scholarly journals Examining the roles of regularity and lexical class in 18--26-month-olds' representations of how words sound

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Moore ◽  
Elika Bergelson
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
High Fidelity ◽  
Regularity Effect ◽  
Poor Comprehension ◽  
Irregular Verbs

By around 12 months, infants have well-specified phonetic representations for the nouns they understand, for instance looking less at a car upon hearing ‘cur’ than ‘car’ (Swingley & Aslin, 2002). Here we test whether such high-fidelity representations extend to irregular nouns, and regular and irregular verbs. A corpus analysis confirms the intuition that irregular verbs are far more common than irregular nouns in speech to young children. Two eyetracking experiments then test whether toddlers are sensitive to mispronunciation inregular and irregular nouns (Experiment 1) and verbs (Experiment 2). For nouns, we find both a mispronunciation and regularity effect in 18-month-olds. For verbs, in Experiment 2a, we find only a regularity effect and no mispronunciation effect in 18-month-olds, though toddlers’ poor comprehension overall limits interpretation. Finally, in Experiment 2b we find a mispronunciation effect and no regularity effect in 26-month-olds. Implications for wordform representations, lexical class, and learning are discussed.

Frequency and morphological irregularity are independent variables. Evidence from a corpus study of Spanish verbs

2014 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Viviana Fratini ◽  
Joana Acha ◽  
Itziar Laka
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Mechanism Model ◽  
Irregular Verbs ◽  
Dual Mechanism ◽  
Morphological System

AbstractWe present the results of the first corpus analysis of Spanish verbs where the correlation between morphological irregularity and frequency was considered. In English, irregular verbs are more frequent than regular ones (Ullman, 1999 and Michel et al., 2011). We tested whether this frequency-irregularity relation observed in English would also hold in a more complex morphological system like Spanish. Results show that frequency and morphological irregularity do not correlate in Spanish. This pattern of results represents a challenge for the Dual-Mechanism model of morphology (Pinker and Prince 1988; Pinker and Ullman 2002), where all irregulars are argued to be stored whole in memory and are predicted to be more frequent than regulars.

Metaphor: For adults only?

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 51-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nausicaa Pouscoulous
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Metaphor Production ◽  
Poor Comprehension ◽  
The Way

Many experimental studies from the 70s and 80s show that children do not understand metaphors until fairly late in development (not until adolescence, some claim). I will argue that children’s metaphorical abilities may not be as weak as they first appear. Findings suggesting a poor comprehension of metaphor by young children might be better explained by factors other than purportedly inadequate pragmatic abilities. Furthermore, attested cases of metaphor production by children have often been re-analysed either as cases of overextension (i.e., erroneous extension of the term’s conventional denotation) or as cases of pretence, and are thus not considered to be genuine metaphors. I would like to explore the hypothesis that such re-analyses do not preclude the possibility that young children possess the necessary abilities to produce metaphors. Instead, some aspects of overextension and pretence may pave the way to metaphorical abilities.

The Modification of Hypernasality in Young Children

1984 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moya L. Andrews ◽  
Sarah J. Tardy ◽  
Lisa G. Pasternak
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Voice Therapy

This paper presents an approach to voice therapy programming for young children who are hypernasal. Some general principles underlying the approach are presented and discussed.

Lexical Comprehension in Young Children With Developmental Delays

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa A. Kouri
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Developmental Delays ◽  
Normal Development ◽  
Clinical Applications ◽  
Group Status ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Lexical Concepts

Lexical comprehension skills were examined in 20 young children (aged 28–45 months) with developmental delays (DD) and 20 children (aged 19–34 months) with normal development (ND). Each was assigned to either a story-like script condition or a simple ostensive labeling condition in which the names of three novel object and action items were presented over two experimental sessions. During the experimental sessions, receptive knowledge of the lexical items was assessed through a series of target and generalization probes. Results indicated that all children, irrespective of group status, acquired more lexical concepts in the ostensive labeling condition than in the story narrative condition. Overall, both groups acquired more object than action words, although subjects with ND comprehended more action words than subjects with DD. More target than generalization items were also comprehended by both groups. It is concluded that young children’s comprehension of new lexical concepts is facilitated more by a context in which simple ostensive labels accompany the presentation of specific objects and actions than one in which objects and actions are surrounded by thematic and event-related information. Various clinical applications focusing on the lexical training of young children with DD are discussed.

Eliciting Verbs From Children With Specific Language Impairment

1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Frome Loeb ◽  
Clifton Pye ◽  
Sean Redmond ◽  
Lori Zobel Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Lexical Skills

The focus of assessment and intervention is often aimed at increasing the lexical skills of young children with language impairment. Frequently, the use of nouns is the center of the lexical assessment. As a result, the production of verbs is not fully evaluated or integrated into treatment in a way that accounts for their semantic and syntactic complexity. This paper presents a probe for eliciting verbs from children, describes its effectiveness, and discusses the utility of and problems associated with developing such a probe.

Productivity of Emerging Word Combinations in Toddlers With Specific Expressive Language Impairment

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 34-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven H. Long ◽  
Lesley B. Olswang ◽  
Julianne Brian ◽  
Philip S. Dale
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Treatment Approach ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Semantic Consistency ◽  
Session Analysis

This study investigated whether young children with specific expressive language impairment (SELI) learn to combine words according to general positional rules or specific, grammatic relation rules. The language of 20 children with SELI (4 females, 16 males, mean age of 33 months, mean MLU of 1.34) was sampled weekly for 9 weeks. Sixteen of these children also received treatment for two-word combinations (agent+action or possessor+possession). Two different metrics were used to determine the productivity of combinatorial utterances. One metric assessed productivity based on positional consistency alone; another assessed productivity based on positional and semantic consistency. Data were analyzed session-by-session as well as cumulatively. The results suggest that these children learned to combine words according to grammatic relation rules. Results of the session-by-session analysis were less informative than those of the cumulative analysis. For children with SELI ready to make the transition to multiword utterances, these findings support a cumulative method of data collection and a treatment approach that targets specific grammatic relation rules rather than general word combinations.

Disfluency Characteristics Observed in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Preliminary Report

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura W. Plexico ◽  
Julie E. Cleary ◽  
Ashlynn McAlpine ◽  
Allison M. Plumb
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Young Children With Autism ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Developmental Stuttering

This descriptive study evaluates the speech disfluencies of 8 verbal children between 3 and 5 years of age with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Speech samples were collected for each child during standardized interactions. Percentage and types of disfluencies observed during speech samples are discussed. Although they did not have a clinical diagnosis of stuttering, all of the young children with ASD in this study produced disfluencies. In addition to stuttering-like disfluencies and other typical disfluencies, the children with ASD also produced atypical disfluencies, which usually are not observed in children with typically developing speech or developmental stuttering. (Yairi & Ambrose, 2005).

Holistic Communication Assessment for Young Children With Cleft Palate Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health:Children and Youth

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 914-938
Author(s):  
Anna Cronin ◽  
Sharynne McLeod ◽  
Sarah Verdon
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Cleft Palate ◽  
Case History ◽  
Significant Others ◽  
International Classification ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
International Classification Of Functioning ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Holistic Assessment

Purpose Children with a cleft palate (± cleft lip; CP±L) can have difficulties communicating and participating in daily life, yet speech-language pathologists typically focus on speech production during routine assessments. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY; World Health Organization, 2007 ) provides a framework for holistic assessment. This tutorial describes holistic assessment of children with CP±L illustrated by data collected from a nonclinical sample of seven 2- to 3-year-old children, 13 parents, and 12 significant others (e.g., educators and grandparents). Method Data were collected during visits to participants' homes and early childhood education and care centers. Assessment tools applicable to domains of the ICF-CY were used to collect and analyze data. Child participants' Body Functions including speech, language, and cognitive development were assessed using screening and standardized assessments. Participants' Body Structures were assessed via oral motor examination, case history questionnaires, and observation. Participants' Activities and Participation as well as Environmental and Personal Factors were examined through case history questionnaires, interviews with significant others, parent report measures, and observations. Results Valuable insights can be gained from undertaking holistic speech-language pathology assessments with children with CP±L. Using multiple tools allowed for triangulation of data and privileging different viewpoints, to better understand the children and their contexts. Several children demonstrated speech error patterns outside of what are considered cleft speech characteristics, which underscores the importance of a broader assessment. Conclusion Speech-language pathologists can consider incorporating evaluation of all components and contextual factors of the ICF-CY when assessing and working with young children with CP±L to inform intervention and management practices.

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