Prosodic markers of syntactic boundaries in the speech of 4-year-old children with normal and disordered language development

This study focuses on the potential role of prosodic "boundary features" in developmental disorders of morphosyntax. As exemplified melodically by the final portion of the falling tone and rhythmically by final syllable lengthening, boundary features mark the right edge of major constituent units in speech and thus phonetically reflect syntactic structure on the level of clauses and sentences. To resolve conflicting findings about the development of boundary features in children with specific language impairment (SLI), this study describes the falling tone and final syllable lengthening in the spontaneous speech of 10 four-year-old children with the phonologic-syntactic type of SLI and 10 four-year-old children with normal language development. The results--indicating that some prosodic boundary features are normal in preschoolers with SLI--show that impairments of morphology and syntax on the segmental level of the grammar do not implicate systematic deficits in syntax-sensitive features on the suprasegmental level. The potential dissociation between prosodic and morphosyntactic development is shown most clearly by the remarkable robustness of the falling tone, which was observed in 9 of the 10 children with SLI, in spite of the moderate to severe deficits they demonstrated in segmental phonology, morphosyntax, and mean length of utterance.     

Cognitive and language skills in autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children.

Compared the sensorimotor skills and play behaviors of 16 normal 16–25 mo old children, 16 mentally retarded children (CA 32–80 mo, MA 17–38 mo), and 16 autistic children (CA 39–74 mo, MA 18–38 mo) to identify deficits in object knowledge specific to autism. There were no differences in sensorimotor skills between the 3 groups except that the autistic Ss were deficient in the capacity to imitate gestures and vocalizations. Autistic Ss showed less diverse functional play, particularly directed toward dolls, and less symbolic play both spontaneously and after cuing. Although functional and symbolic play and the ability to imitate were correlated with receptive language for all 3 groups, sensorimotor skills were associated with receptive language only for the normal and the mentally retarded groups. The observation that autism involves deficits in certain cognitive concepts and not others suggests that representational thought may be manifested in 2 systems, only one of which is impaired in the autistic child. Another hypothesis is that the cognitive deficits manifested by autistic children may be related to their impaired social development, because all the areas of cognitive deficit involve significant social components. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speech and language skills in children who required neonatal intensive care. I. Spontaneous speech at 6.5 years of age

Spontaneous speech at age 6.5 years was studied separately in a follow-up of speech and language skills in a regional cohort of 284 children requiring neonatal intensive care and in 40 controls. Eight aspects of spontaneous speech were evaluated in a conversation: A1, information; A2, speech motor function; A3, sound pattern; A4, word finding; A5, word selection; A6, grammar; A7, interaction; and A8, motivation. The children were grouped by gestational age. Most children had well developed spontaneous speech. The different groups showed very few differences in types of deviations in spontaneous speech. All groups differed from the controls in speech motor function and formal language (A2-A6), but only one child, born at <32 weeks, had a pronounced deviation in one of these aspects. Obvious deviations in one or more aspects of spontaneous speech were more common among children born at 28-31 weeks and in those born fullterm (> or =37 weeks) than among extremely preterm children born at 23-27 weeks.     

Cochlear implantation of children with minimal open-set speech recognition skills

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the postoperative performance of 12 children who demonstrated some open-set speech recognition skills before receiving a Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant with a view toward expanding the selection criteria for cochlear implant candidacy to include children who derive minimal benefit from amplification. DESIGN: Pre- and postoperative performance of two groups of children were compared. Group 1 consisted of 12 children who demonstrated some open-set speech recognition skills before receiving a Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant (Borderline group). Group 2 consisted of 12 children who demonstrated no open-set speech recognition skills before implantation with a Nucleus device (Traditional group). In all children, candidacy was determined based on preimplant binaural aided performance. For most subjects, the poorer ear was selected for implantation. Mean pre- and postoperative speech recognition scores of the Borderline subjects were compared to determine the benefit provided by their cochlear implants. Secondly, matched-pair analyses were used to compare the mean speech recognition scores obtained by the Borderline and Traditional subjects. RESULTS: The scores of the Borderline group improved significantly on five of six speech recognition measures when 6 mo postoperative scores obtained with the implant were compared with preoperative test scores obtained with hearing aids. By the 12 mo postoperative interval, the scores of the Borderline group had improved significantly (p < 0.05) on all six measures. In contrast, scores obtained by the Traditional group had improved significantly on three of six measures at both the 6 and 12 mo postoperative intervals. Comparison of postoperative test scores revealed that the Borderline group scored significantly higher than the Traditional group on three of six measures at the 6 mo test interval and on six of six measures at the 12 mo test interval (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study indicate that both groups derive significant benefit from their cochlear implants. Although the mean preoperative audiograms for the implanted ears did not differ significantly for the two groups of subjects, members of the Borderline group exhibited significantly better speech recognition skills than the Traditional group during the first year after implantation. These findings suggest that the increased auditory experience of the Borderline subjects positively influenced their performance with a cochlear implant. The authors advocate that the selection criteria used to determine pediatric cochlear implant candidacy be broadened to include consideration of children who demonstrate minimal open-set speech recognition skills.     

Higher touch and kinesthetic functions in children with former speech/language development disorders: a neuropsychological study

1. The affinities of 10 selective muscarinic receptor antagonists against [3H]-quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB) binding were determined to characterize the muscarinic receptors present in guinea-pig gallbladder smooth muscle. The highest correlation was obtained for the comparison between the pKi values for the gallbladder smooth muscle and M2 sites. Pirenzepine revealed two binding sites with affinities indicating the presence of muscarinic M2 receptors in abundance and a minor population of an additional site(s). 2. Carbachol produced gallbladder contractions, stimulated phosphoinositide (PI) hydrolysis and inhibited cAMP formation concentration-dependently with pD2 values of 6.12 +/- 0.11, 5.18 +/- 0.33 and 7.19 +/- 0.15, respectively. 3. Pirenzepine, 4-DAMP, HHSiD, pF-HHSiD, AF-DX 116, methoctramine, AQ-RA 741, guanylpirenzepine and AF-DX 384 showed competitive antagonism against carbachol-induced gallbladder contractions. There was no correlation between the pA2 values for the gallbladder and pKi values for the M2 sites, whereas significant correlations were found for the M1, M3 and M4 sites, the best correlation being between the pA2 values for the gallbladder and M4 subtypes. 4. Finally, the presence of both m2 and m4 receptor proteins were demonstrated by Western blot analysis. It is concluded that guinea-pig gallbladder smooth muscle has both muscarinic M2 and M4 receptors, which are coupled to adenylate cyclase inhibition and PI hydrolysis. 5. Although it seems likely that M2 receptors do not play a primary role in carbachol-induced guinea-pig gallbladder contraction, the characterization of the muscarinic subtypes which mediate these contractile responses needs further evidence.     

Rapid auditory processing in normal and disordered language development

A cell type, preadipocytes, isolated from the stroma of adult human adipose tissue appears capable of differentiating, in culture, into a cell with morphological features similar to that observed in terminally differentiated human adipocytes cultured under similar conditions. During this process of differentiation, preadipocytes develop extensive rough endoplasmic reticulum with prominent cisternae, the chromatin of most nuclei becomes decondensed and lipid bodies accumulate to levels observed in cultured adipocytes. Fibroblasts derived from non-adipose tissue do not undergo the same morphological changes when cultured under similar conditions.     

Characteristics of speech motor development in children.

Pulsed ultrasound was used to study tongue movements in the speech of 11 children, aged 3 yrs 3 mo to 11 yrs 6 mo. The stimuli were CV syllables that were produced at a normal speech rate with alternate vowels stressed. In Ss over 6 yrs of age, the pattern of tongue dorsum movement was identical to that observed in adults. For all Ss, the maximum velocity of tongue dorsum raising and lowering was correlated with the extent of the gesture. The slope of the relationship differed for stressed and unstressed vowels, although the differences were not consistent prior to age 6 yrs. For all Ss, the correlation between displacement and peak velocity was accompanied by a relatively constant interval from the initiation of the movement to the point of maximum velocity. The similarity in the tongue dorsum kinematics of children and adults is consistent with the idea that speech motor development involves a refinement of basic modes of motor operation rather than any significant change in the control of the speech apparatus. The speech data obtained are characteristic of systems that can be described by 2nd-order differential equations. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature and impact of changes in home learning environment on development of language and academic skills in preschool children.

In this study, we examined changes in the early home learning environment as children approached school entry and whether these changes predicted the development of children's language and academic skills. Findings from a national sample of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,018) revealed an overall improvement in the home learning environment from 36 to 54 months of children's age, with 30.6% of parents of preschoolers displaying significant improvement in the home environment (i.e., changes greater than 1 SD) and with only 0.6% showing a decrease. More important, the degree of change uniquely contributed to the children's language but not to their academic skills. Home changes were more likely to be observed from mothers with more education and work hours and with fewer symptoms of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linking teachers' memory-relevant language and the development of children's memory skills.

This longitudinal study was designed to (a) examine changes in children's deliberate memory across the 1st grade; (b) characterize the memory-relevant aspects of their classrooms; and (c) explore linkages between the children's performance and the language their teachers use in instruction. To explore contextual factors that may facilitate the development of skills for remembering, 107 first graders were assessed 3 times with a broad set of tasks, while extensive observations were made in the 14 classrooms from which these children were sampled. When the participating teachers were classified as high or low in terms of their mnemonic orientation, in part on the basis of their use of metacognitive information and requests for deliberate remembering during instruction in language arts and mathematics, differences were observed in the use of mnemonic techniques by the children in their classes. By the end of the year, the children drawn from these 2 groups of classrooms differed in their spontaneous use of simple behavioral strategies for remembering and in their response to training in more complex verbally based mnemonic techniques. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of certain language and communication environments in early childhood on the development of language in deaf individuals

Four groups of deaf subjects between the age of 10-0 and 18-11 years were tested, employing the Test of Syntactic Ability, and the language subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test, in a study of the influence of early language and communication environment on later syntactic language ability. The groups, 18 subjects in each, were dichotomized by whether the parents were hearing or deaf and further subgrouped by the language ability of the parents if the parents were deaf, and by the amount and intensity of oral preschool training provided by the parents if the parents were hearing. The groups were labeled by the type of language used with them in infancy and early childhood: manual English, average manual, intensive oral, and average oral. Results showed significant superiority of the manual English group over the two oral groups on five of the six major test structures of the Test of Syntactic Ability. On the Stanford Achievement Test, the manual English group performed significantly better than the other three groups on all four subtests. The two manual groups performed significantly better than the two oral groups on every test measure employed.     

Assessment and training of role-taking and referential communication skills in institutionalized emotionally disturbed children.

Evaluated 125 institutionalized emotionally disturbed 8-15-yr-old children in terms of their role-taking and referential communication skills. On the basis of this screening process, the 48 Ss who performed most poorly on these measures were assigned randomly to 1 of 2 experimental training programs intended to remediate deficits in either role-taking or referential communication skills. As a group these institutionalized Ss were significantly delayed in the acquisition of both role taking and referential communication when compared with samples of their normal age-mates. Pre- and postintervention comparisons indicated that Ss of both experimental groups improved significantly in their role-taking ability. Ss of the communication training program also demonstrated significant improvement in referential communication skills. A 12-mo follow-up showed a trend for improvements in both test measures to be associated with improvements in social adjustment as rated by institutional staff. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of optional shift performance and language skills in middle-class and Canadian Indian children.

Compared performances of middle-class and canadian indian children on the optional reversal shift (ors) task to examine deficits hypothesized as being associated with disadvantaged experiential background and slow english-language development. Ss were (a) 60 indian children from a population of 8 yr. Olds attending 2 indian reservation schools, randomly assigned to control and experimental groups; and (b) 30 8-yr-old children from an educationally-advantaged urban area. Ss were selected by their scores on the visual motor gestalt test and later given the peabody picture vocabulary test and the wisc. Results show that middle-class ss surpassed indian control ss on selected language measures and in the number of ors reversers. Relationships between ors choice and language scores were found for some of the urban middle-class scores but not for indian scores. Under an experimental treatment condition of eliciting verbalization prior to choice response, indian experimental ss exceeded indian control ss on initial discrimination learning and in number of reversers on the ors task. Results support hypothesized cultural differences and hypothesized facilitation from requiring indian ss to employ overt verbal mediators. (french summary) (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction among retarded children as a function of their relative language skills.

It has long been recognized that the quality of interpersonal relations affects the behavior of individuals with mental retardation. The question to be assessed here was the effect of the skill of individual reacting with the mental retardate upon the behavior of the retardate. This study is a modified replication of an earlier one (Rosenberg, 1959). Ss of an institution for mental retardates were categorized re: verbal facility. Group of Ss was then formed containing pairs of Highs and Lows on this test, and interpersonal behavior was assessed in a play room situation. The results indicate that Lows and Highs interact with each other effectively, whereas heterogeneity of grouping inhibits social interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of the expressive communication skills of triplet, twin and singleton children

Few studies have focused on the language acquisition of higher multiple birth sets. In this study, the communication skills of 51 triplet children are described. The measures used were: mean length of utterance; type-token ratio; conversational acts; phoneme repertoire; and number of different types of phonological processes used. The data gained were used to compare the communication skills of triplets with those of twins, singletons and normative data available in the literature. Siblings within triplet sets were also compared using language samples obtained from adult-child interactions and when the three children were playing together. The results indicated that the triplets' early communication skills were different from those of both singletons and twins. The triplets' difficulties included delayed syntactic development, limited use of different language functions and delayed phonological development. In contrast, twins' communication profile is characterised by disordered phonological development.     

Applied phoniatry. I. Retarded language and speech development (author's transl)

To better understand the assessment of difficulties in verbal communication it is considered to explain language and speech development in relation to motor function. The aetiology, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of language disorders and their common characteristics are discussed. The otolaryngologist must expect an increase in the number of such cases and should initiate prompt and adequate treatment.     

Cephalic measures in normal pre-school children 3 to 7-years of age

In a study designed to determine standards for the Developmental Neurological Examination (DNE) several measures of the head were also recorded. The study consisted in the examination of 200 children, half from each sex, 40 from each age group (3 to 7-years of age). These children were selected among 755 normal pre-school-age children, living in the city of S?o Paulo, Brazil). The criteria for selection were both anamnestic and clinic. The following measures of the head were recorded: cephalic perimeter, biauricular and antero-posterior distances (Diament, 1967). A new cephalic index (nCI) was also determined (Diament, 1968). This index is useful in detecting changes in head shape mainly in cases of precocious cranioestenosis (Diament, 1968; Facure, 1972). The statistical analysis consisted in determining means and standard errors for each measure. For the new cephalic index it was shown through the Kruskal-Wallis test that there were no significant difference between age and sex. Therefore we considered all groups together to find out the tolerance region for the new index which turned out to be given by the interval: 0.848-1.002. This result is based in 186 cases since 14 were excluded because of some problems in the recording process. Therefore we expect with a conficence of 95% that the above interval covers 90% of the population, in the 3 to 7 years age-groups independently of sex.     

Perception of contradictory speech by normal and disturbed children at various age levels.

Recordings were made of female teachers reciting congruent and contradictory messages. In the congruent condition, the verbal and tonal elements of the communication were consistent. In the contradictory condition, the tone of voice was incongruent with the words spoken. All the congruent and contradictory vocal expressions were arranged in random order on a single tape and played to "normal" and "disturbed" boys of different ages (Grades 2, 4, and 6). Significant effects were found for type of speech and age: Ss reacted more negatively to contradictory than to congruent speech, and younger Ss responded more negatively to contradiction than did older ones. The disturbed Ss reacted significantly more negatively than normal Ss to contradictory messages. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)