A morpho-phonological Past Tense processing as a clinical marker in SLI EFL learners

ABSTRACT

The clinical marker in specific language impairment (SLI) population is the subject of considerable debate. SLI is the one of the frequently diagnosed atypical language phenomena found among early school-age children (McArthur et al., 2000; Spear-Swerling, 2006). For example, children with SLI have difficulty applying the Past Tense rule to verbs, even though they can accurately repeat phonologically similar forms of the words (Hoeffner & McClelland, 1993). In this study, I discuss the grammatical deficits in the SLI population by studying the generation of both ‘regular’ and ‘irregular’ English Past Tense forms and explain how the rates of the correct use of the ‘irregular’ versus ‘regular’ form may be considered as a clinical SLI marker. This study defines the differences in the grammatical sensitivity in the EFL learners and provides additional essential insight into SLI, in general, and its identification in the EFL learners, in particular.     

Non-word repetition: The relationship between weak syllables and the omission of grammatical morphemes in children with specific language impairment

Non-word (NW) repetition in children with specific language impairment (SLI) is a skill related to, but genetically separate from, grammatical ability. Prosodic structure of the syllables may bridge the gap between these two abilities. A NW repetition task was compared in a group of 15 preschool Italian children with SLI (ranged in age from 3;11 to 5;8) and 15 younger typically developing children (aged from 2;11 to 3;7) matched for mean length of utterance (TD-MLU). Grammatical ability was tested through a probe for direct-object clitic pronouns which is one of the most useful clinical markers in the Italian language. In NW repetition, children with SLI deleted more syllables than the TD-MLU children. The omission of weak syllables in a pre-stress position was a significant predictor of the omission of clitic pronouns. The present study shows that the link between grammar and NW is due to a prosodic characteristic that is more universally challenging in children with SLI.     

Production of infinitival complements by children with specific language impairment

The purpose of this study was to explore the production of infinitival complements by children with specific language impairment (SLI) as compared with mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched children in an effort to clarify inconsistencies in the literature. Spontaneous language samples were analysed for infinitival complements (reduced infinitives and true infinitives). Participants included children with SLI (n?=?19; 5;2-7;10) and children with typical language (n?=?19; MLU; 3;0-5;9). There was no group difference in the number of infinitival complements and the number of different complement-taking verbs. However, the SLI group produced more true infinitives than the MLU group. The SLI group was less accurate than the MLU group on inclusion of obligatory infinitival to, with 80.21% accuracy (SD = 29.42) and 99.81% accuracy (SD = 0.85), respectively. As a group, children with SLI did not have problems with the clausal structure of infinitives. However, they had difficulty with the specific grammatical requirement of infinitival clauses, that is, the inclusion of the infinitival marker.     

The production of novel root compounds in children with specific language impairment

This study examined ten children with specific language impairment (SLI), 16 normally developing children, and ten adults for the production of novel root compounds. The participants were asked to invent names for pictures of 24 pairs of contrasting, novel objects. For half of the pictures, the context supported a grammatical novel root compound, 16 contexts supported only an ungrammatical compound, and eight contexts supported a marginally grammatical compound. All participants used novel root compounds in grammatical contexts and relatively few compounds in ungrammatical contexts. The children with SLI used the information presented in the experimental probes less frequently than the normal controls. In addition, the children with SLI made more word-order errors in their production of novel compounds. However, they were as likely as their normal counterparts to resist the use of regular plural markers within compounds. The results of this study support a difficulty associated with processing linguistic information on the part of the children with SLI.     

The production of novel root compounds in children with specific language impairment

This study examined ten children with specific language impairment (SLI), 16 normally developing children, and ten adults for the production of novel root compounds. The participants were asked to invent names for pictures of 24 pairs of contrasting, novel objects. For half of the pictures, the context supported a grammatical novel root compound, 16 contexts supported only an ungrammatical compound, and eight contexts supported a marginally grammatical compound. All participants used novel root compounds in grammatical contexts and relatively few compounds in ungrammatical contexts. The children with SLI used the information presented in the experimental probes less frequently than the normal controls. In addition, the children with SLI made more word‐order errors in their production of novel compounds. However, they were as likely as their normal counterparts to resist the use of regular plural markers within compounds. The results of this study support a difficulty associated with processing linguistic information on the part of the children with SLI.     

The development of writing skills in 4-year-old children with and without specific language impairment

ABSTRACT

Research shows that many preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulty acquiring literacy skills including phonological awareness, print concepts, and alphabet knowledge. Limited research suggests that preschool children with SLI also have difficulty with emergent writing tasks such as name writing and word writing. In typically developing children, research indicates that emergent writing skills are acquired in a developmental sequence: (1) linearity, (2) segmentation, (3) simple characters, (4) left-right orientation, (5) complex characters, (6) random letters, and (7) invented spelling. This study compared the emergent writing skills of 4-year-old children with SLI (n = 22) to their age- and gender-matched peers (n = 22). Results indicated that children with SLI demonstrate difficulty with a variety of writing tasks, including letter writing, name writing, word writing, and sentence writing when compared to their typically-developing peers. Children with SLI followed the same developmental sequence in acquiring writing skills as their typically-developing peers.     

The influence of the frequency of functional markers on repetitive imitation of syntactic constructions in children with specific language impairment,from their own language productions

Several studies provide considerable insight into the role that frequency plays in language development. However, no study has investigated the direct relationship between frequency and grammatical acquisition in children with specific language impairment (SLI). In this study, we focus specifically on the influence of the frequency of functional words on the ability of children with SLI to produce grammatical constructions based on the children's own previous production but containing previously unused functional words. To test our hypothesis, the children were administered an imitative repetition task, tailored to their current level of language development. Results showed that children with SLI performed more poorly than language-matched children with typical language development. The difference between the two groups was more marked when the previously unused functional words were infrequent rather than frequent. Consequently, it would seem that the token frequency of functional words influences grammatical acquisition in children with SLI. The results and their implications for linguistic theories are discussed.     

On-line processing and comprehension of direct object pronoun sentences in Spanish-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment

Eleven native Spanish-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) (8;3–10;11) and 11 typically developing children (8;7–10;8) received a comprehensive psycholinguistic evaluation. Participants listened to either Direct Object (DO) pronoun sentences or filler sentences without any pronoun, and they decided whether a picture on the screen (depicting the antecedent, another noun in the sentence, or an unrelated object) was ‘alive’. They answered comprehension questions about pronoun sentences. Children with SLI showed significantly poorer comprehension of DO pronoun sentences when answering comprehension questions than children with Typical Language Development (TLD). This poor pronoun sentence understanding correlated significantly with poor auditory sentence completion, non-word repetition task and expressive vocabulary skills. Children with SLI were significantly slower in the animacy decisions than children with TLD across all pronoun and filler sentence conditions. Both groups exhibited high accuracy in the animacy decisions for any conditions. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Neurophysiological indexes of speech processing deficits in children with specific language impairment

We used neurophysiological and behavioral measures to examine whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) have deficits in automatic processing of brief, phonetically similar vowels, and whether attention plays a role in such deficits. The neurophysiological measure mismatch negativity (MMN) was used as an index of discrimination in two tasks; one in which children ignored the auditory stimuli and watched a silent video and a second in which they attended to the auditory modality. Children with SLI showed good behavioral discrimination, but significantly poorer behavioral identification of the brief vowels than the children with typical language development (TLD). For the TLD children, two neurophysiological measures (MMN and a later negativity, LN) indexed discrimination of the vowels in both tasks. In contrast, only the LN was elicited in either task for the SLI group. We did not see a direct correspondence between the absence of MMN and poor behavioral performance in the children with SLI. This pattern of findings indicates that children with SLI have speech perception deficiencies, although the underlying cause may vary.     

Grammaticality and complexity of sentences in monolingual Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment

This study examined grammaticality and complexity of sentences in monolingual Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). A group of SLI children (n = 13), mean age 6, was compared to a control group (CCG) matched by age (n = 11), and a younger control group (LCG) with similar linguistic development (n = 13). Grammaticality and complexity of sentences were analysed including identification and counting of: a) simple and complex sentences, b) grammatical and ungrammatical sentences, and c) types of grammatical errors. SLI children were found to be more ungrammatical than CCG in both simple and complex sentences. Considering the number of errors in all sentences produced, SLI children commit more errors than both control groups. Complexity of sentences did not show statistical differences among groups. Future research should explore in further detail the types of errors made by monolingual Spanish-speaking SLI children.     

Neurophysiological indices of attention to speech in children with specific language impairment.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to determine whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) differed from children with typical language development (TLD) in their allocation of attention to speech sounds. METHODS: Event-related potentials were recorded to non-target speech sounds in two tasks (passive-watch a video and attend to target tones among speech sounds) in two experiments, one using 50-ms duration vowels and the second using 250-ms vowels. The difference in ERPs across tasks was examined in the latency range of the early negative difference wave (Nd) found in adults. Analyses of the data using selected superior and inferior sites were compared to those using electrical field power (i.e., global field power or GFP). The topography of the ERP at the maximum GFP was also examined. RESULTS: A negative difference, comparable to the adult Nd, was observed in the attend compared to the passive task for both types of analysis, suggesting allocation of attentional resources to processing the speech stimuli in the attend task. Children with TLD also showed greater negativity than those with SLI in the passive task for the long vowels, suggesting that they allocated more attentional resources to processing the speech in this task than the SLI group. This effect was only significant using the GFP analysis and was seen as smaller GFP for the TLD than SLI group. The SLI group also showed significantly later latency than the TLD group in reaching the maximum GFP. In addition, a significantly greater proportion of children with SLI compared to those with typical language showed left-greater-than-right frontocentral amplitude at the latency determined from each child's maximum GFP peak. CONCLUSIONS: Children generally showed greater attention to speech sounds when attention is directed to the auditory modality compared to the visual modality. However, children with TLD, unlike SLI, also appear to devote some attentional resources to speech even in a task in which they are instructed to attend to visual information and ignore the speech. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings suggest that children with SLI have limited attentional resources, that they are poorer at dividing attention, or that they are less automatic in allocating resources to speech compared to children with typically developing language skills.     

Context effects on verb production in specific language impairment (SLI): Confrontation naming versus connected speech

A handful of studies have shown that verbs are more vulnerable than nouns to retrieval deficits on picture-based naming tasks for children with specific language impairment (SLI). The aim of this study was to examine if the disproportionate verb as opposed to noun production deficit reported for naming is also found in connected speech. Sixteen children participated in the study: eight children diagnosed with SLI (mean age: 6:3 years) and eight typically language developing (TLD, mean age: 5:9 years) controls. Verb and noun production was measured in connected speech and compared to picture confrontation naming. Both groups of children showed a significant difficulty naming verbs compared to nouns. In contrast, they did not differ on the total number of both verb tokens and verb types produced in connected speech. The findings indicate that the previously reported verb retrieval difficulties in SLI are a product of the confrontation naming task demands rather than a true verb deficit.     

Analogical reasoning in children with specific language impairment: Evidence from a scene analogy task

ABSTRACT

Analogical reasoning is a human ability that maps systems of relations. It develops along with relational knowledge, working memory and executive functions such as inhibition. It also maintains a mutual influence on language development. Some authors have taken a greater interest in the analogical reasoning ability of children with language disorders, specifically those with specific language impairment (SLI). These children apparently have weaker analogical reasoning abilities than their aged-matched peers without language disorders. Following cognitive theories of language acquisition, this deficit could be one of the causes of language disorders in SLI, especially those concerning productivity. To confirm this deficit and its link to language disorders, we use a scene analogy task to evaluate the analogical performance of SLI children and compare them to controls of the same age and linguistic abilities. Results show that children with SLI perform worse than age-matched peers, but similar to language-matched peers. They are more influenced by increased task difficulty. The association between language disorders and analogical reasoning in SLI can be confirmed. The hypothesis of limited processing capacity in SLI is also being considered.     

Word stress processing in specific language impairment: Auditory or representational deficits?

Abstract

Word stress processing has repeatedly been reported to be affected in specific language impairment (SLI) with potential consequences for various aspects of language development. However, it still remains unresolved whether word stress impairments in SLI are due to deficits in basic auditory processing or to a degraded phonological representation or both. We addressed this question examining an unselected sample of 10 children with SLI and 11 typically developing (TD) children, aged about 8 years, with respect to their basic auditory processing (duration and skewness discrimination) and phonological representation of prosodic (word stress) and segmental (consonant) contrasts. Our results show lower performance of the SLI group compared to the TD group in all tasks. Crucially, two subgroups of children with SLI emerged from our analyses: While one group was impaired in basic auditory perception, particularly affecting duration discrimination, the other showed no significant auditory processing deficits but a representational impairment.     

Book review

The present investigation addresses mazes in Swedish pre-school children with specific language impairment (SLI). Spontaneous speech samples from 10 Swedish children were collected and analysed with respect to amount of mazes and their distributional patterns. The subjects consisted of five children with SLI and five MLU (mean length of utterance) matched controls with normal grammatical development but with a phonological impairment. Mazes were classified as pauses, repetitions and revisions. The children with SLI were found to have significantly more mazes, in particular repetitions and pauses, than the controls. The repetitions were significantly more often of part-word length in the children with SLI compared to the control group. Finally the repetitions of the children with SLI tended to affect lexical and function words equally, whereas they affected mainly function words in the controls. The results imply that an analysis of mazes could supplement traditional language testing of children with SLI, and increase our understanding of their speech processing.     

Children with specific language impairment: The effect of argument-structure complexity on auditory sentence comprehension

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) demonstrate consistent comprehension problems. The present study investigated whether these problems are driven primarily by structural complexity or length. A picture-sentence matching task was presented to 30 children: (1) 10 children with SLI, (2) 10 comprehension-matched children with typical language development (TLD) and (3) 10 children with TLD matched for chronological age. Argument-structure complexity was manipulated independently of length, which was also independently varied. Results showed that argument-structure complexity had a greater influence on comprehension in children with SLI than in the comparison groups, with transitive sentences eliciting more errors than intransitive ones. This effect was not dependent on sentence length, which did not appear to affect the comprehension level. The results support the view that comprehension problems in children with SLI are principally related to the structural complexity of the sentence rather than the amount of material to be processed.     

Insensitivity to verb conjugation patterns in French children with SLI

ABSTRACT

Specific language impairment (SLI) is characterised by persistent difficulties that affect language abilities in otherwise normally developing children (Leonard, 2014). It remains challenging to identify young children affected by SLI in French. We tested oral production of the passé composé tense in 19 children in kindergarten and first grade with SLI aged from 5;6 to 7;4 years. All children were schooled in a French environment, but with different linguistic backgrounds. We used an Android application, Jeu de verbes (Marquis et al., 2012), with six verbs in each of four past participle categories (ending in -é, -i, -u, and other irregulars). We compared their results and error types to those of control children (from Marquis, 2012–2014) matched for gender, age, languages spoken at home, and parental education. Results show that children with SLI do not master the passé composé in the same way as typical French children do, at later ages than previously shown in the literature. This task shows potential for oral language screening in French-speaking children in kindergarten and first grade, independently of language background.     

The comprehension of verb agreement morphology by English-speaking children with specific language impairment

English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) have well-documented difficulties with the production of grammatical morphemes related to agreement, as compared to both same-age and younger normally developing peers. However, comprehension of agreement-related morphemes has not been well studied in children with SLI, especially during the pre-school years. In two experiments, pre-schoolers with SLI and their normally developing peers were compared on their comprehension of third person singular, copula, and noun plural forms. The results showed that the children with SLI had poorer overall comprehension. Furthermore, the children with SLI appeared to rely primarily on the number cues that were present in the subject rather than on the verb agreement morphology. The findings are examined in light of several current accounts of the grammatical deficits found in children with SLI.     

A dyspraxic deficit in specific language impairment and developmental coordination disorder? Evidence from hand and arm movements

The extent to which children with either specific language impairment (SLI) or developmental coordination disorder (DCD) could be considered dyspraxic was examined using three tasks involving either familiar, or unfamiliar actions. SLI is diagnosed in children who fail to develop language in the normal fashion for no apparent reason, while the DCD diagnosis is applied to a child who experiences problems with movement in the absence of other difficulties. Seventy-two children aged between 5 and 13 years participated, falling into one of four groups: (1) children with specific language impairment (SLI), (2) children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), (3) age-matched control children, and (4) younger control children. The performance of the clinical groups resembled that of younger normally developing children. Children with SLI, DCD, and the younger controls showed significant difficulty on the task requiring the production of familiar, but not unfamiliar postures. The deficit observed in the SLI group is particularly striking because it was seen both in those with and those without recognized motor difficulties.     

Specific language impairment in Turkish: Evidence from case morphology in Turkish–German successive bilinguals

Language disorders, and Specific Language Impairment (SLI), have been extensively studied in a number of different, though thus far almost exclusively Indoeuropean, languages. For other languages such as Turkish, Vietnamese, or Arabic, however, findings on the outcome of SLI are rare. In this context, the growing number of migrant children in European countries with a variety of first languages can be seen as a challenge to linguistics and to language assessment: The lack of empirical findings on SLI in these languages brings up the question of how the impairment is manifested in bilingual children with a migrant background. In order for a language disorder to correctly be labelled SLI, it needs to be identified in both languages. This paper presents findings from a study examining the grammatical features of Turkish first language acquisition in Germany, while focusing on Turkish case morphology. For this purpose, it compares the data of three typically-developing children and two children with deviant language development. Moreover, it presents a first interpretation of the outcome of grammatical SLI in bilingual Turkish children and discusses suggestions for diagnostic assessment procedures.