Hemispheric contributions to lexical ambiguity resolution: Evidence from individuals with complex language impairment following left-hemisphere lesions

Nine individuals with complex language deficits following left-hemisphere cortical lesions and a matched control group (n 5 9) performed speeded lexical decisions on the third word of auditory word triplets containing a lexical ambiguity. The critical conditions were concordant (e.g., coin–bank–money), discordant (e.g., river–bank–money), neutral (e.g., day–bank– money), and unrelated (e.g., river–day–money). Triplets were presented with an interstimulus interval (ISI) of 100 and 1250 ms. Overall, the left-hemisphere-damaged subjects appeared able to exhaustively access meanings for lexical ambiguities rapidly, but were unable to reduce the level of activation for contextually inappropriate meanings at both short and long ISIs, unlike control subjects. These findings are consistent with a disruption of the proposed role of the left hemisphere in selecting and suppressing meanings via contextual integration and a sparing of the right-hemisphere mechanisms responsible for maintaining alternative meanings.

Auditory lexical decisions in children with specific language impairment

This study examined spoken-word recognition in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and normally developing children matched separately for age and receptive language ability. Accuracy and reaction times on an auditory lexical decision task were compared. Children with SLI were less accurate than both control groups. Two subgroups of children with SLI, distinguished by performance accuracy only, were identified. One group performed within normal limits, while a second group was significantly less accurate. Children with SLI were not slower than the age-matched controls or language-matched controls. Further, the time taken to detect an auditory signal, make a decision, or initiate a verbal response did not account for the differences between the groups. The findings are interpreted as evidence for language-appropriate processing skills acting upon imprecise or underspecified stored representations.

Comparison of language impairment in late-onset depression and Alzheimer`s disease

Objectives: Depression and dementia are highly prevalent in the elderly. Language impairment is an inherent component of Alzheimer`s disease (AD), which can also be encountered in depressed patients. The aim of this study wasto compare the profiles of language abilities in late-onset depression and mild AD groups. Methods: We studied 25 patients with late-onset depression (mean age 73.6 +/- 6.6 years; schooling 9.1 +/- 5.7 years) and 30 patients with mild AD (77.6 +/- 5.4 years; 7.5 +/- 7.1 years) using the Arizona Battery for Communication Disorders of Dementia (ABCD), compared to a group of 30 controls (73.8 +/- 5.8 years; 9.1 +/- 5.4 years). Cut-off scores to discriminate between Controls x Depression and Depression x AD were determined. Results: Depressed patients` scores were similar to AD in confrontation naming, concept definition, following commands, repetition and reading comprehension (sentence). Episodic memory and mental status subtests were useful in differentiating depressed patients from AD, a result that was reproduced when using analysis of covariance to control for the effect of age in the same subtests (p = 0.01 and 0.04, respectively). Conclusion: Language impairment resembling AD was found in the aforementioned language subtests of the ABCD in elderly depressed patients; the mental status and episodic memory subtests were useful to discriminate between AD and depression. The ABCD has proven to be a suitable tool for language evaluation in this population and should aid in the differentiation of AD and pseudodementia (as that of depression).

Language impairment in euthymic, elderly patients with bipolar disorder but no dementia

Background: Neurocognitive impairment is known to occur in euthymic bipolar patients, but language alterations have not been thoroughly investigated. The aim of this study is to examine the performance in language tests of a sample of elderly patients with bipolar disorder. Methods: We studied 33 eurthymic elderly patients with bipolar disorder but no dementia and 33 healthy individuals, matched for age and education, who were compared in terms of their CAMCOG global score and its subitems. Results: The scores obtained in language-related abilities for patients and controls, respectively, were: language (total): 27.3 (1) and 28.5 (1), p < 0.0001)comprehension: 8.6 (0.5) and 8.9 (0.3), p = 0.006; production: 18.7 (1) and 19.6 (0.9), p = < 0.0001; abstraction: 6.8 (1.1) and 7.3 (0.7), p = 0.016; verbal fluency: 16.3 (4.3) and 19.6 (4.1), p = 0.003. Conclusion: A mild but significant impairment in language-related ability scores was detected when comparing patients and controls.

Late bloomer or language impaired? Screening the speech of a Spanish-English bilingual toddler for early signs of language impairment

This case study presents corpus data gathered from a Spanish-English bilingual child with expressive language delay. Longitudinal data on the child’s linguistic development was collected from the onset of productive speech at age 1;1 until age 4 over the course of 28 video-taped sessions with the child’s principal caregivers. A literature review focused on the relationship between language delay and persisting disorders—including a discussion of the frequent difficulty in distinguishing between the two at early stages of bilingual development—is followed by an analysis of the child’s productive development in 2 distinct phases. An attempt is made to assess the child’s speech at age 4 for preliminary signs of SLI and to consider techniques for identifying ‘at risk’ bilingual children (that is, those with productive language delay, poor oral fluency, and family history of language problems) based on samples of recorded and transcribed speech.

Nondeclarative learning in children with Specific Language Impairment: Predicting regularities in the visuomotor, phonological, and cognitive domains.

Ullman (2004) suggested that Specific Language Impairment (SLI) results from a general procedural learning deficit. In order to test this hypothesis, we investigated children with SLI via procedural learning tasks exploring the verbal, motor, and cognitive domains. Results showed that compared with a Control Group, the children with SLI (a) were unable to learn a phonotactic learning task, (b) were able but less efficiently to learn a motor learning task and (c) succeeded in a cognitive learning task. Regarding the motor learning task (Serial Reaction Time Task), reaction times were longer and learning slower than in controls. The learning effect was not significant in children with an associated Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), and future studies should consider comorbid motor impairment in order to clarify whether impairments are related to the motor rather than the language disorder. Our results indicate that a phonotactic learning but not a cognitive procedural deficit underlies SLI, thus challenging Ullmans' general procedural deficit hypothesis, like a few other recent studies.

Supporting children with speech and language impairment and associated difficulties : suggestions for supporting the development of language, listening, behavior and co-ordination skills.

Este recurso describe cómo una proporción significativa de niños en edad escolar tienen dificultades en el habla y cómo éstas afectan negativamente en su aprendizaje, tanto en entornos especializados como en generales. En él se esbozan las principales áreas de dificultad para los alumnos, y sugiere cómo los profesores pueden hacer que el programa sea más accesible para facilitar el aprendizaje. Se tratan el lenguaje expresivo, el lenguaje receptivo, el uso social del lenguaje y dificultades en el desarrollo de la coordinación, así como temas específicos como el plan de estudios de inglés, matemáticas y ciencias. A lo largo de la publicación hay información e ideas para apoyar a estos alumnos, y una amplia selección de sugerencias de buenas prácticas. Se incluye un programa de habilidades motoras, rimas para la producción del habla, trabajo de memoria, y páginas fotocopiables de diccionario.

Intervention in reading processes in pupils with Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

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Resources for non-english speaking parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and learning english as their primary language

This study examined culturally and linguistically diverse families with deaf and hard of hearing children. A literature review consisted of looking at the rate of immigration to the United States, English speaking parents of children who are deaf and hard of hearing, bilingual education, and the obstacles bilingual parents of children who are deaf and hard of hearing may face. The data obtained was used to compile a list of resources for parents of children who are deaf and hard of hearing available in languages other than English in order to assist these families.

Autistic symptomatology and language ability in autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are common developmental disorders characterised by deficits in language and communication. The nature of the relationship between them continues to be a matter of debate. This study investigates whether the co-occurrence of ASD and language impairment is associated with differences in severity or pattern of autistic symptomatology or language profile. Methods: Participants (N = 97) were drawn from a total population cohort of 56,946 screened as part of study to ascertain the prevalence of ASD, aged 9 to 14 years. All children received an ICD-10 clinical diagnosis of ASD or No ASD. Children with nonverbal IQ 80 were divided into those with a language impairment (language score of 77 or less) and those without, creating three groups: children with ASD and a language impairment (ALI; N = 41), those with ASD and but no language impairment (ANL; N = 31) and those with language impairment but no ASD (SLI; N = 25). Results: Children with ALI did not show more current autistic symptoms than those with ANL. Children with SLI were well below the threshold for ASD. Their social adaptation was higher than the ASD groups, but still nearly 2 SD below average. In ALI the combination of ASD and language impairment was associated with weaker functional communication and more severe receptive language difficulties than those found in SLI. Receptive and expressive language were equally impaired in ALI, whereas in SLI receptive language was stronger than expressive. Conclusions: Co-occurrence of ASD and language impairment is not associated with increased current autistic symptomatology but appears to be associated with greater impairment in receptive language and functional communication.

Characterising developmental language impairment in Serbian-speaking children: a preliminary investigation

The aim of the article is to provide preliminary data on the use of auxiliaries and clitics in Serbian-speaking children with developmental language impairment. Two groups of children (a group of 30 children with developmental language impairment and a group of 30 typically developing children) aged between 48 and 83 months and matched on IQ took part in the study. They were asked to tell a story from a series of four pictures. The results showed that the children with language impairment omitted significantly more auxiliary verbs and clitics than the controls. In addition, the rate of omission of auxiliaries and clitics did not decrease with increasing chronological age. We conclude that, as in other languages, auxiliary verbs and clitics are particularly difficult for Serbian-speaking children with language impairment.

Investigation of language and motor skills in Serbian speaking children with specific language impairment and in typically developing children

Specific language impairment (SLI) is usually defined as a developmental language disorder which does not result from a hearing loss, autism, neurological and emotional difficulties, severe social deprivation, low non-verbal abilities. Children affected with SLI typically have difficulties with the acquisition of different aspects of language and by definition, their impairment is specific to language and no other skills are affected. However, there has been a growing body of literature to suggest that children with SLI also have non-linguistic deficits, including impaired motor abilities. The aim of the current study is to investigate language and motor abilities of a group of thirty children with SLI (aged between 4 and 7) in comparison to a group of 30 typically developing children matched for chronological age. The results showed that the group of children with SLI had significantly more difficulties on the language and motor assessments compared to the control group. The SLI group also showed delayed onset in the development of all motor skills under investigation in comparison to the typically developing group. More interestingly, the two groups differed with respect to which language abilities were correlated with motor abilities, however Imitation of Complex Movements was the unique skill which reliably predicted expressive vocabulary in both typically developing children and in children with SLI.

Comprehension of reflexives and pronouns in sequential bilingual children: do they pattern similarly to L1 children, L2 adults, or children with specific language impairment?

This paper investigates how sequential bilingual (L2) Turkish-English children comprehend English reflexives and pronouns and tests whether they pattern similarly to monolingual (L1) children, L2 adults, or children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Thirty nine 6- to 9-year-old L2 children with an age of onset of 30-48 months and exposure to English of 30-72 months and 33 L1 age-matched control children completed the Advanced Syntactic Test of Pronominal Reference-Revised (van der Lely, 1997). The L2 children’s performance was compared to L2 adults from Demirci (2001) and children with SLI from van der Lely & Stollwerck (1997). The L2 children’s performance in the comprehension of reflexives was almost identical to their age-matched controls, and differed from L2 adults and children with SLI. In the comprehension of pronouns, L2 children showed an asymmetry between referential and quantificational NPs, a pattern attested in younger L1 children and children with SLI. Our study provides evidence that the development of comprehension of reflexives and pronouns in these children resembles monolingual L1 acquisition and not adult L2 acquisition or acquisition of children with SLI.