RESUMEN
Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) have been the subject of extensive research especially with respect to the connection between them. However, the manifestation of these disorders in adolescence has not been thoroughly investigated. The objective of the present study was to compare the intelligence scores and the reading, oral and written language skills of Greek adolescents with SLI and Greek adolescents with SLD, as assessed during their psycho-educational evaluation, in order to clear the path for diagnosis and intervention. 124 Greek adolescents diagnosed with Specific Learning Disabilities and 76 Greek adolescents diagnosed with Specific Language Impairment aged from 11 to 16 years took part in the study. All participants were assessed in reading, oral language and written language skills and took part in IQ testing. Independent samples t-test, chi-square test, odds ratios and their 95 percent confidence intervals were implemented to determine statistically significant differences. Analyses revealed differences in IQ scores and some differences in the skills assessed, thus indicating that SLI adolescents exhibited more difficulties across most of the basic academic skills, whereas SLD adolescents' difficulties confined to the affected written language skills. Specifically, the observed difference was statistically significant for the total and verbal IQ score, and WISC-III scores also disclosed a significant difference for the similarities and information defisub- tests. Regarding reading skills, SLI adolescents were 4.9 times more likely to exhibit line skipping, 5.8 times more likely to exhibit hesitations, 3.2 times more likely to exhibit repetitions of syllables/words/ phrases, and 8.5 times more likely to exhibit non-acknowledgement of punctuation. Regarding reading comprehension, adolescents with SLI were more likely to have difficulty in retrieving simple information questions, making inferences, and giving titles. Adolescents with SLI were also more likely to have difficulties in story reproduction, giving synonyms/opposites, oral sentence reproduction and auditory oral word reproduction. In the area of written language skills, SLI adolescents were more likely to have poor handwriting, poor content, poor structure, and poor use of punctuation. In adolescence, Specific Language Impairment can be a different manifestation of an ongoing language disorder, which finally appears as a different type of Specific Learning Disability, but with a more generalized nature of learning difficulties. This finding should be interpreted in terms of the importance of differential diagnosis, especially during the challenging period of adolescence.
Asunto(s)
Pruebas de Inteligencia/estadística & datos numéricos , Pruebas del Lenguaje/estadística & datos numéricos , Discapacidades para el Aprendizaje , Lectura , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje , Habla , Adolescente , Niño , Diagnóstico Diferencial , Femenino , Grecia/epidemiología , Humanos , Discapacidades para el Aprendizaje/diagnóstico , Discapacidades para el Aprendizaje/epidemiología , Discapacidades para el Aprendizaje/psicología , Masculino , Memoria a Corto Plazo , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/diagnóstico , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/epidemiología , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicologíaRESUMEN
Purpose This study extends the research on narrative intervention by evaluating the effect of a standard treatment protocol, Story Champs (Petersen & Spencer, 2012), on personal narrative generations of school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method Four second-grade, 8- to 9-year-old boys with SLI participated in this multiple baseline across behaviors, single-case design study that was repeated across participants. Each one-on-one intervention session involved eight steps across two intervention segments: story retell and personal story generation. The interventionist provided systematic scaffolding (visual and verbal supports) that was faded within each session. Three individualized story grammar elements per participant were targeted sequentially across the weeks of intervention based on each participant's needs identified in baseline. The dependent variable probe (personal narrative generation) was administered at the beginning of each twice-weekly session, and individualized story grammar elements were scored on a 4-point rubric (dependent variable). Results In this single-case research design study, a functional relation was evaluated for each participant (i.e., replication of an effect across three story grammar elements). A functional relation between Story Champs intervention and the dependent variable was observed for two participants. Conclusion Results provide preliminary evidence for the efficacy of individually administered Story Champs intervention for children with SLI.
Asunto(s)
Terapia del Lenguaje/métodos , Narración , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/terapia , Niño , Humanos , Pruebas del Lenguaje , Masculino , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/diagnóstico , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicología , Resultado del TratamientoRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Problems with communication and language are among the main characteristics of both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The main objective of the present study was to analyze whether the two disorders have similar formal language profiles. METHOD: The study involved three groups of 20 students each, divided into ASD, SLI, and Control, of similar ages and IQ. The CELF-4 standardized test was administered to assess their language skills. RESULTS: No significant differences in language were found between the SLI and ASD groups, with no effect sizes. Differences were observed between the SLI and ASD groups when they were compared separately with the Control group, with a large effect size. CONCLUSIONS: There is an overlap in the linguistic profiles of children with SLI and children with ASD. Similarity is thus confirmed in comprehensive and expressive language, as well as in morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic production.
Asunto(s)
Trastorno del Espectro Autista/psicología , Pruebas del Lenguaje , Lenguaje , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicología , Análisis de Varianza , Estudios de Casos y Controles , Niño , Humanos , Pruebas de Inteligencia , Fenotipo , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/diagnósticoRESUMEN
Purpose The purpose of this study was to delineate differences between children with specific language impairment (SLI), typical age-matched (TAM) children, and typical younger (TY) children in learning and mastering an undisclosed artificial morphological rule (AMR) through exposure and usage. Method Twenty-six participants (eight 10-year-old children with SLI, 8 TAM children, and ten 8-year-old TY children) were trained to master an AMR across multiple training sessions. The AMR required a phonological transformation of verbs depending on a semantic distinction: whether the preceding noun was animate or inanimate. All participants practiced the application of the AMR to repeated and new (generalization) items, via judgment and production tasks. Results The children with SLI derived significantly less benefit from practice than their peers in learning most aspects of the AMR, even exhibiting smaller gains compared to the TY group in some aspects. Children with SLI benefited less than TAM and even TY children from training to judge and produce repeated items of the AMR. Nevertheless, despite a significant disadvantage in baseline performance, the rate at which they mastered the task-specific phonological regularities was as robust as that of their peers. On the other hand, like 8-year-olds, only half of the SLI group succeeded in uncovering the nature of the AMR and, consequently, in generalizing it to new items. Conclusions Children with SLI were able to learn language aspects that rely on implicit, procedural learning, but experienced difficulties in learning aspects that relied on the explicit uncovering of the semantic principle of the AMR. The results suggest that some of the difficulties experienced by children with SLI when learning a complex language regularity cannot be accounted for by a broad, language-related, procedural memory disability. Rather, a deficit-perhaps a developmental delay in the ability to recruit and solve language problems and establish explicit knowledge regarding a language task-can better explain their difficulties in language learning.
Asunto(s)
Lenguaje Infantil , Solución de Problemas , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicología , Aprendizaje Verbal , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Fonética , SemánticaRESUMEN
Purpose This study examined the relationship between language and planning, a higher order executive function skill, in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing (TD) children. We hypothesized differences between groups in planning performance and in the role of verbal mediation during planning. Method Thirty-one children with SLI and 50 TD age-matched peers (8-12 years) participated in the study. We assessed language ability via a standardized language measure and planning via a dual-task Tower of London paradigm with 3 conditions: no secondary task (baseline), articulatory suppression secondary task (disrupted verbal mediation), and motor suppression secondary task (control for secondary task demand). Results We found similar overall accuracy between children with SLI and TD peers on the Tower of London. Children with SLI executed trials more slowly at baseline than TD peers but not under articulatory suppression, and children with SLI spent less time planning than TD children at baseline and under articulatory suppression. There was a significant interaction among group, language ability, and planning time under articulatory suppression. Children with SLI who had relatively better language ability spent less time planning than children with SLI who had poorer language ability when verbal mediation was disrupted. This pattern was reversed for TD children. Conclusions This study provides evidence for a relationship between language and planning, yet this relationship differed between children with SLI compared to TD peers. Findings suggest that children with SLI use nonlinguistic perceptual strategies to a greater degree than verbal strategies on visuospatial planning tasks and that intervention might address strategy use for planning.
Asunto(s)
Función Ejecutiva , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicología , Conducta Verbal , Niño , Lenguaje Infantil , Femenino , Humanos , Pruebas del Lenguaje , Masculino , Análisis y Desempeño de TareasRESUMEN
Purpose Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are more likely than children with typical language (TL) to exhibit difficulties in word-level spelling accuracy. More research is needed to elucidate the contribution of linguistic knowledge to word-level spelling accuracy in this population. The purpose of this study was to explore the contributions of linguistic knowledge to spelling accuracy in a group of 2nd- to 4th-grade children with SLI and a group of 2nd- to 4th-grade children with TL. Method Participants were 32 children with SLI and 32 children with TL in Grades 2 through 4. Five areas of linguistic knowledge were assessed: phonological awareness, morphological knowledge, orthographic pattern knowledge, mental grapheme representation knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge. Mixed-effects logistic regression models were utilized to address the research aim. Results Mental grapheme representation knowledge was selected as a significant predictor in both models; however, phonological awareness was the only additional significant predictor in the model for children with SLI, whereas morphological knowledge was the only other significant predictor in the model for children with TL. Orthographic pattern knowledge and vocabulary knowledge were not significant for either group. Conclusions The results suggest that spelling instruction and intervention for children with SLI should take linguistic knowledge into account and explicitly relate linguistic knowledge to spelling. Additionally, future research should consider if instructional targets for children with SLI should differ from targets for children with TL and if these findings represent a delay or a disorder in spelling acquisition for children with SLI.
Asunto(s)
Conducta Infantil , Lenguaje Infantil , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicología , Factores de Edad , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Fonética , Lectura , Semántica , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/diagnóstico , VocabularioRESUMEN
Purpose This study investigated the nature of the association of lexical-grammatical abilities within and across languages in Latino dual language learners (DLLs) with specific language impairment (SLI) using language-specific and bilingual measures. Method Seventy-four Spanish/English-speaking preschoolers with SLI from preschools serving low-income households participated in the study. Participants had stronger skills in Spanish (first language [L1]) and were in the initial stages of learning English (second language [L2]). The children's lexical, semantic, and grammar abilities were assessed using normative and researcher-developed tools in English and Spanish. Hierarchical linear regressions of cross-sectional data were conducted using measures of sentence repetition tasks, language-specific vocabulary, and conceptual bilingual lexical and semantic abilities in Spanish and English. Results Results indicate that language-specific vocabulary abilities support the development of grammar in L1 and L2 in this population. L1 vocabulary also contributes to L2 grammar above and beyond the contribution of L2 vocabulary skills. However, the cross-linguistic association between vocabulary in L2 and grammar skills in the stronger or more proficient language (L1) is not observed. In addition, conceptual vocabulary significantly supported grammar in L2, whereas bilingual semantic skills supported L1 grammar. Conclusions Our findings reveal that the same language-specific vocabulary abilities drive grammar development in L1 and L2 in DLLs with SLI. In the early stages of L2 acquisition, vocabulary skills in L1 also seem to contribute to grammar skills in L2 in this population. Thus, it is critical to support vocabulary development in both L1 and L2 in DLLs with SLI, particularly in the beginning stages of L2 acquisition. Clinical and educational implications are discussed.
Asunto(s)
Lenguaje Infantil , Hispánicos o Latinos/psicología , Multilingüismo , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicología , Vocabulario , Preescolar , Estudios Transversales , Femenino , Humanos , Pruebas del Lenguaje , Modelos Lineales , Lingüística , Masculino , Pobreza/psicología , SemánticaRESUMEN
The purpose of the current study was to examine the efficacy of e-book reading to promoting word learning among kindergarteners with specific language impairment (SLI) compared to those with typical language development (TLD). We also tested the contribution of three types of dictionary support provided in the e-book. All dictionary words were given a pictorial and auditory support while a third of them were given a short definition, a third were defined using the story content, and a third were given a combined definition. Twenty kindergarteners with SLI and 20 with TLD were read the e-book with dictionary support 5 times. Each child was exposed to the three types of dictionary support in each e-book reading. Receptive knowledge, word definitions and use of target words were measured pre and post intervention. A significant improvement in new word learning following the e-book reading was found in the children's receptive knowledge, word definitions and use of target words. Nonetheless, children with TLD progressed in words use more than children with SLI. The two groups progressed to a greater extent in explaining new words following the provision of a dictionary definition and following story context definition. Children with SLI progressed in words' use following the definition of a dictionary. The combined definition was especially efficient for children in the two groups with had a low initial level of using new words. Combined definition was also efficient for explaining new words for TLD children with initially high language level. We conclude that children with SLI like children with TLD can benefit from ebook reading and can learn new words at different levels when the e-book is well designed in assisting children with definitions of difficult words. .
Asunto(s)
Libros , Lectura , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/fisiopatología , Aprendizaje Verbal/fisiología , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Desarrollo del Lenguaje , Pruebas del Lenguaje/estadística & datos numéricos , Masculino , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicologíaRESUMEN
Typically, young children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI; also called Developmental language disorder, DLD) have been found to show weakness in narrative development, and such weakness has been judged to be unlikely to resolve over time. However, developmental outcomes for adolescents with a prior SLI diagnosis have not been thoroughly studied. In particular, studies on the evaluative aspects of narratives of such persons are almost non-existent. Here we examine the question whether narrative evaluation of adolescents formerly diagnosed with SLI remains problematic into adolescence or comes to resemble more typical narrative performance. We compare the use of evaluative expressions in the narratives of 19 adolescents diagnosed with SLI against 19 typically language developing (TLD) peers. Spoken narratives by the SLI group (Mean age = 14.3; SD = 0.64) and TLD group (Mean age = 14.5; SD = 0.84) using the wordless picture storybook "Frog, where are you?" ( https://childes.talkbank.org/access/Clinical-MOR/Conti/Conti4.html ) were analysed. Each narrative was coded for evaluative clauses, types of evaluative devices (frames of mind, character speech, hedges, negatives, and causal connectives), as well as evaluative perspectives (global vs. local). Although the quantitative analysis did not reveal any significant differences between the two groups, the qualitative analysis showed certain notable strengths in the narrative skills of the focal group of SLI adolescents. Results suggest that adolescents with a history of SLI may approximate TLD narrative skill in evaluating their own narratives, but additional work with more sensitive measures applied at intervals are needed to illuminate developmental pathways of narrative production and of evaluative capacities in adolescents formerly diagnosed with SLI.
Asunto(s)
Narración , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/terapia , Adolescente , Estudios de Casos y Controles , Emociones , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicologíaRESUMEN
Purpose This study investigated attentional shifting in preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) compared to their typically developing peers. Children's attentional shifting capacity was assessed by varying attentional demands. Method Twenty-five preschool children with SLI and 25 age-matched, typically developing controls participated. A behavioral task measuring attentional shifting within and across multiple dimensions (auditory, linguistic, and visual) was employed. Demands on attentional shifting were increased based on input dimension (low load: staying within dimension; medium load: shifting between 2 dimensions; and high load: shifting among 3 dimensions). Results Compared to controls, the group with SLI made more erroneous responses and exhibited longer response times. Although both groups' error rates were similarly affected by shifting compared to nonshifting trials, their response speed was not. The group with SLI exhibited a larger comparative decrement to their response speed in the high-attentional load condition. Discussion When demands on attentional shifting increase, children with SLI struggle to shift their attention as efficiently to changing stimuli as their unimpaired peers. Potential implications for the assessment and treatment of this population are discussed.
Asunto(s)
Atención , Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje/psicología , Estimulación Acústica , Estudios de Casos y Controles , Preescolar , Cognición/fisiología , Discriminación en Psicología/fisiología , Femenino , Audición/fisiología , Humanos , Lenguaje , Pruebas del Lenguaje , Masculino , Nombres , Estimulación Luminosa , Habla/fisiología , VocabularioRESUMEN
Purpose The study aims to test whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) show weaknesses in word retrieval and cognitive control and to find out whether impairments in the 2 domains are associated. Method Thirty-one children with SLI (age: M = 8;11 years;months, SD = 1;1) and 31 age- and IQ-matched typically developing children completed 2 word retrieval tasks and 3 cognitive control tasks. Word retrieval was assessed with a fluency task and a rapid automatized naming (RAN) task, whereas cognitive control was measured with a backward digit span, an n-back task, and a Stroop task. Results We found weaker performance in the SLI group than in the typically developing group in all the fluency conditions and in the size-color-shape RAN as well as on the backward digit span and n-back tasks. Performance on the letter fluency task was associated with backward digit span, whereas size-color-shape RAN performance was associated with backward digit span and n-back scores. Testing the relative contribution of the 3 cognitive control tasks together with verbal short-term memory span and vocabulary size showed that performance on both word retrieval tasks was best explained by nonword repetition and backward digit span measures. Conclusions These results suggest that both word retrieval and cognitive control are impaired in SLI and weaker cognitive control may contribute to word retrieval problems, although weaker short-term memory also has a crucial contribution to word retrieval difficulties during these tasks. If further research confirms this association with cognitive control, training of this ability should be included in the therapy of at least some children with SLI.