scholarly journals Assessing children’s understanding of complex syntax: a comparison of two methods

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Frizelle ◽  
Paul Andrew Thompson ◽  
Mihaela Duta ◽  
Dorothy Vera Margaret Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Testing Method ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
Natural Discourse ◽  
Value Judgement

We examined the effect of two methods of assessment, multiple-choice sentence-picture matching and an animated truth-value judgement task, on typically developing children’s understanding of relative clauses. Children between the ages of 3;06 and 4;11 took part in the study (n = 103). Results indicated that (i) children performed better on the animation than on the multiple-choice task independently of age (ii) each testing method revealed a different hierarchy of constructions (iii) and the testing method had a greater impact on children’s performance with some constructions more than others. Our results suggest that young children have a greater understanding of complex sentences than previously reported, when assessed in a manner more reflective of how we process language in natural discourse.

scholarly journals The understanding of complex syntax in children with Down syndrome

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Frizelle ◽  
Paul A. Thompson ◽  
Mihaela Duta ◽  
Dorothy V. M. Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Digit Recall

Background: Down syndrome (DS) is associated with poor language skills that seem disproportionate to general nonverbal ability, but the nature and causes of this deficit are unclear. We assessed how individuals with DS understand complex linguistic constructions, and considered how cognitive ability and memory and impact the ability of those with DS to process these sentence types. Methods: There were three groups participating in the study: children with DS (n = 33) and two control groups composed of children with cognitive impairment of unknown aetiology (CI) (n = 32) and children with typical development (n = 33). The three groups did not differ on raw scores on a test of non-verbal cognitive ability. Using a newly devised animation task, we examined how well individuals with DS (n = 33) could understand relative clauses, complement clauses and adverbial clauses compared to children with CI and typically developing controls. Participants also completed the Test for the Reception of Grammar-2, three measures of memory (forward and backward digit recall, visuo-spatial memory) and a hearing screen. Results: Results indicated that (1) with the exception of intransitive subject relative clauses, children with DS performed at floor on all other complex sentences, (2) they performed at a significantly lower level than both control groups, and (3) DS status accounted for a significant proportion of the variance over and above memory skills. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that children with DS have a disproportionate difficulty understanding complex sentences compared to two control groups matched on mental age. Furthermore, their understanding of syntax is not completely explained by poor cognitive or memory skills, rather it appears to be a specific deficit that may distinguish children with DS from other neurodevelopmental disorders.

scholarly journals Assessing understanding of relative clauses: a comparison of multiple-choice comprehension versus sentence repetition

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1435-1457 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAULINE FRIZELLE ◽  
CLODAGH O'NEILL ◽  
DOROTHY V. M. BISHOP
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Processing Load ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Additional Processing ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Repetition Task

AbstractAlthough sentence repetition is considered a reliable measure of children's grammatical knowledge, few studies have directly compared children's sentence repetition performance with their understanding of grammatical structures. The current study aimed to compare children's performance on these two assessment measures, using a multiple-choice picture-matching sentence comprehension task and a sentence repetition task. Thirty-three typically developing children completed both assessments, which included relative clauses representing a range of syntactic roles. Results revealed a similar order of difficulty of constructions on both measures but little agreement between them when evaluating individual differences. Interestingly, repetition was the easier of the two measures, with children showing the ability to repeat sentences they did not understand. This discrepancy is primarily attributed to the additional processing load resulting from the design of multiple-choice comprehension tasks, and highlights the fact that these assessments are invoking skills beyond those of linguistic competence.

scholarly journals Relationship between working memory and complex syntax in children with Developmental Language Disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 600-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène DELAGE ◽  
Ulrich Hans FRAUENFELDER
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Predictive Relationships ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractSome theories of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) explain the linguistic deficits observed in terms of limitations in non-linguistic cognitive systems such as working memory. The goal of this research is to clarify the relationship between working memory and the processing of complex sentences by exploring the performance of 28 French-speaking children with DLD aged five to fourteen years and 48 typically developing children of the same age in memory and linguistic tasks. We identified predictive relationships between working memory and the comprehension and repetition of complex sentences in both groups. As for syntactic measures in spontaneous language, it is the complex spans that explain the major part of the variance in the control children. In children with DLD, however, simple spans are predictive of these syntactic measures. Our results thus reveal a robust relationship between working memory and syntactic complexity, with clinical implications for the treatment of children with DLD.

scholarly journals The Production of Relatives in Mandarin Children With Specific Language Impairment–From the Perspective of Edge Feature Underspecification Hypothesis

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiyan Wang ◽  
Haopeng Yu
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Avoidance Strategies ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Simple Sentences ◽  
Edge Feature

This paper is a first attempt to investigate the production of Relative Clauses (RCs) in Mandarin children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) (aged 4; 5 to 6; 0) and their typically developing (TD) peers. The data from a preference choice task suggested that (i) Children with SLI performed better on the subject-gapped than object-gapped RC; (ii) Children with SLI performed substantially worse than their TD peers on the RCs production; (iii) Children with SLI were more inclined to omitting the complementizer and using simple sentences and sentence fragments as avoidance strategies. The Edge Feature Underspecification Hypothesis may explain not only the asymmetry of production seen in children with SLI, but also the presence of errors and avoidance strategies used by this population in the task.

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).

From a molar to a molecular approach to the developmental trajectory of syntax comprehension by persons with intellectual disability

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Facon
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Cognitive Level ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Regression Curves ◽  
Cognitive Measure ◽  
Syntactic Skills

The aim was to investigate whether a progressive dissociation between the cognitive level and syntax comprehension occurs during the development of persons with intellectual disabilities (ID). Two cross-sectional developmental trajectory analyses were successively conducted. Study 1 comprised 615 typically developing participants and 615 participants with ID. Their total scores on a syntax comprehension test were regressed on a nonverbal cognitive measure and the slopes of the two groups’ regression lines were compared. In Study 2, logistic regression curves of the two groups for each of the 92 test items were compared. Results showed only negligible between-groups differences of developmental trajectories, whatever the level of analysis. The idea of a progressive dissociation between cognitive level and receptive syntactic skills of people with ID is not confirmed. However, a syntax test evaluating more complex sentences than those used in this study might show such a dissociation.

scholarly journals Altered Metabolism of Mothers of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case Control Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Hollowood-Jones ◽  
James B. Adams ◽  
Devon M. Coleman ◽  
Sivapriya Ramamoorthy ◽  
Stephan Melnyk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Conjugated Molecules ◽  
Metabolic Analysis ◽  
Transsulfuration Pathway ◽  
Young Children With Autism ◽  
One Carbon Metabolism

Abstract Background: Previous research studies have demonstrated abnormalities in the metabolism of mothers of young children with autism.Method: Metabolic analysis was performed on blood samples from 30 mothers of young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD-M) and from 29 mothers of young typically-developing children (TD-M). Targeted metabolic analysis focusing on the folate one-carbon metabolism (FOCM) and the transsulfuration pathway (TS) as well as broad metabolic analysis were performed. Statistical analysis of the data involved both univariate and multivariate statistical methods.Results: Univariate analysis revealed significant differences in 5 metabolites from the folate one-carbon metabolism and the transsulfuration pathway and differences in an additional 48 metabolites identified by broad metabolic analysis, including lower levels of many carnitine-conjugated molecules. Multivariate analysis with leave-one-out cross-validation allowed classification of samples as belonging to one of the two groups of mothers with 93% sensitivity and 97% specificity with five metabolites. Furthermore, each of these five metabolites correlated with 8-15 other metabolites indicating that there are five clusters of correlated metabolites. In fact, all but 5 of the 50 metabolites with the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were associated with the five identified groups. Many of the abnormalities appear linked to low levels of folate, vitamin B12, and carnitine-conjugated molecules.Conclusions: Mothers of children with ASD have many significantly different metabolite levels compared to mothers of typically developing children at 2-5 years after birth.

scholarly journals Parent-reported feeding and swallowing difficulties of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (aged 3 to 5 years) compared to typically developing peers: a South African study

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 524-532
Author(s):  
Mari Viviers ◽  
Marguerite Jongh ◽  
Lindsay Dickonson ◽  
Roxanne Malan ◽  
Tamaryn Pike
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Young Children ◽  
South African ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Swallowing Difficulties ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

Background: Research on aspects of neurodevelopment such as feeding and swallowing difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is limited in low and middle income countries such as South Africa. Method: A descriptive comparative group design was used to investigate feeding and swallowing difficulties of young children with ASD in comparison to typically developing peers. The Brief Autism Mealtime Behavioural Inventory (BAMBI) was used. Results: Findings indicated a significant difference in the severity of feeding and swallowing difficulties between the two groups. Difficulties such as food selectivity, sensory processing difficulties, oral-motor difficulties and symptoms of dysphagia were iden- tified. The findings added to the existing global literature on feeding and swallowing difficulties in young children with ASD but provide a unique first perspective on these difficulties in South African children with ASD. Conclusion: Findings also highlighted the use of the BAMBI as an adjunct clinical tool to encourage comprehensive parental report during feeding assessment in this population. Cultural adaptation of the BAMBI for future use in African countries should be considered. A better local understanding of the parental perspective on the multidimensional nature of the feeding and swallowing difficulties displayed by young children with ASD was obtained. Keywords: Parent-reported feeding; swallowing difficulties; Autism Spectrum Disorders; South Africa. 

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