30 research outputs found
Subject pronoun use by children with autism spectrum disorders
Abstract In the current study, storytelling and story retelling by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were analyzed to explore ambiguous third-person pronoun use in narratives. Twenty-three children diagnosed with ASD aged 6;1 to 14;3 and 17 typically-developing (TD) children aged 5;11 to 14;4 participated in the study. In the retelling task, no significant difference between the groups was found, suggesting that in less challenging tasks, children with ASD produce third-person subject pronouns appropriately. In the storytelling task, children with ASD produced more ambiguous third-person subject pronouns than did the TD children. The findings suggest a model in which children with ASD show deficits in the pragmatic domain of producing narratives
American sign language syntax and analogical reasoning skills are influenced by early acquisition and age of entry to signing schools for the deaf
Failing to acquire language in early childhood because of language deprivation is a rare and exceptional event, except in one population. Deaf children who grow up without access to indirect language through listening, speech-reading, or sign language experience language deprivation. Studies of Deaf adults have revealed that late acquisition of sign language is associated with lasting deficits. However, much remains unknown about language deprivation in Deaf children, allowing myths and misunderstandings regarding sign language to flourish. To fill this gap, we examined signing ability in a large naturalistic sample of Deaf children attending schools for the Deaf where American Sign Language (ASL) is used by peers and teachers. Ability in ASL was measured using a syntactic judgment test and language-based analogical reasoning test, which are two sub-tests of the ASL Assessment Inventory. The influence of two age-related variables were examined: whether or not ASL was acquired from birth in the home from one or more Deaf parents, and the age of entry to the school for the Deaf. Note that for non-native signers, this latter variable is often the age of first systematic exposure to ASL. Both of these types of age-dependent language experiences influenced subsequent signing ability. Scores on the two tasks declined with increasing age of school entry. The influence of age of starting school was not linear. Test scores were generally lower for Deaf children who entered the school of assessment after the age of 12. The positive influence of signing from birth was found for students at all ages tested (7;6-18;5 years old) and for children of all age-of-entry groupings. Our results reflect a continuum of outcomes which show that experience with language is a continuous variable that is sensitive to maturational age.Funding for this research was provided by IES: National Center for Special Education Research, Grant Award Number R234A100176. (R234A100176 - IES: National Center for Special Education Research)Published versio
âSo, I told him to look for friends!â Barriers and protecting factors that may facilitate inclusion for children with Language Disorder in everyday social settings:cross-cultural qualitative interviews with parents
Purpose: Although researchers have explored parental perspectives on childhood speech and language disorders, this work has mostly been conducted in English-speaking countries. Little is known about parental experiences across countries. Participation in the COST Action IS1406 âEnhancing childrenâs oral language skills across Europe and beyondâ provided an opportunity to conduct cross-cultural qualitative interviews. The aims were to explore how parents construe inclusion and/or exclusion of their child and how parents involve themselves in order to facilitate inclusion. Method: Parents from nine countries and with a child who had received services for speechlanguage disorder participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews. We used thematic analysis to analyze the data. Results: Two overarching themes were identified: âLanguage disabilities led to social exclusionâ and âPromoting pathways to social inclusionâ. Two subthemes were identified Interpersonal relationships are important and Deliberate proactiveness as stepping stones for social inclusion. Conclusions: Across countries, parents report that their childrenâs hidden disability causes misunderstandings that can lead to social exclusion and that they are important advocates for their children. It is important that the voices and experiences of parents of children with developmental disabilities are understood and acknowledged. Parentsâ recommendations about how to support social inclusion need to be addressed at all levels of society
Language in autism: domains, profiles and co-occurring conditions
This article reviews the current knowledge state on pragmatic and structural language abilities in autism and their potential
relation to extralinguistic abilities and autistic traits. The focus is on questions regarding autism language profles with
varying degrees of (selective) impairment and with respect to potential comorbidity of autism and language impairment: Is
language impairment in autism the co-occurrence of two distinct conditions (comorbidity), a consequence of autism itself
(no comorbidity), or one possible combination from a series of neurodevelopmental properties (dimensional approach)? As
for language profles in autism, three main groups are identifed, namely, (i) verbal autistic individuals without structural
language impairment, (ii) verbal autistic individuals with structural language impairment, and (iii) minimally verbal autistic
individuals. However, this tripartite distinction hides enormous linguistic heterogeneity. Regarding the nature of language
impairment in autism, there is currently no model of how language difculties may interact with autism characteristics and
with various extralinguistic cognitive abilities. Building such a model requires carefully designed explorations that address
specifc aspects of language and extralinguistic cognition. This should lead to a fundamental increase in our understanding of language impairment in autism, thereby paving the way for a substantial contribution to the question of how to best
characterize neurodevelopmental disorders
How aware is the public of the existence, characteristics and causes of language impairment in childhood and where have they heard about it? A European survey
Public awareness of language impairment in childhood (Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)) has been identified as an important determiner of research and clinical service delivery, yet studies directly assessing public awareness are lacking. This study surveyed awareness across 18 countries of Europe.Method: A questionnaire developed by an international team asked whether respondents had
heard of language impairment affecting children, what they thought its manifestations and causes
were and where they had heard of it. Respondents were also asked whether they had heard of
autism, dyslexia, ADD/ADHD and speech disorder. The questionnaire was administered to
members of the public in 18 European countries. A total of 1519 responses were obtained,
spanning 6 age groups, 4 educational level groups and 3 income level groups.Results: Across all but one country, significantly fewer people had heard of language impairment
than any of the other disorders (or 60 % compared to over 90 % for autism). Awareness tended to
be lowest in Eastern Europe and greatest in North-Western Europe, and was influenced by education
level, age and income level. People in countries with overall low and overall high
awareness differed in their views on manifestations and causes. People had heard of language
impairment and autism the same way - most frequently through the media, including Internet,
and less frequently through their childâs school or a medical professional.Discussion: The study confirms that awareness of language impairment and knowledge of the
breadth of its manifestations are low. It also suggests opportunities for how to increase awareness,
including greater media coverage of language impairment and more efficient use of venues such
as schools and healthcare. Ways in which cultural and linguistic differences may influence public
awareness efforts are discussed, including the translatability of clinical labels and scientific terms.
These may impact the acceptance of a common term and definition across all countries. As
awareness campaigns are gaining momentum, the findings of this study can serve as a baseline
against which to compare future findings.peer-reviewe
The acquisition of relative clause comprehension in Hebrew: a study of SLI and normal development
Semantic and phonological knowledge of native signers of American Sign Language (ASL) in a synonym task
Research investigating word recognition and word recall in hearing children has historically shown errors shifting from being primarily phonological to primarily semantic as children increase in age. Such findings exist for written word recognition (Bach & Underwood, 1970) and for spoken word recognition (Felzen & Anisfeld, 1970). Young children, at the beginning of elementary school, are more likely to falsely choose words that rhymed with the prompt items, when choosing the incorrect response. In contrast, older children (11-year-olds) are more likely to falsely choose words that are semantically related to the prompt items. The current study tested whether this phenomenon also holds true for native signers (Deaf children of Deaf parents) of American Sign Language (ASL). We explored the correct performance on an ASL synonyms task and the patterns of errors that appeared, as they can provide insight into what strategies children use when they do not know the right answer. Method 250 native signers aged 4;0-18;0 were tested. They were divided to younger age group at elementary school (4;0-11;0) and older age group at middle and high school (12;0-18;0). The task was a receptive 15-question multiple choice test of ASL synonyms (Hoffmeister, Greenwald, Bahan & Cole, 1989). Each question of the test consists of a prompt (1), the target (a), and three out of four additional possible response options: a semantic foil (b), a close phonological foil to the prompt (c), a distant phonological foil to the prompt (d) and an unrelated foil (e). Phonological distance was determined by the number of feature differences between the two signs