Exploring the Overlap Between Dyslexia and Speech Sound Production Deficits

Purpose Children with dyslexia have speech production deficits in a variety of spoken language contexts. In this article, we discuss the nature of speech production errors in children with dyslexia, including those who have a history of speech sound disorder and those who do not, to familiarize speech-language pathologists with speech production-specific risk factors that may help predict or identify dyslexia in young children. Method In this tutorial, we discuss the role of a phonological deficit in children with dyslexia and how this may manifest as speech production errors, sometimes in conjunction with a speech sound disorder but sometimes not. We also briefly review other factors outside the realm of phonology that may alert the speech-language pathologist to possible dyslexia. Results Speech-language pathologists possess unique knowledge that directly contributes to the identification and remediation of children with dyslexia. We present several clinical recommendations related to speech production deficits in children with dyslexia. We also review what is known about how and when children with speech sound disorder are most at risk for dyslexia. Conclusion Speech-language pathologists have a unique opportunity to assist in the identification of young children who are at risk for dyslexia

An examination of growth in vocabulary and phonological awareness in early childhood: an individual growth model approach

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston UniversityThe present study used individual growth modeling to examine the role of specific forms (i.e., receptive, expressive, and definitional vocabulary and grammatical skill) and levels of oral vocabulary skill (i.e., 25th, 50th, or 75th percentile) in phonological awareness growth during the preschool and kindergarten years. Sixty-one, typically-developing, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, all from middle- to upper-income families, participated in the year-long study. A comprehensive battery of standardized and unstandardized measures was used to assess phonological awareness, oral vocabulary (i.e., receptive, expressive, and definitional) and grammatical skill at baseline, and at 3, 6, and 9 months later. Receptive vocabulary was the strongest predictor of growth in phonological awareness for the sample as a whole, followed by expressive vocabulary and grammatical skill, respectively. In the full model, definitional level vocabulary did not make a significant contribution to growth in phonological awareness. Receptive vocabulary accounted for additional phonological awareness growth in the 3-year-olds, but not in 4- and 5-year-olds, while expressive vocabulary accounted for additional phonological awareness growth in 4- and 5-year-olds, but not in 3-year-olds. Post hoc analyses were conducted to explore the change in relations between phonological awareness and receptive and expressive vocabulary that was identified by the individual growth models. The post hoc results suggested that higher levels of expressive vocabulary (i.e., higher scores on the measures) are likely required to complete phonological awareness tasks with the most difficult operations and highest task demands, even if the linguistic unit involved is large. The theory of lexical reorganization attributes the origin and protracted development of phonological awareness to increases in vocabulary size (Metsala & Walley, 1998). The present study's results suggest that increases in vocabulary size might be necessary, but not sufficient, as a foundation for phonological awareness development. Expressive level vocabulary might also be needed to hold words in memory to perform complex manipulations required in higher level phonological awareness tasks

Evaluating efficacy of parent/toddler language playgroups: Implementing a researcher-practitioner partnership

Includes bibliographical references.This project developed guidelines for speech-language pathologists to use when making data-driven decisions on whether to keep a child in services or to dismiss the child from direct therapy. The purpose was to develop an action plan to guide theclinician in decision-making. Three questions were posed: 1. What should be evaluated? 2. Which tools should be used and how often? 3. How could these results be interpreted to inform clinical decision-making? To do this, a literature review was conducted and recommendations were discussed with a speech-language pathologist and a clinical researcher working at this university. Proposed guidelines focused on total vocabulary, verb lexicon, word combinations, and three longest sentences. Recommended tools include the Communicative Development Inventory and a measure of unique syntactic types. Recommendations for interpreting growth on these measures at three-month intervals are provided. The viability of these measures can be evaluated in future research.B.S. (Bachelor of Science

The influences and outcomes of phonological awareness: a study of MA, PA and auditory processing in pre-readers with a family risk of dyslexia

The direct influence of phonological awareness (PA) on reading outcomes has been widely demonstrated, yet PA may also exert indirect influence on reading outcomes through other cognitive variables such as morphological awareness (MA). However, PA's own development is dependent and influenced by many extraneous variables such as auditory processing, which could ultimately impact reading outcomes. In a group of pre-reading children with a family risk of dyslexia and low-risk controls, this study sets out to answer questions surrounding PA's relationship at various grain sizes (syllable, onset/rime and phoneme) with measures of auditory processing (frequency modulation (FM) and an amplitude rise-time task (RT)) and MA, independent of reading experience. Group analysis revealed significant differences between high- and low-risk children on measures of MA, and PA at all grain sizes, while a trend for lower RT thresholds of high-risk children was found compared with controls. Correlational analysis demonstrated that MA is related to the composite PA score and syllable awareness. Group differences on MA and PA were re-examined including PA and MA, respectively, as control variables. Results exposed PA as a relevant component of MA, independent of reading experience

Gamifications: Lexical and trajectory image methods as cognitive intervention in numeracy

This paper describes a study with the goal of exposing children to gamification activities in teaching and learning numeracy based on the lexical method by implementing a trajectory image (image representator). Early childhood learning difficulties in understanding abstract and symbolic numerical concepts and procedures have been identified as an issue that needs to be addressed and acted as a starting point in the effort to shape the transformation of early childhood mathematics both in teaching and learning. Therefore, this study would like to inspect the role played by language as the medium used in translating the concept of numeracy whether it is applied contextually or in a variety of contexts. The respondents selected for this study were 10 teachers and 50 preschool children and a numeracy module instrument based on the numeracy comprehension level model framework (MPKN) was chosen and applied to students by using lexical and image methods called trajectory image or image representator. Findings have shown that the understanding of preschool children related to previous aspects of numeracy is still at level 1 and level 2. It clearly stated that children are still unable to grasp the concept of numeracy in detail. This study has introduced the MPKN and LexsMath gamification products that have successfully provided a clear understanding to children regarding the in-depth understanding of numeracy aspects from level 1 to level 4 and also have shed some light on more effective teaching methods that can be employed in the aspect of numeracy teaching and learning

Double it up: vocabulary size comparison between UK bilingual and monolingual toddlers

We compared vocabulary sizes in comprehension and production between bilingual toddlers growing up in the United Kingdom (UK) and age-matched UK English monolinguals (12–36 months old) using parent-report vocabulary questionnaires. We found that bilingual toddlers' vocabulary sizes in English were smaller than the vocabulary sizes of their monolingual peers. Notably, this vocabulary gap was not found when groups were compared on conceptual vocabulary in comprehension. Conceptual scoring also reduced the vocabulary gap in production but group differences were still significant. Bilingual toddlers knew more words than monolinguals when words across their two languages were added together, for both comprehension and production. This large total vocabulary size could be attributed to a high proportion of doublets (cross-linguistic word pairs with the same meaning) in bilinguals' vocabularies. These findings are discussed in relation to language exposure, facilitation from cross-linguistic overlap and maturation constraints on vocabulary size

Predictors of Language Growth in Bilingual Infants (Honorable Mention)

Both monolingual and bilingual toddlers exhibit rapid gains in vocabulary beginning at approximately 18 months of age, making this age especially interesting for examining word processing and vocabulary growth (Hoff, 2009). In this paper, I review research with monolingual children showing that early processing abilities predict later differences in language growth, and that this relationship has been noted in bilingual as well as monolingual children. I also review the evidence that there are language processing differences between each language of bilingual children, as well as differences in the processing skills of bilingual compared to monolingual children, and propose that individual differences in the early language processing abilities of bilingual children are linked to their later language development

Differences in the semantic structure of the speech experienced by late talkers, late bloomers, and typical talkers

The present study investigates the relation between language environment and language delay in 63 British-English speaking children (19 typical talkers (TT), 22 late talkers (LT), and 22 late bloomers (LB) aged 13 to 18 months. Families audio recorded daily routines and marked the new words their child produced over a period of 6 months. To investigate how language environments differed between talker types and how environments corresponded with children’s developing lexicons, we evaluated contextual diversity—a word property that measures semantic richness—and network properties of language environments in tandem with developing vocabularies. The language environment experienced by the three talker types differed in their structural properties, with LT environments being least contextually diverse and least well-connected in relation to network properties. Notably, LBs’ language environments were more like those of TTs. Network properties of language environments also correlate with the rate of vocabulary growth over the study period. By comparing differences between language environments and lexical network development, we also observe results consistent with contributions to lexical development from different learning strategies for expressive vocabularies and different environments for receptive vocabularies. We discuss the potential consequences that structural differences in parental speech might have on language development and the contribution of this work to the debate on quantity versus quality