11 research outputs found
Editorial Perspective: Speaking up for developmental language disorder - the top 10 priorities for research
Developmental language disorder (DLD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental conditions, yet is chronically underserved, with far fewer children receiving clinical services than expected from prevalence estimates, and very little research attention relative to other neurodevelopmental conditions of similar prevalence and severity. This editorial describes a research priority-setting exercise undertaken by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, which aims to redress this imbalance. From consultations with researchers, practitioners and individuals with lived experience, 10 research priorities emerge. Our goal is to share these priorities with the wider research community, to raise awareness and encourage research collaboration to improve outcomes for young people with DLD
Gesture Production in Language Impairment:It's Quality, Not Quantity, That Matters
PURPOSE:
The aim of this study was to determine whether children with language impairment (LI) use gesture to compensate for their language difficulties. Method: The present study investigate d gesture accuracy and frequency i n children with LI (n = 21 ) across gesture imitation, gesture elicitation , spontaneous narrative and interactive problem solving tasks, relative to typically developing (TD) peers (n = 18 ) and peers with low language (LL) and educational concerns (n=21).
RESULTS:
C hildren with LI showed weaknesses in gesture accuracy (imitation and gesture elicitation ) in comparison to TD peers , but no differences in gesture rate . Children with LL only showed weaknesses in gesture imitation and used significantly more gest ures than TD peers during parent - child interaction. Across the whole sample, motor abilities were significantly related to gesture accuracy but not gesture rate. In addition, children with LI produce d proportionately more extending gestures, suggesting that they may use gesture to replace words that they are unable to articulate verbally.
CONCLUSION:
The results support the notion that gesture and language form a tightly linked communication system in which gestured eficits are seen alongside difficulties with spoken communication. Furthermore, it is the quality, not quantity of gestures that distinguish children with LI from typical peers
Does a childâs language ability affect the correspondence between parent and teacher ratings of ADHD symptoms?
Background: Rating scales are often used to identify children with potential Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD), yet there are frequently discrepancies between informants which may be moderated by child
characteristics. The current study asked whether correspondence between parent and teacher ratings on the
Strengths and Weakness of ADHD symptoms and Normal behaviour scale (SWAN) varied systematically with child
language ability.
Method: Parent and teacher SWAN questionnaires were returned for 200 children (aged 61â81 months); 106 had
low language ability (LL) and 94 had typically developing language (TL). After exploring informant correspondence
(using Pearson correlation) and the discrepancy between raters, we report inter-class correlation coefficients, to
assess inter-rater reliability, and Cohenâs kappa, to assess agreement regarding possible ADHD caseness.
Results: Correlations between informant ratings on the SWAN were moderate. Children with LL were rated as
having increased inattention and hyperactivity relative to children with TL; teachers, however, rated children with LL
as having more inattention than parents. Inter-rater reliability of the SWAN was good and there were no systematic
differences between the LL and TL groups. Case agreement between parent and teachers was fair; this varied by
language group with poorer case agreement for children with LL.
Conclusion: Childrenâs language abilities affect the discrepancy between informant ratings of ADHD symptomatology
and the agreement between parents and teachers regarding potential ADHD caseness. The assessment of childrenâs
core language ability would be a beneficial addition to the ADHD diagnostic process.</p
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The Role of Linguistic Information in Learning Abstract Words:Evidence from Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
Accounts of abstract word learning suggest that learning thesewords relies primarily on access to linguistic cues, such as thestatistical co-occurrence of words with similar semanticproperties. Thus, children with language impairment (LI),who by definition have impoverished access to linguisticcontext, should have disproportionate impairments in abstractword knowledge. Here, we compared verbal definitions andlexical decisions to both abstract and concrete words ofchildren with LI (ages 8 to 13) and both age-matched andvocabulary-matched typically developing (TD) peers. Relativeto age-matched peers, children with LI had significant deficitsin both tasks. Crucially, however, there was not greaterimpairment of abstract words. We conclude that that linguisticknowledge is not a sine qua non to learning abstract wordsand concepts and other mechanisms, which are notspecifically impaired in LI, are at play
Rotaru et al dataset
This dataset is deposited by the authors of manuscript âLearning Abstract Words and Concepts: Insights from Real and Simulated Developmental Language Disorderâ submitted to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. This dataset includes the data reported in âPart I: Are Abstract Words More Impaired than Concrete Words in Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)â of the manuscript, and in Supplementary materials
Figurative language comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analytic review
Concurrent word generation and motor performance: further evidence for language-motor interaction
Embodied/modality-specific theories of semantic memory propose that sensorimotor representations play an important role in perception and action. A large body of evidence supports the notion that concepts involving human motor action (i.e., semantic-motor representations) are processed in both language and motor regions of the brain. However, most studies have focused on perceptual tasks, leaving unanswered questions about language-motor interaction during production tasks. Thus, we investigated the effects of shared semantic-motor representations on concurrent language and motor production tasks in healthy young adults, manipulating the semantic task (motor-related vs. nonmotor-related words) and the motor task (i.e., standing still and finger-tapping). In Experiment 1 (n = 20), we demonstrated that motor-related word generation was sufficient to affect postural control. In Experiment 2 (n = 40), we demonstrated that motor-related word generation was sufficient to facilitate word generation and finger tapping. We conclude that engaging semantic-motor representations can have a reciprocal influence on motor and language production. Our study provides additional support for functional language-motor interaction, as well as embodied/modality-specific theories