Stages rather than ages in the acquisition of movement structures: Data from sentence repetition and 27696 spontaneous clauses

This study explored the order of acquisition of various types of syntactic-movement and embedding structures in Hebrew, using a sentence-repetition task, in which 60 children aged 2;2-3;10 repeated 80 sentences (with a total of 4800 sentences), and an analysis of the spontaneous speech of 61 children aged 1;6-6;1 (27,696 clauses). The sentence repetition task revealed a set order of acquisition of the various types of syntactic movement: A-movement is acquired first, then A-bar-movement, and finally movement of the verb to C. The analysis of spontaneous speech revealed the same order: A-movement of the object of unaccusative verbs to subject position appears first, together with simple SV sentences; then, wh-questions appear, then relative clauses and topicalization, which appear together with embedding of finite clauses, and lastly, V-to-C movement. Previous studies have shown that Hebrew speakers under age six have difficulty comprehending and producing sentences with A-bar-movement in which a lexically-restricted object crosses over a lexically-restricted subject. And indeed, whereas children produced A-bar structures very early (wh-questions from age 1;6, relative-clauses and topicalization from age 2;6), until age 5;8 these structures never included a lexical DP crossing over another lexical DP. Both tasks indicated that the order of structure acquisition is fixed, creating Guttman scales between structures, but different children acquire the same structure at very different ages. It seems that whereas the syntactic path and the stages of structure acquisition along it are constant between children, each child walks this path in their own pace.

Sentence Repetition as a Clinical Marker of Developmental Language Disorder: Evidence From Arabic

Purpose: Research on the typical and impaired grammatical acquisition of Arabic is limited. This study systematically examined the morphosyntactic abilities of Arabic-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) using a novel sentence repetition task. The usefulness of the task as an indicator of DLD in Arabic was determined. Method: A LITMUS (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings) sentence repetition task was developed in Palestinian Arabic (LITMUS-SR-PA-72) and administered to 30 children with DLD ( M = 61.50 months, SD = 11.27) and 60 age-matched typically developing (TD) children ( M = 63.85 months, SD = 10.16). The task targeted grammatical structures known to be problematic for Arabic-speaking children with DLD (language specific) and children with DLD across languages (language independent). Responses were scored using binary, error, and structural scoring methods. Results: Children with DLD scored below TD children on the LITMUS-SR-PA-72, in general, and in the repetition of language-specific and language-independent structures. The frequency of morphosyntactic errors was higher in the DLD group relative to the TD group. Despite the large similarity of the type of morphosyntactic errors between the two groups, some atypical errors were exclusively produced by the DLD group. The three scoring methods showed good diagnostic power in the discrimination between children with DLD and children without DLD. Conclusions: Sentence repetition was an area of difficulty for Palestinian Arabic–speaking children with DLD. The DLD group demonstrated difficulties with language-specific and language-independent structures, particularly complex sentences with noncanonical word order. Most grammatical errors made by the DLD group resembled those of the TD group and were mostly omissions or substitutions of grammatical affixes or omissions of function words. SR appears to hold promise as a good indicator for the presence or absence of DLD in Arabic. Further validation of these findings using population-based studies is warranted. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16968043

The Effects of Environment on Memory and Reasoning Skills: Comparing Natural and Artificial Environments

The attention restoration theory suggests that directed attention is subject to fatigue, and the presence of nature and natural environments allows recovery from that fatigue, consequently improving cognitive function. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the mental processes of memory and reasoning were enhanced when exercised concurrently in a natural environment outdoors vs. an artificial environment such as an indoor classroom or lecture hall. Three hundred and eighty degree-seeking students at Texas State University were tested using modified forms of the Sentence Repetition Test and the California Verbal Learning Test to test verbal memory and a modified form of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV Matrix Reasoning Test to evaluate nonverbal reasoning/fluid intelligence. Half of the subjects (190) were tested in their classroom at the regularly scheduled class time or one located in the same building at a predetermined date and time. Half of the subjects (190) were tested in an outdoor garden classroom at a predetermined date and time. No significant difference was found to exist between in either the memory or reasoning scores of the two groups. However, comparisons of subjects in the same demographic categories produced one significant difference. Students classified as seniors (P = 0.035) who were tested in the natural environment performed significantly better on the Sentence Repetition Test compared with those tested in the artificial environment. Research generally supports the premise that exposure to nature or natural environments can have beneficial effects on physical and mental health and also improve cognitive function. Further studies should possibly include more than one meeting time and additional testing time for participants to sit and observe in the natural vs. artificial environment before testing.

In search of the recurrent units of translation

Translation memory systems aim to reuse previously translated texts. Be-cause the operational unit of the first-generation translation memory sys-tems is the sentence, such systems are only useful for text types in which full-sentence repetition frequently occurs. Second-generation sub-sentential translation memory systems try to remedy this problem by providing addi-tional translation suggestions for sub-sentential chunks. In this paper, we compare the performance of a sentence-based translation memory system (SDL Trados Translator’s Workbench) with a sub-sentential translation memory system (Similis) on different text types. We demonstrate that some text types (in this case, journalistic texts) are not suited to be translated by means of a translation memory system. We show that Similis offers useful additional translation suggestions for terminology and frequent multiword expressions.

The sentence repetition task as a measure of sign language proficiency

Sign language research is important for our understanding of languages in general and for the impact it has on policy and on the lives of deaf people. There is a need for a sign language proficiency measure, to use as a grouping or continuous variable, both in psycholinguistics and in other sign language research. This article describes the development of a Swedish Sign Language Sentence Repetition Test (STS-SRT) and the evidence that supports the validity of the test’s interpretation and use. The STS-SRT was administered to 44 deaf adults and children, and was shown to have excellent internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.915) and inter-rater reliability (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient [ICC] = 0.900, p < .001). A linear mixed model analysis revealed that adults scored 20.2% higher than children, and delayed sign language acquisition were associated with lower scores. As the sign span of sentences increased, participants relied on their implicit linguistic knowledge to scaffold their sentence repetitions beyond rote memory. The results provide reliability and validity evidence to support the use of STS-SRT in research as a measure of STS proficiency.

OS07.5A Diagnostic Instrument for Mild Aphasia (DIMA): sensitive and valuable addition to standard language assessment in glioma patients

BACKGROUND Low-grade glioma (LGG) patients typically suffer from mild aphasia that often cannot be detected with standard aphasia tests. The Diagnostic Instrument for Mild Aphasia (DIMA) is the first standardized test-battery to assess mild language disorders. We investigate pre- and postoperative linguistic abilities of LGG and high-grade glioma (HGG) patients with the DIMA. METHODS The DIMA consists of subtests that tap phonology (word, compound, non-word, sentence repetition), semantics (odd-picture-out), and syntax (sentence completion). Additionally, we administered the Boston Naming Test, Category- and Letter Fluency, and the Token Test. Patients were assessed before awake surgery (T1, N=98), three-months (T2, N=69), and one-year (T3, N=30) postoperatively. DIMA performance was compared to healthy controls (N=214). Group differences were examined with parametric (t-test) and nonparametric (Mann-Whitney-U, Wilcoxon) tests. RESULTS DIMA: Preoperatively, patients deviated on sentence repetition and sentence completion (p&lt;0.05). HGG patients performed worse than LGG on word, non-word, and sentence repetition (p&lt;0.05). There was no effect of hemispheric tumor localization. At T2, compound repetition and odd-picture-out also became impaired (p&lt;0.05) and there was a decline compared to T1 on all repetition tasks (p&lt;0.05). At T3, only sentence completion remained impaired (p&lt;0.01) with a deterioration compared to T1 (p&lt;0.01). Standard tests: At T1, patients were impaired on BNT, Category- and Letter Fluency (p&lt;0.01). HGG patients performed worse than LGG patients on BNT and TT (p&lt;0.01). Patients with left-hemispheric tumors performed worse on BNT and Letter Fluency compared to right-hemispheric tumors (p&lt;0.05). At T2, TT also became impaired (p&lt;0.05) and patients declined compared to T1 on Verbal Fluency tests (p&lt;0.01). At T3, only BNT and Category Fluency remained impaired (p&lt;0.05), with no significant declines compared to T1. CONCLUSION The DIMA is the first test-battery to detect peri-operative impairments at different linguistic levels (phonology, semantics, syntax) in patients with left- or right-hemispheric gliomas. It even appeared more sensitive to detect surgical effects than standard tests: all phonological DIMA subtests captured short-term decline (T1-T2), in line with earlier evidence for the value of (non-)word repetition. DIMA sentence completion detected long-term decline (T1-T3), reflecting earlier spontaneous speech analyses. As expected, Verbal Fluency was also sensitive to short-term postoperative decline. Left-hemispheric tumor localization only affected standard test performance. HGG patients had more severe impairments than LGG on DIMA repetition and standard tests (BNT and TT). We advise adding the DIMA to standard language evaluation of glioma patients, as it allows for more detailed counseling about language outcome.

Heterogeneity of repetition abilities in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia

ABSTRACT. The differential diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is challenging due to overlapping clinical manifestations of the different variants of the disease. This is particularly true for the logopenic variant of PPA (lvPPA), in which such overlap was reported with regard to impairments in repetition abilities. In this study, four individuals with lvPPA underwent standard neuropsychological and language assessments. The influence of psycholinguistic variables on their performance of in word, nonword and sentence repetition tasks was also specifically explored. Some level of heterogeneity was found in cognitive functions and in language. The four participants showed impairment in sentence repetition in which their performance was negatively affected by semantic reversibility and syntactic complexity. This study supports the heterogeneity of lvPPA with respect to the cognitive and linguistic status of participants. It also shows that sentence repetition is influenced not only by length, but also by semantic reversibility and syntactic complexity, two psycholinguistic variables known to place additional demands on phonological working memory.

Working memory training enhances complex syntax in children with Developmental Language Disorder

Linguistic deficits attested in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have been explained in terms of limitations in working memory (WM). The goal of this research is to assess whether a tailored WM program can improve the syntactic abilities of children with DLD and those with typical development (TD). We created a novel iPad application consisting of five activities specifically designed to train the components of WM that have been shown to be the most predictive of performance on tests assessing complex syntax. Thirty-two children with DLD (M = 9;0) and 18 with TD (M = 8;5) followed the WM training (lasting 12 hours). Results show significant improvement in verbal WM (direct effects) in both TD and DLD groups, and in sentence repetition (transfer effects) in the DLD group, with the most pronounced improvements observed for complex syntactic structures. This progression is not observed for 38 age-matched children of the same age who followed an alternative, global scholastic training (20 DLD, 18 TD), which proves the specific efficacy of our WM training. The logical next step will be to incorporate the training into the therapy of children with DLD in order to reinforce the potential benefit of their interventions.