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Introduction: Numerous studies have shown that children with developmental language disorder (DLD), in addition to oral language difficulties, exhibit impaired writing abilities. Their texts contain problems in grammar, organization, cohesion, and length of written output. However, most of these studies have been conducted with English speakers. English is characterized by complex phonological structure, opaque orthography, poor morphology and strict word order. The aim of this research is to observe the writing abilities of children with DLD in a language with simple phonological structure, transparent orthography, rich morphology and flexible word order like Spanish in the production of expository texts. Methods: Twenty-six children with DLD (mean age in months = 128.85) and 26 age-and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children (mean age in months = 124.61) wrote an expository text about their favorite animal. Results: In order to analyze how the two groups plan and encode written texts, we looked at word frequency and sentence structure, grammatical complexity and lexical density, and omissions and errors. Compared to the TD group, the children with DLD omitted more content words; made more errors with functional words, verb conjugation and inflectional morphemes, and made a large number of spelling errors. Moreover, they wrote fewer words, fewer sentences, and less structurally and lexically complex texts. Discussion: These results show that children with DLD who speak a transparent orthography language such as Spanish also have difficulties in most language areas when producing written texts. Our findings should be considered when planning and designing interventions.

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Children with specific language impairment(SLI)have normal cognitive abilities but experience language deficits.The heterogeneity of language disorders makes SLI children optimal subjects for investigating the correlation between language ability and theory of mind.This paper provides a comprehensive review of foreign em-pirical studies examining the relationship between language ability and theory of mind in SLI groups from various perspectives.The findings indicate that specific types of language disorders exhibit delayed development in theory of mind,which is closely associated with their language ability deficits.Among all linguistic elements,syntactic de-fects demonstrate the most concentrated evidence regarding their impact on theory of mind.It is noteworthy that al-though SLI children offer valuable insights into the correlation between language and theory of mind,further investi-gation is still required to comprehensively comprehend this association.The present study also provides recommenda-tions for future research endeavors in this domain.

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This paper addresses the grammatical challenges associated with the development of clause complexity, focusing on the performance of a group of monolingual Spanish-speaking schoolchildren with Specific Language Impairment/Developmental Language Disorder (SLI/DLD) in a longitudinal corpus of oral narrative samples. The study examines the presence of interclause relations of subordination and equivalence (hypotaxis and parataxis) in language samples of two groups: an experimental group made up of 24 schoolchildren with SLI/DLD and a control group made up of 24 schoolchildren with typical development (TD). The results show that while both groups use parataxis as the most common relation between clauses in all school grades, there is a significant decrease in paratactic relations and a significant increase in hypotactic relations from first to fourth grade of primary education. Although the development patterns are highly similar, the SLI/DLD group shows greater difficulties in mastering more complex (hypotactic) relations in fourth grade compared to the control group, indicating that it is less sophisticated in the use of these types of complex relations. These findings suggest that focused support on the most complex structures is needed towards the fourth grade of primary education, given the demands of the school academic register from 6 and 7 years of age and the potential problems that the development of clause complexity can cause in school-age children.

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BACKGROUND: Public awareness of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is lower than other neurodevelopmental disorders, despite its high prevalence of 7.6%. This lower awareness means recruitment for DLD research studies is difficult. DLD is both underfunded and under-researched, resulting in relatively limited research investigating individuals with DLD. Engage with Developmental Language Disorder (E-DLD) is a response to these considerations. E-DLD is the first international participant database of those affected by DLD. Parents of children with DLD under 16 and young people and adults over 16 from anywhere in the world can sign up to be a part of the E-DLD. AIMS: This paper aims to describe the families of children with DLD and adults with DLD in the database thus far. METHODS & PROCEDURES: E-DLD members sign up via our website, reporting demographic characteristics as part of this procedure. We request all E-DLD members subsequently fill in a yearly survey. The content of the yearly survey changes dependent on the age of the child, while the yearly survey for adults remains consistent. We measure a wide range of domains, such as speech and language therapy (SLT) support, school support, socialisation skills, and early developmental milestones for our youngest members, and health care support and mental well-being measurements for our adults. We also collect parent and self-reported reflections on strengths and challenges for the person with DLD using open-ended questions and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The database currently consists of 196 parents of children with DLD and 20 individuals over the age of 16 with DLD or suspected DLD across a range of socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Our initial results confirm that E-DLD members meet the linguistic profile of DLD in relation to self- or parent-rated language difficulties. Both children and adults show increased rates of psychosocial difficulties compared to established norms, consistent with past research on clinical samples of people with DLD. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The findings indicate that a participant database for DLD research is feasible and useful. The rates of emotional, behavioural and sleep difficulties among the child probands are higher than reported rates amongst typically developing children. Initial data indicate that adults with DLD have poorer well-being than their peers. The E-DLD is a useful collection of data on those affected by DLD and is a promising method for connecting people with DLD with academic researchers. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is characterised by expressive and/or receptive language difficulties in the absence of another biomedical condition that could explain these difficulties. It is critically under-researched and underfunded. As such, there is a lack of public awareness and difficulty recruiting sufficient sample sizes for DLD research studies. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Engage with Developmental Language Disorder (E-DLD) is the first international participant database of individuals with DLD. This paper provides a preliminary report on the profile of linguistic and psychosocial skills among the individuals on the database, adding to current understanding of DLD across age groups. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Our aim is that the E-DLD will provide much-needed facilitation of research into DLD. E-DLD will enable those with DLD and their families more readily to shape research agendas and to participate in studies that interest them. Families may be recruited into research that could directly translate to better clinical treatment of DLD. We also believe that the E-DLD yearly survey holds potential to provide key information on the development and longitudinal experience of children and adults with DLD.

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BACKGROUND: Deficits in procedural memory have been proposed to account for the language deficits in specific language impairment (SLI). A key aspect of the procedural deficit hypothesis (PDH) account of SLI is that declarative memory is intact and functions as a compensatory mechanism in the acquisition of language in individuals with SLI. The current study examined the neural correlates of lexical-phonological and lexical-semantic processing with respect to these predictions in a group of adolescents with SLI with procedural memory impairment and a group of chronologically age-matched (CA) normal controls. METHODS: Participants completed tasks designed to measure procedural and declarative memory and two ERP tasks designed to assess lexical-semantic and lexical-phonological processing in the auditory modality. Procedural memory was assessed using a statistical learning task. Lexical-semantic processing was assessed using a sentence judgment task modulating semantic congruency and lexical-phonological processing was assessed using a word/nonword decision task modulating word frequency. Behavioral performance on the tasks, mean amplitude of the cortical response, and animated topographs were examined. RESULTS: Performance on the statistical word-learning task was at chance for the adolescents with SLI, whereas declarative memory was no different from the CA controls. Behavioral accuracy on the lexical-semantic task was the same for the adolescents with SLI and CA controls but accuracy on the lexical-phonological task was significantly poorer for the adolescents with SLI as compared to the CA controls. An N400 component was elicited in response to semantic congruency on the lexical-semantic task for both groups but differences were noted in both the location and time course of the cortical response for the SLI and CA groups. An N400 component was elicited by word frequency on the lexical-phonological task for the CA controls not for the adolescents with SLI. In contrast, post hoc analysis revealed a cortical response based on imageability for the adolescents with SLI, but not CA controls. Statistical word learning was significantly correlated with speed of processing on the lexical decision task for the CA controls but not for the adolescents with SLI. In contrast, statistical word learning ability was not correlated with the modulation of the N400 on either task for either group. CONCLUSION: The behavioral data suggests intact semantic conceptual knowledge, but impaired lexical phonological processing for the adolescents with SLI, consistent with the PDH. The pattern of cortical activation in response to semantic congruency and word frequency suggests, however, that the processing of lexical-semantic and lexical-phonological information by adolescents with a history of SLI may be supported by both overlapping and nonoverlapping neural generators to those of CA controls, and a greater reliance on declarative memory strategies. Taken together, the findings from this study suggest that the underlying representations of words in the lexicons of adolescents with a history of SLI may differ qualitatively from those of their typical peers, but these differences may only be evident when behavioral data and neural cortical patterns of activation are examined together.

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La nosología y la terminología del trastorno específico del lenguaje (TEL) es confusa para los profesionales y los familiares de las personas que lo padecen, así como desajustada ante los conocimientos y datos actuales. Para clarificar y evaluar esta situación en el ámbito de habla catalana se ha realizado la primera fase de un estudio tipo Delphi con 24 participantes experimentados en el TEL. Se ha empleado un cuestionario con 40 preguntas acerca de la situación, la caracterización nosológica y sus términos actuales.La propuesta de nosología (descriptiva) de un nuevo esquema de caracterización diagnóstica de los trastornos se ha aceptado parcialmente. Se ha alcanzado un consenso en su descripción externa: nivel alto de gravedad, mejoría en comunicación y dificultades estructurales persistentes de lenguaje, con consecuencias funcionales graves de tipo social y educativo en la adaptación. Ha habido un acuerdo para cada tipología nosológica particular: El TEL como específico y principal, ya sea asilado o asociado con la presencia de alguna diferenciación biomédica (causal), o con comorbilidades (correlacionadas) o con factores de riesgo (relacionados de forma individual). El consenso no se alcanzó para el conjunto de ellas como marco para situar los trastornos del lenguaje.Los resultados han mostrado que no hay acuerdo en diversas propuestas terminológicas presentadas, pero tampoco hay oposición a un cambio progresivo para otra denominación como la del trastorno del desarrollo del lenguaje (TDL).Se ha llegado a obtener un consenso sobre la mayoría de las cuestiones relativas a las situaciones de detección, evaluación e intervención logopédica.(AU)

The nosology and terminology of specific language impairment (SLI) has been considered by many professionals not only confused, but also out of step with current available knowledge and data. This impression is shared by many families and social institutions. To help clarify SLI in the Catalan speaking population we undertook a Delphi project. Ten known experts in the field set up the project, and there were 24 participants. Forty propositions were presented on the situation (diagnosis and management), characterization and nosology, together with the terminology in use.The proposal of (descriptive) nosology for a new diagnostic characteristics scheme was accepted but consensus was not reached. Consensus was reached on its symptomatic description: high level of severity, improvement in communication, but persistent structural difficulties of language, with serious functional, social and educational consequences in adaptation. The most important result was the consensus for each particular nosological specification, although not for the whole as an expression of language disorders: SLI as specific and principal, either isolated or associated with the presence of some biomedical (causal) differentiation, or with co-morbidities (correlated) or with the presence of risk factors (individually associated). The results show no consensus on the terminology proposals; however, there was no opposition to a progressive change to another name such as developmental language disorders (DLD). Consensus was also reached on most issues related to situations of detection, evaluation and speech and language therapy intervention.(AU)

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A comprehensive approach, including social and emotional affectations, has been recently proposed as an important framework to understand Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). There is an increasing considerable interest in knowing how language and emotion are related, and as far as we know, the role of the emotional regulation (ER) of parents of children with and without DLD, and their impact on their children's ER is still unknown. The main aims of this study are to advance our knowledge of ER in school-age children and adolescents with and without DLD, to analyze the predictive value of expressive and receptive vocabulary on ER in school-age children and adolescents, and to explore parental ER and their effect on their children's and adolescents' ER. To cover all objectives, we carried out three studies. In the first and second study, expressive and receptive vocabulary were assessed in wave 1, and ER (Emotional Regulation Checklist -ERC- for children and Emotion Regulation Scale -DERS- for adolescents) was assessed in wave 2, 4 years later. Participants in the first study consisted of two groups of school-aged children (13 had DLD and 20 were typically developing children -TD). Participants in the second study consisted of two groups of adolescents (16 had DLD and 16 were TD adolescents). In the third study, the ER of 65 of the parents of the children and adolescents from study 1 were assessed during wave 2 via self-reporting the DERS questionnaire. Results showed no significant differences in ER between DLD and TD groups neither in middle childhood nor in adolescence. Concerning vocabulary and ER, expressive language predicted ER in school-age children but not in adolescents. Finally, parental ER explained their school-age children's ER, but this was not the case in adolescents. In conclusion, the present data indicated that expressive vocabulary has a fundamental role in ER, at least during primary school years, and adds new evidence of the impact of parents' ER upon their children's ER, encouraging educators and speech language pathologists to include parents' assessments in holistic evaluations and interventions for children with language and ER difficulties.

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Nonword repetition has been proposed as a diagnostic marker of developmental language disorder (DLD); however, the inconsistency in the ability of nonword repetition tasks (NRT) to identify children with DLD raises significant questions regarding its feasibility as a clinical tool. Research suggests that some of the inconsistency across NRT may be due to differences in the nature of the nonword stimuli. In this study, we compared children's performance on NRT between two cohorts: the children in the Catalan-Spanish cohort (CS) were bilingual, and the children in the European Portuguese cohort (EP) were monolingual. NRT performance was assessed in both Spanish and Catalan for the bilingual children from Catalonia-Spain and in Portuguese for the monolingual children from Portugal. Results show that although the absolute performance differed across the two cohorts, with NRT performance being lower for the CS, in both Catalan and Spanish, as compared to the EP cohort in both, the cut-points for the likelihood ratios (LH) were similar across the three languages and mirror those previously reported in previous studies. However, the absolute LH ratio values for this study were higher than those reported in prior research due in part to differences in wordlikeness and frequency of the stimuli in the current study. Taken together, the findings from this study show that an NRT consisting of 3-, 4-, and 5-syllable nonwords, which varies in wordlikeness ratings, when presented in a random order accurately identifies and correctly differentiates children with DLD from TD controls the child is bilingual or monolingual.

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Specific language impairment (SLI) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) that displays high heritability estimates. Genetic studies have identified several loci, but the molecular basis of SLI remains unclear. With the aim to better understand the genetic architecture of SLI, we performed whole-exome sequencing (WES) in a single family (ID: 489; n = 11). We identified co-segregating rare variants in three new genes: BUD13, APLP2, and NDRG2. To determine the significance of these genes in SLI, we Sanger sequenced all coding regions of each gene in unrelated individuals with SLI (n = 175). We observed 13 additional rare variants in 18 unrelated individuals. Variants in BUD13 reached genome-wide significance (p-value < 0.01) upon comparison with similar variants in the 1000 Genomes Project, providing gene level evidence that BUD13 is involved in SLI. Additionally, five BUD13 variants showed cohesive variant level evidence of likely pathogenicity. Bud13 is a component of the retention and splicing (RES) complex. Additional supportive evidence from studies of an animal model (loss-of-function mutations in BUD13 caused a profound neural phenotype) and individuals with an NDD phenotype (carrying a CNV spanning BUD13), indicates BUD13 could be a target for investigation of the neural basis of language.

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PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of a vocabulary intervention for bilingual children that was conducted in children's first language, Spanish, and included explicit instruction on cognates. We measured effects in terms of change from pre- to post-intervention in Spanish as well as associations with the non-target language, English. METHOD: Participants were 12 Spanish-English bilingual children, aged 6-8 years, with and without Developmental Language Disorder. Children completed the intervention in pairs (one child with DLD and a typically developing peer) for 70-minute sessions, 3 days a week, for four weeks. Intervention targeted 32 words (16 cognates, 16 non-cognates) using four storybooks (8 words/book) and interactive activities that highlighted similarities across languages. Pre- and post-intervention measures in Spanish and English included tasks of word definition and cognate facilitation. RESULTS: As a group, children showed improvement in definition quality and cognate naming in Spanish. There was a positive correlation between definition quality and cognate naming for the typically developing children, but not for the children with DLD. All children showed positive cross-language correlations on post-intervention measures. CONCLUSIONS: Bilingual children, with and without DLD, have the capacity to improve in their awareness and use of cognates. Explicit teaching of cognates can be an effective tool for building vocabulary skills. Children with DLD may need additional time and support to apply their knowledge of cognates to vocabulary learning.

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Predictors of reading comprehension among children with SLI have been rarely studied in Spanish. Even more sparse are longitudinal studies inspecting the evolution of their reading abilities. The aim of the present study is to inspect how decoding, production of grammatical/ungrammatical sentences, production of simple/complex sentences, and vocabulary (measured with two instruments) predict reading comprehension among Spanish-speaking monolingual school-age children with SLI in two grades: 2nd grade and 4th grade. Forty-eight children were recruited for this study, evenly grouped in two conditions: SLI and Typical. Groups were balanced by gender with no differences in months of age. All children were assessed twice: when in 2nd grade and when in 4th grade. Several multiple regression analyses were conducted. Findings revealed differences in terms of which particular predictors significantly impacted reading comprehension in each group. Vocabulary and syntax complexity are the most consistent predictors of reading performance. Decoding predicted reading comprehension performance only in the observed early stage (2nd grade), becoming non-significant over time. Grammaticality was found to have no impact on reading comprehension in both groups. Reported results suggest that vocabulary and complex syntax solidly predict reading comprehension, while decoding and grammaticality play a minor or even negligible role. Thus, interventions designed to improve reading comprehension among children with SLI might benefit from targeting these two particular dimensions of language.

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Specific language impairment (SLI) is a psychiatric condition with a complex etiology and a substantial genetic basis that affects children's verbal communication abilities. In this study, we examined the expression of five different human endogenous retrovirus elements (HERVs) in a cohort of 25 children with SLI and 25 healthy children in the control group. Human endogenous retrovirus elements, a diverse group of repetitive DNA sequences, can potentially cause considerable genetic heterogeneity. They had been integrated in the genome of our ancestors throughout evolution and now consist of about 8.0% of the human genome. Several HERV loci are transcribed in various cell types. Their expression in peripheral blood and in the brain is altered in many neurological and psychiatric diseases. To date, HERV expression profiles have never been studied in patients with SLI. This study aimed to elucidate differentially regulated human endogenous retroelements in peripheral blood of children with SLI, in comparison with healthy controls, through quantitative reverse tran-scription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) methodology. Our results show that two genes: HERV-K (HLM-2) gag and HERV-P env were expressed at lower levels in the blood samples from SLI children in comparison with those in the control group.

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Previous studies evaluating morpho-syntactic abilities in the Weaker Language of unbalanced bilingual children are scarce; and they bring inconclusive evidence on the nature of the Weaker Language development. The current study looked into morpho-syntactic profiles of bilingual Russian-Hebrew speaking children in the Weaker Language [the Weaker Heritage Language (HL-Russian) and the Weaker Societal Language (SL-Hebrew)] as compared to balanced bilinguals, unbalanced bilinguals in the Dominant Language and bilinguals with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Four groups of bilingual children aged 5;5-6;5 participated: unbalanced bilinguals with the Weaker HL-Russian and the Dominant SL-Hebrew (HL-weak: n = 39), unbalanced bilinguals with the Weaker SL-Hebrew and the Dominant HL-Russian (SL-weak: n = 19); balanced bilinguals (BB: n = 38), and bilinguals with SLI (biSLI: n = 23). Children's morpho-syntactic abilities in both languages were investigated using LITMUS (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings) Sentence Repetition Tasks (based on Marinis and Armon-Lotem, 2015). Quantitative analysis of morpho-syntactic abilities showed that unbalanced bilinguals scored lower in the Weaker Language as compared to balanced bilinguals and unbalanced bilinguals in the Dominant Language, yet, higher than bilinguals with SLI. Error patterns were similar across bilingual groups with TLD and could be traced to cross-linguistic influence. By contrast, error profiles of unbalanced bilinguals in the Weaker Language and bilinguals with SLI bore fundamental differences. Whereas unbalanced bilinguals in the Weaker Language opted for complex structures, relying on the available resources from the Dominant Language; bilinguals with SLI simplified complex syntactic structures. To conclude, the study shows that the Weaker Language of unbalanced bilinguals with TLD develop qualitatively similarly to the languages of balanced bilinguals and the Dominant Language in unbalanced bilinguals, albeit delayed or influenced by the Dominant Language to a larger extent. Conversely, the study brings evidence that linguistic profiles of unbalanced bilinguals with TLD in the Weaker Language and bilinguals with SLI differ, pointing at a deviant pattern of acquisition in children with SLI.

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The brain's ability to recognize acoustic changes occurring in rapid temporal succession is important for speech and successful language development. Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are characterized by deficient dynamics of temporal information processing (TIP) in the millisecond time range accompanied by disordered language development. Furthermore, previous studies have found that intervention based on amelioration of TIP resulted in improvement of both language and other cognitive functions. This study aimed to explain the changes associated with TIP training from the perspective of event-related potentials (ERPs). Thirty-six children aged 5-8 years (26 boys, 10 girls) diagnosed with SLI underwent two types of intense audio-visual computer intervention: experimental TIP training targeted at the millisecond time range (n = 18) or control non-TIP training (n = 18). Paired 50 ms tones of 1000 Hz and 1200 Hz were presented with inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) of either 50 ms (Short ISI Condition) or 200 ms (Long ISI Condition). Auditory ERPs were measured in a passive oddball paradigm before and after each type of training. The mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm was applied as an electrophysiological indicator of the brain's ability to automatically detect violations of regularity in paired tones presented in rapid succession. Moreover, the P3a component was also analyzed. After 24 sessions of temporal training (in the experimental group) MMN amplitude enhancement was observed in both ISI conditions, reflecting increased efficiency in perceiving changes in rapid auditory sequences. In both experimental and control groups, P3a amplitude was enhanced in both ISIs. This may be due to the improvement of involuntary attention shifting to the auditory events involved in each training type. To conclude, temporal training, compared to non-temporal control training, improved the ability to detect changes in a rapid auditory stream in children with SLI.

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Many studies revealed a link between temporal information processing (TIP) in a millisecond range and speech perception. Previous studies indicated a dysfunction in TIP accompanied by deficient phonemic hearing in children with specific language impairment (SLI). In this study we concentrate in SLI on phonetic identification, using the voice-onset-time (VOT) phenomenon in which TIP is built-in. VOT is crucial for speech perception, as stop consonants (like /t/ vs. /d/) may be distinguished by an acoustic difference in time between the onsets of the consonant (stop release burst) and the following vibration of vocal folds (voicing). In healthy subjects two categories (voiced and unvoiced) are determined using VOT task. The present study aimed at verifying whether children with SLI indicate a similar pattern of phonetic identification as their healthy peers and whether the intervention based on TIP results in improved performance on the VOT task. Children aged from 5 to 8 years (n = 47) were assigned into two groups: normal children without any language disability (NC, n = 20), and children with SLI (n = 27). In the latter group participants were randomly classified into two treatment subgroups, i.e., experimental temporal training (EG, n = 14) and control non-temporal training (CG, n = 13). The analyzed indicators of phonetic identification were: (1) the boundary location (α) determined as the VOT value corresponding to 50% voicing/unvoicing distinctions; (2) ranges of voiced/unvoiced categories; (3) the slope of identification curve (ß) reflecting the identification correctness; (4) percent of voiced distinctions within the applied VOT spectrum. The results indicated similar α values and similar ranges of voiced/unvoiced categories between SLI and NC. However, ß in SLI was significantly higher than that in NC. After the intervention, the significant improvement of ß was observed only in EG. They achieved the level of performance comparable to that observed in NC. The training-related improvement in CG was non-significant. Furthermore, only in EG the ß values in post-test correlated with measures of TIP as well as with phonemic hearing obtained in our previous studies. These findings provide another evidence that TIP is omnipresent in language communication and reflected not only in phonemic hearing but also in phonetic identification.

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The proper course of speech development heavily influences the cognitive and personal development of children. It is a condition for achieving preschool and school successes - it facilitates socializing and expressing feelings and needs. Impairment of language and its development in children represents a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for physicians and therapists. Early diagnosis of coexisting deficits and starting the therapy influence the therapeutic success. One of the basic diagnostic tests for children suffering from specific language impairment (SLI) is audiometry, thus far referred to as a hearing test. Auditory processing is just as important as a proper hearing threshold. Therefore, diagnosis of central auditory disorder may be a valuable supplementation of diagnosis of language impairment. Early diagnosis and implementation of appropriate treatment may contribute to an effective language therapy.

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BACKGROUND: It has been reported that the inhabitants of the Chilean Robinson Crusoe Island have an increased frequency of specific language impairment (SLI) or developmental language disorder (DLD). AIMS: To explore the familial aggregation of DLD in this community. METHODS & PROCEDURES: We assessed the frequency of DLD amongst colonial children between the ages of 3 and 8;11 years (50 individuals from 45 nuclear families). Familial aggregation rates of language disorder were calculated by assessing all available first-degree relatives (n = 107, 77 parents, 25 siblings, five half-siblings) of the probands. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: We found that 71% of the child population performed significantly below expected in measures of phonological production or expressive and receptive morphology. The majority of these children presented with severe expressive and/or receptive language difficulties. One-quarter of language-disordered probands primarily had phonological difficulties. Family members of affected probands experienced a higher risk of language disorder than those of typically developing probands. This increased risk was apparent regardless of non-verbal IQ. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The study substantiates the existence of a familial form of speech and language disorder on Robinson Crusoe Island. Furthermore, we find that the familiarity is stable regardless of non-verbal IQ, supporting the recent movement to reduce the importance of non-verbal IQ criterion in DLD diagnoses.

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BACKGROUND: Grammatical morphology has been shown to be problematic for children with specific language impairment (SLI) or developmental language disorder (DLD). Most research on this topic comes from widely spoken languages, such as English. Despite Welsh being the most extensively spoken indigenous in the UK after English, and Wales being the only official bilingual country in the UK, our knowledge about the morphosyntactic areas of Welsh that may pose problems for Welsh-speaking children with SLI is limited. Currently, Welsh-speaking speech and language therapists (SLTs) are heavily reliant on the use of informally translated English assessments. This can inadvertently result in a failure to take aspects of Welsh morphosyntax into account that are critical for the assessment and treatment of Welsh-speaking children. AIMS: This is the first study to examine how Welsh-English bilingual children of early school age with typical development (bi-TD) and with SLI (bi-SLI) perform on production tasks targeting verbal and nominal morphology in Welsh. We targeted areas of Welsh morphosyntax that could potentially be vulnerable for Welsh-speaking children with or at risk of language impairment, such as tense marking and plural formation, and assessed their diagnostic potential. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Twenty-eight Welsh-dominant bilingual children participated in the study: 10 bi-SLI and 18 bi-TD. They were administered three elicitation tasks targeting the production of verbal (compound and synthetic past tense) and nominal (plural) morphology in Welsh. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The bi-SLI children performed worse than their bi-TD peers across all three tasks. They produced more uninflected verbs in the elicited-production task and were less likely to be prompted to produce the synthetic past, which is a concatenating, low-frequency form of the past tense. They also over-regularized less in the context of plural nouns, and when they did, they opted for high-frequency suffixes. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: By focusing on aspects of morphosyntactic development which are unique to Welsh, we have increased existing about how verbal and nominal morphology are acquired in Welsh-speaking bi-SLI and bi-TD children. The present results point towards productivity problems for Welsh-speaking bi-SLI children who are adversely influenced by low-frequency structures and fail to over-regularize in the context of verbal and nominal concatenating morphology. From a clinical perspective, targeting synthetic past-tense forms through a prompting task may be a promising assessment and intervention tool that future studies could explore further.

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The study tested the impact of the phonological and lexical distance between a dialect of Palestinian Arabic spoken in the north of Israel (SpA) and Modern Standard Arabic (StA or MSA) on word and non-word repetition in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and in typically developing (TD) age-matched controls. Fifty kindergarten children (25 SLI, 25 TD; mean age 5;5) and fifty first grade children (25 SLI, 25 TD; mean age 6:11) were tested with a repetition task for 1-4 syllable long real words and pseudo words; Items varied systematically in whether each encoded a novel StA phoneme or not, namely a phoneme that is only used in StA but not in the spoken dialect targeted. Real words also varied in whether they were lexically novel, meaning whether the word is used only in StA, but not in SpA. SLI children were found to significantly underperform TD children on all repetition tasks indicating a general phonological memory deficit. More interesting for the current investigation is the observed strong and consistent effect of phonological novelty on word and non-word repetition in SLI and TD children, with a stronger effect observed in SLI. In contrast with phonological novelty, the effect of lexical novelty on word repetition was limited and it did not interact with group. The results are argued to reflect the role of linguistic distance in phonological memory for novel linguistic units in Arabic SLI and, hence, to support a specific Linguistic Distance Hypothesis of SLI in a diglossic setting. The implications of the findings for assessment, diagnosis and intervention with Arabic speaking children with SLI are discussed.