnostic criteria have become more explicit but have become, at certain points, too narrow to represent the wider range of children with language disorders of unknown origin. Conclusions The field was not well served by the many changes in terminology that have transpired in the past. A new label at this point must be accompanied by strong efforts to recruit its adoption by clinical speech-language pathologists and the general public.

scholarly journals Italian adaptation of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 139-146
Author(s):  
Chiara Levorato ◽  
Maja Roch
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
School Age ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Narrative Competence ◽  
Italian Version ◽  
Italian Context

This paper presents the Italian version of the Multilingual Assessment tool for Narratives (MAIN), describes how it was developed and reports on some recent uses of MAIN within the Italian context. The Italian MAIN has been used in different research projects and for clinical purposes; results have been presented at conferences and in peer reviewed papers. The results indicate that MAIN is an appropriate assessment tool for evaluating children’s narrative competence, in production and comprehension from preschool age (5 years) to school age (8 years) in typical language development, bilingual development and language delay/disorders.

The Iowa Articulation Norms Project and its Nebraska Replication

1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 779-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Bosma Smit ◽  
Linda Hand ◽  
J. Joseph Freilinger ◽  
John E. Bernthal ◽  
Ann Bird
Keyword(s):  
Parental Education ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Phonetic Transcription ◽  
School Based ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Age Range

The purpose of the Iowa Articulation Norms Project and its Nebraska replication was to provide normative information about speech sound acquisition in these two states. An assessment instrument consisting of photographs and a checklist form for narrow phonetic transcription was administered by school-based speech-language pathologists to stratified samples of children in the age range 3–9 years. The resulting data were not influenced by the demographic variables of population density (rural/urban), SES (based on parental education), or state of residence (Iowa/Nebraska); however, sex of the child exerted a significant influence in some of the preschool age groups. The criteria used to determine acceptability of a production appeared to influence outcomes for some speech sounds. Acquisition curves were plotted for individual phoneme targets or groups of targets. These curves were used to develop recommended ages of acquisition for the tested speech sounds, with recommendations based generally on a 90% level of acquisition. Special considerations were required for the phonemes /n s z/.

scholarly journals A new perspective on referentiality in elicited narratives: Introduction to the Special Issue

2021 ◽  
pp. 014272372110623
Author(s):  
Natalia Gagarina ◽  
Ute Bohnacker
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorders ◽  
Comparative Investigation ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Developmental Language Disorders ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The Impact

This special issue investigates the use of referential expressions in elicited picture-based narratives by children with and without developmental language disorders, across a range of languages and language combinations. All contributions use the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN, Gagarina et al. 2012, 2019). The studies featured in this issue cover monolingual and bilingual children aged 4–11 years, but focus mainly on age 4–7, a period in a child’s life where great strides are made in the development of narrative skills. This collection of papers offers a new perspective on referentiality for several reasons: all studies use the same stimuli and by and large the same procedure for the elicitation of narratives. The stimuli, four picture-based stories, are controlled for comparability of protagonists, plot and story structure. They were designed as a ‘visual’ representation of a multidimensional model of story grammar. This methodological and theoretical base allows for a comparative investigation of referentiality (including reference introduction, maintenance and reintroduction) in narratives, across languages and populations. This introduction addresses theoretical aspects of referentiality in decontextualised discourse and reviews the literature regarding the impact of language-specific referential systems and the age and path of acquisition in typically developing children and children with developmental language disorders. We also discuss methodological aspects of eliciting referentiality in narratives in detail. This introduction thus seeks explanations for the diverse and sometimes contradictory empirical results regarding children’s mastery of referentiality. Finally, an overview of the contributions in the special issue is given.

scholarly journals Including Nonlinguistic Processing Tasks in the Identification of Developmental Language Disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 932-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry Danahy Ebert ◽  
Giang Pham
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Likelihood Ratios ◽  
Accurate Identification ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Cut Points

Purpose Accurate identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) remains challenging, particularly for children who speak different dialects, languages, or more than 1 language. Children with DLD, on average, have shown subtle deficits on nonlinguistic cognitive processing tasks, and performance on such tasks may be minimally influenced by language experience. This study explores whether nonlinguistic cognitive processing tasks can contribute to the identification of DLD in children from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Method Study 1 combined data from 4 U.S.-based investigations to yield a sample of 395 children, ages 6–10 years, who spoke only English or both Spanish and English. Study 2 consisted of an international sample of 55 kindergarten children living in Vietnam. Each study included children with DLD and children with typical development. Participants completed nonlinguistic cognitive tasks of processing speed, auditory working memory, and attentional control. Data analysis compared typically developing to DLD groups by age and language background. Then, we empirically derived cut-points to report diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios). Results For all 3 tasks, adequate sensitivity or specificity (but not both in most cases) was achieved in nearly all age groups. Likelihood ratios reached moderately to very informative levels in several instances. Diagnostic results were maintained when monolingual and bilingual samples were combined into a single group. Conclusions Nonlinguistic cognitive processing tasks may contribute to accurate identification of DLD in combination with other measures. Further research is needed to refine tasks, confirm cut-points established here, and extend findings to children from additional language backgrounds.

scholarly journals Supporting Bilingualism in Vulnerable Populations

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13830
Author(s):  
Maria Vender ◽  
Mirta Vernice ◽  
Antonella Sorace
Keyword(s):  
Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Language

Although bilingualism is generally appraised and supported by society, many more doubts arise when it comes to children suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders. The concern that the exposure to two languages might deteriorate the linguistic development of children, together with the advice to simplify the linguistic environment and to adopt a monolingual approach, leads many families to abandon their home language and sacrifice bilingualism. Scientific research, however, has shown that this fear is ungrounded and that children with developmental disorders can become successful bilingual speakers, if they are provided with appropriate linguistic exposure. The aim of this paper is that of providing a state-of-the-art of the literature on this topic, by reviewing studies conducted on the interaction between bilingualism and neurodevelopmental disorders, focusing in particular on the interaction between bilingualism and developmental language disorder (DLD), developmental dyslexia and autism spectrum disorder. We discuss issues related to the early identification of DLD and dyslexia among bilinguals and we report the results of studies showing that bilingualism does not exacerbate the difficulties of children with developmental disorders, but on the contrary it can be beneficial for them, at the cognitive, linguistic and socio-cultural level. Finally, we provide some recommendations for parents, educators and practitioners, focusing on the importance of supporting the family language in all of its components, including literacy, for a complete and harmonic bilingual growth.

Measure What You Treat: Using Language Sample Analysis for Grammatical Outcome Measures in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-363
Author(s):  
John F. Gallagher ◽  
Jill R. Hoover
Keyword(s):  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Progress Monitoring ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Sample Analysis ◽  
Treatment Target ◽  
Language Sample Analysis ◽  
Percent Accuracy ◽  
Language Sample

Purpose Language sample analysis (LSA) is commonly used to monitor progress for children with language disorders (Pavelko et al., 2016). For children with grammar goals, pediatric speech-language pathologists report mean length of utterance (MLU) and type–token ratio (TTR) as the two LSA measures most commonly used (Finestack & Satterlund, 2018). For focused grammatical intervention, these measures may be ineffective in capturing treatment growth. In this clinical focus article, we provide a preliminary comparison of four measures that could be considered as progress monitoring tools following intervention for one finiteness marker. Method Pre- and posttreatment spontaneous language samples from six children with developmental language disorder who underwent treatment for the third-person singular –s ( –3s ) morpheme were analyzed qualitatively. Four measures are reported: MLU, TTR, percent accuracy of –3s , and Tense and Agreement Productivity score of –3s (cf. Hadley & Short, 2005). Results Increases were most common across participants in measures that examined use of the treatment target (i.e., percent accuracy and Tense and Agreement Productivity score of –3s ). Changes in MLU were not always congruent with measures of the treatment target. Change was mostly not appreciable for TTR. Conclusions For preschool-aged children with developmental language disorder, MLU and TTR may not be effective as the sole outcome measures following treatment of –3s. Our six case studies highlight the benefit of measuring the treated skill as discretely as possible and with multiple measures. More research is needed into the use of LSA for outcome measures in children with language disorders.

Bilingualism and Attention in Typically Developing Children and Children With Developmental Language Disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 4105-4118
Author(s):  
Jisook Park ◽  
Carol A. Miller ◽  
Teenu Sanjeevan ◽  
Janet G. van Hell ◽  
Daniel J. Weiss ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Attentional Networks ◽  
Orienting Effect ◽  
Age Range

Purpose The aim of the current study was to investigate whether dual language experience modulates the efficiency of the 3 attentional networks (alerting, orienting, and executive control) in typically developing (TD) children and in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method We examined the attentional networks in monolingual and bilingual school-aged children (ages 8–12 years) with and without DLD. TD children (35 monolinguals, 23 bilinguals) and children with DLD (17 monolinguals, 9 bilinguals) completed the Attention Network Test ( Fan et al., 2002 ; Fan, McCandliss, Fossella, Flombaum, & Posner, 2005 ). Results Children with DLD exhibited poorer executive control than TD children, but executive control was not modified by bilingual experience. The bilingual group with DLD and both TD groups exhibited an orienting effect, but the monolingual group with DLD did not. No group differences were found for alerting. Conclusions Children with DLD have weak executive control skills. These skills are minimally influenced by dual language experience, at least in this age range. A potential bilingual advantage in orienting may be present in the DLD group.

The Specific Language Impairment/Developmental Language Disorders Forum: Fostering a Discussion of Terminology

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Green
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Public School ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Language Deficits ◽  
Developmental Language Disorders ◽  
Specific Language

Purpose This prologue provides an introduction to the SIG 1 Perspectives forum addressing use of a more recently applied term, developmental language disorder (DLD), as well as a term that has been used in research for several decades, specific language impairment (SLI), to describe children who exhibit language deficits. Included are brief summaries of the 5 articles that comprise the forum. Conclusion The articles in this SLI/DLD forum offer perspectives on the use of both terms. Implications include their application in clinical practice, advocacy, research, treatment, funding, and public school speech/language services.

scholarly journals Developmental Language Disorder and Uninhibited Primitive Reflexes in Young Children

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Maria Matuszkiewicz ◽  
Tadeusz Gałkowski
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Motor Development ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Motor Deficits ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Primitive Reflexes ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Tonic Neck Reflex

Purpose Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a developmental disorder where children fail to acquire language in the absence of a clear cause. Many studies have reported general motor deficits in children with DLD, but no studies have uncovered a cure. The purpose of our study is to better understand the underlying motor deficits in DLD, starting from uninhibited primary reflexes—which are the most basic stage of motor development. Knowledge of this motor–language relationship should lead to earlier and more targeted interventions in young children with DLD. Method Children with DLD ( n = 75, age range: 4–10 years) and 99 age-matched typically developing (TD) children completed a nonword repetition test to assess DLD and six other tests to assess primitive reflexes. Results Children with DLD demonstrated higher levels of persistent primitive reflexes compared to TD children. As the scores for neuromotor immaturity increased, nonword repetition test scores decreased ( r = −.44, p < .01). Results indicated that TD children exhibited lower neuromotor immaturity ( M = 7.63, SD = 3.75) compared to children with DLD ( M = 13.51, SD = 4.47). All primitive reflexes (the Moro reflex, the symmetrical tonic neck reflex in flexion and in extension, the asymmetrical tonic neck reflex, the tonic labyrinthine reflex, and the Galant reflex) turned out to be statistically significantly different for the TD and DLD groups ( p < .001). We also observed some differences between sexes. Conclusions Children with impaired language development underwent slower neuromotor development. However, further research is needed to determine whether motor intervention programs that inhibit primitive reflexes are helpful for children with DLD.

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