Infant discrimination of rapid auditory cues predicts later language impairment.

PubMed

Benasich, April A; Tallal, Paula

2002-10-17

The etiology and mechanisms of specific language impairment (SLI) in children are unknown. Differences in basic auditory processing abilities have been suggested to underlie their language deficits. Studies suggest that the neuropathology, such as atypical patterns of cerebral lateralization and cortical cellular anomalies, implicated in such impairments likely occur early in life. Such anomalies may play a part in the rapid processing deficits seen in this disorder. However, prospective, longitudinal studies in infant populations that are critical to examining these hypotheses have not been done. In the study described, performance on brief, rapidly-presented, successive auditory processing and perceptual-cognitive tasks were assessed in two groups of infants: normal control infants with no family history of language disorders and infants from families with a positive family history for language impairment. Initial assessments were obtained when infants were 6-9 months of age (M=7.5 months) and the sample was then followed through age 36 months. At the first visit, infants' processing of rapid auditory cues as well as global processing speed and memory were assessed. Significant differences in mean thresholds were seen in infants born into families with a history of SLI as compared with controls. Examination of relations between infant processing abilities and emerging language through 24 months-of-age revealed that threshold for rapid auditory processing at 7.5 months was the single best predictor of language outcome. At age 3, rapid auditory processing threshold and being male, together predicted 39-41% of the variance in language outcome. Thus, early deficits in rapid auditory processing abilities both precede and predict subsequent language delays. These findings support an essential role for basic nonlinguistic, central auditory processes, particularly rapid spectrotemporal processing, in early language development. Further, these findings provide a temporal diagnostic window during which future language impairments may be addressed.

Speech-language pathology findings in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: a systematic literature review.

PubMed

Machado-Nascimento, Nárli; Melo E Kümmer, Arthur; Lemos, Stela Maris Aguiar

2016-01-01

To systematically review the scientific production on the relationship between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Speech-language Pathology and to methodologically analyze the observational studies on the theme. Systematic review of the literature conducted at the databases Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System online (MEDLINE, USA), Literature of Latin America and the Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS, Brazil) and Spanish Bibliographic Index of Health Sciences (IBECS, Spain) using the descriptors: "Language", "Language Development", "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder", "ADHD" and "Auditory Perception". Articles published between 2008 and 2013. Inclusion criteria: full articles published in national and international journals from 2008 to 2013. Exclusion criteria: articles not focused on the speech-language pathology alterations present in the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The articles were read in full and the data were extracted for characterization of methodology and content. The 23 articles found were separated according to two themes: Speech-language Pathology and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The study of the scientific production revealed that the alterations most commonly discussed were reading disorders and that there are few reports on the relationship between auditory processing and these disorders, as well as on the role of the speech-language pathologist in the evaluation and treatment of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Encoding, Memory, and Transcoding Deficits in Childhood Apraxia of Speech

PubMed Central

Shriberg, Lawrence D.; Lohmeier, Heather L.; Strand, Edythe A.; Jakielski, Kathy J.

2013-01-01

Purpose A central question in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is whether the core phenotype is limited to transcoding (planning/programming) deficits or if speakers with CAS also have deficits in auditory-perceptual encoding (representational) and/or memory (storage and retrieval of representations) processes. We addressed this and other questions using responses to the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT: Shriberg et al., 2009). Method The SRT was administered to 369 individuals in four groups: (a) Typical Speech-Language (119), (b) Speech Delay-Typical Language (140), (c) Speech Delay-Language Impairment (70), and (d) idiopathic or neurogenetic CAS (40). Results CAS participants had significantly lower SRT competence, encoding, memory, and transcoding scores than controls. They were 8.3 times more likely than controls to have SRT transcoding scores below 80%. Conclusions Speakers with CAS have speech processing deficits in encoding, memory, and transcoding. The SRT currently has moderate diagnostic accuracy to identify transcoding deficits, the signature feature of CAS. PMID:22489736

The auditory basis of language impairments: temporal processing versus processing efficiency hypotheses.

PubMed

Hartley, Douglas E H; Hill, Penny R; Moore, David R

2003-12-01

Claims have been made that language-impaired children have deficits processing rapidly presented or brief sensory information. These claims, known as the 'temporal processing hypothesis', are supported by demonstrations that language-impaired children have excess backward masking (BM). One explanation for these results is that BM is developmentally delayed in these children. However, little was known about how BM normally develops. Recently, we assessed BM in normally developing 6- and 8-year-old children and adults. Results showed that BM thresholds continue to improve over a comparatively protracted period (>10 years old). We also analysed reported deficits in BM in language-impaired and younger children, in terms of a model of temporal resolution. This analysis suggests that poor processing efficiency, rather than deficits in temporal resolution, can account for these results. This 'processing efficiency hypothesis' was recently tested in our laboratory. This experiment measured BM as a function of delays between the tone and the noise in children and adults. Results supported the processing efficiency hypothesis, and suggested that reduced processing efficiency alone could account for differences between adults and children. These findings provide a new perspective on the mechanisms underlying communication disorders, and imply that remediation strategies should be directed towards improving processing efficiency, not temporal resolution.

Sleep Disorders as a Risk to Language Learning and Use.

PubMed

McGregor, Karla K; Alper, Rebecca M

2015-05-01

Are people with sleep disorders at higher risk for language learning deficits than healthy sleepers? Scoping Review. PubMed, Google Scholar, Trip Database, ClinicalTrials.gov. sleep disorders AND language AND learning; sleep disorders language learning -deprivation -epilepsy; sleep disorders AND verbal learning. 36. Children and adults with sleep disorders were at a higher risk for language problems than healthy sleepers. The language problems typically co-occurred with problems of attention and executive function (in children and adults), behavior (in children), and visual-spatial processing (in adults). Effects were typically small. Language problems seldom rose to a level of clinical concern but there were exceptions involving phonological deficits in children with sleep-disordered breathing and verbal memory deficits among adults with sleep-disordered breathing or idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder. Case history interviews should include questions about limited sleep, poor-quality sleep, snoring, and excessive daytime sleepiness. Medical referrals for clients with suspected sleep disorders are prudent.

Where language meets meaningful action: a combined behavior and lesion analysis of aphasia and apraxia.

PubMed

Weiss, Peter H; Ubben, Simon D; Kaesberg, Stephanie; Kalbe, Elke; Kessler, Josef; Liebig, Thomas; Fink, Gereon R

2016-01-01

It is debated how language and praxis are co-represented in the left hemisphere (LH). As voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping in LH stroke patients with aphasia and/or apraxia may contribute to this debate, we here investigated the relationship between language and praxis deficits at the behavioral and lesion levels in 50 sub-acute stroke patients. We hypothesized that language and (meaningful) action are linked via semantic processing in Broca's region. Behaviorally, half of the patients suffered from co-morbid aphasia and apraxia. While 24% (n = 12) of all patients exhibited aphasia without apraxia, apraxia without aphasia was rare (n = 2, 4%). Left inferior frontal, insular, inferior parietal, and superior temporal lesions were specifically associated with deficits in naming, reading, writing, or auditory comprehension. In contrast, lesions affecting the left inferior frontal gyrus, premotor cortex, and the central region as well as the inferior parietal lobe were associated with apraxic deficits (i.e., pantomime, imitation of meaningful and meaningless gestures). Thus, contrary to the predictions of the embodied cognition theory, lesions to sensorimotor and premotor areas were associated with the severity of praxis but not language deficits. Lesions of Brodmann area (BA) 44 led to combined apraxic and aphasic deficits. Data suggest that BA 44 acts as an interface between language and (meaningful) action thereby supporting parcellation schemes (based on connectivity and receptor mapping) which revealed a BA 44 sub-area involved in semantic processing.

Auditory Perception and Word Recognition in Cantonese-Chinese Speaking Children with and without Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kidd, Joanna C.; Shum, Kathy K.; Wong, Anita M.-Y.; Ho, Connie S.-H.

2017-01-01

Auditory processing and spoken word recognition difficulties have been observed in Specific Language Impairment (SLI), raising the possibility that auditory perceptual deficits disrupt word recognition and, in turn, phonological processing and oral language. In this study, fifty-seven kindergarten children with SLI and fifty-three language-typical…

Lexicality and Frequency in Specific Language Impairment: Accuracy and Error Data from Two Nonword Repetition Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Gary; Tamburelli, Marco; Watson, Sarah E.; Gobet, Fernand; Pine, Julian M.

2010-01-01

Purpose: Deficits in phonological working memory and deficits in phonological processing have both been considered potential explanatory factors in specific language impairment (SLI). Manipulations of the lexicality and phonotactic frequency of nonwords enable contrasting predictions to be derived from these hypotheses. Method: Eighteen typically…

Discourse Impairments Following Right Hemisphere Brain Damage: A Critical Review

PubMed Central

Johns, Clinton L.; Tooley, Kristen M.; Traxler, Matthew J.

2015-01-01

Right hemisphere brain damage (RHD) rarely causes aphasias marked by clear and widespread failures of comprehension or extreme difficulty producing fluent speech. Nonetheless, subtle language comprehension deficits can occur following unilateral RHD. In this article, we review the empirical record on discourse function following right hemisphere damage, as well as relevant work on non-brain damaged individuals that focuses on right hemisphere function. The review is divided into four sections that focus on discourse processing, inferencing, humor, and non-literal language. While the exact role that the right hemisphere plays in language processing, and the exact way that the two cerebral hemispheres coordinate their linguistic processes are still open to debate, our review suggests that the right hemisphere plays a critical role in managing inferred or implied information by maintaining relevant information and/or suppressing irrelevant information. Deficits in one or both of these mechanisms may account for discourse deficits following RHD. PMID:26085839

Syntactic processing as a marker for cognitive impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

PubMed Central

Tsermentseli, Stella; Leigh, P. Nigel; Taylor, Lorna J.; Radunovic, Aleksandar; Catani, Marco; Goldstein, Laura H.

2016-01-01

Despite recent interest in cognitive changes in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), investigations of language function looking at the level of word, sentence and discourse processing are relatively scarce. Data were obtained from 26 patients with sporadic ALS and 26 healthy controls matched for age, education, gender, anxiety, depression and executive function performance. Standardized language tasks included confrontation naming, semantic access, and syntactic comprehension. Quantitative production analysis (QPA) was used to analyse connected speech samples of the Cookie Theft picture description task. Results showed that the ALS patients were impaired on standardized measures of grammatical comprehension and action/verb semantics. At the level of discourse, ALS patients were impaired on measures of syntactic complexity and fluency; however, the latter could be better explained by disease related factors. Discriminant analysis revealed that syntactic measures differentiated ALS patients from controls. In conclusion, patients with ALS exhibit deficits in receptive and expressive language on tasks of comprehension and connected speech production, respectively. Our findings suggest that syntactic processing deficits seem to be the predominant feature of language impairment in ALS and that these deficits can be detected by relatively simple language tests. PMID:26312952

Syntactic processing as a marker for cognitive impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PubMed

Tsermentseli, Stella; Leigh, P Nigel; Taylor, Lorna J; Radunovic, Aleksandar; Catani, Marco; Goldstein, Laura H

2015-01-01

Despite recent interest in cognitive changes in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), investigations of language function looking at the level of word, sentence and discourse processing are relatively scarce. Data were obtained from 26 patients with sporadic ALS and 26 healthy controls matched for age, education, gender, anxiety, depression and executive function performance. Standardized language tasks included confrontation naming, semantic access, and syntactic comprehension. Quantitative production analysis (QPA) was used to analyse connected speech samples of the Cookie Theft picture description task. Results showed that the ALS patients were impaired on standardized measures of grammatical comprehension and action/verb semantics. At the level of discourse, ALS patients were impaired on measures of syntactic complexity and fluency; however, the latter could be better explained by disease related factors. Discriminant analysis revealed that syntactic measures differentiated ALS patients from controls. In conclusion, patients with ALS exhibit deficits in receptive and expressive language on tasks of comprehension and connected speech production, respectively. Our findings suggest that syntactic processing deficits seem to be the predominant feature of language impairment in ALS and that these deficits can be detected by relatively simple language tests.

Assessing working memory and language comprehension in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

MacDonald, M C; Almor, A; Henderson, V W; Kempler, D; Andersen, E S

2001-07-01

Studies of language impairments in patients with Alzheimer's disease have often assumed that impairments in linguistic working memory underlie comprehension deficits. Assessment of this hypothesis has been hindered both by vagueness of key terms such as "working memory" and by limitations of available working memory tasks, in that many such tasks either seem to have little relationship to language comprehension or are too confusing or difficult for Alzheimer's patients. Four experiments investigated the usefulness of digit ordering, a new task assessing linguistic working memory and/or language processing skill, in normal adults and patients with probable Alzheimer's disease. The digit ordering task was shown to be strongly correlated with the degree of dementia in Alzheimer's patients. The task correlated with measures of language processing on which patients and normal controls performed differently. The results are interpreted as indicating that linguistic representations, linguistic processing, and linguistic working memory are intertwined, such that a deficit of one (e.g., working memory) cannot be said to "cause" a deficit in the other. The implications of this approach are explored in terms of task demands in comprehension and memory measures, and interpretation of previous results in the literature. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Auditory processing efficiency deficits in children with developmental language impairments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartley, Douglas E. H.; Moore, David R.

2002-12-01

The ``temporal processing hypothesis'' suggests that individuals with specific language impairments (SLIs) and dyslexia have severe deficits in processing rapidly presented or brief sensory information, both within the auditory and visual domains. This hypothesis has been supported through evidence that language-impaired individuals have excess auditory backward masking. This paper presents an analysis of masking results from several studies in terms of a model of temporal resolution. Results from this modeling suggest that the masking results can be better explained by an ``auditory efficiency'' hypothesis. If impaired or immature listeners have a normal temporal window, but require a higher signal-to-noise level (poor processing efficiency), this hypothesis predicts the observed small deficits in the simultaneous masking task, and the much larger deficits in backward and forward masking tasks amongst those listeners. The difference in performance on these masking tasks is predictable from the compressive nonlinearity of the basilar membrane. The model also correctly predicts that backward masking (i) is more prone to training effects, (ii) has greater inter- and intrasubject variability, and (iii) increases less with masker level than do other masking tasks. These findings provide a new perspective on the mechanisms underlying communication disorders and auditory masking.

Music and language in degenerative disease of the brain.

PubMed

Polk, M; Kertesz, A

1993-05-01

Music and language functions were studied in two musicians with degenerative disease. Both patients were tested on a standardized language battery and a series of music tasks. In the first case with left cortical atrophy and primary progressive aphasia, expressive music functions were spared with impaired reception of rhythm. The second case with posterior cortical atrophy, greater on the right, was nonaphasic, had spatial agraphia, a visuopractic deficit, and severe expressive music deficits, but intact rhythm repetition. The aphasic patient showed dissociations between music and language in fluency and content; continuous, organized, although reiterative music production was contrasted with nonfluent language. The nonaphasic patient showed the opposite pattern of deficits; unmusical production with impaired melody and rhythm organization that was contrasted with fluent, intelligible language. The double dissociation between language and music functions supports the existence of independent cognitive systems, one consistent with conventional left lateralization models of language, temporal sequence, and analytic music processing and another with a right lateralization model of implicit music cognition.

Rethinking the Connection between Working Memory and Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archibald, Lisa M. D.; Harder Griebeling, Katherine

2016-01-01

Background: Working memory deficits have been found for children with specific language impairment (SLI) on tasks imposing increasing short-term memory load with or without additional, consistent (and simple) processing load. Aims: To examine the processing function of working memory in children with low language (LL) by employing tasks imposing…

Linguistic and auditory temporal processing in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Fortunato-Tavares, Talita; Rocha, Caroline Nunes; Andrade, Claudia Regina Furquim de; Befi-Lopes, Débora Maria; Schochat, Eliane; Hestvik, Arild; Schwartz, Richard G

2009-01-01

Several studies suggest the association of specific language impairment (SLI) to deficits in auditory processing. It has been evidenced that children with SLI present deficit in brief stimuli discrimination. Such deficit would lead to difficulties in developing phonological abilities necessary to map phonemes and to effectively and automatically code and decode words and sentences. However, the correlation between temporal processing (TP) and specific deficits in language disorders--such as syntactic comprehension abilities--has received little or no attention. To analyze the correlation between: TP (through the Frequency Pattern Test--FPT) and Syntactic Complexity Comprehension (through a Sentence Comprehension Task). Sixteen children with typical language development (8;9 +/- 1;1 years) and seven children with SLI (8;1 +/- 1;2 years) participated on the study. Accuracy of both groups decreased with the increase on syntactic complexity (both p < 0.01). On the between groups comparison, performance difference on the Test of Syntactic Complexity Comprehension (TSCC) was statistically significant (p = 0.02).As expected, children with SLI presented FPT performance outside reference values. On the SLI group, correlations between TSCC and FPT were positive and higher for high syntactic complexity (r = 0.97) than for low syntactic complexity (r = 0.51). Results suggest that FPT is positively correlated to syntactic complexity comprehension abilities.The low performance on FPT could serve as an additional indicator of deficits in complex linguistic processing. Future studies should consider, besides the increase of the sample, longitudinal studies that investigate the effect of frequency pattern auditory training on performance in high syntactic complexity comprehension tasks.

Language deficits, localization, and grammar: evidence for a distributive model of language breakdown in aphasic patients and neurologically intact individuals.

PubMed

Dick, F; Bates, E; Wulfeck, B; Utman, J A; Dronkers, N; Gernsbacher, M A

2001-10-01

Selective deficits in aphasic patients' grammatical production and comprehension are often cited as evidence that syntactic processing is modular and localizable in discrete areas of the brain (e.g., Y. Grodzinsky, 2000). The authors review a large body of experimental evidence suggesting that morpho-syntactic deficits can be observed in a number of aphasic and neurologically intact populations. They present new data showing that receptive agrammatism is found not only over a range of aphasic groups, but is also observed in neurologically intact individuals processing under stressful conditions. The authors suggest that these data are most compatible with a domain-general account of language, one that emphasizes the interaction of linguistic distributions with the properties of an associative processor working under normal or suboptimal conditions.

Language-Invariant Verb Processing Regions in Spanish-English Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Willms, Joanna L.; Shapiro, Kevin A.; Peelen, Marius V.; Pajtas, Petra E.; Costa, Albert; Moo, Lauren R.; Caramazza, Alfonso

2011-01-01

Nouns and verbs are fundamental grammatical building blocks of all languages. Studies of brain-damaged patients and healthy individuals have demonstrated that verb processing can be dissociated from noun processing at a neuroanatomical level. In cases where bilingual patients have a noun or verb deficit, the deficit has been observed in both languages. This suggests that the noun-verb distinction may be based on neural components that are common across languages. Here we investigated the cortical organization of grammatical categories in healthy, early Spanish-English bilinguals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a morphophonological alternation task. Four regions showed greater activity for verbs than for nouns in both languages: left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LMTG), left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG), pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and right middle occipital gyrus (RMOG); no regions showed greater activation for nouns. Multi-voxel pattern analysis within verb-specific regions showed indistinguishable activity patterns for English and Spanish, indicating language-invariant bilingual processing. In LMTG and LMFG, patterns were more similar within than across grammatical category, both within and across languages, indicating language-invariant grammatical class information. These results suggest that the neural substrates underlying verb-specific processing are largely independent of language in bilinguals, both at the macroscopic neuroanatomical level and at the level of voxel activity patterns. PMID:21515387

Language processing and executive functions in early treated adults with phenylketonuria (PKU).

PubMed

De Felice, Sara; Romani, Cristina; Geberhiwot, Tarekegn; MacDonald, Anita; Palermo, Liana

We provide an in-depth analysis of language functions in early-treated adults with phenylketonuria (AwPKUs, N = 15-33), as compared to age- and education-matched controls (N = 24-32; N varying across tasks), through: a. narrative production (the Cinderella story), b. language pragmatics comprehension (humour, metaphors, inferred meaning), c. prosody discrimination d. lexical inhibitory control and planning (Blocked Cyclic Naming; Hayling Sentence Completion Test, Burgess & Shallice, 1997). AwPKUs exhibited intact basic language processing (lexical retrieval, phonology/articulation, sentence construction). Instead, deficits emerged in planning and reasoning abilities. Compared to controls, AwPKUs were: less informative in narrative production (lower rate of Correct Information Units); slower in metaphorical understanding and inferred meaning; less accurate in focused lexical-search (Hayling test). These results suggest that i) executive deficits in PKU cannot be explained by an accumulation of lower-order deficits and/or general speed impairments, ii) executive functions engage dedicated neurophysiological resources, rather than simply being an emergent property of lower-level systems.

Bilingual language processing after a lesion in the left thalamic and temporal regions. A case report with early childhood onset

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

van Lieshout, P.; Renier, W.; Eling, P.

1990-02-01

This case study concerns an 18-year-old bilingual girl who suffered a radiation lesion in the left (dominant) thalamic and temporal region when she was 4 years old. Language and memory assessment revealed deficits in auditory short-term memory, auditory word comprehension, nonword repetition, syntactic processing, word fluency, and confrontation naming tasks. Both languages (English and Dutch) were found to be affected in a similar manner, despite the fact that one language (English) was acquired before and the other (Dutch) after the period of lesion onset. Most of the deficits appear to be related to verbal (short-term) memory dysfunction. Several hypotheses ofmore » subcortical involvement in memory processes are discussed with reference to existing theories in this area.« less

Infant information processing and family history of specific language impairment: converging evidence for RAP deficits from two paradigms

PubMed Central

Choudhury, Naseem; Leppanen, Paavo H.T.; Leevers, Hilary J.; Benasich, April A.

2007-01-01

An infant’s ability to process auditory signals presented in rapid succession (i.e. rapid auditory processing abilities [RAP]) has been shown to predict differences in language outcomes in toddlers and preschool children. Early deficits in RAP abilities may serve as a behavioral marker for language-based learning disabilities. The purpose of this study is to determine if performance on infant information processing measures designed to tap RAP and global processing skills differ as a function of family history of specific language impairment (SLI) and/or the particular demand characteristics of the paradigm used. Seventeen 6- to 9-month-old infants from families with a history of specific language impairment (FH+) and 29 control infants (FH−) participated in this study. Infants’ performance on two different RAP paradigms (head-turn procedure [HT] and auditory-visual habituation/recognition memory [AVH/RM]) and on a global processing task (visual habituation/recognition memory [VH/RM]) was assessed at 6 and 9 months. Toddler language and cognitive skills were evaluated at 12 and 16 months. A number of significant group differences were seen: FH+ infants showed significantly poorer discrimination of fast rate stimuli on both RAP tasks, took longer to habituate on both habituation/recognition memory measures, and had lower novelty preference scores on the visual habituation/recognition memory task. Infants’ performance on the two RAP measures provided independent but converging contributions to outcome. Thus, different mechanisms appear to underlie performance on operantly conditioned tasks as compared to habituation/recognition memory paradigms. Further, infant RAP processing abilities predicted to 12- and 16-month language scores above and beyond family history of SLI. The results of this study provide additional support for the validity of infant RAP abilities as a behavioral marker for later language outcome. Finally, this is the first study to use a battery of infant tasks to demonstrate multi-modal processing deficits in infants at risk for SLI. PMID:17286846

Teacher knowledge of basic language concepts and dyslexia.

PubMed

Washburn, Erin K; Joshi, R Malatesha; Binks-Cantrell, Emily S

2011-05-01

Roughly one-fifth of the US population displays one or more symptoms of dyslexia: a specific learning disability that affects an individual's ability to process written language. Consequently, elementary school teachers are teaching students who struggle with inaccurate or slow reading, poor spelling, poor writing, and other language processing difficulties. Findings from studies have indicated that teachers lack essential knowledge needed to teach struggling readers, particularly children with dyslexia. However, few studies have sought to assess teachers' knowledge and perceptions about dyslexia in conjunction with knowledge of basic language concepts related to reading instruction. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine elementary school teachers' knowledge of basic language concepts and their knowledge and perceptions about dyslexia. Findings from the present study indicated that teachers, on average, were able to display implicit skills related to certain basic language concepts (i.e. syllable counting), but failed to demonstrate explicit knowledge of others (i.e. phonics principles). Also, teachers seemed to hold the common misconception that dyslexia is a visual processing deficit rather than phonological processing deficit. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How Does Anxiety Affect Second Language Learning? A Reply to Sparks and Ganschow.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacIntyre, Peter D.

1995-01-01

Advocates that language anxiety can play a significant causal role in creating individual differences in both language learning and communication. This paper studies the role of anxiety in the language learning process and concludes that the linguistic coding deficit hypothesis errs in assigning epiphenomenal status to language anxiety. (57…

Amnesic H.M.'s performance on the language competence test: parallel deficits in memory and sentence production.

PubMed

MacKay, Donald G; James, Lori E; Hadley, Christopher B

2008-04-01

To test conflicting hypotheses regarding amnesic H.M.'s language abilities, this study examined H.M.'s sentence production on the Language Competence Test (Wiig & Secord, 1988). The task for H.M. and 8 education-, age-, and IQ-matched controls was to describe pictures using a single grammatical sentence containing prespecified target words. The results indicated selective deficits in H.M.'s picture descriptions: H.M. produced fewer single grammatical sentences, included fewer target words, and described the pictures less completely and accurately than did the controls. However, H.M.'s deficits diminished with repeated processing of unfamiliar stimuli and disappeared for familiar stimuli-effects that help explain why other researchers have concluded that H.M.'s language production is intact. Besides resolving the conflicting hypotheses, present results replicated other well-controlled sentence production results and indicated that H.M.'s language and memory exhibit parallel deficits and sparing. Present results comport in detail with binding theory but pose problems for current systems theories of H.M.'s condition.

The Roles of Family History of Dyslexia, Language, Speech Production and Phonological Processing in Predicting Literacy Progress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, Julia M.; Mundy, Ian R.; Cunningham, Anna J.

2014-01-01

It is well established that speech, language and phonological skills are closely associated with literacy, and that children with a family risk of dyslexia (FRD) tend to show deficits in each of these areas in the preschool years. This paper examines what the relationships are between FRD and these skills, and whether deficits in speech, language…

Intonation processing in congenital amusia: discrimination, identification and imitation.

PubMed

Liu, Fang; Patel, Aniruddh D; Fourcin, Adrian; Stewart, Lauren

2010-06-01

This study investigated whether congenital amusia, a neuro-developmental disorder of musical perception, also has implications for speech intonation processing. In total, 16 British amusics and 16 matched controls completed five intonation perception tasks and two pitch threshold tasks. Compared with controls, amusics showed impaired performance on discrimination, identification and imitation of statements and questions that were characterized primarily by pitch direction differences in the final word. This intonation-processing deficit in amusia was largely associated with a psychophysical pitch direction discrimination deficit. These findings suggest that amusia impacts upon one's language abilities in subtle ways, and support previous evidence that pitch processing in language and music involves shared mechanisms.

Visuo-Spatial Processing and Executive Functions in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marton, Klara

2008-01-01

Background: Individual differences in complex working memory tasks reflect simultaneous processing, executive functions, and attention control. Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show a deficit in verbal working memory tasks that involve simultaneous processing of information. Aims: The purpose of the study was to examine executive…

Language-invariant verb processing regions in Spanish-English bilinguals.

PubMed

Willms, Joanna L; Shapiro, Kevin A; Peelen, Marius V; Pajtas, Petra E; Costa, Albert; Moo, Lauren R; Caramazza, Alfonso

2011-07-01

Nouns and verbs are fundamental grammatical building blocks of all languages. Studies of brain-damaged patients and healthy individuals have demonstrated that verb processing can be dissociated from noun processing at a neuroanatomical level. In cases where bilingual patients have a noun or verb deficit, the deficit has been observed in both languages. This suggests that the noun-verb distinction may be based on neural components that are common across languages. Here we investigated the cortical organization of grammatical categories in healthy, early Spanish-English bilinguals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a morphophonological alternation task. Four regions showed greater activity for verbs than for nouns in both languages: left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LMTG), left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG), pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and right middle occipital gyrus (RMOG); no regions showed greater activation for nouns. Multi-voxel pattern analysis within verb-specific regions showed indistinguishable activity patterns for English and Spanish, indicating language-invariant bilingual processing. In LMTG and LMFG, patterns were more similar within than across grammatical category, both within and across languages, indicating language-invariant grammatical class information. These results suggest that the neural substrates underlying verb-specific processing are largely independent of language in bilinguals, both at the macroscopic neuroanatomical level and at the level of voxel activity patterns. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Oscillopathic Nature of Language Deficits in Autism: From Genes to Language Evolution

PubMed Central

Benítez-Burraco, Antonio; Murphy, Elliot

2016-01-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders involving a number of deficits to linguistic cognition. The gap between genetics and the pathophysiology of ASD remains open, in particular regarding its distinctive linguistic profile. The goal of this article is to attempt to bridge this gap, focusing on how the autistic brain processes language, particularly through the perspective of brain rhythms. Due to the phenomenon of pleiotropy, which may take some decades to overcome, we believe that studies of brain rhythms, which are not faced with problems of this scale, may constitute a more tractable route to interpreting language deficits in ASD and eventually other neurocognitive disorders. Building on recent attempts to link neural oscillations to certain computational primitives of language, we show that interpreting language deficits in ASD as oscillopathic traits is a potentially fruitful way to construct successful endophenotypes of this condition. Additionally, we will show that candidate genes for ASD are overrepresented among the genes that played a role in the evolution of language. These genes include (and are related to) genes involved in brain rhythmicity. We hope that the type of steps taken here will additionally lead to a better understanding of the comorbidity, heterogeneity, and variability of ASD, and may help achieve a better treatment of the affected populations. PMID:27047363

The role of language in mathematical development: evidence from children with specific language impairments.

PubMed

Donlan, Chris; Cowan, Richard; Newton, Elizabeth J; Lloyd, Delyth

2007-04-01

A sample (n=48) of eight-year-olds with specific language impairments is compared with age-matched (n=55) and language matched controls (n=55) on a range of tasks designed to test the interdependence of language and mathematical development. Performance across tasks varies substantially in the SLI group, showing profound deficits in production of the count word sequence and basic calculation and significant deficits in understanding of the place-value principle in Hindu-Arabic notation. Only in understanding of arithmetic principles does SLI performance approximate that of age-matched-controls, indicating that principled understanding can develop even where number sequence production and other aspects of number processing are severely compromised.

Rethinking the connection between working memory and language impairment.

PubMed

Archibald, Lisa M D; Harder Griebeling, Katherine

2016-05-01

Working memory deficits have been found for children with specific language impairment (SLI) on tasks imposing increasing short-term memory load with or without additional, consistent (and simple) processing load. To examine the processing function of working memory in children with low language (LL) by employing tasks imposing increasing processing loads with constant storage demands individually adjusted based on each participant's short-term memory capacity. School-age groups with LL (n = 17) and typical language with either average (n = 28) or above-average nonverbal intelligence (n = 15) completed complex working memory-span tasks varying processing load while keeping storage demands constant, varying storage demands while keeping processing load constant, simple storage-span tasks, and measures of language and nonverbal intelligence. Teachers completed questionnaires about cognition and learning. Significantly lower scores were found for the LL than either matched group on storage-based tasks, but no group differences were found on the tasks varying processing load. Teachers' ratings of oral expression and mathematics abilities discriminated those who did or did not complete the most challenging cognitive tasks. The results implicate a deficit in the phonological storage but not in the central executive component of working memory for children with LL. Teacher ratings may reveal personality traits related to perseverance of effort in cognitive research. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Semantic Processing in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coderre, Emily L.; Chernenok, Mariya; Gordon, Barry; Ledoux, Kerry

2017-01-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience difficulties with language, particularly higher-level functions like semantic integration. Yet some studies indicate that semantic processing of non-linguistic stimuli is not impaired, suggesting a language-specific deficit in semantic processing. Using a semantic priming task, we…

Damage to white matter bottlenecks contributes to language impairments after left hemispheric stroke.

PubMed

Griffis, Joseph C; Nenert, Rodolphe; Allendorfer, Jane B; Szaflarski, Jerzy P

2017-01-01

Damage to the white matter underlying the left posterior temporal lobe leads to deficits in multiple language functions. The posterior temporal white matter may correspond to a bottleneck where both dorsal and ventral language pathways are vulnerable to simultaneous damage. Damage to a second putative white matter bottleneck in the left deep prefrontal white matter involving projections associated with ventral language pathways and thalamo-cortical projections has recently been proposed as a source of semantic deficits after stroke. Here, we first used white matter atlases to identify the previously described white matter bottlenecks in the posterior temporal and deep prefrontal white matter. We then assessed the effects of damage to each region on measures of verbal fluency, picture naming, and auditory semantic decision-making in 43 chronic left hemispheric stroke patients. Damage to the posterior temporal bottleneck predicted deficits on all tasks, while damage to the anterior bottleneck only significantly predicted deficits in verbal fluency. Importantly, the effects of damage to the bottleneck regions were not attributable to lesion volume, lesion loads on the tracts traversing the bottlenecks, or damage to nearby cortical language areas. Multivariate lesion-symptom mapping revealed additional lesion predictors of deficits. Post-hoc fiber tracking of the peak white matter lesion predictors using a publicly available tractography atlas revealed evidence consistent with the results of the bottleneck analyses. Together, our results provide support for the proposal that spatially specific white matter damage affecting bottleneck regions, particularly in the posterior temporal lobe, contributes to chronic language deficits after left hemispheric stroke. This may reflect the simultaneous disruption of signaling in dorsal and ventral language processing streams.

The Role of Language in Nonlinguistic Stimuli: Comparing Inhibition in Children with Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roebuck, Hettie; Sindberg, Heidi; Weismer, Susan Ellis

2018-01-01

Purpose: There is conflicting evidence regarding if and how a deficit in executive function may be associated with developmental language impairment (LI). Nonlinguistic stimuli are now frequently used when testing executive function to avoid a language confound. However, it is possible that increased stimulus processing demands for nonlinguistic…

Grammatical Language Impairment and the Specificity of Cognitive Domains: Relations between Auditory and Language Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Lely, Heather K. J.; Rosen, Stuart; Adlard, Alan

2004-01-01

Grammatical-specific language impairment (G-SLI) in children, arguably, provides evidence for the existence of a specialised grammatical sub-system in the brain, necessary for normal language development. Some researchers challenge this, claiming that domain-general, low-level auditory deficits, particular to rapid processing, cause phonological…

Language impairment in Alzheimer’s disease and benefits of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

PubMed Central

Ferris, Steven H; Farlow, Martin

2013-01-01

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by progressively worsening deficits in several cognitive domains, including language. Language impairment in Alzheimer’s disease primarily occurs because of decline in semantic and pragmatic levels of language processing. Given the centrality of language to cognitive function, a number of language-specific scales have been developed to assess language deficits throughout progression of the disease and to evaluate the effects of pharmacotherapy on language function. Trials of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, used for the treatment of clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, have generally focused on overall cognitive effects. However, in the current report, we review data indicating specific beneficial effects of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors on language abilities in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, with a particular focus on outcomes among patients in the moderate and severe disease stages, during which communication is at risk and preservation is particularly important. PMID:23946647

Noise on, voicing off: Speech perception deficits in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Ziegler, Johannes C; Pech-Georgel, Catherine; George, Florence; Lorenzi, Christian

2011-11-01

Speech perception of four phonetic categories (voicing, place, manner, and nasality) was investigated in children with specific language impairment (SLI) (n=20) and age-matched controls (n=19) in quiet and various noise conditions using an AXB two-alternative forced-choice paradigm. Children with SLI exhibited robust speech perception deficits in silence, stationary noise, and amplitude-modulated noise. Comparable deficits were obtained for fast, intermediate, and slow modulation rates, and this speaks against the various temporal processing accounts of SLI. Children with SLI exhibited normal "masking release" effects (i.e., better performance in fluctuating noise than in stationary noise), again suggesting relatively spared spectral and temporal auditory resolution. In terms of phonetic categories, voicing was more affected than place, manner, or nasality. The specific nature of this voicing deficit is hard to explain with general processing impairments in attention or memory. Finally, speech perception in noise correlated with an oral language component but not with either a memory or IQ component, and it accounted for unique variance beyond IQ and low-level auditory perception. In sum, poor speech perception seems to be one of the primary deficits in children with SLI that might explain poor phonological development, impaired word production, and poor word comprehension. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

One size does not fit all: face emotion processing impairments in semantic dementia, behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease are mediated by distinct cognitive deficits.

PubMed

Miller, Laurie A; Hsieh, Sharpley; Lah, Suncica; Savage, Sharon; Hodges, John R; Piguet, Olivier

2012-01-01

Patients with frontotemporal dementia (both behavioural variant [bvFTD] and semantic dementia [SD]) as well as those with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show deficits on tests of face emotion processing, yet the mechanisms underlying these deficits have rarely been explored. We compared groups of patients with bvFTD (n = 17), SD (n = 12) or AD (n = 20) to an age- and education-matched group of healthy control subjects (n = 36) on three face emotion processing tasks (Ekman 60, Emotion Matching and Emotion Selection) and found that all three patient groups were similarly impaired. Analyses of covariance employed to partial out the influences of language and perceptual impairments, which frequently co-occur in these patients, provided evidence of different underlying cognitive mechanisms. These analyses revealed that language impairments explained the original poor scores obtained by the SD patients on the Ekman 60 and Emotion Selection tasks, which involve verbal labels. Perceptual deficits contributed to Emotion Matching performance in the bvFTD and AD patients. Importantly, all groups remained impaired on one task or more following these analyses, denoting a primary emotion processing disturbance in these dementia syndromes. These findings highlight the multifactorial nature of emotion processing deficits in patients with dementia.

Abnormal frequency discrimination in children with SLI as indexed by mismatch negativity (MMN).

PubMed

Rinker, Tanja; Kohls, Gregor; Richter, Cathrin; Maas, Verena; Schulz, Eberhard; Schecker, Michael

2007-02-14

For several decades, the aetiology of specific language impairment (SLI) has been associated with a central auditory processing deficit disrupting the normal language development of affected children. One important aspect for language acquisition is the discrimination of different acoustic features, such as frequency information. Concerning SLI, studies to date that examined frequency discrimination abilities have been contradictory. We hypothesized that an auditory processing deficit in children with SLI depends on the frequency range and the difference between the tones used. Using a passive mismatch negativity (MMN)-design, 13 boys with SLI and 13 age- and IQ-matched controls (7-11 years) were tested with two sine tones of different frequency (700Hz versus 750Hz). Reversed hemispheric activity between groups indicated abnormal processing in SLI. In a second time window, MMN2 was absent for the children with SLI. It can therefore be assumed that a frequency discrimination deficit in children with SLI becomes particularly apparent for tones below 750Hz and for a frequency difference of 50Hz. This finding may have important implications for future research and integration of various research approaches.

Visuospatial Immediate Memory in Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archibald, Lisa M. D.; Gathercole, Susan E.

2006-01-01

Purpose: Investigations of the cognitive processes underlying specific language impairment (SLI) have implicated deficits in verbal short-term and working memory and in particular the storage and processing of phonological information. This study investigated short-term and working memory for visuospatial material for a group of children with SLI,…

The Complexities of Complex Memory Span: Storage and Processing Deficits in Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archibald, Lisa M. D.; Gathercole, Susan E.

2007-01-01

This study investigated the verbal and visuospatial processing and storage skills of children with SLI and typically developing children. Fourteen school-age children with SLI, and two groups of typically developing children matched either for age or language abilities, completed measures of processing speed and storage capacity, and a set of…

Sequential and Simultaneous Processing Abilities of High-Functioning Autistic and Language-Impaired Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Mark H.; And Others

1991-01-01

This study found that a group of 20 children (ages 6-12) with autism and a group of 20 children with developmental receptive language disorder both manifested a relative sequential processing deficit. The groups did not differ significantly on overall sequential and simultaneous processing capabilities relative to their degree of language…

A Systematic Meta-Analytic Review of Evidence for the Effectiveness of the "Fast ForWord" Language Intervention Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strong, Gemma K.; Torgerson, Carole J.; Torgerson, David; Hulme, Charles

2011-01-01

Background: Fast ForWord is a suite of computer-based language intervention programs designed to improve children's reading and oral language skills. The programs are based on the hypothesis that oral language difficulties often arise from a rapid auditory temporal processing deficit that compromises the development of phonological…

Language Deficits in Pre-Symptomatic Huntington's Disease: Evidence from Hungarian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nemeth, Dezso; Dye, Cristina D.; Sefcsik, Tamas; Janacsek, Karolina; Turi, Zsolt; Londe, Zsuzsa; Klivenyi, Peter; Kincses, Zsigmond Tamas; Szabo, Nikoletta; Vecsei, Laszlo; Ullman, Michael T.

2012-01-01

A limited number of studies have investigated language in Huntington's disease (HD). These have generally reported abnormalities in rule-governed (grammatical) aspects of language, in both syntax and morphology. Several studies of verbal inflectional morphology in English and French have reported evidence of over-active rule processing, such as…

Auditory and Visual Sustained Attention in Children with Speech Sound Disorder

PubMed Central

Murphy, Cristina F. B.; Pagan-Neves, Luciana O.; Wertzner, Haydée F.; Schochat, Eliane

2014-01-01

Although research has demonstrated that children with specific language impairment (SLI) and reading disorder (RD) exhibit sustained attention deficits, no study has investigated sustained attention in children with speech sound disorder (SSD). Given the overlap of symptoms, such as phonological memory deficits, between these different language disorders (i.e., SLI, SSD and RD) and the relationships between working memory, attention and language processing, it is worthwhile to investigate whether deficits in sustained attention also occur in children with SSD. A total of 55 children (18 diagnosed with SSD (8.11±1.231) and 37 typically developing children (8.76±1.461)) were invited to participate in this study. Auditory and visual sustained-attention tasks were applied. Children with SSD performed worse on these tasks; they committed a greater number of auditory false alarms and exhibited a significant decline in performance over the course of the auditory detection task. The extent to which performance is related to auditory perceptual difficulties and probable working memory deficits is discussed. Further studies are needed to better understand the specific nature of these deficits and their clinical implications. PMID:24675815

The Comprehension Problems for Second-Language Learners with Poor Reading Comprehension despite Adequate Decoding: A Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K.

2016-01-01

We conducted a meta-analysis of 16 existing studies to examine the nature of the comprehension problems for children who were second-language learners with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. Results indicated that these children had deficits in oral language (d = −0.80), but these deficits were not as severe as their reading comprehension deficit (d = −2.47). Second-language learners also had weaker oral language skills compared to native-speaking children regardless of comprehension status (d = −0.84). We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the finding that second-language learners who are poor at reading comprehension despite adequate decoding have deficits in oral language but the deficit is not sufficient to explain their deficit in reading comprehension. PMID:28461711

The Comprehension Problems for Second-Language Learners with Poor Reading Comprehension despite Adequate Decoding: A Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K

2017-05-01

We conducted a meta-analysis of 16 existing studies to examine the nature of the comprehension problems for children who were second-language learners with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. Results indicated that these children had deficits in oral language ( d = -0.80), but these deficits were not as severe as their reading comprehension deficit ( d = -2.47). Second-language learners also had weaker oral language skills compared to native-speaking children regardless of comprehension status ( d = -0.84). We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the finding that second-language learners who are poor at reading comprehension despite adequate decoding have deficits in oral language but the deficit is not sufficient to explain their deficit in reading comprehension.

The heterogeneity of verbal short-term memory impairment in aphasia.

PubMed

Majerus, Steve; Attout, Lucie; Artielle, Marie-Amélie; Van der Kaa, Marie-Anne

2015-10-01

Verbal short-term memory (STM) impairment represents a frequent and long-lasting deficit in aphasia, and it will prevent patients from recovering fully functional language abilities. The aim of this study was to obtain a more precise understanding of the nature of verbal STM impairment in aphasia, by determining whether verbal STM impairment is merely a consequence of underlying language impairment, as suggested by linguistic accounts of verbal STM, or whether verbal STM impairment reflects an additional, specific deficit. We investigated this question by contrasting item-based STM measures, supposed to depend strongly upon language activation, and order-based STM measures, supposed to reflect the operation of specific, serial order maintenance mechanisms, in a sample of patients with single-word processing deficits at the phonological and/or lexical level. A group-level analysis showed robust impairment for both item and serial order STM aspects in the aphasic group relative to an age-matched control group. An analysis of individual profiles revealed an important heterogeneity of verbal STM profiles, with patients presenting either selective item STM deficits, selective order STM deficits, generalized item and serial order STM deficits or no significant STM impairment. Item but not serial order STM impairment correlated with the severity of phonological impairment. These results disconfirm a strong version of the linguistic account of verbal STM impairment in aphasia, by showing variable impairment to both item and serial order processing aspects of verbal STM. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Low level auditory skills compared to writing skills in school children attending third and fourth grade: evidence for the rapid auditory processing deficit theory?].

PubMed

Ptok, M; Meisen, R

2008-01-01

The rapid auditory processing defi-cit theory holds that impaired reading/writing skills are not caused exclusively by a cognitive deficit specific to representation and processing of speech sounds but arise due to sensory, mainly auditory, deficits. To further explore this theory we compared different measures of auditory low level skills to writing skills in school children. prospective study. School children attending third and fourth grade. just noticeable differences for intensity and frequency (JNDI, JNDF), gap detection (GD) monaural and binaural temporal order judgement (TOJb and TOJm); grade in writing, language and mathematics. correlation analysis. No relevant correlation was found between any auditory low level processing variable and writing skills. These data do not support the rapid auditory processing deficit theory.

Auditory Frequency Discrimination in Children with Specific Language Impairment: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, P. R.; Hogben, J. H.; Bishop, D. M. V.

2005-01-01

It has been proposed that specific language impairment (SLI) is caused by an impairment of auditory processing, but it is unclear whether this problem affects temporal processing, frequency discrimination (FD), or both. Furthermore, there are few longitudinal studies in this area, making it hard to establish whether any deficit represents a…

An Initial Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Word Processing in Preschoolers with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haebig, Eileen; Leonard, Laurence; Usler, Evan; Deevy, Patricia; Weber, Christine

2018-01-01

Purpose: Previous behavioral studies have found deficits in lexical--semantic abilities in children with specific language impairment (SLI), including reduced depth and breadth of word knowledge. This study explored the neural correlates of early emerging familiar word processing in preschoolers with SLI and typical development. Method: Fifteen…

Language Mapping in Multilingual Patients: Electrocorticography and Cortical Stimulation During Naming

PubMed Central

Cervenka, Mackenzie C.; Boatman-Reich, Dana F.; Ward, Julianna; Franaszczuk, Piotr J.; Crone, Nathan E.

2011-01-01

Multilingual patients pose a unique challenge when planning epilepsy surgery near language cortex because the cortical representations of each language may be distinct. These distinctions may not be evident with routine electrocortical stimulation mapping (ESM). Electrocorticography (ECoG) has recently been used to detect task-related spectral perturbations associated with functional brain activation. We hypothesized that using broadband high gamma augmentation (HGA, 60–150 Hz) as an index of cortical activation, ECoG would complement ESM in discriminating the cortical representations of first (L1) and second (L2) languages. We studied four adult patients for whom English was a second language, in whom subdural electrodes (a total of 358) were implanted to guide epilepsy surgery. Patients underwent ECoG recordings and ESM while performing the same visual object naming task in L1 and L2. In three of four patients, ECoG found sites activated during naming in one language but not the other. These language-specific sites were not identified using ESM. In addition, ECoG HGA was observed at more sites during L2 versus L1 naming in two patients, suggesting that L2 processing required additional cortical resources compared to L1 processing in these individuals. Post-operative language deficits were identified in three patients (one in L2 only). These deficits were predicted by ECoG spectral mapping but not by ESM. These results suggest that pre-surgical mapping should include evaluation of all utilized languages to avoid post-operative functional deficits. Finally, this study suggests that ECoG spectral mapping may potentially complement the results of ESM of language. PMID:21373361

Variability in Second Language Article Production: Beyond the Representational Deficit vs. Processing Constraints Debate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trenkic, Danijela

2007-01-01

This article addresses the debate on the causes of variability in production of second language functional morphology. It reports a study on article production by first language (L1) Serbian/second language (L2) English learners and compares their behaviour to that of a Turkish learner of English, reported in Goad and White (2004). In particular,…

Written Language Impairments in Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Reflection of Damage to Central Semantic and Phonological Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Maya L.; Beeson, Pelagie M.; Alexander, Gene E.; Rapcsak, Steven Z.

2012-01-01

Connectionist theories of language propose that written language deficits arise as a result of damage to semantic and phonological systems that also support spoken language production and comprehension, a view referred to as the "primary systems" hypothesis. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the primary systems account in a mixed…

Effects of fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance

PubMed Central

Materek, April; Cole, Carolyn A. S.; Levine, Terry M.; Mahone, E. Mark

2009-01-01

Reading disability (RD) typically consists of deficits in word reading accuracy and/or reading comprehension. While it is well known that word reading accuracy deficits lead to comprehension deficits (general reading disability, GRD), less is understood about neuropsychological profiles of children who exhibit adequate word reading accuracy but nevertheless develop specific reading comprehension deficits (S-RCD). Establishing the underlying neuropsychological processes associated with different RD types is essential for ultimately understanding core neurobiological bases of reading comprehension. To this end, the present study investigated isolated and contextual word fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance in 56 9- to 14-year-old children [21 typically developing (TD), 18 GRD, and 17 S-RCD]. Results indicated that TD and S-RCD participants read isolated words at a faster rate than participants with GRD; however, both RD groups had contextual word fluency and oral language weaknesses. Additionally, S-RCD participants showed prominent weaknesses in executive function. Implications for understanding the neuropsychological bases for reading comprehension are discussed. PMID:19396550

The Debate on Maturational Constraints in Bilingual Development: A Perspective from First-Language Attrition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmid, Monika S.

2014-01-01

A controversial topic in research on second-language acquisition is whether residual variability and optionality in high-proficiency late second-language (L2) learners is merely the outcome of cross-linguistic transfer, competition, and processing limitations, or whether late learners have an underlying representational deficit due to maturational…

Early neural disruption and auditory processing outcomes in rodent models: implications for developmental language disability

PubMed Central

Fitch, R. Holly; Alexander, Michelle L.; Threlkeld, Steven W.

2013-01-01

Most researchers in the field of neural plasticity are familiar with the “Kennard Principle,” which purports a positive relationship between age at brain injury and severity of subsequent deficits (plateauing in adulthood). As an example, a child with left hemispherectomy can recover seemingly normal language, while an adult with focal injury to sub-regions of left temporal and/or frontal cortex can suffer dramatic and permanent language loss. Here we present data regarding the impact of early brain injury in rat models as a function of type and timing, measuring long-term behavioral outcomes via auditory discrimination tasks varying in temporal demand. These tasks were created to model (in rodents) aspects of human sensory processing that may correlate—both developmentally and functionally—with typical and atypical language. We found that bilateral focal lesions to the cortical plate in rats during active neuronal migration led to worse auditory outcomes than comparable lesions induced after cortical migration was complete. Conversely, unilateral hypoxic-ischemic (HI) injuries (similar to those seen in premature infants and term infants with birth complications) led to permanent auditory processing deficits when induced at a neurodevelopmental point comparable to human “term,” but only transient deficits (undetectable in adulthood) when induced in a “preterm” window. Convergent evidence suggests that regardless of when or how disruption of early neural development occurs, the consequences may be particularly deleterious to rapid auditory processing (RAP) outcomes when they trigger developmental alterations that extend into subcortical structures (i.e., lower sensory processing stations). Collective findings hold implications for the study of behavioral outcomes following early brain injury as well as genetic/environmental disruption, and are relevant to our understanding of the neurologic risk factors underlying developmental language disability in human populations. PMID:24155699

Individual differences in language ability are related to variation in word recognition, not speech perception: evidence from eye movements.

PubMed

McMurray, Bob; Munson, Cheyenne; Tomblin, J Bruce

2014-08-01

The authors examined speech perception deficits associated with individual differences in language ability, contrasting auditory, phonological, or lexical accounts by asking whether lexical competition is differentially sensitive to fine-grained acoustic variation. Adolescents with a range of language abilities (N = 74, including 35 impaired) participated in an experiment based on McMurray, Tanenhaus, and Aslin (2002). Participants heard tokens from six 9-step voice onset time (VOT) continua spanning 2 words (beach/peach, beak/peak, etc.) while viewing a screen containing pictures of those words and 2 unrelated objects. Participants selected the referent while eye movements to each picture were monitored as a measure of lexical activation. Fixations were examined as a function of both VOT and language ability. Eye movements were sensitive to within-category VOT differences: As VOT approached the boundary, listeners made more fixations to the competing word. This did not interact with language ability, suggesting that language impairment is not associated with differential auditory sensitivity or phonetic categorization. Listeners with poorer language skills showed heightened competitors fixations overall, suggesting a deficit in lexical processes. Language impairment may be better characterized by a deficit in lexical competition (inability to suppress competing words), rather than differences in phonological categorization or auditory abilities.

Visual Attentional Engagement Deficits in Children with Specific Language Impairment and Their Role in Real-Time Language Processing

PubMed Central

Dispaldro, Marco; Leonard, Laurence B.; Corradi, Nicola; Ruffino, Milena; Bronte, Tiziana; Facoetti, Andrea

2015-01-01

In order to become a proficient user of language, infants must detect temporal cues embedded within the noisy acoustic spectra of ongoing speech by efficient attentional engagement. According to the neuro-constructivist approach, a multi-sensory dysfunction of attentional engagement – hampering the temporal sampling of stimuli – might be responsible for language deficits typically shown in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In the present study, the efficiency of visual attentional engagement was investigated in 22 children with SLI and 22 typically developing (TD) children by measuring attentional masking (AM). AM refers to impaired identification of the first of two sequentially presented masked objects (O1 and O2) in which the O1-O2 interval was manipulated. Lexical and grammatical comprehension abilities were also tested in both groups. Children with SLI showed a sluggish engagement of temporal attention, and individual differences in AM accounted for a significant percentage of unique variance in grammatical performance. Our results suggest that an attentional engagement deficit – probably linked to a dysfunction of the right fronto-parietal attentional network – might be a contributing factor in these children’s language impairments. PMID:23154040

Visual attentional engagement deficits in children with specific language impairment and their role in real-time language processing.

PubMed

Dispaldro, Marco; Leonard, Laurence B; Corradi, Nicola; Ruffino, Milena; Bronte, Tiziana; Facoetti, Andrea

2013-09-01

In order to become a proficient user of language, infants must detect temporal cues embedded within the noisy acoustic spectra of ongoing speech by efficient attentional engagement. According to the neuro-constructivist approach, a multi-sensory dysfunction of attentional engagement - hampering the temporal sampling of stimuli - might be responsible for language deficits typically shown in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In the present study, the efficiency of visual attentional engagement was investigated in 22 children with SLI and 22 typically developing (TD) children by measuring attentional masking (AM). AM refers to impaired identification of the first of two sequentially presented masked objects (O1 and O2) in which the O1-O2 interval was manipulated. Lexical and grammatical comprehension abilities were also tested in both groups. Children with SLI showed a sluggish engagement of temporal attention, and individual differences in AM accounted for a significant percentage of unique variance in grammatical performance. Our results suggest that an attentional engagement deficit - probably linked to a dysfunction of the right fronto-parietal attentional network - might be a contributing factor in these children's language impairments. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Domain-general sequence learning deficit in specific language impairment.

PubMed

Lukács, Agnes; Kemény, Ferenc

2014-05-01

Grammar-specific accounts of specific language impairment (SLI) have been challenged by recent claims that language problems are a consequence of impairments in domain-general mechanisms of learning that also play a key role in the process of language acquisition. Our studies were designed to test the generality and nature of this learning deficit by focusing on both sequential and nonsequential, and on verbal and nonverbal, domains. Twenty-nine children with SLI were compared with age-matched typically developing (TD) control children using (a) a serial reaction time task (SRT), testing the learning of motor sequences; (b) an artificial grammar learning (AGL) task, testing the extraction of regularities from auditory sequences; and (c) a weather prediction task (WP), testing probabilistic category learning in a nonsequential task. For the 2 sequence learning tasks, a significantly smaller proportion of children showed evidence of learning in the SLI than in the TD group (χ2 tests, p < .001 for the SRT task, p < .05 for the AGL task), whereas the proportion of learners on the WP task was the same in the 2 groups. The level of learning for SLI learners was comparable with that of TD children on all tasks (with great individual variation). Taken together, these findings suggest that domain-general processes of implicit sequence learning tend to be impaired in SLI. Further research is needed to clarify the relationship of deficits in implicit learning and language.

The Effects of Two Language-Focused Preschool Curricula on Children's Achievement through First Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaiser, Ann; Dickinson, David; Roberts, Megan; Darrow, Catherine; Freiberg, Jill; Hofer, Kerry

2011-01-01

Effective early language and literacy instruction to remediate language deficits and to prevent problems in learning to read is an important area for intervention research. Children with early language deficits who are growing up in poverty are dually at risk. Early deficits in language development predict both continued delays in language…

Can rhythmic auditory cuing remediate language-related deficits in Parkinson's disease?

PubMed

Kotz, Sonja A; Gunter, Thomas C

2015-03-01

Neurodegenerative changes of the basal ganglia in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) lead to motor deficits as well as general cognitive decline. Given these impairments, the question arises as to whether motor and nonmotor deficits can be ameliorated similarly. We reason that a domain-general sensorimotor circuit involved in temporal processing may support the remediation of such deficits. Following findings that auditory cuing benefits gait kinematics, we explored whether reported language-processing deficits in IPD can also be remediated via auditory cuing. During continuous EEG measurement, an individual diagnosed with IPD heard two types of temporally predictable but metrically different auditory beat-based cues: a march, which metrically aligned with the speech accent structure, a waltz that did not metrically align, or no cue before listening to naturally spoken sentences that were either grammatically well formed or were semantically or syntactically incorrect. Results confirmed that only the cuing with a march led to improved computation of syntactic and semantic information. We infer that a marching rhythm may lead to a stronger engagement of the cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuit that compensates dysfunctional striato-cortical timing. Reinforcing temporal realignment, in turn, may lead to the timely processing of linguistic information embedded in the temporally variable speech signal. © 2014 New York Academy of Sciences.

Overcoming the Grammar Deficit: The Role of Information Technology in Teaching German Grammar to Undergraduates.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Christopher

1998-01-01

Examines how application of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and information technology can be used to overcome "grammar deficit" seen in many British undergraduate German students. A combination of explicit, implicit, and exploratory grammar teaching approaches uses diverse resources, including word processing packages,…

The Roles of Sequencing and Verbal Working Memory in Sentence Comprehension Deficits in Parkinson's Disease

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hochstadt, Jesse; Nakano, Hiroko; Lieberman, Philip; Friedman, Joseph

2006-01-01

Studies of sentence comprehension deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients suggest that language processing involves circuits connecting subcortical and cortical regions. Anatomically segregated neural circuits appear to support different cognitive and motor functions. To investigate which functions are implicated in PD comprehension…

High-Risk Infants: Auditory Processing Deficits in Later Childhood.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilbride, Kathleen E.; And Others

To determine whether deficits warranting intervention are present in the later functioning of high-risk infants, 22 premature infants who experienced asphyxia or chronic lung disease (CLD) but who had no gross developmental abnormalities were evaluated. Assessments of auditory perception and receptive language ability were made during later…

Auditory Backward Masking Deficits in Children with Reading Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montgomery, Christine R.; Morris, Robin D.; Sevcik, Rose A.; Clarkson, Marsha G.

2005-01-01

Studies evaluating temporal auditory processing among individuals with reading and other language deficits have yielded inconsistent findings due to methodological problems (Studdert-Kennedy & Mody, 1995) and sample differences. In the current study, seven auditory masking thresholds were measured in fifty-two 7- to 10-year-old children (26…

A Review of the Language Deficit Position: Some Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives. IRCD Bulletin, Volume XII, Number 4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Clifford A.

During the past two decades the educational community has focused much attention on the language of urban minority children. Analytic positions set forth tend to assume varying degrees of either language deficit or language differences. The language deficit position is examined in this work from a sociolinguistic or psycholinguistic point of view.…

Analogical reasoning in children with specific language impairment: Evidence from a scene analogy task.

PubMed

Krzemien, Magali; Jemel, Boutheina; Maillart, Christelle

2017-01-01

Analogical reasoning is a human ability that maps systems of relations. It develops along with relational knowledge, working memory and executive functions such as inhibition. It also maintains a mutual influence on language development. Some authors have taken a greater interest in the analogical reasoning ability of children with language disorders, specifically those with specific language impairment (SLI). These children apparently have weaker analogical reasoning abilities than their aged-matched peers without language disorders. Following cognitive theories of language acquisition, this deficit could be one of the causes of language disorders in SLI, especially those concerning productivity. To confirm this deficit and its link to language disorders, we use a scene analogy task to evaluate the analogical performance of SLI children and compare them to controls of the same age and linguistic abilities. Results show that children with SLI perform worse than age-matched peers, but similar to language-matched peers. They are more influenced by increased task difficulty. The association between language disorders and analogical reasoning in SLI can be confirmed. The hypothesis of limited processing capacity in SLI is also being considered.

Reading disorders and dyslexia.

PubMed

Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

2016-12-01

We review current knowledge about the nature of reading development and disorders, distinguishing between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading comprehension. Children with decoding difficulties/dyslexia experience deficits in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming in the preschool years and beyond. These phonological/language difficulties appear to be proximal causes of the problems in learning to decode print in dyslexia. We review data from a prospective study of children at high risk of dyslexia to show that being at family risk of dyslexia is a primary risk factor for poor reading and children with persistent language difficulties at school entry are more likely to develop reading problems. Early oral language difficulties are strong predictors of later difficulties in reading comprehension. There are two distinct forms of reading disorder in children: dyslexia (a difficulty in learning to translate print into speech) and reading comprehension impairment. Both forms of reading problem appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. Implications for screening and for the delivery of robust interventions for language and reading are discussed.

Are Specific Language Impairment and Dyslexia Distinct Disorders?

PubMed Central

Catts, Hugh W.; Adlof, Suzanne M.; Hogan, Tiffany; Weismer, Susan Ellis

2010-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia are distinct developmental disorders. Method Study 1 investigated the overlap between SLI identified in kindergarten and dyslexia identified in 2nd, 4th, or 8th grades in a representative sample of 527 children. Study 2 examined phonological processing in a subsample of participants, including 21 children with dyslexia only, 43 children with SLI only, 18 children with SLI and dyslexia, and 165 children with typical language/reading development. Measures of phonological awareness and nonword repetition were considered. Results Study 1 showed limited but statistically significant overlap between SLI and dyslexia. Study 2 found that children with dyslexia or a combination of dyslexia and SLI performed significantly less well on measures of phonological processing than did children with SLI only and those with typical development. Children with SLI only showed only mild deficits in phonological processing compared with typical children. Conclusions These results support the view that SLI and dyslexia are distinct but potentially comorbid developmental language disorders. A deficit in phonological processing is closely associated with dyslexia but not with SLI when it occurs in the absence of dyslexia. PMID:16478378

Consequences of Co-Occurring Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder on Children's Language Impairments

PubMed Central

Ash, Andrea C.; Hogan, Tiffany P.

2015-01-01

Purpose Co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and communication disorders represent a frequently encountered challenge for school-based practitioners. The purpose of the present study was to examine in more detail the clinical phenomenology of co-occurring ADHD and language impairments (LIs). Method Measures of nonword repetition, sentence recall, and tense marking were collected from 57 seven- to nine-year-old children. The performances of children with ADHD+LI status were compared with those of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical development (TD). Results ADHD status had no independent detrimental impact on the affected children's LIs (SLI = ADHD+LI < TD). A modest positive correlation was found between the severity of children's ADHD symptoms and their sentence recall performance, suggesting a tendency for affected children who had higher levels of ADHD symptoms to perform better than those children with lower levels. Conclusion These outcomes are difficult to reconcile with attention-deficit/information-processing accounts of the core deficits associated with SLI. Potential protective mechanisms associated with ADHD status are discussed. PMID:25381450

Language-Universal Sensory Deficits in Developmental Dyslexia: English, Spanish, and Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goswami, Usha; Wang, H.-L. Sharon; Cruz, Alicia; Fosker, Tim; Mead, Natasha; Huss, Martina

2011-01-01

Studies in sensory neuroscience reveal the critical importance of accurate sensory perception for cognitive development. There is considerable debate concerning the possible sensory correlates of "phonological processing", the primary cognitive risk factor for developmental dyslexia. Across languages, children with dyslexia have a specific…

Magical Thinking in Narratives of Adolescent Cutters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregory, Robert J.; Mustata, Georgian T.

2012-01-01

Adolescents sometimes cut themselves to relieve distress; however, the mechanism is unknown. Previous studies have linked self-injury to deficits in processing emotions symbolically through language. To investigate expressive language of adolescent cutters, the authors analyzed 100 narratives posted on the Internet. Most narratives (n = 66)…

Cognitive deficits in individuals with methamphetamine use disorder: A meta-analysis.

PubMed

Potvin, Stéphane; Pelletier, Julie; Grot, Stéphanie; Hébert, Catherine; Barr, Alasdair M; Lecomte, Tania

2018-05-01

Methamphetamine has long been considered as a neurotoxic substance causing cognitive deficits. Recently, however, the magnitude and the clinical significance of the cognitive effects associated with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD) have been debated. To help clarify this controversy, we performed a meta-analysis of the cognitive deficits associated with MUD. A literature search yielded 44 studies that assessed cognitive dysfunction in 1592 subjects with MUD and 1820 healthy controls. Effect size estimates were calculated using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, for the following 12 cognitive domains: attention, executive functions, impulsivity/reward processing, social cognition, speed of processing, verbal fluency/language, verbal learning and memory, visual learning and memory, visuo-spatial abilities and working memory. Findings revealed moderate impairment across most cognitive domains, including attention, executive functions, language/verbal fluency, verbal learning and memory, visual memory and working memory. Deficits in impulsivity/reward processing and social cognition were more prominent, whereas visual learning and visuo-spatial abilities were relatively spared cognitive domains. A publication bias was observed. These results show that MUD is associated with broad cognitive deficits that are in the same range as those associated with alcohol and cocaine use disorder, as recently shown by way of meta-analysis. The prominent effects of MUD on social cognition and impulsivity/reward processing are based on a small number of studies, and as such, these results will need to be replicated. The functional consequences (social and occupational) of the cognitive deficits of methamphetamine will also need to be determined. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Processing melodic contour and speech intonation in congenital amusics with Mandarin Chinese.

PubMed

Jiang, Cunmei; Hamm, Jeff P; Lim, Vanessa K; Kirk, Ian J; Yang, Yufang

2010-07-01

Congenital amusia is a disorder in the perception and production of musical pitch. It has been suggested that early exposure to a tonal language may compensate for the pitch disorder (Peretz, 2008). If so, it is reasonable to expect that there would be different characterizations of pitch perception in music and speech in congenital amusics who speak a tonal language, such as Mandarin. In this study, a group of 11 adults with amusia whose first language was Mandarin were tested with melodic contour and speech intonation discrimination and identification tasks. The participants with amusia were impaired in discriminating and identifying melodic contour. These abnormalities were also detected in identifying both speech and non-linguistic analogue derived patterns for the Mandarin intonation tasks. In addition, there was an overall trend for the participants with amusia to show deficits with respect to controls in the intonation discrimination tasks for both speech and non-linguistic analogues. These findings suggest that the amusics' melodic pitch deficits may extend to the perception of speech, and could potentially result in some language deficits in those who speak a tonal language. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rapid Auditory Processing and Learning Deficits in Rats With P1 versus P7 Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Injury

PubMed Central

McClure, Melissa M.; Threlkeld, Steven W.; Rosen, Glenn D.; Fitch, R. Holly

2014-01-01

Hypoxia-ischemia (HI) is associated with premature birth, and injury during term birth. Many infants experiencing HI later show disruptions of language, with research suggesting that rapid auditory processing (RAP) deficits, or impairments in the ability to discriminate rapidly changing acoustic signals, play a causal role in emergent language problems. We recently bridged these lines of research by showing RAP deficits in rats with unilateral-HI injury induced on postnatal day 1, 7, or 10 (P1, P7, or P10; 23). While robust RAP deficits were found in HI animals, it was suggested that our within-age sample size did not provide us with sufficient power to detect Age-at-injury differences within HI groups. The current study sought to examine differences in neuropathology and behavior following unilateral-HI injury in P1 vs. P7 pups. Ages chosen for HI induction reflect differential stages of neurodevelopmental maturity, and subsequent regional differences in vulnerability to reduced blood flow/oxygen (modeling premature/term HI injury). Results showed that during the juvenile period, both P1 and P7 HI groups exhibited significant RAP deficits, but the deficit in the P1 HI group resolved with repeated testing (compared to shams). However, P7 HI animals showed lasting deficits in RAP and spatial learning/memory through adulthood. The current findings are in accord with evidence that HI injury during different stages of developmental maturity (Age-at-injury) leads to differential neuropathologies, and provide the novel observation that in rats, P1 vs. P7 induced pathologies are associated with different patterns of auditory processing and learning/memory deficits across the lifespan. PMID:16765458

Sensory Processing of Backward-Masking Signals in Children with Language-Learning Impairment as Assessed with the Auditory Brainstem Response.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marler, Jeffrey A.; Champlin, Craig A.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible contribution of sensory mechanisms to an auditory processing deficit shown by some children with language-learning impairment (LLI). Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) were measured from 2 groups of school-aged (8-10 years) children. One group consisted of 10 children with LLI, and the other…

Neural bases of orthographic long-term memory and working memory in dysgraphia

PubMed Central

Purcell, Jeremy; Hillis, Argye E.; Capasso, Rita; Miceli, Gabriele

2016-01-01

Spelling a word involves the retrieval of information about the word’s letters and their order from long-term memory as well as the maintenance and processing of this information by working memory in preparation for serial production by the motor system. While it is known that brain lesions may selectively affect orthographic long-term memory and working memory processes, relatively little is known about the neurotopographic distribution of the substrates that support these cognitive processes, or the lesions that give rise to the distinct forms of dysgraphia that affect these cognitive processes. To examine these issues, this study uses a voxel-based mapping approach to analyse the lesion distribution of 27 individuals with dysgraphia subsequent to stroke, who were identified on the basis of their behavioural profiles alone, as suffering from deficits only affecting either orthographic long-term or working memory, as well as six other individuals with deficits affecting both sets of processes. The findings provide, for the first time, clear evidence of substrates that selectively support orthographic long-term and working memory processes, with orthographic long-term memory deficits centred in either the left posterior inferior frontal region or left ventral temporal cortex, and orthographic working memory deficits primarily arising from lesions of the left parietal cortex centred on the intraparietal sulcus. These findings also contribute to our understanding of the relationship between the neural instantiation of written language processes and spoken language, working memory and other cognitive skills. PMID:26685156

Auditory scene analysis in school-aged children with developmental language disorders

PubMed Central

Sussman, E.; Steinschneider, M.; Lee, W.; Lawson, K.

2014-01-01

Natural sound environments are dynamic, with overlapping acoustic input originating from simultaneously active sources. A key function of the auditory system is to integrate sensory inputs that belong together and segregate those that come from different sources. We hypothesized that this skill is impaired in individuals with phonological processing difficulties. There is considerable disagreement about whether phonological impairments observed in children with developmental language disorders can be attributed to specific linguistic deficits or to more general acoustic processing deficits. However, most tests of general auditory abilities have been conducted with a single set of sounds. We assessed the ability of school-aged children (7–15 years) to parse complex auditory non-speech input, and determined whether the presence of phonological processing impairments was associated with stream perception performance. A key finding was that children with language impairments did not show the same developmental trajectory for stream perception as typically developing children. In addition, children with language impairments required larger frequency separations between sounds to hear distinct streams compared to age-matched peers. Furthermore, phonological processing ability was a significant predictor of stream perception measures, but only in the older age groups. No such association was found in the youngest children. These results indicate that children with language impairments have difficulty parsing speech streams, or identifying individual sound events when there are competing sound sources. We conclude that language group differences may in part reflect fundamental maturational disparities in the analysis of complex auditory scenes. PMID:24548430

The roles of family history of dyslexia, language, speech production and phonological processing in predicting literacy progress.

PubMed

Carroll, Julia M; Mundy, Ian R; Cunningham, Anna J

2014-09-01

It is well established that speech, language and phonological skills are closely associated with literacy, and that children with a family risk of dyslexia (FRD) tend to show deficits in each of these areas in the preschool years. This paper examines what the relationships are between FRD and these skills, and whether deficits in speech, language and phonological processing fully account for the increased risk of dyslexia in children with FRD. One hundred and fifty-three 4-6-year-old children, 44 of whom had FRD, completed a battery of speech, language, phonology and literacy tasks. Word reading and spelling were retested 6 months later, and text reading accuracy and reading comprehension were tested 3 years later. The children with FRD were at increased risk of developing difficulties in reading accuracy, but not reading comprehension. Four groups were compared: good and poor readers with and without FRD. In most cases good readers outperformed poor readers regardless of family history, but there was an effect of family history on naming and nonword repetition regardless of literacy outcome, suggesting a role for speech production skills as an endophenotype of dyslexia. Phonological processing predicted spelling, while language predicted text reading accuracy and comprehension. FRD was a significant additional predictor of reading and spelling after controlling for speech production, language and phonological processing, suggesting that children with FRD show additional difficulties in literacy that cannot be fully explained in terms of their language and phonological skills. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Subcortical mechanisms in language: lexical-semantic mechanisms and the thalamus.

PubMed

Crosson, B

1999-07-01

Four previously published cases of dominant thalamic lesion in which the author has participated are reviewed to gain a better understanding of thalamic participation in lexical-semantic functions. Naming deficits in two cases support Nadeau and Crosson's (1997) hypothesis of a selective engagement mechanism involving the frontal lobes, inferior thalamic peduncle, nucleus reticularis, and other thalamic nuclei, possibly the centromedian nucleus. This mechanism selectively engages those cortical areas required to perform a cognitive task, while maintaining other areas in a state of relative disengagement. Deficits in selective engagement disproportionately affect lexical retrieval based on semantic input, as opposed to lexical and sublexical processes, because the former is more dependent upon this attentional system. The concept of selective engagement is also useful in understanding thalamic participation in working memory, as supported by data from one recent functional neuroimaging study. Other processes also may be compromised in more posterior thalamic lesions which damage the pulvinar but not other components of this selective engagement system. A third case with aphasia after a more superior and posterior thalamic lesion also had oral reading errors similar to those in neglect dyslexia. The pattern of deficits suggested a visual processing problem in the early stages of reading. The fourth case had a category-specific naming deficit after posterior thalamic lesion. Taken together, the latter two cases indicate that the nature of language functions in more posterior regions of the dominant thalamus depends upon the cortical connectivity of the thalamic region. Together, findings from the four cases suggest that thalamic nuclei and systems are involved in multiple processes which directly or indirectly support cortical language functions. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

Using Visual Strategies to Support Verbal Comprehension in an Adolescent with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lecas, Jean-Francois; Mazaud, Anne-Marie; Reibel, Esther; Rey, Arnaud

2011-01-01

It has been frequently reported that children with Down syndrome have deficits in verbal short-term memory while having relatively good performance in visual short-term memory tasks. Such verbal deficits have a detrimental effect on various high-level cognitive processes, most notably language comprehension. In this study, we report the case of an…

Effect of Attentional State on Frequency Discrimination: A Comparison of Children with ADHD on and off Medication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutcliffe, Paul A.; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.; Houghton, Stephen; Taylor, Myra

2006-01-01

Debate continues over the hypothesis that children with language or literacy difficulties have a genuine auditory processing deficit. Several recent studies have reported deficits in frequency discrimination (FD), but it is unclear whether these are genuine perceptual impairments or reflective of the comorbid attentional problems that exist in…

Poor Speech Perception Is Not a Core Deficit of Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Preliminary Findings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuk, Jennifer; Iuzzini-Seigel, Jenya; Cabbage, Kathryn; Green, Jordan R.; Hogan, Tiffany P.

2018-01-01

Purpose: Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is hypothesized to arise from deficits in speech motor planning and programming, but the influence of abnormal speech perception in CAS on these processes is debated. This study examined speech perception abilities among children with CAS with and without language impairment compared to those with…

Surgery-Independent Language Function Decline in Patients Undergoing Awake Craniotomy.

PubMed

Gonen, Tal; Sela, Gal; Yanakee, Ranin; Ram, Zvi; Grossman, Rachel

2017-03-01

Despite selection process before awake-craniotomy, some patients experience an unexpected decline in language functions in the operating room (OR), compared with their baseline evaluation, which may impair their functional monitoring. To investigate this phenomenon we prospectively compared language function the day before surgery and on entrance to the OR. Data were collected prospectively from consecutive patients undergoing awake-craniotomy with intraoperative cortical mapping for resection of gliomas affecting language areas. Language functions of 79 patients were evaluated and compared 1-2 days before surgery and after entering the OR. Changes in functional linguistic performance were analyzed with respect to demographic, clinical, and pathologic characteristics. There was a significant decline in language function, beyond sedation effect, after entering the OR, (from median/interquartile range: 0.94/0.72-0.98 to median/interquartile range: 0.86/0.51-0.94; Z = -7.19, P < 0.001). Univariate analyses revealed that this decline was related to age, preoperative Karnofsky Performance Scale, tumor location, tumor pathology, and preexisting language deficits. Multivariate stepwise regression identified tumor pathology and the presence of preoperative language deficit as significant independent predictors for this functional decline. Patients undergoing awake-craniotomy may experience a substantial decline in language functioning after entering the OR. Tumor grade and the presence of preoperative language deficits were significant risk factors for this phenomenon, suggesting a possible relation between cognitive reserve, psychobehavioral coping abilities and histologic features of a tumor involving language areas. Capturing and identifying this unique population of patients who are prone to experience such language decline may improve our ability in the future to select patients eligible for awake-craniotomy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cell size anomalies in the auditory thalamus of rats with hypoxic-ischemic injury on postnatal day 3 or 7

PubMed Central

Alexander, Michelle; Garbus, Haley; Smith, Amanda L.; Fitch, R. Holly

2013-01-01

Children born prematurely (<37 weeks gestational age) or at very low birth weight (VLBW; <1500 grams) are at increased risk for hypoxic ischemic (HI) brain injuries. Term infants can also suffer HI from birth complications. In both groups, blood/oxygen delivery to the brain is compromised, often resulting in brain damage and later cognitive delays (e.g., language deficits). Literature suggests that language delays in a variety of developmentally impaired populations (including specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia, and early HI-injury) may be associated with underlying deficits in rapid auditory processing (RAP; the ability to process and discriminate brief acoustic cues). Data supporting a relationship between RAP deficits and poor language outcomes is consistent with the “magnocellular theory,” which purports that damage to or loss of large (magnocellular) cells in thalamic nuclei could underlie disruptions in temporal processing of sensory input, possibly including auditory (medial geniculate nucleus; MGN) information This theory could be applied to neonatal HI populations that show subsequent RAP deficits. In animal models of neonatal HI, persistent RAP deficits are seen in postnatal (P)7 HI injured rats (who exhibit neuropathology comparable to term birth injury), but not in P1–3 HI injured rodents (who exhibit neuropathology comparable to human pre-term injury). The current study sought to investigate the mean cell size, cell number, and cumulative probability of cell size in the MGN of P3 HI and P7 HI injured male rats that had previously demonstrated behavioral RAP deficits. Pilot data from our lab (Alexander et al., 2011) previously revealed cell size abnormalities (a shift towards smaller cells) in P7 but not P1 HI injured animals when compared to shams. Our current finding support this result, with evidence of a significant shift to smaller cells in the experimental MGN of P7 HI but not P3 HI subjects. P7 HI animals also showed significantly fewer cells in the affected (right) MGN as compared P3 HI and shams animals. Moreover, cell number in the right hemisphere was found to correlate with gap detection (fewer cells = worse performance) in P7 HI injured subjects. These findings could be applied to clinical populations, providing an anatomic marker that may index potential long-term language disabilities in HI injured infants and possibly other at-risk populations. PMID:24184287

[Children with specific language impairment: electrophysiological and pedaudiological findings].

PubMed

Rinker, T; Hartmann, K; Smith, E; Reiter, R; Alku, P; Kiefer, M; Brosch, S

2014-08-01

Auditory deficits may be at the core of the language delay in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). It was therefore hypothesized that children with SLI perform poorly on 4 tests typically used to diagnose central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) as well in the processing of phonetic and tone stimuli in an electrophysiological experiment. 14 children with SLI (mean age 61,7 months) and 16 children without SLI (mean age 64,9 months) were tested with 4 tasks: non-word repetition, language discrimination in noise, directional hearing, and dichotic listening. The electrophysiological recording Mismatch Negativity (MMN) employed sine tones (600 vs. 650 Hz) and phonetic stimuli (/ε/ versus /e/). Control children and children with SLI differed significantly in the non-word repetition as well as in the dichotic listening task but not in the two other tasks. Only the control children recognized the frequency difference in the MMN-experiment. The phonetic difference was discriminated by both groups, however, effects were longer lasting for the control children. Group differences were not significant. Children with SLI show limitations in auditory processing that involve either a complex task repeating unfamiliar or difficult material and show subtle deficits in auditory processing at the neural level. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Profile of language and cognitive functions in children with dyslexia in speakers of Brazilian Portuguese.

PubMed

Barbosa, Thais; Rodrigues, Camila Cruz; Toledo-Piza, Carolina Mattar; Navas, Ana Luiza Gomes Pinto; Bueno, Orlando Francisco Amodeu

2015-01-01

To verify the language and cognitive profile of children with dyslexia, contributing to the diagnosis of this condition in readers of a regular orthography, such as Brazilian Portuguese. In this study, 47 children with dyslexia (GD) and two controlled groups, one composed of 41 age controls (GCI) and the other with 31 reading controls (GCL), participated. All children were submitted to a battery involving the above-mentioned abilities. GD demonstrated predominant deficits in phonological processing, which were not compatible with a delay in the development of such abilities, indicating an atypical development. The GD also obtained lower scores in both basic and more complex reading and writing skills (i.e., letters, words, pseudowords, and texts, respectively), as well as in other domains, such as language (syntactic processing and oral sentence comprehension), which may be a result of a deficit in phonological skills, that interfered with higher complexity linguistic skills. Phonological abilities demonstrated to be the main difficulty observed in children with dyslexia investigated in this study, corroborating previous studies in other languages. This demonstrates that, independently of the language regularity, phonological skills are fundamental to the diagnosis of developmental dyslexia.

Information Processing and Proactive Interference in Children with and without Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marton, Klara; Campanelli, Luca; Eichorn, Naomi; Scheuer, Jessica; Yoon, Jungmee

2014-01-01

Purpose: Increasing evidence suggests that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have a deficit in inhibition control, but research isolating specific abilities is scarce. The goal of this study was to examine whether children with SLI differ from their peers in resistance to proactive interference under different conditions. Method: An…

Linguistic Deterioration in Alzheimer's Senile Dementia and in Normal Aging.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emery, Olga Beattie

A study of language patterning as an indicator of higher cortical process focused on three matched comparison groups: normal pre-middle-aged, normal elderly, and elderly adults with senile dementia Alzheimer's type. In addition to tests of memory, level of cognitive function, and organic deficit, the formal aspects of language were analyzed in…

Impaired Artificial Grammar Learning in Agrammatism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christiansen, Morten H.; Kelly, M. Louise; Shillcock, Richard C.; Greenfield, Katie

2010-01-01

It is often assumed that language is supported by domain-specific neural mechanisms, in part based on neuropsychological data from aphasia. If, however, language relies on domain-general mechanisms, it would be expected that deficits in non-linguistic cognitive processing should co-occur with aphasia. In this paper, we report a study of sequential…

Devil in the details? Developmental dyslexia and visual long-term memory for details.

PubMed

Huestegge, Lynn; Rohrßen, Julia; van Ermingen-Marbach, Muna; Pape-Neumann, Julia; Heim, Stefan

2014-01-01

Cognitive theories on causes of developmental dyslexia can be divided into language-specific and general accounts. While the former assume that words are special in that associated processing problems are rooted in language-related cognition (e.g., phonology) deficits, the latter propose that dyslexia is rather rooted in a general impairment of cognitive (e.g., visual and/or auditory) processing streams. In the present study, we examined to what extent dyslexia (typically characterized by poor orthographic representations) may be associated with a general deficit in visual long-term memory (LTM) for details. We compared object- and detail-related visual LTM performance (and phonological skills) between dyslexic primary school children and IQ-, age-, and gender-matched controls. The results revealed that while the overall amount of LTM errors was comparable between groups, dyslexic children exhibited a greater portion of detail-related errors. The results suggest that not only phonological, but also general visual resolution deficits in LTM may play an important role in developmental dyslexia.

A locus for an auditory processing deficit and language impairment in an extended pedigree maps to 12p13.31-q14.3

PubMed Central

Addis, L; Friederici, A D; Kotz, S A; Sabisch, B; Barry, J; Richter, N; Ludwig, A A; Rübsamen, R; Albert, F W; Pääbo, S; Newbury, D F; Monaco, A P

2010-01-01

Despite the apparent robustness of language learning in humans, a large number of children still fail to develop appropriate language skills despite adequate means and opportunity. Most cases of language impairment have a complex etiology, with genetic and environmental influences. In contrast, we describe a three-generation German family who present with an apparently simple segregation of language impairment. Investigations of the family indicate auditory processing difficulties as a core deficit. Affected members performed poorly on a nonword repetition task and present with communication impairments. The brain activation pattern for syllable duration as measured by event-related brain potentials showed clear differences between affected family members and controls, with only affected members displaying a late discrimination negativity. In conjunction with psychoacoustic data showing deficiencies in auditory duration discrimination, the present results indicate increased processing demands in discriminating syllables of different duration. This, we argue, forms the cognitive basis of the observed language impairment in this family. Genome-wide linkage analysis showed a haplotype in the central region of chromosome 12 which reaches the maximum possible logarithm of odds ratio (LOD) score and fully co-segregates with the language impairment, consistent with an autosomal dominant, fully penetrant mode of inheritance. Whole genome analysis yielded no novel inherited copy number variants strengthening the case for a simple inheritance pattern. Several genes in this region of chromosome 12 which are potentially implicated in language impairment did not contain polymorphisms likely to be the causative mutation, which is as yet unknown. PMID:20345892

Diffusion-tensor imaging of major white matter tracts and their role in language processing in aphasia.

PubMed

Ivanova, Maria V; Isaev, Dmitry Yu; Dragoy, Olga V; Akinina, Yulia S; Petrushevskiy, Alexey G; Fedina, Oksana N; Shklovsky, Victor M; Dronkers, Nina F

2016-12-01

A growing literature is pointing towards the importance of white matter tracts in understanding the neural mechanisms of language processing, and determining the nature of language deficits and recovery patterns in aphasia. Measurements extracted from diffusion-weighted (DW) images provide comprehensive in vivo measures of local microstructural properties of fiber pathways. In the current study, we compared microstructural properties of major white matter tracts implicated in language processing in each hemisphere (these included arcuate fasciculus (AF), superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), inferior frontal-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), uncinate fasciculus (UF), and corpus callosum (CC), and corticospinal tract (CST) for control purposes) between individuals with aphasia and healthy controls and investigated the relationship between these neural indices and language deficits. Thirty-seven individuals with aphasia due to left hemisphere stroke and eleven age-matched controls were scanned using DW imaging sequences. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD), axial diffusivity (AD) values for each major white matter tract were extracted from DW images using tract masks chosen from standardized atlases. Individuals with aphasia were also assessed with a standardized language test in Russian targeting comprehension and production at the word and sentence level. Individuals with aphasia had significantly lower FA values for left hemisphere tracts and significantly higher values of MD, RD and AD for both left and right hemisphere tracts compared to controls, all indicating profound impairment in tract integrity. Language comprehension was predominantly related to integrity of the left IFOF and left ILF, while language production was mainly related to integrity of the left AF. In addition, individual segments of these three tracts were differentially associated with language production and comprehension in aphasia. Our findings highlight the importance of fiber pathways in supporting different language functions and point to the importance of temporal tracts in language processing, in particular, comprehension. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Frontal dynamic aphasia in progressive supranuclear palsy: Distinguishing between generation and fluent sequencing of novel thoughts.

PubMed

Robinson, Gail A; Spooner, Donna; Harrison, William J

2015-10-01

Frontal dynamic aphasia is characterised by a profound reduction in spontaneous speech despite well-preserved naming, repetition and comprehension. Since Luria (1966, 1970) designated this term, two main forms of dynamic aphasia have been identified: one, a language-specific selection deficit at the level of word/sentence generation, associated with left inferior frontal lesions; and two, a domain-general impairment in generating multiple responses or connected speech, associated with more extensive bilateral frontal and/or frontostriatal damage. Both forms of dynamic aphasia have been interpreted as arising due to disturbances in early prelinguistic conceptual preparation mechanisms that are critical for language production. We investigate language-specific and domain-general accounts of dynamic aphasia and address two issues: one, whether deficits in multiple conceptual preparation mechanisms can co-occur; and two, the contribution of broader cognitive processes such as energization, the ability to initiate and sustain response generation over time, to language generation failure. Thus, we report patient WAL who presented with frontal dynamic aphasia in the context of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). WAL was given a series of experimental tests that showed that his dynamic aphasia was not underpinned by a language-specific deficit in selection or in microplanning. By contrast, WAL presented with a domain-general deficit in fluent sequencing of novel thoughts. The latter replicated the pattern documented in a previous PSP patient (Robinson, et al., 2006); however, unique to WAL, generating novel thoughts was impaired but there was no evidence of a sequencing deficit because perseveration was absent. Thus, WAL is the first unequivocal case to show a distinction between novel thought generation and subsequent fluent sequencing. Moreover, WAL's generation deficit encompassed verbal and non-verbal responses, showing a similar (but more profoundly reduced) pattern of performance to frontal patients with an energization deficit. In addition to impaired generation of novel thoughts, WAL presented with a concurrent strategy generation deficit, both falling within the second form of dynamic aphasia comprised of domain-general conceptual preparation mechanisms. Thus, within this second form of dynamic aphasia, concurrent deficits can co-occur. Overall, WAL presented with the second form of dynamic aphasia and was impaired in the generation of novel thoughts and internally-generated strategies, in the context of PSP and bilateral frontostriatal damage. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pragmatic Communication Deficits in Children with Epilepsy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Broeders, Mark; Geurts, Hilde; Jennekens-Schinkel, Aag

2010-01-01

Background: Various psychiatric and neurological disorders including epilepsy have been associated with language deficits. Pragmatic language deficits, however, have seldom been the focus of earlier studies in children with epilepsy. Moreover, it is unknown whether these pragmatic deficits are related to general intellectual functioning. Both…

Nonverbal imitation skills in children with specific language delay.

PubMed

Dohmen, Andrea; Chiat, Shula; Roy, Penny

2013-10-01

Research in children with language problems has focussed on verbal deficits, and we have less understanding of children's deficits with nonverbal sociocognitive skills which have been proposed to be important for language acquisition. This study was designed to investigate elicited nonverbal imitation in children with specific language delay (SLD). It is argued that difficulties in nonverbal imitation, which do not involve the processing of structural aspects of language, may be indicative of sociocognitive deficits. Participants were German-speaking typically developing children (n=60) and children with SLD (n=45) aged 2-3 ½ years. A novel battery of tasks measured their ability to imitate a range of nonverbal target acts that to a greater or lesser extent involve sociocognitive skills (body movements, instrumental acts on objects, pretend acts). Significant group differences were found for all body movement and pretend act tasks, but not for the instrumental act tasks. The poorer imitative performance of the SLD sample was not explained by motor or nonverbal cognitive skills. Thus, it appeared that the nature of the task affected children's imitation performance. It is argued that the ability to establish a sense of connectedness with the demonstrator was at the core of children's imitation difficulty in the SLD sample. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Genetic variance in a component of the language acquisition device: ROBO1 polymorphisms associated with phonological buffer deficits.

PubMed

Bates, Timothy C; Luciano, Michelle; Medland, Sarah E; Montgomery, Grant W; Wright, Margaret J; Martin, Nicholas G

2011-01-01

The region containing ROBO1 (Chromosome 3p12.3) has been implicated as a susceptibility gene for reading disorder and language deficit by translocation and linkage data. No association studies have yet been reported supporting any candidate gene. Here we report the first association of this gene with language deficits, specifically with phonological buffer deficits (a phenotype implicated in language acquisition, Specific Language Impairment and Speech Sound Disorder) and dyslexia (reading and spelling ability traits) in an unselected sample of adolescent twins and their siblings. Family-based analyses were performed on 144 tag SNPs in ROBO1, typed in 538 families with up to five offspring and tested for association with a developmental marker of language impairment (phonological buffer capacity, assessed using non word repetition). A reading and spelling ability measure--based on validated measures of lexical processing (irregular word) and grapheme-phoneme decoding (pseudo word)--and measures of short-term and working memory were also analysed. Significant association for phonological buffer capacity was observed for 21 of 144 SNPs tested, peaking at 8.70 × 10(-05) and 9.30 × 10(-05) for SNPs rs6803202 and rs4535189 respectively for nonword repetition, values that survive correction for multiple testing. Twenty-two SNPs showed significant associations for verbal storage (forward digit span)--a trait linked to phonological span. By contrast, just 5 SNPs reached nominal significance for working-memory, not surviving correction, and, importantly, only one SNP in the 144 tested reached nominal significance (0.04) for association with reading and spelling ability. These results provide strong support for ROBO1 as a gene involved in a core trait underpinning language acquisition, with a specific function in supporting a short-term buffer for arbitrary phonological strings. These effects of ROBO1 appear to be unrelated to brain mechanisms underpinning reading ability, at least by adolescence. While replication will be critical, the present results strongly support ROBO1 as the first gene discovered to be associated with language deficits affecting normal variation in language ability. Its functional role in neuronal migration underlying bilateral symmetry and lateralization of neuronal function further suggests a role in the evolution of human language ability.

Auditory agnosia.

PubMed

Slevc, L Robert; Shell, Alison R

2015-01-01

Auditory agnosia refers to impairments in sound perception and identification despite intact hearing, cognitive functioning, and language abilities (reading, writing, and speaking). Auditory agnosia can be general, affecting all types of sound perception, or can be (relatively) specific to a particular domain. Verbal auditory agnosia (also known as (pure) word deafness) refers to deficits specific to speech processing, environmental sound agnosia refers to difficulties confined to non-speech environmental sounds, and amusia refers to deficits confined to music. These deficits can be apperceptive, affecting basic perceptual processes, or associative, affecting the relation of a perceived auditory object to its meaning. This chapter discusses what is known about the behavioral symptoms and lesion correlates of these different types of auditory agnosia (focusing especially on verbal auditory agnosia), evidence for the role of a rapid temporal processing deficit in some aspects of auditory agnosia, and the few attempts to treat the perceptual deficits associated with auditory agnosia. A clear picture of auditory agnosia has been slow to emerge, hampered by the considerable heterogeneity in behavioral deficits, associated brain damage, and variable assessments across cases. Despite this lack of clarity, these striking deficits in complex sound processing continue to inform our understanding of auditory perception and cognition. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Early writing deficits in preschoolers with oral language difficulties.

PubMed

Puranik, Cynthia S; Lonigan, Christopher J

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether preschool children with language impairments (LI), a group with documented reading difficulties, also experience writing difficulties. In addition, a purpose was to examine if the writing outcomes differed when children had concomitant cognitive deficits in addition to oral language problems. A group of 293 preschool children were administered an assessment battery that included measures to examine oral language, nonverbal cognition, emergent reading, and writing. Children were divided into four groups based on their language and cognitive performance. The findings from this study show that as early as preschool, children with weaker oral language skills lag behind their peers with stronger oral language skills in terms of their writing-related skills. Children with oral language and cognitive deficits performed more poorly than children whose deficits were confined to oral language. A child's cognitive ability also has an impact on emergent writing skills, but it appears to be moderated by oral language skills. These results are consistent with research documenting links between preschool language and emergent reading in children with a history of LI. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012.

Early Writing Deficits in Preschoolers with Oral Language Difficulties

PubMed Central

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether preschool children with language impairments (LI), a group with documented reading difficulties, also experience writing difficulties. In addition, a purpose was to examine if the writing outcomes differed when children had concomitant cognitive deficits in addition to oral language problems. A group of 293 preschool children were administered an assessment battery that included measures to examine oral language, nonverbal cognition, emergent reading, and writing. Children were divided into four groups based on their language and cognitive performance. The findings from this study show that as early as preschool, children with weaker oral language skills lag behind their peers with stronger oral language skills in terms of their writing-related skills. Children with oral language and cognitive deficits performed more poorly than children whose deficits were confined to oral language. A child’s cognitive ability also has an impact on emergent writing skills, but it appears to be moderated by oral language skills. These results are consistent with research documenting links between preschool language and emergent reading in children with a history of LI. PMID:22043027

Reading impairments in schizophrenia relate to individual differences in phonological processing and oculomotor control: evidence from a gaze-contingent moving window paradigm.

PubMed

Whitford, Veronica; O'Driscoll, Gillian A; Pack, Christopher C; Joober, Ridha; Malla, Ashok; Titone, Debra

2013-02-01

Language and oculomotor disturbances are 2 of the best replicated findings in schizophrenia. However, few studies have examined skilled reading in schizophrenia (e.g., Arnott, Sali, Copland, 2011; Hayes & O'Grady, 2003; Revheim et al., 2006; E. O. Roberts et al., 2012), and none have examined the contribution of cognitive and motor processes that underlie reading performance. Thus, to evaluate the relationship of linguistic processes and oculomotor control to skilled reading in schizophrenia, 20 individuals with schizophrenia and 16 demographically matched controls were tested using a moving window paradigm (McConkie & Rayner, 1975). Linguistic skills supporting reading (phonological awareness) were assessed with the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (R. K. Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1999). Eye movements were assessed during reading tasks and during nonlinguistic tasks tapping basic oculomotor control (prosaccades, smooth pursuit) and executive functions (predictive saccades, antisaccades). Compared with controls, schizophrenia patients exhibited robust oculomotor markers of reading difficulty (e.g., reduced forward saccade amplitude) and were less affected by reductions in window size, indicative of reduced perceptual span. Reduced perceptual span in schizophrenia was associated with deficits in phonological processing and reduced saccade amplitudes. Executive functioning (antisaccade errors) was not related to perceptual span but was related to reading comprehension. These findings suggest that deficits in language, oculomotor control, and cognitive control contribute to skilled reading deficits in schizophrenia. Given that both language and oculomotor dysfunction precede illness onset, reading may provide a sensitive window onto cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia vulnerability and be an important target for cognitive remediation. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Perception of Melodic Contour and Intonation in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence From Mandarin Speakers.

PubMed

Jiang, Jun; Liu, Fang; Wan, Xuan; Jiang, Cunmei

2015-07-01

Tone language experience benefits pitch processing in music and speech for typically developing individuals. No known studies have examined pitch processing in individuals with autism who speak a tone language. This study investigated discrimination and identification of melodic contour and speech intonation in a group of Mandarin-speaking individuals with high-functioning autism. Individuals with autism showed superior melodic contour identification but comparable contour discrimination relative to controls. In contrast, these individuals performed worse than controls on both discrimination and identification of speech intonation. These findings provide the first evidence for differential pitch processing in music and speech in tone language speakers with autism, suggesting that tone language experience may not compensate for speech intonation perception deficits in individuals with autism.

Contributions of Children's Linguistic and Working Memory Proficiencies to Their Judgments of Grammaticality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noonan, Nicolette B.; Redmond, Sean M.; Archibald, Lisa M. D.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The authors explored the cognitive mechanisms involved in language processing by systematically examining the performance of children with deficits in the domains of working memory and language. Method: From a database of 370 school-age children who had completed a grammaticality judgment task, groups were identified with a co-occurring…

Language and Learning in Boys with Fragile X Syndrome: Syntactic Processing and the Role of Phonological Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kover, Sara T.

2012-01-01

Fragile X syndrome is the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability. Most boys with fragile X syndrome have impaired cognition and language deficits, with significant within-syndrome variability. Syntax may be especially delayed relative to nonverbal cognition; however, little is known about the specificity of delay, the sources of that…

Digging beneath the Surface Behavioral and Neural Indices of Lexical Access during Idiom Comprehension in Aphasia: A Multi-Modal Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brumm, Kathleen Patricia

2011-01-01

This project examines spoken language comprehension in Broca's aphasia, a non-fluent language disorder acquired subsequent to stroke. Broca's aphasics demonstrate impaired comprehension for complex sentence constructions. To account for this deficit, one current processing theory claims that Broca's patients retain intrinsic linguistic knowledge,…

[PASS neurocognitive dysfunction in attention deficit].

PubMed

Pérez-Alvarez, F; Timoneda-Gallart, C

Attention deficit disorder shows both cognitive and behavioral patterns. To determine a particular PASS (planning, attention, successive and simultaneous) pattern in order to early diagnosis and remediation according to PASS theory. 80 patients were selected from the neuropediatric attendance, aged 6 to 12 years old, 55 boys and 25 girls. Inclusion criteria were inattention (80 cases) and inattention with hyperactive symptoms (40 cases) according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV). Exclusion criteria were the criteria of phonologic awareness previously reported, considered useful to diagnose dyslexia. A control group of 300 individuals, aged 5 to 12 years old, was used, criteria above mentioned being controlled. DN:CAS (Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System) battery, translated to native language, was given to assess PASS cognitive processes. Results were analyzed with cluster analysis and t-Student test. Statistical factor analysis of the control group had previously identified the four PASS processes: planning, attention, successive and simultaneous. The dendrogram of the cluster analysis discriminated three categories of attention deficit disorder: 1. The most frequent, with planning deficit; 2. Without planning deficit but with deficit in other processes, and 3. Just only a few cases, without cognitive processing deficit. Cognitive deficiency in terms of means of scores was statistically significant when compared to control group (p = 0.001). According to PASS pattern, planning deficiency is a relevant factor. Neurological planning is not exactly the same than neurological executive function. The behavioral pattern is mainly linked to planning deficiency, but also to other PASS processing deficits and even to no processing deficit.

Information processing and proactive interference in children with and without specific language impairment.

PubMed

Marton, Klara; Campanelli, Luca; Eichorn, Naomi; Scheuer, Jessica; Yoon, Jungmee

2014-02-01

Increasing evidence suggests that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have a deficit in inhibition control, but research isolating specific abilities is scarce. The goal of this study was to examine whether children with SLI differ from their peers in resistance to proactive interference under different conditions. An information processing battery with manipulations in interference was administered to 66 children (SLI, age matched peers, and language-matched controls). In Experiment 1, previously relevant targets were used as distractors to create conflict. Experiment 2 used item repetitions to examine how practice strengthens word representations and how the strength of a response impacts performance on the following item. Children with SLI performed similarly to their peers in the baseline condition but were more susceptible to proactive interference than the controls in both experimental conditions. Children with SLI demonstrated difficulty suppressing irrelevant information, made significantly more interference errors than their peers, and showed a slower rate of implicit learning. Children with SLI show weaker resistance to proactive interference than their peers, and this deficit impacts their information processing abilities. The coordination of activation and inhibition is less efficient in these children, but future research is needed to further examine the interaction between these two processes.

Video Modeling and the Expression of Social Communication and Behavior Skills in Preschool and Elementary School Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kutty, Seema

2012-01-01

Recent times have seen an increasing prevalence and incidence of children with ASD in school settings. Social, cognitive, and language process deficits directly impact the ability of children with ASD to effectively functioning within the complex social setting of schools. In particular, deficits are noted in the areas of social communication and…

Similar alterations in brain function for phonological and semantic processing to visual characters in Chinese dyslexia.

PubMed

Liu, Li; Wang, Wenjing; You, Wenping; Li, Yi; Awati, Neha; Zhao, Xu; Booth, James R; Peng, Danling

2012-07-01

Dyslexia in alphabetic languages has been extensively investigated and suggests a central deficit in orthography to phonology mapping in the left hemisphere. Compared to dyslexia in alphabetic languages, the central deficit for Chinese dyslexia is still unclear. Because of the logographic nature of Chinese characters, some have suggested that Chinese dyslexia should have larger deficits in the semantic system. To investigate this, Chinese children with reading disability (RD) were compared to typically developing (TD) children using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on a rhyming judgment task and on a semantic association judgment task. RD children showed less activation for both tasks in right visual (BA18, 19) and left occipito-temporal cortex (BA 37), suggesting a deficit in visuo-orthographic processing. RD children also showed less activation for both tasks in left inferior frontal gyrus (BA44), which additionally showed significant correlations with activation of bilateral visuo-orthographic regions in the RD group, suggesting that the abnormalities in frontal cortex and in posterior visuo-orthographic regions may reflect a deficit in the connection between brain regions. Analyses failed to reveal larger differences between groups for the semantic compared to the rhyming task, suggesting that Chinese dyslexia is similarly impaired in the access to phonology and to semantics from the visual orthography. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

It Ain't over 'til It's Over: On Foreign Language Anxiety, First Language Deficits, and the Confounding of Variables.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horwitz, Elaine K.

2000-01-01

Replies on behalf of the authors of a previous article to a critique of their study on foreign language anxiety. Argues that factors other than cognitive-linguistic deficits contribute to problems in foreign language achievement. (Author/VWL)

The relationship between oral and written language.

PubMed

de Montfort Supple, M

1998-01-01

It has been agreed for some time now that reading is primarily a language-based activity and that deficits in oral language will be reflected in deficits in reading ability. This paper explores the association between specific aspects of oral and written language as reflected in current literature and research.

Auditory processing deficits in growth restricted fetuses affect later language development.

PubMed

Kisilevsky, Barbara S; Davies, Gregory A L

2007-01-01

An increased risk for language deficits in infants born growth restricted has been reported in follow-up studies for more than 20 years, suggesting a relation between fetal auditory system development and later language learning. Work with animal models indicate that there are at least two ways in which growth restriction could affect the development of auditory perception in human fetuses: a delay in myelination or conduction and an increase in sensorineural threshold. Systematic study of auditory function in growth restricted human fetuses has not been reported. However, results of studies employing low-risk fetuses delivering as healthy full-term infants demonstrate that, by late gestation, the fetus can hear, sound properties modulate behavior, and sensory information is available from both inside (e.g., maternal vascular) and outside (e.g., noise, voices, music) of the maternal body. These data provide substantive evidence that the auditory system is functioning and that environmental sounds are available for shaping neural networks and laying the foundation for language acquisition before birth. We hypothesize that fetal growth restriction affects auditory system development, resulting in atypical auditory information processing in growth restricted fetuses compared to healthy, appropriately-grown-for-gestational-age fetuses. Speech perception that lays the foundation for later language competence will differ in growth restricted compared to normally grown fetuses and be associated with later language abilities.

Phonological Processing of Second Language Phonemes: A Selective Deficit in a Bilingual Aphasic.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eviatar, Zohar; Leikin, Mark; Ibrahim, Raphiq

1999-01-01

A case study of a Russian-Hebrew bilingual woman with transcortical sensory aphasia showed that overall, aphasic symptoms were similar in the two languages, with Hebrew somewhat more impaired. The woman revealed a difference in her ability to perceive phonemes in the context of Hebrew words that depended on whether they were presented in a Russian…

Can very early music interventions promote at-risk infants' development?

PubMed

Virtala, Paula; Partanen, Eino

2018-04-30

Music and musical activities are often a natural part of parenting. As accumulating evidence shows, music can promote auditory and language development in infancy and early childhood. It may even help to support auditory and language skills in infants whose development is compromised by heritable conditions, like the reading deficit dyslexia, or by environmental factors, such as premature birth. For example, infants born to dyslexic parents can have atypical brain responses to speech sounds and subsequent challenges in language development. Children born very preterm, in turn, have an increased likelihood of sensory, cognitive, and motor deficits. To ameliorate these deficits, we have developed early interventions focusing on music. Preliminary results of our ongoing longitudinal studies suggest that music making and parental singing promote infants' early language development and auditory neural processing. Together with previous findings in the field, the present studies highlight the role of active, social music making in supporting auditory and language development in at-risk children and infants. Once completed, the studies will illuminate both risk and protective factors in development and offer a comprehensive model of understanding the promises of music activities in promoting positive developmental outcomes during the first years of life. © 2018 The Authors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of The New York Academy of Sciences.

Neural evidence for phonologically based language production deficits in older adults: An fMRI investigation of age-related differences in picture-word interference.

PubMed

Rizio, Avery A; Moyer, Karlee J; Diaz, Michele T

2017-04-01

Older adults often show declines in phonological aspects of language production, particularly for low-frequency words, but maintain strong semantic systems. However, there are different theories about the mechanism that may underlie such age-related differences in language (e.g., age-related declines in transmission of activation or inhibition). This study used fMRI to investigate whether age-related differences in language production are associated with transmission deficits or inhibition deficits. We used the picture-word interference paradigm to examine age-related differences in picture naming as a function of both target frequency and the relationship between the target picture and distractor word. We found that the presence of a categorically related distractor led to greater semantic elaboration by older adults compared to younger adults, as evidenced by older adults' increased recruitment of regions including the left middle frontal gyrus and bilateral precuneus. When presented with a phonologically related distractor, patterns of neural activation are consistent with previously observed age deficits in phonological processing, including age-related reductions in the recruitment of regions such as the left middle temporal gyrus and right supramarginal gyrus. Lastly, older, but not younger, adults show increased brain activation of the pre- and postcentral gyri as a function of decreasing target frequency when target pictures are paired with a phonological distractor, suggesting that cuing the phonology of the target disproportionately aids production of low-frequency items. Overall, this pattern of results is generally consistent with the transmission deficit hypothesis, illustrating that links within the phonological system, but not the semantic system, are weakened with age.

Written language impairments in primary progressive aphasia: a reflection of damage to central semantic and phonological processes.

PubMed

Henry, Maya L; Beeson, Pélagie M; Alexander, Gene E; Rapcsak, Steven Z

2012-02-01

Connectionist theories of language propose that written language deficits arise as a result of damage to semantic and phonological systems that also support spoken language production and comprehension, a view referred to as the "primary systems" hypothesis. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the primary systems account in a mixed group of individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) by investigating the relation between measures of nonorthographic semantic and phonological processing and written language performance and by examining whether common patterns of cortical atrophy underlie impairments in spoken versus written language domains. Individuals with PPA and healthy controls were administered a language battery, including assessments of semantics, phonology, reading, and spelling. Voxel-based morphometry was used to examine the relation between gray matter volumes and language measures within brain regions previously implicated in semantic and phonological processing. In accordance with the primary systems account, our findings indicate that spoken language performance is strongly predictive of reading/spelling profile in individuals with PPA and suggest that common networks of critical left hemisphere regions support central semantic and phonological processes recruited for spoken and written language.

Short- and long-term rhythmic interventions: perspectives for language rehabilitation.

PubMed

Schön, Daniele; Tillmann, Barbara

2015-03-01

This paper brings together different perspectives on the investigation and understanding of temporal processing and temporal expectations. We aim to bridge different temporal deficit hypotheses in dyslexia, dysphasia, or deafness in a larger framework, taking into account multiple nested temporal scales. We present data testing the hypothesis that temporal attention can be influenced by external rhythmic auditory stimulation (i.e., musical rhythm) and benefits subsequent language processing, including syntax processing and speech production. We also present data testing the hypothesis that phonological awareness can be influenced by several months of musical training and, more particularly, rhythmic training, which in turn improves reading skills. Together, our data support the hypothesis of a causal role of rhythm-based processing for language processing and acquisition. These results open new avenues for music-based remediation of language and hearing impairment. © 2015 New York Academy of Sciences.

Neural bases of orthographic long-term memory and working memory in dysgraphia.

PubMed

Rapp, Brenda; Purcell, Jeremy; Hillis, Argye E; Capasso, Rita; Miceli, Gabriele

2016-02-01

Spelling a word involves the retrieval of information about the word's letters and their order from long-term memory as well as the maintenance and processing of this information by working memory in preparation for serial production by the motor system. While it is known that brain lesions may selectively affect orthographic long-term memory and working memory processes, relatively little is known about the neurotopographic distribution of the substrates that support these cognitive processes, or the lesions that give rise to the distinct forms of dysgraphia that affect these cognitive processes. To examine these issues, this study uses a voxel-based mapping approach to analyse the lesion distribution of 27 individuals with dysgraphia subsequent to stroke, who were identified on the basis of their behavioural profiles alone, as suffering from deficits only affecting either orthographic long-term or working memory, as well as six other individuals with deficits affecting both sets of processes. The findings provide, for the first time, clear evidence of substrates that selectively support orthographic long-term and working memory processes, with orthographic long-term memory deficits centred in either the left posterior inferior frontal region or left ventral temporal cortex, and orthographic working memory deficits primarily arising from lesions of the left parietal cortex centred on the intraparietal sulcus. These findings also contribute to our understanding of the relationship between the neural instantiation of written language processes and spoken language, working memory and other cognitive skills. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Individual Differences in Anatomy Predict Reading and Oral Language Impairments in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonard, Christiana; Eckert, Mark; Given, Barbara; Virginia, Berninger; Eden, Guinevere

2006-01-01

Developmental dyslexia (DD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are disorders of language that differ in diagnostic criteria and outcome. DD is defined by isolated reading deficits. SLI is defined by poor receptive and expressive oral language skills. Reading deficits, although prevalent, are not necessary for the diagnosis of SLI. An enduring…

Language Deficits as a Preclinical Window into Parkinson's Disease: Evidence from Asymptomatic Parkin and Dardarin Mutation Carriers.

PubMed

García, Adolfo M; Sedeño, Lucas; Trujillo, Natalia; Bocanegra, Yamile; Gomez, Diana; Pineda, David; Villegas, Andrés; Muñoz, Edinson; Arias, William; Ibáñez, Agustín

2017-02-01

The worldwide spread of Parkinson's disease (PD) calls for sensitive and specific measures enabling its early (or, ideally, preclinical) detection. Here, we use language measures revealing deficits in PD to explore whether similar disturbances are present in asymptomatic individuals at risk for the disease. We administered executive, semantic, verb-production, and syntactic tasks to sporadic PD patients, genetic PD patients with PARK2 (parkin) or LRRK2 (dardarin) mutation, asymptomatic first-degree relatives of the latter with similar mutations, and socio-demographically matched controls. Moreover, to detect sui generis language disturbances, we ran analysis of covariance tests using executive functions as covariate. The two clinical groups showed impairments in all measures, most of which survived covariation with executive functions. However, the key finding concerned asymptomatic mutation carriers. While these subjects showed intact executive, semantic, and action-verb production skills, they evinced deficits in a syntactic test with minimal working memory load. We propose that this sui generis disturbance may constitute a prodromal sign anticipating eventual development of PD. Moreover, our results suggest that mutations on specific genes (PARK2 and LRRK2) compromising basal ganglia functioning may be subtly related to language-processing mechanisms. (JINS, 2017, 23, 150-158).

Language, Executive Function and Social Cognition in the Diagnosis of Frontotemporal Dementia Syndromes

PubMed Central

Harciarek, Michał; Cosentino, Stephanie

2015-01-01

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) represents a spectrum of non-Alzheimer’s degenerative conditions associated with focal atrophy of the frontal and/or temporal lobes. Frontal and temporal regions of the brain have been shown to be strongly involved in executive function, social cognition and language processing and, thus, deficits in these domains are frequently seen in patients with FTD or may even be hallmarks of a specific FTD subtype ( i.e., relatively selective and progressive language impairment in primary progressive aphasia). In this review, we have attempted to delineate how language, executive function, and social cognition may contribute to the diagnosis of FTD syndromes, namely the behavioral variant FTD as well as the language variants of FTD including the three subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA): non-fluent/agrammatic, semantic, and logopenic. This review also addresses the extent to which deficits in these cognitive areas contribute to the differential diagnosis of FTD versus AD. Finally, early clinical determinants of pathology are briefly discussed and contemporary challenges to the diagnosis of FTD are presented. PMID:23611348

Language Impairments in ASD Resulting from a Failed Domestication of the Human Brain

PubMed Central

Benítez-Burraco, Antonio; Lattanzi, Wanda; Murphy, Elliot

2016-01-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders entailing social and cognitive deficits, including marked problems with language. Numerous genes have been associated with ASD, but it is unclear how language deficits arise from gene mutation or dysregulation. It is also unclear why ASD shows such high prevalence within human populations. Interestingly, the emergence of a modern faculty of language has been hypothesized to be linked to changes in the human brain/skull, but also to the process of self-domestication of the human species. It is our intention to show that people with ASD exhibit less marked domesticated traits at the morphological, physiological, and behavioral levels. We also discuss many ASD candidates represented among the genes known to be involved in the “domestication syndrome” (the constellation of traits exhibited by domesticated mammals, which seemingly results from the hypofunction of the neural crest) and among the set of genes involved in language function closely connected to them. Moreover, many of these genes show altered expression profiles in the brain of autists. In addition, some candidates for domestication and language-readiness show the same expression profile in people with ASD and chimps in different brain areas involved in language processing. Similarities regarding the brain oscillatory behavior of these areas can be expected too. We conclude that ASD may represent an abnormal ontogenetic itinerary for the human faculty of language resulting in part from changes in genes important for the “domestication syndrome” and, ultimately, from the normal functioning of the neural crest. PMID:27621700

Processing Binding Relations in Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Hestvik, Arild; Seiger-Gardner, Liat; Almodovar, Diana

2016-01-01

Purpose This sentence processing experiment examined the abilities of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical language development (TD) to establish relations between pronouns or reflexives and their antecedents in real time. Method Twenty-two children with SLI and 24 age-matched children with TD (7;3–10;11 [years;months]) participated in a cross-modal picture priming experiment to determine whether they selectively activated the correct referent at the pronoun or reflexive in sentences. Triplets of auditory sentences, identical except for the presence of a pronoun, a reflexive, or a noun phrase along with a picture probe were used. Results The children with TD were slightly more accurate in their animacy judgments of pictures, but the groups exhibited the same reaction time (RT) pattern. Both groups were slower for sentences with pronouns than with reflexives or noun phrases. The children with SLI had longer RTs than their peers with TD. Conclusions Children with SLI activated only the appropriate antecedent at the pronoun or reflexive, reflecting intact core knowledge of binding as was true for their TD peers. The overall slower RT for children with SLI suggests that any deficit may be the result of processing deficits, perhaps attributable to interference effects. PMID:27788275

Phonological deficits in specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia: towards a multidimensional model

PubMed Central

Ramus, Franck; Marshall, Chloe R.; Rosen, Stuart

2013-01-01

An on-going debate surrounds the relationship between specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia, in particular with respect to their phonological abilities. Are these distinct disorders? To what extent do they overlap? Which cognitive and linguistic profiles correspond to specific language impairment, dyslexia and comorbid cases? At least three different models have been proposed: the severity model, the additional deficit model and the component model. We address this issue by comparing children with specific language impairment only, those with dyslexia-only, those with specific language impairment and dyslexia and those with no impairment, using a broad test battery of language skills. We find that specific language impairment and dyslexia do not always co-occur, and that some children with specific language impairment do not have a phonological deficit. Using factor analysis, we find that language abilities across the four groups of children have at least three independent sources of variance: one for non-phonological language skills and two for distinct sets of phonological abilities (which we term phonological skills versus phonological representations). Furthermore, children with specific language impairment and dyslexia show partly distinct profiles of phonological deficit along these two dimensions. We conclude that a multiple-component model of language abilities best explains the relationship between specific language impairment and dyslexia and the different profiles of impairment that are observed. PMID:23413264

Prenatal Cocaine Exposure Impacts Language and Reading Into Late Adolescence: Behavioral and ERP Evidence.

PubMed

Landi, Nicole; Avery, Trey; Crowley, Michael J; Wu, Jia; Mayes, Linda

2017-01-01

Extant research documents impaired language among children with prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) relative to nondrug exposed (NDE) children, suggesting that cocaine alters development of neurobiological systems that support language. The current study examines behavioral and neural (electrophysiological) indices of language function in older adolescents. Specifically, we compare performance of PCE (N = 59) and NDE (N = 51) adolescents on a battery of cognitive and linguistic assessments that tap word reading, reading comprehension, semantic and grammatical processing, and IQ. In addition, we examine event related potential (ERP) responses in in a subset of these children across three experimental tasks that examine word level phonological processing (rhyme priming), word level semantic processing (semantic priming), and sentence level semantic processing (semantic anomaly). Findings reveal deficits across a number of reading and language assessments, after controlling for socioeconomic status and exposure to other substances. Additionally, ERP data reveal atypical orthography to phonology mapping (reduced N1/P2 response) and atypical rhyme and semantic processing (N400 response). These findings suggest that PCE continues to impact language and reading skills into the late teenage years.

Narrative skills in children with selective mutism: an exploratory study.

PubMed

McInnes, Alison; Fung, Daniel; Manassis, Katharina; Fiksenbaum, Lisa; Tannock, Rosemary

2004-11-01

Selective mutism (SM) is a rare and complex disorder associated with anxiety symptoms and speech-language deficits; however, the nature of these language deficits has not been studied systematically. A novel cross-disciplinary assessment protocol was used to assess anxiety and nonverbal cognitive, receptive language, and expressive narrative abilities in 7 children with SM and a comparison group of 7 children with social phobia (SP). The children with SM produced significantly shorter narratives than children with SP, despite showing normal nonverbal cognitive and receptive language abilities. The findings suggest that SM may involve subtle expressive language deficits that may influence academic performance and raise additional questions for further research. The assessment procedure developed for this study may be potentially useful for language clinicians.

How do typically developing deaf children and deaf children with autism spectrum disorder use the face when comprehending emotional facial expressions in British sign language?

PubMed

Denmark, Tanya; Atkinson, Joanna; Campbell, Ruth; Swettenham, John

2014-10-01

Facial expressions in sign language carry a variety of communicative features. While emotion can modulate a spoken utterance through changes in intonation, duration and intensity, in sign language specific facial expressions presented concurrently with a manual sign perform this function. When deaf adult signers cannot see facial features, their ability to judge emotion in a signed utterance is impaired (Reilly et al. in Sign Lang Stud 75:113-118, 1992). We examined the role of the face in the comprehension of emotion in sign language in a group of typically developing (TD) deaf children and in a group of deaf children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We replicated Reilly et al.'s (Sign Lang Stud 75:113-118, 1992) adult results in the TD deaf signing children, confirming the importance of the face in understanding emotion in sign language. The ASD group performed more poorly on the emotion recognition task than the TD children. The deaf children with ASD showed a deficit in emotion recognition during sign language processing analogous to the deficit in vocal emotion recognition that has been observed in hearing children with ASD.

Assessment of Individuals with Primary Progressive Aphasia.

PubMed

Henry, Maya L; Grasso, Stephanie M

2018-07-01

Speech-language pathologists play a crucial role in the assessment and treatment of individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). The speech-language evaluation is a critical aspect of the diagnostic and rehabilitative process, informing differential diagnosis as well as intervention planning and monitoring of cognitive-linguistic status over time. The evaluation should include a thorough case history and interview and a detailed assessment of speech-language and cognitive functions, with tasks designed to detect core and associated deficits outlined in current diagnostic criteria. In this paper, we review assessments that can be utilized to examine communication and cognition in PPA, including general aphasia batteries designed for stroke and/or progressive aphasia as well as tests of specific cognitive-linguistic functions, including naming, object/person knowledge, single-word and sentence comprehension, repetition, spontaneous speech/language production, motor speech, written language, and nonlinguistic cognitive domains. The comprehensive evaluation can inform diagnostic decision making and facilitate planning of interventions that are tailored to the patient's current status and likely progression of deficits. As such, the speech-language evaluation allows the medical team to provide individuals with PPA and their families with appropriate recommendations for the present and the future. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Difficulty Processing Temporary Syntactic Ambiguities in Lewy Body Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grossman, Murray; Gross, Rachel G.; Moore, Peachie; Dreyfuss, Michael; McMillan, Corey T.; Cook, Philip A.; Ash, Sherry; Siderowf, Andrew

2012-01-01

While grammatical aspects of language are preserved, executive deficits are prominent in Lewy body spectrum disorder (LBSD), including Parkinson's disease (PD), Parkinson's dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). We examined executive control during sentence processing in LBSD by assessing temporary structural ambiguities. Using an…

Auditory Frequency Discrimination in Children with Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halliday, Lorna F.; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2006-01-01

A popular hypothesis holds that developmental dyslexia is caused by phonological processing problems and is therefore linked to difficulties in the analysis of spoken as well as written language. It has been suggested that these phonological deficits might be attributable to low-level problems in processing the temporal fine structure of auditory…

Electrophysiological Correlates of Semantic Processing in Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinheiro, Ana P.; Galdo-Alvarez, Santaigo; Sampaio, Adriana; Niznikiewicz, Margaret; Goncalves, Oscar F.

2010-01-01

Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder due to microdeletion in chromosome 7, has been described as a syndrome with an intriguing socio-cognitive phenotype. Cognitively, the relative preservation of language and face processing abilities coexists with severe deficits in visual-spatial tasks, as well as in tasks involving…

Information Processing and Proactive Interference in Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Marton, Klara; Campanelli, Luca; Eichorn, Naomi; Scheuer, Jessica; Yoon, Jungmee

2014-01-01

Purpose Increasing evidence suggests that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have a deficit in inhibition control, but research isolating specific abilities is scarce. The goal of this study was to examine whether children with SLI differ from their peers in resistance to proactive interference under different conditions. Method An information processing battery with manipulations in interference was administered to 66 children (SLI, age-matched peers, and language-matched controls). In Experiment 1, previously relevant targets were used as distractors to create conflict. Experiment 2 used item repetitions to examine how practice strengthens word representations and how the strength of a response impacts performance on the following item. Results Children with SLI performed similarly to their peers in the baseline condition but were more susceptible to proactive interference than the controls in both experimental conditions. Children with SLI demonstrated difficulty suppressing irrelevant information, made significantly more interference errors than their peers, and showed a slower rate of implicit learning. Conclusion Children with SLI show weaker resistance to proactive interference than their peers, and this deficit impacts their information processing abilities. The coordination of activation and inhibition is less efficient in these children, but future research is needed to further examine the interaction between these two processes. PMID:23900030

The interface between spoken and written language: developmental disorders.

PubMed

Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

2014-01-01

We review current knowledge about reading development and the origins of difficulties in learning to read. We distinguish between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading for meaning (reading comprehension). At a cognitive level, difficulties in learning to read appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. The development of decoding skills appears to depend critically upon phonological language skills, and variations in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming each appear to be causally related to problems in learning to read. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be critically dependent on a range of oral language comprehension skills (including vocabulary knowledge and grammatical, morphological and pragmatic skills).

Diagnostic work up for language testing in patients undergoing awake craniotomy for brain lesions in language areas.

PubMed

Bilotta, Federico; Stazi, Elisabetta; Titi, Luca; Lalli, Diana; Delfini, Roberto; Santoro, Antonio; Rosa, Giovanni

2014-06-01

Awake craniotomy is the technique of choice in patients with brain tumours adjacent to primary and accessory language areas (Broca's and Wernicke's areas). Language testing should be aimed to detect preoperative deficits, to promptly identify the occurrence of new intraoperative impairments and to establish the course of postoperative language status. Aim of this case series is to describe our experience with a dedicated language testing work up to evaluate patients with or at risk for language disturbances undergoing awake craniotomy for brain tumour resection. Pre- and intra operative testing was accomplished with 8 tests. Intraoperative evaluation was accomplished when patients were fully cooperative (Ramsey < 3). Postoperative evaluation was scheduled at early (within 21 days) and long-term follow-up (3-6 months). Twenty consecutive patients were prospectively recruited. Preoperative language testings were normal in 9 patients (45%), showed mild to moderate language deficit in 8 (40%) and severe language deficit or aphasic disorders in 3 (15%). Broca's area was identified in 15 patients, in all cases by counting arrest during stimulation and in 12 cases by naming arrest. In this article we describe our experience using a language testing work up to evaluate - pre, intra and postoperatively - patients undergoing awake craniotomy for brain tumour resection with preoperative language disturbances or at risk for postoperative language deficits. This approach allows a systematic evaluation and recording of language function status and can be accomplished even when a neuropsychologist or speech therapist are not involved in the operation crew.

Inflectional morphology in high-functioning autism: Evidence for speeded grammatical processing

PubMed Central

Walenski, Matthew; Mostofsky, Stewart H.; Ullman, Michael T.

2014-01-01

Autism is characterized by language and communication deficits. We investigated grammatical and lexical processes in high-functioning autism by contrasting the production of regular and irregular past-tense forms. Boys with autism and typically-developing control boys did not differ in accuracy or error rates. However, boys with autism were significantly faster than controls at producing rule-governed past-tenses (slip-slipped, plim-plimmed, bring-bringed), though not lexically-dependent past-tenses (bring-brought, squeeze-squeezed, splim-splam). This pattern mirrors previous findings from Tourette syndrome attributed to abnormalities of frontal/basal-ganglia circuits that underlie grammar. We suggest a similar abnormality underlying language in autism. Importantly, even when children with autism show apparently normal language (e.g., in accuracy or with diagnostic instruments), processes and/or brain structures subserving language may be atypical in the disorder. PMID:25342962

Grammatical Tense Deficits in Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and Nonspecific Language Impairment: Relationships with Nonverbal IQ over Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Mabel L.; Tomblin, J. Bruce; Hoffman, Lesa; Richman, W. Allen; Marquis, Janet

2004-01-01

The relationship between children's language acquisition and their nonverbal intelligence has a long tradition of scientific inquiry. Current attention focuses on the use of nonverbal IQ level as an exclusionary criterion in the definition of specific language impairment (SLI). Grammatical tense deficits are known as a clinical marker of SLI, but…

Narrative Skills in Children with Selective Mutism: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McInnes, Alison; Fung, Daniel; Manassis, Katharina; Fiksenbaum, Lisa; Tannock, Rosemary

2004-01-01

Selective mutism (SM) is a rare and complex disorder associated with anxiety symptoms and speech-language deficits; however, the nature of these language deficits has not been studied systematically. A novel cross-disciplinary assessment protocol was used to assess anxiety and nonverbal cognitive, receptive language, and expressive narrative…

Early Writing Deficits in Preschoolers with Oral Language Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether preschool children with language impairments (LI), a group with documented reading difficulties, also experience writing difficulties. In addition, a purpose was to examine if the writing outcomes differed when children had concomitant cognitive deficits in addition to oral language problems. A…

Lexical-Semantic Organization in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheng, Li; McGregor, Karla K.

2010-01-01

Purpose: To determine whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) show deficits in lexical-semantic organization and, if so, whether these deficits are commensurate with their delay in vocabulary size and whether the deficits affect all children with SLI. Method: Fourteen children with SLI, 14 age matches (AM), and 14 expressive…

Modality and morphology: what we write may not be what we say.

PubMed

Rapp, Brenda; Fischer-Baum, Simon; Miozzo, Michele

2015-06-01

Written language is an evolutionarily recent human invention; consequently, its neural substrates cannot be determined by the genetic code. How, then, does the brain incorporate skills of this type? One possibility is that written language is dependent on evolutionarily older skills, such as spoken language; another is that dedicated substrates develop with expertise. If written language does depend on spoken language, then acquired deficits of spoken and written language should necessarily co-occur. Alternatively, if at least some substrates are dedicated to written language, such deficits may doubly dissociate. We report on 5 individuals with aphasia, documenting a double dissociation in which the production of affixes (e.g., the -ing in jumping) is disrupted in writing but not speaking or vice versa. The findings reveal that written- and spoken-language systems are considerably independent from the standpoint of morpho-orthographic operations. Understanding this independence of the orthographic system in adults has implications for the education and rehabilitation of people with written-language deficits. © The Author(s) 2015.

Early preschool processing abilities predict subsequent reading outcomes in bilingual Spanish-Catalan children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI).

PubMed

Aguilar-Mediavilla, Eva; Buil-Legaz, Lucía; Pérez-Castelló, Josep A; Rigo-Carratalà, Eduard; Adrover-Roig, Daniel

2014-01-01

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have severe language difficulties without showing hearing impairments, cognitive deficits, neurological damage or socio-emotional deprivation. However, previous studies have shown that children with SLI show some cognitive and literacy problems. Our study analyses the relationship between preschool cognitive and linguistic abilities and the later development of reading abilities in Spanish-Catalan bilingual children with SLI. The sample consisted of 17 bilingual Spanish-Catalan children with SLI and 17 age-matched controls. We tested eight distinct processes related to phonological, attention, and language processing at the age of 6 years and reading at 8 years of age. Results show that bilingual Spanish-Catalan children with SLI show significantly lower scores, as compared to typically developing peers, in phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid automatized naming (RAN), together with a lower outcome in tasks measuring sentence repetition and verbal fluency. Regarding attentional processes, bilingual Spanish-Catalan children with SLI obtained lower scores in auditory attention, but not in visual attention. At the age of 8 years Spanish-Catalan children with SLI had lower scores than their age-matched controls in total reading score, letter identification (decoding), and in semantic task (comprehension). Regression analyses identified both phonological awareness and verbal fluency at the age of 6 years to be the best predictors of subsequent reading performance at the age of 8 years. Our data suggest that language acquisition problems and difficulties in reading acquisition in bilingual children with SLI might be related to the close interdependence between a limitation in cognitive processing and a deficit at the linguistic level. After reading this article, readers will be able to: identify their understanding of the relation between language difficulties and reading outcomes; explain how processing abilities influence reading performance in bilingual Spanish-Catalan children with SLI; and recognize the relation between language and reading via a developmental model in which the phonological system is considered central for the development of decoding abilities and comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Deficits in auditory processing contribute to impairments in vocal affect recognition in autism spectrum disorders: A MEG study.

PubMed

Demopoulos, Carly; Hopkins, Joyce; Kopald, Brandon E; Paulson, Kim; Doyle, Lauren; Andrews, Whitney E; Lewine, Jeffrey David

2015-11-01

The primary aim of this study was to examine whether there is an association between magnetoencephalography-based (MEG) indices of basic cortical auditory processing and vocal affect recognition (VAR) ability in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). MEG data were collected from 25 children/adolescents with ASD and 12 control participants using a paired-tone paradigm to measure quality of auditory physiology, sensory gating, and rapid auditory processing. Group differences were examined in auditory processing and vocal affect recognition ability. The relationship between differences in auditory processing and vocal affect recognition deficits was examined in the ASD group. Replicating prior studies, participants with ASD showed longer M1n latencies and impaired rapid processing compared with control participants. These variables were significantly related to VAR, with the linear combination of auditory processing variables accounting for approximately 30% of the variability after controlling for age and language skills in participants with ASD. VAR deficits in ASD are typically interpreted as part of a core, higher order dysfunction of the "social brain"; however, these results suggest they also may reflect basic deficits in auditory processing that compromise the extraction of socially relevant cues from the auditory environment. As such, they also suggest that therapeutic targeting of sensory dysfunction in ASD may have additional positive implications for other functional deficits. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Brainstem Transcription of Speech Is Disrupted in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russo, Nicole; Nicol, Trent; Trommer, Barbara; Zecker, Steve; Kraus, Nina

2009-01-01

Language impairment is a hallmark of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The origin of the deficit is poorly understood although deficiencies in auditory processing have been detected in both perception and cortical encoding of speech sounds. Little is known about the processing and transcription of speech sounds at earlier (brainstem) levels or…

Sentence Processing in Traumatic Brain Injury: Evidence from the P600

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Key-DeLyria, Sarah E.

2016-01-01

Purpose: Sentence processing can be affected following a traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to linguistic or cognitive deficits. Language-related event-related potentials (ERPs), particularly the P600, have not been described in individuals with TBI history. Method: Four young adults with a history of closed head injury participated. Two had severe…

Amusia results in abnormal brain activity following inappropriate intonation during speech comprehension.

PubMed

Jiang, Cunmei; Hamm, Jeff P; Lim, Vanessa K; Kirk, Ian J; Chen, Xuhai; Yang, Yufang

2012-01-01

Pitch processing is a critical ability on which humans' tonal musical experience depends, and which is also of paramount importance for decoding prosody in speech. Congenital amusia refers to deficits in the ability to properly process musical pitch, and recent evidence has suggested that this musical pitch disorder may impact upon the processing of speech sounds. Here we present the first electrophysiological evidence demonstrating that individuals with amusia who speak Mandarin Chinese are impaired in classifying prosody as appropriate or inappropriate during a speech comprehension task. When presented with inappropriate prosody stimuli, control participants elicited a larger P600 and smaller N100 relative to the appropriate condition. In contrast, amusics did not show significant differences between the appropriate and inappropriate conditions in either the N100 or the P600 component. This provides further evidence that the pitch perception deficits associated with amusia may also affect intonation processing during speech comprehension in those who speak a tonal language such as Mandarin, and suggests music and language share some cognitive and neural resources.

Amusia Results in Abnormal Brain Activity following Inappropriate Intonation during Speech Comprehension

PubMed Central

Jiang, Cunmei; Hamm, Jeff P.; Lim, Vanessa K.; Kirk, Ian J.; Chen, Xuhai; Yang, Yufang

2012-01-01

Pitch processing is a critical ability on which humans’ tonal musical experience depends, and which is also of paramount importance for decoding prosody in speech. Congenital amusia refers to deficits in the ability to properly process musical pitch, and recent evidence has suggested that this musical pitch disorder may impact upon the processing of speech sounds. Here we present the first electrophysiological evidence demonstrating that individuals with amusia who speak Mandarin Chinese are impaired in classifying prosody as appropriate or inappropriate during a speech comprehension task. When presented with inappropriate prosody stimuli, control participants elicited a larger P600 and smaller N100 relative to the appropriate condition. In contrast, amusics did not show significant differences between the appropriate and inappropriate conditions in either the N100 or the P600 component. This provides further evidence that the pitch perception deficits associated with amusia may also affect intonation processing during speech comprehension in those who speak a tonal language such as Mandarin, and suggests music and language share some cognitive and neural resources. PMID:22859982

Syntactic Versus Memory Accounts of the Sentence Comprehension Deficits of Specific Language Impairment: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montgomery, James W.; Gillam, Ronald B.; Evans, Julia L.

2016-01-01

Purpose: Compared with same-age typically developing peers, school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) exhibit significant deficits in spoken sentence comprehension. They also demonstrate a range of memory limitations. Whether these 2 deficit areas are related is unclear. The present review article aims to (a) review 2 main…

Influence of Language Load on Speech Motor Skill in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saletta, Meredith; Goffman, Lisa; Ward, Caitlin; Oleson, Jacob

2018-01-01

Purpose: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show particular deficits in the generation of sequenced action--the quintessential procedural task. Practiced imitation of a sequence may become rote and require reduced procedural memory. This study explored whether speech motor deficits in children with SLI occur generally or only in…

Procedural Motor Learning in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanjeevan, Teenu; Mainela-Arnold, Elina

2017-01-01

Purpose: Specific language impairment (SLI) is a developmental disorder that affects language and motor development in the absence of a clear cause. An explanation for these impairments is offered by the procedural deficit hypothesis (PDH), which argues that motor difficulties in SLI are due to deficits in procedural memory. The aim of this study…

Auditory-Motor Interactions in Pediatric Motor Speech Disorders: Neurocomputational Modeling of Disordered Development

PubMed Central

Terband, H.; Maassen, B.; Guenther, F.H.; Brumberg, J.

2014-01-01

Background/Purpose Differentiating the symptom complex due to phonological-level disorders, speech delay and pediatric motor speech disorders is a controversial issue in the field of pediatric speech and language pathology. The present study investigated the developmental interaction between neurological deficits in auditory and motor processes using computational modeling with the DIVA model. Method In a series of computer simulations, we investigated the effect of a motor processing deficit alone (MPD), and the effect of a motor processing deficit in combination with an auditory processing deficit (MPD+APD) on the trajectory and endpoint of speech motor development in the DIVA model. Results Simulation results showed that a motor programming deficit predominantly leads to deterioration on the phonological level (phonemic mappings) when auditory self-monitoring is intact, and on the systemic level (systemic mapping) if auditory self-monitoring is impaired. Conclusions These findings suggest a close relation between quality of auditory self-monitoring and the involvement of phonological vs. motor processes in children with pediatric motor speech disorders. It is suggested that MPD+APD might be involved in typically apraxic speech output disorders and MPD in pediatric motor speech disorders that also have a phonological component. Possibilities to verify these hypotheses using empirical data collected from human subjects are discussed. PMID:24491630

Individual Differences in the Real-Time Comprehension of Children with ASD

PubMed Central

Venker, Courtney E.; Eernisse, Elizabeth R.; Saffran, Jenny R.; Weismer, Susan Ellis

2013-01-01

Lay Abstract Spoken language processing is related to language and cognitive skills in typically developing children, but very little is known about how children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) comprehend words in real time. Studying this area is important because it may help us understand why many children with autism have delayed language comprehension. Thirty-four children with ASD (3–6 years old) participated in this study. They took part in a language comprehension task that involved looking at pictures on a screen and listening to questions about familiar nouns (e.g., Where’s the shoe?). Children as a group understood the familiar words, but accuracy and processing speed varied considerably across children. The children who were more accurate were also faster to process the familiar words. Children’s language processing accuracy was related to processing speed and language comprehension on a standardized test; nonverbal cognition did not explain additional information after accounting for these factors. Additionally, lexical processing accuracy at age 5½ was related to children’s vocabulary comprehension three years earlier, at age 2½. Autism severity and years of maternal education were unrelated to language processing. Words typically acquired earlier in life were processed more quickly than words acquired later. These findings point to similarities in patterns of language development in typically developing children and children with ASD. Studying real-time comprehension in children with ASD may help us better understand mechanisms of language comprehension in this population. Future work may help explain why some children with ASD develop age-appropriate language skills, whereas others experience lasting deficits. Scientific Abstract Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate deficits in language comprehension, but little is known about how they process spoken language as it unfolds. Real-time lexical comprehension is associated with language and cognition in children without ASD, suggesting that this may also be the case for children with ASD. This study adopted an individual differences approach to characterizing real-time comprehension of familiar words in a group of 34 three- to six-year-olds with ASD. The looking-while-listening paradigm was employed; it measures online accuracy and latency through language-mediated eye movements and has limited task demands. On average, children demonstrated comprehension of the familiar words, but considerable variability emerged. Children with better accuracy were faster to process the familiar words. In combination, processing speed and comprehension on a standardized language assessment explained 63% of the variance in online accuracy. Online accuracy was not correlated with autism severity or maternal education, and nonverbal cognition did not explain unique variance. Notably, online accuracy at age 5½ was related to vocabulary comprehension three years earlier. The words typically learned earliest in life were processed most quickly. Consistent with a dimensional view of language abilities, these findings point to similarities in patterns of language acquisition in typically developing children and those with ASD. Overall, our results emphasize the value of examining individual differences in real-time language comprehension in this population. We propose that the looking-while-listening paradigm is a sensitive and valuable methodological tool that can be applied across many areas of autism research. PMID:23696214

Who's Missing the Point? A Commentary on Claims that Autistic Persons Have a Specific Deficit in Figurative Language Comprehension.

PubMed

Gernsbacher, Morton Ann; Pripas-Kapit, Sarah R

2012-01-01

It's become a caricature of autistic persons that they don't understand figurative language. Despite empirical evidence to the contrary, three of the four contributions to this special issue endorse this stereotype without question. And all four contributions attribute this supposed deficit to even shakier fallacies, such as the controversial claim that autistic people lack empathy or a 'theory of mind.' In this commentary, we begin by reviewing the literature more exhaustively than the other contributions, and we highlight a point that they missed: Autistic persons are likely to have difficulty comprehending figurative language if they also have difficulty comprehending language in general. There doesn't seem to be a specific deficit in figurative language unique to autism. We also tackle the claim that autistic people lack empathy. And we question the existence of a 'theory of mind area,' while demonstrating the pitfalls that ensnarl researchers when they strain to interpret differences between autistic and non-autistic brain activity as solely autistic deficits.

Delay or deficit? Spelling processes in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Larkin, Rebecca F; Williams, Gareth J; Blaggan, Samarita

2013-01-01

Few studies have explored the phonological, morphological and orthographic spellings skills of children with specific language impairment (SLI) simultaneously. Fifteen children with SLI (mean age=113.07 months, SD=8.61) completed language and spelling tasks alongside chronological-age controls and spelling-age controls. While the children with SLI showed a deficit in phonological spelling, they performed comparably to spelling-age controls on morphological spelling skills, and there were no differences between the three groups in producing orthographically legal spellings. The results also highlighted the potential importance of adequate non-word repetition skills in relation to effective spelling skills, and demonstrated that not all children with spoken language impairments show marked spelling difficulties. Findings are discussed in relation to theory, educational assessment and practice. As a result of this activity, readers will describe components of spoken language that predict children's morphological and phonological spelling performance. As a result of this activity, readers will describe how the spelling skills of children with SLI compare to age-matched and spelling age-matched control children. Readers will be able to interpret the variability in spelling performance seen in children with SLI. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nonword repetition in children with cochlear implants: A potential clinical marker of poor language acquisition

PubMed Central

Nittrouer, Susan; Caldwell-Tarr, Amanda; Sansom, Emily; Twersky, Jill; Lowenstein, Joanna H.

2014-01-01

Purpose Cochlear implants (CIs) can facilitate the acquisition of spoken language for deaf children, but challenges remain. Language skills dependent upon phonological sensitivity are most at risk for these children, so having an effective way to diagnose problems at this level would be of value for school speech-language pathologists. The goal of this study was to assess whether a nonword repetition (NWR) task could serve that purpose. Method 104 second graders participated: 49 with NH and 55 with CIs. In addition to NWR, children were tested on ten measures involving phonological awareness/processing, serial recall of words, vocabulary, reading, and grammar. Results Children with CIs performed more poorly than children with NH on NWR, and sensitivity to phonological structure alone explained that performance for children in both groups. For children with CIs, two audiological factors positively influenced outcomes on NWR: being identified with hearing loss at younger ages and having experience wearing a hearing aid on the unimplanted ear at the time of receiving a first CI. NWR scores were better able to rule out language deficits than rule in such deficits. Conclusions Well-designed NWR tasks could have clinical utility in assessments of language acquisition for school-age children with CIs. PMID:25340675

Contextual Constraint Treatment for coarse coding deficit in adults with right hemisphere brain damage: Generalization to narrative discourse comprehension

PubMed Central

Blake, Margaret Lehman; Tompkins, Connie A.; Scharp, Victoria L.; Meigh, Kimberly M.; Wambaugh, Julie

2014-01-01

Coarse coding is the activation of broad semantic fields that can include multiple word meanings and a variety of features, including those peripheral to a word’s core meaning. It is a partially domain-general process related to general discourse comprehension and contributes to both literal and non-literal language processing. Adults with damage to the right cerebral hemisphere (RHD) and a coarse coding deficit are particularly slow to activate features of words that are relatively distant or peripheral. This manuscript reports a pre-efficacy study of Contextual Constraint Treatment (CCT), a novel, implicit treatment designed to increase the efficiency of coarse coding with the goal of improving narrative comprehension and other language performance that relies on coarse coding. Participants were four adults with RHD. The study used a single-subject controlled experimental design across subjects and behaviors. The treatment involves pre-stimulation, using a hierarchy of strong- and moderately-biased contexts, to prime the intended distantly-related features of critical stimulus words. Three of the four participants exhibited gains in auditory narrative discourse comprehension, the primary outcome measure. All participants exhibited generalization to untreated items. No strong generalization to processing nonliteral language was evident. The results indicate that CCT yields both improved efficiency of the coarse coding process and generalization to narrative comprehension. PMID:24983133

Children with Developmental Language Impairment Have Vocabulary Deficits Characterized by Limited Breadth and Depth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGregor, Karla K.; Oleson, Jacob; Bahnsen, Alison; Duff, Dawna

2013-01-01

Background: Deficient vocabulary is a frequently reported symptom of developmental language impairment, but the nature of the deficit and its developmental course are not well documented. Aims: To describe the nature of the deficit in terms of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and to determine whether the nature and the extent of the…

Understanding Emotions in Context: The Effects of Language Impairment on Children's Ability to Infer Emotional Reactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spackman, Matthew P.; Fujiki, Martin; Brinton, Bonnie

2006-01-01

Background: Research indicates children with language impairment (LI) may experience social deficits extending beyond those expected due to their language deficits. In particular, it has been found that children with LI have difficulty with various aspects of emotional competence. One aspect of emotional competence is emotion understanding, which…

Unidentified Language Deficits in Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hollo, Alexandra; Wehby, Joseph H.; Oliver, Regina M.

2014-01-01

Low language proficiency and problem behavior often co-occur, yet language deficits are likely to be overlooked in children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Random effects meta-analyses were conducted to determine prevalence and severity of the problem. Across 22 studies, participants included 1,171 children ages 5-13 with formally…

How Can Comorbidity with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Aid Understanding of Language and Speech Disorders?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomblin, J. Bruce; Mueller, Kathyrn L.

2012-01-01

This article provides a background for the topic of comorbidity of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and spoken and written language and speech disorders that extends through this issue of "Topics in Language Disorders." Comorbidity is common within developmental disorders and may be explained by many possible reasons. Some of these can be…

Backward and Simultaneous Masking in Children with Grammatical Specific Language Impairment: No Simple Link between Auditory and Language Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosen, Stuart; Adlard, Alan; van der Lely, Heather K. J.

2009-01-01

Purpose: We investigated claims that specific language impairment (SLI) typically arises from nonspeech auditory deficits by measuring tone-in-noise thresholds in a relatively homogeneous SLI subgroup exhibiting a primary deficit restricted to grammar (Grammatical[G]-SLI). Method: Fourteen children (mostly teenagers) with G-SLI were compared to…

Can a Successful ESL Teacher Hold Deficit Beliefs of Her Students' Home Languages and Cultures?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hertzog, Lisa

2011-01-01

In this article the author explores the seeming contradictions between the successful teaching practices of an English as a Second Language teacher and the deficit beliefs she expressed toward her students' home languages and cultures. This teacher believed her students were smart and capable, and she held herself accountable for her students…

Language and motor abilities of preschool children who stutter: Evidence from behavioral and kinematic indices of nonword repetition performance

PubMed Central

Smith, Anne; Goffman, Lisa; Sasisekaran, Jayanthi; Weber-Fox, Christine

2012-01-01

Stuttering is a disorder of speech production that typically arises in the preschool years, and many accounts of its onset and development implicate language and motor processes as critical underlying factors. There have, however, been very few studies of speech motor control processes in preschool children who stutter. Hearing novel nonwords and reproducing them engages multiple neural networks, including those involved in phonological analysis and storage and speech motor programming and execution. We used this task to explore speech motor and language abilities of 31 children aged 4–5 years who were diagnosed as stuttering. We also used sensitive and specific standardized tests of speech and language abilities to determine which of the children who stutter had concomitant language and/or phonological disorders. Approximately half of our sample of stuttering children had language and/or phonological disorders. As previous investigations would suggest, the stuttering children with concomitant language or speech sound disorders produced significantly more errors on the nonword repetition task compared to typically developing children. In contrast, the children who were diagnosed as stuttering, but who had normal speech sound and language abilities, performed the nonword repetition task with equal accuracy compared to their normally fluent peers. Analyses of interarticulator motions during accurate and fluent productions of the nonwords revealed that the children who stutter (without concomitant disorders) showed higher variability in oral motor coordination indices. These results provide new evidence that preschool children diagnosed as stuttering lag their typically developing peers in maturation of speech motor control processes. Educational objectives The reader will be able to: (a) discuss why performance on nonword repetition tasks has been investigated in children who stutter; (b) discuss why children who stutter in the current study had a higher incidence of concomitant language deficits compared to several other studies; (c) describe how performance differed on a nonword repetition test between children who stutter who do and do not have concomitant speech or language deficits; (d) make a general statement about speech motor control for nonword production in children who stutter compared to controls. PMID:23218217

Auditory sensory memory and language abilities in former late talkers: a mismatch negativity study.

PubMed

Grossheinrich, Nicola; Kademann, Stefanie; Bruder, Jennifer; Bartling, Juergen; Von Suchodoletz, Waldemar

2010-09-01

The present study investigated whether (a) a reduced duration of auditory sensory memory is found in late talking children and (b) whether deficits of sensory memory are linked to persistent difficulties in language acquisition. Former late talkers and children without delayed language development were examined at the age of 4 years and 7 months using mismatch negativity (MMN) with interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 500 ms and 2000 ms. Additionally, short-term memory, language skills, and nonverbal intelligence were assessed. MMN mean amplitude was reduced for the ISI of 2000 ms in former late talking children both with and without persistent language deficits. In summary, our findings suggest that late talkers are characterized by a reduced duration of auditory sensory memory. However, deficits in auditory sensory memory are not sufficient for persistent language difficulties and may be compensated for by some children.

Brain Activation during Semantic Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders via Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Gordon J.; Chabris, Christopher F.; Clark, Jill; Urban, Trinity; Aharon, Itzhak; Steele, Shelley; McGrath, Lauren; Condouris, Karen; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2006-01-01

Language and communication deficits are core features of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), even in high-functioning adults with ASD. This study investigated brain activation patterns using functional magnetic resonance imaging in right-handed adult males with ASD and a control group, matched on age, handedness, and verbal IQ. Semantic processing in…

Word and Nonword Processing without Meaning Support in Korean-Speaking Children with and without Hyperlexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Sung Hee; Hwang, Mina

2015-01-01

Hyperlexia is a syndrome of reading without meaning in individuals who otherwise have pronounced cognitive and language deficits. The present study investigated the quality of word representation and the effects of deficient semantic processing on word and nonword reading of Korean children with hyperlexia; their performances were compared to…

Pre-operative language ability in patients with presumed low-grade glioma.

PubMed

Antonsson, Malin; Longoni, Francesca; Jakola, Asgeir; Tisell, Magnus; Thordstein, Magnus; Hartelius, Lena

2018-03-01

In patients with low-grade glioma (LGG), language deficits are usually only found and investigated after surgery. Deficits may be present before surgery but to date, studies have yielded varying results regarding the extent of this problem and in what language domains deficits may occur. This study therefore aims to explore the language ability of patients who have recently received a presumptive diagnosis of low-grade glioma, and also to see whether they reported any changes in their language ability before receiving treatment. Twenty-three patients were tested using a comprehensive test battery that consisted of standard aphasia tests and tests of lexical retrieval and high-level language functions. The patients were also asked whether they had noticed any change in their use of language or ability to communicate. The test scores were compared to a matched reference group and to clinical norms. The presumed LGG group performed significantly worse than the reference group on two tests of lexical retrieval. Since five patients after surgery were discovered to have a high-grade glioma, a separate analysis excluding them were performed. These analyses revealed comparable results; however one test of word fluency was no longer significant. Individually, the majority exhibited normal or nearly normal language ability and only a few reported subjective changes in language or ability to communicate. This study shows that patients who have been diagnosed with LGG generally show mild or no language deficits on either objective or subjective assessment.

Theoretical Considerations for Understanding “Understanding” by Adults With Right Hemisphere Brain Damage

PubMed Central

Tompkins, Connie A.

2009-01-01

This article reviews and evaluates leading accounts of narrative comprehension deficits in adults with focal damage to the right cerebral hemisphere (RHD). It begins with a discussion of models of comprehension, which explain how comprehension proceeds through increasingly complex levels of representation. These models include two phases of comprehension processes, broad activation of information as well as pruning and focusing interpretation of meaning based on context. The potential effects of RHD on each processing phase are reviewed, focusing on factors that range from relatively specific (e.g., how the right versus the left hemisphere activate word meanings; how the right hemisphere is involved in inferencing) to more general (the influence of cognitive resource factors; the role of suppression of contextually-irrelevant information). Next, two specific accounts of RHD comprehension difficulties, coarse coding and suppression deficit, are described. These have been construed as opposing processes, but a possible reconciliation is proposed related to the different phases of comprehension and the extent of meaning activation. Finally, the article addresses the influences of contextual constraint on language processing and the continuity of literal and nonliteral language processing, two areas in which future developments may assist our clinical planning PMID:20011667

Working memory influences processing speed and reading fluency in ADHD.

PubMed

Jacobson, Lisa A; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H; Denckla, Martha B; Mahone, E Mark

2011-01-01

Processing-speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This "slowing" in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the "processing" speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14 years, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency and reduced processing speed-driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed "processing" speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intrasubject variability. Further, "processing" speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus.

They know the words, but not the music: affective and semantic priming in individuals with psychopathy.

PubMed

Blair, K S; Richell, R A; Mitchell, D G V; Leonard, A; Morton, J; Blair, R J R

2006-08-01

Previous work has indicated dysfunctional affect-language interactions in individuals with psychopathy through use of the lexical decision task. However, it has been uncertain as to whether these deficits actually reflect impaired affect-language interactions or a more fundamental deficit in general semantic processing. In this study, we examined affective priming and semantic priming (dependent measures were reaction times and error rates) in individuals with psychopathy and comparison individuals, classified according to the psychopathy checklist revised (PCL-R) [Hare, R.D., 1991. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. Multi-Health Systems, Toronto, Ont] Individuals with psychopathy showed significantly less affective priming relative to comparison individuals. In contrast, the two groups showed comparable levels of semantic priming. The results are discussed with reference to current models of psychopathy.

Children with Developmental Language Impairment Have Vocabulary Deficits Characterized by Limited Breadth and Depth

PubMed Central

McGregor, Karla K.; Oleson, Jacob; Bahnsen, Alison; Duff, Dawna

2012-01-01

Background Deficient vocabulary is a frequently reported symptom of developmental language impairment but the nature of the deficit and its developmental course are not well documented. Aims We aimed to describe the nature of the deficit in terms of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and to determine whether the nature and the extent of the deficit change over the school years. Methods A total of 25,681 oral definitions produced by 177 children with developmental language impairment (LI) and 325 grade-mates with normally developing language (ND) in grades 2, 4, 8, and 10 were taken from an existing longitudinal database. We analyzed these for breadth by counting the number of words defined correctly and for depth by determining the amount of information in each correct definition. Via a linear mixed model, we determined whether breadth and depth varied with language diagnosis independent of nonverbal IQ, mothers’ education level, race, gender, income and (for depth only) word. Results Children with LI scored significantly lower than children with ND on breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge in all grades. The extent of the deficit did not vary significantly across grades. Language diagnosis was an independent predictor of breadth and depth and as strong a predictor as maternal education. For the LI group, growth in depth relative to breadth was slower than for the ND group. Conclusions Compared to their grade-mates, children with LI have fewer words in their vocabularies and they have shallower knowledge of the words that are in their vocabularies. This deficit persists over developmental time. PMID:23650887

Brainstem transcription of speech is disrupted in children with autism spectrum disorders

PubMed Central

Russo, Nicole; Nicol, Trent; Trommer, Barbara; Zecker, Steve; Kraus, Nina

2009-01-01

Language impairment is a hallmark of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The origin of the deficit is poorly understood although deficiencies in auditory processing have been detected in both perception and cortical encoding of speech sounds. Little is known about the processing and transcription of speech sounds at earlier (brainstem) levels or about how background noise may impact this transcription process. Unlike cortical encoding of sounds, brainstem representation preserves stimulus features with a degree of fidelity that enables a direct link between acoustic components of the speech syllable (e.g., onsets) to specific aspects of neural encoding (e.g., waves V and A). We measured brainstem responses to the syllable /da/, in quiet and background noise, in children with and without ASD. Children with ASD exhibited deficits in both the neural synchrony (timing) and phase locking (frequency encoding) of speech sounds, despite normal click-evoked brainstem responses. They also exhibited reduced magnitude and fidelity of speech-evoked responses and inordinate degradation of responses by background noise in comparison to typically developing controls. Neural synchrony in noise was significantly related to measures of core and receptive language ability. These data support the idea that abnormalities in the brainstem processing of speech contribute to the language impairment in ASD. Because it is both passively-elicited and malleable, the speech-evoked brainstem response may serve as a clinical tool to assess auditory processing as well as the effects of auditory training in the ASD population. PMID:19635083

Language Deficit in English and Lack of Creative Education as Impediments to Nigeria's Breakthrough into the Knowledge Era

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mowarin, Macaulay; Tonukari, Emmanuel Ufuoma

2010-01-01

This essay discusses the linguistic and cultural factors that have acted as impediments to Nigeria's breakthrough into the knowledge era. It identifies language deficit in English by most Nigerians, under-developed state of most Nigerian languages, absence of creative education and the presence of certain cultural taboos which stifles the…

The Comprehension Problems for Second-Language Learners with Poor Reading Comprehension Despite Adequate Decoding: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K.

2017-01-01

We conducted a meta-analysis of 16 existing studies to examine the nature of the comprehension problems for children who were second-language learners with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. Results indicated that these children had deficits in oral language (d = -0.80), but these deficits were not as severe as their reading…

Review of Research: Do You Speak My Language? Are Behavior Analysts Considering the Needs of Learners on the Autism Spectrum?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kingsdorf, Sheri

2014-01-01

One of the domains most commonly affected by autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is communication (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Language deficits in children with ASD can be as severe as to warrant a label as nonverbal, or characterized by difficulties with the functions of communication. Additionally, deficits in language for children…

A Report on Two Views of the Deficit Theory of Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yellin, David

The views of proponents and opponents of the language deficit theory--the theory that nonstandard dialect is a deficient form of language--are presented in this paper. Following a description of the work of Basil Bernstein, a British educator who is considered the key figure among proponents of the theory, the paper presents an overview of the…

Amnesic H.M. Exhibits Parallel Deficits and Sparing in Language and Memory: Systems versus Binding Theory Accounts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacKay, Donald G.; James, Lori E.; Taylor, Jennifer K.; Marian, Diane E.

2007-01-01

This study examines sentence-level language abilities of amnesic H.M. to test competing theoretical conceptions of relations between language and memory. We present 11 new sources of experimental evidence indicating deficits in H.M's comprehension and production of non-cliche sentences. Contrary to recent claims that H.M.'s comprehension is…

Identifying Demographic and Language Profiles of Children with a Primary Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Irene P.; Scullion, Mary; Burns, Sarah; MacEvilly, Deirdre; Brosnan, Geraldine

2014-01-01

As the language presentation of children with attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (ADHD) is highly complex, this study aims to delineate the profile of a cohort of 40 children with ADHD, aged between 9 and 12 years, attending a child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS). Speech and language therapists (SLTs) assessed the children on…

Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Central auditory tests.

PubMed

Dlouha, Olga; Novak, Alexej; Vokral, Jan

2007-06-01

The aim of this project is to use central auditory tests for diagnosis of central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) in children with specific language impairment (SLI), in order to confirm relationship between speech-language impairment and central auditory processing. We attempted to establish special dichotic binaural tests in Czech language modified for younger children. Tests are based on behavioral audiometry using dichotic listening (different auditory stimuli that presented to each ear simultaneously). The experimental tasks consisted of three auditory measures (test 1-3)-dichotic listening of two-syllable words presented like binaural interaction tests. Children with SLI are unable to create simple sentences from two words that are heard separately but simultaneously. Results in our group of 90 pre-school children (6-7 years old) confirmed integration deficit and problems with quality of short-term memory. Average rate of success of children with specific language impairment was 56% in test 1, 64% in test 2 and 63% in test 3. Results of control group: 92% in test 1, 93% in test 2 and 92% in test 3 (p<0.001). Our results indicate the relationship between disorders of speech-language perception and central auditory processing disorders.

Working Memory Compensates for Hearing Related Phonological Processing Deficit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Classon, Elisabet; Rudner, Mary; Ronnberg, Jerker

2013-01-01

Acquired hearing impairment is associated with gradually declining phonological representations. According to the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model, poorly defined representations lead to mismatch in phonologically challenging tasks. To resolve the mismatch, reliance on working memory capacity (WMC) increases. This study investigated…

Oral Language Deficits in Familial Dyslexia: A Meta-Analysis and Review

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

This article reviews 95 publications (based on 21 independent samples) that have examined children at family risk of reading disorders. We report that children at family risk of dyslexia experience delayed language development as infants and toddlers. In the preschool period, they have significant difficulties in phonological processes as well as with broader language skills and in acquiring the foundations of decoding skill (letter knowledge, phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming [RAN]). Findings are mixed with regard to auditory and visual perception: they do not appear subject to slow motor development, but lack of control for comorbidities confounds interpretation. Longitudinal studies of outcomes show that children at family risk who go on to fulfil criteria for dyslexia have more severe impairments in preschool language than those who are defined as normal readers, but the latter group do less well than controls. Similarly at school age, family risk of dyslexia is associated with significantly poor phonological awareness and literacy skills. Although there is no strong evidence that children at family risk are brought up in an environment that differs significantly from that of controls, their parents tend to have lower educational levels and read less frequently to themselves. Together, the findings suggest that a phonological processing deficit can be conceptualized as an endophenotype of dyslexia that increases the continuous risk of reading difficulties; in turn its impact may be moderated by protective factors. PMID:26727308

Language repetition and short-term memory: an integrative framework.

PubMed

Majerus, Steve

2013-01-01

Short-term maintenance of verbal information is a core factor of language repetition, especially when reproducing multiple or unfamiliar stimuli. Many models of language processing locate the verbal short-term maintenance function in the left posterior superior temporo-parietal area and its connections with the inferior frontal gyrus. However, research in the field of short-term memory has implicated bilateral fronto-parietal networks, involved in attention and serial order processing, as being critical for the maintenance and reproduction of verbal sequences. We present here an integrative framework aimed at bridging research in the language processing and short-term memory fields. This framework considers verbal short-term maintenance as an emergent function resulting from synchronized and integrated activation in dorsal and ventral language processing networks as well as fronto-parietal attention and serial order processing networks. To-be-maintained item representations are temporarily activated in the dorsal and ventral language processing networks, novel phoneme and word serial order information is proposed to be maintained via a right fronto-parietal serial order processing network, and activation in these different networks is proposed to be coordinated and maintained via a left fronto-parietal attention processing network. This framework provides new perspectives for our understanding of information maintenance at the non-word-, word- and sentence-level as well as of verbal maintenance deficits in case of brain injury.

Language repetition and short-term memory: an integrative framework

PubMed Central

Majerus, Steve

2013-01-01

Short-term maintenance of verbal information is a core factor of language repetition, especially when reproducing multiple or unfamiliar stimuli. Many models of language processing locate the verbal short-term maintenance function in the left posterior superior temporo-parietal area and its connections with the inferior frontal gyrus. However, research in the field of short-term memory has implicated bilateral fronto-parietal networks, involved in attention and serial order processing, as being critical for the maintenance and reproduction of verbal sequences. We present here an integrative framework aimed at bridging research in the language processing and short-term memory fields. This framework considers verbal short-term maintenance as an emergent function resulting from synchronized and integrated activation in dorsal and ventral language processing networks as well as fronto-parietal attention and serial order processing networks. To-be-maintained item representations are temporarily activated in the dorsal and ventral language processing networks, novel phoneme and word serial order information is proposed to be maintained via a right fronto-parietal serial order processing network, and activation in these different networks is proposed to be coordinated and maintained via a left fronto-parietal attention processing network. This framework provides new perspectives for our understanding of information maintenance at the non-word-, word- and sentence-level as well as of verbal maintenance deficits in case of brain injury. PMID:23874280

Visual discrimination predicts naming and semantic association accuracy in Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Harnish, Stacy M; Neils-Strunjas, Jean; Eliassen, James; Reilly, Jamie; Meinzer, Marcus; Clark, John Greer; Joseph, Jane

2010-12-01

Language impairment is a common symptom of Alzheimer disease (AD), and is thought to be related to semantic processing. This study examines the contribution of another process, namely visual perception, on measures of confrontation naming and semantic association abilities in persons with probable AD. Twenty individuals with probable mild-moderate Alzheimer disease and 20 age-matched controls completed a battery of neuropsychologic measures assessing visual perception, naming, and semantic association ability. Visual discrimination tasks that varied in the degree to which they likely accessed stored structural representations were used to gauge whether structural processing deficits could account for deficits in naming and in semantic association in AD. Visual discrimination abilities of nameable objects in AD strongly predicted performance on both picture naming and semantic association ability, but lacked the same predictive value for controls. Although impaired, performance on visual discrimination tests of abstract shapes and novel faces showed no significant relationship with picture naming and semantic association. These results provide additional evidence to support that structural processing deficits exist in AD, and may contribute to object recognition and naming deficits. Our findings suggest that there is a common deficit in discrimination of pictures using nameable objects, picture naming, and semantic association of pictures in AD. Disturbances in structural processing of pictured items may be associated with lexical-semantic impairment in AD, owing to degraded internal storage of structural knowledge.

An Overview of Non-pathological Geroneuropsychology: Implications for Nursing Practice and Research

PubMed Central

Graham, Martha A.; Fazeli, Pariya L.; Heaton, Karen; Moneyham, Linda

2011-01-01

One aspect of successful aging is maintaining cognitive functioning; that includes both subjective cognitive functioning and objective cognitive functioning even in lieu of subtle cognitive deficits that occur with normal, non-pathological aging. Age-related cognitive deficits emerge across several domains including attention, memory, language, speed of processing, executive, and psychomotor, just to name a few. A primary theory explaining such cognitive deficits is cognitive reserve theory; it posits that biological factors such as demyelination and oxidative stress interfere with neuronal communication which eventually produces observable deficits in cognitive functioning. Therefore, it is important to maintain or improve cognitive reserve in order to augment cognitive functioning in later life. This article provides a general overview of the principles of geroneuropsychology along with implications for nursing practice and research. PMID:22210304

Language Impairment in the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Redmond, Sean M.

2016-01-01

Purpose: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a ubiquitous designation that affects the identification, assessment, treatment, and study of pediatric language impairments (LIs). Method: Current literature is reviewed in 4 areas: (a) the capacity of psycholinguistic, neuropsychological, and socioemotional behavioral indices to…

Specific Language Impairment, Nonverbal IQ, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cochlear Implants, Bilingualism, and Dialectal Variants: Defining the Boundaries, Clarifying Clinical Conditions, and Sorting out Causes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Mabel L.

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this research forum article is to provide an overview of a collection of invited articles on the topic "specific language impairment (SLI) in children with concomitant health conditions or nonmainstream language backgrounds." Topics include SLI, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder,…

Processing of Basic Speech Acts Following Localized Brain Damage: A New Light on the Neuroanatomy of Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soroker, N.; Kasher, A.; Giora, R.; Batori, G.; Corn, C.; Gil, M.; Zaidel, E.

2005-01-01

We examined the effect of localized brain lesions on processing of the basic speech acts (BSAs) of question, assertion, request, and command. Both left and right cerebral damage produced significant deficits relative to normal controls, and left brain damaged patients performed worse than patients with right-sided lesions. This finding argues…

A Multidimensional Reappraisal of Language in Autism: Insights from a Discourse Analytic Study.

PubMed

Sterponi, Laura; de Kirby, Kenton

2016-02-01

In this article, we leverage theoretical insights and methodological guidelines of discourse analytic scholarship to re-examine language phenomena typically associated with autism. Through empirical analysis of the verbal behavior of three children with autism, we engage the question of how prototypical features of autistic language-notably pronoun atypicality, pragmatic deficit, and echolalia-might conceal competencies and interactional processes that are largely invisible in mainstream research. Our findings offer a complex picture of children with autism in their use of language to communicate, interact and experience others. Such a picture also deepens our understanding of the interactional underpinnings of autistic children's speech. Finally, we describe how our findings offer fruitful suggestions for clinical intervention.

Effects of Cognitive Demand on Word Encoding in Adults Who Stutter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsai, Pei-Tzu

2011-01-01

The etiology of persistent stuttering is unknown, but stuttering has been attributed to multiple potential factors, including difficulty in processing language-related information, but findings remain inconclusive regarding any "specific" linguistic deficit potentially causing stuttering. One particular challenge in drawing conclusions is the…

Working Memory Influences Processing Speed and Reading Fluency in ADHD

PubMed Central

Jacobson, Lisa A.; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B.; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H.; Denckla, Martha B.; Mahone, E. Mark

2012-01-01

Processing speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This “slowing” in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the “processing” speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency, and reduced processing speed—driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed “processing” speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory, but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intra-subject variability. Further, “processing” speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally-mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally-mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus. PMID:21287422

The frequency modulated auditory evoked response (FMAER), a technical advance for study of childhood language disorders: cortical source localization and selected case studies

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Language comprehension requires decoding of complex, rapidly changing speech streams. Detecting changes of frequency modulation (FM) within speech is hypothesized as essential for accurate phoneme detection, and thus, for spoken word comprehension. Despite past demonstration of FM auditory evoked response (FMAER) utility in language disorder investigations, it is seldom utilized clinically. This report's purpose is to facilitate clinical use by explaining analytic pitfalls, demonstrating sites of cortical origin, and illustrating potential utility. Results FMAERs collected from children with language disorders, including Developmental Dysphasia, Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and also normal controls - utilizing multi-channel reference-free recordings assisted by discrete source analysis - provided demonstratrions of cortical origin and examples of clinical utility. Recordings from inpatient epileptics with indwelling cortical electrodes provided direct assessment of FMAER origin. The FMAER is shown to normally arise from bilateral posterior superior temporal gyri and immediate temporal lobe surround. Childhood language disorders associated with prominent receptive deficits demonstrate absent left or bilateral FMAER temporal lobe responses. When receptive language is spared, the FMAER may remain present bilaterally. Analyses based upon mastoid or ear reference electrodes are shown to result in erroneous conclusions. Serial FMAER studies may dynamically track status of underlying language processing in LKS. FMAERs in ASD with language impairment may be normal or abnormal. Cortical FMAERs can locate language cortex when conventional cortical stimulation does not. Conclusion The FMAER measures the processing by the superior temporal gyri and adjacent cortex of rapid frequency modulation within an auditory stream. Clinical disorders associated with receptive deficits are shown to demonstrate absent left or bilateral responses. Serial FMAERs may be useful for tracking language change in LKS. Cortical FMAERs may augment invasive cortical language testing in epilepsy surgical patients. The FMAER may be normal in ASD and other language disorders when pathology spares the superior temporal gyrus and surround but presumably involves other brain regions. Ear/mastoid reference electrodes should be avoided and multichannel, reference free recordings utilized. Source analysis may assist in better understanding of complex FMAER findings. PMID:23351174

Language, reading, and math learning profiles in an epidemiological sample of school age children.

PubMed

Archibald, Lisa M D; Oram Cardy, Janis; Joanisse, Marc F; Ansari, Daniel

2013-01-01

Dyscalculia, dyslexia, and specific language impairment (SLI) are relatively specific developmental learning disabilities in math, reading, and oral language, respectively, that occur in the context of average intellectual capacity and adequate environmental opportunities. Past research has been dominated by studies focused on single impairments despite the widespread recognition that overlapping and comorbid deficits are common. The present study took an epidemiological approach to study the learning profiles of a large school age sample in language, reading, and math. Both general learning profiles reflecting good or poor performance across measures and specific learning profiles involving either weak language, weak reading, weak math, or weak math and reading were observed. These latter four profiles characterized 70% of children with some evidence of a learning disability. Low scores in phonological short-term memory characterized clusters with a language-based weakness whereas low or variable phonological awareness was associated with the reading (but not language-based) weaknesses. The low math only group did not show these phonological deficits. These findings may suggest different etiologies for language-based deficits in language, reading, and math, reading-related impairments in reading and math, and isolated math disabilities.

Language, Reading, and Math Learning Profiles in an Epidemiological Sample of School Age Children

PubMed Central

Archibald, Lisa M. D.; Oram Cardy, Janis; Joanisse, Marc F.; Ansari, Daniel

2013-01-01

Dyscalculia, dyslexia, and specific language impairment (SLI) are relatively specific developmental learning disabilities in math, reading, and oral language, respectively, that occur in the context of average intellectual capacity and adequate environmental opportunities. Past research has been dominated by studies focused on single impairments despite the widespread recognition that overlapping and comorbid deficits are common. The present study took an epidemiological approach to study the learning profiles of a large school age sample in language, reading, and math. Both general learning profiles reflecting good or poor performance across measures and specific learning profiles involving either weak language, weak reading, weak math, or weak math and reading were observed. These latter four profiles characterized 70% of children with some evidence of a learning disability. Low scores in phonological short-term memory characterized clusters with a language-based weakness whereas low or variable phonological awareness was associated with the reading (but not language-based) weaknesses. The low math only group did not show these phonological deficits. These findings may suggest different etiologies for language-based deficits in language, reading, and math, reading-related impairments in reading and math, and isolated math disabilities. PMID:24155959

The Comprehension Problems of Children with Poor Reading Comprehension despite Adequate Decoding: A Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K

2018-06-01

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the comprehension problems of children who have a specific reading comprehension deficit (SCD), which is characterized by poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. The meta-analysis included 86 studies of children with SCD who were assessed in reading comprehension and oral language (vocabulary, listening comprehension, storytelling ability, and semantic and syntactic knowledge). Results indicated that children with SCD had deficits in oral language ( d = -0.78, 95% CI [-0.89, -0.68], but these deficits were not as severe as their deficit in reading comprehension ( d = -2.78, 95% CI [-3.01, -2.54]). When compared to reading comprehension age-matched normal readers, the oral language skills of the two groups were comparable ( d = 0.32, 95% CI [-0.49, 1.14]), which suggests that the oral language weaknesses of children with SCD represent a developmental delay rather than developmental deviance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Visuo-spatial cueing in children with differential reading and spelling profiles

PubMed Central

Kemény, Ferenc; Gangl, Melanie; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Moll, Kristina; Landerl, Karin

2017-01-01

Dyslexia has been claimed to be causally related to deficits in visuo-spatial attention. In particular, inefficient shifting of visual attention during spatial cueing paradigms is assumed to be associated with problems in graphemic parsing during sublexical reading. The current study investigated visuo-spatial attention performance in an exogenous cueing paradigm in a large sample (N = 191) of third and fourth graders with different reading and spelling profiles (controls, isolated reading deficit, isolated spelling deficit, combined deficit in reading and spelling). Once individual variability in reaction times was taken into account by means of z-transformation, a cueing deficit (i.e. no significant difference between valid and invalid trials) was found for children with combined deficits in reading and spelling. However, poor readers without spelling problems showed a cueing effect comparable to controls, but exhibited a particularly strong right-over-left advantage (position effect). Isolated poor spellers showed a significant cueing effect, but no position effect. While we replicated earlier findings of a reduced cueing effect among poor nonword readers (indicating deficits in sublexical processing), we also found a reduced cueing effect among children with particularly poor orthographic spelling (indicating deficits in lexical processing). Thus, earlier claims of a specific association with nonword reading could not be confirmed. Controlling for ADHD-symptoms reported in a parental questionnaire did not impact on the statistical analysis, indicating that cueing deficits are not caused by more general attentional limitations. Between 31 and 48% of participants in the three reading and/or spelling deficit groups as well as 32% of the control group showed reduced spatial cueing. These findings indicate a significant, but moderate association between certain aspects of visuo-spatial attention and subcomponents of written language processing, the causal status of which is yet unclear. PMID:28686635

Visuo-spatial cueing in children with differential reading and spelling profiles.

PubMed

Banfi, Chiara; Kemény, Ferenc; Gangl, Melanie; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Moll, Kristina; Landerl, Karin

2017-01-01

Dyslexia has been claimed to be causally related to deficits in visuo-spatial attention. In particular, inefficient shifting of visual attention during spatial cueing paradigms is assumed to be associated with problems in graphemic parsing during sublexical reading. The current study investigated visuo-spatial attention performance in an exogenous cueing paradigm in a large sample (N = 191) of third and fourth graders with different reading and spelling profiles (controls, isolated reading deficit, isolated spelling deficit, combined deficit in reading and spelling). Once individual variability in reaction times was taken into account by means of z-transformation, a cueing deficit (i.e. no significant difference between valid and invalid trials) was found for children with combined deficits in reading and spelling. However, poor readers without spelling problems showed a cueing effect comparable to controls, but exhibited a particularly strong right-over-left advantage (position effect). Isolated poor spellers showed a significant cueing effect, but no position effect. While we replicated earlier findings of a reduced cueing effect among poor nonword readers (indicating deficits in sublexical processing), we also found a reduced cueing effect among children with particularly poor orthographic spelling (indicating deficits in lexical processing). Thus, earlier claims of a specific association with nonword reading could not be confirmed. Controlling for ADHD-symptoms reported in a parental questionnaire did not impact on the statistical analysis, indicating that cueing deficits are not caused by more general attentional limitations. Between 31 and 48% of participants in the three reading and/or spelling deficit groups as well as 32% of the control group showed reduced spatial cueing. These findings indicate a significant, but moderate association between certain aspects of visuo-spatial attention and subcomponents of written language processing, the causal status of which is yet unclear.

Intraoperative mapping of language functions: a longitudinal neurolinguistic analysis.

PubMed

Ilmberger, Josef; Ruge, Maximilian; Kreth, Friedrich-Wilhelm; Briegel, Josef; Reulen, Hans-Juergen; Tonn, Joerg-Christian

2008-10-01

This prospective longitudinally designed study was conducted to evaluate language functions pre- and postoperatively in patients who underwent microsurgical treatment of tumors in close proximity to or within language areas and to detect those patients at risk for a postoperative aphasic disturbance. Between 1991 and 2005, 153 awake craniotomies with subsequent cortical mapping of language functions were performed in 149 patients. Language functions were assessed using a standardized test battery. Risk factors were obtained from multivariate logistic regression models. Language mapping was able to be performed in all patients, and complete tumor resection was achieved in 48.4%. Within 21 days after surgery a new language deficit (aphasic disturbance) was observed in 41 (32%) of the 128 cases without preoperative deficits. There were a total of 60 cases involving postoperative aphasic disturbances, including cases both with and without preoperative disturbances. Risk factors for postoperative aphasic disturbance were preoperative aphasia (p<0.0002), intraoperative complications (p<0.02), language-positive sites within the tumor (p<0.001), and nonfrontal lesion location (p<0.001). In patients without a preoperative deficit, a normal (yet submaximal) naming performance was a powerful predictor for an early postoperative aphasic disturbance (p<0.0003). Seven months after treatment 10.9% of the 128 cases without preoperative aphasic disturbances continued to demonstrate new postoperative language disturbances. A total of 17.6% of all cases demonstrated new postoperative language disturbances after 7 months. Risk factors for persistent aphasic disturbance were increased age (>40 years, p<0.02) and preoperative aphasia (p<0.001). Every attempt should be undertaken to preserve language-relevant areas intraoperatively, even when they are located within the tumor. New postoperative deficits resolve in the majority of patients, which may be a result of cortical mapping as well as functional reorganization.

Communication skills and thalamic lesion: Strategies of rehabilitation.

PubMed

Amaddii, Luisa; Centorrino, Santi; Cambi, Jacopo; Passali, Desiderio

2014-01-01

To describe the speech rehabilitation history of patients with thalamic lesions. Thalamic lesions can affect speech and language according to diverse thalamic nuclei involved. Because of the strategic functional position of the thalamus within the cognitive networks, its lesion can also interfere with other cognitive processes, such as attention, memory and executive functions. Alterations of these cognitive domains contribute significantly to language deficits, leading to communicative inefficacy. This fact must be considered in the rehabilitation efforts. Whereas evaluation of cognitive functions and communicative efficiency is different from that of aphasic disorder, treatment should also be different. The treatment must be focused on specific cognitive deficits with belief in the regaining of communicative ability, as well as it occurs in therapy of pragmatic disorder in traumatic brain injury: attention process training, mnemotechnics and prospective memory training. According to our experience: (a) there is a close correlation between cognitive processes and communication skills; (b) alterations of attention, memory and executive functions cause a loss of efficiency in the language use; and (c) appropriate cognitive treatment improves pragmatic competence and therefore the linguistic disorder. For planning a speech-therapy it is important to consider the relationship between cognitive functions and communication. The cognitive/behavioral treatment confirms its therapeutic efficiency for thalamic lesions. Copyright © 2014 Polish Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Society. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z.o.o. All rights reserved.

Functional specificity for high-level linguistic processing in the human brain.

PubMed

Fedorenko, Evelina; Behr, Michael K; Kanwisher, Nancy

2011-09-27

Neuroscientists have debated for centuries whether some regions of the human brain are selectively engaged in specific high-level mental functions or whether, instead, cognition is implemented in multifunctional brain regions. For the critical case of language, conflicting answers arise from the neuropsychological literature, which features striking dissociations between deficits in linguistic and nonlinguistic abilities, vs. the neuroimaging literature, which has argued for overlap between activations for linguistic and nonlinguistic processes, including arithmetic, domain general abilities like cognitive control, and music. Here, we use functional MRI to define classic language regions functionally in each subject individually and then examine the response of these regions to the nonlinguistic functions most commonly argued to engage these regions: arithmetic, working memory, cognitive control, and music. We find little or no response in language regions to these nonlinguistic functions. These data support a clear distinction between language and other cognitive processes, resolving the prior conflict between the neuropsychological and neuroimaging literatures.

Language-Specific Attention Treatment for Aphasia: Description and Preliminary Findings.

PubMed

Peach, Richard K; Nathan, Meghana R; Beck, Katherine M

2017-02-01

The need for a specific, language-based treatment approach to aphasic impairments associated with attentional deficits is well documented. We describe language-specific attention treatment, a specific skill-based approach for aphasia that exploits increasingly complex linguistic tasks that focus attention. The program consists of eight tasks, some with multiple phases, to assess and treat lexical and sentence processing. Validation results demonstrate that these tasks load on six attentional domains: (1) executive attention; (2) attentional switching; (3) visual selective attention/processing speed; (4) sustained attention; (5) auditory-verbal working memory; and (6) auditory processing speed. The program demonstrates excellent inter- and intrarater reliability and adequate test-retest reliability. Two of four people with aphasia exposed to this program demonstrated good language recovery whereas three of the four participants showed improvements in auditory-verbal working memory. The results provide support for this treatment program in patients with aphasia having no greater than a moderate degree of attentional impairment. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Exploring Dyslexics' Phonological Deficit II: Phonological Grammar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szenkovits, Gayaneh; Darma, Quynliaan; Darcy, Isabelle; Ramus, Franck

2016-01-01

Language learners have to acquire the phonological grammar of their native language, and different levels of representations on which the grammar operates. Developmental dyslexia is associated with a phonological deficit, which is commonly assumed to stem from degraded phonological representations. The present study investigates one aspect of the…

Narrative Skills of Children with Communication Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norbury, Courtenay Frazier; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2003-01-01

Background: Narrative assessment is sensitive to the communication impairments of children with specific language impairment and those with autistic spectrum disorders. Although both groups of children tend to show deficits in narrative, it is unclear whether these deficits are qualitatively different and how language and pragmatic ability may…

A case for conflict across multiple domains: Memory and language impairments following damage to ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

PubMed Central

Novick, Jared M.; Kan, Irene P.; Trueswell, John C.; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2013-01-01

Patients with focal lesions to the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG; BA 44/45) exhibit difficulty with language production and comprehension tasks, although the nature of their impairments has been somewhat difficult to characterize. No reported cases suggest that these patients are Broca's aphasics in the classic agrammatic sense. Recent case studies, however, do reveal a consistent pattern of deficit regarding their general cognitive processes: They are reliably impaired on tasks in which conflicting representations must be resolved by implementing top-down cognitive control (e.g., Stroop; memory tasks involving proactive interference). In the present study, we ask whether the language production and comprehension impairments displayed by a patient with circumscribed LIFG damage can best be understood within a general conflict resolution deficit account. We focus on one patient in particular—patient I.G.—and discuss the implications for language processing abilities as a consequence of a general cognitive control disorder. We compared I.G. and other frontal patients to age-matched control participants across four experiments. Experiment 1 tested participants’ general conflict resolution abilities within a modified working memory paradigm in an attempt to replicate prior case study findings. We then tested language production abilities on tasks of picture naming (Experiment 2) and verbal fluency (Experiment 3), tasks that generated conflict at the semantic and/or conceptual levels. Experiment 4 tested participants’ sentence processing and comprehension abilities using both online (eye movement) and offline measures. In this task, participants carried out spoken instructions containing a syntactic ambiguity, in which early interpretation commitments had to be overridden in order to recover an alternative, intended analysis of sentence meaning. Comparisons of I.G.'s performance with frontal and healthy control participants supported the following claim: I.G. suffers from a general conflict resolution impairment, which affects his ability to produce and comprehend language under specific conditions—namely, when semantic, conceptual, and/or syntactic representations compete and must be resolved. PMID:20183014

The Spelling Skills of French-Speaking Dyslexic Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plisson, Anne; Daigle, Daniel; Montesinos-Gelet, Isabelle

2013-01-01

Learning to spell is very difficult for dyslexic children, a phenomenon explained by a deficit in processing phonological information. However, to spell correctly in an alphabetic language such as French, phonological knowledge is not enough. Indeed, the French written system requires the speller to acquire visuo-orthographical and morphological…

Learning through Seeing and Doing: Visual Supports for Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rao, Shaila M.; Gagie, Brenda

2006-01-01

Autism is a life-long, complex developmental disorder that causes impairment in the way individuals process information. Autism belongs to heterogeneous categories of developmental disabilities where neurological disorders lead to deficits in a child's ability to communicate, understand language, play, develop social skills, and relate to others.…

Neural Correlates of Verbal and Nonverbal Semantic Integration in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCleery, Joseph P.; Ceponiene, Rita; Burner, Karen M.; Townsend, Jeanne; Kinnear, Mikaela; Schreibman, Laura

2010-01-01

Background: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by deficits in social-emotional, social-communicative, and language skills. Behavioral and neuroimaging studies have found that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) evidence abnormalities in semantic processing, with particular difficulties in verbal comprehension.…

Speech comprehension and emotional/behavioral problems in children with specific language impairment (SLI).

PubMed

Gregl, Ana; Kirigin, Marin; Bilać, Snjeiana; Sućeska Ligutić, Radojka; Jaksić, Nenad; Jakovljević, Miro

2014-09-01

This research aims to investigate differences in speech comprehension between children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their developmentally normal peers, and the relationship between speech comprehension and emotional/behavioral problems on Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Caregiver Teacher's Report Form (C-TRF) according to the DSMIV The clinical sample comprised 97preschool children with SLI, while the peer sample comprised 60 developmentally normal preschool children. Children with SLI had significant delays in speech comprehension and more emotional/behavioral problems than peers. In children with SLI, speech comprehension significantly correlated with scores on Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Problems (CBCL and C-TRF), and Pervasive Developmental Problems scales (CBCL)(p<0.05). In the peer sample, speech comprehension significantly correlated with scores on Affective Problems and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Problems (C-TRF) scales. Regression analysis showed that 12.8% of variance in speech comprehension is saturated with 5 CBCL variables, of which Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity (beta = -0.281) and Pervasive Developmental Problems (beta = -0.280) are statistically significant (p < 0.05). In the reduced regression model Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity explains 7.3% of the variance in speech comprehension, (beta = -0.270, p < 0.01). It is possible that, to a certain degree, the same neurodevelopmental process lies in the background of problems with speech comprehension, problems with attention and hyperactivity, and pervasive developmental problems. This study confirms the importance of triage for behavioral problems and attention training in the rehabilitation of children with SLI and children with normal language development that exhibit ADHD symptoms.

Developmental timeframes for induction of microgyria and rapid auditory processing deficits in the rat.

PubMed

Threlkeld, Steven W; McClure, Melissa M; Rosen, Glenn D; Fitch, R Holly

2006-09-13

Induction of a focal freeze lesion to the skullcap of a 1-day-old rat pup leads to the formation of microgyria similar to those identified postmortem in human dyslexics. Rats with microgyria exhibit rapid auditory processing deficits similar to those seen in language-impaired (LI) children, and infants at risk for LI and these effects are particularly marked in juvenile as compared to adult subjects. In the current study, a startle response paradigm was used to investigate gap detection in juvenile and adult rats that received bilateral freezing lesions or sham surgery on postnatal day (P) 1, 3 or 5. Microgyria were confirmed in P1 and 3 lesion rats, but not in the P5 lesion group. We found a significant reduction in brain weight and neocortical volume in P1 and 3 lesioned brains relative to shams. Juvenile (P27-39) behavioral data indicated significant rapid auditory processing deficits in all three lesion groups as compared to sham subjects, while adult (P60+) data revealed a persistent disparity only between P1-lesioned rats and shams. Combined results suggest that generalized pathology affecting neocortical development is responsible for the presence of rapid auditory processing deficits, rather than factors specific to the formation of microgyria per se. Finally, results show that the window for the induction of rapid auditory processing deficits through disruption of neurodevelopment appears to extend beyond the endpoint for cortical neuronal migration, although, the persistent deficits exhibited by P1 lesion subjects suggest a secondary neurodevelopmental window at the time of cortical neuromigration representing a peak period of vulnerability.

Partially Overlapping Mechanisms of Language and Task Control in Young and Older Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Weissberger, Gali H.; Wierenga, Christina E.; Bondi, Mark W.; Gollan, Tamar H.

2012-01-01

The current study tested the hypothesis that bilinguals rely on domain-general mechanisms of executive control to achieve language control by asking if linguistic and nonlinguistic switching tasks exhibit similar patterns of aging-related decline. Thirty young and 30 aging bilinguals completed a cued language-switching task and a cued color-shape switching task. Both tasks demonstrated significant aging effects, but aging-related slowing and the aging-related increase in errors were significantly larger on the color-shape than on the language task. In the language task, aging increased language-switching costs in both response times and errors, and language-mixing costs only in response times. In contrast, the color-shape task exhibited an aging-related increase in costs only in mixing errors. Additionally, a subset of the older bilinguals could not do the color-shape task, but were able to do the language task, and exhibited significantly larger language-switching costs than matched controls. These differences, and some subtle similarities, in aging effects observed across tasks imply that mechanisms of nonlinguistic task and language control are only partly shared and demonstrate relatively preserved language control in aging. More broadly, these data suggest that age deficits in switching and mixing costs may depend on task expertise, with mixing deficits emerging for less-practiced tasks and switching deficits for highly practiced, possibly “expert” tasks (i.e., language). PMID:22582883

Assessment of cortical auditory evoked potentials in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Włodarczyk, Elżbieta; Szkiełkowska, Agata; Pilka, Adam; Skarżyński, Henryk

2018-02-28

The proper course of speech development heavily influences the cognitive and personal development of children. It is a condition for achieving preschool and school successes - it facilitates socializing and expressing feelings and needs. Impairment of language and its development in children represents a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for physicians and therapists. Early diagnosis of coexisting deficits and starting the therapy influence the therapeutic success. One of the basic diagnostic tests for children suffering from specific language impairment (SLI) is audiometry, thus far referred to as a hearing test. Auditory processing is just as important as a proper hearing threshold. Therefore, diagnosis of central auditory disorder may be a valuable supplementation of diagnosis of language impairment. Early diagnosis and implementation of appropriate treatment may contribute to an effective language therapy.

Anatomy of Language Impairments in Primary Progressive Aphasia

PubMed Central

Rogalski, Emily; Cobia, Derin; Harrison, Theresa M.; Wieneke, Christina; Thompson, Cynthia K; Weintraub, Sandra; Mesulam, M.-Marsel

2011-01-01

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a clinical dementia syndrome characterized by progressive decline in language function but relative sparing of other cognitive domains. There are three recognized PPA variants: agrammatic, semantic, and logopenic. Although each PPA subtype is characterized by the nature of the principal deficit, individual patients frequently display subtle impairments in additional language domains. The present study investigated the distribution of atrophy related to performance in specific language domains (i.e., grammatical processing, semantic processing, fluency, and sentence repetition) across PPA variants to better understand the anatomical substrates of language. Results showed regionally specific relationships, primarily in the left hemisphere, between atrophy and impairments in language performance. Most notable was the neuroanatomical distinction between fluency and grammatical processing. Poor fluency was associated with regions dorsal to the traditional boundaries of Broca’s area in the inferior frontal sulcus and the posterior middle frontal gyrus, whereas grammatical processing was associated with more widespread atrophy, including the inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Repetition performance was correlated with atrophy in the posterior superior temporal gyrus. The correlation of atrophy with semantic processing impairment was localized to the anterior temporal poles. Atrophy patterns were more closely correlated with domain-specific performance than with subtype. These results show that PPA reflects a selective disruption of the language network as a whole, with no rigid boundaries between subtypes. Further, these atrophy patterns reveal anatomical correlates of language that could not have been surmised in patients with aphasia resulting from cerebrovascular lesions. PMID:21368046

Anatomy of language impairments in primary progressive aphasia.

PubMed

Rogalski, Emily; Cobia, Derin; Harrison, Theresa M; Wieneke, Christina; Thompson, Cynthia K; Weintraub, Sandra; Mesulam, M-Marsel

2011-03-02

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a clinical dementia syndrome characterized by progressive decline in language function but relative sparing of other cognitive domains. There are three recognized PPA variants: agrammatic, semantic, and logopenic. Although each PPA subtype is characterized by the nature of the principal deficit, individual patients frequently display subtle impairments in additional language domains. The present study investigated the distribution of atrophy related to performance in specific language domains (i.e., grammatical processing, semantic processing, fluency, and sentence repetition) across PPA variants to better understand the anatomical substrates of language. Results showed regionally specific relationships, primarily in the left hemisphere, between atrophy and impairments in language performance. Most notable was the neuroanatomical distinction between fluency and grammatical processing. Poor fluency was associated with regions dorsal to the traditional boundaries of Broca's area in the inferior frontal sulcus and the posterior middle frontal gyrus, whereas grammatical processing was associated with more widespread atrophy, including the inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Repetition performance was correlated with atrophy in the posterior superior temporal gyrus. The correlation of atrophy with semantic processing impairment was localized to the anterior temporal poles. Atrophy patterns were more closely correlated with domain-specific performance than with subtype. These results show that PPA reflects a selective disruption of the language network as a whole, with no rigid boundaries between subtypes. Further, these atrophy patterns reveal anatomical correlates of language that could not have been surmised in patients with aphasia resulting from cerebrovascular lesions.

Postictal aphasia and paresis: a clinical and intracerebral EEG study.

PubMed

Adam, C; Adam, C; Rouleau, I; Saint-Hilaire, J M

2000-02-01

We examined the lateralizing value of postictal language and motor deficits and studied their underlying mechanisms. The total sample consisted of 35 patients (26 temporals, 8 frontals, 1 parietal) with a good postsurgical outcome (Engel's class I and II). Postictal examination was blindly reviewed on videotapes. In 15 cases (29 seizures), postictal language manifestations were analyzed in relation with the diffusion of the epileptic discharge recorded by intracerebral EEG. Language dominance was determined by the intracarotid amobarbital test. Postictal aphasia was observed only when (1) seizure originated in the dominant hemisphere and (2) ictal activity spread to language areas (Wernicke and/or Broca areas). When the epileptic focus was in the nondominant hemisphere, no postictal aphasia was observed even if there was secondary generalization of ictal activity affecting the language areas of the dominant hemisphere. Postictal motor deficits also had a strong lateralizing value even when seizures were secondarily generalized. Postictal aphasia in temporal epilepsies and postical motor deficits in temporal and extra temporal epilepsies provided excellent lateralizing information. Postictal deficits appear to be the result of inhibitory mechanisms induced by previous ictal activity of the structures related to these functions.

Consequences of Co-Occurring Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder on Children's Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Redmond, Sean M.; Ash, Andrea C.; Hogan, Tiffany P.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and communication disorders represent a frequently encountered challenge for school-based practitioners. The purpose of the present study was to examine in more detail the clinical phenomenology of co-occurring ADHD and language impairments (LIs). Method: Measures of nonword…

Executive and Intellectual Functioning in School-Aged Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuusisto, Marika A.; Nieminen, Pirkko E.; Helminen, Mika T.; Kleemola, Leenamaija

2017-01-01

Background: Earlier research and clinical practice show that specific language impairment (SLI) is often associated with nonverbal cognitive deficits and weakened skills in executive functions (EFs). Executive deficits may have a remarkable influence on a child's everyday activities in the home and school environments. However, research…

Phonology, Reading Development, and Dyslexia: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goswami, Usha

2002-01-01

This article presents a theoretical overview at the cognitive level of the role of phonological awareness in reading development and developmental dyslexia across languages. It is argued that the primary deficit in developmental dyslexia in all languages lies in representing speech sounds: a deficit in phonological representation. (Contains…

Morphological Awareness Intervention in School-Age Children with Language and Literacy Deficits: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolter, Julie A.; Green, Laura

2013-01-01

This article highlights the clinical application of morphological awareness intervention to facilitate phonological, vocabulary, reading, and spelling success in children with language and literacy deficits. First, the research-based benefits of morphological awareness instruction are reviewed and current theoretical and research-based…

Morphological Deficits of Children with SLI: Evaluation of Number Marking and Agreement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Mabel L.; Oetting, Janna B.

1993-01-01

Grammatical deficits (e.g., missing feature, surface account, and missing agreement) reported for children with specific language impairment (SLI) were evaluated in spontaneous language transcripts from 108 preschool children. Results indicated that children with SLI do control number marking but find number agreement across clausal boundaries…

Exposing Gaps in/between Discourses of Linguistic Deficits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Eric J.; Avineri, Netta; Johnson, David Cassels

2017-01-01

Hart and Risley's (1995) concept of a "word gap" (aka "language gap") is widely used to describe inferior cognitive development and lower academic achievement as by-products of the language patterns of families from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. In recent decades, this line of deficit research has proliferated and…

Impaired encoding of rapid pitch information underlies perception and memory deficits in congenital amusia.

PubMed

Albouy, Philippe; Cousineau, Marion; Caclin, Anne; Tillmann, Barbara; Peretz, Isabelle

2016-01-06

Recent theories suggest that the basis of neurodevelopmental auditory disorders such as dyslexia or specific language impairment might be a low-level sensory dysfunction. In the present study we test this hypothesis in congenital amusia, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe deficits in the processing of pitch-based material. We manipulated the temporal characteristics of auditory stimuli and investigated the influence of the time given to encode pitch information on participants' performance in discrimination and short-term memory. Our results show that amusics' performance in such tasks scales with the duration available to encode acoustic information. This suggests that in auditory neuro-developmental disorders, abnormalities in early steps of the auditory processing can underlie the high-level deficits (here musical disabilities). Observing that the slowing down of temporal dynamics improves amusics' pitch abilities allows considering this approach as a potential tool for remediation in developmental auditory disorders.

Cognitive pragmatics of language disorders in adults.

PubMed

Davis, G Albyn

2007-05-01

Cognitive pragmatics is the study of the mental structures and processes involved in the use of language in communicative contexts. Paradigms of cognitive psychology (off-line and on-line) have been applied to the study of the abilities to go beyond the literal (inference) and derive meaning in relation to context (e.g., metaphor and sarcasm). These pragmatic functions have been examined for the involvement of processes of meaning activation, embellishment, and revision. Clinical investigators have explored abilities and deficits in acquired aphasia, right hemisphere dysfunction, and closed head injury. This article reviews and provides some analysis of clinical studies that are consistent with the themes constituting cognitive pragmatics.

Language disorders in children with central nervous system injury

PubMed Central

Dennis, Maureen

2011-01-01

Children with injury to the central nervous system (CNS) exhibit a variety of language disorders that have been described by members of different disciplines, in different journals, using different descriptors and taxonomies. This paper is an overview of language deficits in children with CNS injury, whether congenital or acquired after a period of normal development. It first reviews the principal CNS conditions associated with language disorders in childhood. It then describes a functional taxonomy of language, with examples of the phenomenology and neurobiology of clinical deficits in children with CNS insults. Finally, it attempts to situate language in the broader realm of cognition and in current theoretical accounts of embodied cognition. PMID:20397297

Characteristics of number transcoding errors of Chinese- versus English-speaking Alzheimer's disease patients.

PubMed

Ting, Simon Kang Seng; Chia, Pei Shi; Kwek, Kevin; Tan, Wilnard; Hameed, Shahul

2016-10-01

Number processing disorder is an acquired deficit in mathematical skills commonly observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD), usually as a consequence of neurological dysfunction. Common impairments include syntactic errors (800012 instead of 8012) and intrusion errors (8 thousand and 12 instead of eight thousand and twelve) in number transcoding tasks. This study aimed to understand the characterization of AD-related number processing disorder within an alphabetic language (English) and ideographical language (Chinese), and to investigate the differences between alphabetic and ideographic language processing. Chinese-speaking AD patients were hypothesized to make significantly more intrusion errors than English-speaking ones, due to the ideographical nature of both Chinese characters and Arabic numbers. A simplified number transcoding test derived from EC301 battery was administered to AD patients. Chinese-speaking AD patients made significantly more intrusion errors (p = 0.001) than English speakers. This demonstrates that number processing in an alphabetic language such as English does not function in the same manner as in Chinese. The impaired inhibition capability likely contributes to such observations due to its competitive lexical representation in brain for Chinese speakers.

Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Semantic Processing in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An ERP Study.

PubMed

Coderre, Emily L; Chernenok, Mariya; Gordon, Barry; Ledoux, Kerry

2017-03-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience difficulties with language, particularly higher-level functions like semantic integration. Yet some studies indicate that semantic processing of non-linguistic stimuli is not impaired, suggesting a language-specific deficit in semantic processing. Using a semantic priming task, we compared event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to lexico-semantic processing (written words) and visuo-semantic processing (pictures) in adults with ASD and adults with typical development (TD). The ASD group showed successful lexico-semantic and visuo-semantic processing, indicated by similar N400 effects between groups for word and picture stimuli. However, differences in N400 latency and topography in word conditions suggested different lexico-semantic processing mechanisms: an expectancy-based strategy for the TD group but a controlled post-lexical integration strategy for the ASD group.

Markers, Models, and Measurement Error: Exploring the Links between Attention Deficits and Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Redmond, Sean M.

2016-01-01

Purpose: The empirical record regarding the expected co-occurrence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and specific language impairment is confusing and contradictory. A research plan is presented that has the potential to untangle links between these 2 common neurodevelopmental disorders. Method: Data from completed and ongoing…

Communication Deficits and the Motor System: Exploring Patterns of Associations in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mody, M.; Shui, A. M.; Nowinski, L. A.; Golas, S. B.; Ferrone, C.; O'Rourke, J. A.; McDougle, C. J.

2017-01-01

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have notable difficulties in motor, speech and language domains. The connection between motor skills (oral-motor, manual-motor) and speech and language deficits reported in other developmental disorders raises important questions about a potential relationship between motor skills and…

Language Dysfluencies in Females with the "FMR1" Premutation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sterling, Audra M.; Mailick, Marsha; Greenberg, Jan; Warren, Steven F.; Brady, Nancy

2013-01-01

Recent evidence suggests that there are age-related neurocognitive implications for fragile X premutation carriers, including deficits in executive function, and that such deficits are more common in male than female premutation carriers. The purpose of the current study is to examine one aspect of executive function, language dysfluencies, in a…

Idiosyncratic Genetic Specificity for Neurolinguistic Systems: A Cause of Atypical or Delayed Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamendella, John T.

The diagnostic problem presented by children without obvious neurological, cognitive, genetic, emotional or environmental basis for their atypical or delayed language development is discussed. One unresolved issue is whether the deficits of such dysphasic children are linguistic or are more fundamental cognitive or perceptuomotor deficits. A…

Repeating with the right hemisphere: reduced interactions between phonological and lexical-semantic systems in crossed aphasia?

PubMed Central

De-Torres, Irene; Dávila, Guadalupe; Berthier, Marcelo L.; Walsh, Seán Froudist; Moreno-Torres, Ignacio; Ruiz-Cruces, Rafael

2013-01-01

Knowledge on the patterns of repetition amongst individuals who develop language deficits in association with right hemisphere lesions (crossed aphasia) is very limited. Available data indicate that repetition in some crossed aphasics experiencing phonological processing deficits is not heavily influenced by lexical-semantic variables (lexicality, imageability, and frequency) as is regularly reported in phonologically-impaired cases with left hemisphere damage. Moreover, in view of the fact that crossed aphasia is rare, information on the role of right cortical areas and white matter tracts underpinning language repetition deficits is scarce. In this study, repetition performance was assessed in two patients with crossed conduction aphasia and striatal/capsular vascular lesions encompassing the right arcuate fasciculus (AF) and inferior frontal-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), the temporal stem and the white matter underneath the supramarginal gyrus. Both patients showed lexicality effects repeating better words than non-words, but manipulation of other lexical-semantic variables exerted less influence on repetition performance. Imageability and frequency effects, production of meaning-based paraphrases during sentence repetition, or better performance on repeating novel sentences than overlearned clichés were hardly ever observed in these two patients. In one patient, diffusion tensor imaging disclosed damage to the right long direct segment of the AF and IFOF with relative sparing of the anterior indirect and posterior segments of the AF, together with fully developed left perisylvian white matter pathways. These findings suggest that striatal/capsular lesions extending into the right AF and IFOF in some individuals with right hemisphere language dominance are associated with atypical repetition patterns which might reflect reduced interactions between phonological and lexical-semantic processes. PMID:24151460

Perception of Dialect Variation by Young Adults with High-Functioning Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clopper, Cynthia G.; Rohrbeck, Kristin L.; Wagner, Laura

2012-01-01

The linguistic profile of people with Autism spectrum disorders typically involves intact perceptual processing, accompanied by deficits in the social functions of language. In a series of three experiments, the impact of this profile on the perception of regional dialect was examined. Young adults with High-Functioning Autism exhibited similar…

Re-Becoming ESL: Multilingual University Students and a Deficit Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marshall, Steve

2010-01-01

In this article, I analyze how a group of multilingual students at a university in British Columbia, Canada, go through the process of "re-becoming ESL" during their first year of university. I highlight a central contradiction. Despite bringing a diverse and rich range of languages and cultures to the university, multilingual students…

Working Memory in Aphasia: Theory, Measures, and Clinical Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Heather Harris; Shisler, Rebecca J.

2005-01-01

Recently, researchers have suggested that deficits in working memory capacity contribute to language-processing difficulties observed in individuals with aphasia (e.g., I. Caspari, S. Parkinson, L. LaPointe, & R. Katz, 1998; R. A. Downey et al., 2004; N. Friedmann & A. Gvion, 2003; H. H. Wright, M. Newhoff, R. Downey, & S. Austermann, 2003). A…

Sentence Repetition Accuracy in Adults with Developmental Language Impairment: Interactions of Participant Capacities and Sentence Structures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poll, Gerard H.; Miller, Carol A.; van Hell, Janet G.

2016-01-01

Purpose: We asked whether sentence repetition accuracy could be explained by interactions of participant processing limitations with the structures of the sentences. We also tested a prediction of the procedural deficit hypothesis (Ullman & Pierpont, 2005) that adjuncts are more difficult than arguments for individuals with developmental…

Alternative Organization of Speech Perception Deficits in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gosy, Maria

2007-01-01

Children's first-language perception base takes shape gradually from birth onwards. Empirical research has confirmed that children may continue to fall short of age-based expectations in their speech perception. The purpose of this study was to assess the contribution of various perception processes in both reading and learning disabled children.…

Routes to short-term memory indexing: lessons from deaf native users of American Sign Language.

PubMed

Hirshorn, Elizabeth A; Fernandez, Nina M; Bavelier, Daphne

2012-01-01

Models of working memory (WM) have been instrumental in understanding foundational cognitive processes and sources of individual differences. However, current models cannot conclusively explain the consistent group differences between deaf signers and hearing speakers on a number of short-term memory (STM) tasks. Here we take the perspective that these results are not due to a temporal order-processing deficit in deaf individuals, but rather reflect different biases in how different types of memory cues are used to do a given task. We further argue that the main driving force behind the shifts in relative biasing is a consequence of language modality (sign vs. speech) and the processing they afford, and not deafness, per se.

Routes to short term memory indexing: Lessons from deaf native users of American Sign Language

PubMed Central

Hirshorn, Elizabeth A.; Fernandez, Nina M.; Bavelier, Daphne

2012-01-01

Models of working memory (WM) have been instrumental in understanding foundational cognitive processes and sources of individual differences. However, current models cannot conclusively explain the consistent group differences between deaf signers and hearing speakers on a number of short-term memory (STM) tasks. Here we take the perspective that these results are not due to a temporal order-processing deficit in deaf individuals, but rather reflect different biases in how different types of memory cues are used to do a given task. We further argue that the main driving force behind the shifts in relative biasing is a consequence of language modality (sign vs. speech) and the processing they afford, and not deafness, per se. PMID:22871205

Validation of the translation of an instrument to measure reliability of written information on treatment choices: a study on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

PubMed

Montoya, A; Llopis, N; Gilaberte, I

2011-12-01

DISCERN is an instrument designed to help patients assess the reliability of written information on treatment choices. Originally created in English, there is no validated Spanish version of this instrument. This study seeks to validate the Spanish translation of the DISCERN instrument used as a primary measure on a multicenter study aimed to assess the reliability of web-based information on treatment choices for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We used a modified version of a method for validating translated instruments in which the original source-language version is formally compared with the back-translated source-language version. Each item was ranked in terms of comparability of language, similarity of interpretability, and degree of understandability. Responses used Likert scales ranging from 1 to 7, where 1 indicates the best interpretability, language and understandability, and 7 indicates the worst. Assessments were performed by 20 raters fluent in the source language. The Spanish translation of DISCERN, based on ratings of comparability, interpretability and degree of understandability (mean score (SD): 1.8 (1.1), 1.4 (0.9) and 1.6 (1.1), respectively), was considered extremely comparable. All items received a score of less than three, therefore no further revision of the translation was needed. The validation process showed that the quality of DISCERN translation was high, validating the comparable language of the tool translated on assessing written information on treatment choices for ADHD.

A computational language approach to modeling prose recall in schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Rosenstein, Mark; Diaz-Asper, Catherine; Foltz, Peter W.; Elvevåg, Brita

2014-01-01

Many cortical disorders are associated with memory problems. In schizophrenia, verbal memory deficits are a hallmark feature. However, the exact nature of this deficit remains elusive. Modeling aspects of language features used in memory recall have the potential to provide means for measuring these verbal processes. We employ computational language approaches to assess time-varying semantic and sequential properties of prose recall at various retrieval intervals (immediate, 30 min and 24 h later) in patients with schizophrenia, unaffected siblings and healthy unrelated control participants. First, we model the recall data to quantify the degradation of performance with increasing retrieval interval and the effect of diagnosis (i.e., group membership) on performance. Next we model the human scoring of recall performance using an n-gram language sequence technique, and then with a semantic feature based on Latent Semantic Analysis. These models show that automated analyses of the recalls can produce scores that accurately mimic human scoring. The final analysis addresses the validity of this approach by ascertaining the ability to predict group membership from models built on the two classes of language features. Taken individually, the semantic feature is most predictive, while a model combining the features improves accuracy of group membership prediction slightly above the semantic feature alone as well as over the human rating approach. We discuss the implications for cognitive neuroscience of such a computational approach in exploring the mechanisms of prose recall. PMID:24709122

Conceptualizing and Measuring Working Memory and its Relationship to Aphasia

PubMed Central

Wright, Heather Harris; Fergadiotis, Gerasimos

2011-01-01

Background General agreement exists in the literature that individuals with aphasia can exhibit a working memory deficit that contributes to their language processing impairments. Though conceptualized within different working memory frameworks, researchers have suggested that individuals with aphasia have limited working memory capacity, impaired attention-control processes as well as impaired inhibitory mechanisms. However, across studies investigating working memory ability in individuals with aphasia, different measures have been used to quantify their working memory ability and identify the relationship between working memory and language performance. Aims The primary objectives of this article are to (1) review current working memory theoretical frameworks, (2) review tasks used to measure working memory, and (3) discuss findings from studies that have investigated working memory as they relate to language processing in aphasia. Main Contribution Though findings have been consistent across studies investigating working memory ability in individuals with aphasia, discussion of how working memory is conceptualized and defined is often missing, as is discussion of results within a theoretical framework. This is critical, as working memory is conceptualized differently across the different theoretical frameworks. They differ in explaining what limits capacity and the source of individual differences as well as how information is encoded, maintained, and retrieved. When test methods are considered within a theoretical framework, specific hypotheses can be tested and stronger conclusions that are less susceptible to different interpretations can be made. Conclusions Working memory ability has been investigated in numerous studies with individuals with aphasia. To better understand the underlying cognitive constructs that contribute to the language deficits exhibited by individuals with aphasia, future investigations should operationally define the cognitive constructs of interest and discuss findings within theoretical frameworks. PMID:22639480

Language processing within the striatum: evidence from a PET correlation study in Huntington's disease.

PubMed

Teichmann, Marc; Gaura, Véronique; Démonet, Jean-François; Supiot, Frédéric; Delliaux, Marie; Verny, Christophe; Renou, Pierre; Remy, Philippe; Bachoud-Lévi, Anne-Catherine

2008-04-01

The role of sub-cortical structures in language processing, and more specifically of the striatum, remains controversial. In line with psycholinguistic models stating that language processing implies both the recovery of lexical information and the application of combinatorial rules, the striatum has been claimed to be involved either in the former component or in the latter. The present study reconciles these conflicting views by showing the striatum's involvement in both language processes, depending on distinct striatal sub-regions. Using PET scanning in a model of striatal disorders, namely Huntington's disease (HD), we correlated metabolic data of 31 early stage HD patients regarding different striatal sub-regions with behavioural scores on three rule/lexicon tasks drawn from word morphology, syntax and from a non-linguistic domain, namely arithmetic. Behavioural results reflected impairment on both processing aspects, while deficits predominated on rule application. Both correlated with the left striatum but involved distinct striatal sub-regions. We suggest that the left striatum encompasses linguistic and arithmetic circuits, which differ with respect to their anatomical and functional specification, comprising ventrally located regions dedicated to rule computations and more dorsal portions pertaining to lexical devices.

RecoverNow: Feasibility of a Mobile Tablet-Based Rehabilitation Intervention to Treat Post-Stroke Communication Deficits in the Acute Care Setting

PubMed Central

Corbett, Dale; Finestone, Hillel M.; Hatcher, Simon; Lumsden, Jim; Momoli, Franco; Shamy, Michel C. F.; Stotts, Grant; Swartz, Richard H.; Yang, Christine

2016-01-01

Background Approximately 40% of patients diagnosed with stroke experience some degree of aphasia. With limited health care resources, patients’ access to speech and language therapies is often delayed. We propose using mobile-platform technology to initiate early speech-language therapy in the acute care setting. For this pilot, our objective was to assess the feasibility of a tablet-based speech-language therapy for patients with communication deficits following acute stroke. Methods We enrolled consecutive patients admitted with a stroke and communication deficits with NIHSS score ≥1 on the best language and/or dysarthria parameters. We excluded patients with severe comprehension deficits where communication was not possible. Following baseline assessment by a speech-language pathologist (SLP), patients were provided with a mobile tablet programmed with individualized therapy applications based on the assessment, and instructed to use it for at least one hour per day. Our objective was to establish feasibility by measuring recruitment rate, adherence rate, retention rate, protocol deviations and acceptability. Results Over 6 months, 143 patients were admitted with a new diagnosis of stroke: 73 had communication deficits, 44 met inclusion criteria, and 30 were enrolled into RecoverNow (median age 62, 26.6% female) for a recruitment rate of 68% of eligible participants. Participants received mobile tablets at a mean 6.8 days from admission [SEM 1.6], and used them for a mean 149.8 minutes/day [SEM 19.1]. In-hospital retention rate was 97%, and 96% of patients scored the mobile tablet-based communication therapy as at least moderately convenient 3/5 or better with 5/5 being most “convenient”. Conclusions Individualized speech-language therapy delivered by mobile tablet technology is feasible in acute care. PMID:28002479

RecoverNow: Feasibility of a Mobile Tablet-Based Rehabilitation Intervention to Treat Post-Stroke Communication Deficits in the Acute Care Setting.

PubMed

Mallet, Karen H; Shamloul, Rany M; Corbett, Dale; Finestone, Hillel M; Hatcher, Simon; Lumsden, Jim; Momoli, Franco; Shamy, Michel C F; Stotts, Grant; Swartz, Richard H; Yang, Christine; Dowlatshahi, Dar

2016-01-01

Approximately 40% of patients diagnosed with stroke experience some degree of aphasia. With limited health care resources, patients' access to speech and language therapies is often delayed. We propose using mobile-platform technology to initiate early speech-language therapy in the acute care setting. For this pilot, our objective was to assess the feasibility of a tablet-based speech-language therapy for patients with communication deficits following acute stroke. We enrolled consecutive patients admitted with a stroke and communication deficits with NIHSS score ≥1 on the best language and/or dysarthria parameters. We excluded patients with severe comprehension deficits where communication was not possible. Following baseline assessment by a speech-language pathologist (SLP), patients were provided with a mobile tablet programmed with individualized therapy applications based on the assessment, and instructed to use it for at least one hour per day. Our objective was to establish feasibility by measuring recruitment rate, adherence rate, retention rate, protocol deviations and acceptability. Over 6 months, 143 patients were admitted with a new diagnosis of stroke: 73 had communication deficits, 44 met inclusion criteria, and 30 were enrolled into RecoverNow (median age 62, 26.6% female) for a recruitment rate of 68% of eligible participants. Participants received mobile tablets at a mean 6.8 days from admission [SEM 1.6], and used them for a mean 149.8 minutes/day [SEM 19.1]. In-hospital retention rate was 97%, and 96% of patients scored the mobile tablet-based communication therapy as at least moderately convenient 3/5 or better with 5/5 being most "convenient". Individualized speech-language therapy delivered by mobile tablet technology is feasible in acute care.

Visual and auditory perception in preschool children at risk for dyslexia.

PubMed

Ortiz, Rosario; Estévez, Adelina; Muñetón, Mercedes; Domínguez, Carolina

2014-11-01

Recently, there has been renewed interest in perceptive problems of dyslexics. A polemic research issue in this area has been the nature of the perception deficit. Another issue is the causal role of this deficit in dyslexia. Most studies have been carried out in adult and child literates; consequently, the observed deficits may be the result rather than the cause of dyslexia. This study addresses these issues by examining visual and auditory perception in children at risk for dyslexia. We compared children from preschool with and without risk for dyslexia in auditory and visual temporal order judgment tasks and same-different discrimination tasks. Identical visual and auditory, linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli were presented in both tasks. The results revealed that the visual as well as the auditory perception of children at risk for dyslexia is impaired. The comparison between groups in auditory and visual perception shows that the achievement of children at risk was lower than children without risk for dyslexia in the temporal tasks. There were no differences between groups in auditory discrimination tasks. The difficulties of children at risk in visual and auditory perceptive processing affected both linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli. Our conclusions are that children at risk for dyslexia show auditory and visual perceptive deficits for linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli. The auditory impairment may be explained by temporal processing problems and these problems are more serious for processing language than for processing other auditory stimuli. These visual and auditory perceptive deficits are not the consequence of failing to learn to read, thus, these findings support the theory of temporal processing deficit. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impaired Comprehension of Speed Verbs in Parkinson's Disease.

PubMed

Speed, Laura J; van Dam, Wessel O; Hirath, Priyantha; Vigliocco, Gabriella; Desai, Rutvik H

2017-05-01

A wealth of studies provide evidence for action simulation during language comprehension. Recent research suggests such action simulations might be sensitive to fine-grained information, such as speed. Here, we present a crucial test for action simulation of speed in language by assessing speed comprehension in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Based on the patients' motor deficits, we hypothesized that the speed of motion described in language would modulate their performance in semantic tasks. Specifically, they would have more difficulty processing language about relatively fast speed than language about slow speed. We conducted a semantic similarity judgment task on fast and slow action verbs in patients with PD and age-matched healthy controls. Participants had to decide which of two verbs most closely matched a target word. Compared to controls, PD patients were slower making judgments about fast action verbs, but not for judgments about slow action verbs, suggesting impairment in processing language about fast action. Moreover, this impairment was specific to verbs describing fast action performed with the hand. Problems moving quickly lead to difficulties comprehending language about moving quickly. This study provides evidence that speed is an important part of action representations. (JINS, 2017, 23, 412-420).

Mapping practice onto theory: the speech and language practitioner's construction of receptive language impairment.

PubMed

Law, J; Campbell, C; Roulstone, S; Adams, C; Boyle, J

2008-01-01

Receptive language impairment (RLI) is one of the most significant indicators of negative sequelae for children with speech and language disorders. Despite this, relatively little is known about the most effective treatments for these children in the primary school period. To explore the relationship between the reported practice of speech and language practitioners and the underlying rationales for the therapy that they provide. A phenomenological approach was adopted, drawing on the experiences of speech and language practitioners. Practitioners completed a questionnaire relating to their practice for a single child with receptive language impairment within the 5-11 age range, providing details and rationales for three recent therapy activities. The responses of 56 participants were coded. All the children described experienced marked receptive language impairments, in the main associated with expressive language difficulties and/or social communication problems. The relative homogeneity of the presenting symptoms in terms of test performance was not reflected in the highly differentiated descriptions of intervention. One of the key determinants of how therapists described their practice was the child's age. As the child develops the therapists appeared to shift from a 'skills acquisition' orientation to a 'meta-cognitive' orientation, that is they move away from teaching specific linguistic behaviours towards teaching children strategies for thinking and using their language. A third of rationales refer to explicit theories but only half of these refer to the work of specific authors. Many of these were theories of practice rather than theories of deficit, and of those that do cite specific theories, no less than 29 different authors were cited many of whom might best be described as translators of existing theories rather than generators of novel theories. While theories of the deficit dominate the literature they appear to play a relatively small part in the eclectic practice of speech and language therapists. Theories of therapy may develop relatively independent of theories of deficit. While this may not present a problem for the practitioner, whose principal focus is remediation, it may present a problem for the researcher developing intervention efficacy studies, where the theory of the deficit will need to be well-defined in order to describe both the subgroup of children under investigation and the parameters of the deficit to be targeted in intervention.

Deconstructing Adults' and Children's Discourse on Children's Play: Listening to Children's Voices to Destabilise Deficit Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicholson, Julie; Kurnik, Jean; Jevgjovikj, Maja; Ufoegbune, Veronica

2015-01-01

This study used discourse analysis to compare the language adults use to discuss contemporary children's play and children's narratives of their own play experiences. Adult discourse was analysed to determine whether they positioned children through deficit or strength and the attributions of responsibility embedded within their language choices…

Semantic Deficits in Spanish-English Bilingual Children with Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheng, Li; Pena, Elizabeth D.; Bedore, Lisa M.; Fiestas, Christine E.

2012-01-01

Purpose: To examine the nature and extent of semantic deficits in bilingual children with language impairment (LI). Method: Thirty-seven Spanish-English bilingual children with LI (ranging from age 7;0 [years;months] to 9;10) and 37 typically developing (TD) age-matched peers generated 3 associations to 12 pairs of translation equivalents in…

Deficits in Coordinative Bimanual Timing Precision in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vuolo, Janet; Goffman, Lisa; Zelaznik, Howard N.

2017-01-01

Purpose: Our objective was to delineate components of motor performance in specific language impairment (SLI); specifically, whether deficits in timing precision in one effector (unimanual tapping) and in two effectors (bimanual clapping) are observed in young children with SLI. Method: Twenty-seven 4- to 5-year-old children with SLI and 21…

Encoding Deficits Impede Word Learning and Memory in Adults with Developmental Language Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGregor, Karla K.; Gordon, Katherine; Eden, Nichole; Arbisi-Kelm, Tim; Oleson, Jacob

2017-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether the word-learning challenges associated with developmental language disorder (DLD) result from encoding or retention deficits. Method In Study 1, 59 postsecondary students with DLD and 60 with normal development (ND) took the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition, Adult Version…

Noise on, Voicing off: Speech Perception Deficits in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ziegler, Johannes C.; Pech-Georgel, Catherine; George, Florence; Lorenzi, Christian

2011-01-01

Speech perception of four phonetic categories (voicing, place, manner, and nasality) was investigated in children with specific language impairment (SLI) (n=20) and age-matched controls (n=19) in quiet and various noise conditions using an AXB two-alternative forced-choice paradigm. Children with SLI exhibited robust speech perception deficits in…

A Narrative Therapy Approach to Counseling: A Model for Working with Adolescents and Adults with Language-Literacy Deficits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolter, Julie A.; Dilollo, Anthony; Apel, Kenn

2006-01-01

PURPOSE: Remediation efforts with adolescents and adults with language-literacy deficits (LLD) may be hindered by concomitant factors such as decreased self-esteem and self-efficacy. Despite sound linguistically based remediation practices, treatment lacking integrated counseling components may fail to achieve optimal outcomes. In this tutorial,…

Language Deficits in Children with Psychiatric Disorders: Educational Implications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lutz, Margaret M.

The study was designed to determine if there was an identifiable pattern of language deficit in 10 children (6 to 12 years old) undergoing treatment in a hospital inpatient psychiatry ward for behavioral and emotional problems. Ss were administered the standard hearing and speech clinic test battery which included the Binet Memory for Sentences,…

Developmental dyscalculia and basic numerical capacities: a study of 8-9-year-old students.

PubMed

Landerl, Karin; Bevan, Anna; Butterworth, Brian

2004-09-01

Thirty-one 8- and 9-year-old children selected for dyscalculia, reading difficulties or both, were compared to controls on a range of basic number processing tasks. Children with dyscalculia only had impaired performance on the tasks despite high-average performance on tests of IQ, vocabulary and working memory tasks. Children with reading disability were mildly impaired only on tasks that involved articulation, while children with both disorders showed a pattern of numerical disability similar to that of the dyscalculic group, with no special features consequent on their reading or language deficits. We conclude that dyscalculia is the result of specific disabilities in basic numerical processing, rather than the consequence of deficits in other cognitive abilities.

Studying Associations Between Heart Failure Self-Management and Rehospitalizations Using Natural Language Processing.

PubMed

Topaz, Maxim; Radhakrishnan, Kavita; Blackley, Suzanne; Lei, Victor; Lai, Kenneth; Zhou, Li

2016-09-14

This study developed an innovative natural language processing algorithm to automatically identify heart failure (HF) patients with ineffective self-management status (in the domains of diet, physical activity, medication adherence, and adherence to clinician appointments) from narrative discharge summary notes. We also analyzed the association between self-management status and preventable 30-day hospital readmissions. Our natural language system achieved relatively high accuracy (F-measure = 86.3%; precision = 95%; recall = 79.2%) on a testing sample of 300 notes annotated by two human reviewers. In a sample of 8,901 HF patients admitted to our healthcare system, 14.4% (n = 1,282) had documentation of ineffective HF self-management. Adjusted regression analyses indicated that presence of any skill-related self-management deficit (odds ratio [OR] = 1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.1, 1.6]) and non-specific ineffective self-management (OR = 1.5, 95% CI = [1.2, 2]) was significantly associated with readmissions. We have demonstrated the feasibility of identifying ineffective HF self-management from electronic discharge summaries with natural language processing. © The Author(s) 2016.

Are preservice teachers prepared to teach struggling readers?

PubMed

Washburn, Erin K; Joshi, R Malatesha; Binks Cantrell, Emily

2011-06-01

Reading disabilities such as dyslexia, a specific learning disability that affects an individual's ability to process written language, are estimated to affect 15-20% of the general population. Consequently, elementary school teachers encounter students who struggle with inaccurate or slow reading, poor spelling, poor writing, and other language processing difficulties. However, recent evidence may suggest that teacher preparation programs are not providing preservice teachers with information about basic language constructs and other components related to scientifically based reading instruction. As a consequence preservice teachers have not exhibited explicit knowledge of such concepts in previous studies. Few studies have sought to assess preservice teachers' knowledge about dyslexia in conjunction with knowledge of basic language concepts. The purpose of the present study was to examine elementary school preservice teachers' knowledge of basic language constructs and their perceptions and knowledge about dyslexia. Findings from the present study suggest that preservice teachers, on average, are able to display implicit skills related to certain basic language constructs (i.e., syllable counting), but fail to demonstrate explicit knowledge of others (i.e., phonics principles). Also, preservice teachers seem to hold the common misconception that dyslexia is a visual perception deficit rather than a problem with phonological processing. Implications for future research as well as teacher preparation are discussed.

Written Narrative Characteristics in Adults with Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suddarth, Rachael; Plante, Elena; Vance, Rebecca

2012-01-01

Purpose: Adults with language-based disabilities are known to have deficits in oral language; however, less is known about their written language skills. Two studies were designed to characterize the writing of adults with language-based disabilities. Method: In Study 1, 60 adults, 30 with language impairment and 30 with typical language,…

Temporal auditory processing at 17 months of age is associated with preliterate language comprehension and later word reading fluency: an ERP study.

PubMed

van Zuijen, Titia L; Plakas, Anna; Maassen, Ben A M; Been, Pieter; Maurits, Natasha M; Krikhaar, Evelien; van Driel, Joram; van der Leij, Aryan

2012-10-18

Dyslexia is heritable and associated with auditory processing deficits. We investigate whether temporal auditory processing is compromised in young children at-risk for dyslexia and whether it is associated with later language and reading skills. We recorded EEG from 17 months-old children with or without familial risk for dyslexia to investigate whether their auditory system was able to detect a temporal change in a tone pattern. The children were followed longitudinally and performed an intelligence- and language development test at ages 4 and 4.5 years. Literacy related skills were measured at the beginning of second grade, and word- and pseudo-word reading fluency were measured at the end of second grade. The EEG responses showed that control children could detect the temporal change as indicated by a mismatch response (MMR). The MMR was not observed in at-risk children. Furthermore, the fronto-central MMR amplitude correlated with preliterate language comprehension and with later word reading fluency, but not with phonological awareness. We conclude that temporal auditory processing differentiates young children at risk for dyslexia from controls and is a precursor of preliterate language comprehension and reading fluency. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A tapping device for recording and quantitative characterization of rhythmic/auditory sequences.

PubMed

Piazza, Caterina; Cesareo, Ambra; Caccia, Martina; Reni, Gianluigi; Lorusso, Maria L

2017-07-01

The processing of auditory stimuli is essential for the correct perception of language and deficits in this ability are often related to the presence or development of language disorders. The motor imitation (e.g. tapping or beating) of rhythmic sequences can be a very sensitive correlate of deficits in auditory processing. Thus, the study of the tapping performance, with the investigation of both temporal and intensity information, might be very useful. The present work is aimed at the development and preliminary testing of a tapping device to be used for the imitation and/or the production of rhythmic sequences, allowing the recording of both tapping duration and intensity. The device is essentially made up of a Force Sensing Resistor and an Arduino UNO board. It was validated using different sampling frequencies (f s ) in a group of 10 young healthy adults investigating its efficacy in terms of touch and intensity detection by means of two testing procedures. Results demonstrated a good performance of the device when programmed with fs equal to 50 and 100Hz. Moreover, both temporal and intensity parameters were extracted, thus supporting the potential use of the device for the analysis of the imitation or production of rhythmic sequences. This work represents a first step for the development of a useful, low cost tool to support the diagnosis, training and rehabilitation of language disorders.

The Reliability and Validity of Tasks Measuring Perception of Rapid Sequences in Children with Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heath, Steve M.; Hogben, John H.

2004-01-01

Background: Claims that children with reading and oral language deficits have impaired perception of sequential sounds are usually based on psychophysical measures of auditory temporal processing (ATP) designed to characterise group performance. If we are to use these measures (e.g., the Tallal, 1980, Repetition Test) as the basis for intervention…

Slow Perceptual Processing at the Core of Developmental Dyslexia: A Parameter-Based Assessment of Visual Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stenneken, Prisca; Egetemeir, Johanna; Schulte-Korne, Gerd; Muller, Hermann J.; Schneider, Werner X.; Finke, Kathrin

2011-01-01

The cognitive causes as well as the neurological and genetic basis of developmental dyslexia, a complex disorder of written language acquisition, are intensely discussed with regard to multiple-deficit models. Accumulating evidence has revealed dyslexics' impairments in a variety of tasks requiring visual attention. The heterogeneity of these…

Aspects of communication in Alzheimer's disease: clinical features and treatment options.

PubMed

Woodward, Michael

2013-06-01

During the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD), cognitive processes, including language and communication, become increasingly impaired. The aim of this review was to highlight the impact of communication deficits in AD, and discuss the need for effective treatments. PubMed was searched for studies relating to language and communication in AD. The publications identified were used as a basis for the commentary in this paper. Studies relating to the clinical effectiveness of pharmacological treatment for language and communication issues were identified systematically. Communication deficits are common in AD. From the earliest disease stage, the patient's capacity for communication declines as problems develop with the use of language and all aspects of functional communication. There is a loss of the ability to communicate thoughts and needs, and it becomes increasingly difficult to interact socially and sustain personal relationships with caregivers, family, and friends. It is unsurprising that patients become frustrated at their loss of self-expression, and studies have demonstrated that impaired communication is strongly linked with the development of significant behavioral concerns. Overall, poor communication contributes to caregiver strain, and adds notably to the burden of disease. Clinical data and post-hoc analyses provide preliminary indications that anti-AD therapies (memantine and the cholinesterase inhibitors, ChEIs) and non-pharmacological cognitive-linguistic stimulation techniques may be helpful in addressing communication difficulties. The capacity to treat or slow the progression of communication deficits in AD would prolong patient independence, and have a profound impact on the quality of life of patients and caregivers. The use of pharmacological (anti-AD therapies) and non-pharmacological (cognitive-linguistic stimulation) treatments may be useful management methods and warrant further investigation.

Association between language and hearing disorders – risk identification

PubMed Central

Samelli, Alessandra Giannella; Rondon-Melo, Silmara; Rabelo, Camila Maia; Molini-Avejonas, Daniela Regina

2017-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To identify children at risk for hearing and/or language disorders and to investigate the association between these risks by conducting pre-validated hearing and language screenings. METHODS: The study was conducted during a polio vaccination campaign in August of 2013 in basic health units in western São Paulo. Parents of children between 2 and 5 years of age were asked to complete two screening tools: a hearing questionnaire (regarding hearing development) and a language production and comprehension scale (including the major language development milestones). The screening tools were administered by different researchers. We compared the risk of having language disorders among children at risk for hearing loss versus children not at risk, as well as the attributable risk and odds ratios. Chi-squared tests and logistic regression analyses were used. RESULTS: The study included 479 children with a mean age of three and one-half years, of whom 26.9% were identified as at risk for deficits in language production, 8.6% were at risk for deficits in language comprehension and 14% were at risk for hearing disorders. The children at risk for hearing disorders were twice as likely as those not at risk to exhibit language production and comprehension deficits. CONCLUSION: The results of this study highlight the importance of establishing and adopting low-cost procedures such as screenings to identify children at risk of developing language and/or hearing disorders in early childhood. PMID:28492720

The role of the cerebellum in the regulation of language functions.

PubMed

Starowicz-Filip, Anna; Chrobak, Adrian Andrzej; Moskała, Marek; Krzyżewski, Roger M; Kwinta, Borys; Kwiatkowski, Stanisław; Milczarek, Olga; Rajtar-Zembaty, Anna; Przewoźnik, Dorota

2017-08-29

The present paper is a review of studies on the role of the cerebellum in the regulation of language functions. This brain structure until recently associated chiefly with motor skills, visual-motor coordination and balance, proves to be significant also for cognitive functioning. With regard to language functions, studies show that the cerebellum determines verbal fluency (both semantic and formal) expressive and receptive grammar processing, the ability to identify and correct language mistakes, and writing skills. Cerebellar damage is a possible cause of aphasia or the cerebellar mutism syndrome (CMS). Decreased cerebellocortical connectivity as well as anomalies in the structure of the cerebellum are emphasized in numerous developmental dyslexia theories. The cerebellum is characterized by linguistic lateralization. From the neuroanatomical perspective, its right hemisphere and dentate nucleus, having multiple cerebellocortical connections with the cerebral cortical language areas, are particularly important for language functions. Usually, language deficits developed as a result of a cerebellar damage have subclinical intensity and require applying sensitive neuropsychological diagnostic tools designed to assess higher verbal functions.

Addressing Math Comprehension of Children with Attention, Speech, and Language Disabilities: A Case Study on Singapore Math

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uzhansky, Jane

2018-01-01

The co-occurrence of learning disabilities (LD), such as speech and language impairment (SLI) and attention deficit disorder/attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), also classified as other health impairment (OHI), is significant. Many of these students are being placed in the general education setting and need to obtain the learning…

"Well, Hang On, They're Actually Much Better than That!": Disrupting Dominant Discourses of Deficit about English Language Learners in Senior High School English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alford, Jennifer H.

2014-01-01

This paper explores how four English teachers position their English language learners for critical literacy within senior high school curriculum in Queensland, Australia. Such learners are often positioned, even by their teachers, within a broader "deficit discourse" that claims they are inherently lacking the requisite knowledge and…

Deficits in Coordinative Bimanual Timing Precision in Children With Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Goffman, Lisa; Zelaznik, Howard N.

2017-01-01

Purpose Our objective was to delineate components of motor performance in specific language impairment (SLI); specifically, whether deficits in timing precision in one effector (unimanual tapping) and in two effectors (bimanual clapping) are observed in young children with SLI. Method Twenty-seven 4- to 5-year-old children with SLI and 21 age-matched peers with typical language development participated. All children engaged in a unimanual tapping and a bimanual clapping timing task. Standard measures of language and motor performance were also obtained. Results No group differences in timing variability were observed in the unimanual tapping task. However, compared with typically developing peers, children with SLI were more variable in their timing precision in the bimanual clapping task. Nine of the children with SLI performed greater than 1 SD below the mean on a standardized motor assessment. The children with low motor performance showed the same profile as observed across all children with SLI, with unaffected unimanual and impaired bimanual timing precision. Conclusions Although unimanual timing is unaffected, children with SLI show a deficit in timing that requires bimanual coordination. We propose that the timing deficits observed in children with SLI are associated with the increased demands inherent in bimanual performance. PMID:28174821

Assessments of adolescent language.

PubMed

Wiig, E H

1995-02-01

I have stressed that language and learning disabilities that are exhibited in the preschool or elementary school years often persist into adolescence but that the characteristics and implications of these disabilities change with the preadolescent and adolescent transitions to metalinguistic maturity. As the student with language disabilities matures and as educational demands increase in complexity and in level of abstractness, the interactions between language and cognition become more apparent. Language disabilities of adolescents are often described in relation to observed deficits in the acquisition of content (semantics), form (morphology and syntax), and use (pragmatics). I have broadened this perspective to consider identification of metalinguistic strengths and/or deficits, deficits in the integration and organization of communication, reasoning and problem solving, and in conceptualization and creativity. Several assessment options were discussed, among them, norm-and criterion- referenced testing, language sample analysis, portfolio assessments of integrated communication, observational checklists and interviews, classroom language probes, and self-assessments. The perspectives taken for assessment have been that no single assessment option can satisfy all assessment objectives and/or constraints. I have also stressed that all tests are subject to measurement error and how to account for this error. Last, but not least, I have shared some of the voices of adolescents which express their perspectives and priorities.

A PET study of word generation in Huntington's disease: effects of lexical competition and verb/noun category.

PubMed

Lepron, Evelyne; Péran, Patrice; Cardebat, Dominique; Démonet, Jean-François

2009-08-01

Huntington's disease (HD) patients show language production deficits that have been conceptualized as a consequence of executive disorders, e.g. selection deficit between candidate words or switching between word categories. More recently, a deficit of word generation specific to verbs has been reported, which might relate to impaired action representations in HD. We studied the brain correlates of language impairment in HD using H(2)O(15) positron emission tomography (PET). The activation task consisted of generation of semantically appropriate nouns and verbs in dominant (low lexical selection) and selective conditions (high lexical selection). Reaction times were longer and number of errors was higher in 12 non-demented HD than in 17 age-matched controls in all conditions. In both groups, the selective condition yielded longer reaction time and a greater number of errors than the dominant one. PET data revealed that, in control subjects, the left inferior temporal gyrus was involved in the selective condition whereas it was not in HD. Moreover, activity in the anterior cingulate and the inferior frontal gyri was correlated with behavioral performance in control subjects only. In HD, the lack of implication of these regions, already shown to be crucial in lexical selection, might have been partly compensated by the activation in the left supramarginal gyrus (phonological loop activity) and the right inferior frontal gyrus (effortful retrieval processes), which might support accessory language strategies allowing patients to achieve word generation.

Assessment of short-term memory in Arabic speaking children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Kaddah, F A; Shoeib, R M; Mahmoud, H E

2010-12-15

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) may have some kind of memory disorder that could increase their linguistic impairment. This study assessed the short-term memory skills in Arabic speaking children with either Expressive Language Impairment (ELI) or Receptive/Expressive Language Impairment (R/ELI) in comparison to controls in order to estimate the nature and extent of any specific deficits in these children that could explain the different prognostic results of language intervention. Eighteen children were included in each group. Receptive, expressive and total language quotients were calculated using the Arabic language test. Assessment of auditory and visual short-term memory was done using the Arabic version of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities. Both groups of SLI performed significantly lower linguistic abilities and poorer auditory and visual short-term memory in comparison to normal children. The R/ELI group presented an inferior performance than the ELI group in all measured parameters. Strong association was found between most tasks of auditory and visual short-term memory and linguistic abilities. The results of this study highlighted a specific degree of deficit of auditory and visual short-term memories in both groups of SLI. These deficits were more prominent in R/ELI group. Moreover, the strong association between the different auditory and visual short-term memories and language abilities in children with SLI must be taken into account when planning an intervention program for these children.

Reading Comprehension Deficits in Adolescents: Addressing Underlying Language Abilities.

PubMed

Nippold, Marilyn A

2017-04-20

The purpose of this article is to discuss reading comprehension deficits in adolescents in relation to their word reading skills and lexical and syntactic development. Although reading comprehension strategies (e.g., "Find the main idea") are often recommended, it is argued that before these can be effective, students' underlying language deficits should be addressed. Data from a longitudinal study are analyzed to determine the relationship between reading comprehension, word reading, and lexical and syntactic development in adolescents. The findings indicate that poor reading comprehension in adolescents is predicted by concurrent deficits in word reading ability, lexical development, and syntactic development. When poor comprehension is accompanied by deficits in word reading ability and/or lexical and syntactic development, intervention should target the underlying areas of deficiency. Studies designed to improve reading comprehension in adolescents are needed.

Reading Comprehension Deficits in Adolescents: Addressing Underlying Language Abilities

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this article is to discuss reading comprehension deficits in adolescents in relation to their word reading skills and lexical and syntactic development. Although reading comprehension strategies (e.g., “Find the main idea”) are often recommended, it is argued that before these can be effective, students' underlying language deficits should be addressed. Method Data from a longitudinal study are analyzed to determine the relationship between reading comprehension, word reading, and lexical and syntactic development in adolescents. Results The findings indicate that poor reading comprehension in adolescents is predicted by concurrent deficits in word reading ability, lexical development, and syntactic development. Conclusion When poor comprehension is accompanied by deficits in word reading ability and/or lexical and syntactic development, intervention should target the underlying areas of deficiency. Studies designed to improve reading comprehension in adolescents are needed. PMID:28384784

Communication Deficits and the Motor System: Exploring Patterns of Associations in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

PubMed

Mody, M; Shui, A M; Nowinski, L A; Golas, S B; Ferrone, C; O'Rourke, J A; McDougle, C J

2017-01-01

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have notable difficulties in motor, speech and language domains. The connection between motor skills (oral-motor, manual-motor) and speech and language deficits reported in other developmental disorders raises important questions about a potential relationship between motor skills and speech-language deficits in ASD. To this end, we examined data from children with ASD (n = 1781), 2-17 years of age, enrolled in the Autism Speaks-Autism Treatment Network (AS-ATN) registry who completed a multidisciplinary evaluation that included diagnostic, physical, cognitive and behavioral assessments as part of a routine standard of care protocol. After adjusting for age, non-verbal IQ, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medication use, and muscle tone, separate multiple linear regression analyses revealed significant positive associations of fine motor skills (FM) with both expressive language (EL) and receptive language (RL) skills in an impaired FM subgroup; in contrast, the impaired gross motor (GM) subgroup showed no association with EL but a significant negative association with RL. Similar analyses between motor skills and interpersonal relationships across the sample found both GM skills and FM skills to be associated with social interactions. These results suggest potential differences in the contributions of fine versus gross motor skills to autistic profiles and may provide another lens with which to view communication differences across the autism spectrum for use in treatment interventions.

Auditory processing and morphological anomalies in medial geniculate nucleus of Cntnap2 mutant mice.

PubMed

Truong, Dongnhu T; Rendall, Amanda R; Castelluccio, Brian C; Eigsti, Inge-Marie; Fitch, R Holly

2015-12-01

Genetic epidemiological studies support a role for CNTNAP2 in developmental language disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, specific language impairment, and dyslexia. Atypical language development and function represent a core symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with evidence suggesting that aberrant auditory processing-including impaired spectrotemporal processing and enhanced pitch perception-may both contribute to an anomalous language phenotype. Investigation of gene-brain-behavior relationships in social and repetitive ASD symptomatology have benefited from experimentation on the Cntnap2 knockout (KO) mouse. However, auditory-processing behavior and effects on neural structures within the central auditory pathway have not been assessed in this model. Thus, this study examined whether auditory-processing abnormalities were associated with mutation of the Cntnap2 gene in mice. Cntnap2 KO mice were assessed on auditory-processing tasks including silent gap detection, embedded tone detection, and pitch discrimination. Cntnap2 knockout mice showed deficits in silent gap detection but a surprising superiority in pitch-related discrimination as compared with controls. Stereological analysis revealed a reduction in the number and density of neurons, as well as a shift in neuronal size distribution toward smaller neurons, in the medial geniculate nucleus of mutant mice. These findings are consistent with a central role for CNTNAP2 in the ontogeny and function of neural systems subserving auditory processing and suggest that developmental disruption of these neural systems could contribute to the atypical language phenotype seen in autism spectrum disorder. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Orthographic influences on division of labor in learning to read Chinese and English: Insights from computational modeling

PubMed Central

Yang, Jianfeng; Shu, Hua; McCandliss, Bruce D.; Zevin, Jason D.

2013-01-01

Learning to read any language requires learning to map among print, sound and meaning. Writing systems differ in a number of factors that influence both the ease and rate with which reading skill can be acquired, as well as the eventual division of labor between phonological and semantic processes. Further, developmental reading disability manifests differently across writing systems, and may be related to different deficits in constitutive processes. Here we simulate some aspects of reading acquisition in Chinese and English using the same model architecture for both writing systems. The contribution of semantic and phonological processing to literacy acquisition in the two languages is simulated, including specific effects of phonological and semantic deficits. Further, we demonstrate that similar patterns of performance are observed when the same model is trained on both Chinese and English as an "early bilingual." The results are consistent with the view that reading skill is acquired by the application of statistical learning rules to mappings among print, sound and meaning, and that differences in the typical and disordered acquisition of reading skill between writing systems are driven by differences in the statistical patterns of the writing systems themselves, rather than differences in cognitive architecture of the learner. PMID:24587693

Reduced short-term memory capacity in Alzheimer's disease: the role of phonological, lexical, and semantic processing.

PubMed

Caza, Nicole; Belleville, Sylvie

2008-05-01

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are often reported to have reduced verbal short-term memory capacity, typically attributed to their attention/executive deficits. However, these individuals also tend to show progressive impairment of semantic, lexical, and phonological processing which may underlie their low short-term memory capacity. The goals of this study were to assess the contribution of each level of representation (phonological, lexical, and semantic) to immediate serial recall performance in 18 individuals with AD, and to examine how these linguistic effects on short-term memory were modulated by their reduced capacity to manipulate information in short-term memory associated with executive dysfunction. Results showed that individuals with AD had difficulty recalling items that relied on phonological representations, which led to increased lexicality effects relative to the control group. This finding suggests that patients have a greater reliance on lexical/semantic information than controls, possibly to make up for deficits in retention and processing of phonological material. This lexical/semantic effect was not found to be significantly correlated with patients' capacity to manipulate verbal material in short-term memory, indicating that language processing and executive deficits may independently contribute to reducing verbal short-term memory capacity in AD.

TVA-based assessment of visual attentional functions in developmental dyslexia

PubMed Central

Bogon, Johanna; Finke, Kathrin; Stenneken, Prisca

2014-01-01

There is an ongoing debate whether an impairment of visual attentional functions constitutes an additional or even an isolated deficit of developmental dyslexia (DD). Especially performance in tasks that require the processing of multiple visual elements in parallel has been reported to be impaired in DD. We review studies that used parameter-based assessment for identifying and quantifying impaired aspect(s) of visual attention that underlie this multi-element processing deficit in DD. These studies used the mathematical framework provided by the “theory of visual attention” (Bundesen, 1990) to derive quantitative measures of general attentional resources and attentional weighting aspects on the basis of behavioral performance in whole- and partial-report tasks. Based on parameter estimates in children and adults with DD, the reviewed studies support a slowed perceptual processing speed as an underlying primary deficit in DD. Moreover, a reduction in visual short term memory storage capacity seems to present a modulating component, contributing to difficulties in written language processing. Furthermore, comparing the spatial distributions of attentional weights in children and adults suggests that having limited reading and writing skills might impair the development of a slight leftward bias, that is typical for unimpaired adult readers. PMID:25360129

Schooling in American Sign Language: A Paradigm Shift from a Deficit Model to a Bilingual Model in Deaf Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Humphries, Tom

2013-01-01

Deaf people have long held the belief that American Sign Language (ASL) plays a significant role in the academic development of deaf children. Despite this, the education of deaf children has historically been exclusive of ASL and constructed as an English-only, deficit-based pedagogy. Newer research, however, finds a strong correlation between…

Interpreting ambiguous advertisements: the effect of frontal lobe damage.

PubMed

Pearce, S; McDonald, S; Coltheart, M

1998-11-01

Despite intact primary language processes patients with frontal lobe deficits often have impaired communication skills including impaired capacity to understand conversational inference. This study examined the ability of three patients with demonstrated frontal lobe pathology to interpret lexically ambiguous advertisements. When compared to a nonbrain-damaged control group it was found that the frontal lobe patients were poorer at comprehending the abstract or inferred meanings inherent in the advertisements. The pattern of performance across the patients did, nevertheless, differ despite a similar end result. These findings are discussed in relation to theories concerning the contribution of the frontal lobes to language function.

Grammar Predicts Procedural Learning and Consolidation Deficits in Children with Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Hedenius, Martina; Persson, Jonas; Tremblay, Antoine; Adi-Japha, Esther; Veríssimo, João; Dye, Cristina D.; Alm, Per; Jennische, Margareta; Tomblin, J. Bruce; Ullman, Michael T.

2011-01-01

The Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH) posits that Specific Language Impairment (SLI) can be largely explained by abnormalities of brain structures that subserve procedural memory. The PDH predicts impairments of procedural memory itself, and that such impairments underlie the grammatical deficits observed in the disorder. Previous studies have indeed reported procedural learning impairments in SLI, and have found that these are associated with grammatical difficulties. The present study extends this research by examining the consolidation and longer-term procedural sequence learning in children with SLI. The Alternating Serial Reaction Time (ASRT) task was given to children with SLI and typically-developing (TD) children in an initial learning session and an average of three days later to test for consolidation and longer-term learning. Although both groups showed evidence of initial sequence learning, only the TD children showed clear signs of consolidation, even though the two groups did not differ in longer-term learning. When the children were re-categorized on the basis of grammar deficits rather than broader language deficits, a clearer pattern emerged. Whereas both the grammar impaired and normal grammar groups showed evidence of initial sequence learning, only those with normal grammar showed consolidation and longer-term learning. Indeed, the grammar-impaired group appeared to lose any sequence knowledge gained during the initial testing session. These findings held even when controlling for vocabulary or a broad non-grammatical language measure, neither of which were associated with procedural memory. When grammar was examined as a continuous variable over all children, the same relationships between procedural memory and grammar, but not vocabulary or the broader language measure, were observed. Overall, the findings support and further specify the PDH. They suggest that consolidation and longer-term procedural learning are impaired in SLI, but that these impairments are specifically tied to the grammatical deficits in the disorder. The possibility that consolidation and longer-term learning are problematic in the disorder suggests a locus of potential study for therapeutic approaches. In sum, this study clarifies our understanding of the underlying deficits in SLI, and suggests avenues for further research. PMID:21840165

Altered brain activity for phonological manipulation in dyslexic Japanese children.

PubMed

Kita, Yosuke; Yamamoto, Hisako; Oba, Kentaro; Terasawa, Yuri; Moriguchi, Yoshiya; Uchiyama, Hitoshi; Seki, Ayumi; Koeda, Tatsuya; Inagaki, Masumi

2013-12-01

Because of unique linguistic characteristics, the prevalence rate of developmental dyslexia is relatively low in the Japanese language. Paradoxically, Japanese children have serious difficulty analysing phonological processes when they have dyslexia. Neurobiological deficits in Japanese dyslexia remain unclear and need to be identified, and may lead to better understanding of the commonality and diversity in the disorder among different linguistic systems. The present study investigated brain activity that underlies deficits in phonological awareness in Japanese dyslexic children using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We developed and conducted a phonological manipulation task to extract phonological processing skills and to minimize the influence of auditory working memory on healthy adults, typically developing children, and dyslexic children. Current experiments revealed that several brain regions participated in manipulating the phonological information including left inferior and middle frontal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, and bilateral basal ganglia. Moreover, dyslexic children showed altered activity in two brain regions. They showed hyperactivity in the basal ganglia compared with the two other groups, which reflects inefficient phonological processing. Hypoactivity in the left superior temporal gyrus was also found, suggesting difficulty in composing and processing phonological information. The altered brain activity shares similarity with those of dyslexic children in countries speaking alphabetical languages, but disparity also occurs between these two populations. These are initial findings concerning the neurobiological impairments in dyslexic Japanese children.

Altered brain activity for phonological manipulation in dyslexic Japanese children

PubMed Central

Yamamoto, Hisako; Oba, Kentaro; Terasawa, Yuri; Moriguchi, Yoshiya; Uchiyama, Hitoshi; Seki, Ayumi; Koeda, Tatsuya; Inagaki, Masumi

2013-01-01

Because of unique linguistic characteristics, the prevalence rate of developmental dyslexia is relatively low in the Japanese language. Paradoxically, Japanese children have serious difficulty analysing phonological processes when they have dyslexia. Neurobiological deficits in Japanese dyslexia remain unclear and need to be identified, and may lead to better understanding of the commonality and diversity in the disorder among different linguistic systems. The present study investigated brain activity that underlies deficits in phonological awareness in Japanese dyslexic children using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We developed and conducted a phonological manipulation task to extract phonological processing skills and to minimize the influence of auditory working memory on healthy adults, typically developing children, and dyslexic children. Current experiments revealed that several brain regions participated in manipulating the phonological information including left inferior and middle frontal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, and bilateral basal ganglia. Moreover, dyslexic children showed altered activity in two brain regions. They showed hyperactivity in the basal ganglia compared with the two other groups, which reflects inefficient phonological processing. Hypoactivity in the left superior temporal gyrus was also found, suggesting difficulty in composing and processing phonological information. The altered brain activity shares similarity with those of dyslexic children in countries speaking alphabetical languages, but disparity also occurs between these two populations. These are initial findings concerning the neurobiological impairments in dyslexic Japanese children. PMID:24052613

The Relationship between Mathematics and Language: Academic Implications for Children with Specific Language Impairment and English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alt, Mary; Arizmendi, Genesis D.; Beal, Carole R.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The present study examined the relationship between mathematics and language to better understand the nature of the deficit and the academic implications associated with specific language impairment (SLI) and academic implications for English language learners (ELLs). Method: School-age children (N = 61; 20 SLI, 20 ELL, 21 native…

Sentence comprehension following moderate closed head injury in adults.

PubMed

Leikin, Mark; Ibrahim, Raphiq; Aharon-Peretz, Judith

2012-09-01

The current study explores sentence comprehension impairments among adults following moderate closed head injury. It was hypothesized that if the factor of syntactic complexity significantly affects sentence comprehension in these patients, it would testify to the existence of syntactic processing deficit along with working-memory problems. Thirty-six adults (18 closed head injury patients and 18 healthy controls matched in age, gender, and IQ) participated in the study. A picture-sentence matching task together with various tests for memory, language, and reading abilities were used to explore whether sentence comprehension impairments exist as a result of a deficit in syntactic processing or of working-memory dysfunction. Results indicate significant impairment in sentence comprehension among adults with closed head injury compared with their non-head-injured peers. Results also reveal that closed head injury patients demonstrate considerable decline in working memory, short-term memory, and semantic knowledge. Analysis of the results shows that memory impairment and syntactic complexity contribute significantly to sentence comprehension difficulties in closed head injury patients. At the same time, the presentation mode (spoken or written language) was found to have no effect on comprehension among adults with closed head injury, and their reading abilities appear to be relatively intact.

Language and Communication Development in Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Joanne E.; Price, Johanna; Malkin, Cheryl

2007-01-01

Although there is considerable variability, most individuals with Down syndrome have mental retardation and speech and language deficits, particularly in language production and syntax and poor speech intelligibility. This article describes research findings in the language and communication development of individuals with Down syndrome, first…

Role of tDCS in potentiating poststroke computerized cognitive rehabilitation: Lessons learned from a case study.

PubMed

Leo, Antonino; De Luca, Rosario; Russo, Margherita; Naro, Antonino; Bramanti, Placido; Calabrò, Rocco S

2016-01-01

Cognitive impairment after stroke is quite common and can cause important disability with a relevant impact on quality of life. Cognitive rehabilitation (CR) and related assistive technology may improve functional outcomes. A 30-year-old woman came to our research institute for an intensive CR cycle following a right parieto-temporal stroke. Because the patient was in the chronic phase, we decided to use 3 different rehabilitative protocols: (a) traditional cognitive training (TCT), (b) computerized cognitive training (CCT), and (c) CCT combined with transcranial direct stimulation (CCT plus) with a 2-week interval separating each session. Cognitive and language deficits were investigated using an ad-hoc psychometric battery at baseline (T0), post-TCT (T1), post-CCT (T2), and post-CCT plus (T3). Our patient showed the best neuropsychological improvement, with regard to attention processes and language domain, after T3. Our data showed that CCT plus should be considered a promising tool in the treatment of poststroke neuropsychological deficits.

Data-driven classification of patients with primary progressive aphasia.

PubMed

Hoffman, Paul; Sajjadi, Seyed Ahmad; Patterson, Karalyn; Nestor, Peter J

2017-11-01

Current diagnostic criteria classify primary progressive aphasia into three variants-semantic (sv), nonfluent (nfv) and logopenic (lv) PPA-though the adequacy of this scheme is debated. This study took a data-driven approach, applying k-means clustering to data from 43 PPA patients. The algorithm grouped patients based on similarities in language, semantic and non-linguistic cognitive scores. The optimum solution consisted of three groups. One group, almost exclusively those diagnosed as svPPA, displayed a selective semantic impairment. A second cluster, with impairments to speech production, repetition and syntactic processing, contained a majority of patients with nfvPPA but also some lvPPA patients. The final group exhibited more severe deficits to speech, repetition and syntax as well as semantic and other cognitive deficits. These results suggest that, amongst cases of non-semantic PPA, differentiation mainly reflects overall degree of language/cognitive impairment. The observed patterns were scarcely affected by inclusion/exclusion of non-linguistic cognitive scores. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Autistic Symptomatology and Language Ability in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loucas, Tom; Charman, Tony; Pickles, Andrew; Simonoff, Emily; Chandler, Susie; Meldrum, David; Baird, Gillian

2008-01-01

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are common developmental disorders characterised by deficits in language and communication. The nature of the relationship between them continues to be a matter of debate. This study investigates whether the co-occurrence of ASD and language impairment is associated…

Auditory-motor interactions in pediatric motor speech disorders: neurocomputational modeling of disordered development.

PubMed

Terband, H; Maassen, B; Guenther, F H; Brumberg, J

2014-01-01

Differentiating the symptom complex due to phonological-level disorders, speech delay and pediatric motor speech disorders is a controversial issue in the field of pediatric speech and language pathology. The present study investigated the developmental interaction between neurological deficits in auditory and motor processes using computational modeling with the DIVA model. In a series of computer simulations, we investigated the effect of a motor processing deficit alone (MPD), and the effect of a motor processing deficit in combination with an auditory processing deficit (MPD+APD) on the trajectory and endpoint of speech motor development in the DIVA model. Simulation results showed that a motor programming deficit predominantly leads to deterioration on the phonological level (phonemic mappings) when auditory self-monitoring is intact, and on the systemic level (systemic mapping) if auditory self-monitoring is impaired. These findings suggest a close relation between quality of auditory self-monitoring and the involvement of phonological vs. motor processes in children with pediatric motor speech disorders. It is suggested that MPD+APD might be involved in typically apraxic speech output disorders and MPD in pediatric motor speech disorders that also have a phonological component. Possibilities to verify these hypotheses using empirical data collected from human subjects are discussed. The reader will be able to: (1) identify the difficulties in studying disordered speech motor development; (2) describe the differences in speech motor characteristics between SSD and subtype CAS; (3) describe the different types of learning that occur in the sensory-motor system during babbling and early speech acquisition; (4) identify the neural control subsystems involved in speech production; (5) describe the potential role of auditory self-monitoring in developmental speech disorders. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Efficacy of Fast ForWord-Language Intervention in School-Age Children with Language Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Gillam, Ronald B.; Loeb, Diane Frome; Hoffman, LaVae M.; Bohman, Thomas; Champlin, Craig A.; Thibodeau, Linda; Widen, Judith; Brandel, Jayne; Friel-Patti, Sandy

2008-01-01

Purpose A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to compare the language and auditory processing outcomes of children assigned to Fast ForWord-Language (FFW-L) to the outcomes of children assigned to nonspecific or specific language intervention comparison treatments that did not contain modified speech. Method Two hundred and sixteen children between the ages of 6 and 9 years with language impairments were randomly assigned to one of four arms: Fast ForWord-Language (FFW-L), academic enrichment (AE), computer-assisted language intervention (CALI), or individualized language intervention (ILI) provided by a speech-language pathologist. All children received 1 hour and 40 minutes of treatment, 5 days per week, for 6 weeks. Language and auditory processing measures were administered to the children by blinded examiners before treatment, immediately after treatment, 3 months after treatment, and 6 months after treatment. Results The children in all four arms improved significantly on a global language test and a test of backward masking. Children with poor backward masking scores who were randomized to the FFW-L arm did not present greater improvement on the language measures than children with poor backward masking scores who were randomized to the other three arms. Effect sizes, analyses of standard error of measurement, and normalization percentages supported the clinical significance of the improvements on the CASL. There was a treatment effect for the Blending Words subtest on the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1999). Participants in the FFW-L and CALI arms earned higher phonological awareness scores than children in the ILI and AE arms at the six-month follow-up testing. Conclusion Fast ForWord-Language, the language intervention that provided modified speech to address a hypothesized underlying auditory processing deficit, was not more effective at improving general language skills or temporal processing skills than a nonspecific comparison treatment (AE) or specific language intervention comparison treatments (CALI and ILI) that did not contain modified speech stimuli. These findings call into question the temporal processing hypothesis of language impairment and the hypothesized benefits of using acoustically modified speech to improve language skills. The finding that children in the three treatment arms and the active comparison arm made clinically relevant gains on measures of language and temporal auditory processing informs our understanding of the variety of intervention activities that can facilitate development. PMID:18230858

Temporal order processing of syllables in the left parietal lobe.

PubMed

Moser, Dana; Baker, Julie M; Sanchez, Carmen E; Rorden, Chris; Fridriksson, Julius

2009-10-07

Speech processing requires the temporal parsing of syllable order. Individuals suffering from posterior left hemisphere brain injury often exhibit temporal processing deficits as well as language deficits. Although the right posterior inferior parietal lobe has been implicated in temporal order judgments (TOJs) of visual information, there is limited evidence to support the role of the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) in processing syllable order. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the left inferior parietal lobe is recruited during temporal order judgments of speech stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected on 14 normal participants while they completed the following forced-choice tasks: (1) syllable order of multisyllabic pseudowords, (2) syllable identification of single syllables, and (3) gender identification of both multisyllabic and monosyllabic speech stimuli. Results revealed increased neural recruitment in the left inferior parietal lobe when participants made judgments about syllable order compared with both syllable identification and gender identification. These findings suggest that the left inferior parietal lobe plays an important role in processing syllable order and support the hypothesized role of this region as an interface between auditory speech and the articulatory code. Furthermore, a breakdown in this interface may explain some components of the speech deficits observed after posterior damage to the left hemisphere.

Temporal Order Processing of Syllables in the Left Parietal Lobe

PubMed Central

Baker, Julie M.; Sanchez, Carmen E.; Rorden, Chris; Fridriksson, Julius

2009-01-01

Speech processing requires the temporal parsing of syllable order. Individuals suffering from posterior left hemisphere brain injury often exhibit temporal processing deficits as well as language deficits. Although the right posterior inferior parietal lobe has been implicated in temporal order judgments (TOJs) of visual information, there is limited evidence to support the role of the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) in processing syllable order. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the left inferior parietal lobe is recruited during temporal order judgments of speech stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected on 14 normal participants while they completed the following forced-choice tasks: (1) syllable order of multisyllabic pseudowords, (2) syllable identification of single syllables, and (3) gender identification of both multisyllabic and monosyllabic speech stimuli. Results revealed increased neural recruitment in the left inferior parietal lobe when participants made judgments about syllable order compared with both syllable identification and gender identification. These findings suggest that the left inferior parietal lobe plays an important role in processing syllable order and support the hypothesized role of this region as an interface between auditory speech and the articulatory code. Furthermore, a breakdown in this interface may explain some components of the speech deficits observed after posterior damage to the left hemisphere. PMID:19812331

How relevant is social interaction in second language learning?

PubMed Central

Verga, Laura; Kotz, Sonja A.

2013-01-01

Verbal language is the most widespread mode of human communication, and an intrinsically social activity. This claim is strengthened by evidence emerging from different fields, which clearly indicates that social interaction influences human communication, and more specifically, language learning. Indeed, research conducted with infants and children shows that interaction with a caregiver is necessary to acquire language. Further evidence on the influence of sociality on language comes from social and linguistic pathologies, in which deficits in social and linguistic abilities are tightly intertwined, as is the case for Autism, for example. However, studies on adult second language (L2) learning have been mostly focused on individualistic approaches, partly because of methodological constraints, especially of imaging methods. The question as to whether social interaction should be considered as a critical factor impacting upon adult language learning still remains underspecified. Here, we review evidence in support of the view that sociality plays a significant role in communication and language learning, in an attempt to emphasize factors that could facilitate this process in adult language learning. We suggest that sociality should be considered as a potentially influential factor in adult language learning and that future studies in this domain should explicitly target this factor. PMID:24027521

How relevant is social interaction in second language learning?

PubMed

Verga, Laura; Kotz, Sonja A

2013-09-03

Verbal language is the most widespread mode of human communication, and an intrinsically social activity. This claim is strengthened by evidence emerging from different fields, which clearly indicates that social interaction influences human communication, and more specifically, language learning. Indeed, research conducted with infants and children shows that interaction with a caregiver is necessary to acquire language. Further evidence on the influence of sociality on language comes from social and linguistic pathologies, in which deficits in social and linguistic abilities are tightly intertwined, as is the case for Autism, for example. However, studies on adult second language (L2) learning have been mostly focused on individualistic approaches, partly because of methodological constraints, especially of imaging methods. The question as to whether social interaction should be considered as a critical factor impacting upon adult language learning still remains underspecified. Here, we review evidence in support of the view that sociality plays a significant role in communication and language learning, in an attempt to emphasize factors that could facilitate this process in adult language learning. We suggest that sociality should be considered as a potentially influential factor in adult language learning and that future studies in this domain should explicitly target this factor.

A case of oral spelling behavior: another environmental dependency syndrome.

PubMed

Ragno Paquier, Claire; Assal, Frédéric

2007-12-01

To present the case of a woman with a probable vascular dementia and a unique oral spelling behavior (OSB). Our aim was to better characterize the mechanisms underlying OSB in this patient with advanced cognitive and noncognitive deficits. Different kind of language deficits have been described in dementias and other related diseases. Other nonaphasic acquired communication disorders include a heterogeneous group of verbal impairment that are mainly due to attentional and executive impairments. We describe the neurolinguistic and neuropsychologic analysis of an 88-year-old woman with spontaneous OSB. Computed tomography-scan at the time of the clinical analysis is also presented. OSB occurred preferentially in spontaneous discourse, manifested in other language tasks, concerned all lexical categories, and was not accompanied by spelling deficit although language was not intact and disclosed foreign accent syndrome. Environmental dependency syndrome or utilization behavior was prominent and concerned various sensorimotor activities. We postulate that OSB was not secondary to a linguistic or more specifically to a spelling deficit but to another variant of environmental dependency syndrome and probably associated with a cortico-subcortical lesion including the left prefrontal region.

Temporal plasticity in auditory cortex improves neural discrimination of speech sounds

PubMed Central

Engineer, Crystal T.; Shetake, Jai A.; Engineer, Navzer D.; Vrana, Will A.; Wolf, Jordan T.; Kilgard, Michael P.

2017-01-01

Background Many individuals with language learning impairments exhibit temporal processing deficits and degraded neural responses to speech sounds. Auditory training can improve both the neural and behavioral deficits, though significant deficits remain. Recent evidence suggests that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) paired with rehabilitative therapies enhances both cortical plasticity and recovery of normal function. Objective/Hypothesis We predicted that pairing VNS with rapid tone trains would enhance the primary auditory cortex (A1) response to unpaired novel speech sounds. Methods VNS was paired with tone trains 300 times per day for 20 days in adult rats. Responses to isolated speech sounds, compressed speech sounds, word sequences, and compressed word sequences were recorded in A1 following the completion of VNS-tone train pairing. Results Pairing VNS with rapid tone trains resulted in stronger, faster, and more discriminable A1 responses to speech sounds presented at conversational rates. Conclusion This study extends previous findings by documenting that VNS paired with rapid tone trains altered the neural response to novel unpaired speech sounds. Future studies are necessary to determine whether pairing VNS with appropriate auditory stimuli could potentially be used to improve both neural responses to speech sounds and speech perception in individuals with receptive language disorders. PMID:28131520

Explaining semantic short-term memory deficits: Evidence for the critical role of semantic control

PubMed Central

Hoffman, Paul; Jefferies, Elizabeth; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A.

2011-01-01

Patients with apparently selective short-term memory (STM) deficits for semantic information have played an important role in developing multi-store theories of STM and challenge the idea that verbal STM is supported by maintaining activation in the language system. We propose that semantic STM deficits are not as selective as previously thought and can occur as a result of mild disruption to semantic control processes, i.e., mechanisms that bias semantic processing towards task-relevant aspects of knowledge and away from irrelevant information. We tested three semantic STM patients with tasks that tapped four aspects of semantic control: (i) resolving ambiguity between word meanings, (ii) sensitivity to cues, (iii) ignoring irrelevant information and (iv) detecting weak semantic associations. All were impaired in conditions requiring more semantic control, irrespective of the STM demands of the task, suggesting a mild, but task-general, deficit in regulating semantic knowledge. This mild deficit has a disproportionate effect on STM tasks because they have high intrinsic control demands: in STM tasks, control is required to keep information active when it is no longer available in the environment and to manage competition between items held in memory simultaneously. By re-interpreting the core deficit in semantic STM patients in this way, we are able to explain their apparently selective impairment without the need for a specialised STM store. Instead, we argue that semantic STM patients occupy the mildest end of spectrum of semantic control disorders. PMID:21195105

Attribution of emotions to body postures: an independent component analysis study of functional connectivity in autism.

PubMed

Libero, Lauren E; Stevens, Carl E; Kana, Rajesh K

2014-10-01

The ability to interpret others' body language is a vital skill that helps us infer their thoughts and emotions. However, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been found to have difficulty in understanding the meaning of people's body language, perhaps leading to an overarching deficit in processing emotions. The current fMRI study investigates the functional connectivity underlying emotion and action judgment in the context of processing body language in high-functioning adolescents and young adults with autism, using an independent components analysis (ICA) of the fMRI time series. While there were no reliable group differences in brain activity, the ICA revealed significant involvement of occipital and parietal regions in processing body actions; and inferior frontal gyrus, superior medial prefrontal cortex, and occipital cortex in body expressions of emotions. In a between-group analysis, participants with autism, relative to typical controls, demonstrated significantly reduced temporal coherence in left ventral premotor cortex and right superior parietal lobule while processing emotions. Participants with ASD, on the other hand, showed increased temporal coherence in left fusiform gyrus while inferring emotions from body postures. Finally, a positive predictive relationship was found between empathizing ability and the brain areas underlying emotion processing in ASD participants. These results underscore the differential role of frontal and parietal brain regions in processing emotional body language in autism. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Object Recognition in Williams Syndrome: Uneven Ventral Stream Activation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Hearn, Kirsten; Roth, Jennifer K.; Courtney, Susan M.; Luna, Beatriz; Street, Whitney; Terwillinger, Robert; Landau, Barbara

2011-01-01

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder associated with severe visuospatial deficits, relatively strong language skills, heightened social interest, and increased attention to faces. On the basis of the visuospatial deficits, this disorder has been characterized primarily as a deficit of the dorsal stream, the occipitoparietal brain regions…

Measuring Working Memory Deficits in Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayer, Jamie F.; Murray, Laura L.

2012-01-01

Purpose: Many adults with aphasia demonstrate concomitant deficits in working memory (WM), but such deficits are difficult to quantify because of a lack of validated measures as well as the complex interdependence between language and WM. We examined the feasibility, reliability, and internal consistency of an "n"-back task for…

Poor Anchoring Limits Dyslexics' Perceptual, Memory, and Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oganian, Yulia; Ahissar, Merav

2012-01-01

The basic deficits underlying the severe and persistent reading difficulties in dyslexia are still highly debated. One of the major topics of debate is whether these deficits are language specific, or affect both verbal and non-verbal stimuli. Recently, Ahissar and colleagues proposed the "anchoring-deficit hypothesis" (Ahissar, Lubin,…

Patterns of Language Comprehension Deficit in Abused and Neglected Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Lynn; And Others

1988-01-01

A study of the relationship between child abuse/neglect and language disability compared 30 abused, generally neglected, or severely neglected children, aged 3-8, to 10 nonabused controls. Results on language comprehension tests suggest that abused and severely neglected children show greater difficulty with language comprehension tasks than their…

Language Ability of Students with Emotional Disturbance: Discrepancies between Teacher Ratings and Direct Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chow, Jason C.; Hollo, Alexandra

2018-01-01

Language impairment often goes unidentified in students with behavioral disorders, perhaps in part because different forms of problem behavior deflect adult attention from more subtle language deficits. Therefore, attention to teachers' perception of students' language and behavioral performance is merited. The present study examines agreement…

Cooperative Groups: Engaging Elementary Students with Pragmatic Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stockall, Nancy

2011-01-01

In this article, the author suggests that children with language impairments have difficulty working in groups because of deficits in the area of pragmatic language. Pragmatic language skills are identified and suggestions for intervention in the general education classroom are discussed. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

An Exploration of Causes of Non-Literal Language Problems in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Ingerith; McDonald, Skye

2004-01-01

Individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS), a high functioning variant of Autism, are often noted to possess intact language ability, yet fail to use this language capacity to engage in interactive communication. This difficulty using language in a social context has been referred to as a deficit in pragmatic language. In particular, difficulty…

Contributions of Phonological Memory, Language Comprehension and Hearing to the Expressive Language of Adolescents and Young Adults with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laws, Glynis

2004-01-01

Background: Expressive language constitutes a major challenge to the development of individuals with Down syndrome. This paper investigates the relationships between expressive language abilities, language comprehension and the deficits in verbal short-term memory and hearing which are also associated with the syndrome. Methods: Tests of nonverbal…

Mapping Common Aphasia Assessments to Underlying Cognitive Processes and Their Neural Substrates.

PubMed

Lacey, Elizabeth H; Skipper-Kallal, Laura M; Xing, Shihui; Fama, Mackenzie E; Turkeltaub, Peter E

2017-05-01

Understanding the relationships between clinical tests, the processes they measure, and the brain networks underlying them, is critical in order for clinicians to move beyond aphasia syndrome classification toward specification of individual language process impairments. To understand the cognitive, language, and neuroanatomical factors underlying scores of commonly used aphasia tests. Twenty-five behavioral tests were administered to a group of 38 chronic left hemisphere stroke survivors and a high-resolution magnetic resonance image was obtained. Test scores were entered into a principal components analysis to extract the latent variables (factors) measured by the tests. Multivariate lesion-symptom mapping was used to localize lesions associated with the factor scores. The principal components analysis yielded 4 dissociable factors, which we labeled Word Finding/Fluency, Comprehension, Phonology/Working Memory Capacity, and Executive Function. While many tests loaded onto the factors in predictable ways, some relied heavily on factors not commonly associated with the tests. Lesion symptom mapping demonstrated discrete brain structures associated with each factor, including frontal, temporal, and parietal areas extending beyond the classical language network. Specific functions mapped onto brain anatomy largely in correspondence with modern neural models of language processing. An extensive clinical aphasia assessment identifies 4 independent language functions, relying on discrete parts of the left middle cerebral artery territory. A better understanding of the processes underlying cognitive tests and the link between lesion and behavior may lead to improved aphasia diagnosis, and may yield treatments better targeted to an individual's specific pattern of deficits and preserved abilities.

How Language Is Embodied in Bilinguals and Children with Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Adams, Ashley M.

2016-01-01

This manuscript explores the role of embodied views of language comprehension and production in bilingualism and specific language impairment. Reconceptualizing popular models of bilingual language processing, the embodied theory is first extended to this area. Issues such as semantic grounding in a second language and potential differences between early and late acquisition of a second language are discussed. Predictions are made about how this theory informs novel ways of thinking about teaching a second language. Secondly, the comorbidity of speech, language, and motor impairments and how embodiment theory informs the discussion of the etiology of these impairments is examined. A hypothesis is presented suggesting that what is often referred to as specific language impairment may not be so specific due to widespread subclinical motor deficits in this population. Predictions are made about how weaknesses and instabilities in speech motor control, even at a subclinical level, may disrupt the neural network that connects acoustic input, articulatory motor plans, and semantics. Finally, I make predictions about how this information informs clinical practice for professionals such as speech language pathologists and occupational and physical therapists. These new hypotheses are placed within the larger framework of the body of work pertaining to semantic grounding, action-based language acquisition, and action-perception links that underlie language learning and conceptual grounding. PMID:27582716

Grammatical category dissociation in multilingual aphasia.

PubMed

Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Waked, Arifi N

2010-03-01

Word retrieval deficits for specific grammatical categories, such as verbs versus nouns, occur as a consequence of brain damage. Such deficits are informative about the nature of lexical organization in the human brain. This study examined retrieval of grammatical categories across three languages in a trilingual person with aphasia who spoke Arabic, French, and English. In order to delineate the nature of word production difficulty, comprehension was tested, and a variety of concomitant lexical-semantic variables were analysed. The patient demonstrated a consistent noun-verb dissociation in picture naming and narrative speech, with severely impaired production of verbs across all three languages. The cross-linguistically similar noun-verb dissociation, coupled with little evidence of semantic impairment, suggests that (a) the patient has a true "nonsemantic" grammatical category specific deficit, and (b) lexical organization in multilingual speakers shares grammatical class information between languages. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of the architecture of lexical organization in bilinguals.

Language and Brain Volumes in Children with Epilepsy

PubMed Central

Caplan, Rochelle; Levitt, Jennifer; Siddarth, Prabha; Wu, Keng Nei; Gurbani, Suresh; Shields, W. Donald; Sankar, Raman

2010-01-01

This study compared the relationship of language skill with fronto-temporal volumes in 69 medically treated epilepsy subjects and 34 healthy children, aged 6.1-16.6 years. It also determined if the patients with linguistic deficits had abnormal volumes and atypical associations between volumes and language skills in these brain regions. The children underwent language testing and magnetic resonance imaging scans at 1.5 Tesla. Brain tissue was segmented and fronto-temporal volumes were computed. Higher mean language scores were significantly associated with larger inferior frontal gyrus, temporal lobe, and posterior superior temporal gyrus gray matter volumes in the epilepsy group and in the children with epilepsy with average language scores. Increased total brain and dorsolateral prefrontal gray and white matter volumes, however, were associated with higher language scores in the healthy controls. Within the epilepsy group, linguistic deficits were related to smaller anterior superior temporal gyrus gray matter volumes and a negative association between language scores and dorsolateral prefrontal gray matter volumes. These findings demonstrate abnormal development of language related brain regions, and imply differential reorganization of brain regions subserving language in children with epilepsy with normal linguistic skills and in those with impaired language. PMID:20149755

Prevalence and types of articulation errors in Saudi Arabic-speaking children with repaired cleft lip and palate.

PubMed

Albustanji, Yusuf M; Albustanji, Mahmoud M; Hegazi, Mohamed M; Amayreh, Mousa M

2014-10-01

The purpose of this study was to assess prevalence and types of consonant production errors and phonological processes in Saudi Arabic-speaking children with repaired cleft lip and palate, and to determine the relationship between frequency of errors on one hand and the type of the cleft. Possible relationship between age, gender and frequency of errors was also investigated. Eighty Saudi children with repaired cleft lip and palate aged 6-15 years (mean 6.7 years), underwent speech, language, and hearing evaluation. The diagnosis of articulation deficits was based on the results of an Arabic articulation test. Phonological processes were reported based on the productivity scale of a minimum 20% of occurrence. Diagnosis of nasality was based on a 5-point scale that reflects severity from 0 through 4. All participants underwent intraoral examination, informal language assessment, and hearing evaluation to assess their speech and language abilities. The Chi-Square test for independence was used to analyze the results of consonant production as a function of type of CLP and age. Out of 80 participants with CLP, 21 participants had normal articulation and resonance, 59 of participants (74%) showed speech abnormalities. Twenty-one of these 59 participants showed only articulation errors; 17 showed only hypernasality; and 21 showed both articulation and resonance deficits. CAs were observed in 20 participant. The productive phonological processes were consonant backing, final consonant deletion, gliding, and stopping. At age 6 and older, 37% of participants had persisting hearing loss. Despite early age at time of surgery (mean 6.7 months) for the studied CLP participants in this study, a substantial number of them demonstrated articulation errors and hypernasality. The results showed desirable findings for diverse languages. It is especially interesting to consider the prevalence of glottal stops and pharyngeal fricatives in a population for whom these sound are phonemic. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sensitivity to audio-visual synchrony and its relation to language abilities in children with and without ASD.

PubMed

Righi, Giulia; Tenenbaum, Elena J; McCormick, Carolyn; Blossom, Megan; Amso, Dima; Sheinkopf, Stephen J

2018-04-01

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often accompanied by deficits in speech and language processing. Speech processing relies heavily on the integration of auditory and visual information, and it has been suggested that the ability to detect correspondence between auditory and visual signals helps to lay the foundation for successful language development. The goal of the present study was to examine whether young children with ASD show reduced sensitivity to temporal asynchronies in a speech processing task when compared to typically developing controls, and to examine how this sensitivity might relate to language proficiency. Using automated eye tracking methods, we found that children with ASD failed to demonstrate sensitivity to asynchronies of 0.3s, 0.6s, or 1.0s between a video of a woman speaking and the corresponding audio track. In contrast, typically developing children who were language-matched to the ASD group, were sensitive to both 0.6s and 1.0s asynchronies. We also demonstrated that individual differences in sensitivity to audiovisual asynchronies and individual differences in orientation to relevant facial features were both correlated with scores on a standardized measure of language abilities. Results are discussed in the context of attention to visual language and audio-visual processing as potential precursors to language impairment in ASD. Autism Res 2018, 11: 645-653. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Speech processing relies heavily on the integration of auditory and visual information, and it has been suggested that the ability to detect correspondence between auditory and visual signals helps to lay the foundation for successful language development. The goal of the present study was to explore whether children with ASD process audio-visual synchrony in ways comparable to their typically developing peers, and the relationship between preference for synchrony and language ability. Results showed that there are differences in attention to audiovisual synchrony between typically developing children and children with ASD. Preference for synchrony was related to the language abilities of children across groups. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Impact of Reading Intervention on Brain Responses Underlying Language in Children With Autism.

PubMed

Murdaugh, Donna L; Deshpande, Hrishikesh D; Kana, Rajesh K

2016-01-01

Deficits in language comprehension have been widely reported in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), with behavioral and neuroimaging studies finding increased reliance on visuospatial processing to aid in language comprehension. However, no study to date, has taken advantage of this strength in visuospatial processing to improve language comprehension difficulties in ASD. This study used a translational neuroimaging approach to test the role of a visual imagery-based reading intervention in improving the brain circuitry underlying language processing in children with ASD. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in a longitudinal study design, was used to investigate intervention-related change in sentence comprehension, brain activation, and functional connectivity in three groups of participants (age 8-13 years): an experimental group of ASD children (ASD-EXP), a wait-list control group of ASD children (ASD-WLC), and a group of typically developing control children. After intervention, the ASD-EXP group showed significant increase in activity in visual and language areas and right-hemisphere language area homologues, putamen, and thalamus, suggestive of compensatory routes to increase proficiency in reading comprehension. Additionally, ASD children who had the most improvement in reading comprehension after intervention showed greater functional connectivity between left-hemisphere language areas, the middle temporal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus while reading high imagery sentences. Thus, the findings of this study, which support the principles of dual coding theory [Paivio 2007], suggest the potential of a strength-based reading intervention in changing brain responses and facilitating better reading comprehension in ASD children. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Conduction aphasia as a function of the dominant posterior perisylvian cortex. Report of two cases.

PubMed

Quigg, Mark; Geldmacher, David S; Elias, W Jeff

2006-05-01

Assessment of eloquent functions during brain mapping usually relies on testing reading, speech, and comprehension to uncover transient deficits during electrical stimulation. These tests stem from findings predicted by the Geschwind-Wernicke hypothesis of receptive and expressive cortices connected by white matter tracts. Later work, however, has emphasized cortical mechanisms of language function. The authors report two cases that demonstrate that conduction aphasia is cortically mediated and can be inadequately assessed if not specifically evaluated during brain mapping. To determine the distribution of language on the dominant cortex, electrical cortical stimulation was performed in two cases by using implanted subdural electrodes during brain mapping before epilepsy surgery. A transient isolated deficit in repetition of language was reported during stimulation of the posterior portion of the dominant superior temporal gyrus in one patient and during stimulation of the supramarginal gyrus in the other patient. These cases demonstrate a localization of language repetition to the posterior perisylvian cortex. Brain mapping of this region should include assessment of verbal repetition to avoid potential deficits resembling conduction aphasia.

Learning trajectories for speech motor performance in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Richtsmeier, Peter T; Goffman, Lisa

2015-01-01

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) often perform below expected levels, including on tests of motor skill and in learning tasks, particularly procedural learning. In this experiment we examined the possibility that children with SLI might also have a motor learning deficit. Twelve children with SLI and thirteen children with typical development (TD) produced complex nonwords in an imitation task. Productions were collected across three blocks, with the first and second blocks on the same day and the third block one week later. Children's lip movements while producing the nonwords were recorded using an Optotrak camera system. Movements were then analyzed for production duration and stability. Movement analyses indicated that both groups of children produced shorter productions in later blocks (corroborated by an acoustic analysis), and the rate of change was comparable for the TD and SLI groups. A nonsignificant trend for more stable productions was also observed in both groups. SLI is regularly accompanied by a motor deficit, and this study does not dispute that. However, children with SLI learned to make more efficient productions at a rate similar to their peers with TD, revealing some modification of the motor deficit associated with SLI. The reader will learn about deficits commonly associated with specific language impairment (SLI) that often occur alongside the hallmark language deficit. The authors present an experiment showing that children with SLI improved speech motor performance at a similar rate compared to typically developing children. The implication is that speech motor learning is not impaired in children with SLI. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The relationship between mathematics and language: academic implications for children with specific language impairment and English language learners.

PubMed

Alt, Mary; Arizmendi, Genesis D; Beal, Carole R

2014-07-01

The present study examined the relationship between mathematics and language to better understand the nature of the deficit and the academic implications associated with specific language impairment (SLI) and academic implications for English language learners (ELLs). School-age children (N = 61; 20 SLI, 20 ELL, 21 native monolingual English [NE]) were assessed using a norm-referenced mathematics instrument and 3 experimental computer-based mathematics games that varied in language demands. Group means were compared with analyses of variance. The ELL group was less accurate than the NE group only when tasks were language heavy. In contrast, the group with SLI was less accurate than the groups with NE and ELLs on language-heavy tasks and some language-light tasks. Specifically, the group with SLI was less accurate on tasks that involved comparing numerical symbols and using visual working memory for patterns. However, there were no group differences between children with SLI and peers without SLI on language-light mathematics tasks that involved visual working memory for numerical symbols. Mathematical difficulties of children who are ELLs appear to be related to the language demands of mathematics tasks. In contrast, children with SLI appear to have difficulty with mathematics tasks because of linguistic as well as nonlinguistic processing constraints.

Neural networks underlying language and social cognition during self-other processing in Autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Kana, Rajesh K; Sartin, Emma B; Stevens, Carl; Deshpande, Hrishikesh D; Klein, Christopher; Klinger, Mark R; Klinger, Laura Grofer

2017-07-28

The social communication impairments defining autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may be built upon core deficits in perspective-taking, language processing, and self-other representation. Self-referential processing entails the ability to incorporate self-awareness, self-judgment, and self-memory in information processing. Very few studies have examined the neural bases of integrating self-other representation and semantic processing in individuals with ASD. The main objective of this functional MRI study is to examine the role of language and social brain networks in self-other processing in young adults with ASD. Nineteen high-functioning male adults with ASD and 19 age-sex-and-IQ-matched typically developing (TD) control participants made "yes" or "no" judgments of whether an adjective, presented visually, described them (self) or their favorite teacher (other). Both ASD and TD participants showed significantly increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) during self and other processing relative to letter search. Analyses of group differences revealed significantly reduced activity in left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), and left inferior parietal lobule (LIPL) in ASD participants, relative to TD controls. ASD participants also showed significantly weaker functional connectivity of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) with several brain areas while processing self-related words. The LIFG and IPL are important regions functionally at the intersection of language and social roles; reduced recruitment of these regions in ASD participants may suggest poor level of semantic and social processing. In addition, poor connectivity of the ACC may suggest the difficulty in meeting the linguistic and social demands of this task in ASD. Overall, this study provides new evidence of the altered recruitment of the neural networks underlying language and social cognition in ASD. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Barking up the wrong tree? Lexical ambiguity resolution in children with language impairments and autistic spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2005-02-01

Lexical ambiguity resolution was investigated in 9- to 17-year-olds with language impairment (LI, n=20), autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) plus language impairment (ALI, n=28), ASD and verbal abilities within the normal range (ASO, n=20), and typically developing children (TD, n=28). Experiment 1 investigated knowledge of dominant and subordinate meanings of ambiguous words. The LI and ALI groups knew fewer subordinate meanings than did the ASO and TD groups. Experiment 2 used a modified version of the paradigm to investigate contextual facilitation and suppression of irrelevant meanings. All groups demonstrated contextual facilitation, responding quickly and more accurately to words following a biased context. However, children with ALI and LI did not use context as efficiently as did their peers without language deficit. Furthermore, for the LI and ALI groups, errors in the suppression condition reflected poor contextual processing. These findings challenge the assumptions of weak central coherence theory and demonstrate the need for stringent language controls in the study of autistic cognition.

The Influence of Classroom Drama on Teachers' Language and Students' On-Task Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Alida; Berry, Katherine

2015-01-01

Teacher language and students' on-task behavior were examined in language arts lessons with and without classroom drama in two self-contained third grade classrooms for students with learning disabilities and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Language arts lessons that integrated classroom drama were associated with significantly higher…

Migrants and the Language of Instruction: Is the EU Policy Deficit Driving New Innovations in Social Inclusion?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cullen, Joe

2017-01-01

Language learning has long been seen as an important tool for achieving European Union (EU) targets for social inclusion. However, "mainstream" policy instruments like the "Action Plan on Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity" and the "European Charter for Minority Languages" have been undermined in…

Memory Functioning and Mental Verbs Acquisition in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spanoudis, George C.; Natsopoulos, Demetrios

2011-01-01

Memory and language operate in synergy. Recent literature stresses the importance of memory functioning in interpreting language deficits. Two groups of 50 children each, ages 8-12 were studied. The first group included children with specific language impairment, while the participants in the second group were typically developing children. The…

Sleep Disorders as a Risk to Language Learning and Use. EBP Briefs. Volume 10, Issue 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGregor, Karla K.; Alper, Rebecca M.

2015-01-01

Clinical Question: Are people with sleep disorders at higher risk for language learning deficits than healthy sleepers? Method: Scoping Review. Study Sources: PubMed, Google Scholar, Trip Database, ClinicalTrials.gov. Search Terms: sleep disorders AND language AND learning; sleep disorders language learning--deprivation--epilepsy; sleep disorders…

The Language Functioning of Youth at Entry to Residential Treatment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trout, Alexandra L.; Huscroft-D'Angelo, Jacqueline; DeSalvo, Catherine; Gehringer, Robert

2011-01-01

Although much is known about the behavioral and educational characteristics of youth at entry to residential care, little is known about youth language performance. Given the impact of language deficits on outcomes, this study assessed the specific language skills of 70 adolescents at entry to a residential treatment setting. Results revealed…

Interference with facial emotion recognition by verbal but not visual loads.

PubMed

Reed, Phil; Steed, Ian

2015-12-01

The ability to recognize emotions through facial characteristics is critical for social functioning, but is often impaired in those with a developmental or intellectual disability. The current experiments explored the degree to which interfering with the processing capacities of typically-developing individuals would produce a similar inability to recognize emotions through the facial elements of faces displaying particular emotions. It was found that increasing the cognitive load (in an attempt to model learning impairments in a typically developing population) produced deficits in correctly identifying emotions from facial elements. However, this effect was much more pronounced when using a concurrent verbal task than when employing a concurrent visual task, suggesting that there is a substantial verbal element to the labeling and subsequent recognition of emotions. This concurs with previous work conducted with those with developmental disabilities that suggests emotion recognition deficits are connected with language deficits. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dyslexia in adults: Evidence for deficits in non-word reading and in the phonological representation of lexical items.

PubMed

Elbro, C; Nielsen, I; Petersen, D K

1994-01-01

Difficulties in reading and language skills which persist from childhood into adult life are the concerns of this article. The aims were twofold: (1) to find measures of adult reading processes that validate adults' retrospective reports of difficulties in learning to read during the school years, and (2) to search for indications of basic deficits in phonological processing that may point toward underlying causes of reading difficulties. Adults who reported a history of difficulties in learning to read (n=102) were distinctly disabled in phonological coding in reading, compared to adults without similar histories (n=56). They were less disabled in the comprehension of written passages, and the comprehension disability was explained by the phonological difficulties. A number of indications were found that adults with poor phonological coding skills in reading (i.e., dyslexia) have basic deficits in phonological representations of spoken words, even when semantic word knowledge, phonemic awareness, educational level, and daily reading habits are taken into account. It is suggested that dyslexics possess less distinct phonological representations of spoken words.

Spelling Well Despite Developmental Language Disorder: What Makes it Possible?

PubMed Central

Rakhlin, Natalia; Cardoso-Martins, Cláudia; Kornilov, Sergey A.; Grigorenko, Elena L.

2013-01-01

The goal of the study was to investigate the overlap between Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Developmental Dyslexia, identified through spelling difficulties (SD), in Russian-speaking children. In particular, we studied the role of phoneme awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), pseudoword repetition (PWR), morphological (MA) and orthographic awareness (OA) in differentiating between children with DLD who have SD from children with DLD who are average spellers by comparing the two groups to each other, to typically developing children as well as children with SD but without spoken language deficits. One hundred forty nine children, aged 10.40 to 14.00, participated in the study. The results indicated that the SD, DLD, and DLD/SD groups did not differ from each other on PA and RAN Letters and underperformed in comparison to the control groups. However, whereas the children with written language deficits (SD and DLD/SD groups) underperformed on RAN Objects and Digits, PWR, OA and MA, the children with DLD and no SD performed similarly to the children from the control groups on these measures. In contrast, the two groups with spoken language deficits (DLD and DLD/SD) underperformed on RAN Colors in comparison to the control groups and the group of children with SD only. The results support the notion that those children with DLD who have unimpaired PWR and RAN skills are able to overcome their weaknesses in spoken language and PA and acquire basic literacy on a par with their age peers with typical language. We also argue that our findings support a multifactorial model of developmental language disorders (DLD). PMID:23860907

Reply to David Kemmerer's "a critique of Mark D. Allen's 'the preservation of verb subcategory knowledge in a spoken language comprehension deficit'".

PubMed

Allen, Mark D; Owens, Tyler E

2008-07-01

Allen [Allen, M. D. (2005). The preservation of verb subcategory knowledge in a spoken language comprehension deficit. Brain and Language, 95, 255-264] presents evidence from a single patient, WBN, to motivate a theory of lexical processing and representation in which syntactic information may be encoded and retrieved independently of semantic information. In his critique, Kemmerer argues that because Allen depended entirely on preposition-based verb subcategory violations to test WBN's knowledge of correct argument structure, his results, at best, address a "strawman" theory. This argument rests on the assumption that preposition subcategory options are superficial syntactic phenomena which are not represented by argument structure proper. We demonstrate that preposition subcategory is in fact treated as semantically determined argument structure in the theories that Allen evaluated, and thus far from irrelevant. In further discussion of grammatically relevant versus irrelevant semantic features, Kemmerer offers a review of his own studies. However, due to an important design shortcoming in these experiments, we remain unconvinced. Reemphasizing the fact the Allen (2005) never claimed to rule out all semantic contributions to syntax, we propose an improvement in Kemmerer's approach that might provide more satisfactory evidence on the distinction between the kinds of relevant versus irrelevant features his studies have addressed.

Relationship of Otitis Media and Language Impairment in Adolescents with Down's Syndrome.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whiteman, Barbara C.; And Others

1986-01-01

Results of the study of receptive and expressive language abilities of 30 Down's Syndrome adolescents suggested that early recurrent otitis media may play an important role in the language deficits commonly found among Down Syndrome persons. (Author/DB)

Short-term Memory in Childhood Dyslexia: Deficient Serial Order in Multiple Modalities.

PubMed

Cowan, Nelson; Hogan, Tiffany P; Alt, Mary; Green, Samuel; Cabbage, Kathryn L; Brinkley, Shara; Gray, Shelley

2017-08-01

In children with dyslexia, deficits in working memory have not been well-specified. We assessed second-grade children with dyslexia, with and without concomitant specific language impairment, and children with typical development. Immediate serial recall of lists of phonological (non-word), lexical (digit), spatial (location) and visual (shape) items were included. For the latter three modalities, we used not only standard span but also running span tasks, in which the list length was unpredictable to limit mnemonic strategies. Non-word repetition tests indicated a phonological memory deficit in children with dyslexia alone compared with those with typical development, but this difference vanished when these groups were matched for non-verbal intelligence and language. Theoretically important deficits in serial order memory in dyslexic children, however, persisted relative to matched typically developing children. The deficits were in recall of (1) spoken digits in both standard and running span tasks and (2) spatial locations, in running span only. Children with dyslexia with versus without language impairment, when matched on non-verbal intelligence, had comparable serial order memory, but differed in phonology. Because serial orderings of verbal and spatial elements occur in reading, the careful examination of order memory may allow a deeper understanding of dyslexia and its relation to language impairment. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Oral motor deficits in speech-impaired children with autism

PubMed Central

Belmonte, Matthew K.; Saxena-Chandhok, Tanushree; Cherian, Ruth; Muneer, Reema; George, Lisa; Karanth, Prathibha

2013-01-01

Absence of communicative speech in autism has been presumed to reflect a fundamental deficit in the use of language, but at least in a subpopulation may instead stem from motor and oral motor issues. Clinical reports of disparity between receptive vs. expressive speech/language abilities reinforce this hypothesis. Our early-intervention clinic develops skills prerequisite to learning and communication, including sitting, attending, and pointing or reference, in children below 6 years of age. In a cohort of 31 children, gross and fine motor skills and activities of daily living as well as receptive and expressive speech were assessed at intake and after 6 and 10 months of intervention. Oral motor skills were evaluated separately within the first 5 months of the child's enrolment in the intervention programme and again at 10 months of intervention. Assessment used a clinician-rated structured report, normed against samples of 360 (for motor and speech skills) and 90 (for oral motor skills) typically developing children matched for age, cultural environment and socio-economic status. In the full sample, oral and other motor skills correlated with receptive and expressive language both in terms of pre-intervention measures and in terms of learning rates during the intervention. A motor-impaired group comprising a third of the sample was discriminated by an uneven profile of skills with oral motor and expressive language deficits out of proportion to the receptive language deficit. This group learnt language more slowly, and ended intervention lagging in oral motor skills. In individuals incapable of the degree of motor sequencing and timing necessary for speech movements, receptive language may outstrip expressive speech. Our data suggest that autistic motor difficulties could range from more basic skills such as pointing to more refined skills such as articulation, and need to be assessed and addressed across this entire range in each individual. PMID:23847480

Sensitivity to Audiovisual Temporal Asynchrony in Children With a History of Specific Language Impairment and Their Peers With Typical Development: A Replication and Follow-Up Study

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Purpose Earlier, my colleagues and I showed that children with a history of specific language impairment (H-SLI) are significantly less able to detect audiovisual asynchrony compared with children with typical development (TD; Kaganovich & Schumaker, 2014). Here, I first replicate this finding in a new group of children with H-SLI and TD and then examine a relationship among audiovisual function, attention skills, and language in a combined pool of children. Method The stimuli were a pure tone and an explosion-shaped figure. Stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) varied from 0–500 ms. Children pressed 1 button for perceived synchrony and another for asynchrony. I measured the number of synchronous perceptions at each SOA and calculated children's temporal binding windows. I, then, conducted multiple regressions to determine if audiovisual processing and attention can predict language skills. Results As in the earlier study, children with H-SLI perceived asynchrony significantly less frequently than children with TD at SOAs of 400–500 ms. Their temporal binding windows were also larger. Temporal precision and attention predicted 23%–37% of children's language ability. Conclusions Audiovisual temporal processing is impaired in children with H-SLI. The degree of this impairment is a predictor of language skills. Once understood, the mechanisms underlying this deficit may become a new focus for language remediation. PMID:28715546

Pragmatics and adult language disorders: past achievements and future directions.

PubMed

Cummings, Louise

2007-05-01

In this article, the current state of our knowledge of pragmatic disorders in adults with language impairment is assessed. A brief historical background of clinical pragmatics is presented, and the place of adult language pathology within the development of this field is discussed. A comprehensive review is undertaken of pragmatic deficits in adults with language impairments of diverse etiologies. Specifically, pragmatic deficits are examined in adults with left-hemisphere damage, often resulting in aphasia, and in adults with right-hemisphere damage, traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative disorders (principally, Alzheimer's disease). Although many pragmatic phenomena have been examined in these clinical populations, studies have also tended to neglect important areas of pragmatic functioning in adults with these disorders. Several such areas are identified within a wider discussion of how researchers and clinicians can best pursue future investigations of pragmatics in adults with language impairment.

Extracommunicative functions of language: verbal interference causes selective categorization impairments.

PubMed

Lupyan, Gary

2009-08-01

In addition to its communicative functions, language has been argued to have a variety of extracommunicative functions, as assessed by its causal involvement in putatively nonlinguistic tasks. In the present work, I argue that language may be critically involved in the ability of human adults to categorize objects on a specific dimension (e.g., color) while abstracting over other dimensions (e.g., size). This ability is frequently impaired in aphasic patients. The present work demonstrates that normal participants placed under conditions of verbal interference show a pattern of deficits strikingly similar to that of aphasic patients: impaired taxonomic categorization along perceptual dimensions, and preserved thematic categorization. A control experiment using a visuospatial-interference task failed to find this selective pattern of deficits. The present work has implications for understanding the online role of language in normal cognition and supports the claim that language is causally involved in nonverbal cognition.

Automatic processing of tones and speech stimuli in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Uwer, Ruth; Albrecht, Ronald; von Suchodoletz, W

2002-08-01

It is well known from behavioural experiments that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulties discriminating consonant-vowel (CV) syllables such as /ba/, /da/, and /ga/. Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an auditory event-related potential component that represents the outcome of an automatic comparison process. It could, therefore, be a promising tool for assessing central auditory processing deficits for speech and non-speech stimuli in children with SLI. MMN is typically evoked by occasionally occurring 'deviant' stimuli in a sequence of identical 'standard' sounds. In this study MMN was elicited using simple tone stimuli, which differed in frequency (1000 versus 1200 Hz) and duration (175 versus 100 ms) and to digitized CV syllables which differed in place of articulation (/ba/, /da/, and /ga/) in children with expressive and receptive SLI and healthy control children (n=21 in each group, 46 males and 17 females; age range 5 to 10 years). Mean MMN amplitudes between groups were compared. Additionally, the behavioural discrimination performance was assessed. Children with SLI had attenuated MMN amplitudes to speech stimuli, but there was no significant difference between the two diagnostic subgroups. MMN to tone stimuli did not differ between the groups. Children with SLI made more errors in the discrimination task, but discrimination scores did not correlate with MMN amplitudes. The present data suggest that children with SLI show a specific deficit in automatic discrimination of CV syllables differing in place of articulation, whereas the processing of simple tone differences seems to be unimpaired.

Magical thinking in narratives of adolescent cutters.

PubMed

Gregory, Robert J; Mustata, Georgian T

2012-08-01

Adolescents sometimes cut themselves to relieve distress; however, the mechanism is unknown. Previous studies have linked self-injury to deficits in processing emotions symbolically through language. To investigate expressive language of adolescent cutters, the authors analyzed 100 narratives posted on the Internet. Most narratives (n = 66) displayed idiosyncratic use of language indicating poor differentiation between the real and the symbolic, such as blood substituting for negative emotions, which can then be released from the self; or emotional pain magically transforming into physical pain, which can then be managed. This kind of magical thinking correlated with cutting to relieve distress, to see blood, and to feel pain, but negatively correlated with complex representation of people, understanding social causality, and self-esteem. The results suggest that magical thinking represents a pre-symbolic mental state that processes and organizes distressing emotions through body schema. Magical thinking thus provides a plausible mechanism for why cutting works. Copyright © 2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Specific Language Impairment, Nonverbal IQ, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cochlear Implants, Bilingualism, and Dialectal Variants: Defining the Boundaries, Clarifying Clinical Conditions, and Sorting Out Causes

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this research forum article is to provide an overview of a collection of invited articles on the topic “specific language impairment (SLI) in children with concomitant health conditions or nonmainstream language backgrounds.” Topics include SLI, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, cochlear implants, bilingualism, and dialectal language learning contexts. Method The topic is timely due to current debates about the diagnosis of SLI. An overarching comparative conceptual framework is provided for comparisons of SLI with other clinical conditions. Comparisons of SLI in children with low-normal or normal nonverbal IQ illustrate the unexpected outcomes of 2 × 2 comparison designs. Results Comparative studies reveal unexpected relationships among speech, language, cognitive, and social dimensions of children's development as well as precise ways to identify children with SLI who are bilingual or dialect speakers. Conclusions The diagnosis of SLI is essential for elucidating possible causal pathways of language impairments, risks for language impairments, assessments for identification of language impairments, linguistic dimensions of language impairments, and long-term outcomes. Although children's language acquisition is robust under high levels of risk, unexplained individual variations in language acquisition lead to persistent language impairments. PMID:26502218

Semantic deficits in Spanish-English bilingual children with language impairment.

PubMed

Sheng, Li; Peña, Elizabeth D; Bedore, Lisa M; Fiestas, Christine E

2012-02-01

To examine the nature and extent of semantic deficits in bilingual children with language impairment (LI). Thirty-seven Spanish-English bilingual children with LI (ranging from age 7;0 [years;months] to 9;10) and 37 typically developing (TD) age-matched peers generated 3 associations to 12 pairs of translation equivalents in English and Spanish. Responses were coded as paradigmatic (e.g., dinner-lunch, cena-desayuno [dinner-breakfast]), syntagmatic (e.g., delicious-pizza, delicioso-frijoles [delicious-beans]), and errors (e.g., wearing-where, vestirse-mal [to get dressed-bad]). A semantic depth score was derived in each language and conceptually by combining children's performance in both languages. The LI group achieved significantly lower semantic depth scores than the TD group after controlling for group differences in vocabulary size. Children showed higher conceptual scores than single-language scores. Both groups showed decreases in semantic depth scores across multiple elicitations. Analyses of individual performances indicated that semantic deficits (1 SD below the TD mean semantic depth score) were manifested in 65% of the children with LI and in 14% of the TD children. School-age bilingual children with and without LI demonstrated spreading activation of semantic networks. Consistent with the literature on monolingual children with LI, sparsely linked semantic networks characterize a considerable proportion of bilingual children with LI.

Slow perceptual processing at the core of developmental dyslexia: a parameter-based assessment of visual attention.

PubMed

Stenneken, Prisca; Egetemeir, Johanna; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Müller, Hermann J; Schneider, Werner X; Finke, Kathrin

2011-10-01

The cognitive causes as well as the neurological and genetic basis of developmental dyslexia, a complex disorder of written language acquisition, are intensely discussed with regard to multiple-deficit models. Accumulating evidence has revealed dyslexics' impairments in a variety of tasks requiring visual attention. The heterogeneity of these experimental results, however, points to the need for measures that are sufficiently sensitive to differentiate between impaired and preserved attentional components within a unified framework. This first parameter-based group study of attentional components in developmental dyslexia addresses potentially altered attentional components that have recently been associated with parietal dysfunctions in dyslexia. We aimed to isolate the general attentional resources that might underlie reduced span performance, i.e., either a deficient working memory storage capacity, or a slowing in visual perceptual processing speed, or both. Furthermore, by analysing attentional selectivity in dyslexia, we addressed a potential lateralized abnormality of visual attention, i.e., a previously suggested rightward spatial deviation compared to normal readers. We investigated a group of high-achieving young adults with persisting dyslexia and matched normal readers in an experimental whole report and a partial report of briefly presented letter arrays. Possible deviations in the parametric values of the dyslexic compared to the control group were taken as markers for the underlying deficit. The dyslexic group showed a striking reduction in perceptual processing speed (by 26% compared to controls) while their working memory storage capacity was in the normal range. In addition, a spatial deviation of attentional weighting compared to the control group was confirmed in dyslexic readers, which was larger in participants with a more severe dyslexic disorder. In general, the present study supports the relevance of perceptual processing speed in disorders of written language acquisition and demonstrates that the parametric assessment provides a suitable tool for specifying the underlying deficit within a unitary framework. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pragmatic Language Outcomes of Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder After Therapist- and Parent-Delivered Play-Based Interventions: Two One-Group Pretest-Posttest Studies With a Longitudinal Component.

PubMed

Wilkes-Gillan, Sarah; Munro, Natalie; Cordier, Reinie; Cantrill, Alycia; Pearce, Wendy

The pragmatic language outcomes of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were explored across two feasibility studies. Five children with ADHD (ages 6-11 yr), their parents, and 5 typically developing peers completed an assessment 18 mo after a therapist-delivered intervention (Study 1). Participants then completed a parent-delivered intervention (Study 2). Blinded ratings of peer-to-peer play interactions documented changes in children's pragmatic language 18 mo after the Study 1 intervention and before, immediately after, and 1 mo after the Study 2 intervention. Nonparametric statistics and Cohen's d were used to measure change. Children's pragmatic language outcomes were maintained 18 mo after the therapist-delivered intervention and significantly improved from before to 1 mo after the parent-delivered intervention. Interventions involving occupational therapist and speech-language pathologist collaboration, play, and parent and peer involvement may facilitate children's pragmatic language skills. Copyright © 2017 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Implicit learning seems to come naturally for children with autism, but not for children with specific language impairment: Evidence from behavioral and ERP data.

PubMed

Zwart, Fenny S; Vissers, Constance Th W M; Kessels, Roy P C; Maes, Joseph H R

2018-04-20

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are two neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication skills. These skills are thought to develop largely through implicit-or automatic-learning mechanisms. The aim of the current paper was to investigate the role of implicit learning abilities in the atypical development of communication skills in ASD and SLI. In the current study, we investigated Response Times (RTs) and Event Related Potentials (ERPs) during implicit learning on a Serial Reaction Time (SRT) task in a group of typically developing (TD) children (n = 17), a group of autistic children (n = 16), and a group of children with SLI (n = 13). Findings suggest that learning in both ASD and SLI are similar to that in TD. However, electrophysiological findings suggest that autistic children seem to rely mainly on more automatic processes (as reflected by an N2b component), whereas the children with SLI seem to rely on more controlled processes (as reflected by a P3 component). The TD children appear to use a combination of both learning mechanisms. These findings suggest that clinical interventions should aim at compensating for an implicit learning deficit in children with SLI, but not in children with ASD. Future research should focus on developmental differences in implicit learning and related neural correlates in TD, ASD, and SLI. Autism Res 2018. © 2018 The Authors Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism and Specific Language Impairment (SLI) are two disorders characterized by problems in social communication and language. Social communication and language are believed to be learned in an automatic way. This is called "implicit learning." We have found that implicit learning is intact in autism. However, in SLI there seems different brain activity during implicit learning. Maybe children with SLI learn differently, and maybe this different learning makes it more difficult for them to learn language. © 2018 The Authors Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Shared decision making in the recovery of people with schizophrenia: the role of metacognitive capacities in insight and pragmatic language use.

PubMed

Chan, Kevin K S; Mak, Winnie W S

2012-08-01

In the development of consumer-centered care for mental health consumers with schizophrenia, one key ingredient is consumer participation in health care decisions together with their healthcare providers, termed "shared decision making" (SDM). SDM requires consumers to form a number of complex ideas about themselves and their providers then use that knowledge to make sense of the illness and reach medical and psychosocial decisions. However, metacognitive deficits widely observed in schizophrenia might lead to poor insight and pragmatic language deficits in some consumers, disrupting the whole process by which a personal and consensually valid narrative account of psychiatric challenges is synthesized and flexibly evolved. Given the current understanding that it is possible to improve metacognition, in this article we summarize how Metacognitive Training (MCT) and individual psychotherapy could potentially be tailored, or modified, to help consumers to develop metacognitive capacities with an end goal of facilitating the SDM process. Consistent with the principles of consumer-defined recovery, we also suggest a strategy for engaging consumers in SDM dialogue based on "where the consumers are at". Providers are advised to be cognizant of their medically driven perspective and attempt to work with the consumers in the perspective of the consumers' own recovery goals. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language processing abnormalities in adolescents with psychotic-like experiences: an event related potential study.

PubMed

Murphy, Jennifer; Blanchard, Mathieu M; Rawdon, Caroline; Kavanagh, Fergal; Kelleher, Ian; Clarke, Mary C; Roche, Richard A P; Cannon, Mary

2012-05-01

Language impairments are a well established finding in patients with schizophrenia and in individuals at-risk for psychosis. A growing body of research has revealed shared risk factors between individuals with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) from the general population and patients with schizophrenia. In particular, adolescents with PLEs have been shown to be at an increased risk for later psychosis. However, to date there has been little information published on electrophysiological correlates of language comprehension in this at-risk group. A 64 channel EEG recorded electrical activity while 37 (16 At-Risk; 21 Controls) participants completed the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS-II) receptive vocabulary task. The P300 component was examined as a function of language comprehension. The at-risk group were impaired behaviourally on receptive language and were characterised by a reduction in P300 amplitude relative to the control group. The results of this study reveal electrophysiological evidence for receptive language deficits in adolescents with PLEs, suggesting that the earliest neurobiological changes underlying psychosis may be apparent in the adolescent period. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Memory functioning and mental verbs acquisition in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Spanoudis, George C; Natsopoulos, Demetrios

2011-01-01

Memory and language operate in synergy. Recent literature stresses the importance of memory functioning in interpreting language deficits. Two groups of 50 children each, ages 8-12 were studied. The first group included children with specific language impairment, while the participants in the second group were typically developing children. The two groups, which were matched on age, nonverbal intelligence and varied significantly in verbal ability were examined, using a test battery of four memory functioning (phonological, working and long-term memory) and five mental verb measures. The statistical analyses indicated that the two groups differed significantly in all language and memory measures; a logistic regression analysis revealed that within each main group existed nested subgroups of different developmental patterns with working and long-term memory measures as the most robust discriminate markers of classification. Language impaired children had more difficulties in the acquisition of mental verbs because they are less able to process and store phonological information in working memory and long-term lexicon. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social Cognition Deficits: Current Position and Future Directions for Neuropsychological Interventions in Cerebrovascular Disease.

PubMed

Njomboro, Progress

2017-01-01

Neuropsychological assessments of cognitive dysfunction in cerebrovascular illness commonly target basic cognitive functions involving aspects of memory, attention, language, praxis, and number processing. Here, I highlight the clinical importance of often-neglected social cognition functions. These functions recruit a widely distributed neural network, making them vulnerable in most cerebrovascular diseases. Sociocognitive deficits underlie most of the problematic social conduct observed in patients and are associated with more negative clinical outcomes (compared to nonsocial cognitive deficits). In clinical settings, social cognition deficits are normally gleaned from collateral information from caregivers or from indirect inferences made from patients' performance on standard nonsocial cognitive tests. Information from these sources is however inadequate. I discuss key social cognition functions, focusing initially on deficits in emotion perception and theory of mind, two areas that have gained sizeable attention in neuroscientific research, and then extend the discussion into relatively new, less covered but crucial functions involving empathic behaviour, social awareness, social judgements, and social decision making. These functions are frequently impaired following neurological change. At present, a wide range of psychometrically robust social cognition tests is available, and this review also makes the case for their inclusion in neuropsychological assessments.

Social Cognition Deficits: Current Position and Future Directions for Neuropsychological Interventions in Cerebrovascular Disease

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Neuropsychological assessments of cognitive dysfunction in cerebrovascular illness commonly target basic cognitive functions involving aspects of memory, attention, language, praxis, and number processing. Here, I highlight the clinical importance of often-neglected social cognition functions. These functions recruit a widely distributed neural network, making them vulnerable in most cerebrovascular diseases. Sociocognitive deficits underlie most of the problematic social conduct observed in patients and are associated with more negative clinical outcomes (compared to nonsocial cognitive deficits). In clinical settings, social cognition deficits are normally gleaned from collateral information from caregivers or from indirect inferences made from patients' performance on standard nonsocial cognitive tests. Information from these sources is however inadequate. I discuss key social cognition functions, focusing initially on deficits in emotion perception and theory of mind, two areas that have gained sizeable attention in neuroscientific research, and then extend the discussion into relatively new, less covered but crucial functions involving empathic behaviour, social awareness, social judgements, and social decision making. These functions are frequently impaired following neurological change. At present, a wide range of psychometrically robust social cognition tests is available, and this review also makes the case for their inclusion in neuropsychological assessments. PMID:28729755

Language deficits in Pre-Symptomatic Huntington's Disease: Evidence from Hungarian

PubMed Central

Németh, Dezso; Dye, Cristina D.; Sefcsik, Tamás; Janacsek, Karolina; Turi, Zsolt; Londe, Zsuzsa; Klivenyi, Péter; Kincses, Tamás Zs.; Nikoletta, Szabó; Vecsei, László; Ullman, Michael T.

2012-01-01

A limited number of studies have investigated language in Huntington's disease (HD). These have generally reported abnormalities in rule-governed (grammatical) aspects of language, in both syntax and morphology. Several studies of verbal inflectional morphology in English and French have reported evidence of over-active rule processing, such as over-suffixation errors (e.g., walkeded) and over-regularizations (e.g., digged). Here we extend the investigation to noun inflection in Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric agglutinative language with complex morphology, and to genetically proven pre-symptomatic Huntington's disease (pre-HD). Although individuals with pre-HD have no clinical, motor or cognitive symptoms, the underlying pathology may already have begun, and thus sensitive behavioral measures might reveal already-present impairments. Indeed, in a Hungarian morphology production task, pre-HD patients made both over-suffixation and over-regularization errors. The findings suggest the generality of over-active rule processing in both HD and pre-HD, across languages from different families with different morphological systems, and for both verbal and noun inflection. Because the neuropathology in pre-HD appears to be largely restricted to the caudate nucleus and related structures, the findings further implicate these structures in language, and in rule-processing in particular. Finally, the need for effective treatments in HD, which will likely depend in part on the ability to sensitively measure early changes in the disease, suggests the possibility that inflectional morphology, and perhaps other language measures, may provide useful diagnostic, tracking, and therapeutic tools for assessing and treating early degeneration in pre-HD and HD. PMID:22538085

Language Learning in Down Syndrome: The Speech and Language Profile Compared to Adolescents with Cognitive Impairment of Unknown Origin

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Robin S.

2006-01-01

Children and adolescents with Down syndrome show an emerging profile of speech and language characteristics that is typical of the syndrome (Chapman & Hesketh, 2000; Chapman, 2003; Abbeduto & Chapman, 2005) and different from typically developing children matched for nonverbal mental age, including expressive language deficits relative to…

Language Laterality in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Controls: A Functional, Volumetric, and Diffusion Tensor MRI Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knaus, Tracey A.; Silver, Andrew M.; Kennedy, Meaghan; Lindgren, Kristen A.; Dominick, Kelli C.; Siegel, Jeremy; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2010-01-01

Language and communication deficits are among the core features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Reduced or reversed asymmetry of language has been found in a number of disorders, including ASD. Studies of healthy adults have found an association between language laterality and anatomical measures but this has not been systematically…

Development of a Tablet Application for the Screening of Receptive Vocabulary Skills in Multilingual Children: A Pilot Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaefer, Blanca; Bowyer-Crane, Claudine; Herrmann, Frank; Fricke, Silke

2016-01-01

For professionals working with multilingual children, detecting language deficits in a child's home language can present a challenge. This is largely due to the scarcity of standardized assessments in many children's home languages and missing normative data on multilingual language acquisition. A common approach is to translate existing English…

Sleep Disturbance and Expressive Language Development in Preschool-Age Children with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edgin, Jamie O.; Tooley, Ursula; Demara, Bianca; Nyhuis, Casandra; Anand, Payal; Spanò, Goffredina

2015-01-01

Recent evidence has suggested that sleep may facilitate language learning. This study examined variation in language ability in 29 toddlers with Down syndrome (DS) in relation to levels of sleep disruption. Toddlers with DS and poor sleep (66%, n = 19) showed greater deficits on parent-reported and objective measures of language, including…

A Preliminary Comparison of Reading Subtypes in a Clinical Sample of Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Werfel, Krystal L.; Krimm, Hannah

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this preliminary study was to (a) compare the pattern of reading subtypes among a clinical sample of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical language and (b) evaluate phonological and nonphonological language deficits within each reading impairment subtype. Method: Participants were 32…

A PET Study of Word Generation in Huntington's Disease: Effects of Lexical Competition and Verb/Noun Category

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lepron, Evelyne; Peran, Patrice; Cardebat, Dominique; Demonet, Jean-Francois

2009-01-01

Huntington's disease (HD) patients show language production deficits that have been conceptualized as a consequence of executive disorders, e.g. selection deficit between candidate words or switching between word categories. More recently, a deficit of word generation specific to verbs has been reported, which might relate to impaired action…

Attention and Other Cognitive Deficits in Aphasia: Presence and Relation to Language and Communication Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Laura L.

2012-01-01

Purpose: This study was designed to further elucidate the relationship between cognition and aphasia, with a focus on attention. It was hypothesized that individuals with aphasia would display variable deficit patterns on tests of attention and other cognitive functions and that their attention deficits, particularly those of complex attention…

Explaining Semantic Short-Term Memory Deficits: Evidence for the Critical Role of Semantic Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, Paul; Jefferies, Elizabeth; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A.

2011-01-01

Patients with apparently selective short-term memory (STM) deficits for semantic information have played an important role in developing multi-store theories of STM and challenge the idea that verbal STM is supported by maintaining activation in the language system. We propose that semantic STM deficits are not as selective as previously thought…

Deficits in social cognition and response flexibility in pediatric bipolar disorder.

PubMed

McClure, Erin B; Treland, Julia E; Snow, Joseph; Schmajuk, Mariana; Dickstein, Daniel P; Towbin, Kenneth E; Charney, Dennis S; Pine, Daniel S; Leibenluft, Ellen

2005-09-01

Little is known about neuropsychological and social-cognitive function in patients with pediatric bipolar disorder. Identification of specific deficits and strengths that characterize pediatric bipolar disorder would facilitate advances in diagnosis, treatment, and research on pathophysiology. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that youths with bipolar disorder would perform more poorly than matched healthy comparison subjects on measures of social cognition, motor inhibition, and response flexibility. Forty outpatients with pediatric bipolar disorder and 22 comparison subjects (no differences in age, gender, and IQ) completed measures of social cognition (the pragmatic judgment subtest of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language, facial expression recognition subtests of the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Scale, the oral expression subtest of the Test of Language Competence), inhibition and response flexibility (stop and stop-change tasks), and motor inhibition (continuous performance tasks). Pediatric bipolar disorder patients performed more poorly than comparison subjects on social-cognitive measures (pragmatic judgment of language, facial expression recognition) and on a task requiring response flexibility. These deficits were present in euthymic patients. Differences between patients and comparison subjects could not be attributed to comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Findings of impaired social cognition and response flexibility in youths with pediatric bipolar disorder suggest continuity between pediatric bipolar disorder and adult bipolar disorder. These findings provide a foundation for neurocognitive research designed to identify the neural mechanisms underlying these deficits.

Cognition in older patients with multiple sclerosis compared to patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and healthy older adults.

PubMed

Roth, Alexandra K; Denney, Douglas R; Burns, Jeffrey M; Lynch, Sharon G

2018-06-25

Progress in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) has resulted in larger numbers of patients living to an advanced age, but little is known about the cognitive status of these individuals. The primary purpose of this study was to identify differences in the cognitive performance between elderly individuals with MS and those with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Three groups ranging in age from 60 to 80 were compared: patients with MS (n = 64), patients with aMCI (n = 58), and healthy adults (n = 70). All participants completed a standard neuropsychological test battery that evaluated domains of attention, processing speed, executive function, memory, language, and visual spatial function. Compared to age- and gender-matched healthy controls, elderly MS patients exhibited a pattern of cognitive impairment centering on information processing speed and memory that was consistent with the deficits observed in other studies of MS patients regardless of age. Compared to aMCI patients, the MS patients exhibited worse performance on measures of processing speed, but better performance on a measure of memory under cued conditions (Selective Reminding Test), a nonspeeded measure of language (Boston Naming Test), and measures of executive function with processing speed statistically controlled (Trail Making Test, Stroop Test). Differences on neuropsychological measures can serve to distinguish aMCI from MS-related cognitive impairment in older patients, but it is essential that these measures control for the deficit in processing speed that is such a primary feature of MS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Fisher Grading Scale Associated with Language Disorders in Patients with Anterior Circulation Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.

PubMed

de Souza, Moysés Loiola Ponte; Vieira, Ana Cláudia C; Andrade, Gustavo; Quinino, Saul; de Fátima Leal Griz, Maria; Azevedo-Filho, Hildo R C

2015-08-01

To associate the presence of language deficits with varying scores of the Fisher grading scale in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage in the period preceding the treatment of aneurysm in the anterior circulation, as well as to compare the scores of this scale, identifying the grades more associated with the decline of language. Database analysis of 185 preoperative evaluations of language, through the Montreal Toulouse Protocol Alpha version and verbal fluency through CERAD battery, of patients from "Hospital da Restauração" with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, divided according to the Fisher grading scale (Fisher I, II, III, or IV) and compared with a control group of individuals considered normal. The various scores of the Fisher grading scale have different levels of language deficits, more pronounced as the amount of blood increases. Fisher III and IV scores are most associated with the decline of language. Our study made it possible to obtain information not yet available in the literature, by correlating the various scores of the Fisher grading scale with language yet in the period preceding treatment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Making sense of listening: the IMAP test battery.

PubMed

Barry, Johanna G; Ferguson, Melanie A; Moore, David R

2010-10-11

The ability to hear is only the first step towards making sense of the range of information contained in an auditory signal. Of equal importance are the abilities to extract and use the information encoded in the auditory signal. We refer to these as listening skills (or auditory processing AP). Deficits in these skills are associated with delayed language and literacy development, though the nature of the relevant deficits and their causal connection with these delays is hotly debated. When a child is referred to a health professional with normal hearing and unexplained difficulties in listening, or associated delays in language or literacy development, they should ideally be assessed with a combination of psychoacoustic (AP) tests, suitable for children and for use in a clinic, together with cognitive tests to measure attention, working memory, IQ, and language skills. Such a detailed examination needs to be relatively short and within the technical capability of any suitably qualified professional. Current tests for the presence of AP deficits tend to be poorly constructed and inadequately validated within the normal population. They have little or no reference to the presenting symptoms of the child, and typically include a linguistic component. Poor performance may thus reflect problems with language rather than with AP. To assist in the assessment of children with listening difficulties, pediatric audiologists need a single, standardized child-appropriate test battery based on the use of language-free stimuli. We present the IMAP test battery which was developed at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research to supplement tests currently used to investigate cases of suspected AP deficits. IMAP assesses a range of relevant auditory and cognitive skills and takes about one hour to complete. It has been standardized in 1500 normally-hearing children from across the UK, aged 6-11 years. Since its development, it has been successfully used in a number of large scale studies both in the UK and the USA. IMAP provides measures for separating out sensory from cognitive contributions to hearing. It further limits confounds due to procedural effects by presenting tests in a child-friendly game-format. Stimulus-generation, management of test protocols and control of test presentation is mediated by the IHR-STAR software platform. This provides a standardized methodology for a range of applications and ensures replicable procedures across testers. IHR-STAR provides a flexible, user-programmable environment that currently has additional applications for hearing screening, mapping cochlear implant electrodes, and academic research or teaching.

Cognitive and Language Deficits in Multiple Sclerosis: Comparison of Relapsing Remitting and Secondary Progressive Subtypes

PubMed Central

Ntoskou, Katerina; Messinis, Lambros; Nasios, Grigorios; Martzoukou, Maria; Makris, Giorgos; Panagiotopoulos, Elias; Papathanasopoulos, Panagiotis

2018-01-01

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the pattern and severity of cognitive and language impairment in Greek patients with Relapsing-remitting (RRMS) and Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (SPMS), relative to control participants. Method: A prospective study was conducted in 27 patients with multiple sclerosis (PwMS), (N= 15) with RRMS, (N= 12) with SPMS, and (N= 12) healthy controls. All participants were assessed with a flexible comprehensive neuropsychological – language battery of tests that have been standardized in Greece and validated in Greek MS patients. They were also assessed on measures of disability (Expanded Disability Status Scale; EDSS), fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale; FSS) and depression (Beck Depression Inventory - fast screen; BDI-FS). Results: Our results revealed that groups were well matched on baseline demographic and clinical characteristics. The two clinical groups (RRMS; SPMS) did not differ on overall global cognitive impairment but differed in the initial encoding of verbal material, mental processing speed, response inhibition and set-shifting. RRMS patients differed from controls in the initial encoding of verbal material, learning curve, delayed recall of verbal information, processing speed, and response inhibition. SPMS patients differed in all utilized measures compared to controls. Moreover, we noted increased impairment frequency on individualized measures in the progressive SPMS group. Conclusion: We conclude that MS patients, irrespective of clinical subtype, have cognitive deficits compared to healthy participants, which become increasingly worse when they convert from RRMS to SPMS.On the contrary,the pattern of impairment remains relatively stable. PMID:29576812

Atypical audio-visual speech perception and McGurk effects in children with specific language impairment

PubMed Central

Leybaert, Jacqueline; Macchi, Lucie; Huyse, Aurélie; Champoux, François; Bayard, Clémence; Colin, Cécile; Berthommier, Frédéric

2014-01-01

Audiovisual speech perception of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical language development (TLD) was compared in two experiments using /aCa/ syllables presented in the context of a masking release paradigm. Children had to repeat syllables presented in auditory alone, visual alone (speechreading), audiovisual congruent and incongruent (McGurk) conditions. Stimuli were masked by either stationary (ST) or amplitude modulated (AM) noise. Although children with SLI were less accurate in auditory and audiovisual speech perception, they showed similar auditory masking release effect than children with TLD. Children with SLI also had less correct responses in speechreading than children with TLD, indicating impairment in phonemic processing of visual speech information. In response to McGurk stimuli, children with TLD showed more fusions in AM noise than in ST noise, a consequence of the auditory masking release effect and of the influence of visual information. Children with SLI did not show this effect systematically, suggesting they were less influenced by visual speech. However, when the visual cues were easily identified, the profile of responses to McGurk stimuli was similar in both groups, suggesting that children with SLI do not suffer from an impairment of audiovisual integration. An analysis of percent of information transmitted revealed a deficit in the children with SLI, particularly for the place of articulation feature. Taken together, the data support the hypothesis of an intact peripheral processing of auditory speech information, coupled with a supra modal deficit of phonemic categorization in children with SLI. Clinical implications are discussed. PMID:24904454

Atypical audio-visual speech perception and McGurk effects in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Leybaert, Jacqueline; Macchi, Lucie; Huyse, Aurélie; Champoux, François; Bayard, Clémence; Colin, Cécile; Berthommier, Frédéric

2014-01-01

Audiovisual speech perception of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical language development (TLD) was compared in two experiments using /aCa/ syllables presented in the context of a masking release paradigm. Children had to repeat syllables presented in auditory alone, visual alone (speechreading), audiovisual congruent and incongruent (McGurk) conditions. Stimuli were masked by either stationary (ST) or amplitude modulated (AM) noise. Although children with SLI were less accurate in auditory and audiovisual speech perception, they showed similar auditory masking release effect than children with TLD. Children with SLI also had less correct responses in speechreading than children with TLD, indicating impairment in phonemic processing of visual speech information. In response to McGurk stimuli, children with TLD showed more fusions in AM noise than in ST noise, a consequence of the auditory masking release effect and of the influence of visual information. Children with SLI did not show this effect systematically, suggesting they were less influenced by visual speech. However, when the visual cues were easily identified, the profile of responses to McGurk stimuli was similar in both groups, suggesting that children with SLI do not suffer from an impairment of audiovisual integration. An analysis of percent of information transmitted revealed a deficit in the children with SLI, particularly for the place of articulation feature. Taken together, the data support the hypothesis of an intact peripheral processing of auditory speech information, coupled with a supra modal deficit of phonemic categorization in children with SLI. Clinical implications are discussed.

The language profile of Posterior Cortical Atrophy

PubMed Central

Crutch, Sebastian J.; Lehmann, Manja; Warren, Jason D.; Rohrer, Jonathan D.

2015-01-01

Background Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) is typically considered to be a visual syndrome, primarily characterised by progressive impairment of visuoperceptual and visuospatial skills. However patients commonly describe early difficulties with word retrieval. This paper details the first systematic analysis of linguistic function in PCA. Characterising and quantifying the aphasia associated with PCA is important for clarifying diagnostic and selection criteria for clinical and research studies. Methods Fifteen patients with PCA, 7 patients with logopenic/phonological aphasia (LPA) and 18 age-matched healthy participants completed a detailed battery of linguistic tests evaluating auditory input processing, repetition and working memory, lexical and grammatical comprehension, single word retrieval and fluency, and spontaneous speech. Results Relative to healthy controls, PCA patients exhibited language impairments across all the domains examined, but with anomia, reduced phonemic fluency and slowed speech rate the most prominent deficits. PCA performance most closely resembled that of LPA patients on tests of auditory input processing, repetition and digit span, but was relatively stronger on tasks of comprehension and spontaneous speech. Conclusions The study demonstrates that in addition to the well-reported degradation of vision, literacy and numeracy, PCA is characterised by a progressive oral language dysfunction with prominent word retrieval difficulties. Overlap in the linguistic profiles of PCA and LPA, which are both most commonly caused by Alzheimer’s disease, further emphasises the notion of a phenotypic continuum between typical and atypical manifestations of the disease. Clarifying the boundaries between AD phenotypes has important implications for diagnosis, clinical trial recruitment and investigations into biological factors driving phenotypic heterogeneity in AD. Rehabilitation strategies to ameliorate the phonological deficit in PCA are required. PMID:23138762

Therapies for Cognitive Deficits Associated With Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review of Objective Outcomes.

PubMed

Morean, Diane F; O'Dwyer, Linda; Cherney, Leora R

2015-10-01

To systematically review evidence of treatments for cognitive impairments experienced by at least 20% of all women who undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer. Searches of 5 databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL, PsycINFO, CINAHL), with no date or language restrictions, identified 1701 unique results. Search terms included breast cancer, chemotherapy, chemobrain, chemofog, and terms on cognition and language deficits. Included only peer-reviewed journal articles that described therapies for cognitive dysfunction in women undergoing (or who had undergone) chemotherapy for breast cancer and provided objective measurements of cognition or language. Data were extracted according to Cochrane recommendations, including characteristics of participants, interventions, outcomes, and studies. Quality assessment of all 12 eligible studies was performed using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale and treatment fidelity criteria. Screening, data extraction, and quality assessment reliability were performed. Six articles described interventions for cognition that took place during cancer treatment; 6, afterward. Five interventions were medical (including a strength-training program), 2 were restorative, and 5 were cognitive. Medicinal treatments were ineffective; restorative and exercise treatments had mixed results; cognitive therapy had success in varying cognitive domains. The domains most tested and most successfully treated were verbal memory, attention, and processing speed. Cognitive therapy protocols delivered after chemotherapy and aimed at improving verbal memory, attention, and processing speed hold the most promise. Future research is needed to clarify whether computerized cognitive training can be effective in treating this population, and to identify objective assessment tools that are sensitive to this disorder. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cognitive Profile of Students Who Enter Higher Education with an Indication of Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Brysbaert, Marc

2012-01-01

For languages other than English there is a lack of empirical evidence about the cognitive profile of students entering higher education with a diagnosis of dyslexia. To obtain such evidence, we compared a group of 100 Dutch-speaking students diagnosed with dyslexia with a control group of 100 students without learning disabilities. Our study showed selective deficits in reading and writing (effect sizes for accuracy between d = 1 and d = 2), arithmetic (d≈1), and phonological processing (d>0.7). Except for spelling, these deficits were larger for speed related measures than for accuracy related measures. Students with dyslexia also performed slightly inferior on the KAIT tests of crystallized intelligence, due to the retrieval of verbal information from long-term memory. No significant differences were observed in the KAIT tests of fluid intelligence. The profile we obtained agrees with a recent meta-analysis of English findings suggesting that it generalizes to all alphabetic languages. Implications for special arrangements for students with dyslexia in higher education are outlined. PMID:22719864

Mapping common aphasia assessments to underlying cognitive processes and their neural substrates

PubMed Central

Lacey, Elizabeth H.; Skipper-Kallal, LM; Xing, S; Fama, ME; Turkeltaub, PE

2017-01-01

Background Understanding the relationships between clinical tests, the processes they measure, and the brain networks underlying them, is critical in order for clinicians to move beyond aphasia syndrome classification toward specification of individual language process impairments. Objective To understand the cognitive, language, and neuroanatomical factors underlying scores of commonly used aphasia tests. Methods 25 behavioral tests were administered to a group of 38 chronic left hemisphere stroke survivors and a high resolution MRI was obtained. Test scores were entered into a principal components analysis to extract the latent variables (factors) measured by the tests. Multivariate lesion-symptom mapping was used to localize lesions associated with the factor scores. Results The principal components analysis yielded four dissociable factors, which we labeled Word Finding/Fluency, Comprehension, Phonology/Working Memory Capacity, and Executive Function. While many tests loaded onto the factors in predictable ways, some relied heavily on factors not commonly associated with the tests. Lesion symptom mapping demonstrated discrete brain structures associated with each factor, including frontal, temporal, and parietal areas extending beyond the classical language network. Specific functions mapped onto brain anatomy largely in correspondence with modern neural models of language processing. Conclusions An extensive clinical aphasia assessment identifies four independent language functions, relying on discrete parts of the left middle cerebral artery territory. A better understanding of the processes underlying cognitive tests and the link between lesion and behavior may lead to improved aphasia diagnosis, and may yield treatments better targeted to an individual’s specific pattern of deficits and preserved abilities. PMID:28135902

Model of music cognition and amusia.

PubMed

García-Casares, N; Berthier Torres, M L; Froudist Walsh, S; González-Santos, P

2013-04-01

The study of the neural networks involved in music processing has received less attention than work researching the brain's language networks. For the last two decades there has been a growing interest in discovering the functional mechanisms of the musical brain and understanding those disorders in which brain regions linked with perception and production of music are damaged. Congenital and acquired musical deficits in their various forms (perception, execution, music-memory) are grouped together under the generic term amusia. In this selective review we present the "cutting edge" studies on the cognitive and neural processes implicated in music and the various forms of amusia. Musical processing requires a large cortico-subcortical network which is distributed throughout both cerebral hemispheres and the cerebellum. The analysis of healthy subjects using functional neuroimaging and examination of selective deficits (e.g., tone, rhythm, timbre, melodic contours) in patients will improve our knowledge of the mechanisms involved in musical processing and the latter's relationship with other cognitive processes. Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Nondeclarative learning in children with specific language impairment: predicting regularities in the visuomotor, phonological, and cognitive domains.

PubMed

Mayor-Dubois, C; Zesiger, P; Van der Linden, M; Roulet-Perez, E

2014-01-01

Ullman (2004) suggested that Specific Language Impairment (SLI) results from a general procedural learning deficit. In order to test this hypothesis, we investigated children with SLI via procedural learning tasks exploring the verbal, motor, and cognitive domains. Results showed that compared with a Control Group, the children with SLI (a) were unable to learn a phonotactic learning task, (b) were able but less efficiently to learn a motor learning task and (c) succeeded in a cognitive learning task. Regarding the motor learning task (Serial Reaction Time Task), reaction times were longer and learning slower than in controls. The learning effect was not significant in children with an associated Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), and future studies should consider comorbid motor impairment in order to clarify whether impairments are related to the motor rather than the language disorder. Our results indicate that a phonotactic learning but not a cognitive procedural deficit underlies SLI, thus challenging Ullmans' general procedural deficit hypothesis, like a few other recent studies.

Assessing Child and Adolescent Pragmatic Language Competencies: Toward Evidence-Based Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russell, Robert L.; Grizzle, Kenneth L.

2008-01-01

Using language appropriately and effectively in social contexts requires pragmatic language competencies (PLCs). Increasingly, deficits in PLCs are linked to child and adolescent disorders, including autism spectrum, externalizing, and internalizing disorders. As the role of PLCs expands in diagnosis and treatment of developmental psychopathology,…

The Language Phenotype of Children and Adolescents with Noonan Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pierpont, Elizabeth I.; Weismer, Susan Ellis; Roberts, Amy E.; Tworog-Dube, Erica; Pierpont, Mary Ella; Mendelsohn, Nancy J.; Seidenberg, Mark S.

2010-01-01

Purpose: This study presents an analysis of language skills in individuals with Noonan syndrome (NS), an autosomal dominant genetic disorder. We investigated whether the language impairments affecting some individuals arise from deficits specifically within the linguistic system or whether they are associated with cognitive, perceptual, and motor…

Complex Sentence Profiles in Children with Specific Language Impairment: Are They Really Atypical?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riches, Nick G.

2017-01-01

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have language difficulties of unknown origin. Syntactic profiles are atypical, with poor performance on non-canonical structures, e.g. object relatives, suggesting a localized deficit. However, existing analyses using ANOVAs are problematic because they do not systematically address unequal…

Antinomies of Ideologies and Situationality of Education Language Politics in Multilingual Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Odugu, Desmond Ikenna

2015-01-01

Widespread scholarly and political attention to language-related inequities in the 20th century precipitated a spate of orientations to language planning in multilingual societies. While various orientations indicate a shift from earlier deficit to affirmative views of multilingualism, vigorous debates persist about the logical and pragmatic…

Parental Broad Autism Phenotype and the Language Skills of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flippin, Michelle; Watson, Linda R.

2018-01-01

Father-child and mother-child interactions were examined in order to investigate concurrent associations between three characteristics of parental broad autism phenotype (i.e., aloofness, rigidity, pragmatic language deficits), parental verbal responsiveness, and language skills of children with ASD. Results for mothers indicated that aloofness…

(Dis)connections between Specific Language Impairment and Dyslexia in Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Anita M.-Y.; Ho, Connie S.-H.; Au, Terry K.-F.; Kidd, Joanna C.; Ng, Ashley K.-H.; Yip, Lesley P.-W.; Lam, Catherine C.-C.

2015-01-01

Specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia are found to co-occur in school-aged children learning Chinese, a non-alphabetic language (Wong, Kidd, Ho, & Au in "Sci Stud Read" 14:30--57, 2010). This paper examined the "Distinct" hypothesis--that SLI and dyslexia have different cognitive deficits and behavioural…

Narrative Performance of Optimal Outcome Children and Adolescents with a History of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

PubMed Central

Suh, Joyce; Eigsti, Inge-Marie; Naigles, Letitia; Barton, Marianne; Kelley, Elizabeth; Fein, Deborah

2014-01-01

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have traditionally been considered a lifelong condition; however, a subset of people makes such significant improvements that they no longer meet diagnostic criteria for an ASD. The current study examines whether these “optimal outcome” (OO) children and adolescents continue to have subtle pragmatic language deficits. The narratives of 15 OO individuals, 15 high-functioning individuals with an ASD (HFA), and 15 typically developing peers (TD) were evaluated. Despite average cognitive functioning, the ASD group produced narratives with fewer central “gist” descriptions, more ambiguous pronominal referents, idiosyncratic language, speech dysfluency (more repetitions and self-corrections), and were less likely to name story characters. The OO participants displayed only very subtle pragmatic and higher-level language deficits (idiosyncratic language and self-correction dysfluency). PMID:24500659

Cortical dynamics and subcortical signatures of motor-language coupling in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Melloni, Margherita; Sedeño, Lucas; Hesse, Eugenia; García-Cordero, Indira; Mikulan, Ezequiel; Plastino, Angelo; Marcotti, Aida; López, José David; Bustamante, Catalina; Lopera, Francisco; Pineda, David; García, Adolfo M; Manes, Facundo; Trujillo, Natalia; Ibáñez, Agustín

2015-07-08

Impairments of action language have been documented in early stage Parkinson's disease (EPD). The action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE) paradigm has revealed that EPD involves deficits to integrate action-verb processing and ongoing motor actions. Recent studies suggest that an abolished ACE in EPD reflects a cortico-subcortical disruption, and recent neurocognitive models highlight the role of the basal ganglia (BG) in motor-language coupling. Building on such breakthroughs, we report the first exploration of convergent cortical and subcortical signatures of ACE in EPD patients and matched controls. Specifically, we combined cortical recordings of the motor potential, functional connectivity measures, and structural analysis of the BG through voxel-based morphometry. Relative to controls, EPD patients exhibited an impaired ACE, a reduced motor potential, and aberrant frontotemporal connectivity. Furthermore, motor potential abnormalities during the ACE task were predicted by overall BG volume and atrophy. These results corroborate that motor-language coupling is mainly subserved by a cortico-subcortical network including the BG as a key hub. They also evince that action-verb processing may constitute a neurocognitive marker of EPD. Our findings suggest that research on the relationship between language and motor domains is crucial to develop models of motor cognition as well as diagnostic and intervention strategies.

Training in rapid auditory processing ameliorates auditory comprehension in aphasic patients: a randomized controlled pilot study.

PubMed

Szelag, Elzbieta; Lewandowska, Monika; Wolak, Tomasz; Seniow, Joanna; Poniatowska, Renata; Pöppel, Ernst; Szymaszek, Aneta

2014-03-15

Experimental studies have often reported close associations between rapid auditory processing and language competency. The present study was aimed at improving auditory comprehension in aphasic patients following specific training in the perception of temporal order (TO) of events. We tested 18 aphasic patients showing both comprehension and TO perception deficits. Auditory comprehension was assessed by the Token Test, phonemic awareness and Voice-Onset-Time Test. The TO perception was assessed using auditory Temporal-Order-Threshold, defined as the shortest interval between two consecutive stimuli, necessary to report correctly their before-after relation. Aphasic patients participated in eight 45-minute sessions of either specific temporal training (TT, n=11) aimed to improve sequencing abilities, or control non-temporal training (NT, n=7) focussed on volume discrimination. The TT yielded improved TO perception; moreover, a transfer of improvement was observed from the time domain to the language domain, which was untrained during the training. The NT did not improve either the TO perception or comprehension in any language test. These results are in agreement with previous literature studies which proved ameliorated language competency following the TT in language-learning-impaired or dyslexic children. Our results indicated for the first time such benefits also in aphasic patients. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Flying under the radar: figurative language impairments in focal lesion patients

PubMed Central

Ianni, Geena R.; Cardillo, Eileen R.; McQuire, Marguerite; Chatterjee, Anjan

2014-01-01

Despite the prevalent and natural use of metaphor in everyday language, the neural basis of this powerful communication device remains poorly understood. Early studies of brain-injured patients suggested the right hemisphere plays a critical role in metaphor comprehension, but more recent patient and neuroimaging studies do not consistently support this hypothesis. One explanation for this discrepancy is the challenge in designing optimal tasks for brain-injured populations. As traditional aphasia assessments do not assess figurative language comprehension, we designed a new metaphor comprehension task to consider whether impaired metaphor processing is missed by standard clinical assessments. Stimuli consisted of 60 pairs of moderately familiar metaphors and closely matched literal sentences. Sentences were presented visually in a randomized order, followed by four adjective-noun answer choices (target + three foil types). Participants were instructed to select the phrase that best matched the meaning of the sentence. We report the performance of three focal lesion patients and a group of 12 healthy, older controls. Controls performed near ceiling in both conditions, with slightly more accurate performance on literal than metaphoric sentences. While the Western Aphasia Battery (Kertesz, 1982) and the objects and actions naming battery (Druks and Masterson, 2000) indicated minimal to no language difficulty, our metaphor comprehension task indicated three different profiles of metaphor comprehension impairment in the patients’ performance. Single case statistics revealed comparable impairment on metaphoric and literal sentences, disproportionately greater impairment on metaphors than literal sentences, and selective impairment on metaphors. We conclude our task reveals that patients can have selective metaphor comprehension deficits. These deficits are not captured by traditional neuropsychological language assessments, suggesting overlooked communication difficulties. PMID:25404906

Non-Verbal Episodic Memory Deficits in Primary Progressive Aphasias are Highly Predictive of Underlying Amyloid Pathology.

PubMed

Ramanan, Siddharth; Flanagan, Emma; Leyton, Cristian E; Villemagne, Victor L; Rowe, Christopher C; Hodges, John R; Hornberger, Michael

2016-01-01

Diagnostic distinction of primary progressive aphasias (PPA) remains challenging, in particular for the logopenic (lvPPA) and nonfluent/agrammatic (naPPA) variants. Recent findings highlight that episodic memory deficits appear to discriminate these PPA variants from each other, as only lvPPA perform poorly on these tasks while having underlying amyloid pathology similar to that seen in amnestic dementias like Alzheimer's disease (AD). Most memory tests are, however, language based and thus potentially confounded by the prevalent language deficits in PPA. The current study investigated this issue across PPA variants by contrasting verbal and non-verbal episodic memory measures while controlling for their performance on a language subtest of a general cognitive screen. A total of 203 participants were included (25 lvPPA; 29 naPPA; 59 AD; 90 controls) and underwent extensive verbal and non-verbal episodic memory testing, with a subset of patients (n = 45) with confirmed amyloid profiles as assessed by Pittsburgh Compound B and PET. The most powerful discriminator between naPPA and lvPPA patients was a non-verbal recall measure (Rey Complex Figure delayed recall), with 81% of PPA patients classified correctly at presentation. Importantly, AD and lvPPA patients performed comparably on this measure, further highlighting the importance of underlying amyloid pathology in episodic memory profiles. The findings demonstrate that non-verbal recall emerges as the best discriminator of lvPPA and naPPA when controlling for language deficits in high load amyloid PPA cases.

Relationships of Attention and Executive Functions to Oral Language, Reading, and Writing Skills and Systems in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence.

PubMed

Berninger, Virginia; Abbott, Robert; Cook, Clayton R; Nagy, William

Relationships between attention/executive functions and language learning were investigated in students in Grades 4 to 9 ( N = 88) with and without specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in multiword syntax in oral and written language (OWL LD), word reading and spelling (dyslexia), and subword letter writing (dysgraphia). Prior attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis was correlated only with impaired handwriting. Parental ratings of inattention, but not hyperactivity, correlated with measures of written language but not oral language. Sustaining switching attention correlated with writing the alphabet from memory in manuscript or by keyboard and fast copying of a sentence with all the letters of the alphabet. Multiple regressions based on a principal component for composites of multiple levels of language (subword, word, and syntax/text) showed that measures of attention and executive function involving language processing rather than ratings of attention and executive function not specifically related to language accounted for more variance and identified more unique predictors in the composite outcomes for oral language, reading, and writing systems. Inhibition related to focused attention uniquely predicted outcomes for the oral language system. Findings are discussed in reference to implications for assessing and teaching students who are still learning to pay attention to heard and written language and self-regulate their language learning during middle childhood and adolescence.

Deficits in Narrative Abilities in Child British Sign Language Users with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herman, Ros; Rowley, Katherine; Mason, Kathryn; Morgan, Gary

2014-01-01

This study details the first ever investigation of narrative skills in a group of 17 deaf signing children who have been diagnosed with disorders in their British Sign Language development compared with a control group of 17 deaf child signers matched for age, gender, education, quantity, and quality of language exposure and non-verbal…

The simulating social mind: the role of the mirror neuron system and simulation in the social and communicative deficits of autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Oberman, Lindsay M; Ramachandran, Vilayanur S

2007-03-01

The mechanism by which humans perceive others differs greatly from how humans perceive inanimate objects. Unlike inanimate objects, humans have the distinct property of being "like me" in the eyes of the observer. This allows us to use the same systems that process knowledge about self-performed actions, self-conceived thoughts, and self-experienced emotions to understand actions, thoughts, and emotions in others. The authors propose that internal simulation mechanisms, such as the mirror neuron system, are necessary for normal development of recognition, imitation, theory of mind, empathy, and language. Additionally, the authors suggest that dysfunctional simulation mechanisms may underlie the social and communicative deficits seen in individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

Electrocortical Dynamics in Children with a Language-Learning Impairment Before and After Audiovisual Training.

PubMed

Heim, Sabine; Choudhury, Naseem; Benasich, April A

2016-05-01

Detecting and discriminating subtle and rapid sound changes in the speech environment is a fundamental prerequisite of language processing, and deficits in this ability have frequently been observed in individuals with language-learning impairments (LLI). One approach to studying associations between dysfunctional auditory dynamics and LLI, is to implement a training protocol tapping into this potential while quantifying pre- and post-intervention status. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are highly sensitive to the brain correlates of these dynamic changes and are therefore ideally suited for examining hypotheses regarding dysfunctional auditory processes. In this study, ERP measurements to rapid tone sequences (standard and deviant tone pairs) along with behavioral language testing were performed in 6- to 9-year-old LLI children (n = 21) before and after audiovisual training. A non-treatment group of children with typical language development (n = 12) was also assessed twice at a comparable time interval. The results indicated that the LLI group exhibited considerable gains on standardized measures of language. In terms of ERPs, we found evidence of changes in the LLI group specifically at the level of the P2 component, later than 250 ms after the onset of the second stimulus in the deviant tone pair. These changes suggested enhanced discrimination of deviant from standard tone sequences in widespread cortices, in LLI children after training.

[Language and executive functioning skills of students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and in reading comprehension difficulties (RCD)].

PubMed

Miranda Casas, Ana; Fernández Andrés, María Inmaculada; García Castellar, Rosa; Roselló Miranda, Belén; Colomer Diago, Carla

2011-11-01

The aim of this work was to study the specificity of deficits in linguistic and executive functioning of students with ADHD and with RCD and to determine the profile of deficits in the comorbid group (ADHD+RCD). Participants in the study were 84 students, ages 12-16 years divided into four groups with an equal number of subjects (N= 21): ADHD, RCD, ADHD+RCD and comparison group (without ADHD and without RCD). We measured vocabulary, oral comprehension, lexical access, verbal and visual working memory, inhibition and attention. The results show that the ADHD+RCD group presents the most important linguistic deficits, followed by the RCD group. On the other hand, the three clinical groups (ADHD, RCD and ADHD+RCD) display greater performance problems in working memory than the comparison group, whereas the two groups with ADHD had more problems in attention and inhibition. These results suggest the dissociation of linguistic and executive deficits that affect the RCD group and ADHD group to a greater extent, respectively. Lastly, the comorbid group showed deficits both in language and in executive skills. We discuss the implications of these findings for designing interventions.

Reading comprehension and its underlying components in second-language learners: A meta-analysis of studies comparing first- and second-language learners.

PubMed

Melby-Lervåg, Monica; Lervåg, Arne

2014-03-01

We report a systematic meta-analytic review of studies comparing reading comprehension and its underlying components (language comprehension, decoding, and phonological awareness) in first- and second-language learners. The review included 82 studies, and 576 effect sizes were calculated for reading comprehension and underlying components. Key findings were that, compared to first-language learners, second-language learners display a medium-sized deficit in reading comprehension (pooled effect size d = -0.62), a large deficit in language comprehension (pooled effect size d = -1.12), but only small differences in phonological awareness (pooled effect size d = -0.08) and decoding (pooled effect size d = -0.12). A moderator analysis showed that characteristics related to the type of reading comprehension test reliably explained the variation in the differences in reading comprehension between first- and second-language learners. For language comprehension, studies of samples from low socioeconomic backgrounds and samples where only the first language was used at home generated the largest group differences in favor of first-language learners. Test characteristics and study origin reliably contributed to the variations between the studies of language comprehension. For decoding, Canadian studies showed group differences in favor of second-language learners, whereas the opposite was the case for U.S. studies. Regarding implications, unless specific decoding problems are detected, interventions that aim to ameliorate reading comprehension problems among second-language learners should focus on language comprehension skills.

Treatment of sentence comprehension and production in aphasia: is there cross-modal generalisation?

PubMed

Adelt, Anne; Hanne, Sandra; Stadie, Nicole

2016-09-09

Exploring generalisation following treatment of language deficits in aphasia can provide insights into the functional relation of the cognitive processing systems involved. In the present study, we first review treatment outcomes of interventions targeting sentence processing deficits and, second report a treatment study examining the occurrence of practice effects and generalisation in sentence comprehension and production. In order to explore the potential linkage between processing systems involved in comprehending and producing sentences, we investigated whether improvements generalise within (i.e., uni-modal generalisation in comprehension or in production) and/or across modalities (i.e., cross-modal generalisation from comprehension to production or vice versa). Two individuals with aphasia displaying co-occurring deficits in sentence comprehension and production were trained on complex, non-canonical sentences in both modalities. Two evidence-based treatment protocols were applied in a crossover intervention study with sequence of treatment phases being randomly allocated. Both participants benefited significantly from treatment, leading to uni-modal generalisation in both comprehension and production. However, cross-modal generalisation did not occur. The magnitude of uni-modal generalisation in sentence production was related to participants' sentence comprehension performance prior to treatment. These findings support the assumption of modality-specific sub-systems for sentence comprehension and production, being linked uni-directionally from comprehension to production.

Language Dysfunction After Stroke and Damage to White Matter Tracts Evaluated Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging

PubMed Central

Breier, J.I.; Hasan, K.M.; Zhang, W.; Men, D.; Papanicolaou, A.C.

2011-01-01

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Knowledge of the anatomic basis of aphasia after stroke has both theoretic and clinical implications by informing models of cortical connectivity and providing data for diagnosis and prognosis. In this study we use diffusion tensor imaging to address the relationship between damage to specific white matter tracts and linguistic deficits after left hemisphere stroke. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty patients aged 38–77 years with a history of stroke in the left hemisphere underwent diffusion tensor imaging, structural MR imaging, and language testing. All of the patients were premorbidly right handed and underwent imaging and language testing at least 1 month after stroke. RESULTS Lower fractional anisotropy (FA) values in the superior longitudinal and arcuate fasciculi of the left hemisphere, an indication of greater damage to these tracts, were correlated with decreased ability to repeat spoken language. Comprehension deficits after stroke were associated with lower FA values in the arcuate fasciculus of the left hemisphere. The findings for repetition were independent of MR imaging ratings of the degree of damage to cortical areas of the left hemisphere involved in language function. There were no findings for homotopic tracts in the right hemisphere. CONCLUSION This study provides support for a specific role for damage to the superior longitudinal and arcuate fasciculi in the left hemisphere in patients with deficits in repetition of speech in aphasia after stroke. PMID:18039757

Semantic Processing Impairment in Patients with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

PubMed Central

Jaimes-Bautista, Amanda G.; Rodríguez-Camacho, Mario; Martínez-Juárez, Iris E.; Rodríguez-Agudelo, Yaneth

2015-01-01

The impairment in episodic memory system is the best-known cognitive deficit in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Recent studies have shown evidence of semantic disorders, but they have been less studied than episodic memory. The semantic dysfunction in TLE has various cognitive manifestations, such as the presence of language disorders characterized by defects in naming, verbal fluency, or remote semantic information retrieval, which affects the ability of patients to interact with their surroundings. This paper is a review of recent research about the consequences of TLE on semantic processing, considering neuropsychological, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging findings, as well as the functional role of the hippocampus in semantic processing. The evidence from these studies shows disturbance of semantic memory in patients with TLE and supports the theory of declarative memory of the hippocampus. Functional neuroimaging studies show an inefficient compensatory functional reorganization of semantic networks and electrophysiological studies show a lack of N400 effect that could indicate that the deficit in semantic processing in patients with TLE could be due to a failure in the mechanisms of automatic access to lexicon. PMID:26257956

European Bilingual Models beyond "Lingua Franca": Key Findings from CLIL French Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pérez, América; Lorenzo, Francisco; Pavón, Víctor

2016-01-01

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has expanded all around the continent following European Council guidelines, favored by competence studies that identified educational systems as a strong determinant for second language gains and deficits. Over the years since the turn of the century, CLIL has gained the support of language policy…

Individual Differences in Language Ability Are Related to Variation in Word Recognition, Not Speech Perception: Evidence from Eye Movements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMurray, Bob; Munson, Cheyenne; Tomblin, J. Bruce

2014-01-01

Purpose: The authors examined speech perception deficits associated with individual differences in language ability, contrasting auditory, phonological, or lexical accounts by asking whether lexical competition is differentially sensitive to fine-grained acoustic variation. Method: Adolescents with a range of language abilities (N = 74, including…

Word-Finding Abilities in Language-Impaired Children: ASHA Monographs Number 25.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kail, Robert; Leonard, Laurence B.

Four samples of language-impaired and control children (N=233, ages from 4 to 14) participated in seven experiments to determine the specific conditions under which retrieval deficits play a role in language-impaired children's word finding problems. Experiments 1-5 dealt with recall, retrieval, and similarity judgments of words presented…

Semantic Language as a Mechanism Explaining the Association between ADHD Symptoms and Reading and Mathematics Underachievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gremillion, Monica L.; Martel, Michelle M.

2012-01-01

ADHD is associated with academic underachievement, but it remains unclear what mechanism accounts for this association. Semantic language is an underexplored mechanism that provides a developmental explanation for this association. The present study will examine whether semantic language deficits explain the association between ADHD and reading…

Advances in Early Communication and Language Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaiser, Ann P.; Roberts, Megan Y.

2011-01-01

Learning to communicate using speech and language is a primary developmental task for young children. Delays in the acquisition of language are one of the earliest indicators of developmental deficits that may affect academic and social outcomes for individuals across the life span. In the period since the passage of PL 99-457, significant…

Sentence Repetition in Adolescents with Specific Language Impairments and Autism: An Investigation of Complex Syntax

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riches, N. G.; Loucas, T.; Baird, G.; Charman, T.; Simonoff, E.

2010-01-01

Background: Recent studies have indicated that many children with autism spectrum disorders present with language difficulties that are similar to those of children with specific language impairments, leading some to argue for similar structural deficits in these two disorders. Aims: Repetition of sentences involving long-distance dependencies was…

Language, Literacy, and Performance: Working Identities in the Back of the House

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Judy

2007-01-01

In the 21st century concerns about workplace language and literacy skills, particularly in the service and manufacturing sectors, continue to drive education and testing policy in many OECD countries. Employers tend to adopt deficit assumptions about service workers' skills, conflating social identities and language and literacy, which can blind…

Psychosocial Outcomes at 15 Years of Children with a Preschool History of Speech-Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snowling, Margaret J.; Bishop, D. V. M.; Stothard, Susan E.; Chipchase, Barry; Kaplan, Carole

2006-01-01

Background: Evidence suggests there is a heightened risk of psychiatric disorder in children with speech-language impairments. However, not all forms of language impairment are strongly associated with psychosocial difficulty, and some psychiatric disorders (e.g., attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)) are more prevalent than others in…

Symbolic Play of Children with Language Impairment: A Critical Review.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casby, Michael W.

1997-01-01

This paper reviews research on symbolic play gaps between children with and without language impairment (LI), arguing that these gaps should not be interpreted as demonstrative of marked deficits in general representational or specific symbolic play competence of children with LI. Frequent encroachment of language into testing procedures is cited…

Language performance in siblings of nonverbal children with autism.

PubMed

Levy, Yonata; Bar-Yuda, Chanit

2011-05-01

The study focuses on language and cognitive abilities of siblings of the linguistically most affected children with autism (i.e. siblings of nonverbal children - SIBS-ANV). Twenty-eight SIBS-ANV (17 boys), ages 4-9 years, took part in the study. All children attended regular schools, and none had received a diagnosis of autism. Controls were 27 typically developing children (SIBS-TD; 16 boys) matched to the SIBS-ANV on age, family background, socioeconomic status and type of school they attended. Significant IQ differences, as well as language differences as measured on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF), emerged between SIBS-ANV and SIBS-TD. However, differences in the language scores mostly disappeared when PIQ and FSIQ were controlled for. Furthermore, grammatical analysis of spontaneous speech samples produced in the course of testing did not reveal any significant differences between the groups. These results add to recent work suggesting that language deficits may not be part of the Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP). It further suggests that the cognitive deficit characteristic of nonverbal people with autism may be familial.

Exceptional lexical skills but executive language deficits in school starters and young adults with Turners syndrome: implications for X chromosome effects on brain function.

PubMed

Temple, Christine M; Shephard, Elizabeth E

2012-03-01

TS school starters had enhanced receptive and expressive language on standardised assessment (CELF-P) and enhanced rhyme judgements, spoonerisms, and lexical decision, indicating enhanced phonological skills and word representations. There was marginal but consistent advantage across lexico-semantic tasks. On executive tasks, speeded naming of numbers was impaired but not pictures. Young TS adults had enhanced naming and receptive vocabulary, indicating enhanced semantic skills. There were consistent deficits in executive language: phonemic oral fluency, rhyme fluency, speeded naming of pictures, numbers and colours; sentence completion requiring supression of prepotent responses. Haploinsufficiency of X-chromosome drives mechanisms that affect the anatomical and neurochemical development of the brain, resulting in enhanced temporal lobe aspects of language. These strengths co-exist with impaired development of frontal lobe executive language systems. This means not only that these elements of language can decouple in development but that their very independence is driven by mechanisms linked to the X-chromosome. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neurological soft signs feature a double dissociation within the language system in Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Tavano, Alessandro; Gagliardi, Chiara; Martelli, Sara; Borgatti, Renato

2010-09-01

The neurocognitive profile of Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is characterized by visuospatial deficits, apparently fluent language, motor soft signs, and hypersociability. We investigated the association between neuromotor soft signs and visuospatial, executive-attentive, mnestic and linguistic functions in a group of 26 children and young adults with WBS. We hypothesized that neurological soft signs could be an index of subtle neurofunctional deficits and thus provide a behavioural window into the processes underlying neurocognition in Williams-Beuren syndrome. Dysmetria and dystonic movements were selected as grouping neurological variables, indexing cerebellar and basal ganglia dysfunction, respectively. No detrimental effects on visuospatial/visuoconstructive skills were evident following the presence of either neurological variable. As for language skills, participants with dysmetria showed markedly reduced expressive syntactic and lexico-semantic skills as compared to non-affected individuals, while no difference in chronological age was evident. Participants with dystonic movements showed reduced receptive syntax and increased lexical comprehension skills as compared to non-affected individuals, the age factor being significant. In both instances, the effect size was greater for syntactic measures. We take these novel findings as suggestive of a double dissociation between expressive and receptive skills at sentence level within the WBS linguistic phenotype. The investigation of neuromotor soft signs and neuropsychological functions may provide a key to new non-cortico-centric genotype/phenotype relationships. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-linguistic learning and aphasia: Evidence from a paired associate and feedback-based task

PubMed Central

Vallila-Rohter, Sofia; Kiran, Swathi

2013-01-01

Though aphasia is primarily characterized by impairments in the comprehension and/or expression of language, research has shown that patients with aphasia also show deficits in cognitive-linguistic domains such as attention, executive function, concept knowledge and memory (Helm-Estabrooks, 2002 for review). Research in aphasia suggests that cognitive impairments can impact the online construction of language, new verbal learning, and transactional success (Freedman & Martin, 2001; Hula & McNeil, 2008; Ramsberger, 2005). In our research, we extend this hypothesis to suggest that general cognitive deficits influence progress with therapy. The aim of our study is to explore learning, a cognitive process that is integral to relearning language, yet underexplored in the field of aphasia rehabilitation. We examine non-linguistic category learning in patients with aphasia (n=19) and in healthy controls (n=12), comparing feedback and non-feedback based instruction. Participants complete two computer-based learning tasks that require them to categorize novel animals based on the percentage of features shared with one of two prototypes. As hypothesized, healthy controls showed successful category learning following both methods of instruction. In contrast, only 60% of our patient population demonstrated successful non-linguistic category learning. Patient performance was not predictable by standardized measures of cognitive ability. Results suggest that general learning is affected in aphasia and is a unique, important factor to consider in the field of aphasia rehabilitation. PMID:23127795

Altered structure-function relations of semantic processing in youths with high-functioning autism: a combined diffusion and functional MRI study.

PubMed

Lo, Yu-Chun; Chou, Tai-Li; Fan, Li-Ying; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen; Chiu, Yen-Nan; Tseng, Wen-Yih Isaac

2013-12-01

Deficits in language and communication are among the core symptoms of autism, a common neurodevelopmental disorder with long-term impairment. Despite the striking nature of the autistic language impairment, knowledge about its corresponding alterations in the brain is still evolving. We hypothesized that the dual stream language network is altered in autism, and that this alteration could be revealed by changes in the relationships between microstructural integrity and functional activation. The study recruited 20 right-handed male youths with autism and 20 carefully matched individually, typically developing (TD) youths. Microstructural integrity of the left dorsal and left ventral pathways responsible for language processing and the functional activation of the connected brain regions were investigated by using diffusion spectrum imaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging of a semantic task, respectively. Youths with autism had significantly poorer language function, and lower functional activation in left dorsal and left ventral regions of the language network, compared with TD youths. The TD group showed a significant correlation of the functional activation of the left dorsal region with microstructural integrity of the left ventral pathway, whereas the autism group showed a significant correlation of the functional activation of the left ventral region with microstructural integrity of the left dorsal pathway, and moreover verbal comprehension index was correlated with microstructural integrity of the left ventral pathway. These altered structure-function relationships in autism suggest possible involvement of the dual pathways in supporting deficient semantic processing. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Relation between language, audio-vocal psycholinguistic abilities and P300 in children having specific language impairment.

PubMed

Shaheen, Elham Ahmed; Shohdy, Sahar Saad; Abd Al Raouf, Mahmoud; Mohamed El Abd, Shereen; Abd Elhamid, Asmss

2011-09-01

Specific language impairment is a relatively common developmental condition in which a child fails to develop language at the typical rate despite normal general intellectual abilities, adequate exposure to language, and in the absence of hearing impairments, or neurological or psychiatric disorders. There is much controversy about the extent to which the auditory processing deficits are important in the genesis specific language impairment. The objective of this paper is to assess the higher cortical functions in children with specific language impairment, through assessing neurophysiological changes in order to correlate the results with the clinical picture of the patients to choose the proper rehabilitation training program. This study was carried out on 40 children diagnosed to have specific language impairment and 20 normal children as a control group. All children were subjected to the assessment protocol applied in Kasr El-Aini hospital. They were also subjected to a language test (receptive, expressive and total language items), the audio-vocal items of Illinois test of psycholinguistic (auditory reception, auditory association, verbal expression, grammatical closure, auditory sequential memory and sound blending) as well as audiological assessment that included peripheral audiological and P300 amplitude and latency assessment. The results revealed a highly significant difference in P300 amplitude and latency between specific language impairment group and control group. There is also strong correlations between P300 latency and the grammatical closure, auditory sequential memory and sound blending, while significant correlation between the P300 amplitude and auditory association and verbal expression. Children with specific language impairment, in spite of the normal peripheral hearing, have evidence of cognitive and central auditory processing defects as evidenced by P300 auditory event related potential in the form of prolonged latency which indicate a slow rate of processing and defective memory as evidenced by small amplitude. These findings affect cognitive and language development in specific language impairment children and should be considered during planning the intervention program. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language Use, Language Ability, and Language Development: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1979 (Vol. 39 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 23 titles deal with the following topics: sex appropriate and sex inappropriate language; lexical retrieval and perceptual errors; naming deficits in anomia and aphasia; developmental discourse; pragmatic information and…

Mathematical learning disorder in school-age children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Capano, Lucia; Minden, Debbie; Chen, Shirley X; Schacher, Russell J; Ickowicz, Abel

2008-06-01

To explore the prevalence of mathematics disorder (MD) relative to reading disorders (RD) in school-age children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and examine the effects of age, sex, cooccurring conduct disorder (CD), and ADHD subtype on this comorbidity. Participants were school-age children (n = 476) with confirmed DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD. The assessment included semistructured parent and teacher interviews and standardized measures of intelligence, academic attainment, and language abilities. Based on the presence or absence of concurrent learning disorders, we compared the emerging 4 groups: ADHD-only, ADHD + MD, ADHD + RD, and ADHD + MD + RD. Overall prevalence of comorbid ADHD + MD was 18.1%. Age, sex, ADHD subtypes, or comorbid CD did not affect the frequency of MD. Children with concurrent ADHD and either MD or RD attained lower IQ, language, and academic scores than those with ADHD alone. Children with ADHD + MD + RD were more seriously impaired and demonstrated distinct deficits in receptive and expressive language. MDs are relatively common in school-age children with ADHD and are frequently associated with RDs. Children with ADHD + MD + RD are more severely impaired. These deficits simply cannot be explained as consequences of ADHD and might have unique biological underpinnings, with implications for diagnostic classification and therapeutic interventions.

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION PROFILES IN CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT

PubMed Central

Marton, Klara; Campanelli, Luca; Scheuer, Jessica; Yoon, Jungmee; Eichorn, Naomi

2013-01-01

We present findings from a study that focused on specific executive functions (EF) in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). We analyzed performance patterns and EF profiles (spatial working memory, inhibition control, and sustained attention) in school-age SLI children and two control groups: age-matched and language matched. Our main research goal was to identify those EFs that show a weakness in children with SLI. Our specific aims were to: (1) examine whether the EF problems in children with SLI are domain-general; (2) examine whether deficits in EF in children with SLI can be explained by the general slowness hypothesis or by an overall delay in development; (3) compare EF profiles to examine whether children with SLI show a distinct pattern of performance from their peers. Our findings showed different EF profiles for the groups. We observed differences in performance patterns related to age (e.g., reaction time in response inhibition) and differences related to language status (e.g., sensitivity to interference). The findings show interesting associations in EFs that play a crucial role in language processing. PMID:25302062

Grammatical Class Effects Across Impaired Child and Adult Populations

PubMed Central

Kambanaros, Maria; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.

2015-01-01

The aims of this study are to compare quantitative and qualitative differences for noun/verb retrieval across language-impaired groups, examine naming errors with reference to psycholinguistic models of word processing, and shed light on the nature of the naming deficit as well as determine relevant group commonalities and differences. This includes an attempt to establish whether error types differentiate language-impaired children from adults, to determine effects of psycholinguistic variables on naming accuracies, and to link the results to genetic mechanisms and/or neural circuitry in the brain. A total of 89 (language-)impaired participants took part in this report: 24 adults with acquired aphasia, 20 adults with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, 31 adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and 14 children with specific language impairment. The results of simultaneous multiple regression analyses for the errors in verb naming compared to the psycholinguistic variables for all language-impaired groups are reported and discussed in relation to models of lexical processing. This discussion will lead to considerations of genetic and/or neurobiological underpinnings: Presence of the noun–verb dissociation in focal and non-focal brain impairment make localization theories redundant, but support for wider neural network involvement.The patterns reported cannot be reduced to any one level of language processing, suggesting multiple interactions at different levels (e.g., receptive vs. expressive language abilities).Semantic-conceptual properties constrain syntactic properties with implications for phonological word form retrieval.Competition needs to be resolved at both conceptual and phonological levels of representation. Moreover, this study may provide a cross-pathological baseline that can be probed further with respect to recent suggestions concerning a reconsideration of open- vs. closed-class items, according to which verbs may actually fall into the latter rather than the standardly received former class. PMID:26635644

A quick aphasia battery for efficient, reliable, and multidimensional assessment of language function.

PubMed

Wilson, Stephen M; Eriksson, Dana K; Schneck, Sarah M; Lucanie, Jillian M

2018-01-01

This paper describes a quick aphasia battery (QAB) that aims to provide a reliable and multidimensional assessment of language function in about a quarter of an hour, bridging the gap between comprehensive batteries that are time-consuming to administer, and rapid screening instruments that provide limited detail regarding individual profiles of deficits. The QAB is made up of eight subtests, each comprising sets of items that probe different language domains, vary in difficulty, and are scored with a graded system to maximize the informativeness of each item. From the eight subtests, eight summary measures are derived, which constitute a multidimensional profile of language function, quantifying strengths and weaknesses across core language domains. The QAB was administered to 28 individuals with acute stroke and aphasia, 25 individuals with acute stroke but no aphasia, 16 individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia, and 14 healthy controls. The patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia were tested 3 times each and scored independently by 2 raters to establish test-retest and inter-rater reliability. The Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) was also administered to these patients to assess concurrent validity. We found that all QAB summary measures were sensitive to aphasic deficits in the two groups with aphasia. All measures showed good or excellent test-retest reliability (overall summary measure: intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.98), and excellent inter-rater reliability (overall summary measure: ICC = 0.99). Sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of aphasia (relative to clinical impression) were 0.91 and 0.95 respectively. All QAB measures were highly correlated with corresponding WAB measures where available. Individual patients showed distinct profiles of spared and impaired function across different language domains. In sum, the QAB efficiently and reliably characterized individual profiles of language deficits.

A quick aphasia battery for efficient, reliable, and multidimensional assessment of language function

PubMed Central

Eriksson, Dana K.; Schneck, Sarah M.; Lucanie, Jillian M.

2018-01-01

This paper describes a quick aphasia battery (QAB) that aims to provide a reliable and multidimensional assessment of language function in about a quarter of an hour, bridging the gap between comprehensive batteries that are time-consuming to administer, and rapid screening instruments that provide limited detail regarding individual profiles of deficits. The QAB is made up of eight subtests, each comprising sets of items that probe different language domains, vary in difficulty, and are scored with a graded system to maximize the informativeness of each item. From the eight subtests, eight summary measures are derived, which constitute a multidimensional profile of language function, quantifying strengths and weaknesses across core language domains. The QAB was administered to 28 individuals with acute stroke and aphasia, 25 individuals with acute stroke but no aphasia, 16 individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia, and 14 healthy controls. The patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia were tested 3 times each and scored independently by 2 raters to establish test-retest and inter-rater reliability. The Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) was also administered to these patients to assess concurrent validity. We found that all QAB summary measures were sensitive to aphasic deficits in the two groups with aphasia. All measures showed good or excellent test-retest reliability (overall summary measure: intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.98), and excellent inter-rater reliability (overall summary measure: ICC = 0.99). Sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of aphasia (relative to clinical impression) were 0.91 and 0.95 respectively. All QAB measures were highly correlated with corresponding WAB measures where available. Individual patients showed distinct profiles of spared and impaired function across different language domains. In sum, the QAB efficiently and reliably characterized individual profiles of language deficits. PMID:29425241

A specific cognitive deficit within semantic cognition across a multi-generational family

PubMed Central

Briscoe, Josie; Chilvers, Rebecca; Baldeweg, Torsten; Skuse, David

2012-01-01

We report a study of eight members of a single family (aged 8–72 years), who all show a specific deficit in linking semantic knowledge to language. All affected members of the family had high levels of overall intelligence; however, they had profound difficulties in prose and sentence recall, listening comprehension and naming. The behavioural deficit was remarkably consistent across affected family members. Structural neuroimaging data revealed grey matter abnormalities in the left infero-temporal cortex and fusiform gyri: brain areas that have been associated with integrative semantics. This family demonstrates, to our knowledge, the first example of a heritable, highly specific abnormality affecting the interface between language and cognition in humans and has important implications for our understanding of the genetic basis of cognition. PMID:22719041

[Deficit of verbal recall caused by left dorso-lateral thalamic infarction].

PubMed

Rousseaux, M; Cabaret, M; Benaim, C; Steinling, M

1995-01-01

A case of amnesia with preferential disorder of verbal recall, associated to a limited infarct of the left superior, external and anterior thalamus, is reported. This lesion involved the anterior and middle dorso-lateral nuclei and the centrolateral nucleus, sparing most of the structures classically incriminated in diencephalic amnesia. At the initial stage, the patient presented discrete language impairment and severe deficit of semantic processing, which later recovered. At the late stage, the anterograde and retrograde amnesia principally concerned the recall of verbal information used in daily life, verbal learning using short-term and long-term recall, questionnaires evaluating retrograde memory and requiring the evocation of proper names. Verbal priming was also affected. Verbal recognition was preserved. Evocation of the most recent events of the personal life was also impaired. Confrontation of this case with others previously reported suggests that various thalamic amnesias may be described, associated to different cognitive deficits, in relation with the preferential situation of lesions.

From action to interaction: exploring the contribution of body motion cues to social understanding in typical development and in autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Centelles, Laurie; Assaiante, Christine; Etchegoyhen, Katallin; Bouvard, Manuel; Schmitz, Christina

2013-05-01

Two studies investigated whether typically developing children (TD) and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were able to decide whether two characters were communicating or not on the basis of point-light displays. Point-lights portrayed actors engaged or not in a social interaction. In study 1, TD children (4-10 years old; n = 36) grasped social intentions from body language, with a notable improvement around 7/8. In study 2, children with ASD (6-12 years old; n = 12) could categorize the point-light displays at above-chance levels, but performed less efficiently, especially for the social interaction displays, than TD children (matched to chronological and non-verbal mental age, 6-12 years old; n = 24). An action representation deficit is discussed in relation to a social representation deficit and it is suggested that these deficits might be linked to altered maturational process of the mirror system in ASD.

Theory of mind in early psychosis.

PubMed

Langdon, Robyn; Still, Megan; Connors, Michael H; Ward, Philip B; Catts, Stanley V

2014-08-01

A deficit in theory of mind--the ability to infer and reason about the mental states of others - might underpin the poor social functioning of patients with psychosis. Unfortunately, however, there is considerable variation in how such a deficit is assessed. The current study compared three classic tests of theory of mind in terms of their ability to detect impairment in patients in the early stages of psychosis. Twenty-three patients within 2 years of their first psychotic episode and 19 healthy controls received picture-sequencing, joke-appreciation and story-comprehension tests of theory of mind. Whereas the picture-sequencing and joke-appreciation tests successfully detected a selective theory-of-mind deficit in patients, the story-comprehension test did not. The findings suggest that tests that place minimal demands on language processing and involve indirect, rather than explicit, instructions to assess theory of mind might be best suited to detecting theory-of-mind impairment in early stages of psychosis. © 2013 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Transcortical sensory aphasia: revisited and revised.

PubMed

Boatman, D; Gordon, B; Hart, J; Selnes, O; Miglioretti, D; Lenz, F

2000-08-01

Transcortical sensory aphasia (TSA) is characterized by impaired auditory comprehension with intact repetition and fluent speech. We induced TSA transiently by electrical interference during routine cortical function mapping in six adult seizure patients. For each patient, TSA was associated with multiple posterior cortical sites, including the posterior superior and middle temporal gyri, in classical Wernicke's area. A number of TSA sites were immediately adjacent to sites where Wernicke's aphasia was elicited in the same patients. Phonological decoding of speech sounds was assessed by auditory syllable discrimination and found to be intact at all sites where TSA was induced. At a subset of electrode sites where the pattern of language deficits otherwise resembled TSA, naming and word reading remained intact. Language lateralization testing by intracarotid amobarbital injection showed no evidence of independent right hemisphere language. These results suggest that TSA may result from a one-way disruption between left hemisphere phonology and lexical-semantic processing.

Rehabilitation of language in expressive aphasias: a literature review.

PubMed

da Fontoura, Denise Ren; Rodrigues, Jaqueline de Carvalho; Carneiro, Luciana Behs de Sá; Monção, Ana Maria; de Salles, Jerusa Fumagalli

2012-01-01

This paper reviews the methodological characteristics of studies on rehabilitation of expressive aphasia, describing the techniques of rehabilitation used. The databases Medline, Science Direct and PubMed were searched for relevant articles (January 1999 to December 2011) using the keywords Expressive / Broca / Nonfluent Aphasia, combined with Language or Speech Rehabilitation / Therapy / Intervention. A total of 56 articles were retrieved describing rehabilitation techniques, including 22 with a focus on lexical processing, 18 on syntax stimulation, seven with the aim of developing speech and nine with multiple foci. A variety of techniques and theoretical approaches are available, highlighting the heterogeneity of research in this area. This diversity can be justified by the uniqueness of patients' language deficits, making it difficult to generalize. In addition, there is a need to combine the formal measures of tests with measures of pragmatic and social skills of communication to determine the effect of rehabilitation on the patient's daily life.

Nonverbal auditory agnosia with lesion to Wernicke's area.

PubMed

Saygin, Ayse Pinar; Leech, Robert; Dick, Frederic

2010-01-01

We report the case of patient M, who suffered unilateral left posterior temporal and parietal damage, brain regions typically associated with language processing. Language function largely recovered since the infarct, with no measurable speech comprehension impairments. However, the patient exhibited a severe impairment in nonverbal auditory comprehension. We carried out extensive audiological and behavioral testing in order to characterize M's unusual neuropsychological profile. We also examined the patient's and controls' neural responses to verbal and nonverbal auditory stimuli using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We verified that the patient exhibited persistent and severe auditory agnosia for nonverbal sounds in the absence of verbal comprehension deficits or peripheral hearing problems. Acoustical analyses suggested that his residual processing of a minority of environmental sounds might rely on his speech processing abilities. In the patient's brain, contralateral (right) temporal cortex as well as perilesional (left) anterior temporal cortex were strongly responsive to verbal, but not to nonverbal sounds, a pattern that stands in marked contrast to the controls' data. This substantial reorganization of auditory processing likely supported the recovery of M's speech processing.

Treatment of word-finding deficits in fluent aphasia through the manipulation of spatial attention: Preliminary findings

PubMed Central

Dotson, Vonetta M.; Singletary, Floris; Fuller, Renee; Koehler, Shirley; Moore, Anna Bacon; Gonzalez Rothi, Leslie J.; Crosson, Bruce

2010-01-01

Background Attention, the processing of one source of information to the exclusion of others, is important for most cognitive processes, including language. Evidence suggests not only that dysfunctional attention mechanisms contribute to language deficits after stroke, but also that orienting attention to a patient's ipsilesional hemispace recruits attention mechanisms in the intact hemisphere and improves language functions in some persons with aphasia. Aims The aim of the current research was to offer proof of concept for the strategy of improving picture-naming performance in fluent aphasia by moving stimuli into the left hemispace. It was hypothesised that repeated orientation of attention to the ipsilesional hemispace during picture naming would lead to improved naming accuracy for participants with fluent aphasia. Methods & Procedures Three participants with stable fluent aphasia received daily treatment sessions that consisted of naming simple line drawings presented 45 degrees to the left of body midline on a computer monitor. Naming probes were administered before initiation of the treatment protocol to establish a baseline, and before each treatment session to measure change during treatment. The C statistic was used to establish the stability of baseline performance and to determine whether the slope of the treatment phases differed significantly from the slope of the baseline. Outcomes & Results Two of the three participants showed significant improvement over baseline performance in the percent correct of naming probes. One participant showed no improvement over baseline accuracy. Conclusions Results suggest that engaging right-hemisphere attention mechanisms may improve naming accuracy in some people with fluent aphasia. Findings justify further investigation of this treatment in a larger controlled study. PMID:22131638

Semantic word category processing in semantic dementia and posterior cortical atrophy.

PubMed

Shebani, Zubaida; Patterson, Karalyn; Nestor, Peter J; Diaz-de-Grenu, Lara Z; Dawson, Kate; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2017-08-01

There is general agreement that perisylvian language cortex plays a major role in lexical and semantic processing; but the contribution of additional, more widespread, brain areas in the processing of different semantic word categories remains controversial. We investigated word processing in two groups of patients whose neurodegenerative diseases preferentially affect specific parts of the brain, to determine whether their performance would vary as a function of semantic categories proposed to recruit those brain regions. Cohorts with (i) Semantic Dementia (SD), who have anterior temporal-lobe atrophy, and (ii) Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA), who have predominantly parieto-occipital atrophy, performed a lexical decision test on words from five different lexico-semantic categories: colour (e.g., yellow), form (oval), number (seven), spatial prepositions (under) and function words (also). Sets of pseudo-word foils matched the target words in length and bi-/tri-gram frequency. Word-frequency was matched between the two visual word categories (colour and form) and across the three other categories (number, prepositions, and function words). Age-matched healthy individuals served as controls. Although broad word processing deficits were apparent in both patient groups, the deficit was strongest for colour words in SD and for spatial prepositions in PCA. The patterns of performance on the lexical decision task demonstrate (a) general lexicosemantic processing deficits in both groups, though more prominent in SD than in PCA, and (b) differential involvement of anterior-temporal and posterior-parietal cortex in the processing of specific semantic categories of words. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Intervention Effects on Spoken-Language Outcomes for Children with Autism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hampton, L. H.; Kaiser, A. P.

2016-01-01

Background: Although spoken-language deficits are not core to an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis, many children with ASD do present with delays in this area. Previous meta-analyses have assessed the effects of intervention on reducing autism symptomatology, but have not determined if intervention improves spoken language. This analysis…

The Procedural Learning Deficit Hypothesis of Language Learning Disorders: We See Some Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

West, Gillian; Vadillo, Miguel A.; Shanks, David R.; Hulme, Charles

2018-01-01

Impaired procedural learning has been suggested as a possible cause of developmental dyslexia (DD) and specific language impairment (SLI). This study examined the relationship between measures of verbal and non-verbal implicit and explicit learning and measures of language, literacy and arithmetic attainment in a large sample of 7 to 8-year-old…

Speech and Language Deficits in Early-Treated Children with Galactosemia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waisbren, Susan E.; And Others

1983-01-01

Intelligence and speech-language development of eight children (3.6 to 11.6 years old) with classic galactosemia were assessed by standardized tests. Each of the children had delays of early speech difficulties, and all but one had language disorders in at least one area. Available from: Journal of Pediatrics, C.V. Mosby Co., 11830 Westline…

A Longitudinal Assessment of Early Childhood Education with Integrated Speech Therapy for Children with Significant Language Impairment in Germany

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ullrich, Dieter; Ullrich, Katja; Marten, Magret

2014-01-01

Background: In Lower Saxony, Germany, pre-school children with language- and speech-deficits have the opportunity to access kindergartens with integrated language-/speech therapy prior to attending primary school, both regular or with integrated speech therapy. It is unknown whether these early childhood education treatments are helpful and…

Children with Specific Language Impairment and Resolved Late Talkers: Working Memory Profiles at 5 Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petruccelli, Nadia; Bavin, Edith L.; Bretherton, Lesley

2012-01-01

Purpose: The evidence of a deficit in working memory in specific language impairment (SLI) is of sufficient magnitude to suggest a primary role in developmental language disorder. However, little research has investigated memory in late talkers who recover from their early delay. Drawing on a longitudinal, community sample, this study compared the…

The Art of Common Ground: Emergence of a Complex Pragmatic Language Skill in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Marchena, Ashley; Eigsti, Inge-Marie

2016-01-01

Deficits in pragmatic language are central to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here we investigate common ground, a pragmatic language skill in which speakers adjust the contents of their speech based on their interlocutor's perceived knowledge, in adolescents with ASD and typical development (TD), using an experimental narrative paradigm.…

Specific Language Impairment as the Prominent Feature in a Patient with a Low-Level Trisomy 21 Mosaicism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paoloni-Giacobino, A.; Lemieux, N.; Lemyre, E.; Lespinasse, James

2007-01-01

Background: The extent and severity of the disabilities is variable among individuals with Down syndrome, although generally characterized by a range of physical and intellectual conditions, including language impairment. Whether the language deficit is due to the intellectual disability (ID) or associated to the supernumerary or portion of…

The Use of Tense and Agreement by Hungarian-Speaking Children with Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lukacs, Agnes; Leonard, Laurence B.; Kas, Bence; Pleh, Csaba

2009-01-01

Purpose: Hungarian is a null-subject language with both agglutinating and fusional elements in its verb inflection system, and agreement between the verb and object as well as between the verb and subject. These characteristics make this language a good test case for alternative accounts of the grammatical deficits of children with language…

Communicative Competence in Parents of Children with Autism and Parents of Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruser, Tilla F.; Arin, Deborah; Dowd, Michael; Putnam, Sara; Winklosky, Brian; Rosen-Sheidley, Beth; Piven, Joseph; Tomblin, Bruce; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Folstein, Susan

2007-01-01

While the primary language deficit in autism has been thought to be pragmatic, and in specific language impairment (SLI) structural, recent research suggests phenomenological and possibly genetic overlap between the two syndromes. To compare communicative competence in parents of children with autism, SLI, and down syndrome (DS), we used a…

Pathologizing the Language and Culture of Poor Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dudley-Marling, Curt; Lucas, Krista

2009-01-01

There has been a resurgence of deficit discourses that implicate deficiencies in the language and culture of poor students as the cause of their academic failures. An influential study by Betty Hart and Todd Risley concludes that high levels of academic failure among poor children can be linked to the quantity and quality of language interactions…

Narrative Skills, Cognitive Profiles and Neuropsychiatric Disorders in 7-8-Year-Old Children with Late Developing Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miniscalco, Carmela; Hagberg, Bibbi; Kadesjo, Bjorn; Westerlund, Monica; Gillberg, Christopher

2007-01-01

Background: A community-representative sample of screened and clinically examined children with language delay at 2.5 years of age was followed up at school age when their language development was again examined and the occurrence of neuropsychiatric/neurodevelopmental disorder (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and/or autism…

Neural substrates of sublexical processing for spelling.

PubMed

DeMarco, Andrew T; Wilson, Stephen M; Rising, Kindle; Rapcsak, Steven Z; Beeson, Pélagie M

2017-01-01

We used fMRI to examine the neural substrates of sublexical phoneme-grapheme conversion during spelling in a group of healthy young adults. Participants performed a writing-to-dictation task involving irregular words (e.g., choir), plausible nonwords (e.g., kroid), and a control task of drawing familiar geometric shapes (e.g., squares). Written production of both irregular words and nonwords engaged a left-hemisphere perisylvian network associated with reading/spelling and phonological processing skills. Effects of lexicality, manifested by increased activation during nonword relative to irregular word spelling, were noted in anterior perisylvian regions (posterior inferior frontal gyrus/operculum/precentral gyrus/insula), and in left ventral occipito-temporal cortex. In addition to enhanced neural responses within domain-specific components of the language network, the increased cognitive demands associated with spelling nonwords engaged domain-general frontoparietal cortical networks involved in selective attention and executive control. These results elucidate the neural substrates of sublexical processing during written language production and complement lesion-deficit correlation studies of phonological agraphia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neural Substrates of Sublexical Processing for Spelling

PubMed Central

Wilson, Stephen M.; Rising, Kindle; Rapcsak, Steven Z.; Beeson, Pélagie M.

2016-01-01

We used fMRI to examine the neural substrates of sublexical phoneme-grapheme conversion during spelling in a group of healthy young adults. Participants performed a writing-to-dictation task involving irregular words (e.g., choir), plausible nonwords (e.g., kroid), and a control task of drawing familiar geometric shapes (e.g., squares). Written production of both irregular words and nonwords engaged a left-hemisphere perisylvian network associated with reading/spelling and phonological processing skills. Effects of lexicality, manifested by increased activation during nonword relative to irregular word spelling, were noted in anterior perisylvian regions (posterior inferior frontal gyrus/operculum/precentral gyrus/insula), and in left ventral occipito-temporal cortex. In addition to enhanced neural responses within domain-specific components of the language network, the increased cognitive demands associated with spelling nonwords engaged domain-general frontoparietal cortical networks involved in selective attention and executive control. These results elucidate the neural substrates of sublexical processing during written language production and complement lesion-deficit correlation studies of phonological agraphia. PMID:27838547

Psychogenic or neurogenic origin of agrammatism and foreign accent syndrome in a bipolar patient: a case report.

PubMed

Poulin, Stéphane; Macoir, Joël; Paquet, Nancy; Fossard, Marion; Gagnon, Louis

2007-01-04

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a rare speech disorder characterized by the appearance of a new accent, different from the speaker's native language and perceived as foreign by the speaker and the listener. In most of the reported cases, FAS follows stroke but has also been found following traumatic brain injury, cerebral haemorrhage and multiple sclerosis. In very few cases, FAS was reported in patients presenting with psychiatric disorders but the link between this condition and FAS was confirmed in only one case. In this report, we present the case of FG, a bipolar patient presenting with language disorders characterized by a foreign accent and agrammatism, initially categorized as being of psychogenic origin. The patient had an extensive neuropsychological and language evaluation as well as brain imaging exams. In addition to FAS and agrammatism, FG also showed a working memory deficit and executive dysfunction. Moreover, these clinical signs were related to altered cerebral activity on an FDG-PET scan that showed diffuse hypometabolism in the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes bilaterally as well as a focal deficit in the area of the anterior left temporal lobe. When compared to the MRI, these deficits were related to asymmetric atrophy, which was retrospectively seen in the left temporal and frontal opercular/insular region without a focal lesion. To our knowledge, FG is the first case of FAS imaged with an 18F-FDG-PET scan. The nature and type of neuropsychological and linguistic deficits, supported by neuroimaging data, exclude a neurotoxic or neurodegenerative origin for this patient's clinical manifestations. For similar reasons, a psychogenic etiology is also highly improbable. To account for the FAS and agrammatism in FG, various explanations have been ruled out. Because of the focal deficit seen on the brain imaging, involving the left insular and anterior temporal cortex, two brain regions frequently involved in aphasic syndrome but also in FAS, a cerebrovascular origin must be considered the best explanation to account for FG's language deficits.

Unravelling the influence of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) on cognitive-linguistic processing: a comparative group analysis.

PubMed

Barwood, Caroline H S; Murdoch, Bruce E

2013-06-01

Cognitive-linguistic deficits often accompany traumatic brain injury (TBI) and can negatively impact communicative competency. The linguistic sequelae underpinning mild TBI (MTBI) remain largely unexplored in contemporary literature. The present research methods aim to provide group evidence pertaining to the influence of MTBI on linguistic and higher-level language processing. Extrapolating on the findings of recent case reports, it is hypothesized that performance of the MTBI patients will be significantly reduced compared to normal controls performance on the employed high-level linguistic tasks. Sixteen patients with MTBI and 16 age- and education-matched normal control participants were assessed using a comprehensive battery of cognitive-linguistic assessments. The results demonstrated statistically significant differences between MTBI and normal control group performance across a number of higher-level linguistic, general cognitive and general language tasks. MTBI group performance was significantly lower than the normal control group on tasks requiring complex lexical semantic operations and memory demands, including: Recall, organization, making inferences, naming and perception/discrimination. These outcomes confer that post-MTBI, cognitive, high-level language and isolated general language performance (e.g. naming) is significantly reduced in MTBI patients, compared to normal controls. Furthermore, the detailed cognitive-linguistic profile offered provides a necessary direction for the identification of areas of linguistic decline in MTBI and targets for therapeutic intervention of impaired cognitive-linguistic processes to ultimately improve communicative outcomes in MTBI.

Early executive function deficit in preterm children and its association with neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood: a literature review.

PubMed

Sun, Jing; Buys, Nicholas

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the association of deficits of executive function (EF) and neurodevelopmental disorders in preterm children and the potential of assessing EF in infants as means of early identification. EF refers to a collection of related but somewhat discrete abilities, the main ones being working memory, inhibition, and planning. There is a general consensus that EF governs goal-directed behavior that requires holding those plans or programs on-line until executed, inhibiting irrelevant action and planning a sequence of actions. EF plays an essential role in cognitive development and is vital to individual social and intellectual success. Most researchers believe in the coordination and integrate cognitive-perceptual processes in relation to time and space, thus regulating higher-order cognitive processes, such as problem solving, reasoning, logical and flexible thinking, and decision-making. The importance of the maturation of the frontal lobe, particularly the prefrontal cortex, to the development of EF in childhood has been emphasized. Therefore, any abnormal development in the prefrontal lobes of infants and children could be expected to result in significant deficits in cognitive functioning. As this is a late-maturing part of the brain, various neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, language disorders, and schizophrenia, as well as acquired disorders of the right brain (and traumatic brain injury) impair EF, and the prefrontal cortex may be particularly susceptible to delayed development in these populations. The deficits of EF in infants are persistent into childhood and related to neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and adolescence.

Grammatical Impairments in PPA

PubMed Central

Thompson, Cynthia K.; Mack, Jennifer E.

2015-01-01

Background Grammatical impairments are commonly observed in the agrammatic subtype of primary progressive aphasia (PPA-G), whereas grammatical processing is relatively preserved in logopenic (PPA-L) and semantic (PPA-S) subtypes. Aims We review research on grammatical deficits in PPA and associated neural mechanisms, with discussion focused on production and comprehension of four aspects of morphosyntactic structure: grammatical morphology, functional categories, verbs and verb argument structure, and complex syntactic structures. We also address assessment of grammatical deficits in PPA, with emphasis on behavioral tests of grammatical processing. Finally, we address research examining the effects of treatment for progressive grammatical impairments. Main Contribution PPA-G is associated with grammatical deficits that are evident across linguistic domains in both production and comprehension. PPA-G is associated with damage to regions including the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and dorsal white matter tracts, which have been linked to impaired comprehension and production of complex sentences. Detailing grammatical deficits in PPA is important for estimating the trajectory of language decline and associated neuropathology. We, therefore, highlight several new assessment tools for examining different aspects of morphosyntactic processing in PPA. Conclusions Individuals with PPA-G present with agrammatic deficit patterns distinct from those associated with PPA-L and PPA-S, but similar to those seen in agrammatism resulting from stroke, and patterns of cortical atrophy and white matter changes associated with PPA-G have been identified. Methods for clinical evaluation of agrammatism, focusing on comprehension and production of grammatical morphology, functional categories, verbs and verb argument structure, and complex syntactic structures are recommended and tools for this are emerging in the literature. Further research is needed to investigate the real-time processes underlying grammatical impairments in PPA, as well as the structural and functional neural correlates of grammatical impairments across linguistic domains. Few studies have examined the effects of treatment for grammatical impairments in PPA; research in this area is needed to better understand how (or if) grammatical processing ability can be improved, the potential for spared neural tissue to be recruited to support this, and whether the neural connections within areas of dysfunctional tissue required for grammatical processing can be enhanced using cortical stimulation. PMID:25642014

Grammatical Impairments in PPA.

PubMed

Thompson, Cynthia K; Mack, Jennifer E

2014-09-01

Grammatical impairments are commonly observed in the agrammatic subtype of primary progressive aphasia (PPA-G), whereas grammatical processing is relatively preserved in logopenic (PPA-L) and semantic (PPA-S) subtypes. We review research on grammatical deficits in PPA and associated neural mechanisms, with discussion focused on production and comprehension of four aspects of morphosyntactic structure: grammatical morphology, functional categories, verbs and verb argument structure, and complex syntactic structures. We also address assessment of grammatical deficits in PPA, with emphasis on behavioral tests of grammatical processing. Finally, we address research examining the effects of treatment for progressive grammatical impairments. PPA-G is associated with grammatical deficits that are evident across linguistic domains in both production and comprehension. PPA-G is associated with damage to regions including the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and dorsal white matter tracts, which have been linked to impaired comprehension and production of complex sentences. Detailing grammatical deficits in PPA is important for estimating the trajectory of language decline and associated neuropathology. We, therefore, highlight several new assessment tools for examining different aspects of morphosyntactic processing in PPA. Individuals with PPA-G present with agrammatic deficit patterns distinct from those associated with PPA-L and PPA-S, but similar to those seen in agrammatism resulting from stroke, and patterns of cortical atrophy and white matter changes associated with PPA-G have been identified. Methods for clinical evaluation of agrammatism, focusing on comprehension and production of grammatical morphology, functional categories, verbs and verb argument structure, and complex syntactic structures are recommended and tools for this are emerging in the literature. Further research is needed to investigate the real-time processes underlying grammatical impairments in PPA, as well as the structural and functional neural correlates of grammatical impairments across linguistic domains. Few studies have examined the effects of treatment for grammatical impairments in PPA; research in this area is needed to better understand how (or if) grammatical processing ability can be improved, the potential for spared neural tissue to be recruited to support this, and whether the neural connections within areas of dysfunctional tissue required for grammatical processing can be enhanced using cortical stimulation.

The Nature of Verbal Short-Term Impairment in Dyslexia: The Importance of Serial Order

PubMed Central

Majerus, Steve; Cowan, Nelson

2016-01-01

Verbal short-term memory (STM) impairment is one of the most consistent associated deficits observed in developmental reading disorders such as dyslexia. Few studies have addressed the nature of this STM impairment, especially as regards the ability to temporarily store serial order information. This question is important as studies in typically developing children have shown that serial order STM abilities are predictors of oral and written language development. Associated serial order STM deficits in dyslexia may therefore further increase the learning difficulties in these populations. In this mini review, we show that specific serial order STM impairment is frequently reported in both dyslexic children and adults with a history of dyslexia. Serial order STM impairment appears to occur for the retention of both verbal and visuo-spatial sequence information. Serial order STM impairment is, however, not a characteristic of every individual dyslexic subject and is not specific to dyslexia. Future studies need to determine whether serial order STM impairment is a risk factor which, in association with phonological processing deficits, can lead to dyslexia or whether serial order STM impairment reflects associated deficits causally unrelated to dyslexia. PMID:27752247

Dissociation between exact and approximate addition in developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Yang, Xiujie; Meng, Xiangzhi

2016-09-01

Previous research has suggested that number sense and language are involved in number representation and calculation, in which number sense supports approximate arithmetic, and language permits exact enumeration and calculation. Meanwhile, individuals with dyslexia have a core deficit in phonological processing. Based on these findings, we thus hypothesized that children with dyslexia may exhibit exact calculation impairment while doing mental arithmetic. The reaction time and accuracy while doing exact and approximate addition with symbolic Arabic digits and non-symbolic visual arrays of dots were compared between typically developing children and children with dyslexia. Reaction time analyses did not reveal any differences across two groups of children, the accuracies, interestingly, revealed a distinction of approximation and exact addition across two groups of children. Specifically, two groups of children had no differences in approximation. Children with dyslexia, however, had significantly lower accuracy in exact addition in both symbolic and non-symbolic tasks than that of typically developing children. Moreover, linguistic performances were selectively associated with exact calculation across individuals. These results suggested that children with dyslexia have a mental arithmetic deficit specifically in the realm of exact calculation, while their approximation ability is relatively intact. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language assessment of children with severe liver disease in a public service in Brazil

PubMed Central

de-Paula, Erica Macêdo; Porta, Gilda; Tannuri, Ana Cristina Aoun; Tannuri, Uenis; Befi-Lopes, Debora Maria

2017-01-01

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research was to compare language development (expressive and receptive skills) in children awaiting liver transplantation with that of children who have already undergone the surgical procedure. METHODS: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with 76 children divided into groups, as follows: 31 children who were candidates for liver transplantation (Group 1; G1), 45 children who had already undergone liver transplantation (Group 2; G2), and a control group (CG) of 60 healthy, normally developing children. Health status information was gathered, and the Test of Early Language Development (TELD)-3 was used to assess language skills. Family household monthly income data were also gathered using a specific questionnaire. RESULTS: G1 had poorer language performance compared with G2 and the CG. G2 had lower language performance when compared with the CG. However, when considering the TELD-3 standard scores, G2 had scores within normal limits. The regression analysis indicated age as a risk factor for language deficits in Group 1 and family income as a risk factor for language deficits in G2. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that children with chronic liver disease have delays in language development. Transplanted children have linguistic performance within normal limits, but their scores tended to be lower than the CG. PMID:28658434

Language: On the Phenomenology of Linguistic Experience in Schizophrenia (Ancillary Article to EAWE Domain 4).

PubMed

Pienkos, Elizabeth; Sass, Louis

2017-01-01

Anomalies of language use and comprehension are common in schizophrenia. However, they are typically studied only from a diagnostic or behavioral perspective and viewed simply as deficits or disruptions of normal functioning. Such approaches ignore what it is like to experience language, and thus are at risk of missing aspects of these linguistic anomalies that may be crucial for understanding them. The Examination of Anomalous World Experience (EAWE) provides one way to inquire into the experiential changes related to and underlying these disturbances. This paper offers a summary of a number of theoretical and clinical works that informed the development of EAWE Domain 4, Language, to better contextualize and elaborate on the items that make up this domain. The forms of anomalous linguistic experience included in the EAWE can be generally classified into four groups: (1) Diminished interpersonal orientation, (2) Dissociation between language and experience, (3) Shifts of attention and context-relevance, and (4) Unusual attitudes toward language. We suggest that these kinds of experiential changes indicate a far richer and more complex relationship to language than that suggested by standard deficit models and theories. We hope that by considering and inquiring about the subjective experience of language, researchers and clinicians may develop a greater awareness of and appreciation for the variety of language-related experiences in schizophrenia. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Motor impairment in children with Neurofibromatosis type 1: Effect of the comorbidity with language disorders.

PubMed

Iannuzzi, Stéphanie; Albaret, Jean-Michel; Chignac, Céline; Faure-Marie, Nathalie; Barry, Isabelle; Karsenty, Caroline; Chaix, Yves

2016-02-01

There is a body of evidence demonstrating comorbidity of motor and cognitive deficit in «idiopathic» developmental disorders. These associations are also found in developmental disorders secondary to monogenic disorders as in Neurofibromatosis type 1 for which the principal complication during childhood is learning disabilities. The comparison of motor impairment between developmental disorders either idiopathic or secondary as in NF1 could help us to better understand the cause of the combined language/motor deficit in these populations. The aim of this current study was to investigate motor impairment in children with NF1 for which oral language had been specified and then to compare the motors skills of the NF1 group to motor performance of children with Specific Language Disorder (SLD). Two groups of 49 children between 5 and 12years old were included and compared, the NF1 group and the SLD (Specific Language Disorder) group. Each child completed evaluation involving cognitive, language and motor assessment. In NF1 group, motor impairment was more frequent and more severe and concerned specifically balance rather than manual dexterity or ball skills, compared to a group of children with SLD. This motor impairment was independent of language status in the NF1 group. These results as well as other studies on the same topic could suggest that in NF1 children, fine motor skills impairment would be dependent on the existence of comorbidity with language disorders. Also, that gross motor skills impairment, and more precisely the balance deficit would be characteristic of NF1. This issue encourages studies of procedural learning that can involve the fronto-striatal or the fronto-cerebellar loops according to the type of motor tasks and the stage of learning. Copyright © 2015 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Visual cognition in amnesic H.M.: selective deficits on the What's-Wrong-Here and Hidden-Figure tasks.

PubMed

MacKay, Donald G; James, Lori E

2009-10-01

Two experiments compared the visual cognition performance of amnesic H.M. and memory-normal controls matched for age, background, intelligence, and education. In Experiment 1 H.M. exhibited deficits relative to the controls in detecting "erroneous objects" in complex visual scenes--for example, a bird flying inside a fishbowl. In Experiment 2 H.M. exhibited deficits relative to the controls in standard Hidden-Figure tasks when detecting unfamiliar targets but not when detecting familiar targets--for example, circles, squares, and right-angle triangles. H.M.'s visual cognition deficits were not due to his well-known problems in explicit learning and recall, inability to comprehend or remember the instructions, general slowness, motoric difficulties, low motivation, low IQ relative to the controls, or working-memory limitations. Parallels between H.M.'s selective deficits in visual cognition, language, and memory are discussed. These parallels contradict the standard "systems theory" account of H.M.'s condition but comport with the hypothesis that H.M. has difficulty representing unfamiliar but not familiar information in visual cognition, language, and memory. Implications of our results are discussed for binding theory and the ongoing debate over what counts as "memory" versus "not-memory."

Syntactic Versus Memory Accounts of the Sentence Comprehension Deficits of Specific Language Impairment: Looking Back, Looking Ahead.

PubMed

Montgomery, James W; Gillam, Ronald B; Evans, Julia L

2016-12-01

Compared with same-age typically developing peers, school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) exhibit significant deficits in spoken sentence comprehension. They also demonstrate a range of memory limitations. Whether these 2 deficit areas are related is unclear. The present review article aims to (a) review 2 main theoretical accounts of SLI sentence comprehension and various studies supporting each and (b) offer a new, broader, more integrated memory-based framework to guide future SLI research, as we believe the available evidence favors a memory-based perspective of SLI comprehension limitations. We reviewed the literature on the sentence comprehension abilities of English-speaking children with SLI from 2 theoretical perspectives. The sentence comprehension limitations of children with SLI appear to be more fully captured by a memory-based perspective than by a syntax-specific deficit perspective. Although a memory-based view appears to be the better account of SLI sentence comprehension deficits, this view requires refinement and expansion. Current memory-based perspectives of adult sentence comprehension, with proper modification, offer SLI investigators new, more integrated memory frameworks within which to study and better understand the sentence comprehension abilities of children with SLI.

Syntactic Versus Memory Accounts of the Sentence Comprehension Deficits of Specific Language Impairment: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

PubMed Central

Gillam, Ronald B.; Evans, Julia L.

2016-01-01

Purpose Compared with same-age typically developing peers, school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) exhibit significant deficits in spoken sentence comprehension. They also demonstrate a range of memory limitations. Whether these 2 deficit areas are related is unclear. The present review article aims to (a) review 2 main theoretical accounts of SLI sentence comprehension and various studies supporting each and (b) offer a new, broader, more integrated memory-based framework to guide future SLI research, as we believe the available evidence favors a memory-based perspective of SLI comprehension limitations. Method We reviewed the literature on the sentence comprehension abilities of English-speaking children with SLI from 2 theoretical perspectives. Results The sentence comprehension limitations of children with SLI appear to be more fully captured by a memory-based perspective than by a syntax-specific deficit perspective. Conclusions Although a memory-based view appears to be the better account of SLI sentence comprehension deficits, this view requires refinement and expansion. Current memory-based perspectives of adult sentence comprehension, with proper modification, offer SLI investigators new, more integrated memory frameworks within which to study and better understand the sentence comprehension abilities of children with SLI. PMID:27973643

Language Ability Predicts the Development of Behavior Problems in Children

PubMed Central

Petersen, Isaac T.; Bates, John E.; D’Onofrio, Brian M.; Coyne, Claire A.; Lansford, Jennifer E.; Dodge, Kenneth A.; Pettit, Gregory S.; Van Hulle, Carol A.

2013-01-01

Prior studies have suggested, but not fully established, that language ability is important for regulating attention and behavior. Language ability may have implications for understanding attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorders, as well as subclinical problems. This article reports findings from two longitudinal studies to test (a) whether language ability has an independent effect on behavior problems, and (b) the direction of effect between language ability and behavior problems. In Study 1 (N = 585), language ability was measured annually from ages 7 to 13 years by language subtests of standardized academic achievement tests administered at the children’s schools. Inattentive-hyperactive (I-H) and externalizing (EXT) problems were reported annually by teachers and mothers. In Study 2 (N = 11,506), language ability (receptive vocabulary) and mother-rated I-H and EXT problems were measured biannually from ages 4 to 12 years. Analyses in both studies showed that language ability predicted within-individual variability in the development of I-H and EXT problems over and above the effects of sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and performance in other academic and intellectual domains (e.g., math, reading comprehension, reading recognition, and short-term memory [STM]). Even after controls for prior levels of behavior problems, language ability predicted later behavior problems more strongly than behavior problems predicted later language ability, suggesting that the direction of effect may be from language ability to behavior problems. The findings suggest that language ability may be a useful target for the prevention or even treatment of attention deficits and EXT problems in children. PMID:23713507

Advantages and disadvantages of intraoperative language tasks in awake surgery: a three-task approach for prefrontal tumors.

PubMed

Rofes, A; Spena, G; Miozzo, A; Fontanella, M M; Miceli, G

2015-12-01

Multidisciplinary efforts are being made to provide surgical teams with sensitive and specific tasks for language mapping in awake surgery. Researchers and clinicians have elaborated different tasks over time. A fair amount of work has been directed to study the neurofunctional correlates of some of these tasks, and there is recent interest in their standardization. However, little discussion exists on the advantages and disadvantages that each task poses from the perspective of the cognitive neuroscience of language. Such an approach may be a relevant step to assess task validity, to avoid using tasks that tap onto similar processes, and to provide patients with a surgical treatment that ensures maximal tumor resection while avoiding postoperative language deficits. An understanding of the language components that each task entails may also be relevant to improve the current assessments and the ways in which tasks are administered, and to disentangle neurofunctional questions. We reviewed 17 language mapping tasks that have been used in awake surgery. Overt production tasks have been a preferred choice over comprehension tasks. Tasks tapping lexico-semantic processes, particularly object-naming, maintain their role as gold standards. Automated speech tasks are used to detect speech errors and to set the amplitude of the stimulator. Comprehension tasks, reading and writing tasks, and tasks that assess grammatical aspects of language may be regularly administered in the near future. We provide examples of a three-task approach we are administering to patients with prefrontal lesions. We believe that future advances in this area are contingent upon reviewing gold standards and introducing new assessment tools.

Reading Comprehension Deficits in Adolescents: Addressing Underlying Language Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nippold, Marilyn A.

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss reading comprehension deficits in adolescents in relation to their word reading skills and lexical and syntactic development. Although reading comprehension strategies (e.g., "Find the main idea") are often recommended, it is argued that before these can be effective, students'…

The Interplay of Language on Executive Functions in Children with ASD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akbar, Maysa; Loomis, Rebecca; Paul, Rhea

2013-01-01

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability characterized by deficits in social interaction and communication and by repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. Prior research has revealed executive function (EF) deficits in children with ASD. It has been suggested that these EF impairments are associated with language…

Academic Interventions for Children with Dyslexia Who Have Phonological Core Deficits.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frost, Julie A.; Emery, Michael J.

1996-01-01

This article briefly defines phonological core deficits in cases of dyslexia; considers student classification based on federal and state learning disability placement guidelines; and suggests 10 interventions such as teaching metacognitive strategies, providing direct instruction in language analysis and the alphabetic code, and teaching reading…

Understanding the Comorbidity between Dyslexia and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boada, Richard; Willcutt, Erik G.; Pennington, Bruce F.

2012-01-01

Dyslexia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are 2 of the most prevalent complex neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood, each affecting approximately 5% of the population in the United States. These disorders are also each comorbid with speech sound disorder and language impairment. Understanding the nature of the comorbidity…

The Structured Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ljusberg, Anna-Lena

2011-01-01

The aim of this article is to highlight the organisation of the remedial classroom. The data were collected from observations and semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers in remedial classes for children seen and treated as having concentration deficits. The teachers use primarily compensatory language that places the deficits in the pupils.…

Don’t speak too fast! Processing of fast rate speech in children with specific language impairment

PubMed Central

Bedoin, Nathalie; Krifi-Papoz, Sonia; Herbillon, Vania; Caillot-Bascoul, Aurélia; Gonzalez-Monge, Sibylle; Boulenger, Véronique

2018-01-01

Background Perception of speech rhythm requires the auditory system to track temporal envelope fluctuations, which carry syllabic and stress information. Reduced sensitivity to rhythmic acoustic cues has been evidenced in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI), impeding syllabic parsing and speech decoding. Our study investigated whether these children experience specific difficulties processing fast rate speech as compared with typically developing (TD) children. Method Sixteen French children with SLI (8–13 years old) with mainly expressive phonological disorders and with preserved comprehension and 16 age-matched TD children performed a judgment task on sentences produced 1) at normal rate, 2) at fast rate or 3) time-compressed. Sensitivity index (d′) to semantically incongruent sentence-final words was measured. Results Overall children with SLI perform significantly worse than TD children. Importantly, as revealed by the significant Group × Speech Rate interaction, children with SLI find it more challenging than TD children to process both naturally or artificially accelerated speech. The two groups do not significantly differ in normal rate speech processing. Conclusion In agreement with rhythm-processing deficits in atypical language development, our results suggest that children with SLI face difficulties adjusting to rapid speech rate. These findings are interpreted in light of temporal sampling and prosodic phrasing frameworks and of oscillatory mechanisms underlying speech perception. PMID:29373610

Auditory processing theories of language disorders: past, present, and future.

PubMed

Miller, Carol A

2011-07-01

The purpose of this article is to provide information that will assist readers in understanding and interpreting research literature on the role of auditory processing in communication disorders. A narrative review was used to summarize and synthesize the literature on auditory processing deficits in children with auditory processing disorder (APD), specific language impairment (SLI), and dyslexia. The history of auditory processing theories of these 3 disorders is described, points of convergence and controversy within and among the different branches of research literature are considered, and the influence of research on practice is discussed. The theoretical and clinical contributions of neurophysiological methods are also reviewed, and suggested approaches for critical reading of the research literature are provided. Research on the role of auditory processing in communication disorders springs from a variety of theoretical perspectives and assumptions, and this variety, combined with controversies over the interpretation of research results, makes it difficult to draw clinical implications from the literature. Neurophysiological research methods are a promising route to better understanding of auditory processing. Progress in theory development and its clinical application is most likely to be made when researchers from different disciplines and theoretical perspectives communicate clearly and combine the strengths of their approaches.

Defective Infant Formulas and Expressive Language Problems: A Case Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wing, Clara S.

1990-01-01

Children who used chloride-deficient soy-based infant formulas (Neo-Mull-Soy and Cho-Free) have been found to exhibit expressive language disorders. Medical studies of such children are reviewed, and a case study compares the language development deficits of an eight-year-old boy who used the formula with that of his fraternal twin who did not.…

Language and the Medial Temporal Lobe: Evidence from H. M.'s Spontaneous Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skotko, Brian G.; Andrews, Edna; Einstein, Gillian

2005-01-01

Previous researchers have found it challenging to disentangle the memory and language capabilities of the famous amnesic patient H. M. Here, we present an original linguistic analysis of H. M. based on empirical data drawing upon novel spoken discourse with him. The results did not uncover the language deficits noted previously. Instead, H. M.'s…

Frequency Discrimination Deficits in People with Specific Language Impairment: Reliability, Validity, and Linguistic Correlates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McArthur, G. M.; Bishop, D. V. M.

2004-01-01

The reliability and validity of a frequency discrimination (FD) task were tested in 16 people with specific language impairment (SLI) and 16 people with normal spoken language (controls). The FD thresholds of the 2 groups indicated that FD thresholds for 25-ms and 250-ms tones were remarkably stable across 18 months. The FD thresholds were lower…

AG Bell Academy Certification Program for Listening and Spoken Language Specialists: Meeting a World-Wide Need for Qualified Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldberg, Donald M.; Dickson, Cheryl L.; Flexer, Carol

2010-01-01

This article discusses the AG Bell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language--an organization designed to build capacity of certified Listening and Spoken Language Specialists (LSLS) by defining and maintaining a set of professional standards for LSLS professionals and thereby addressing the global deficit of qualified LSLS. Definitions and…

Phonological Working Memory Impairments in Children with Specific Language Impairment: Where Does the Problem Lie?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alt, Mary

2011-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine which factors contribute to the lexical learning deficits of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Participants included 40 7-8-year old participants, half of whom were diagnosed with SLI and half of whom had normal language skills. We tested hypotheses about the contributions…

Articulating a Deficit Perspective: A Survey of the Attitudes of Post-Primary English Language Support Teachers and Coordinators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyons, Zachary

2010-01-01

Issues related to supporting the language of schooling have become important social and educational policy concerns in Ireland. This article reports on a three-year investigation of the micro-climate of English language support provision in 70 post-primary schools since 2007 and highlights potential points of leverage in the educational system for…

Pragmatic Language Impairment and Social Deficits in Williams Syndrome: A Comparison with Down's Syndrome and Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laws, Glynis; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2003-01-01

The social communication strength of individuals with Williams syndrome described by some researchers contrasts with the picture of social difficulties painted by others. To study the pragmatic aspects of language, social relationships and unusual interests in a group of children and adults with Williams syndrome, and to compare them with a group…

Working, declarative and procedural memory in specific language impairment

PubMed Central

Lum, Jarrad A.G.; Conti-Ramsden, Gina; Page, Debra; Ullman, Michael T.

2012-01-01

According to the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH), abnormalities of brain structures underlying procedural memory largely explain the language deficits in children with specific language impairment (SLI). These abnormalities are posited to result in core deficits of procedural memory, which in turn explain the grammar problems in the disorder. The abnormalities are also likely to lead to problems with other, non-procedural functions, such as working memory, that rely at least partly on the affected brain structures. In contrast, declarative memory is expected to remain largely intact, and should play an important compensatory role for grammar. These claims were tested by examining measures of working, declarative and procedural memory in 51 children with SLI and 51 matched typically-developing (TD) children (mean age 10). Working memory was assessed with the Working Memory Test Battery for Children, declarative memory with the Children’s Memory Scale, and procedural memory with a visuo-spatial Serial Reaction Time task. As compared to the TD children, the children with SLI were impaired at procedural memory, even when holding working memory constant. In contrast, they were spared at declarative memory for visual information, and at declarative memory in the verbal domain after controlling for working memory and language. Visuo-spatial short-term memory was intact, whereas verbal working memory was impaired, even when language deficits were held constant. Correlation analyses showed neither visuo-spatial nor verbal working memory was associated with either lexical or grammatical abilities in either the SLI or TD children. Declarative memory correlated with lexical abilities in both groups of children. Finally, grammatical abilities were associated with procedural memory in the TD children, but with declarative memory in the children with SLI. These findings replicate and extend previous studies of working, declarative and procedural memory in SLI. Overall, we suggest that the evidence largely supports the predictions of the PDH. PMID:21774923

Congenital amusia in speakers of a tone language: association with lexical tone agnosia.

PubMed

Nan, Yun; Sun, Yanan; Peretz, Isabelle

2010-09-01

Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic disorder that affects the processing of musical pitch in speakers of non-tonal languages like English and French. We assessed whether this musical disorder exists among speakers of Mandarin Chinese who use pitch to alter the meaning of words. Using the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, we tested 117 healthy young Mandarin speakers with no self-declared musical problems and 22 individuals who reported musical difficulties and scored two standard deviations below the mean obtained by the Mandarin speakers without amusia. These 22 amusic individuals showed a similar pattern of musical impairment as did amusic speakers of non-tonal languages, by exhibiting a more pronounced deficit in melody than in rhythm processing. Furthermore, nearly half the tested amusics had impairments in the discrimination and identification of Mandarin lexical tones. Six showed marked impairments, displaying what could be called lexical tone agnosia, but had normal tone production. Our results show that speakers of tone languages such as Mandarin may experience musical pitch disorder despite early exposure to speech-relevant pitch contrasts. The observed association between the musical disorder and lexical tone difficulty indicates that the pitch disorder as defining congenital amusia is not specific to music or culture but is rather general in nature.

The sounds of silence: language, cognition, and anxiety in selective mutism.

PubMed

Manassis, Katharina; Tannock, Rosemary; Garland, E Jane; Minde, Klaus; McInnes, Alison; Clark, Sandra

2007-09-01

To determine whether oral language, working memory, and social anxiety differentiate children with selective mutism (SM), children with anxiety disorders (ANX), and normal controls (NCs) and explore predictors of mutism severity. Children ages 6 to 10 years with SM (n = 44) were compared with children with ANX (n = 28) and NCs (n = 19) of similar age on standardized measures of language, nonverbal working memory, and social anxiety. Variables correlating with mutism severity were entered in stepwise regressions to determine predictors of mute behavior in SM. Children with SM scored significantly lower on standardized language measures than children with ANX and NCs and showed greater visual memory deficits and social anxiety relative to these two groups. Age and receptive grammar ability predicted less severe mutism, whereas social anxiety predicted more severe mutism. These factors accounted for 38% of the variance in mutism severity. Social anxiety and language deficits are evident in SM, may predict mutism severity, and should be evaluated in clinical assessment. Replication is indicated, as are further studies of cognition and of intervention in SM, using large, diverse samples.

Distinct frontal regions for processing sentence syntax and story grammar.

PubMed

Sirigu, A; Cohen, L; Zalla, T; Pradat-Diehl, P; Van Eeckhout, P; Grafman, J; Agid, Y

1998-12-01

Time is a fundamental dimension of cognition. It is expressed in the sequential ordering of individual elements in a wide variety of activities such as language, motor control or in the broader domain of long range goal-directed actions. Several studies have shown the importance of the frontal lobes in sequencing information. The question addressed in this study is whether this brain region hosts a single supramodal sequence processor, or whether separate mechanisms are required for different kinds of temporally organised knowledge structures such as syntax and action knowledge. Here we show that so-called agrammatic patients, with lesions in Broca's area, ordered word groups correctly to form a logical sequence of actions but they were severely impaired when similar word groups had to be ordered as a syntactically well-formed sentence. The opposite performance was observed in patients with dorsolateral prefrontal lesions, that is, while their syntactic processing was intact at the sentence level, they demonstrated a pronounced deficit in producing temporally coherent sequences of actions. Anatomical reconstruction of lesions from brain scans revealed that the sentence and action grammar deficits involved distinct, non-overlapping sites within the frontal lobes. Finally, in a third group of patients whose lesions encompassed both Broca's area and the prefrontal cortex, the two types of deficits were found. We conclude that sequence processing is specific to knowledge domains and involves different networks within the frontal lobes.

Speech Recognition in Noise by Children with and without Dyslexia: How is it Related to Reading?

PubMed

Nittrouer, Susan; Krieg, Letitia M; Lowenstein, Joanna H

2018-06-01

Developmental dyslexia is commonly viewed as a phonological deficit that makes it difficult to decode written language. But children with dyslexia typically exhibit other problems, as well, including poor speech recognition in noise. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the speech-in-noise problems of children with dyslexia are related to their reading problems, and if so, if a common underlying factor might explain both. The specific hypothesis examined was that a spectral processing disorder results in these children receiving smeared signals, which could explain both the diminished sensitivity to phonological structure - leading to reading problems - and the speech recognition in noise difficulties. The alternative hypothesis tested in this study was that children with dyslexia simply have broadly based language deficits. Ninety-seven children between the ages of 7 years; 10 months and 12 years; 9 months participated: 46 with dyslexia and 51 without dyslexia. Children were tested on two dependent measures: word reading and recognition in noise with two types of sentence materials: as unprocessed (UP) signals, and as spectrally smeared (SM) signals. Data were collected for four predictor variables: phonological awareness, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and digit span. Children with dyslexia showed deficits on both dependent and all predictor variables. Their scores for speech recognition in noise were poorer than those of children without dyslexia for both the UP and SM signals, but by equivalent amounts across signal conditions indicating that they were not disproportionately hindered by spectral distortion. Correlation analyses on scores from children with dyslexia showed that reading ability and speech-in-noise recognition were only mildly correlated, and each skill was related to different underlying abilities. No substantial evidence was found to support the suggestion that the reading and speech recognition in noise problems of children with dyslexia arise from a single factor that could be defined as a spectral processing disorder. The reading and speech recognition in noise deficits of these children appeared to be largely independent. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Further understanding of complex information processing in verbal adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Williams, Diane L; Minshew, Nancy J; Goldstein, Gerald

2015-10-01

More than 20 years ago, Minshew and colleagues proposed the Complex Information Processing model of autism in which the impairment is characterized as a generalized deficit involving multiple modalities and cognitive domains that depend on distributed cortical systems responsible for higher order abilities. Subsequent behavioral work revealed a related dissociation between concept formation and concept identification in autism suggesting the lack of an underlying organizational structure to manage increases in processing loads. The results of a recent study supported the impact of this relative weakness in conceptual reasoning on adaptive functioning in children and adults with autism. In this study, we provide further evidence of the difficulty relatively able older adolescents and adults with autism have with conceptual reasoning and provide evidence that this characterizes their difference from age- and ability-matched controls with typical development better than their differences in language. For verbal adults with autism, language may serve as a bootstrap or compensatory mechanism for learning but cannot overcome an inherent weakness in concept formation that makes information processing challenging as task demands increase. © The Author(s) 2015.

Comparisons of Social Competence in Young Children With and Without Hearing Loss: A Dynamic Systems Framework

PubMed Central

Hoffman, Michael F.; Quittner, Alexandra L.; Cejas, Ivette

2015-01-01

This study compared levels of social competence and language development in 74 young children with hearing loss and 38 hearing peers aged 2.5–5.3 years. This study was the first to examine the relationship between oral language and social competence using a dynamic systems framework in children with and without hearing loss. We hypothesized that, due to deficits in oral language, children who were deaf would display lower levels of social competence than their hearing peers. Furthermore, language age would predict social competence scores. Social competence was measured with a general and deaf-specific measure. Results showed that children with hearing loss performed significantly worse than hearing peers on the general measure but better than the norms on the deaf-specific measure. Controlling for maternal education and income, regression analyses indicated that hearing status and language age predicted social competence in both groups. Among children with hearing loss, correlations were also found between age at diagnosis, age at amplification, and two of the general social competence measures. Results supported our hypothesis that deficits in language would have cascading negative effects on the development of social competence in young deaf children. Development of early intervention programs that target both language and social skills are needed for this population. PMID:25583707

Baseline Performance Predicts tDCS-Mediated Improvements in Language Symptoms in Primary Progressive Aphasia

PubMed Central

McConathey, Eric M.; White, Nicole C.; Gervits, Felix; Ash, Sherry; Coslett, H. Branch; Grossman, Murray; Hamilton, Roy H.

2017-01-01

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by insidious irreversible loss of language abilities. Prior studies suggest that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) directed toward language areas of the brain may help to ameliorate symptoms of PPA. In the present sham-controlled study, we examined whether tDCS could be used to enhance language abilities (e.g., picture naming) in individuals with PPA variants primarily characterized by difficulties with speech production (non-fluent and logopenic). Participants were recruited from the Penn Frontotemporal Dementia Center to receive 10 days of both real and sham tDCS (counter-balanced, full-crossover design; participants were naïve to stimulation condition). A battery of language tests was administered at baseline, immediately post-tDCS (real and sham), and 6 weeks and 12 weeks following stimulation. When we accounted for individuals’ baseline performance, our analyses demonstrated a stratification of tDCS effects. Individuals who performed worse at baseline showed tDCS-related improvements in global language performance, grammatical comprehension and semantic processing. Individuals who performed better at baseline showed a slight tDCS-related benefit on our speech repetition metric. Real tDCS may improve language performance in some individuals with PPA. Severity of deficits at baseline may be an important factor in predicting which patients will respond positively to language-targeted tDCS therapies. Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT02928848 PMID:28713256

Language Deficits in a Bilingual Child with Cerebral Cysticercosis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMenamin, Jerry

1984-01-01

Presents a case report of cysticercosis (a parasitic infestation which results in inflammation of the brain, eye, muscles, liver, and lung tissues) and the resulting language pathology in a nine-year-old Mexican American girl who is bilingual in Spanish and English. (SED)

Comorbidities in Preschool Children at Family Risk of Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gooch, Debbie; Hulme, Charles; Nash, Hannah M.; Snowling, Margaret J.

2014-01-01

Background: Comorbidity among developmental disorders such as dyslexia, language impairment, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental coordination disorder is common. This study explores comorbid weaknesses in preschool children at family risk of dyslexia with and without language impairment and considers the role that…

Crosslinguistic application of English-centric rhythm descriptors in motor speech disorders.

PubMed

Liss, Julie M; Utianski, Rene; Lansford, Kaitlin

2013-01-01

Rhythmic disturbances are a hallmark of motor speech disorders, in which the motor control deficits interfere with the outward flow of speech and by extension speech understanding. As the functions of rhythm are language-specific, breakdowns in rhythm should have language-specific consequences for communication. The goals of this paper are to (i) provide a review of the cognitive-linguistic role of rhythm in speech perception in a general sense and crosslinguistically; (ii) present new results of lexical segmentation challenges posed by different types of dysarthria in American English, and (iii) offer a framework for crosslinguistic considerations for speech rhythm disturbances in the diagnosis and treatment of communication disorders associated with motor speech disorders. This review presents theoretical and empirical reasons for considering speech rhythm as a critical component of communication deficits in motor speech disorders, and addresses the need for crosslinguistic research to explore language-universal versus language-specific aspects of motor speech disorders. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Crosslinguistic Application of English-Centric Rhythm Descriptors in Motor Speech Disorders

PubMed Central

Liss, Julie M.; Utianski, Rene; Lansford, Kaitlin

2014-01-01

Background Rhythmic disturbances are a hallmark of motor speech disorders, in which the motor control deficits interfere with the outward flow of speech and by extension speech understanding. As the functions of rhythm are language-specific, breakdowns in rhythm should have language-specific consequences for communication. Objective The goals of this paper are to (i) provide a review of the cognitive- linguistic role of rhythm in speech perception in a general sense and crosslinguistically; (ii) present new results of lexical segmentation challenges posed by different types of dysarthria in American English, and (iii) offer a framework for crosslinguistic considerations for speech rhythm disturbances in the diagnosis and treatment of communication disorders associated with motor speech disorders. Summary This review presents theoretical and empirical reasons for considering speech rhythm as a critical component of communication deficits in motor speech disorders, and addresses the need for crosslinguistic research to explore language-universal versus language-specific aspects of motor speech disorders. PMID:24157596

Motor development and motor resonance difficulties in autism: relevance to early intervention for language and communication skills

PubMed Central

McCleery, Joseph P.; Elliott, Natasha A.; Sampanis, Dimitrios S.; Stefanidou, Chrysi A.

2013-01-01

Research suggests that a sub-set of children with autism experience notable difficulties and delays in motor skills development, and that a large percentage of children with autism experience deficits in motor resonance. These motor-related deficiencies, which evidence suggests are present from a very early age, are likely to negatively affect social-communicative and language development in this population. Here, we review evidence for delayed, impaired, and atypical motor development in infants and children with autism. We then carefully review and examine the current language and communication-based intervention research that is relevant to motor and motor resonance (i.e., neural “mirroring” mechanisms activated when we observe the actions of others) deficits in children with autism. Finally, we describe research needs and future directions and developments for early interventions aimed at addressing the speech/language and social-communication development difficulties in autism from a motor-related perspective. PMID:23630476

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children - Working Memory (CABC-WM).

PubMed

Cabbage, Kathryn; Brinkley, Shara; Gray, Shelley; Alt, Mary; Cowan, Nelson; Green, Samuel; Kuo, Trudy; Hogan, Tiffany P

2017-06-12

The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children - Working Memory (CABC-WM) is a computer-based battery designed to assess different components of working memory in young school-age children. Working memory deficits have been identified in children with language-based learning disabilities, including dyslexia 1 , 2 and language impairment 3 , 4 , but it is not clear whether these children exhibit deficits in subcomponents of working memory, such as visuospatial or phonological working memory. The CABC-WM is administered on a desktop computer with a touchscreen interface and was specifically developed to be engaging and motivating for children. Although the long-term goal of the CABC-WM is to provide individualized working memory profiles in children, the present study focuses on the initial success and utility of the CABC-WM for measuring central executive, visuospatial, phonological loop, and binding constructs in children with typical development. Immediate next steps are to administer the CABC-WM to children with specific language impairment, dyslexia, and comorbid specific language impairment and dyslexia.

Psychosocial Outcomes in Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users.

PubMed

Castellanos, Irina; Kronenberger, William G; Pisoni, David B

The objectives of this study were to investigate psychosocial outcomes in a sample of prelingually deaf, early-implanted children, adolescents, and young adults who are long-term cochlear implant (CI) users and to examine the extent to which language and executive functioning predict psychosocial outcomes. Psychosocial outcomes were measured using two well-validated, parent-completed checklists: the Behavior Assessment System for Children and the Conduct Hyperactive Attention Problem Oppositional Symptom. Neurocognitive skills were measured using gold standard, performance-based assessments of language and executive functioning. CI users were at greater risk for clinically significant deficits in areas related to attention, oppositional behavior, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and social-adaptive skills compared with their normal-hearing peers, although the majority of CI users scored within average ranges relative to Behavior Assessment System for Children norms. Regression analyses revealed that language, visual-spatial working memory, and inhibition-concentration skills predicted psychosocial outcomes. Findings suggest that underlying delays and deficits in language and executive functioning may place some CI users at a risk for difficulties in psychosocial adjustment.

Benefits of deep encoding in Alzheimer disease. Analysis of performance on a memory task using the Item Specific Deficit Approach.

PubMed

Oltra-Cucarella, J; Pérez-Elvira, R; Duque, P

2014-06-01

the aim of this study is to test the encoding deficit hypothesis in Alzheimer disease (AD) using a recent method for correcting memory tests. To this end, a Spanish-language adaptation of the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test was interpreted using the Item Specific Deficit Approach (ISDA), which provides three indices: Encoding Deficit Index, Consolidation Deficit Index, and Retrieval Deficit Index. We compared the performances of 15 patients with AD and 20 healthy control subjects and analysed results using either the task instructions or the ISDA approach. patients with AD displayed deficient encoding of more than half the information, but items that were encoded properly could be retrieved later with the help of the same semantic clues provided individually during encoding. Virtually all the information retained over the long-term was retrieved by using semantic clues. Encoding was shown to be the most impaired process, followed by retrieval and consolidation. Discriminant function analyses showed that ISDA indices are more sensitive and specific for detecting memory impairments in AD than are raw scores. These results indicate that patients with AD present impaired information encoding, but they benefit from semantic hints that help them recover previously learned information. This should be taken into account for intervention techniques focusing on memory impairments in AD. Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Changes in language white matter tract microarchitecture associated with cognitive deficits in patients with presumed low-grade glioma.

PubMed

Incekara, Fatih; Satoer, Djaina; Visch-Brink, Evy; Vincent, Arnaud; Smits, Marion

2018-06-08

OBJECTIVE The authors conducted a study to determine whether cognitive functioning of patients with presumed low-grade glioma is associated with white matter (WM) tract changes. METHODS The authors included 77 patients with presumed low-grade glioma who underwent awake surgery between 2005 and 2013. Diffusion tensor imaging with deterministic tractography was performed preoperatively to identify the arcuate, inferior frontooccipital, and uncinate fasciculi and to obtain the mean fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity per tract. All patients were evaluated preoperatively using an extensive neuropsychological protocol that included assessments of the language, memory, and attention/executive function domains. Linear regression models were used to analyze each cognitive domain and each diffusion tensor imaging metric of the 3 WM tracts. RESULTS Significant correlations (corrected for multiple testing) were found between FA of the arcuate fasciculus and results of the repetition test for the language domain (β = 0.59, p < 0.0001) and between FA of the inferior frontooccipital fasciculus and results of the imprinting test for the memory domain (β = -0.55, p = 0.002) and the attention test for the attention and executive function domain (β = -0.62, p = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS In patients with glioma, language deficits in repetition of speech, imprinting, and attention deficits are associated with changes in the microarchitecture of the arcuate and inferior frontooccipital fasciculi.

Precursors of developmental dyslexia: an overview of the longitudinal Dutch Dyslexia Programme study.

PubMed

van der Leij, Aryan; van Bergen, Elsje; van Zuijen, Titia; de Jong, Peter; Maurits, Natasha; Maassen, Ben

2013-11-01

Converging evidence suggests that developmental dyslexia is a neurobiological disorder, characterized by deficits in the auditory, visual, and linguistic domains. In the longitudinal project of the Dutch Dyslexia Programme, 180 children with a familial risk of dyslexia (FR) and a comparison group of 120 children without FR (noFR) were followed from the age of 2 months up to 9 years. Children were assessed on (1) auditory, speech, and visual event-related potentials every half year between 2 and 41 months; (2) expressive and receptive language, motor development, behaviour problems, and home-literacy environment by questionnaires at the age of 2 and 3; (3) speech-language and cognitive development from 47 months onwards; and (4) preliteracy and subskills of reading, and reading development during kindergarten and Grades 2 and 3. With regard to precursors of reading disability, first analyses showed specific differences between FR and noFR children in neurophysiological, cognitive, and early language measures. Once reading tests administered from age 7 to 9 years were available, the children were divided into three groups: FR children with and without dyslexia, and controls. Analyses of the differences between reading groups yielded distinct profiles and developmental trajectories. On early speech and visual processing, and several cognitive measures, performance of the non-dyslexic FR group differed from the dyslexic FR group and controls, indicating continuity of the influence of familial risk. Parental reading and rapid naming skills appeared to indicate their offspring's degree of familial risk. Furthermore, on rapid naming and nonverbal IQ, the non-dyslexic FR group performed similarly to the controls, suggesting protective factors. There are indications of differences between the FR and control groups, irrespective of reading outcome. These results contribute to the distinction between the deficits correlated to dyslexia as a manifest reading disorder and deficits correlated to familial risk only. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Why is joint attention a pivotal skill in autism?

PubMed Central

Charman, Tony

2003-01-01

Joint attention abilities play a crucial role in the development of autism. Impairments in joint attention are among the earliest signs of the disorder and joint attention skills relate to outcome, both in the 'natural course' of autism and through being targeted in early intervention programmes. In the current study, concurrent and longitudinal associations between joint attention and other social communication abilities measured in a sample of infants with autism and related pervasive developmental disorders at age 20 months, and language and symptom severity at age 42 months, were examined. Extending the findings from previous studies, joint attention ability was positively associated with language gains and (lower) social and communication symptoms, and imitation ability was also positively associated with later language. Some specificity in the association between different aspects of joint attention behaviours and outcome was found: declarative, triadic gaze switching predicted language and symptom severity but imperative, dyadic eye contact behaviours did not. Further, although joint attention was associated with later social and language symptoms it was unrelated to repetitive and stereotyped symptoms, suggesting the latter may have a separate developmental trajectory. Possible deficits in psychological and neurological processes that might underlie the impaired development of joint attention in autism are discussed. PMID:12639329

Perspectives on the rhythm-grammar link and its implications for typical and atypical language development.

PubMed

Gordon, Reyna L; Jacobs, Magdalene S; Schuele, C Melanie; McAuley, J Devin

2015-03-01

This paper reviews the mounting evidence for shared cognitive mechanisms and neural resources for rhythm and grammar. Evidence for a role of rhythm skills in language development and language comprehension is reviewed here in three lines of research: (1) behavioral and brain data from adults and children, showing that prosody and other aspects of timing of sentences influence online morpho-syntactic processing; (2) comorbidity of impaired rhythm with grammatical deficits in children with language impairment; and (3) our recent work showing a strong positive association between rhythm perception skills and expressive grammatical skills in young school-age children with typical development. Our preliminary follow-up study presented here revealed that musical rhythm perception predicted variance in 6-year-old children's production of complex syntax, as well as online reorganization of grammatical information (transformation); these data provide an additional perspective on the hierarchical relations potentially shared by rhythm and grammar. A theoretical framework for shared cognitive resources for the role of rhythm in perceiving and learning grammatical structure is elaborated on in light of potential implications for using rhythm-emphasized musical training to improve language skills in children. © 2015 New York Academy of Sciences.