scholarly journals Online Statistical Learning in Developmental Language Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ágnes Lukács ◽  
Krisztina Sára Lukics ◽  
Dorottya Dobó
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Combined Use ◽  
Transitional Probabilities ◽  
Online Tests

Purpose: The vulnerability of statistical learning (SL) in developmental language disorder (DLD) has mainly been demonstrated with metacognitive offline measures which give little insight into the more specific nature and timing of learning. Our aims in this study were to test SL in children with and without DLD with both online and offline measures and to compare the efficiency of SL in the visual and acoustic modalities in DLD.Method: We explored SL in school-age children with and without DLD matched on age and sex (n = 36). SL was investigated with the use of acoustic verbal and visual nonverbal segmentation tasks relying on online (reaction times and accuracy) and offline (two-alternative forced choice, 2AFC and production) measures.Results: In online measures, learning was evident in both groups in both the visual and acoustic modalities, while offline measures showed difficulties in DLD. The visual production task showed a significant learning effect in both groups, while the visual two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) and the two acoustic offline tasks only showed evidence of learning in the control group. The comparison of learning indices revealed an SL impairment in DLD, which is present in both modalities.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that children with DLD are comparable to typically developing (TD) children in their ability to extract acoustic verbal and visual nonverbal patterns that are cued only by transitional probabilities in online tasks, but they show impairments on metacognitive measures of learning. The pattern of online and offline measures implies that online tests can be more sensitive and valid indices of SL than offline tasks, and the combined use of different measures provides a better picture of learning efficiency, especially in groups where metacognitive tasks are challenging.

Nonword Repetition Skills in Gulf Arabic–Speaking Children With Developmental Language Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 3700-3713
Author(s):  
Saleh Shaalan
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Gulf Arabic ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Phonological Complexity

Purpose This study examined the performance of Gulf Arabic–speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD) on a Gulf Arabic nonword repetition (GA-NWR) test and compared it to their age- and language-matched groups. We also investigated the role of syllable length, wordlikeness, and phonological complexity in light of NWR theories. Method A new GA-NWR test was conducted with three groups of Gulf Arabic–speaking children: school-age children with DLD, language-matched controls (LCs), and age-matched controls (ACs). The test consisted of two- and three-syllable words that either had no clusters, medial clusters, final clusters, or medial + final clusters. Results The GA-NWR distinguished between the performance of children with DLD and the LC and AC groups. Results showed significant syllable length, wordlikeness, and phonological complexity effects. Differences between the DLD and typically developing groups were seen in two- and three-syllable nonwords; however, when compared on nonwords with no clusters, children with DLD were not significantly different from the LC group. Conclusions The GA-NWR test differentiated between children with DLD and their ACs and LCs. Findings, therefore, support its clinical utility in this variety of Arabic. Results showed that phonological processing factors, such as phonological complexity, may have stronger effects when compared to syllable length effects. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12996812

scholarly journals Efficacy of the Treatment of Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 407
Author(s):  
Sara Rinaldi ◽  
Maria Cristina Caselli ◽  
Valentina Cofelice ◽  
Simonetta D’Amico ◽  
Anna Giulia De Cagno ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Phonological Skills ◽  
Syntactic Skills ◽  
Positive Effect

Background. Language disorder is the most frequent developmental disorder in childhood and it has a significant negative impact on children’s development. The goal of the present review was to systematically analyze the effectiveness of interventions in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) from an evidence-based perspective. Methods. We considered systematic reviews, meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), control group cohort studies on any type of intervention aimed at improving children’s skills in the phono-articulatory, phonological, semantic-lexical, and morpho-syntactic fields in preschool and primary school children (up to eight years of age) that were diagnosed with DLD. We identified 27 full-length studies, 26 RCT and one review. Results. Early intensive intervention in three- and four-year-old children has a positive effect on phonological expressive and receptive skills and acquisitions are maintained in the medium term. Less evidence is available on the treatment of expressive vocabulary (and no evidence on receptive vocabulary). Intervention on morphological and syntactic skills has effective results on expressive (but not receptive) skills; however, a number of inconsistent results have also been reported. Only one study reports a positive effect of treatment on inferential narrative skills. Limited evidence is also available on the treatment of meta-phonological skills. More studies investigated the effectiveness of interventions on general language skills, which now appears as a promising area of investigation, even though results are not all consistent. Conclusions. The effectiveness of interventions over expressive and receptive phonological skills, morpho-syntactic skills, as well as inferential skills in narrative context underscores the importance that these trainings be implemented in children with DLD.

scholarly journals The Efficacy of an Explicit Intervention Approach to Improve Past Tense Marking for Early School-Age Children With Developmental Language Disorder

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Calder ◽  
Mary Claessen ◽  
Susan Ebbels ◽  
Suze Leitão
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
School Age ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Standardized Measures ◽  
Early School ◽  
Early School Age

Purpose The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of a theoretically motivated explicit intervention approach to improve regular past tense marking for early school-age children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Twenty-one children with DLD (ages 5;9–6;9 [years;months]) were included in a crossover randomized controlled trial (intervention, n = 10; waiting control, n = 11). Intervention included once-weekly sessions over 10 weeks using the SHAPE CODING system, in combination with a systematic cueing hierarchy to teach past tense marking. Once the first group completed intervention, the waiting control group crossed over to the intervention condition. The primary outcome was criterion-referenced measures of past tense marking with standardized measures of expressive and receptive grammar as the secondary outcome. Ancillary analyses on extension and behavioral control measures of morphosyntax were also conducted. Results There was a significant Time × Group interaction ( p < .001) with a significant difference in pre–post intervention improvement in favor of the intervention group ( p < .001, d = 3.03). Further analysis once both groups had received the intervention revealed no improvement for either group on past tense production during the 5-week pre-intervention period, significant improvement pre–post intervention ( p < . 001, d = 1.22), with gains maintained for 5 weeks postintervention. No significant differences were found on pre- to postintervention standardized measures of grammar, or on extension or control measures. Conclusions The efficacy of the theoretically motivated explicit grammar intervention was demonstrated. Results contribute to the evidence base supporting this intervention to improve past tense production in early school-age children with DLD, suggesting it is a viable option for clinicians to select when treating morphosyntactic difficulties for this population. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13345202

scholarly journals Sensorimotor performance in school-age children with autism, developmental language disorder, or low IQ

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (01) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E Mandelbaum ◽  
Michael Stevens ◽  
Eric Rosenberg ◽  
Max Wiznitzer ◽  
Mitchell Steinschneider ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Low Iq ◽  
Sensorimotor Performance

scholarly journals The Fast-Mapping Abilities of Adults With Developmental Language Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 3117-3129
Author(s):  
Karla K. McGregor ◽  
Nichole Eden ◽  
Timothy Arbisi-Kelm ◽  
Jacob Oleson
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Choice Test ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Fast Mapping ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Mapping Condition

Purpose The aim of the study was to determine the integrity of fast mapping among adults with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Forty-eight adults with DLD or typical language development (TD) were presented with 24 novel words and photos of their unfamiliar referents from the semantic categories of mammal, bird, fruit, or insect in two conditions. In the fast-mapping condition, 12 of the 24 unfamiliar referents were presented, one at a time alongside a familiar referent (e.g., a dog) and a question (e.g., Is the tail of the torato up? ). In the explicit-encoding condition, the other 12 unfamiliar referents were presented alone, one at a time, with a label (e.g., This is a spimer ). Immediately after exposure (T1) and again after a 1-day interval (T2), memory for the word-to-exemplar link was measured with a three-alternative forced-choice test, requiring the participant to match a spoken word to one of three pictured referents from the training set. At T2, memory for semantic category information was measured with a four-alternative forced-choice test, requiring the participant to match a spoken word to one of four prototypical silhouettes representing each of the semantic categories. Results Performance on word-to-exemplar link recognition was stronger for words learned in the explicit-encoding than the fast-mapping condition and stronger for the TD group than the DLD group. Time was not a significant factor as both groups maintained posttraining levels of performance after a 1-day retention interval. Performance on semantic category recognition was stronger for words learned in the explicit-encoding than the fast-mapping condition and stronger for the TD group than the DLD group. The lower category recognition performance of the DLD group was related to their lower nonverbal IQ scores. Conclusion Contexts that allow for explicit encoding yield better learning of word-to-referent links than contexts that allow for fast mapping in both stronger and weaker learners. Adults with DLD have difficulty learning the link between words and referents, whether trained via fast mapping or explicit encoding and whether tested with exemplar or category referents. Retention is a relative strength for adults with DLD. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12765551

scholarly journals Capturing the Nature of the Spelling Errors in Developmental Language Disorder: A Scoping Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Lucie Broc ◽  
Nelly Joye ◽  
Julie E. Dockrell ◽  
Thierry Olive
Keyword(s):  
Scoping Review ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Qualitative Description ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Spelling Errors ◽  
Spelling Performance ◽  
Orthographic Depth

Purpose This scoping review aims to identify and analyze the nature of the spelling errors produced by children with developmental language disorder (DLD) across different orthographies. Building on a previous meta-analysis identifying the extent of the spelling difficulties of children with DLD, the review extends our understanding of the nature of the spelling errors produced by children with DLD. Three questions are addressed: Do spelling difficulties in children with DLD stem from weak phonological, orthographic, or morphological representations? What are the patterns of spelling performance in DLD depending on orthographic depth? Do comorbid difficulties with DLD impact spelling? Method The scoping review followed the five phases outlined by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) and extended by Levac et al. (2010) : (a) specifying the research question; (b) identifying relevant studies; (c) selecting studies; (d) charting the data; and (e) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. Results Eighteen studies that provided a qualitative description of the nature of spelling errors produced by children and adolescents with DLD were identified. Spelling performance was examined in relation to control groups that were matched on age, on language features (language, spelling, or reading age), or on co-occurring difficulties. Conclusions This review article highlights the key elements that need to be considered when practitioners examine spelling difficulties and provides benchmarks for assessment in a range of alphabetic languages for school-age children. The qualitative analyses indicated that when practitioners evaluate spelling performance in children or adolescents with DLD, three factors should be considered: phonological representations, morphological awareness, and reading skills.

A Multimodal Comparison of Emotion Categorization Abilities in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Daniela Bahn ◽  
Michael Vesker ◽  
Gudrun Schwarzer ◽  
Christina Kauschke
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Emotion Processing ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Verbal Tasks

Purpose Current research has demonstrated that behavioral, emotional, and/or social difficulties often accompany developmental language disorder (DLD). It is an open question to what degrees such difficulties arise as consequence of impaired language and communicative skills, or whether they might also be driven by deficits in verbal and nonverbal emotion processing (e.g., the reduced ability to infer and verbalize emotional states from facial expressions). Regarding the existence of nonverbal deficits, previous research has yielded inconsistent findings. This study was aimed at gaining deeper knowledge of the basic aspects of emotion understanding in children with DLD by comparing their performance on nonverbal and verbal emotion categorization tasks to that of typically developing children. Method Two verbal tasks (Lexical Decision and Valence Decision With Emotion Terms) and two nonverbal tasks (Face Decision and Valence Decision With Facial Expressions) were designed to parallel each other as much as possible, and conducted with twenty-six 6- to 10-year-old children diagnosed with DLD. The same number of typically developed children, carefully matched by age and gender, served as a control group. Results The children with DLD showed lower performance in both verbal tasks and exhibited noticeable problems in the nonverbal emotion processing task. In particular, they achieved lower accuracy scores when they categorized faces by their valence (positive or negative), but did not differ in their ability to distinguish these faces from pictures displaying animals. Conclusions This study provides evidence for the hypothesis that problems in emotion processing in children with DLD might be multimodal. Therefore, the results support the idea of mutual influences in the development of language and emotion skills and contribute to the current debate about the domain specificity of DLD (formerly referred to as specific language impairment).

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