Computational Investigations of Multiword Chunks in Language Learning

Second-language learners rarely arrive at native proficiency in a number of linguistic domains, including morphological and syntactic processing. Previous approaches to understanding the different outcomes of first- versus second-language learning have focused on cognitive and neural factors. In contrast, we explore the possibility that children and adults may rely on different linguistic units throughout the course of language learning, with specific focus on the granularity of those units. Following recent psycholinguistic evidence for the role of multiword chunks in online language processing, we explore the hypothesis that children rely more heavily on multiword units in language learning than do adults learning a second language. To this end, we take an initial step toward using large-scale, corpus-based computational modeling as a tool for exploring the granularity of speakers' linguistic units. Employing a computational model of language learning, the Chunk-Based Learner, we compare the usefulness of chunk-based knowledge in accounting for the speech of second-language learners versus children and adults speaking their first language. Our findings suggest that while multiword units are likely to play a role in second-language learning, adults may learn less useful chunks, rely on them to a lesser extent, and arrive at them through different means than children learning a first language.     

Idiosyncratic gesture use in atypical language development,and its interaction with speech rhythm,word juncture,syntax, pragmatics and discourse: a case study

Very little is known about the use of gesture by children with developmental language disorders (DLDs). This case study of ‘Lucy’, a child aged 4;10 with a DLD, expands on what is known and in particular focuses on a type of idiosyncratic “rhythmic gesture” (RG) not previously reported. A fine-grained qualitative analysis was carried out of video recordings of Lucy in conversation with the first author. This revealed that Lucy's RG was closely integrated in complex ways with her use of other gesture types, speech rhythm, word juncture, syntax, pragmatics, discourse, visual processing and processing demands generally. Indeed, the only satisfactory way to explain it was as a partial byproduct of such interactions. These findings support the theoretical accounts of gesture which see it as just one component of a multimodal, integrated signalling system (e.g. Goldin-Meadow, S. (2000). Beyond words: The importance of gesture to researchers and learners. Child Development, 71(1), 231–239), and emergentist accounts of communication impairment which regard compensatory adaptation as integral (e.g. Perkins, M. R. (2007). Pragmatic Impairment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.).     

Primary-school-based art therapy: exploratory study of changes in children’s social,emotional and mental health

ABSTRACT

AIM: This exploratory mixed methods study aimed to inform future research by investigating if teachers and children from one primary school perceived any changes in children’s social, emotional and mental health difficulties following art therapy and if so, what the children perceived as helpful about the sessions. METHODS: The study included 45 children and 10 class teachers within one UK primary school. The researchers analysed routine questionnaires from teachers and a children's evaluation interviews, triangulating these with data from a teacher focus group. RESULTS: The findings show significant and medium effect sizes for positive teacher-rated changes in children’s overall stress, conduct, hyperactivity, and procsocial behaviour and a large effect on perceived impact of children’s difficulties on their lives. Teacher-rated emotional distress and peer problems showed small changes that did not reach statistical significance. The positive changes were corroborated by the teachers' and children's qualitative reports. Aspects of art therapy which children found particularly helpful were; making and thinking about art; expressing, thinking and learning about thoughts and feelings; and sessions being fun. CONCLUSION: The study highlighted perceived positive changes and no negative changes in children’s SEMH difficulties. However, future research is necessary to examine clinical effectiveness.

Plain-language summary

In this article we describe a research study which aimed to explore if teachers and children perceived any changes to children’s social, emotional or mental health difficulties after the children attended art therapy within their primary school. We were also interested in learning from the children if they thought anything in particular had been helpful about their art therapy sessions in order to inform future research and the development of this particular approach to art therapy.

The art therapists asked the class teachers to fill out a Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires at the beginning and end of art therapy. The class teachers also attended a focus group so we could learn more about their general observations of the children before and after attending art therapy. The art therapists also interviewed the children to learn if they perceived any changes since coming to art therapy and if so, what in particular they thought had helped bring about these changes.

We found that statistical analysis of the questionnaire scores mostly agreed with what the teachers and children said and that there was generally some positive change to the social, emotional and mental health difficulties the children had been experiencing. The teachers also let us know that some of the children still had residual problems. The children emphasised that making and thinking about art along with expressing, thinking and learning about thoughts and feelings had been particularly helpful. It was also important to the children that the sessions were fun.

In conclusion, the teachers and children in this primary school perceived art therapy as helpful to the children and that it merits further research in order to develop the approach used by the art therapists and to see if it is effective in larger research studies including more children, schools and art therapists.     

Collaboration Between Teachers and Speech and Language Therapists Working with Children with Severe Learning Disabilities (SLD): Implications for Professional Development

A questionnaire was sent to teachers and speech and language therapists who work together with children who have communication problems and severe learning disabilities. In the study the effect of the exchange of information on the collaborative working practices of these professionals and the subsequent implications for professional development is considered. This study was set up to examine whether this exchange was affected if the teachers and speech and language therapists were perceived as being ‘specialists’ in the field of SLD. The research addresses the issues of the knowledge and skills gained, the type of information exchanged and the ways in which this may affect the nature of the collaborative process.     

Communication outcome in children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury

Abstract

This article gives a brief review of investigations of speech and language impairment after paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) and describes possible effects of frontal lobe injury on non-aphasic disorders of communication. The relation between age and outcome after brain injury in children is also considered. Procedures for overcoming chronic obstacles to effective supports and services for students returning to school after TBI are described briefly. Although most children with normal development of language at the time of their injury experience generally satisfactory recovery of speech and language skills, there is considerable variation within this population. The most likely communication challenges relate to the socially skilled application of available speech and language skills, not their possession.     

Teachers' opinions about capabilities and behavior of children with epilepsy

The purpose of this study was to investigate primary school teachers' opinions or knowledge about children with epilepsy. Two hundred and sixteen teachers were involved. The results reveal that teachers do not have an accurate conception of the capabilities of children with epilepsy and that those beliefs differ from teacher to teacher. Nearly half of the teachers believe that children with epilepsy differ from healthy children in their behavior. The majority of teachers (60%) receive information on the child's disease not from the parents, but from other sources. One-third of teachers do not feel confident in their work in children with epilepsy. A great majority (91.2%) of teachers desire additional information and education about epilepsy. Primary school teachers who work with children with epilepsy have inconsistent knowledge of the capabilities and behavior of, and an inadequate way of working with, children with epilepsy. Therefore, they are eager to get more information on epilepsy. It is the duty of the medical team to offer teachers the necessary information, so that the approach to work with, and life quality of children with epilepsy can be improved. Our results are concordant with similar studies performed in various countries within the last 30 years. It is proved that epilepsy as a disease has a very similar social effect on the affected person with no regard for cultural or social background, implying that the stigma of epilepsy is still a very powerful factor in the formation of general opinions about the disease.     

Reading and spelling deficits among children attending a psychiatric day treatment program

To investigate the specific behavioural and cognitive characteristics which may account for academic deficits in children with psychiatric disorders, 50 children admitted to a day treatment and school program were assessed using behaviour questionnaires for parents and teachers, and tests assessing intelligence (WISC-R), language (CELF-R) and academic performance (Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement). The academic measures Reading Decoding, Reading Comprehension and Spelling formed the dependent variables. Behaviour and cognitive measures which distinguished the sample from normative data constituted the independent variables. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed in order to identify behaviour and cognitive measures accounting for the academic deficits. In the analyses, three measures (Digit Span, Sentence Assembly, Recalling Sentences), probably assessing overlapping cognitive/linguistic functions, accounted for a large proportion of variance for Reading Decoding (0.47), Reading Comprehension (0.63) and Spelling (0.29). None of the behaviour measures accounted for any variance of the academic variables. It is argued that linguistic dysfunction is a primary deficit which underlies problems in academic learning.     

Empirical classification of speech/language impairment in children. II. Behavioral characteristics

Behavioral symptomatology in 188 children, 5 years of age, classified according to four different speech/language profiles, is described. Information was collected from the teacher, parent, child self-report, and psychiatric interview. The results indicated that risk for psychiatric disorder, particularly ADHD, is greatest among children with general linguistic impairment. Specific deficits such as poor auditory comprehension or articulation problems were not consistently associated with behavioral disturbance. It is postulated that neurodevelopmental immaturity may be the common underlying antecedent of both linguistic impairment and psychiatric disorder.     

South African English Speech Development: Preliminary Data from Typically Developing Preschool Children in Cape Town

ABSTRACT

English is one of eleven official languages in South Africa, but there is limited information on children’s acquisition of English and other languages in this context. This paper describes speech development in 308 children aged 3;0–5;11 acquiring South African English in Cape Town. The study focused on English speech acquisition, although children were grouped by language background into monolingual, isiXhosa bilingual, Afrikaans bilingual and trilingual groups. The primary objective was to describe phonetic and phonological acquisition (percentage consonants and vowels correct (PCC and PVC); phonetic inventory and phonological processes) by children’s age and language background. As a secondary objective we described the prevalence of speech disorders in the sample using Dodd’s (2005) framework. The Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology was used to assess participants with modified scoring criteria appropriate for the context. Phonological processes and inventories were broadly comparable to normative data for English speech acquisition documented in the literature, and a progression was observed with increasing age. PCC and PVC were similar for children within age bands despite different language backgrounds. Bilingual children showed aspects of English phonological development linked to their L1, and some differences in phonological processes were observed. Approximately 9% of children (n = 28) had speech difficulties, with 75% of this group having a speech delay. The study highlights the importance of adapting speech assessments for use with populations that differ from the originally intended audience. This work contributes to knowledge of typical speech development in South Africa and in multilingual contexts more generally.     

Early speech- and language-impaired children: linguistic, literacy, and social outcomes

The aim of this study was to follow-up prospectively a cohort of preschool children originally recruited from successive referrals to speech and language therapy community clinics and to investigate their linguistic, literacy, and social outcomes at 7 to 10 years of age. Three hundred and fifty children aged 84 to 113 months (mean age 99.9mo [SD 5.4mo]) were singletons from monolingual backgrounds where there was concern about their speech and language development. Children who had severe learning difficulties, autism, oromotor deficits, dysfluency, or dysphonia were excluded. Altogether 196 (56%), 134 males and 62 females, were seen at follow-up. A control group of children who had never been referred for speech and language therapy, 57% of whom were males, was also recruited (n=94; mean age 104.4mo [SD 6.8mo]). All children were assessed on standardized measures of speech, language, and literacy. Teachers and parents completed questionnaires on educational and social outcomes. In total, 139 children in the cohort were within the normal range on standardized language assessments. About 30% of the original cohort of children continue to struggle with language, literacy, and social difficulties. The study demonstrates the long-term nature of language impairment and reinforces the need for awareness among professionals in child development and education of the ongoing needs of this population of children.     

Experiences of school teachers on participation in a brief school mental health program: a qualitative inquiry

Background: School mental health programs (SMHPs) aim to strengthen school teachers’ understanding about issues related to child and adolescent mental health and their management. Many studies have looked at outcomes of such programs quantitatively. However, there is a lack of studies on the qualitative effects of SMHPs. With this in mind, the aim was to explore and evaluate the experiences of school teachers in a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project who participated in a brief SMHP in the suburbs of Bangalore City in India. Materials and methods: Twenty-two school teachers of a CSR project participated in this brief one-day SMHP. The program aimed to orient the teachers about common child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. Data were collected through a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire and by narrative inquiry. The data analysis adopted a general inductive approach. Results: From the qualitative data analysis, five overarching themes have emerged: (i) positive experience of being participants in the program; (ii) lack of knowledge on school mental health issues; (iii) enriched understanding and new learning; (iv) expansion of SMHP to other schools; (v) suggestions for prospective SMHP. Conclusion: The positive experiences and increased knowledge of the participants supports conducting similar programs with systematic methods for people working closely with school children.     

Is the Linguistic Content of Speech Less Salient than its Perceptual Features in Autism?

Open-ended tasks are rarely used to investigate cognition in autism. No known studies have directly examined whether increased attention to the perceptual level of speech in autism might contribute to a reduced tendency to process language meaningfully. The present study investigated linguistic versus perceptual speech processing preferences. Children with autism and controls were tested on a quasi-open-format paradigm, in which speech stimuli contained competing linguistic and perceptual information, and could be processed at either level. Relative to controls, children with autism exhibited superior perceptual processing of speech. However, whilst their tendency to preferentially process linguistic rather than perceptual information was weaker than that of controls, it was nevertheless their primary processing mode. Implications for language acquisition in autism are discussed.     

Immature Vocalizations Simplify the Speech of Tseltal Mayan and U.S. Caregivers

What is the function of immature vocalizing in early learning environments? Previous work on infants in the United States indicates that prelinguistic vocalizations elicit caregiver speech which is simplified in its linguistic structure. However, there is substantial cross-cultural variation in the extent to which children's vocalizations elicit responses from caregivers. In the current study, we ask whether children's vocalizations elicit similar changes in their immediate caregivers’ speech structure across two cultural sites with differing perspectives on how to interact with infants and young children. Here, we compare Tseltal Mayan and U.S. caregivers’ verbal responses to their children's vocalizations. Similar to findings from U.S. dyads, we found that children from the Tseltal community regulate the statistical structure of caregivers’ speech simply by vocalizing. Following the interaction burst hypothesis, where clusters of child-adult contingent response alternations facilitate learning from limited input, we reveal a stable source of information that may facilitate language learning within ongoing interaction.     

Communicative behavior of adults with an autistic four-year-old boy and his nonhandicapped twin brother

Sixteen female preschool teachers were videotaped playing in dyads with a nonverbal, socially unresponsive autistic 4-year-old boy and his nonhandicapped fraternal twin brother. Eight adults were informed that the autistic child had a language disability and did not talk or understand much language; eight adults were not informed about any differences between the children. Language to the autistic child was simpler, more concrete, and more often accompanied by gestures than language to his brother for both groups of subjects. Informed teachers made greater speech modifications to the autistic child and were more successful at keeping him on-task than uninformed adults. The theoretical and practical implications of communicative adjustments to children with language and social impairments are discussed.A portion of this paper was submitted as a master's colloquim paper to the University of Minnesota by the second author and presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Los Angeles, April 1981. The research was supported by a Graduate Research Grant to the first author and by the Center for Research in Human Learning.     

Promoting lexical learning in the speech and language therapy of children with cochlear implants

This study examines lexical intervention sessions in speech and language therapy for children with cochlear implants (CIs). Particular focus is on the therapist’s professional practices in doing the therapy. The participants in this study are three congenitally deaf children with CIs together with their speech and language therapist. The video recorded therapy sessions of these children are studied using conversation analysis. The analysis reveals the ways in which the speech and language therapist formulates her speaking turns to support the children’s lexical learning in task interaction. The therapist’s multimodal practices, for example linguistic and acoustic highlighting, focus both on the lexical meaning and the phonological form of the words. Using these means, the therapist expands the child’s lexical networks, specifies and corrects the meaning of the target words, and models the correct phonological form of the words. The findings of this study are useful in providing information for clinicians and speech and language therapy students working with children who have CIs as well as for the children’s parents.     

Neural initialization of audiovisual integration in prereaders at varying risk for developmental dyslexia

Learning letter‐speech sound correspondences is a major step in reading acquisition and is severely impaired in children with dyslexia. Up to now, it remains largely unknown how quickly neural networks adopt specific functions during audiovisual integration of linguistic information when prereading children learn letter‐speech sound correspondences. Here, we simulated the process of learning letter‐speech sound correspondences in 20 prereading children (6.13–7.17 years) at varying risk for dyslexia by training artificial letter‐speech sound correspondences within a single experimental session. Subsequently, we acquired simultaneously event‐related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans during implicit audiovisual presentation of trained and untrained pairs. Audiovisual integration of trained pairs correlated with individual learning rates in right superior temporal, left inferior temporal, and bilateral parietal areas and with phonological awareness in left temporal areas. In correspondence, a differential left‐lateralized parietooccipitotemporal ERP at 400 ms for trained pairs correlated with learning achievement and familial risk. Finally, a late (650 ms) posterior negativity indicating audiovisual congruency of trained pairs was associated with increased fMRI activation in the left occipital cortex. Taken together, a short (<30 min) letter‐speech sound training initializes audiovisual integration in neural systems that are responsible for processing linguistic information in proficient readers. To conclude, the ability to learn grapheme‐phoneme correspondences, the familial history of reading disability, and phonological awareness of prereading children account for the degree of audiovisual integration in a distributed brain network. Such findings on emerging linguistic audiovisual integration could allow for distinguishing between children with typical and atypical reading development. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1038–1055, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Familiarity with,knowledge of,and attitudes toward epilepsy among teachers in Korean elementary schools

We investigated familiarity with, knowledge of, and attitudes toward epilepsy among teachers in elementary schools in Korea, where there is profound prejudice against epilepsy. Most of the teachers thought that epilepsy is a genetic disease. They agreed that children with epilepsy (CWE) should attend regular classes (although with some restriction of school activities) because their academic achievement would be comparable to that of children without epilepsy. However, half of the teachers opposed having CWE in their own classes because they feared a child having a seizure during class and they felt they lacked knowledge of first-aid for seizures. Those teachers who had inaccurate clinical knowledge of epilepsy also demonstrated negative attitudes toward the marriage and employment of persons with epilepsy. We conclude that information about epilepsy should be included in teacher training programs so as to increase their level of knowledge of epilepsy and correct prejudices against epilepsy.     

Development and evaluation of an ADHD teacher group training--a pilot study

In the introduction is shown that no controlled studies of teacher training programs in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have been published in German research literature as yet in spite of high demand for educational inservice training. The aim of the present study is the development and evaluation of a two-step ADHD teacher group training. In step 1 a group training (12 h) was performed with 18 advisory teachers. The curriculum included ADHD theory, contingency management and "antecedent" TEACCH-oriented school-based interventions (Schopler 1997; Bregman and Gerdtz 1997). In step 2 then a subsample of 6 advisory teachers supervised 10 classroom teachers of 11 primary school students (mean age 8.6 yrs.) with ADHD symptoms, who were assigned to two experimental groups. The classroom teachers of the Standard Treatment Group (n=5 students) received the basic module "ADHD theory and school-based interventions" (6 h), the teachers of the Intensive Treatment Group (n=6 students) received the same basic module plus the module "Student-related training in Contingency Management" (in total 14h). The group training process was evaluated by teacher satisfaction ratings and knowledge test. The training effect on student behavior was evaluated by teacher ratings within a two-group-pre-post-follow-up design. The main results are: (a) The group training process was mostly evaluated favorably; knowledge increased significantly; (b) ADHD symptoms were reduced significantly in both treatment groups, with stronger and sustained improvement of problem behaviors and adaptive functioning in the Intensive Treatment Group. These findings provide some consistent evidence, that classroom behaviors of children with ADHD symptoms can be improved substantially by a teacher mediator training approach.     

Towards School Mental Health in Nigeria: Baseline Knowledge and Attitudes of Elementary School Teachers

There is a shortage of child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) professionals all over the world, and this shortage is especially critical in most parts of the developing world. Schools have been identified as ideal settings to reach needy children in the community, and training teachers in CAMH issues can help improve early identification and appropriate referrals of children with mental health problems. As part of a needs assessment for developing a training programme, selected Nigerian elementary school teachers were asked to complete confidential questionnaires to determine their perceptions of mental health problems in school children. Teachers indicated that they had no previous CAMH training. Baseline assessments revealed that teachers' knowledge of CAMH was deficient, and attitudes to children with mental health problems revealed intolerance. Incorporation of CAMH care into teacher education curricula is a critical next step towards integrating school teachers as mental health collaborators in school mental health programmes in Nigeria.     

Selective mutism among second-graders in elementary school

Objective: This study assessed the prevalence of selective mutism among second graders in elementary school, and examined related issues such as the situations in which the children refuse to speak, their performance level at school, and some temperamental/behavioural characteristics of these children. Method: A definition of selective mutism (according to the DSM- III-R) was sent to all second grade teachers in the study area, asking them if there were any children with these symptoms in their class. If a positive answer, the teacher was asked to fill in a questionnaire concerning the child. Results: The prevalence rate for selective mutism was found to be 2%, with girls outnumbering boys. Selective mutism had been in progress more than a year in most cases. Most often, the children refused to speak to the teacher (58%), and one-fifth spoke to nobody at school. One-third of the mute children were performing at a lower level than average. Fewer of these children were reluctant to speak to the teacher than were mute children with an average or higher than average performance level. The children were characterized as shy, withdrawn and serious, with only some being hyperactive or aggressive. About one third of the children had had contact with health services. Received: 10 May 1996 Accepted: 17 April 1997