El desarrollo fonológico infantil: una prueba para su evaluación

El artículo presenta el marco teórico en el que se sitúa la elaboración de una prueba para evaluar el desarrollo fonológico en niños castellano-parlantes de edades comprendidas entre los 3 y los 7; 11 años así como los resultados de su administración experimental. Desde la perspectiva teórica se revisan sucesivamente : a) las distintas teorías sobre la adquisición fonológica, b) los aspectos más relevantes del desarrollo fonológico con vistas a la elaboración de una prueba, c) las categorías diagnósticas en uso en los trastornos articulatorios y d) la información procedente de otras pruebas similares en la lengua inglesa, fundamentalmente. En segundo lugar, se describe la prueba elaborada, su administración y los resultados obtenidos a distintos niveles, destacando los relativos a la delimitación de perfiles fonológicos correspondientes a cada una de las edades estudiadas. En un aparato final se discuten las repercusiones de la informació recogida, desde la perspectiva de la prevención y el diagnóstico de las alteraciones a este nivel

Consonants, vowels and levels of specification in the phonological representations of the first lexicon: a review.

A review of the main studies on the format of lexical representation in the initial stages of language development is presented. Current investigations reveal a significant level of phonological specificity in the representation of words in the first lexicon, even before age two years. These results can be explained from a theoretical framework that posits the existence of multiple levels of encoding and suggests differences in accessing the represented information as a function of task demands or vocabulary size. The existence of possible differences in the degree of specification of vowels and consonants represented in the lexicon is an area of current debate. This article discusses the present state of this debate in the light of recent findings from research with different languages, in populations with different linguistic environments (monolingual and bilingual) and from experimental approaches that involve varying degrees of cognitive demands

Cognitive and learning outcomes in late preterm infants at school age: a systematic review

Late preterm children born between 340/7 and 366/7 weeks' gestation account for ≈70% of prematurely born infants. There is growing concern about this population at risk of mild neurodevelopmental problems, learning disabilities and lower academic performance. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement, this paper analyzes recent published evidence from 16selected studies involving late preterm children and control group assessments at preschool and/or school age, mainly focusing on cognitive functioning, language learning and academic achievement. The review identifies the assessment tools used in these studies (standardized tests, parental questionnaires and laboratory tasks) and the areas being evaluated from preschool (age 3 years) to primary school levels. Results reveal the presence of mild difficulties, pointing to suboptimal outcomes in areas such as executive function, short term verbal memory, literacy skills, attention and processing speed. Some difficulties are transient, but others persist, possibly compromising academic achievement, as suggested by the few studies reporting on higher risk for poor school performance. Given the increasing number of late preterm children in our society the review highlights the need to implement screening strategies to facilitate early risk detection and minimize the negative effects of this morbidity in childhood

El cervell immadur: habilitats inicials de percepció de la parla en el prematur

Aquest article planteja les conseqüències de la prematuritat sobre l'adquisició del llenguatge i revisa treballs recents que han analitzat les capacitats inicials de percepció de la parla del prematur. Es discuteix un tema de controvèrsia actual sobre si l'exposició a la llengua abans de l'edat a terme podria accelerar d'alguna manera aquestes capacitats inicials, malgrat la immaduresa cerebral, i repercutir favorablement en les etapes inicials d'adquisició del llenguatge. Els resultats de la recerca no donen un suport clar a aquesta hipòtesi. La interacció entre els factors maduratius i l'experiència amb el llenguatge és complexa en aquesta població de risc

Multi-Pattern Visual Statistical Learning in Monolinguals and Bilinguals

To date, the impact of bilingualism on statistical learning remains unclear. Here we test a novel visual statistical learning task that affords simultaneous learning of two types of regularities: co-occurrence regularities between pairs of elements and the co-occurrence of visual features that could define categories. We compared performance by English monolinguals, Spanish-Catalan bilinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals, as previous studies have suggested that bilinguals might be more open than monolinguals to the presence of multiple regularities, though no previous studies have tested the learning of multiple patterns within a single task. We demonstrated that both monolingual and bilingual participants could learn the co-occurrence probabilities and the features that define categories. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate that learners can extract co-occurrence regularities along two dimensions in the visual modality. However, we did not detect significant differences in performance across groups. We close by discussing the implications for the growing literature on bilingualism and statistical learning

Connecting perception and production in early Catalan-Spanish bilingual children: language dominance and quality of input effects

This study investigates perception and production of the Catalan mid-vowel /e/-/ɛ/ contrast by two groups of 4.5-year-old Catalan-Spanish bilingual children, differing in language dominance. Perception was assessed with an XAB discrimination task involving familiar words and non-words. Production accuracy was measured using a familiar-word elicitation task. Overall, Catalan-dominant bilingual children outperformed Spanish-dominant bilinguals, the latter showing high variability in production accuracy, while being slightly above chance level in perception. No correlation between perception and production performance could be established in this group. The effect of language dominance alone could not explain the Spanish-dominant participants' performance, but quality of Catalan input (native vs. accented speech) was identified as an important factor behind familiar-word production and the inaccurate representation of the target contrast in the lexicon of the bilinguals' less-dominant language. More fine-grained measurements of experience-related factors are needed for a full understanding of the acquisition of challenging contrasts in bilingual contexts

Rapid gains in segmenting fluent speech when words match the rhythmic unit: evidence from infants acquiring syllable-timed languages

The ability to extract word-forms from sentential contexts represents an initial step in infants' process toward lexical acquisition. By age 6 months the ability is just emerging and evidence of it is restricted to certain testing conditions. Most research has been developed with infants acquiring stress-timed languages (English, but also German and Dutch) whose rhythmic unit is not the syllable. Data from infants acquiring syllable-timed languages are still scarce and limited to French (European and Canadian), partially revealing some discrepancies with English regarding the age at which word segmentation ability emerges. Research reported here aims at broadening this cross-linguistic perspective by presenting first data on the early ability to segment monosyllabic word-forms by infants acquiring Spanish and Catalan. Three different language groups (two monolingual and one bilingual) and two different age groups (8- and 6-month-old infants) were tested using natural language and a modified version of the HPP with familiarization to passages and testing on words. Results revealed positive evidence of word segmentation in all groups at both ages, but critically, the pattern of preference differed by age. A novelty preference was obtained in the older groups, while the expected familiarity preference was only found at the younger age tested, suggesting more advanced segmentation ability with an increase in age. These results offer first evidence of an early ability for monosyllabic word segmentation in infants acquiring syllable-timed languages such as Spanish or Catalan, not previously described in the literature. Data show no impact of bilingual exposure in the emergence of this ability and results suggest rapid gains in early segmentation for words that match the rhythm unit of the native language

Right Structural and Functional Reorganization in Four-Year-Old Children with Perinatal Arterial Ischemic Stroke Predict Language Production

Brain imaging methods have contributed to shed light on the mechanisms of recovery after early brain insult. The assumption that the unaffected right hemisphere can take over language functions after left perinatal stroke is still under debate. Here, we report how patterns of brain structural and functional reorganization were associated with language outcomes in a group of 4-year-old children with left perinatal arterial ischemic stroke. Specifically, we gathered specific fine-grained developmental measures of receptive and productive aspects of language as well as standardized measures of cognitive development. We also collected structural neuroimaging data as well as functional activations during a passive listening story-telling fMRI task and a resting state session (rs-fMRI). Children with a left perinatal stroke showed larger lateralization indices of both structural and functional connectivity of the dorsal language pathway towards the right hemisphere that, in turn, were associated with better language outcomes. Importantly, the pattern of structural asymmetry was significantly more right-lateralized in children with a left perinatal brain insult than in a group of matched healthy controls. These results strongly suggest that early lesions of the left dorsal pathway and the associated perisylvian regions can induce the inter-hemispheric transfer of language functions to right homolog regions. This study provides combined evidence of structural and functional brain reorganization of language networks after early stroke with strong implications for neurobiological models of language development

Avaluació del desenvolupament fonològic en nens catalanoparlants de 3 a 7 anys

El present llibre recull, en primer lloc, la investigació que es va presentar a l’I.C.E. de la Universitat de Barcelona l’any 1983, en el marc de la convocatòria d’ajuts per a la recerca educativa d’aquell mateix any, i en segon lloc, una revisió i ampliació del treball inicial pensades per a facilitar la seva aplicació en el medi escolar. La necessitat de poder disposar d’unes dades sobre el desenvolupament fonològic i articulatori, obtingudes a partir d’una població infantil catalanoparlant va ser un dels determinants de la present investigació. Aquesta necessitat arrenca tant de l’àmbit escolar com del clínic. En primer lloc era necessari disposar d’un instrument d’anàlisi que facilités la detecció de nens amb problemes articulatoris i/o fonologies. Els avantatges de la prova elaborada rauen precisament en el fet que la valoració d’uns resultats concrets es fa comparant-los amb dades de subjectes de la mateixa població, i no amb dades normatives sovint corresponents a poblacions que ni tan sols tenen en comú una mateixa llengua..

ATiPAP : desenvolupament de materials docents amb suport multimedia pels continguts d'Atenció, Percepció Auditiva i de la Parla adaptats als crédits ECTS i a l'EEES dins l'ensenyament de Psicologia

El projecte ha permès finançar el suport tècnic necessari per a poder desenvolupar materials informatitzats corresponents a activitats teòrico-pràctiques de l’assignatura troncal de la llicenciatura de Psicologia (actualment també en el Grau) “Percepció i Atenció”. Els materials desenvolupats corresponen a diferents punts del programa de l’assignatura i són els següents: demostració de la tècnica d’ombrejat per l’anàlisi de l’atenció focalitzada; parpelleig atencional en sèries de presentacions ràpides d’informació visual (RSVP); canvis encoberts de l’atenció i el mecanisme d’inhibició de retorn; efectes dels filtrats sobre la percepció de la parla i la música; il·lusions auditives i els principis d’organització de la informació sonora complexa; la percepció categòrica dels sons de la parla i la naturalesa continua del processament lèxic (paradigma d’obertura successiva o gating). Per totes aquelles activitats amb continguts de llenguatge, s’han desenvolupat dues versions equivalents, catalana i castellana, per permetre que els estudiants fessin la pràctica en la seva llengua dominant. A la primera fase del projecte, al llarg del curs 2006-07, es van preparar els materials i la programació de les diferents pràctiques i es van poder identificar alguns problemes que es van solucionar posteriorment. En el curs 2007-08 totes les activitats de pràctiques ja es van fer accessibles als estudiants (Plataforma Moodle, Campus Virtual) i la valoració sobre el seu funcionament, feta pels estudiants mitjançant qüestionaris, va ser satisfactòria en més d’un 95% dels casos (els únics problemes detectats estaven relacionats amb les característiques dels ordinadors del usuaris i del navegador utilitzat per accedir als materials). La valoració de les activitats per part dels estudiants va ser globalment positiva i, en el seu ús continuat al llarg dels cursos 2008-09 i 2009-10, s’ha observat una participació creixent (accés voluntari a les activitats) i un aprofitament millor de la informació presentada, que es tradueix en millores en les puntuacions obtingudes en les avaluacions de l'assignatura.The project provided financial support to develop a set of computerized materials corresponding to the theoretical-practical activities included in the compulsory course of “Perception and Attention” within the degree in Psychology in our Faculty (UB). The materials/activities that have been developed correspond to different topics in the program of this course and they are the following: demonstration of the shadowing technique for the analysis of focused attention; attention blink in rapid series of visual presentation (RSVP); covert changes in attention and the mechanism of inhibition of return; effects of acoustic filters on the perception of speech and music; auditory illusions and the organizing principles of complex auditory information; the categorical perception of speech sounds and the continuous nature of lexical processing (gating paradigm). For all those activities with language content, two parallel versions were created, in Catalan and Spanish, so that students could choose to do the activity in their preferred language. In Phase I of this project, during academic year 2006-07, the preparation of the material and programming of the different activities was done. Some problems were identified and eventually solved. In academic year 2007-08 all the activities were available for the students at the Virtual Campus (Moodle Platform). Using an on-line questionnaire, students expressed their satisfaction with the tasks and no problems were identified for more than 95% of the users (problems were minimal and restricted to the students’ own computers or the navigator used to access the activity). Positive ratings of the planned activities were obtained from the students and, after continued usage in courses 2008-09 and 2009-10, we have observed an increase in the number of participants in these activities (voluntary access) and greater profit relative to the content of the activity, which can be reflected in students’ better results in the assessment procedures used in this course