Specific Language Impairments and Possibilities of Classification and Detection from Children's Speech

Many young children have speech disorders. My research focused on one such disorder, known as specific language impairment or developmental dysphasia. A major problem in treating this disorder is the fact that specific language impairment is detected in children at a relatively late age. For successful speech therapy, early diagnosis is critical. I present two different approaches to this issue using a very simple test that I have devised for diagnosing this disorder. In this thesis, I describe a new method for detecting specific language impairment based on the number of pronunciation errors in utterances. An advantage of this method is its simplicity; anyone can use it, including parents. The second method is based on the acoustic features of the speech signal. An advantage of this method is that it could be used to develop an automatic detection system. KeyKatedra teorie obvod

Classification and Detection of Specific Language Impairments in Children Based on their Speech Skills

The ability to use the spoken language is one of the most important characteristics in child development. Speech is difficult to replace in real life, although there are several other options for communication. Inabilities to communicate with speech skills can isolate children from society, especially children with specific language impairments. This research study focused on a specific disorder, known as specific language impairment (SLI); in the Czech language, it is specifically known as developmental dysphasia (DD). One major problem is that this disorder is detected at a relatively late age. Early diagnosis is critical for successful speech therapy in children. The current chapter presents several different approaches to solve this issue, including a simple test for detecting this disorder. One approach involves the use of an original iPad application for detecting SLI based on the number of pronunciation errors in utterances. One advantage of this method is its simplicity; anyone can use it, including parents

Auditory processes involved in dysphasia

The final objective of this work was the arrangement of remediation suggestions that may be utilized for children with dysphasia, and related disorders. Therefore, based on the present knowledge of the affected processes, a program of remediation is offered in reference to the particular learning skills that require extraordinary teaching methods. These suggestions are comprehensive in perspective, as far as the necessary teaching skills are concerned. It is anticipated that such a listing of methods will p,rove beneficial for educators engaged in teaching children, educationally disabled by this, and other closely allied learning handicaps

CLASSIFICATION MODEL FOR LEARNING DISABILITIES IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PUPILS

Learning disability is a general term that describes specific kinds of learning problems.  Although, Learning Disability cannot be cured medically, there exist several methods for detecting learning disabilities in a child. Existing methods of classification of learning disabilities in children are binary classification – either a child is normal or learning disabled. The focus of this paper is to extend the binary classification to multi-label classification of learning disabilities. This paper formulated and simulated a classification model for learning disabilities in primary school pupils. Information containing the symptoms of learning disabilities in pupils were elicited by administering five hundred (500) questionnaire to teachers of Primary One to Four pupils in fifteen government owned elementary schools within Ife Central Local Government Area, Ile-Ife of Osun State. The classification model was formulated using Principal Component Analysis, rule based system and back propagation algorithm. The formulated model was simulated using Waikatto Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) version 3.7.2. The performance of the model was evaluated using precision and accuracy. The classification model of primary one, primary two, primary three and primary four yielded precision rate of 95%, 91.18%, 93.10% and 93.60% respectively while the accuracy results were 95.00%, 91.18%, 93.10% and 93.60% respectively. The results obtained showed that the developed model proved to be accurate and precise in classifying pupils with learning disabilities in primary schools. The model can be adopted for the management of pupils with learning disabilities. &nbsp

Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) scores in 11-year-old children with communication impairments

Background: The pragmatic skills of children with communication disorders and their assessment are currently an issue for speech and language therapy and educational placement. Aims: To explore whether different subgroups of children with communication disorders score differently on the Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC; Bishop, 1998) and how they compare to published normative data. Methods and procedures: A sample of 161 eleven year old children with a history of communication disorders were assessed using the CCC. The main use of this questionnaire is to establish whether pragmatic impairments are part of a child’s communication difficulty. Although the checklist was originally designed for research purposes, Bishop & Baird (2001) have recently published normative data for this scale as well as group data from a number of different clinical groups. Whilst our CCC data has been previously reported descriptively for a wider sample (Conti-Ramsden et al, 2001), it has not been examined in terms of subgroups or compared directly to normative information and similarly diagnosed individuals from other studies. Outcomes and Results: Of the children assessed 52 (33%) scored in the normal range (within 1sd) on the pragmatic scale, 40 (26%) fell between 1 and 2 sd below the normative mean and 64 (41%) scored below 2sd the mean of typically developing children (aged 6-16yrs) who were reported by Bishop and Baird (2001). Thus the majority (67%) scored out of the normal range for pragmatic skill at 11 years of age. The cohort was separated into 4 diagnostic sub-categories: Those with a definite diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD; n=13); those with typical specific language impairment (SLI; n=29); generally impaired (LILowIQ; n=30); those with a clinical history of primary Pragmatic Language Impairment (PLI; independent of CCC score, n= 27). Conclusions: Findings show that those with SLI and LilowIQ were less impaired than the other groups on the CCC pragmatic scale. There was a significant trend for those with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) to score lowest through PLI, LilowIQ to SLI. It is argued that a cut off of 140 may prove to be more useful at this age than the 132 level previously published for 8 year olds. Results suggest that the CCC can be used as a clinical tool, but in conjunction with other reliable measures

Practices Adopted by Parents of Children with Dysphasia in Inclusive Primary School

Parental involvement is essential in the context of inclusive schooling; how-ever, few studies have looked at how parents of children with disabilities become involved in their child’s school experience. This study explored the practices adopted by parents of children with dysphasia when their children were integrated into inclusive classes in primary school. Eleven parents took part in semi-structured interviews. Epstein’s typology was used to classify the practices that emerged from their responses. The results showed that these practices were interdependent. The intentions underlying any one practice can differ depending on the parents, just as any one intention can be represented in a variety of practices. We identified individual and environmental factors that influence the practices

Imitiranje složenih pokreta kod školske djece s poteškoćama u učenju

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) has often been overlooked both in school practice and in everyday work with children. DCD is one or all of the heterogeneous range of development disorders affecting the initiation, organization, and performance of action. The aim of this article, therefore, was to draw attention to this problem and prove how teachers of different subjects can easily recognize pupils with DCD. Prompt recognition enables fast intervention, resulting in progress in the movement abilities of pupils with DCD. Our research has shown that we can discriminate between pupils with learning difficulties and those without them on the basis of 20 tasks of the Bergès-Lézine’s Test of Imitation of Gestures. In particular, we wish to emphasize three tasks (12, 17, and 20) in which pupils had to cross the vertical midline of the body. Individuals with DCD face problems in spatial orientation and in complex imitation of gestures. Pupils can be classified into two groups (with and without motor coordination and learning difficulties) based on differences found in tasks requiring them to cross the vertical midline of the body and rotate their hands. Learning difficulties can be predicted by pupils’ performance doing such specific tasks. School teachers, especially physical education teachers, can recognize pupils with motor coordination difficulties in informal tasks, and organize appropriate psychomotor activities for them.Razvojni koordinacijski poremećaj (DCD) je često zanemaren i u radu sa školskom djecom i u svakodnevnom radu s djecom. DCD podrazumijeva jedan ili cijeli heterogeni spektar razvojnih poremećaja koji utječu na inicijaciju, organizaciju i izvedbu nekog pokreta. Cilj ovog članka bio je privući pažnju na ovaj problem i dokazati da nastavnici različitih predmeta mogu vrlo lako prepoznati učenike s razvojnim koordinacijskim poremećajem. Brzo prepoznavanje omogućuje brzu intervenciju koja rezultira napretkom u razvoju kretnih sposobnosti kod učenika s DCD-om. Ovo je istraživanje pokazalo kako je moguće razlikovati učenike s poteškoćama u učenju od ostalih učenika primjenom 20 zadataka okupljenih u Bergès-Lézineovom testu imitiranja pokreta

Autistic symptomatology and language ability in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Specific Language Impairment

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are common developmental disorders characterised by deficits in language and communication. The nature of the relationship between them continues to be a matter of debate. This study investigates whether the co-occurrence of ASD and language impairment is associated with differences in severity or pattern of autistic symptomatology or language profile. Methods: Participants (N = 97) were drawn from a total population cohort of 56,946 screened as part of study to ascertain the prevalence of ASD, aged 9 to 14 years. All children received an ICD-10 clinical diagnosis of ASD or No ASD. Children with nonverbal IQ 80 were divided into those with a language impairment (language score of 77 or less) and those without, creating three groups: children with ASD and a language impairment (ALI; N = 41), those with ASD and but no language impairment (ANL; N = 31) and those with language impairment but no ASD (SLI; N = 25). Results: Children with ALI did not show more current autistic symptoms than those with ANL. Children with SLI were well below the threshold for ASD. Their social adaptation was higher than the ASD groups, but still nearly 2 SD below average. In ALI the combination of ASD and language impairment was associated with weaker functional communication and more severe receptive language difficulties than those found in SLI. Receptive and expressive language were equally impaired in ALI, whereas in SLI receptive language was stronger than expressive. Conclusions: Co-occurrence of ASD and language impairment is not associated with increased current autistic symptomatology but appears to be associated with greater impairment in receptive language and functional communication

Molecular genetics of autism spectrum disorders in the Finnish population

Väitöskirja; ohj Leena Peltonen-Palotie ja Irma Järvel

Children with SLI can exhibit reduced attention to a talker's mouth

It has been demonstrated that children with specific language impairment (SLI) show difficulties not only with auditory but also with audiovisual speech perception. The goal of this study was to assess whether children with SLI might show reduced attention to the talker's mouth compared to their typically developing (TD) peers. An additional aim was to determine whether the pattern of attention to a talking face would be related to a specific subtype of SLI. We used an eye-tracker methodology and presented a video of a talker speaking the children's native language. Results revealed that children with SLI paid significantly less attention to the mouth than the TD children. More specifically, it was also observed that children with a phonological-syntactic deficit looked less to the mouth as compared to the children with a lexical-syntactic deficit