Can children with Autism Spectrum Disorders learn new vocabulary from linguistic context?

This study investigated whether children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can learn vocabulary from linguistic context. Thirty-five children with ASD (18 with age-appropriate structural language; 17 with language impairment [ALI]) and 29 typically developing peers were taught 20 Science words. Half were presented in linguistic context from which meaning could be inferred, whilst half were accompanied by an explicit definition. Children with ASD were able to learn from context. Condition did not influence phonological learning, but receptive semantic knowledge was greatest in the context condition, and expressive semantic knowledge greatest in the definitional condition. The ALI group learnt less than their peers. This suggests that at least some vocabulary should be taught explicitly, and children with ALI may need additional tuition

Factors Associated With Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Children Who Stutter

PURPOSE: Children and adolescents who stutter may be at risk of elevated anxiety and depression symptoms, although studies have indicated variability in reported internalizing symptoms in this population. This study considers the association between anxiety and depression symptoms and stuttering, as well as child, family, and contextual factors that may affect this association. METHOD: Children and adolescents who stutter may be at risk of elevated anxiety and depression symptoms, although studies have indicated variability in reported internalizing symptoms in this population. This study considers the association between anxiety and depression symptoms and stuttering, as well as child, family, and contextual factors that may affect this association. RESULTS: Family history of adverse mental health was found to significantly predict anxiety and depression scores. Age also predicted depression scores, with older children reporting higher scores. CONCLUSIONS: Family history of adverse mental health is associated with higher self-reported internalizing symptoms in children who stutter. The interaction between child, family, and contextual factors may change with age, and this requires further exploration in larger, longitudinal studies. The association between bullying and anxiety scores indicates the importance of anti-bullying initiatives in promoting psychosocial development in school-age children who stutter. This study also highlights the contribution of known risk factors for mental health, such as family history, to variability in symptom reporting

Prevalence and functional impact of social (pragmatic) communication disorders

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2) for measuring social-pragmatic communication deficits and to ascertain their prevalence and functional impact in a community sample. METHODS: We used parent and teacher responses to the CCC-2 to approximate inclusion (poor social-pragmatic skills) and exclusion (poor structural language skills or autistic symptomatology) criteria for social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD). We tested the prevalence of social-pragmatic deficits in a population-based sample of children (n = 386) aged 5-6 years old using CCC-2 algorithms. We also investigated the academic and behavioural profiles of children with broadly defined limitations in social-pragmatic competence on the CCC-2. RESULTS: Regardless of the diagnostic algorithm used, the resulting prevalence rates for social-pragmatic deficits indicated that very few children had isolated social-communication difficulties (0-1.3%). However, a larger proportion of children (range: 6.1-10.5%) had social-pragmatic skills outside the expected range alongside structural language difficulties and/or autism spectrum symptoms, and this profile was associated with a range of adverse academic and behavioural outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: A considerable proportion of children in the early years of primary school has social-pragmatic deficits that interfere with behaviour and scholastic activity; however, these rarely occur in isolation. Exclusionary criteria that include structural language may lead to underidentification of individuals with social-pragmatic deficits that may benefit from tailored support and intervention

Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Children and Adolescents Who Stutter: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are elevated symptoms of anxiety or depression in children and adolescents (aged 2-18 years) who stutter, and to identify potential moderators of increased symptom severity. METHOD: We conducted a preregistered systematic review of databases and gray literature; 13 articles met criteria for inclusion. A meta-analysis using robust variance estimation was conducted with 11 cohort studies comparing symptoms of anxiety in children and adolescents who do and do not stutter. Twenty-six effect sizes from 11 studies contributed to the summary effect size for anxiety symptoms (851 participants). Meta-analysis of depression outcomes was not possible due to the small number of studies. RESULTS: The summary effect size indicates that children and adolescents who stutter present with increased anxiety symptoms (g = 0.42) compared with nonstuttering peers. There were insufficient studies to robustly analyze depression symptoms, and qualitative review is provided. No significant between-groups differences were reported in any of the depression studies. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary evidence indicates elevated symptoms of anxiety in some children and adolescents who stutter relative to peers. There was a tendency toward higher depression scores in this population, although reported between-groups differences did not reach statistical significance. These findings require replication in larger, preferably longitudinal studies that consider factors that may moderate risk. Nevertheless, our findings highlight a need for careful monitoring of mental health and well-being in young people who stutter. Supplemental Materials: http://osf.io/5m6zv

Inhibitory control predicts growth in irregular word reading: Evidence from a large-scale longitudinal study

Irregular words cannot be read correctly by decoding letters into sounds using the most common letter-sound mapping relations. They are difficult to read and learn. Cognitive models of word reading and development as well as empirical data suggest that inhibitory control might be important for irregular word reading and its development. The current study tested this in a U.K. population-based cohort (N = 529, 52.74% male, 90.17% White) in which children were assessed longitudinally at ages 5-6, 7-8, and 10-11 years. Results showed that inhibitory control did not predict concurrent irregular word reading after controlling for the covariates of decoding and vocabulary. However, inhibitory control made a small but significant contribution to growth in irregular word reading across time points, over and above vocabulary (decoding did not predict growth). Therefore, children might need to inhibit the predisposition to overgeneralize the most common relations between letters and sounds when learning to read irregular words. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Sources of variation in developmental language disorders: evidence from eye-tracking studies of sentence production

Skilled sentence production involves distinct stages of message conceptualization (deciding what to talk about) and message formulation (deciding how to talk about it). Eye-movement paradigms provide a mechanism for observing how speakers accomplish these aspects of production in real time. These methods have recently been applied to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (LI) in an effort to reveal qualitative differences between groups in sentence production processes. Findings support a multiple-deficit account in which language production is influenced not only by lexical and syntactic constraints, but also by variation in attention control, inhibition and social competence. Thus, children with ASD are especially vulnerable to atypical patterns of visual inspection and verbal utterance. The potential to influence attentional focus and prime appropriate language structures are considered as a mechanism for facilitating language adaptation and learning

How do young children learn abstract concepts? - Final public report

Research by Gabriella Vigliocco, Courtenay Norbury and Marta Ponari (supported by the Nuffield Foundation) uncovers some basic facts about how children learn words and concepts like "idea", "philosophy" and "culture