Phonological processing deficits in specific reading disability and specific language impairment: same or different?

The aim of this study was to determine if phonological processing deficits in specific reading disability (SRD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are the same or different. In four separate analyses, a different combination of reading and spoken language measures was used to divide 73 children into three subgroups: poor readers with average spoken language (SRD), poor readers with poor spoken language (SRD + SLI) and average readers with poor spoken language (SLI). These groups were compared on five phonological processing measures. The SRD group had deficits in neural representations of phonemes, phoneme discrimination, phoneme awareness and rapid naming. The SRD + SLI group had more severe deficits than the SRD group on half of these measures, as well as phonological short‐term memory. Children with SLI were free from phonological processing deficits. Thus, phonological processing deficits were the same or different in SRD and SLI, depending on how SRD and SLI were defined, and how phonological processing was measured.     

The role of oral language in ­underpinning the text generation ­difficulties in children with specific ­language impairment

Children with specific language impairments (SLI) have difficulties in producing written text. It was hypothesised that the constraints on writing in children with SLI were similar to typically developing younger children with the same level of vocabulary knowledge. Twenty‐three children with SLI (aged 10:5) were matched with 23 children for chronological age (CA) and 23 children for vocabulary levels (VC). Children with SLI performed significantly below their CA peers but not their VC peers on all aspects of writing including spelling. Regression analyses indicated that written text measures of spelling errors and oral language measures of vocabulary were significant predictors of writing products for both the children with SLI and their VC peers. This highlights the importance of oral and written language for the quality of children's written text and indicates that the writing of children with SLI was commensurate with their vocabulary and spelling levels. The results point to the role of both phonological and non‐phonological processes in written text production in struggling writers.     

Genetic influences on specific versus nonspecific language impairment in 4-year-old twins

The present study addresses the distinction between specific (SLI) and nonspecific (NLI) language impairment at an etiological level by estimating the relative genetic and environmental contributions to language impairment in children with SLI and NLI. Drawing on a large longitudinal twin study, we tested a sample of 356 four-and-a-half-year-old children with low language ability and their twin partners at home on a range of language and nonverbal measures. For children whose language and nonverbal abilities were both low (NLI), genetic influence on language impairment was moderate and shared environmental influence was substantial. A similar pattern emerged for children whose language difficulties occurred in apparent isolation (SLI), although there was a trend for the genetic effects to be smaller for SLI than for NLI: Group heritability was .18 for SLI and .52 for NLI. Probandwise cross-concordances were suggestive of some genetic overlap between these two groups, but not with a subgroup of children with more severe cognitive delay.     

发展性阅读障碍者的注意转换缺陷研究综述

发展性阅读障碍者的注意转换缺陷近十年来广受研究者关注.研究者发现阅读障碍者在注意转换上表现出时间延迟,并且时间延迟同时存在于多通道;阅读障碍者在注意转换的空间特点上表现出"左视野忽视"的左右空间加工不对称现象;阅读障碍者的注意转换时空缺损影响其词汇加工和阅读.在对阅读障碍者注意转换的未来研究中,应当排除无关变量对结果的干扰,同时控制被试选取、研究工具等,进一步明确注意转换缺损与阅读障碍者言语加工的关系.     

Utility of the Spelling Sensitivity Score to analyze spellings of children with specific language impairment

The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the Spelling Sensitivity Score (SSS) beyond percentage correct scoring in analyzing the spellings of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Participants were 31 children with SLI and 28 children with typical language in grades 2–4. Spellings of individual words were scored using two methods: (1) percentage correct and (2) SSS. Children with SLI scored lower than children with typical language when spelling was analyzed with percentage correct scoring and with SSS scoring. In addition, SSS scoring highlighted group differences in the nature of spelling errors. Children with SLI were more likely than children with typical language to omit elements and to represent elements with an illegal grapheme in words, whereas children with typical language were more likely than children with SLI to represent all elements with correct letters.     

The relationship between language and social competence: How language impairment affects social growth

Given the research that suggests the social use of language is the latest developing aspect of language, it was hypothesized that children with speech/language impairment (SLI) are particularly susceptible to social interaction difficulties, resulting in diminished social competence. This hypothesis was explored with SLI and non‐language‐impaired (NLI) 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children by gathering measures of social problem solving ability (as rated by teachers, parents, and peers), emotion knowledge, and language development. Results provided partial support for the hypothesis above. Speech/language‐impaired children were rated significantly lower on parent ratings of self‐control and higher in internalizing behaviors, and lower on teacher ratings of assertiveness, than the NLI controls. There were no differences noted on peer sociometric ratings or mutual friendships. However, SLI children scored lower on a stereotypical test of emotional knowledge, while scoring similarly to NLI controls on a nonstereotypical test. A test of language development (TELD‐2) differentiated the SLI and NLI groups, both expressively and receptively. In addition, the TELD‐2 indicated a significant difference in semantic processing errors, but not syntax errors, between the two groups. The differential effects of speech/language impairment on the development of social competence were explored. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 313–321, 2004.     

Abnormal emotional processing in maltreated children diagnosed of Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Maltreated children usually show a specific pattern of emotional and behavioral symptoms that exceed those relating to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These symptoms have been defined as Complex PTSD (CPTSD). The underlying attentional mechanisms of abnormal emotional processing and their relation to the clinical presentation of CPTSD are not well understood. A visual dot-probe paradigm involving pre-attentive (i.e., 500 ms) and attentive (i.e., 1500 ms) presentation rates of neutral versus emotional (i.e., angry, happy or sad) facial expressions was applied. Twenty-one maltreated CPTSD children were compared with twenty-six controls. The results are as follows: an attention bias away from threatening faces and an attentional bias towards sad faces were observed in maltreated CPTSD children during pre-attentive and attentive processing. Whereas the attentional bias away from angry faces was associated with social problems, the attentional bias towards sad faces was associated with depressive and withdrawn symptoms. Therefore, CPTSD children develop maladaptive negative cognitive styles, which may underlie not only social problems (by a cognitive avoidance of threatening stimuli) but also depressive symptoms (by a cognitive approach to sad stimuli). Attention processing abnormalities should be considered as therapeutic targets for new treatment approaches in this population.     

An evaluation of the written texts of children with SLI: the contributions of oral language, reading and phonological short-term memory

In this study, we performed a fine grained analysis of writing by children with a specific language impairment (SLI) and examined the contribution of oral language, phonological short-term memory (STM), nonverbal ability, and word reading to three writing constructs (productivity, complexity and accuracy). Forty-six children with SLI were compared with 42 children matched for chronological age, receptive vocabulary (N = 46) and reading decoding (N = 46) on a measure of narrative writing. The SLI group performed worse on all measures compared to children of a similar chronological age. The SLI group produced a greater proportion of orthographic spelling errors than children with similar receptive vocabularies, but were comparable to children matched for reading decoding. The children with SLI showed specific difficulties in the omission of whole words (e.g. auxiliary verbs and subject nouns) and omissions of grammatical morphology (e.g. past tense—ed) reflecting the difficulties shown in their oral language. Receptive grammar made a significant contribution to writing complexity and accuracy. Phonological fluency contributed to writing productivity, such as the production of diverse vocabulary, ideas and content and writing fluency. Phonological STM and word reading explained additional variance in writing accuracy over and above the SLI group’s oral language skills.     

Temporal processing,attention, and learning disorders

In a large sample (N = 439) of literacy impaired and unimpaired elementary school children the predictions of the temporal processing theory of dyslexia were tested while controlling for (sub)clininal attentional deficits. Visual and Auditory Temporal Order Judgement were administered as well as three subtests of a standardized attention test. The correlation between visual and auditory TOJ was only moderate, challenging the assumption of a general, cross-modal temporal processing deficit. Regression analyses revealed attention as a significant predictor of children's TOJ performance. Once attentional differences were accounted for, temporal processing made a significant but small contribution (3% of variance explained) to reading (but not spelling), but also to arithmetic achievement, indicating that the prediction is not specific to literacy skills. Phonology and Rapid Automatized Naming explained considerable variance even when introduced after TOJ, contradicting the assumption that the verbal deficits in dyslexia result from temporal processing problems. Multiple case studies of 40 children with serious deficits in temporal processing revealed no consistent group pattern. Problems in temporal processing do not necessarily lead to literacy impairment but might be a marker of minor deviances in brain development.     

Social and behavioral correlates of preschoolers with specific language impairment

The relationship between specific subtypes of speech language impairment (SLI) and concomitant social competence and behavioral adjustment was investigated. Teachers and parents completed behavior ratings of SLI preschoolers enrolled in a language‐based intervention program and preschoolers without language impairment, including the Parent‐Child Rating Scale (P‐CRS), Teacher‐Child Rating Scale (T‐CRS), and Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale (SCBE). Teacher and parent ratings were analyzed across four SLI subtypes: expressive, receptive, pragmatic, and articulation. Results confirmed that children with greater language impairments had significantly more behavioral problems and poorer social competence than those children with articulation‐only disorders and children without any impairments, and these results were observed in both home and school environments. SLI children had particular difficulty with task orientation, assertiveness, peer social skills, and frustration tolerance, and were more likely to be dependent and isolated in the classroom. Implications for assessment and intervention of SLI children were discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 373–387, 2005.     

Specific language impairment, theory of mind, and visual perspective taking: evidence for simulation theory and the developmental role of language

Recent research has found that the acquisition of theory of mind (ToM) is delayed in children with specific language impairment (SLI). The present study used a battery of ToM and visual perspective taking (VPT) tasks to investigate whether the delayed acquisition of ToM in children with SLI is associated with delayed VPT development. Harris' (1992, 1996) simulation theory predicts that the development of VPT will be delayed. Participants were 20 children with SLI (M=62.9 months) and 20 typically developing children (M=61.2 months) who were matched for nonverbal ability, gender, and age. The results supported Harris' theory and a role for language in ToM and VPT development.     

Integration of children with specific language impairments

Abstract

Current knowledge of the integration of children with specific language impairment (SLI) is examined. The paper begins by defining this group of children and the nature of their difficulties. The heterogeneous characteristics of SLI children are discussed. It then addresses the educational provisions made for SLI children and the opportunities for integration present in different models of provision. Research on the integration of SLI children is evaluated with particular emphasis on the difficulties encountered by this group of children. The paper concludes with some thoughts for future research.     

Relations Among Maternal Literacy Beliefs, Home Literacy Practices, and the Emergent Literacy Skills of Preschoolers With Specific Language Impairment

Self-reported maternal literacy beliefs and home literacy practices were compared for families of children with typicially developing language skills (TL, n = 52) and specific language impairment (SLI, n = 56). Additionally, the present work examined whether maternal beliefs and practices predicted children's print-related knowledge. Mothers filled out 2 questionnaires asking about their literacy beliefs and practices while children's print-related knowledge was assessed directly. Results indicated that mothers of children with SLI held somewhat less positive beliefs about literacy and reported engaging in fewer literacy practices compared to mothers of children with TL. For the entire sample, maternal literacy practices and beliefs predicted children's print-related knowledge, although much of this association was accounted for by maternal education. Subgroup analyses focused specifically on children with SLI showed there to be no relation between maternal literacy beliefs and practices and children's print-related knowledge. The present findings suggest that the home literacy experiences of children with SLI, and the way that these experiences impact print-related knowledge, may differ in important ways from typical peers.     

The development of phonological awareness with specific language‐impaired and typical children

This study investigated kindergarten, preschool, and first‐grade children who were typical or specific language impaired (SLI) to determine whether there were developmental differences in their phonological awareness abilities (i.e., syllable, onset/rime, phonemes). Results revealed a significant difference between children who were typical and children who were SLI on the sound‐segmentation tasks. The children who were typical were more effective at segmenting than were children who were SLI. Significant differences were also noted between the types of phonological task completed among participants. The combined data from this study revealed developmental trends in phonological awareness for the typical population. The developmental trend was not observed in the SLI population, however. Clinical implications are suggested. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mental attention in gifted and nongifted children

The relationship between the construct of mental attention and “giftedness” is not well established. Gifted individuals could make effective use of their executive functions and this could be related to their mental attentional capacity. The dialectic constructivist model developed by Pascual-Leone introduced the concept of mental attention or “effort”, relating it to mental capacity. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the measurement of mental capacity (M-measurement) is differential for a group of children with high IQs. 110 students between 4 and 18 years old participated in this study. Some were Gifted (n=70) and others Non-Gifted (n=40). Wechsler-R Scale and the Figural Intersection Test were administered to all participants. An interesting pattern was found in the younger groups. The gifted scored higher than the non-gifted in the Figural Intersection Test and much higher than their theoretical M. The non-gifted scored quite close to their theoretical M (based on age). In the oldest group, the gifted again achieved higher scores, but now they scored at the theoretical level, and the non-gifted underperformed.     

Language, social behavior, and the quality of friendships in adolescents with and without a history of specific language impairment

Language is drawn on extensively in friendships but has received scant attention in the developmental literature. This study compared friendship quality in 16-year-old adolescents with and without specific language impairment (SLI), testing the extent it is predicted by individual differences in social behaviors and language ability. Participants were 120 adolescents with SLI and 118 typically developing (TD) adolescents. After considering the effects of nonverbal IQ and prosocial and difficult behavior, language measures were found to be associated with friendship quality. The TD participants enjoyed normal friendships, whereas the participants with SLI were more likely to exhibit poorer quality (although 60% experienced good quality of friendships). Longitudinal analyses identified early language difficulties as predictive of poorer friendship quality in adolescence.     

The development of working memory in normally achieving and subtypes of learning disabled children

Working memory has been proposed as an important component of reading and arithmetic skills. The development of working memory was studied in normally achieving and subtypes of learning disabled children. The performance of reading disabled (RD), arithmetic disabled (ARITHD), and attentional deficit disordered (ADD) children, age 7-13, was compared to normal achievers (NA) on 2 working memory tasks, 1 involving sentences and the other involving counting. There was a significant growth of working memory as a function of age. In addition, the RD children had significantly lower scores on both tasks. The ARITHD children had significantly lower scores only on the Working Memory--Counting task, and the ADD group had scores similar to the normally achieving children except at the youngest age level in the Working Memory--Sentences task. Thus, a reading disability appears to involve a generalized deficit in working memory. Children with an arithmetic disability do not have a generalized language deficit but have a specific working memory deficit in relation to processing numerical information. As children with ADD did not have deficits in these tasks, working memory may not have significant attentional components. An important component of the development of reading and computational arithmetic skills appears to be the growth of working memory for language and numerical information.     

Prosody in the reading of children with specific language impairment / La prosodia en la lectura de niños con trastorno específico del lenguaje

Expressive reading is considered one of the subprocesses involved in reading fluency, and good readers show greater changes in tone and fewer unnecessary pauses than bad ones. Given the high frequency of reading difficulties in specific language impairment (SLI), there may be certain differences in the use of prosody among children with SLI. The purpose of this study was to research whether prosody in the reading of children with Spanish SLI differs from that in the reading of typical readers. To do so, 44 children (SLI and control) read aloud a text which contained declarative, interrogative and exclamatory sentences. Different prosodic parameters referring to length, tone and intensity were measured. The results showed that the children with SLI read slower, commit more errors and make more inappropriate pauses. Furthermore, fewer pitch variations were found in the interrogative sentence and in the final features of the sentence. These results confirm the relationship between decoding and prosody; therefore, interventions with these children should bear in mind the practice of expressive reading while learning reading fluency.     

Using the Illinois test of psycholinguistic ability with bilingual and monolingual language‐impaired children

The current popular case against the use of standardised ability tests in bilingual assessment is not as unequivocal as may be commonly assumed. Evidence currently available indicates that such tests generally measure the same constructs, with equal accuracy, regardless of language backgrounds. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this debate by presenting a detailed comparison of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Ability (ITPA) profiles of monolingual language‐impaired children who have received the diagnosis ‘specifically language‐impaired’ (SLI) (N = 95) and ITPA profiles of bilingual children who are referred for assessment of their language problems (N = 43). It is concluded that most bilingual children suffer from a ‘knowledge‐based’ problem, while most monolingual children suffer from a more fundamental ‘processing‐based’ problem. By presenting this analysis, we hope to contribute to the general debate about whether this commonly used test can be used in the assessment of bilingual children.     

Morphological usage and awareness in children with and without specific language impairment

In order to investigate the relationship between oral language usage and morphological awareness, 5- to 7-year-old children with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared to age-matched (AM) and language-matched (LM) comparison groups on a variety of measures requiring metalinguistic skill. These included sentence completion (involving real and nonsense words); comprehension of inflected non-words; response to morphological errors (including judgment, identification, and repair), and deliberate creation of grammatical violations. Overall, the SLI children performed significantly worse than their AM peers and were indistinguishable from younger LM children, suggesting that morphological awareness is more closely allied with oral language than with general cognitive/chronological development.