Speech and language development in 2-year-old children with cerebral palsy.

PubMed

Hustad, Katherine C; Allison, Kristen; McFadd, Emily; Riehle, Katherine

2014-06-01

We examined early speech and language development in children who had cerebral palsy. Questions addressed whether children could be classified into early profile groups on the basis of speech and language skills and whether there were differences on selected speech and language measures among groups. Speech and language assessments were completed on 27 children with CP who were between the ages of 24 and 30 months (mean age 27.1 months; SD 1.8). We examined several measures of expressive and receptive language, along with speech intelligibility. Two-step cluster analysis was used to identify homogeneous groups of children based on their performance on the seven dependent variables characterizing speech and language performance. Three groups of children identified were those not yet talking (44% of the sample); those whose talking abilities appeared to be emerging (41% of the sample); and those who were established talkers (15% of the sample). Group differences were evident on all variables except receptive language skills. 85% of 2-year-old children with CP in this study had clinical speech and/or language delays relative to age expectations. Findings suggest that children with CP should receive speech and language assessment and treatment at or before 2 years of age.

Psychometric Evaluation of Lexical Diversity Indices: Assessing Length Effects.

PubMed

Fergadiotis, Gerasimos; Wright, Heather Harris; Green, Samuel B

2015-06-01

Several novel techniques have been developed recently to assess the breadth of a speaker's vocabulary exhibited in a language sample. The specific aim of this study was to increase our understanding of the validity of the scores generated by different lexical diversity (LD) estimation techniques. Four techniques were explored: D, Maas, measure of textual lexical diversity, and moving-average type-token ratio. Four LD indices were estimated for language samples on 4 discourse tasks (procedures, eventcasts, story retell, and recounts) from 442 adults who are neurologically intact. The resulting data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The scores for measure of textual lexical diversity and moving-average type-token ratio were stronger indicators of the LD of the language samples. The results for the other 2 techniques were consistent with the presence of method factors representing construct-irrelevant sources. These findings offer a deeper understanding of the relative validity of the 4 estimation techniques and should assist clinicians and researchers in the selection of LD measures of language samples that minimize construct-irrelevant sources.

Pronounceability: a measure of language samples based on children's mastery of the phonemes employed in them.

PubMed

Whissell, Cynthia

2003-06-01

56 samples (n > half a million phonemes) of names (e.g., men's, women's jets'), song lyrics (e.g., Paul Simon's, rap, Beatles'), poems (frequently anthologized English poems), and children's materials (books directed at children ages 3-10 years) were used to study a proposed new measure of English language samples--Pronounceability-based on children's mastery of some phonemes in advance of others. This measure was provisionally equated with greater "youthfulness" and "playfulness" in language samples and with less "maturity." Findings include the facts that women's names were less pronounceable than men's and that poetry was less pronounceable than song lyrics or children's materials. In a supplementary study, 13 university student volunteers' assessments of the youth of randomly constructed names was linearly related to how pronounceable each name was (eta = .8), providing construct validity for the interpretation of Pronounceability as a measure of Youthfulness.

Genetic and Environmental Links Between Natural Language Use and Cognitive Ability in Toddlers.

PubMed

Canfield, Caitlin F; Edelson, Lisa R; Saudino, Kimberly J

2017-03-01

Although the phenotypic correlation between language and nonverbal cognitive ability is well-documented, studies examining the etiology of the covariance between these abilities are scant, particularly in very young children. The goal of this study was to address this gap in the literature by examining the genetic and environmental links between language use, assessed through conversational language samples, and nonverbal cognition in a sample of 3-year-old twins (N = 281 pairs). Significant genetic and nonshared environmental influences were found for nonverbal cognitive ability and language measures, including mean length of utterance and number of different words, as well as significant genetic covariance between cognitive ability and both language measures. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Bayley-III: Cultural differences and language scale validity in a Danish sample.

PubMed

Krogh, Marianne T; Vaever, Mette S

2016-12-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate cultural differences between Danish and American children at 2 and 3 years as measured with the developmental test Bayley-III, and to investigate the Bayley-III Language Scale validity. The Danish children (N = 43) were tested with the Bayley-III and their parents completed an additional language questionnaire (the MacArthur-Bates CDI). Results showed that scores from the Danish children did not differ significantly from the American norms on the Cognitive or Motor Scale, but the Danish sample scored significantly higher on the Language Scale. A comparison of the Bayley-III Language subtests with the CDI showed that the two measures correlated significantly, but the percentile score from the CDI was significantly higher than the percentile score from the Bayley-III Language subtests. This could be because the two instruments measure slightly different areas of language development, or because the Bayley-III overestimates language development in Danish children. However, due to the limitations of the current study, further research is needed to clarify this issue. © 2016 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The reliability of a severity rating scale to measure stuttering in an unfamiliar language.

PubMed

Hoffman, Laura; Wilson, Linda; Copley, Anna; Hewat, Sally; Lim, Valerie

2014-06-01

With increasing multiculturalism, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are likely to work with stuttering clients from linguistic backgrounds that differ from their own. No research to date has estimated SLPs' reliability when measuring severity of stuttering in an unfamiliar language. Therefore, this study was undertaken to estimate the reliability of SLPs' use of a 9-point severity rating (SR) scale, to measure severity of stuttering in a language that was different from their own. Twenty-six Australian SLPs rated 20 speech samples (10 Australian English [AE] and 10 Mandarin) of adults who stutter using a 9-point SR scale on two separate occasions. Judges showed poor agreement when using the scale to measure stuttering in Mandarin samples. Results also indicated that 50% of individual judges were unable to reliably measure the severity of stuttering in AE. The results highlight the need for (a) SLPs to develop intra- and inter-judge agreement when using the 9-point SR scale to measure severity of stuttering in their native language (in this case AE) and in unfamiliar languages; and (b) research into the development and evaluation of practice and/or training packages to assist SLPs to do so.

Speech and Language Development in 2 Year Old Children with Cerebral Palsy

PubMed Central

Hustad, Katherine C.; Allison, Kristen; McFadd, Emily; Riehle, Katherine

2013-01-01

Objective We examined early speech and language development in children who had cerebral palsy. Questions addressed whether children could be classified into early profile groups on the basis of speech and language skills and whether there were differences on selected speech and language measures among groups. Methods Speech and language assessments were completed on 27 children with CP who were between the ages of 24-30 months (mean age 27.1 months; SD 1.8). We examined several measures of expressive and receptive language, along with speech intelligibility. Results 2-step cluster analysis was used to identify homogeneous groups of children based on their performance on the 7 dependent variables characterizing speech and language performance. Three groups of children identified were those not yet talking (44% of the sample); those whose talking abilities appeared to be emerging (41% of the sample); and those who were established talkers (15% of the sample). Group differences were evident on all variables except receptive language skills. Conclusion 85% of 2 year old children with CP in this study had clinical speech and /or language delays relative to age expectations. Findings suggest that children with CP should receive speech and language assessment and treatment to identify and treat those with delays at or before 2 years of age. PMID:23627373

Development and validation of the Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS).

PubMed

Smyk, Ekaterina; Restrepo, M Adelaida; Gorin, Joanna S; Gray, Shelley

2013-07-01

This study examined the development and validation of a criterion-referenced Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS) that was designed to assess the oral language skills of sequential bilingual children ages 4-8. This article reports results for the English proficiency portion of the scale. The SELPS assesses syntactic complexity, grammatical accuracy, verbal fluency, and lexical diversity based on 2 story retell tasks. In Study 1, 40 children were given 2 story retell tasks to evaluate the reliability of parallel forms. In Study 2, 76 children participated in the validation of the scale against language sample measures and teacher ratings of language proficiency. Study 1 indicated no significant differences between the SELPS scores on the 2 stories. Study 2 indicated that the SELPS scores correlated significantly with their counterpart language sample measures. Correlations between the SELPS and teacher ratings were moderate. The 2 story retells elicited comparable SELPS scores, providing a valuable tool for test-retest conditions in the assessment of language proficiency. Correlations between the SELPS scores and external variables indicated that these measures assessed the same language skills. Results provided empirical evidence regarding the validity of inferences about language proficiency based on the SELPS score.

Grammatical Language Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Exploring Language Phenotypes Beyond Standardized Testing

PubMed Central

Wittke, Kacie; Mastergeorge, Ann M.; Ozonoff, Sally; Rogers, Sally J.; Naigles, Letitia R.

2017-01-01

Linguistic and cognitive abilities manifest huge heterogeneity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some children present with commensurate language and cognitive abilities, while others show more variable patterns of development. Using spontaneous language samples, we investigate the presence and extent of grammatical language impairment in a heterogeneous sample of children with ASD. Findings from our sample suggest that children with ASD can be categorized into three meaningful subgroups: those with normal language, those with marked difficulty in grammatical production but relatively intact vocabulary, and those with more globally low language abilities. These findings support the use of sensitive assessment measures to evaluate language in autism, as well as the utility of within-disorder comparisons, in order to comprehensively define the various cognitive and linguistic phenotypes in this heterogeneous disorder. PMID:28458643

Intelligence and Metacognition as Predictors of Foreign Language Achievement: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pishghadam, Reza; Khajavy, Gholam Hassan

2013-01-01

This study examined the role of metacognition and intelligence in foreign language achievement on a sample of 143 Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Participants completed Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices as a measure of intelligence, and Metacognitive Awareness Inventory as a measure of metacognition. Learners' scores at…

Linguistic analysis of discourse in aphasia: A review of the literature.

PubMed

Bryant, Lucy; Ferguson, Alison; Spencer, Elizabeth

This review examined previous research applications of linguistic discourse analysis to assess the language of adults with aphasia. A comprehensive literature search of seven databases identified 165 studies that applied linguistic measures to samples of discourse collected from people with aphasia. Analysis of methodological applications revealed an increase in published research using linguistic discourse analysis over the past 40 years, particularly to measure the generalisation of therapy outcomes to language in use. Narrative language samples were most frequently subject to analysis though all language genres were observed across included studies. A total of 536 different linguistic measures were applied to examine language behaviours. Growth in the research use of linguistic discourse analysis and suggestions that this growth may be reflected in clinical practice requires further investigation. Future research directions are discussed to investigate clinical use of discourse analysis and examine the differences that exist between research and clinical practice.

Volubility as a Mediator in the Associations between Conversational Language Measures and Child Temperament

PubMed Central

DeThorne, Laura Segebart; Deater-Deckard, Kirby; Mahurin-Smith, Jamie; Coletto, Mary-Kelsey; Petrill, Stephen A.

2015-01-01

Background Despite support for the use of conversational language measures, concerns remain regarding the extent to which they may be confounded with aspects of child temperament, extraversion in particular. Aims This study of 161 twins from the Western Reserve Reading Project (WRRP) examined the associations between children’s conversational language use and three key aspects of child temperament: Surgency (i.e., introversion/extraversion), Effortful Control (i.e., attention and task persistence), and Negative Affectivity (e.g., fear, anger, sadness). Child biological sex was considered as a possible moderating factor. Methods & Procedures Correlational analyses were conducted between aspects of temperament during early school-age years (i.e., 7 to 8 yrs), as measured by the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire-Short Form (CBQ; Putnam & Rothbart, 2006), and six different measures of children’s conversational language use: total number of complete and intelligible utterances (TCICU), number of total words (NTW), mean length of utterance (MLU), total number of conjunctions (TNC), number of different words (NDW), and measure D (i.e., a measure of lexical diversity). Values for NTW, TNC, and NDW were derived both on the entire sample and on the first 100 C-units. Correlations between language and temperament were compared between girls and boys using the Fisher r-to-z transformation to examine the significance of potential moderating effects. Outcomes & Results Children’s reported variability in Effortful Control did not correlate significantly with any of the child language measures. In contrast, children’s Negative Affectivity and Surgency tended to demonstrate positive, albeit modest, correlations with those conversational language measures that were derived from the sample as a whole, rather than from a standardized number of utterances. MLU, as well as measures of NDW and NTW derived from standardized sample lengths of 100 C-units, did not correlate with any measure of child temperament. TNC demonstrated an unexpected negative correlation with child Surgency when it was derived from a standardized number of C-units but not when derived from the entire sample length. Child biological sex did not moderate the significant associations between language and temperament measures. Conclusions & Implications Overall, measures that control for volubility did not correlate significantly with child temperament; however, measures that reflected volubility tended to correlate weakly with some aspects of temperament, particularly Surgency. Results provide a degree of discriminant evidence for the validity of MLU and measures of type (i.e., NDW) and token use (i.e., NTW) when derived from a standardized number of utterances. PMID:22026571

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…

Validation of the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication under Six outcome measure

PubMed Central

Thomas-Stonell, Nancy; Oddson, Bruce; Robertson, Bernadette; Rosenbaum, Peter

2013-01-01

Aim The aim of this study was to establish the construct validity of the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS©),a tool designed to measure changes in communication skills in preschool children. Method Participating families' children (n=97; 68 males, 29 females; mean age 2y 8mo; SD 1.04y, range 10mo–4y 11mo) were recruited through eight Canadian organizations. The children were on a waiting list for speech and language intervention. Parents completed the Ages and Stages Questionnaire – Social/Emotional (ASQ-SE) and the FOCUS three times: at assessment and at the start and end of treatment. A second sample (n=28; 16 males 12 females) was recruited from another organization to correlate the FOCUS scores with speech, intelligibility and language measures. Second sample participants ranged in age from 3 years 1 month to 4 years 9 months (mean 3y 11mo; SD 0.41y). At the start and end of treatment, children were videotaped to obtain speech and language samples. Parents and speech–language pathologists (SLPs) independently completed the FOCUS tool. SLPs who were blind to the pre/post order of the videotapes analysed the samples. Results The FOCUS measured significantly more change (p<0.01) during treatment than during the waiting list period. It demonstrated both convergent and discriminant validity against the ASQ-SE. The FOCUS change corresponded to change measured by a combination of clinical speech and language measures (κ=0.31, p<0.05). Conclusion The FOCUS shows strong construct validity as a change-detecting instrument. PMID:23461266

Cross-Language Measurement Equivalence of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale in Systemic Sclerosis: A Comparison of Canadian and Dutch Patients

PubMed Central

Kwakkenbos, Linda; Arthurs, Erin; van den Hoogen, Frank H. J.; Hudson, Marie; van Lankveld, Wim G. J. M.; Baron, Murray; van den Ende, Cornelia H. M.; Thombs, Brett D.

2013-01-01

Objectives Increasingly, medical research involves patients who complete outcomes in different languages. This occurs in countries with more than one common language, such as Canada (French/English) or the United States (Spanish/English), as well as in international multi-centre collaborations, which are utilized frequently in rare diseases such as systemic sclerosis (SSc). In order to pool or compare outcomes, instruments should be measurement equivalent (invariant) across cultural or linguistic groups. This study provides an example of how to assess cross-language measurement equivalence by comparing the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale between English-speaking Canadian and Dutch SSc patients. Methods The CES-D was completed by 922 English-speaking Canadian and 213 Dutch SSc patients. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess the factor structure in both samples. The Multiple-Indicator Multiple-Cause (MIMIC) model was utilized to assess the amount of differential item functioning (DIF). Results A two-factor model (positive and negative affect) showed excellent fit in both samples. Statistically significant, but small-magnitude, DIF was found for 3 of 20 items on the CES-D. The English-speaking Canadian sample endorsed more feeling-related symptoms, whereas the Dutch sample endorsed more somatic/retarded activity symptoms. The overall estimate in depression scores between English and Dutch was not influenced substantively by DIF. Conclusions CES-D scores from English-speaking Canadian and Dutch SSc patients can be compared and pooled without concern that measurement differences may substantively influence results. The importance of assessing cross-language measurement equivalence in rheumatology studies prior to pooling outcomes obtained in different languages should be emphasized. PMID:23326538

AAC Language Activity Monitoring: Entering the New Millennium.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Katya; Romich, Barry

This report describes how augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) automated language activity monitoring can provide clinicians with the tools they need to collect and analyze language samples from the natural environment of children with disabilities for clinical intervention and outcomes measurements. The Language Activity Monitor (LAM)…

Failure to replicate the structure of a Spanish-language brief Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives across three samples of Latino smokers.

PubMed

Castro, Yessenia; Correa-Fernández, Virmarie; Cano, Miguel Á; Mazas, Carlos; Gonzalez, Karla; Vidrine, Damon J; Vidrine, Jennifer I; Wetter, David W

2014-09-01

Research in smoking is hindered by a lack of validated measures available in languages other than English. Availability of measures in languages other than English is vital to the inclusion of diverse groups in smoking research. To help address this gap, this study attempted to validate a Spanish-language version of the brief Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives (Brief WISDM). Data from 3 independent, diverse samples of Spanish-speaking Latino smokers seeking cessation counseling were utilized. Confirmatory factor analyses of 3 known structures of the Brief WISDM were examined for fit within each sample. A separate analysis was also conducted with the 3 samples combined. A post-hoc exploratory factor analyses with the combined sample was also conducted. Across 12 confirmatory factor analyses, none of the 3 structures demonstrated good fit in any of the samples independently or in the combined sample. Across the 3 samples, high intercorrelations (>.90) were found among the Loss of Control, Craving, Tolerance, and Cue Exposure scales, suggesting great redundancy among these scales. An exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) further supported these high intercorrelations. Some subscales remained intact in the EFA but accounted for little variance. Overall, this study was unable to replicate the structure of a Spanish-language Brief WISDM in 3 independent samples of smokers. Possible explanations include inadequate translation of the measure and/or true and meaningful differences in the construct of dependence among Spanish-speaking Latino smokers. Both possibilities merit further research. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Using Language Sample Analysis in Clinical Practice: Measures of Grammatical Accuracy for Identifying Language Impairment in Preschool and School-Aged Children.

PubMed

Eisenberg, Sarita; Guo, Ling-Yu

2016-05-01

This article reviews the existing literature on the diagnostic accuracy of two grammatical accuracy measures for differentiating children with and without language impairment (LI) at preschool and early school age based on language samples. The first measure, the finite verb morphology composite (FVMC), is a narrow grammatical measure that computes children's overall accuracy of four verb tense morphemes. The second measure, percent grammatical utterances (PGU), is a broader grammatical measure that computes children's accuracy in producing grammatical utterances. The extant studies show that FVMC demonstrates acceptable (i.e., 80 to 89% accurate) to good (i.e., 90% accurate or higher) diagnostic accuracy for children between 4;0 (years;months) and 6;11 in conversational or narrative samples. In contrast, PGU yields acceptable to good diagnostic accuracy for children between 3;0 and 8;11 regardless of sample types. Given the diagnostic accuracy shown in the literature, we suggest that FVMC and PGU can be used as one piece of evidence for identifying children with LI in assessment when appropriate. However, FVMC or PGU should not be used as therapy goals directly. Instead, when children are low in FVMC or PGU, we suggest that follow-up analyses should be conducted to determine the verb tense morphemes or grammatical structures that children have difficulty with. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Observation of Spontaneous Expressive Language (OSEL): A New Measure for Spontaneous and Expressive Language of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Other Communication Disorders

PubMed Central

Kim, So Hyun; Junker, Dörte; Lord, Catherine

2014-01-01

A new language measure, the Observation of Spontaneous Expressive Language (OSEL), is intended to document spontaneous use of syntax, pragmatics, and semantics in 2-12-year-old children with ASD and other communication disorders with expressive language levels comparable to typical 2-5 year olds. Because the purpose of the OSEL is to provide developmental norms for use of language, the first step involves assessment of the scale’s feasibility, validity, and reliability using a sample of 180 2-5 year-old typically developing children. Pilot data from the OSEL shows strong internal consistency, high reliabilities and validity. Once replicated with a large population-based sample and in special populations, the scale should be helpful in designing appropriate interventions for children with ASD and other communication disorders. PMID:25022249

Observation of Spontaneous Expressive Language (OSEL): a new measure for spontaneous and expressive language of children with autism spectrum disorders and other communication disorders.

PubMed

Kim, So Hyun; Junker, Dörte; Lord, Catherine

2014-12-01

A new language measure, the Observation of Spontaneous Expressive Language (OSEL), is intended to document spontaneous use of syntax, pragmatics, and semantics in 2-12-year-old children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other communication disorders with expressive language levels comparable to typical 2-5 year olds. Because the purpose of the OSEL is to provide developmental norms for use of language, the first step involves assessment of the scale's feasibility, validity, and reliability using a sample of 180 2-5 year-old typically developing children. Pilot data from the OSEL shows strong internal consistency, high reliabilities and validity. Once replicated with a large population-based sample and in special populations, the scale should be helpful in designing appropriate interventions for children with ASD and other communication disorders.

Relationships between Preschoolers' Oral Language and Phonological Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hipfner-Boucher, Kathleen; Milburn, Trelani; Weitzman, Elaine; Greenberg, Janice; Pelletier, Janette; Girolametto, Luigi

2014-01-01

This study examines the relationship between complex oral language and phonological awareness in the preschool years. Specifically, the authors investigate the relationship between concurrent measures of oral narrative structure (based on measures of both story retell and generation), and measures of blending and elision in a sample of 89 children…

Developmental pathways of language and social communication problems in 9-11 year olds: unpicking the heterogeneity.

PubMed

Roy, P; Chiat, S

2014-10-01

This paper addressed relations between language, social communication and behaviour, and their trajectories, in a sample of 9-11-year-olds (n=91) who had been referred to clinical services with concerns about language as pre-schoolers. Children were first assessed at 2½-4 years, and again 18 months later. Results revealed increasing differentiation of profiles across time. By 9-11 years, 11% of the sample had social communication deficits, 27% language impairment, 20% both, and 42% neither. The size of group differences on key language and social communication measures was striking (2-3 standard deviations). Social communication deficits included autistic mannerisms and were associated with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBDs); in contrast, language impairment was associated with hyperactivity only. Children with both language and social communication problems had the most severe difficulties on all measures. These distinct school-age profiles emerged gradually. Investigation of developmental trajectories revealed that the three impaired groups did not differ significantly on language or SEBD measures when the children were first seen. Only low performance on the Early Sociocognitive Battery, a new measure of social responsiveness, joint attention and symbolic understanding, differentiated the children with and without social communication problems at 9-11 years. These findings suggest that some children who first present with language delay or difficulties have undetected Autism Spectrum Disorders which may or may not be accompanied by language impairment in the longer term. This new evidence of developmental trajectories starting in the preschool years throws further light on the nature of social communication and language problems in school-age children, relations between language impairment and SEBDs, and on the nature of early language development. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparison of narrative and expository writing in students with and without language-learning disabilities.

PubMed

Koutsoftas, Anthony D; Gray, Shelley

2012-10-01

Students with language-learning disabilities (LLD) demonstrate difficulties with written language, especially in the areas of productivity, complexity, and grammar. It is not clear how these deficits affect their performance on high-stakes tests, such as those required by the No Child Left Behind Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). This study used writing samples to compare how students with and without LLD scored on analytic writing measures that are typically used in writing research and on a more holistic measure of writing, the six-traits writing rubric (STWR; Education Northwest, 2006), which is used in high-stakes writing assessments. Fifty-six 4th and 5th graders with typical development (TD) or LLD produced 1 narrative and 1 expository writing sample. Measures of oral language ability and handwriting accuracy-speed were also obtained. The narrative and expository samples were scored using 5-6 separate analytic measures and 6 separate traits on the STWR. On narratives, the TD group scored significantly higher than the LLD group on 5 analytic measures and all 6 traits. Similarly, for expository, the TD group outscored the LLD group on 3 analytic measures and all 6 traits. Results demonstrate that the analytic scores of productivity, sentence complexity, and lexical diversity were correlated significantly with a higher overall score on the STWR for narrative writing samples only. Results of this study suggest that exclusive use of analytic scores to select treatment goals and document writing progress may not translate into increased scores on writing rubrics, particularly for expository writing samples.

Assessing Measurement Invariance for Spanish Sentence Repetition and Morphology Elicitation Tasks.

PubMed

Kapantzoglou, Maria; Thompson, Marilyn S; Gray, Shelley; Restrepo, M Adelaida

2016-04-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate evidence supporting the construct validity of two grammatical tasks (sentence repetition, morphology elicitation) included in the Spanish Screener for Language Impairment in Children (Restrepo, Gorin, & Gray, 2013). We evaluated if the tasks measured the targeted grammatical skills in the same way across predominantly Spanish-speaking children with typical language development and those with primary language impairment. A multiple-group, confirmatory factor analytic approach was applied to examine factorial invariance in a sample of 307 predominantly Spanish-speaking children (177 with typical language development; 130 with primary language impairment). The 2 newly developed grammatical tasks were modeled as measures in a unidimensional confirmatory factor analytic model along with 3 well-established grammatical measures from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition, Spanish (Wiig, Semel, & Secord, 2006). Results suggest that both new tasks measured the construct of grammatical skills for both language-ability groups in an equivalent manner. There was no evidence of bias related to children's language status for the Spanish Screener for Language Impairment in Children Sentence Repetition or Morphology Elicitation tasks. Results provide support for the validity of the new tasks as measures of grammatical skills.

Development and Transfer of Vocabulary Knowledge in Spanish-Speaking Language Minority Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodrich, J. Marc; Lonigan, Christopher J.; Kleuver, Cherie G.; Farver, Joann M.

2016-01-01

In this study we evaluated the predictive validity of conceptual scoring. Two independent samples of Spanish-speaking language minority preschoolers (Sample 1: N = 96, mean age = 54.51 months, 54.3% male; Sample 2: N = 116, mean age = 60·70 months, 56.0% male) completed measures of receptive, expressive, and definitional vocabulary in their first…

Is Presurgery and Early Postsurgery Performance Related to Speech and Language Outcomes at 3 Years of Age for Children with Cleft Palate?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Kathy L.

2004-01-01

This study examined the relationship between presurgery speech measures and speech and language performance at 39 months as well as the relationship between early postsurgery speech measures and speech and language performance at 39 months of age. Fifteen children with cleft lip and palate participated in the study. Spontaneous speech samples were…

Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language: A Progress-Monitoring Instrument for Measuring Narrative Discourse Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillam, Sandra Laing; Gillam, Ronald B.; Fargo, Jamison D.; Olszewski, Abbie; Segura, Hugo

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the basic psychometric properties of a progress-monitoring tool designed to measure narrative discourse skills in school-age children with language impairments (LI). A sample of 109 children with LI between the ages of 5 years 7 months and 9 years 9 months completed the "Test of Narrative Language"…

Narrative and Expository Writing of Adolescents with Language-Learning Disabilities: A Pilot Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall-Mills, Shannon; Apel, Kenn

2013-01-01

We evaluated the narrative and expository writing samples of 12 adolescents with language-learning disabilities (LLD) in Grades 6 to 12 for elements of microstructure (e.g., productivity, grammatical complexity) and macrostructure (genre-specific text structure elements) using an experimental measure. Writing samples were elicited with…

Associations between schizotypy and cerebral laterality.

PubMed

Park, Haeme R P; Waldie, Karen E

2017-03-01

Atypical lateralization for language has been found in schizophrenia, suggesting that language and thought disorders on the schizophrenia spectrum may be due to left hemispheric dysfunction. However, research with those with non-clinical schizotypy has been inconsistent, with some studies finding reduced or reversed language laterality (particularly with positive schizotypal traits), and others finding typical left hemispheric specialization. The aim of the current study was to use both a behavioural (dual reading-finger tapping) task and an functional magnetic resonance imaging lexical decision task to investigate language laterality in a university sample of high- and low-schizotypal adults. Findings revealed no evidence for atypical lateralization in our sample for both overall schizotypy (measured by the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences) and positive schizotypy (measured by the Unusual Experiences subscale) groups. Our findings provide further evidence that non-clinical schizotypy is not associated with atypical language laterality.

Cross-Language Measurement Equivalence of Parenting Measures for use with Mexican American Populations

PubMed Central

Nair, Rajni L.; White, Rebecca M.B.; Knight, George P.; Roosa, Mark W.

2009-01-01

Increasing diversity among families in the United States often necessitates the translation of common measures into various languages. However, even when great care is taken during translations, empirical evaluations of measurement equivalence are necessary. The current study demonstrates the analytic techniques researchers should use to evaluate the measurement equivalence of translated measures. To this end we investigated the cross-language measurement equivalence of several common parenting measures in a sample of 749 Mexican American families. The item invariance results indicated similarity of factor structures across language groups for each of the parenting measures for both mothers and children. Construct validity tests indicated similar slope relations between each of the four parenting measures and the outcomes across the two language groups for both mothers and children. Equivalence in intercepts, however, was only achieved for some outcomes. These findings indicate that the use of these measures in both within group and between group analyses based on correlation/covariance structure is defensible, but researchers are cautioned against interpretations of mean level differences across these language groups. PMID:19803604

Language skills of children during the first 12 months after stuttering onset.

PubMed

Watts, Amy; Eadie, Patricia; Block, Susan; Mensah, Fiona; Reilly, Sheena

2017-03-01

To describe the language development in a sample of young children who stutter during the first 12 months after stuttering onset was reported. Language production was analysed in a sample of 66 children who stuttered (aged 2-4 years). The sample were identified from a pre-existing prospective, community based longitudinal cohort. Data were collected at three time points within the first year after stuttering onset. Stuttering severity was measured, and global indicators of expressive language proficiency (length of utterances and grammatical complexity) were derived from the samples and summarised. Language production abilities of the children who stutter were contrasted with normative data. The majority of children's stuttering was rated as mild in severity, with more than 83% of participants demonstrating very mild or mild stuttering at each of the time points studied. The participants demonstrated developmentally appropriate spoken language skills comparable with available normative data. In the first year following the report of stuttering onset, the language skills of the children who were stuttering progressed in a manner that is consistent with developmental expectations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Rubric for Extracting Idea Density from Oral Language Samples

PubMed Central

Chand, Vineeta; Baynes, Kathleen; Bonnici, Lisa M.; Farias, Sarah Tomaszewski

2012-01-01

While past research has demonstrated that low idea density (ID) scores from natural language samples correlate with late life risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease pathology, there are no published rubrics for collecting and analyzing language samples for idea density to verify or extend these findings into new settings. This paper outlines the history of ID research and findings, discusses issues with past rubrics, and then presents an operationalized method for the systematic measurement of ID in language samples, with an extensive manual available as a supplement to this article (Analysis of Idea Density, AID). Finally, reliability statistics for this rubric in the context of dementia research on aging populations and verification that AID can replicate the significant association between ID and late life cognition are presented. PMID:23042498

Longitudinal Effects on Early Adolescent Language: A Twin Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harlarr, Nicole; De Thorne, Laura Segebart; Smith, Jamie Mahurin; Betancourt, Mariana Aparicio; Petrill, Stephen A.

2016-01-01

Purpose: We evaluated genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in language skills during early adolescence, measured by both language sampling and standardized tests, and examined the extent to which these genetic and environmental effects are stable across time. Purpose: We evaluated genetic and environmental…

The Relationship Between Standardized Measures of Language and Measures of Spontaneous Speech in Children With Autism

PubMed Central

Condouris, Karen; Meyer, Echo; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2005-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between scores on standardized tests (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals [CELF], Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Third Edition [PPVT-III], and Expressive Vocabulary Test) and measures of spontaneous speech (mean length of utterance [MLU], Index of Productive Syntax, and number of different word roots [NDWR]) derived from natural language samples obtained from 44 children with autism between the ages of 4 and 14 years old. The children with autism were impaired across both groups of measures. The two groups of measures were significantly correlated, and specific relationships were found between lexical–semantic measures (NDWR, vocabulary tests, and the CELF lexical–semantic subtests) and grammatical measures (MLU, and CELF grammar subtests), suggesting that both standardized and spontaneous speech measures tap the same underlying linguistic abilities in children with autism. These findings have important implications for clinicians and researchers who depend on these types of language measures for diagnostic purposes, assessment, and investigations of language impairments in autism. PMID:12971823

A Strategy for Language Assessment of Young Children: A Combination of Two Approaches.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Donna J.; Rice, Mabel L.

1986-01-01

A proposed strategy for language assessment advocates a combination of descriptive and formal assessment measures. This approach involves a parent-clinician interview, parent-child observations, clinician-directed formal and nonformal assessment procedures, and a parent-clinician interpretation. An elaborated sample of language assessment is…

Using Nonword Repetition Tasks for the Identification of Language Impairment in Spanish-English Speaking Children: Does the Language of Assessment Matter?

PubMed Central

Gutiérrez-Clellen, Vera F.; Simon-Cereijido, Gabriela

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to evaluate the clinical utility of a verbal working memory measure, specifically, a nonword repetition task, with a sample of Spanish-English bilingual children and (b) to determine the extent to which individual differences in relative language skills and language use had an effect on the clinical differentiation of these children by the measures. A total of 144 Latino children (95 children with typical language development and 49 children with language impairment) were tested using nonword lists developed for each language. The results show that the clinical accuracy of nonword repetition tasks varies depending on the language(s) tested. Test performance appeared related to individual differences in language use and exposure. The findings do not support a monolingual approach to the assessment of bilingual children with nonword repetition tasks, even if children appear fluent speakers in the language of testing. Nonword repetition may assist in the screening of Latino children if used bilingually and in combination with other clinical measures. PMID:22707854

A Longitudinal Analysis of English Language Learners' Word Decoding and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nakamoto, Jonathan; Lindsey, Kim A.; Manis, Franklin R.

2007-01-01

This longitudinal investigation examined word decoding and reading comprehension measures from first grade through sixth grade for a sample of Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs). The sample included 261 children (average age of 7.2 years; 120 boys; 141 girls) at the initial data collection in first grade. The ELLs' word decoding and…

Growth of Finiteness in the Third Year of Life: Replication and Predictive Validity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hadley, Pamela A.; Rispoli, Matthew; Holt, Janet K.; Fitzgerald, Colleen; Bahnsen, Alison

2014-01-01

Purpose: The authors of this study investigated the validity of tense and agreement productivity (TAP) scoring in diverse sentence frames obtained during conversational language sampling as an alternative measure of finiteness for use with young children. Method: Longitudinal language samples were used to model TAP growth from 21 to 30 months of…

Learner Characteristics and Writing Performance in a Community College English as a Second Language Course: Some Unexpected Findings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lambert, Olga D.

2015-01-01

This study investigates the relationships between individual learner characteristics and gain in writing performance as measured by a standardized writing assessment in a sample of community college academic English as a Second Language (ESL) students in the United States. The ethnically and linguistically diverse convenience sample included 76…

Factors involved in the identification of stuttering severity in a foreign language.

PubMed

Cosyns, Marjan; Einarsdóttir, Jóhanna T; Van Borsel, John

2015-01-01

Speech-language pathologists nowadays are more and more confronted with clients who speak a language different from their own mother tongue. The assessment of persons who speak a foreign language poses particular challenges. The present study investigated the possible role and interplay of factors involved in the identification of stuttering severity in a foreign language. Nineteen speech-language pathologists from five different countries (i.e. Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Belgium) rated stuttering severity of speech samples featuring persons who stutter speaking Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, or Dutch. Additionally, they were asked to score how easy they found it to rate the samples. Accuracy of rating stuttering severity in another language appeared to be foremost determined by the client's stuttering severity, while experienced ease of rating stuttering severity was essentially related to closeness of the language of the clinician to that of the client and familiarity of the clinician with the client's language. Stuttering measurement training programmes in different languages are needed.

ASSESSMENT OF THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE OF DEAF STUDENTS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MARKS, CLAUDE H.; STUCKLESS, E. ROSS

THIS INVESTIGATION WAS CONDUCTED TO DESCRIBE THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE OF DEAF STUDENTS BETWEEN 10 AND 18 YEARS OF AGE IN TERMS OF SIX MEASURABLE VARIABLES, AND TO RELATE THESE VARIABLES TO TEACHER JUDGMENTS OF QUALITY OF LANGUAGE. TEN STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLES OF COMPOSITIONS BY DEAF STUDENTS WERE SELECTED FROM 14 RESIDENTIAL AND DAY EDUCATIONAL…

Writing Motivation of Students with Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brouwer, Kyle L.

2012-01-01

This study compared the writing motivation of students with language impairments (LI) and their typically developing (TD) peers. For the study 272 students (33 students with language impairments, 242 TD peers) aged 8-10 years, in 11 elementary schools, were sampled. The two groups completed self-report measures of writing motivation and 20…

The Relationship of Phonological Skills to Language Skills in Spanish-English-Speaking Bilingual Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooperson, Solaman J.; Bedore, Lisa M.; Pena, Elizabeth D.

2013-01-01

These two studies investigate the relationship between phonological production skills and performance in other domains of language in Spanish-English-speaking bilingual children. We examine the relationship between scores on a single-word phonology test and language measures selected from formal testing and narrative samples in Spanish and…

Genetic, Environmental, and Gender Effects on Individual Differences in Toddler Expressive Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Hulle, Carol A.; Goldsmith, H.H.; Lemery, Kathryn S.

2004-01-01

In this article, the authors examined the genetic and environmental factors influencing expressive language development in a sample of 386 toddler twin pairs participating in the Wisconsin Twin Project. Expressive language was assessed using 2 measures from the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories-Short Form: Total Vocabulary and…

Longitudinal Associations Across Prematurity, Attention, and Language in School-Age Children.

PubMed

Mahurin-Smith, Jamie; DeThorne, Laura S; Petrill, Stephen A

2017-12-20

This research note explores the potential role of attention in mediating previously reported associations between language outcomes and prematurity. As a follow-up investigation to Mahurin Smith, DeThorne, Logan, Channell, and Petrill (2014), we employed multilevel modeling to analyze longitudinal data on language and attention collected when children were, on average, ages of 7, 8, and 10 years. The sample of 114 children taken from the Western Reserve Reading and Math Project was selected to oversample children with a history of prematurity while also controlling for differences in confounding influences such as age, gender, parental education, and race. As predicted, attention differentially predicted language outcomes based on form of measurement. Specifically, parent and examiner ratings of attention were significantly associated with standardized test performance at all 3 time points (R2 = 15.2%-20%). Associations between attention and language sample measures were less consistent across home visits and tended to be smaller in effect size. Attention abilities are associated with children's language performance even in the absence of an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnosis. Clinical implications, particularly as related to assessment, are discussed.

Sampling Utterances and Grammatical Analysis Revised (SUGAR): New Normative Values for Language Sample Analysis Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pavelko, Stacey L.; Owens, Robert E., Jr.

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to document whether mean length of utterance (MLU[subscript S]), total number of words (TNW), clauses per sentence (CPS), and/or words per sentence (WPS) demonstrated age-related changes in children with typical language and to document the average time to collect, transcribe, and analyze conversational…

Language and Traits of Autism Spectrum Conditions: Evidence of Limited Phenotypic and Etiological Overlap

PubMed Central

Taylor, Mark J.; Charman, Tony; Robinson, Elise B.; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.; Happé, Francesca; Dale, Philip S.; Ronald, Angelica

2015-01-01

Language difficulties have historically been viewed as integral to autism spectrum conditions (ASC), leading molecular genetic studies to consider whether ASC and language difficulties have overlapping genetic bases. The extent of genetic, and also environmental, overlap between ASC and language is, however, unclear. We hence conducted a twin study of the concurrent association between autistic traits and receptive language abilities. Internet-based language tests were completed by ~3,000 pairs of twins, while autistic traits were assessed via parent ratings. Twin model fitting explored the association between these measures in the full sample, while DeFries-Fulker analysis tested these associations at the extremes of the sample. Phenotypic associations between language ability and autistic traits were modest and negative. The degree of genetic overlap was also negative, indicating that genetic influences on autistic traits lowered language scores in the full sample (mean genetic correlation = −0.13). Genetic overlap was also low at the extremes of the sample (mean genetic correlation = 0.14), indicating that genetic influences on quantitatively defined language difficulties were largely distinct from those on extreme autistic traits. Variation in language ability and autistic traits were also associated with largely different nonshared environmental influences. Language and autistic traits are influenced by largely distinct etiological factors. This has implications for molecular genetic studies of ASC and understanding the etiology of ASC. Additionally, these findings lend support to forthcoming DSM-5 changes to ASC diagnostic criteria that will see language difficulties separated from the core ASC communication symptoms, and instead listed as a clinical specifier. PMID:25088445

Language and traits of autism spectrum conditions: evidence of limited phenotypic and etiological overlap.

PubMed

Taylor, Mark J; Charman, Tony; Robinson, Elise B; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E; Happé, Francesca; Dale, Philip S; Ronald, Angelica

2014-10-01

Language difficulties have historically been viewed as integral to autism spectrum conditions (ASC), leading molecular genetic studies to consider whether ASC and language difficulties have overlapping genetic bases. The extent of genetic, and also environmental, overlap between ASC and language is, however, unclear. We hence conducted a twin study of the concurrent association between autistic traits and receptive language abilities. Internet-based language tests were completed by ~3,000 pairs of twins, while autistic traits were assessed via parent ratings. Twin model fitting explored the association between these measures in the full sample, while DeFries-Fulker analysis tested these associations at the extremes of the sample. Phenotypic associations between language ability and autistic traits were modest and negative. The degree of genetic overlap was also negative, indicating that genetic influences on autistic traits lowered language scores in the full sample (mean genetic correlation = -0.13). Genetic overlap was also low at the extremes of the sample (mean genetic correlation = 0.14), indicating that genetic influences on quantitatively defined language difficulties were largely distinct from those on extreme autistic traits. Variation in language ability and autistic traits were also associated with largely different nonshared environmental influences. Language and autistic traits are influenced by largely distinct etiological factors. This has implications for molecular genetic studies of ASC and understanding the etiology of ASC. Additionally, these findings lend support to forthcoming DSM-5 changes to ASC diagnostic criteria that will see language difficulties separated from the core ASC communication symptoms, and instead listed as a clinical specifier. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

American Sign Language Comprehension Test: A Tool for Sign Language Researchers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauser, Peter C.; Paludneviciene, Raylene; Riddle, Wanda; Kurz, Kim B.; Emmorey, Karen; Contreras, Jessica

2016-01-01

The American Sign Language Comprehension Test (ASL-CT) is a 30-item multiple-choice test that measures ASL receptive skills and is administered through a website. This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the test based on a sample of 80 college students including deaf native signers, hearing native signers, deaf…

Harnessing Data to Assess Equity of Care by Race, Ethnicity and Language

PubMed Central

Gracia, Amber; Cheirif, Jorge; Veliz, Juana; Reyna, Melissa; Vecchio, Mara; Aryal, Subhash

2015-01-01

Objective: Determine any disparities in care based on race, ethnicity and language (REaL) by utilizing inpatient (IP) core measures at Texas Health Resources, a large, faith-based, non-profit health care delivery system located in a large, ethnically diverse metropolitan area in Texas. These measures, which were established by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission (TJC), help to ensure better accountability for patient outcomes throughout the U.S. health care system. Methods: Sample analysis to understand the architecture of race, ethnicity and language (REaL) variables within the Texas Health clinical database, followed by development of the logic, method and framework for isolating populations and evaluating disparities by race (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Native American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Asian and Other); ethnicity (Hispanic and non-Hispanic); and preferred language (English and Spanish). The study is based on use of existing clinical data for four inpatient (IP) core measures: Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), Pneumonia (PN) and Surgical Care (SCIP), representing 100% of the sample population. These comprise a high number of cases presenting in our acute care facilities. Findings are based on a sample of clinical data (N = 19,873 cases) for the four inpatient (IP) core measures derived from 13 of Texas Health’s wholly-owned facilities, formulating a set of baseline data. Results: Based on applied method, Texas Health facilities consistently scored high with no discernable race, ethnicity and language (REaL) disparities as evidenced by a low percentage difference to the reference point (non-Hispanic White) on IP core measures, including: AMI (0.3%–1.2%), CHF (0.7%–3.0%), PN (0.5%–3.7%), and SCIP (0–0.7%). PMID:26703665

Learning physics concepts as a function of colloquial language usage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maier, Steven J.

Data from two sections of college introductory, algebra-based physics courses (n1 = 139, n2 = 91) were collected using three separate instruments to investigate the relationships between reasoning ability, conceptual gain and colloquial language usage. To obtain a measure of reasoning ability, Lawson's Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning Ability (TSR) was administered once near mid-term for each sample. The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was administered at the beginning and at the end of the term for pre- and post-test measures. Pre- and post-test data from the Mechanics Language Usage instrument were also collected in conjunction with FCI data collection at the beginning and end of the term. The MLU was developed specifically for this study prior to data collection, and results of a pilot test to establish validity and reliability are reported. T-tests were performed on the data collected to compare the means from each sample. In addition, correlations among the measures were investigated between the samples separately and combined. Results from these investigations served as justification for combining the samples into a single sample of 230 for performing further statistical analyses. The primary objective of this study was to determine if scientific reasoning ability (a function of developmental stage) and conceptual gains in Newtonian mechanics predict students' usages of "force" as measured by the MLU. Regression analyses were performed to evaluate these mediated relationships among TSR and FCI performance as a predictor of MLU performance. Statistically significant correlations and relationships existed among several of the measures, which are discussed at length in the body of the narrative. The findings of this research are that although there exists a discernable relationship between reasoning ability and conceptual change, more work needs to be done to establish improved quantitative measures of the role language usage has in developing understandings of course content.

Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition Oral Language and Reading Measures Effects on Reading Comprehension in a Referred Sample

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parkin, Jason R.

2018-01-01

Oral language and word reading skills have important effects on reading comprehension. The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition (WIAT-III) measures both skill sets, but little is known about their specific effects on reading comprehension within this battery. Path analysis was used to evaluate the collective effects of reading and…

Estimated effects of in utero cocaine exposure on language development through early adolescence.

PubMed

Bandstra, Emmalee S; Morrow, Connie E; Accornero, Veronica H; Mansoor, Elana; Xue, Lihua; Anthony, James C

2011-01-01

The potential longitudinal effects of prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) on language functioning were estimated from early childhood through early adolescence in a large, well-retained urban sample of 451 full-term children (242 cocaine-exposed, 209 non-cocaine-exposed) participating in the Miami Prenatal Cocaine Study (MPCS). The sample was enrolled prospectively at birth, with documentation of prenatal drug exposure status through maternal interview, and toxicology assays of maternal and infant urine, and infant meconium. Age-appropriate versions of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) were used to measure total, expressive, and receptive language at ages 3, 5, and 12years. Longitudinal latent growth curve (LLGC) modeling of the data revealed an association between PCE (measured dichotomously as yes/no) and lower functioning in expressive and total language scores, after considering other sources of variation including child's age at testing, sex, prenatal exposure to alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco, and additional medical and social-demographic covariates. Analyses of level of PCE showed a gradient, i.e. dose-dependent, relationship between PCE level and expressive, receptive, and total language scores in the models controlling for age, child's sex, and other prenatal drug exposures. With additional covariate control these findings were most stable for the total language score. The evidence supports an inference about an enduring stable cocaine-specific effect on children's language abilities, with no effect on language growth over time in the longitudinal trajectory of language development. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Xhosa language translation of the CORE-OM using South African university student samples.

PubMed

Campbell, Megan M; Young, Charles

2016-10-01

The translation of well established psychometric tools from English into Xhosa may assist in improving access to psychological services for Xhosa speakers. The aim of this study was to translate the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - Outcome Measure (CORE-OM), a measure of general distress and dysfunction developed in the UK, into Xhosa for use at South African university student counselling centres. The CORE-OM and embedded CORE-10 were translated into Xhosa using a five-stage translation design. This design included (a) forward-translation, (b) back-translation, (c) committee approach, (d) qualitative piloting, and (e) quantitative piloting on South African university students. Clinical and general samples were drawn from English-medium South African universities. Clinical samples were generated from university student counselling centres. General student samples were generated through random stratified cluster sampling of full-time university students. Qualitative feedback from the translation process and results from quantitative piloting of the 34-item CORE-OM English and Xhosa versions supported the reduction of the scale to 10 items. This reduced scale is referred to as the South African CORE-10 (SA CORE-10). A measurement and structural model of the SA CORE-10 English version was developed and cross-validated using an English-speaking university student sample. Equivalence of this model with the SA CORE-10 Xhosa version was investigated using a first-language Xhosa-speaking university sample. Partial measurement equivalence was achieved at the metric level. The resultant SA CORE-10 Xhosa and English versions provide core measures of distress and dysfunction. Additional, culture- and language-specific domains could be added to increase sensitivity and specificity. © The Author(s) 2016.

The relationship between executive functioning and language: Examining vocabulary, syntax, and language learning in preschoolers attending Head Start.

PubMed

White, Lisa J; Alexander, Alexandra; Greenfield, Daryl B

2017-12-01

Early childhood marks a time of dynamic development within language and cognitive domains. Specifically, a body of research focuses on the development of language as related to executive functions, which are foundational cognitive skills that relate to both academic achievement and social-emotional development during early childhood and beyond. Although there is evidence to support the relationship between language and executive functions, existing studies focus mostly on vocabulary and fail to examine other components of language such as syntax and language learning skills. To address this gap, this study examined the relationship between executive functioning (EF) and three aspects of language: syntax, vocabulary, and language learning. A diverse sample of 182 children (67% Latino and 33% African American) attending Head Start were assessed on both EF and language ability. Findings demonstrated that EF related to a comprehensive latent construct of language composed of vocabulary, syntax, and language learning. EF also related to each individual component of language. This study furthers our understanding of the complex relationship between language and cognitive development by measuring EF as it relates to various components of language in a sample of preschoolers from low-income backgrounds. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development and transfer of vocabulary knowledge in Spanish-speaking language minority preschool children.

PubMed

Goodrich, J Marc; Lonigan, Christopher J; Kleuver, Cherie G; Farver, Joann M

2016-09-01

In this study we evaluated the predictive validity of conceptual scoring. Two independent samples of Spanish-speaking language minority preschoolers (Sample 1: N = 96, mean age = 54·51 months, 54·3% male; Sample 2: N = 116, mean age = 60·70 months, 56·0% male) completed measures of receptive, expressive, and definitional vocabulary in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages at two time points approximately 9-12 months apart. We examined whether unique L1 and L2 vocabulary at time 1 predicted later L2 and L1 vocabulary, respectively. Results indicated that unique L1 vocabulary did not predict later L2 vocabulary after controlling for initial L2 vocabulary. An identical pattern of results emerged for L1 vocabulary outcomes. We also examined whether children acquired translational equivalents for words known in one language but not the other. Results indicated that children acquired translational equivalents, providing partial support for the transfer of vocabulary knowledge across languages.

A common genetic variant in FOXP2 is associated with language-based learning (dis)abilities: Evidence from two Italian independent samples.

PubMed

Mozzi, Alessandra; Riva, Valentina; Forni, Diego; Sironi, Manuela; Marino, Cecilia; Molteni, Massimo; Riva, Stefania; Guerini, Franca R; Clerici, Mario; Cagliani, Rachele; Mascheretti, Sara

2017-04-24

Language-based Learning Disabilities (LLDs) encompass a group of complex, comorbid, and developmentally associated deficits in communication. Language impairment and developmental dyslexia (DD) represent the most recognized forms of LLDs. Substantial genetic correlations exist between language and reading (dis)abilities. Common variants in the FOXP2 gene were consistently associated with language- and reading-related neuropsychological and neuroanatomical phenotypes. We tested the effect of a FOXP2 common variant, that is, rs6980093 (A/G), on quantitative measures of language and reading in two independent Italian samples: a population-based cohort of 699 subjects (3-11 years old) and a sample of 572 children with DD (6-18 years old). rs6980093 modulates expressive language in the general population sample, with an effect on fluency scores. In the DD sample, the variant showed an association with the accuracy in the single word reading task. rs6980093 shows distinct genetic models of association in the two cohorts, with a dominant effect of the G allele in the general population sample and heterozygote advantage in the DD cohort. We provide preliminary evidence that rs6980093 associates with language and reading (dis)abilities in two independent Italian cohorts. rs6980093 is an intronic SNP, suggesting that it (or a linked variant) modulates phenotypic association via regulation of FOXP2 expression. Because FOXP2 brain expression is finely regulated, both temporally and spatially, it is possible that the two alleles at rs6980093 differentially modulate expression levels in a developmental stage- or brain area-specific manner. This might help explaining the heterozygote advantage effect and the different genetic models in the two cohorts. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Examination of the Triarchic Assessment Procedure for Inconsistent Responding in six non-English language samples.

PubMed

Kelley, Shannon E; van Dongen, Josanne D M; Donnellan, M Brent; Edens, John F; Eisenbarth, Hedwig; Fossati, Andrea; Howner, Katarina; Somma, Antonella; Sörman, Karolina

2018-05-01

The Triarchic Assessment Procedure for Inconsistent Responding (TAPIR; Mowle et al., 2016) was recently developed to identify inattentiveness or comprehension difficulties that may compromise the validity of responses on the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM; Patrick, 2010). The TAPIR initially was constructed and cross-validated using exclusively English-speaking participants from the United States; however, research using the TriPM has been increasingly conducted internationally, with numerous foreign language translations of the measure emerging. The present study examined the cross-language utility of the TAPIR in German, Dutch, Swedish, and Italian translations of the TriPM using 6 archival samples of community members, university students, forensic psychiatric inpatients, forensic detainees, and adolescents residing outside the United States (combined N = 5,404). Findings suggest that the TAPIR effectively detects careless responding across these 4 translated versions of the TriPM without the need for language-specific modifications. The TAPIR total score meaningfully discriminated genuine participant responses from both fully and partially randomly generated data in every sample, and demonstrated further utility in detecting fixed "all true" or "all false" response patterns. In addition, TAPIR scores were reliably associated with inconsistent responding scores from another psychopathy inventory. Specificity for a range of tentative cut scores for assessing profile validity was modestly reduced among our samples relative to rates previously obtained with the English version of the TriPM; however, overall the TAPIR appears to demonstrate satisfactory cross-language generalizability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Climate Change: A "Green" Approach to Teaching Contemporary Germany

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melin, Charlotte

2013-01-01

This article describes a newly designed upper division German language course, "Contemporary Germany: Food, Energy Politics," and two sampling methods of assessment for measuring parallel gains in German skills and sustainable development (SD) thinking. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) informed course design, key assignments, and…

Validity of a parent-report measure of vocabulary and grammar for Spanish-speaking toddlers.

PubMed

Thal, D; Jackson-Maldonado, D; Acosta, D

2000-10-01

The validity of the Fundación MacArthur Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas: Palabras y Enunciados (IDHC:PE) was examined with twenty 20- and nineteen 28-month-old, typically developing, monolingual, Spanish-speaking children living in Mexico. One measure of vocabulary (number of words) and two measures of grammar (mean of the three longest utterances and grammatical complexity score) from the IDHC:PE were compared to behavioral measures of vocabulary (number of different words from a language sample and number of objects named in a confrontation naming task) and one behavioral measure of grammar (mean length of utterance from a language sample). Only vocabulary measures were assessed in the 20-month-olds because of floor effects on the grammar measures. Results indicated validity for assessing expressive vocabulary in 20-month-olds and expressive vocabulary and grammar in 28-month-olds.

Testing Math or Testing Language? The Construct Validity of the KeyMath-Revised for Children With Intellectual Disability and Language Difficulties.

PubMed

Rhodes, Katherine T; Branum-Martin, Lee; Morris, Robin D; Romski, MaryAnn; Sevcik, Rose A

2015-11-01

Although it is often assumed that mathematics ability alone predicts mathematics test performance, linguistic demands may also predict achievement. This study examined the role of language in mathematics assessment performance for children with intellectual disability (ID) at less severe levels, on the KeyMath-Revised Inventory (KM-R) with a sample of 264 children, in grades 2-5. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the hypothesis that the KM-R would demonstrate discriminant validity with measures of language abilities in a two-factor model was compared to two plausible alternative models. Results indicated that KM-R did not have discriminant validity with measures of children's language abilities and was a multidimensional test of both mathematics and language abilities for this population of test users. Implications are considered for test development, interpretation, and intervention.

Examining the Role of Orthographic Coding Ability in Elementary Students with Previously Identified Reading Disability, Speech or Language Impairment, or Comorbid Language and Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haugh, Erin Kathleen

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the role orthographic coding might play in distinguishing between membership in groups of language-based disability types. The sample consisted of 36 second and third-grade subjects who were administered the PAL-II Receptive Coding and Word Choice Accuracy subtest as a measure of orthographic coding…

Is the planum temporale surface area a marker of hemispheric or regional language lateralization?

PubMed

Tzourio-Mazoyer, Nathalie; Crivello, Fabrice; Mazoyer, Bernard

2018-04-01

We investigated the association between the left planum temporale (PT) surface area or asymmetry and the hemispheric or regional functional asymmetries during language production and perception tasks in 287 healthy adults (BIL&GIN) who were matched for sex and handedness. The measurements of the PT surface area were performed after manually delineating the region using brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) and considering the Heschl's gyrus (HG) duplication pattern; the measurements either included (PT tot ) or did not include (PT post ) the second gyrus. A region encompassing both the PT and HG (HGPT) was also studied. Regardless of the ROI measured, 80% of the sample had a positive left minus right PT asymmetry. We first tested whether the PT tot , PT post and HGPT surface areas in the left or right hemispheres or PT asymmetries differed in groups of individuals varying in language lateralization by assessing their hemispheric index during a sentence production minus word list production task. We then investigated the association between these different measures of the PT anatomy and the regional asymmetries measured during the task. Regardless of the anatomical definition used, we observed no correlations between the left surface areas or asymmetries and the hemispheric or regional functional asymmetries during the language production task. We then performed a similar analysis using the same sample measuring language functional lateralization during speech listening tasks (i.e., listening to sentences and lists of words). Although the hemispheric lateralization during speech listening was not correlated with the left PT tot , PT post or HGPT surface areas or the PT asymmetries, significant positive correlations were observed between the asymmetries in these regions and the regional functional asymmetries measured in areas adjacent to the end of the Sylvian fissure while participants listened to the word lists or sentences. The PT asymmetry thus appears to be associated with the local functional asymmetries in auditory areas but is not a marker of inter-individual variability in language dominance.

Screening for pragmatic language impairment: the potential of the children's communication checklist.

PubMed

Ketelaars, Mieke P; Cuperus, Juliane M; van Daal, John; Jansonius, Kino; Verhoeven, Ludo

2009-01-01

The present study examines the validity of the Dutch Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) for children in kindergarten in a community sample, in order to assess the feasibility of using it as a screening instrument in the general population. Teachers completed the CCC for a representative sample of 1396 children at kindergarten level, taken from 53 primary schools in The Netherlands. The CCC was also completed for a clinical group consisting of children with SLI in special education. Reliability as measured with internal consistency scores was found to be good for the community sample. With regard to the construct validity, a five-factor second-order factor model was found when the pragmatic subscales were analysed, which provided a reasonable fit. Criterion validity as measured using the concordance between the CCC and teacher opinions was moderate. The children identified by the CCC as having Pragmatic Language Impairment (defined as scoring below the cut off of 132) were often characterized by the teachers as having social-emotional problems, language problems or combined problems. Comparison with a clinical SLI sample showed the pragmatically impaired children in the community sample to have a profile similar to that of the clinical group of children with PLI in special education. The main difference was visible in structural language problems, which were less severe for the PLI group in mainstream education. The results of this study suggest that screening for PLI is indeed possible using the CCC.

Fetal Testosterone, Socio-Emotional Engagement and Language Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrant, Brad M.; Mattes, Eugen; Keelan, Jeff A.; Hickey, Martha; Whitehouse, Andrew J. O.

2013-01-01

The present study investigated the relations among fetal testosterone, child socio-emotional engagement and language development in a sample of 467 children (235 boys) from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study. Bioavailable testosterone concentration measured in umbilical cord blood taken at birth was found to be significantly…

Longitudinal Stability in Genetic Effects on Children's Conversational Language Productivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeThorne, Laura Segebart; Harlaar, Nicole; Petrill, Stephen A.; Deater-Deckard, Kirby

2012-01-01

Purpose: The authors examined the longitudinal stability of genetic and environmental influences on children's productive language sample measures during the early school-age years. Method: Twin study methodology with structural equation modeling was used to derive univariate estimates of additive genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and…

Early Handedness in Infancy Predicts Language Ability in Toddlers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Eliza L.; Campbell, Julie M.; Michel, George F.

2014-01-01

Researchers have long been interested in the relationship between handedness and language in development. However, traditional handedness studies using single age groups, small samples, or too few measurement time points have not capitalized on individual variability and may have masked 2 recently identified patterns in infants: those with a…

The Language, Working Memory, and Other Cognitive Demands of Verbal Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archibald, Lisa M. D.

2013-01-01

Purpose: To gain a better understanding of the cognitive processes supporting verbal abilities, the underlying structure and interrelationships between common verbal measures were investigated. Methods: An epidemiological sample (n = 374) of school-aged children completed standardized tests of language, intelligence, and short-term and working…

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

Writing Process Products in Intermediate-Grade Children With and Without Language-Based Learning Disabilities.

PubMed

Koutsoftas, Anthony D

2016-12-01

Difficulties with written expression are an important consideration in the assessment and treatment of school-age children. This study evaluated how intermediate-grade children with and without written language difficulties fared on a writing task housed within the Hayes and Berninger (2014) writing process framework. Sixty-four children completed a writing task whereby they planned, wrote, and revised a narrative story across 3 days. Children had extended time to produce an outline, first draft, and final copy of their story. Language transcription approaches were used to obtain measures reflecting writing productivity, complexity, accuracy, and mechanics, in addition to measures of planning and revision. Results indicated that children with writing difficulties produced poorer quality stories compared with their peers yet were not significantly different across all measures. Children with typical development produced longer stories with better spelling accuracy. Writing process measures predicted significant amounts of variance in writing quality across the sample. Writing should be considered as part of language assessment and intervention, whether as the sole language difficulty or alongside difficulties with speaking, listening, or reading in children with language-based learning difficulties. Implications for translation of research to practice and service delivery are provided.

Effect of the Parental Involvement Style Perceived by Elementary School Students at Home on Language and Mathematics Performance in Chilean Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gubbins, Verónica; Otero, Gabriel

2016-01-01

The present study intends to measure the effect of the parental involvement style perceived by fourth-grade students on their Language and Mathematics performance. It uses data taken from a sample of 55,401 students evaluated by the National Education Quality Measurement System [Sistema Nacional de Medición de la Calidad de la Educación, SIMCE].…

Dynamic assessment of narrative ability in English accurately identifies language impairment in English language learners.

PubMed

Peña, Elizabeth D; Gillam, Ronald B; Bedore, Lisa M

2014-12-01

To assess the identification accuracy of dynamic assessment (DA) of narrative ability in English for children learning English as a 2nd language. A DA task was administered to 54 children: 18 Spanish-English-speaking children with language impairment (LI); 18 age-, sex-, IQ- and language experience-matched typical control children; and an additional 18 age- and language experience-matched comparison children. A variety of quantitative and qualitative measures were collected in the pretest phase, the mediation phase, and the posttest phase of the study. Exploratory discriminant analysis was used to determine the set of measures that best differentiated among this group of children with and without LI. A combination of examiner ratings of modifiability (compliance, metacognition, and task orientation), DA story scores (setting, dialogue, and complexity of vocabulary), and ungrammaticality (derived from the posttest narrative sample) classified children with 80.6% to 97.2% accuracy. DA conducted in English provides a systematic means for measuring learning processes and learning outcomes, resulting in a clinically useful procedure for identifying LIs in bilingual children who are in the process of learning English as a second language.

Children's Speech Perception in Noise: Evidence for Dissociation From Language and Working Memory.

PubMed

Magimairaj, Beula M; Nagaraj, Naveen K; Benafield, Natalie J

2018-05-17

We examined the association between speech perception in noise (SPIN), language abilities, and working memory (WM) capacity in school-age children. Existing studies supporting the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model suggest that WM capacity plays a significant role in adverse listening situations. Eighty-three children between the ages of 7 to 11 years participated. The sample represented a continuum of individual differences in attention, memory, and language abilities. All children had normal-range hearing and normal-range nonverbal IQ. Children completed the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech-in-Noise Test (BKB-SIN; Etymotic Research, 2005), a selective auditory attention task, and multiple measures of language and WM. Partial correlations (controlling for age) showed significant positive associations among attention, memory, and language measures. However, BKB-SIN did not correlate significantly with any of the other measures. Principal component analysis revealed a distinct WM factor and a distinct language factor. BKB-SIN loaded robustly as a distinct 3rd factor with minimal secondary loading from sentence recall and short-term memory. Nonverbal IQ loaded as a 4th factor. Results did not support an association between SPIN and WM capacity in children. However, in this study, a single SPIN measure was used. Future studies using multiple SPIN measures are warranted. Evidence from the current study supports the use of BKB-SIN as clinical measure of speech perception ability because it was not influenced by variation in children's language and memory abilities. More large-scale studies in school-age children are needed to replicate the proposed role played by WM in adverse listening situations.

Language growth in children with heterogeneous language disorders: a population study.

PubMed

Norbury, Courtenay Frazier; Vamvakas, George; Gooch, Debbie; Baird, Gillian; Charman, Tony; Simonoff, Emily; Pickles, Andrew

2017-10-01

Language development has been characterised by significant individual stability from school entry. However, the extent to which trajectories of language growth vary in children with language disorder as a function of co-occurring developmental challenges is a question of theoretical import, with implications for service provision. SCALES employed a population-based survey design with sample weighting procedures to estimate growth in core language skills over the first three years of school. A stratified sample (n = 529) received comprehensive assessment of language, nonverbal IQ, and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties at 5-6 years of age and 95% of the sample (n = 499) were assessed again at ages 7-8. Language growth was measured using both raw and standard scores in children with typical development, children with language disorder of unknown origin, and children with language disorders associated with a known clinical condition and/or intellectual disability. Overall, language was stable at the individual level (estimated ICC = 0.95) over the first three years of school. Linear mixed effects models highlighted steady growth in language raw scores across all three groups, including those with multiple developmental challenges. There was little evidence, however, that children with language disorders were narrowing the gap with peers (z-scores). Adjusted models indicated that while nonverbal ability, socioeconomic status and social, emotional and behavioural deficits predicted initial language score (intercept), none predicted language growth (slope). These findings corroborate previous studies suggesting stable language trajectories after ages 5-6 years, but add considerably to previous work by demonstrating similar developmental patterns in children with additional nonverbal cognitive deficits, social, emotional, and behavioural challenges, social disadvantage or clinical diagnoses. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

UNTAPPED RESOURCES OF NEGRO STUDENTS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LA BRANT, LOU

WHAT NEGRO STUDENTS BRING, AS WELL AS WHAT THEY DO NOT BRING, TO THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE SHOULD BE OF CONCERN TO TEACHERS. INTONATION AND A NONSTANDARD VOCABULARY ARE TWO DEVICES WHICH ENABLE NEGROES TO MAKE SUBTLE LANGUAGE DISTINCTIONS WHICH TESTS DO NOT MEASURE OR SAMPLE. FURTHER LANGUAGE SUBTLETIES EXIST IN THE CONNOTATIONS OF MANY COMMON…

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Writing and Their Relations to Language and Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olson, Richard K.; Hulslander, Jacqueline; Christopher, Micaela; Keenan, Janice M.; Wadsworth, Sally J.; Willcutt, Erik G.; Pennington, Bruce F.; DeFries, John C.

2013-01-01

Identical and fraternal twins (N = 540, age 8 to 18 years) were tested on three different measures of writing (Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement--Writing Samples and Writing Fluency; Handwriting Copy from the Group Diagnostic Reading and Aptitude Achievement Tests), three different language skills (phonological awareness, rapid naming, and…

Dichotic listening performance predicts language comprehension.

PubMed

Asbjørnsen, Arve E; Helland, Turid

2006-05-01

Dichotic listening performance is considered a reliable and valid procedure for the assessment of language lateralisation in the brain. However, the documentation of a relationship between language functions and dichotic listening performance is sparse, although it is accepted that dichotic listening measures language perception. In particular, language comprehension should show close correspondence to perception of language stimuli. In the present study, we tested samples of reading-impaired and normally achieving children between 10 and 13 years of age with tests of reading skills, language comprehension, and dichotic listening to consonant-vowel (CV) syllables. A high correlation between the language scores and the dichotic listening performance was expected. However, since the left ear score is believed to be an error when assessing language laterality, covariation was expected for the right ear scores only. In addition, directing attention to one ear input was believed to reduce the influence of random factors, and thus show a more concise estimate of left hemisphere language capacity. Thus, a stronger correlation between language comprehension skills and the dichotic listening performance when attending to the right ear was expected. The analyses yielded a positive correlation between the right ear score in DL and language comprehension, an effect that was stronger when attending to the right ear. The present results confirm the assumption that dichotic listening with CV syllables measures an aspect of language perception and language skills that is related to general language comprehension.

Measuring Stuttering in Preschool-Aged Children across Different Languages: An International Study.

PubMed

Bosshardt, Hans-Georg; Packman, Ann; Blomgren, Michael; Kretschmann, Jens

2015-01-01

Many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are working in linguistically diverse communities and have to identify and measure stuttering in a language other than their own. The aim of the present study was to extend our understanding of how well SLPs can measure stuttering in other languages and to encourage collaboration between SLPs across cultures. Speech samples consisted of seven preschool-aged children each speaking one of the following languages: Danish, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, and Persian (Farsi). The judges were classified in seven groups of SLPs (n = 170) each speaking one of the seven languages of the children and two more English-speaking groups. Each judge rated the severity of stuttering in each child using a 10-point scale. The study was conducted over the Internet. Overall, the judges' proficiency in a child's language was not systematically related to the variability and agreement of the severity ratings, accounting for maximally 4.6% of the variance. SLPs should not be overly concerned about the appropriateness of their severity ratings if they feel less proficient in the native language of the stuttering children. It may also be encouraging for beginning clinicians that the severity ratings were not systematically related to professional experience. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Language structures used by kindergartners with cochlear implants: relationship to phonological awareness, lexical knowledge and hearing loss.

PubMed

Nittrouer, Susan; Sansom, Emily; Low, Keri; Rice, Caitlin; Caldwell-Tarr, Amanda

2014-01-01

Listeners use their knowledge of how language is structured to aid speech recognition in everyday communication. When it comes to children with congenital hearing loss severe enough to warrant cochlear implants (CIs), the question arises of whether these children can acquire the language knowledge needed to aid speech recognition, in spite of only having spectrally degraded signals available to them. That question was addressed in the present study. Specifically, there were three goals: (1) to compare the language structures used by children with CIs to those of children with normal hearing (NH); (2) to assess the amount of variance in the language measures explained by phonological awareness and lexical knowledge; and (3) to assess the amount of variance in the language measures explained by factors related to the hearing loss itself and subsequent treatment. Language samples were obtained and transcribed for 40 children who had just completed kindergarten: 19 with NH and 21 with CIs. Five measures were derived from Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts: (1) mean length of utterance in morphemes, (2) number of conjunctions, excluding and, (3) number of personal pronouns, (4) number of bound morphemes, and (5) number of different words. Measures were also collected on phonological awareness and lexical knowledge. Statistics examined group differences, as well as the amount of variance in the language measures explained by phonological awareness, lexical knowledge, and factors related to hearing loss and its treatment for children with CIs. Mean scores of children with CIs were roughly one standard deviation below those of children with NH on all language measures, including lexical knowledge, matching outcomes of other studies. Mean scores of children with CIs were closer to two standard deviations below those of children with NH on two out of three measures of phonological awareness (specifically those related to phonemic structure). Lexical knowledge explained significant amounts of variance on three language measures, but only one measure of phonological awareness (sensitivity to word-final phonemic structure) explained any significant amount of unique variance beyond that, and on only one language measure (number of bound morphemes). Age at first implant, but no other factors related to hearing loss or its treatment, explained significant amounts of variance on the language measures, as well. In spite of early intervention and advances in implant technology, children with CIs are still delayed in learning language, but grammatical knowledge is less affected than phonological awareness. Because there was little contribution to language development measured for phonological awareness independent of lexical knowledge, it was concluded that children with CIs could benefit from intervention focused specifically on helping them learn language structures, in spite of the likely phonological deficits they experience as a consequence of having degraded inputs.

Connected speech as a marker of disease progression in autopsy-proven Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Ahmed, Samrah; Haigh, Anne-Marie F; de Jager, Celeste A; Garrard, Peter

2013-12-01

Although an insidious history of episodic memory difficulty is a typical presenting symptom of Alzheimer's disease, detailed neuropsychological profiling frequently demonstrates deficits in other cognitive domains, including language. Previous studies from our group have shown that language changes may be reflected in connected speech production in the earliest stages of typical Alzheimer's disease. The aim of the present study was to identify features of connected speech that could be used to examine longitudinal profiles of impairment in Alzheimer's disease. Samples of connected speech were obtained from 15 former participants in a longitudinal cohort study of ageing and dementia, in whom Alzheimer's disease was diagnosed during life and confirmed at post-mortem. All patients met clinical and neuropsychological criteria for mild cognitive impairment between 6 and 18 months before converting to a status of probable Alzheimer's disease. In a subset of these patients neuropsychological data were available, both at the point of conversion to Alzheimer's disease, and after disease severity had progressed from the mild to moderate stage. Connected speech samples from these patients were examined at later disease stages. Spoken language samples were obtained using the Cookie Theft picture description task. Samples were analysed using measures of syntactic complexity, lexical content, speech production, fluency and semantic content. Individual case analysis revealed that subtle changes in language were evident during the prodromal stages of Alzheimer's disease, with two-thirds of patients with mild cognitive impairment showing significant but heterogeneous changes in connected speech. However, impairments at the mild cognitive impairment stage did not necessarily entail deficits at mild or moderate stages of disease, suggesting non-language influences on some aspects of performance. Subsequent examination of these measures revealed significant linear trends over the three stages of disease in syntactic complexity, semantic and lexical content. The findings suggest, first, that there is a progressive disruption in language integrity, detectable from the prodromal stage in a subset of patients with Alzheimer's disease, and secondly that measures of semantic and lexical content and syntactic complexity best capture the global progression of linguistic impairment through the successive clinical stages of disease. The identification of disease-specific language impairment in prodromal Alzheimer's disease could enhance clinicians' ability to distinguish probable Alzheimer's disease from changes attributable to ageing, while longitudinal assessment could provide a simple approach to disease monitoring in therapeutic trials.

The Relationship between Central Auditory Processing, Language, and Cognition in Children Being Evaluated for Central Auditory Processing Disorder.

PubMed

Brenneman, Lauren; Cash, Elizabeth; Chermak, Gail D; Guenette, Linda; Masters, Gay; Musiek, Frank E; Brown, Mallory; Ceruti, Julianne; Fitzegerald, Krista; Geissler, Kristin; Gonzalez, Jennifer; Weihing, Jeffrey

2017-09-01

Pediatric central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) is frequently comorbid with other childhood disorders. However, few studies have examined the relationship between commonly used CAPD, language, and cognition tests within the same sample. The present study examined the relationship between diagnostic CAPD tests and "gold standard" measures of language and cognitive ability, the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). A retrospective study. Twenty-seven patients referred for CAPD testing who scored average or better on the CELF and low average or better on the WISC were initially included. Seven children who scored below the CELF and/or WISC inclusion criteria were then added to the dataset for a second analysis, yielding a sample size of 34. Participants were administered a CAPD battery that included at least the following three CAPD tests: Frequency Patterns (FP), Dichotic Digits (DD), and Competing Sentences (CS). In addition, they were administered the CELF and WISC. Relationships between scores on CAPD, language (CELF), and cognition (WISC) tests were examined using correlation analysis. DD and FP showed significant correlations with Full Scale Intelligence Quotient, and the DD left ear and the DD interaural difference measures both showed significant correlations with working memory. However, ∼80% or more of the variance in these CAPD tests was unexplained by language and cognition measures. Language and cognition measures were more strongly correlated with each other than were the CAPD tests with any CELF or WISC scale. Additional correlations with the CAPD tests were revealed when patients who scored in the mild-moderate deficit range on the CELF and/or in the borderline low intellectual functioning range on the WISC were included in the analysis. While both the DD and FP tests showed significant correlations with one or more cognition measures, the majority of the variance in these CAPD measures went unexplained by cognition. Unlike DD and FP, the CS test was not correlated with cognition. Additionally, language measures were not significantly correlated with any of the CAPD tests. Our findings emphasize that the outcomes and interpretation of results vary as a function of the subject inclusion criteria that are applied for the CELF and WISC. Including participants with poorer cognition and/or language scores increased the number of significant correlations observed. For this reason, it is important that studies investigating the relationship between CAPD and other domains or disorders report the specific inclusion criteria used for all tests. American Academy of Audiology

Measuring immigration stress of first-generation female Korean immigrants in California: psychometric evaluation of Demand of Immigration Scale.

PubMed

Ding, Ding; Hofstetter, C Richard; Norman, Gregory J; Irvin, Veronica L; Chhay, Douglas; Hovell, Melbourne F

2011-02-01

Immigration involves challenges and distress, which affect health and well-being of immigrants. Koreans are a recent, fast-growing, but understudied group of immigrants in the USA, and no study has established or evaluated any immigration stress measure among this population. This study explores psychometric properties of Korean-translated Demands of Immigration (DI) Scale among first-generation female Korean immigrants in California. Analyses included evaluation of factor structure, reliability, validity, and descriptive statistics of subscales. A surname-driven sampling strategy was applied to randomly select a representative sample of adult female Korean immigrants in California. Telephone interviews were conducted by trained bilingual interviewers. Study sample included 555 first-generation female Korean immigrants who were interviewed in Korean language. The 22-item DI Scale was used to assess immigration stress in the study sample. Exploratory factor analysis suggested six correlated factors in the DI Scale: language barriers; sense of loss; not feeling at home; perceived discrimination; novelty; and occupation. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the factor structure. Language barriers accounted for the most variance of the DI Scale (29.11%). The DI Scale demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and construct validity. Evidence has been offered that the Korean-translated DI Scale is a reliable and valid measurement tool to examine immigration stress among Korean immigrants. The Korean-translated DI Scale has replicated factor structure obtained in other ethnicities, but addition of cultural-specific items is suggested for Korean immigrants. High levels of language and occupation-related stress warrant attention from researchers, social workers, and policy-makers. Findings from this study will inform future interventions to alleviate stress due to demands of immigration.

Defining Spoken Language Benchmarks and Selecting Measures of Expressive Language Development for Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Rogers, Sally; Cooper, Judith; Landa, Rebecca; Lord, Catherine; Paul, Rhea; Rice, Mabel; Stoel-Gammon, Carol; Wetherby, Amy; Yoder, Paul

2010-01-01

Purpose The aims of this article are twofold: (a) to offer a set of recommended measures that can be used for evaluating the efficacy of interventions that target spoken language acquisition as part of treatment research studies or for use in applied settings and (b) to propose and define a common terminology for describing levels of spoken language ability in the expressive modality and to set benchmarks for determining a child’s language level in order to establish a framework for comparing outcomes across intervention studies. Method The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders assembled a group of researchers with interests and experience in the study of language development and disorders in young children with autism spectrum disorders. The group worked for 18 months through a series of conference calls and correspondence, culminating in a meeting held in December 2007 to achieve consensus on these aims. Results The authors recommend moving away from using the term functional speech, replacing it with a developmental framework. Rather, they recommend multiple sources of information to define language phases, including natural language samples, parent report, and standardized measures. They also provide guidelines and objective criteria for defining children’s spoken language expression in three major phases that correspond to developmental levels between 12 and 48 months of age. PMID:19380608

Differences in self-rated health by immigrant status and language preference among Arab Americans in the Detroit Metropolitan Area.

PubMed

Abdulrahim, Sawsan; Baker, Wayne

2009-06-01

Arab Americans are a growing minority in the U.S., yet only a few studies have examined their health utilizing representative samples. Using data from the 2003 Detroit Arab American Study, which is based on a probability sample, we examined the self-rated health (SRH) of Arab Americans by two measures of acculturation--immigrant status and language preference. We specified logistic regression models to test whether immigrants report better or poorer health status compared to U.S.-born Arab Americans and whether language preference among the immigrant generation accounts for the association between immigrant status and SRH. Our findings reveal that the health status of Arab Americans improves with acculturation. Arab immigrants are more likely to report poorer SRH compared to U.S.-born Arab Americans. When language preference is taken into account, Arabic-speaking immigrants are more likely to report poorer SRH compared to both U.S.-born Arab Americans and to English-speaking immigrants. We discuss these findings in light of similar ones obtained in the literature on SRH among other immigrant groups in the U.S. We conclude by arguing that language is an important measure to include in SRH studies among Arab Americans as well as other non-English speaking ethnic groups.

Assessing University Students: Searching for an English Language Exit Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qian, David D.

2007-01-01

In order to motivate university students to improve their English proficiency, the Hong Kong government decided to adopt a common exit English language test for all graduating students. In the process of selecting a suitable measure for this purpose, an empirical study with a sample of over 240 students was conducted to compare two English…

Vulnerability to Bullying in Children with a History of Specific Speech and Language Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindsay, Geoff; Dockrell, Julie E.; Mackie, Clare

2008-01-01

This study examined the susceptibility to problems with peer relationships and being bullied in a UK sample of 12-year-old children with a history of specific speech and language difficulties. Data were derived from the children's self-reports and the reports of parents and teachers using measures of victimization, emotional and behavioral…

Syntax of Kindergarten and Elementary School Children: A Transformational Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Donnell, Roy C.; And Others

This investigation sought to learn about the oral and written language behavior of students from kindergarten age through grade 7, and to determine the validity of different analytic techniques for measuring children's development in control of syntax. Language samples were collected from 180 children (grades K-3, 5, and 7) by having the children…

The Impact of Academic Self-Efficacy, Acculturation Difficulties, and Language Abilities on Procrastination Behavior in Chinese International Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowinger, Robert Jay; He, Zhaomin; Lin, Miranda; Chang, Mei

2014-01-01

This study examined the role of academic self-efficacy, acculturation difficulties, and language abilities on procrastination behavior using a convenience sample of 264 Chinese international students studying at three public universities in the United States. While there were no significant mean gender differences on any of the measures, results…

The Influence of Social Class and Race on Language Test Performance and Spontaneous Speech of Preschool Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Dale L.

This investigation compares child language obtained with standardized tests and samples of spontaneous speech obtained in natural settings. It was hypothesized that differences would exist between social class and racial groups on the unfamiliar standard tests, but such differences would not be evident on spontaneous speech measures. Also, higher…

Relationships between Reading Comprehension and Its Components in Young Chinese-as-a-Second-Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Yu Ka

2017-01-01

Based on the Simple View of Reading model, this study examines the relationships among Chinese reading comprehension and its two componential processes, Chinese character reading and listening comprehension, in young learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) using a longitudinal design. Using relevant measures, a sample of 142 senior primary…

Performance of Low-Income Dual Language Learners Attending English-Only Schools on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition, Spanish.

PubMed

Barragan, Beatriz; Castilla-Earls, Anny; Martinez-Nieto, Lourdes; Restrepo, M Adelaida; Gray, Shelley

2018-04-05

The aim of this study was to examine the performance of a group of Spanish-speaking, dual language learners (DLLs) who were attending English-only schools and came from low-income and low-parental education backgrounds on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition, Spanish (CELF-4S; Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2006). Spanish-speaking DLLs (N = 656), ages 5;0 (years;months) to 7;11, were tested for language impairment (LI) using the core language score of the CELF-4S and the English Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test (Dawson, Stout, & Eyer, 2003). A subsample (n = 299) was additionally tested using a Spanish language sample analysis and a newly developed Spanish morphosyntactic measure, for identification of children with LI and to conduct a receiver operating characteristics curve analysis. Over 50% of the sample scored more than 1 SD below the mean on the core language score. In our subsample, the sensitivity of the CELF-4S was 94%, and specificity was 65%, using a cutoff score of 85 as suggested in the manual. Using an empirically derived cutoff score of 78, the sensitivity was 86%, and the specificity was 80%. Results suggest that the CELF-4S overidentifies low-income Spanish-English DLLs attending English-only schools as presenting with LI. For this sample, 1 in every 3 Latino children from low socioeconomic status was incorrectly identified with LI. Clinicians should be cautious when using the CELF-4S to evaluate low-income Spanish-English DLLs and ensure that they have converging evidence before making diagnostic decisions.

Predictors of second language acquisition in Latino children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Gutiérrez-Clellen, Vera; Simon-Cereijido, Gabriela; Sweet, Monica

2012-02-01

This study evaluated the extent to which the language of intervention, the child's development in Spanish, and the effects of English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure predict differences in the rates of acquisition of English in Latino children with specific language impairment (SLI). In this randomized controlled trial, 188 Latino preschoolers with SLI participated in a small-group academic enrichment program for 12 weeks and were followed up 3 and 5 months later. Children were randomly assigned to either a bilingual or an English-only program. Predictors of English growth included measures of Spanish language skills and English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure. Performance on English outcomes (i.e., picture description and narrative sample) was assessed over time. A series of longitudinal models were tested via multilevel modeling with baseline and posttreatment measures nested within child. Children demonstrated growth on the English outcomes over time. The language of intervention, Spanish skills, English vocabulary, and English use significantly predicted differences in rates of growth across children for specific measures of English development. This study underscores the role of the child's first language skills, the child's level of English vocabulary development, and level of English use for predicting differences in English acquisition in Latino preschoolers with SLI. These factors should be carefully considered in making clinical decisions.

Intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity asymmetry and its relationships with handedness and language Lateralization.

PubMed

Joliot, M; Tzourio-Mazoyer, N; Mazoyer, B

2016-12-01

Asymmetry in intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity, and its association with handedness and hemispheric dominance for language, were investigated in a sample of 290 healthy volunteers enriched in left-handers (52.7%). From the resting-state FMRI data of each participant, we derived an intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity asymmetry (HICA) matrix as the difference between the left and right intra-hemispheric matrices of intrinsic correlation computed for each pair of the AICHA atlas ROIs. We defined a similarity measure between the HICA matrices of two individuals as the correlation coefficient of their corresponding elements, and computed for each individual an index of intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity asymmetry as the average similarity measure of his HICA matrix to those of the other subjects of the sample (HICAs). Gaussian-mixture modeling of the age-corrected HICAs sample distribution revealed that two types of HICA patterns were present, one (Typical_HICA) including 92.4% of the participants while the other (Atypical_HICA) included only 7.6% of them, mostly left-handers. In addition, we investigated the relationship between asymmetry in intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity and language hemispheric dominance, including a potential effect of handedness on this relationship, thanks to an FMRI acquisition during language production from which an hemispheric functional lateralization index for language (HFLI) and a type of hemispheric dominance for language, namely leftward, ambilateral, or rightward, were derived for each individual. There was a significant association between the types of language hemispheric dominance and of intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity asymmetry, occurrence of Atypical_HICAs individuals being very high in the group of individuals rightward-lateralized for language (80%), reduced in the ambilateral group (19%) and rare in individuals leftward-lateralized for language (less than 3%). Quantitatively, we found a significant positive linear relationship between the HICAs and HFLI indices, with an effect of handedness on the intercept but not on the slope of this relationship. These findings demonstrate that handedness and hemispheric dominance for language are significantly but independently associated with the asymmetry of intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity. These findings suggest that asymmetry in intra-hemispheric connectivity is a variable phenotype shaped in part by hemispheric lateralization for language, but possibly also depending on other lateralized functions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using monolingual neuropsychological test norms with bilingual Hispanic americans: application of an individual comparison standard.

PubMed

Gasquoine, Philip Gerard; Gonzalez, Cassandra Dayanira

2012-05-01

Conventional neuropsychological norms developed for monolinguals likely overestimate normal performance in bilinguals on language but not visual-perceptual format tests. This was studied by comparing neuropsychological false-positive rates using the 50th percentile of conventional norms and individual comparison standards (Picture Vocabulary or Matrix Reasoning scores) as estimates of preexisting neuropsychological skill level against the number expected from the normal distribution for a consecutive sample of 56 neurologically intact, bilingual, Hispanic Americans. Participants were tested in separate sessions in Spanish and English in the counterbalanced order on La Bateria Neuropsicologica and the original English language tests on which this battery was based. For language format measures, repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance showed that individual estimates of preexisting skill level in English generated the mean number of false positives most approximate to that expected from the normal distribution, whereas the 50th percentile of conventional English language norms did the same for visual-perceptual format measures. When using conventional Spanish or English monolingual norms for language format neuropsychological measures with bilingual Hispanic Americans, individual estimates of preexisting skill level are recommended over the 50th percentile.

Improving readability of informed consents for research at an academic medical institution.

PubMed

Hadden, Kristie B; Prince, Latrina Y; Moore, Tina D; James, Laura P; Holland, Jennifer R; Trudeau, Christopher R

2017-12-01

The final rule for the protection of human subjects requires that informed consent be "in language understandable to the subject" and mandates that "the informed consent must be organized in such a way that facilitates comprehension." This study assessed the readability of Institutional Review Board-approved informed consent forms at our institution, implemented an intervention to improve the readability of consent forms, and measured the first year impact of the intervention. Readability assessment was conducted on a sample of 217 Institutional Review Board-approved informed consents from 2013 to 2015. A plain language informed consent template was developed and implemented and readability was assessed again after 1 year. The mean readability of the baseline sample was 10th grade. The mean readability of the post-intervention sample (n=82) was seventh grade. Providing investigators with a plain language informed consent template and training can promote improved readability of informed consents for research.

Is Language a Barrier to the Use of Preventive Services?

PubMed Central

Woloshin, Steven; Schwartz, Lisa M; Katz, Steven J; Welch, H Gilbert

1997-01-01

OBJECTIVE To isolate the effect of spoken language from financial barriers to care, we examined the relation of language to use of preventive services in a system with universal access. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Household population of women living in Ontario, Canada, in 1990. PARTICIPANTS Subjects were 22,448 women completing the 1990 Ontario Health Survey, a population-based random sample of households. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS We defined language as the language spoken in the home and assessed self-reported receipt of breast examination, mammogram and Pap testing. We used logistic regression to calculate odds ratios for each service adjusting for potential sources of confounding: socioeconomic characteristics, contact with the health care system, and measures reflecting culture. Ten percent of the women spoke a non-English language at home (4% French, 6% other). After adjustment, compared with English speakers, French-speaking women were significantly less likely to receive breast exams or mammography, and other language speakers were less likely to receive Pap testing. CONCLUSIONS Women whose main spoken language was not English were less likely to receive important preventive services. Improving communication with patients with limited English may enhance participation in screening programs. PMID:9276652

Early second language acquisition: a comparison of the linguistic output of a pre-school child acquiring English as a second language with that of a monolingual peer.

PubMed

Letts, C A

1991-08-01

Two pre-school children were recorded at regular intervals over a 9-month period while playing freely together. One child was acquiring English as a second language, whilst the other was a monolingual English speaker. The sociolinguistic domain was such that the children were likely to be motivated to communicate with each other in English. A variety of quantitative measures were taken from the transcribed data, including measures of utterance type, length, type-token ratios, use of auxiliaries and morphology. The child for whom English was a second language was found to be well able to interact on equal terms with his partner, despite being somewhat less advanced in some aspects of English language development by the end of the sampling period. Whilst he appeared to be consolidating his language skills during this time, his monolingual partner appeared to be developing rapidly. It is hoped that normative longitudinal data of this kind will be of use in the accurate assessment of children from dual language backgrounds, who may be referred for speech and language therapy.

Measures of digit span and verbal rehearsal speed in deaf children after more than 10 years of cochlear implantation.

PubMed

Pisoni, David B; Kronenberger, William G; Roman, Adrienne S; Geers, Ann E

2011-02-01

Conventional assessments of outcomes in deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs) have focused primarily on endpoint or product measures of speech and language. Little attention has been devoted to understanding the basic underlying core neurocognitive factors involved in the development and processing of speech and language. In this study, we examined the development of factors related to the quality of phonological information in immediate verbal memory, including immediate memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed, in a sample of deaf children after >10 yrs of CI use and assessed the correlations between these two process measures and a set of speech and language outcomes. Of an initial sample of 180 prelingually deaf children with CIs assessed at ages 8 to 9 yrs after 3 to 7 yrs of CI use, 112 returned for testing again in adolescence after 10 more years of CI experience. In addition to completing a battery of conventional speech and language outcome measures, subjects were administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III Digit Span subtest to measure immediate verbal memory capacity. Sentence durations obtained from the McGarr speech intelligibility test were used as a measure of verbal rehearsal speed. Relative to norms for normal-hearing children, Digit Span scores were well below average for children with CIs at both elementary and high school ages. Improvement was observed over the 8-yr period in the mean longest digit span forward score but not in the mean longest digit span backward score. Longest digit span forward scores at ages 8 to 9 yrs were significantly correlated with all speech and language outcomes in adolescence, but backward digit spans correlated significantly only with measures of higher-order language functioning over that time period. While verbal rehearsal speed increased for almost all subjects between elementary grades and high school, it was still slower than the rehearsal speed obtained from a control group of normal-hearing adolescents. Verbal rehearsal speed at ages 8 to 9 yrs was also found to be strongly correlated with speech and language outcomes and Digit Span scores in adolescence. Despite improvement after 8 additional years of CI use, measures of immediate verbal memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed, which reflect core fundamental information processing skills associated with representational efficiency and information processing capacity, continue to be delayed in children with CIs relative to NH peers. Furthermore, immediate verbal memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed at 8 to 9 yrs of age were both found to predict speech and language outcomes in adolescence, demonstrating the important contribution of these processing measures for speech-language development in children with CIs. Understanding the relations between these core underlying processes and speech-language outcomes in children with CIs may help researchers to develop new approaches to intervention and treatment of deaf children who perform poorly with their CIs. Moreover, this knowledge could be used for early identification of deaf children who may be at high risk for poor speech and language outcomes after cochlear implantation as well as for the development of novel targeted interventions that focus selectively on these core elementary information processing variables.

A new measure of child vocal reciprocity in children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Harbison, Amy L; Woynaroski, Tiffany G; Tapp, Jon; Wade, Joshua W; Warlaumont, Anne S; Yoder, Paul J

2018-06-01

Children's vocal development occurs in the context of reciprocal exchanges with a communication partner who models "speechlike" productions. We propose a new measure of child vocal reciprocity, which we define as the degree to which an adult vocal response increases the probability of an immediately following child vocal response. Vocal reciprocity is likely to be associated with the speechlikeness of vocal communication in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two studies were conducted to test the utility of the new measure. The first used simulated vocal samples with randomly sequenced child and adult vocalizations to test the accuracy of the proposed index of child vocal reciprocity. The second was an empirical study of 21 children with ASD who were preverbal or in the early stages of language development. Daylong vocal samples collected in the natural environment were computer analyzed to derive the proposed index of child vocal reciprocity, which was highly stable when derived from two daylong vocal samples and was associated with speechlikeness of vocal communication. This association was significant even when controlling for chance probability of child vocalizations to adult vocal responses, probability of adult vocalizations, or probability of child vocalizations. A valid measure of children's vocal reciprocity might eventually improve our ability to predict which children are on track to develop useful speech and/or are most likely to respond to language intervention. A link to a free, publicly-available software program to derive the new measure of child vocal reciprocity is provided. Autism Res 2018, 11: 903-915. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Children and adults often engage in back-and-forth vocal exchanges. The extent to which they do so is believed to support children's early speech and language development. Two studies tested a new measure of child vocal reciprocity using computer-generated and real-life vocal samples of young children with autism collected in natural settings. The results provide initial evidence of accuracy, test-retest reliability, and validity of the new measure of child vocal reciprocity. A sound measure of children's vocal reciprocity might improve our ability to predict which children are on track to develop useful speech and/or are most likely to respond to language intervention. A free, publicly-available software program and manuals are provided. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Why Do Preschool Language Abilities Correlate with Later Reading? A Twin Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harlaar, Nicole; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.; Dale, Philip S.; Plomin, Robert

2008-01-01

Purpose: Language acquisition is predictive of successful reading development, but the nature of this link is poorly understood. Method: A sample of 7,179 twin pairs was assessed on parent-report measures of syntax and vocabulary at ages 2, 3, and 4 years and on teacher assessments of reading achievement (RA) at ages 7, 9, and 10 years. These…

Phonetic convergence in spontaneous conversations as a function of interlocutor language distance

PubMed Central

Kim, Midam; Horton, William S.; Bradlow, Ann R.

2013-01-01

This study explores phonetic convergence during conversations between pairs of talkers with varying language distance. Specifically, we examined conversations within two native English talkers and within two native Korean talkers who had either the same or different regional dialects, and between native and nonnative talkers of English. To measure phonetic convergence, an independent group of listeners judged the similarity of utterance samples from each talker through an XAB perception test, in which X was a sample of one talker’s speech and A and B were samples from the other talker at either early or late portions of the conversation. The results showed greater convergence for same-dialect pairs than for either the different-dialect pairs or the different-L1 pairs. These results generally support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between phonetic convergence and interlocutor language distance. We interpret this pattern as suggesting that phonetic convergence between talker pairs that vary in the degree of their initial language alignment may be dynamically mediated by two parallel mechanisms: the need for intelligibility and the extra demands of nonnative speech production and perception. PMID:23637712

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Language Ability in Older Adults: Findings from the Older Australian Twins Study.

PubMed

Lee, T; Thalamuthu, A; Henry, J D; Trollor, J N; Ames, D; Wright, M J; Sachdev, P S

2018-05-01

We used a sub-sample from the Older Australian Twins Study to estimate the heritability of performance on three tests of language ability: Boston Naming Test (BNT), Letter/Phonemic Fluency (FAS) and Category/Semantic Fluency (CFT) Tests. After adjusting for age, sex, education, mood, and global cognition (GC), heritability estimates obtained for the three tests were 0.35, 0.59, and 0.20, respectively. Multivariate analyses showed that the genetic correlation were high for BNT and CFT (0.61), but low for BNT and FAS (0.17), and for FAS and CFT (0.28). Genetic modelling with Cholesky decomposition indicated that the covariation between the three measures could be explained by a common genetic factor. Environmental correlations between the language ability measures were low, and there were considerable specific environmental influences for each measure. Future longitudinal studies with language performance and neuroimaging data can further our understanding of genetic and environmental factors involved in the process of cognitive aging.

Age or experience? The influence of age at implantation and social and linguistic environment on language development in children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Szagun, Gisela; Stumper, Barbara

2012-12-01

The authors investigated the influence of social environmental variables and age at implantation on language development in children with cochlear implants. Participants were 25 children with cochlear implants and their parents. Age at implantation ranged from 6 months to 42 months ( M (age) = 20.4 months, SD = 22.0 months). Linguistic progress was assessed at 12, 18, 24, and 30 months after implantation. At each data point, language measures were based on parental questionnaire and 45-min spontaneous speech samples. Children's language and parents' child-directed language were analyzed. On all language measures, children displayed considerable vocabulary and grammatical growth over time. Although there was no overall effect of age at implantation, younger and older children had different growth patterns. Children implanted by age 24 months made the most marked progress earlier on, whereas children implanted thereafter did so later on. Higher levels of maternal education were associated with faster linguistic progress; age at implantation was not. Properties of maternal language input, mean length of utterance, and expansions were associated with children's linguistic progress independently of age at implantation. In children implanted within the sensitive period for language learning, children's home language environment contributes more crucially to their linguistic progress than does age at implantation.

Multiple, correlated covariates associated with differential item functioning (DIF): Accounting for language DIF when education levels differ across languages.

PubMed

Gibbons, Laura E; Crane, Paul K; Mehta, Kala M; Pedraza, Otto; Tang, Yuxiao; Manly, Jennifer J; Narasimhalu, Kaavya; Teresi, Jeanne; Jones, Richard N; Mungas, Dan

2011-04-28

Differential item functioning (DIF) occurs when a test item has different statistical properties in subgroups, controlling for the underlying ability measured by the test. DIF assessment is necessary when evaluating measurement bias in tests used across different language groups. However, other factors such as educational attainment can differ across language groups, and DIF due to these other factors may also exist. How to conduct DIF analyses in the presence of multiple, correlated factors remains largely unexplored. This study assessed DIF related to Spanish versus English language in a 44-item object naming test. Data come from a community-based sample of 1,755 Spanish- and English-speaking older adults. We compared simultaneous accounting, a new strategy for handling differences in educational attainment across language groups, with existing methods. Compared to other methods, simultaneously accounting for language- and education-related DIF yielded salient differences in some object naming scores, particularly for Spanish speakers with at least 9 years of education. Accounting for factors that vary across language groups can be important when assessing language DIF. The use of simultaneous accounting will be relevant to other cross-cultural studies in cognition and in other fields, including health-related quality of life.

Multiple, correlated covariates associated with differential item functioning (DIF): Accounting for language DIF when education levels differ across languages

PubMed Central

Gibbons, Laura E.; Crane, Paul K.; Mehta, Kala M.; Pedraza, Otto; Tang, Yuxiao; Manly, Jennifer J.; Narasimhalu, Kaavya; Teresi, Jeanne; Jones, Richard N.; Mungas, Dan

2012-01-01

Differential item functioning (DIF) occurs when a test item has different statistical properties in subgroups, controlling for the underlying ability measured by the test. DIF assessment is necessary when evaluating measurement bias in tests used across different language groups. However, other factors such as educational attainment can differ across language groups, and DIF due to these other factors may also exist. How to conduct DIF analyses in the presence of multiple, correlated factors remains largely unexplored. This study assessed DIF related to Spanish versus English language in a 44-item object naming test. Data come from a community-based sample of 1,755 Spanish- and English-speaking older adults. We compared simultaneous accounting, a new strategy for handling differences in educational attainment across language groups, with existing methods. Compared to other methods, simultaneously accounting for language- and education-related DIF yielded salient differences in some object naming scores, particularly for Spanish speakers with at least 9 years of education. Accounting for factors that vary across language groups can be important when assessing language DIF. The use of simultaneous accounting will be relevant to other cross-cultural studies in cognition and in other fields, including health-related quality of life. PMID:22900138

Formulaic Language in Alzheimer’s Disease

PubMed Central

Bridges, Kelly Ann; Van Lancker Sidtis, Diana

2013-01-01

Background Studies of productive language in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have focused on formal testing of syntax and semantics but have directed less attention to naturalistic discourse and formulaic language. Clinical observations suggest that individuals with AD retain the ability to produce formulaic language long after other cognitive abilities have deteriorated. Aims This study quantifies production of formulaic expressions in the spontaneous speech of individuals with AD. Persons with early- and late-onset forms of the disease were compared. Methods & Procedures Conversational language samples of individuals with early- (n = 5) and late-onset (n = 6) AD and healthy controls (n = 5) were analyzed to determine whether formulaic language, as measured by the number of words in formulaic expressions, differs between groups. Outcomes & Results Results indicate that individuals with AD, regardless of age of onset, used significantly more formulaic expressions than healthy controls. The early- and late-onset AD groups did not differ on formulaic language measures. Conclusions These findings contribute to a dual process model of cerebral function, which proposes differing processing principles for formulaic and novel expressions. In this model, subcortical areas, which remain intact into late in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, play an important role in the production of formulaic language. Applications to clinical practice include identifying preserved formulaic language and providing informed counseling to patient and family. PMID:24187417

Using Language Sample Analysis to Assess Spoken Language Production in Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Jon F.; Andriacchi, Karen; Nockerts, Ann

2016-01-01

Purpose: This tutorial discusses the importance of language sample analysis and how Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software can be used to simplify the process and effectively assess the spoken language production of adolescents. Method: Over the past 30 years, thousands of language samples have been collected from typical…

Connected speech as a marker of disease progression in autopsy-proven Alzheimer’s disease

PubMed Central

Ahmed, Samrah; Haigh, Anne-Marie F.; de Jager, Celeste A.

2013-01-01

Although an insidious history of episodic memory difficulty is a typical presenting symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, detailed neuropsychological profiling frequently demonstrates deficits in other cognitive domains, including language. Previous studies from our group have shown that language changes may be reflected in connected speech production in the earliest stages of typical Alzheimer’s disease. The aim of the present study was to identify features of connected speech that could be used to examine longitudinal profiles of impairment in Alzheimer’s disease. Samples of connected speech were obtained from 15 former participants in a longitudinal cohort study of ageing and dementia, in whom Alzheimer’s disease was diagnosed during life and confirmed at post-mortem. All patients met clinical and neuropsychological criteria for mild cognitive impairment between 6 and 18 months before converting to a status of probable Alzheimer’s disease. In a subset of these patients neuropsychological data were available, both at the point of conversion to Alzheimer’s disease, and after disease severity had progressed from the mild to moderate stage. Connected speech samples from these patients were examined at later disease stages. Spoken language samples were obtained using the Cookie Theft picture description task. Samples were analysed using measures of syntactic complexity, lexical content, speech production, fluency and semantic content. Individual case analysis revealed that subtle changes in language were evident during the prodromal stages of Alzheimer’s disease, with two-thirds of patients with mild cognitive impairment showing significant but heterogeneous changes in connected speech. However, impairments at the mild cognitive impairment stage did not necessarily entail deficits at mild or moderate stages of disease, suggesting non-language influences on some aspects of performance. Subsequent examination of these measures revealed significant linear trends over the three stages of disease in syntactic complexity, semantic and lexical content. The findings suggest, first, that there is a progressive disruption in language integrity, detectable from the prodromal stage in a subset of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and secondly that measures of semantic and lexical content and syntactic complexity best capture the global progression of linguistic impairment through the successive clinical stages of disease. The identification of disease-specific language impairment in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease could enhance clinicians’ ability to distinguish probable Alzheimer’s disease from changes attributable to ageing, while longitudinal assessment could provide a simple approach to disease monitoring in therapeutic trials. PMID:24142144

Does metacognitive strategy instruction improve impaired receptive cognitive-communication skills following acquired brain injury?

PubMed

Copley, Anna; Smith, Kathleen; Savill, Katelyn; Finch, Emma

2015-01-01

To investigate if metacognitive strategy instruction (MSI) improves the receptive language skills of adults with cognitive-communication disorders secondary to acquired brain injury (ABI). An ABA intervention programme was implemented with eight adults with ABI, aged 25-70 years. The Measure of Cognitive-Linguistic Abilities (MCLA) was administered at baseline and following treatment. The treatment employed in this study involved three components: individual goal-based therapy, group remediation therapy using self-instruction and home practice. No receptive language sub-tests of the MCLA reached statistical significance. However, participants' raw score improvements in receptive language sub-tests indicated that MSI may be effective at remediating CCDs following ABI. Preliminary findings indicate that MSI may be effective in improving receptive language skills in adults with CCDs following ABI. Further research involving a more rigorous study, a larger sample size and a more reliable outcome measure is necessary and may provide statistically significant evidence for the effectiveness of MSI for remediating receptive language disorders.

Belief Reasoning and Emotion Understanding in Balanced Bilingual and Language-Dominant Mexican American Young Children.

PubMed

Weimer, Amy A; Gasquoine, Philip G

2016-01-01

Belief reasoning and emotion understanding were measured among 102 Mexican American bilingual children ranging from 4 to 7 years old. All children were tested in English and Spanish after ensuring minimum comprehension in each language. Belief reasoning was assessed using 2 false and 1 true belief tasks. Emotion understanding was measured using subtests from the Test for Emotion Comprehension. The influence of family background variables of yearly income, parental education level, and number of siblings on combined Spanish and English vocabulary, belief reasoning, and emotion understanding was assessed by regression analyses. Age and emotion understanding predicted belief reasoning. Vocabulary and belief reasoning predicted emotion understanding. When the sample was divided into language-dominant and balanced bilingual groups on the basis of language proficiency difference scores, there were no significant differences on belief reasoning or emotion understanding. Language groups were demographically similar with regard to child age, parental educational level, and family income. Results suggest Mexican American language-dominant and balanced bilinguals develop belief reasoning and emotion understanding similarly.

Determining stability in connected speech in primary progressive aphasia and Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Beales, Ashleigh; Whitworth, Anne; Cartwright, Jade; Panegyres, Peter K; Kane, Robert T

2018-03-08

Using connected speech to assess progressive language disorders is confounded by uncertainty around whether connected speech is stable over successive sampling, and therefore representative of an individual's performance, and whether some contexts and/or language behaviours show greater stability than others. A repeated measure, within groups, research design was used to investigate stability of a range of behaviours in the connected speech of six individuals with primary progressive aphasia and three individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Stability was evaluated, at a group and individual level, across three samples, collected over 3 weeks, involving everyday monologue, narrative and picture description, and analysed for lexical content, fluency and communicative informativeness and efficiency. Excellent and significant stability was found on the majority of measures, at a group and individual level, across all genres, with isolated measures (e.g. nouns use, communicative efficiency) showing good, but greater variability, within one of the three genres. Findings provide evidence of stability on measures of lexical content, fluency and communicative informativeness and efficiency. While preliminary evidence suggests that task selection is influential when considering stability of particular connected speech measures, replication over a larger sample is necessary to reproduce findings.

Effects of language of assessment on the measurement of acculturation: measurement equivalence and cultural frame switching.

PubMed

Schwartz, Seth J; Benet-Martínez, Verónica; Knight, George P; Unger, Jennifer B; Zamboanga, Byron L; Des Rosiers, Sabrina E; Stephens, Dionne P; Huang, Shi; Szapocznik, José

2014-03-01

The present study used a randomized design, with fully bilingual Hispanic participants from the Miami area, to investigate 2 sets of research questions. First, we sought to ascertain the extent to which measures of acculturation (Hispanic and U.S. practices, values, and identifications) satisfied criteria for linguistic measurement equivalence. Second, we sought to examine whether cultural frame switching would emerge--that is, whether latent acculturation mean scores for U.S. acculturation would be higher among participants randomized to complete measures in English and whether latent acculturation mean scores for Hispanic acculturation would be higher among participants randomized to complete measures in Spanish. A sample of 722 Hispanic students from a Hispanic-serving university participated in the study. Participants were first asked to complete translation tasks to verify that they were fully bilingual. Based on ratings from 2 independent coders, 574 participants (79.5% of the sample) qualified as fully bilingual and were randomized to complete the acculturation measures in either English or Spanish. Theoretically relevant criterion measures--self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and personal identity--were also administered in the randomized language. Measurement equivalence analyses indicated that all of the acculturation measures--Hispanic and U.S. practices, values, and identifications-met criteria for configural, weak/metric, strong/scalar, and convergent validity equivalence. These findings indicate that data generated using acculturation measures can, at least under some conditions, be combined or compared across languages of administration. Few latent mean differences emerged. These results are discussed in terms of the measurement of acculturation in linguistically diverse populations. 2014 APA

Effects of Language of Assessment on the Measurement of Acculturation: Measurement Equivalence and Cultural Frame Switching

PubMed Central

Schwartz, Seth J.; Benet-Martínez, Verónica; Knight, George P.; Unger, Jennifer B.; Zamboanga, Byron L.; Des Rosiers, Sabrina E.; Stephens, Dionne; Huang, Shi; Szapocznik, José

2014-01-01

The present study used a randomized design, with fully bilingual Hispanic participants from the Miami area, to investigate two sets of research questions. First, we sought to ascertain the extent to which measures of acculturation (heritage and U.S. practices, values, and identifications) satisfied criteria for linguistic measurement equivalence. Second, we sought to examine whether cultural frame switching would emerge – that is, whether latent acculturation mean scores for U.S. acculturation would be higher among participants randomized to complete measures in English, and whether latent acculturation mean scores for Hispanic acculturation would be higher among participants randomized to complete measures in Spanish. A sample of 722 Hispanic students from a Hispanic-serving university participated in the study. Participants were first asked to complete translation tasks to verify that they were fully bilingual. Based on ratings from two independent coders, 574 participants (79.5% of the sample) qualified as fully bilingual and were randomized to complete the acculturation measures in either English or Spanish. Theoretically relevant criterion measures – self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and personal identity – were also administered in the randomized language. Measurement equivalence analyses indicated that all of the acculturation measures – Hispanic and U.S. practices, values, and identifications – met criteria for configural, weak/metric, strong/scalar, and convergent validity equivalence. These findings indicate that data generated using acculturation measures can, at least under some conditions, be combined or compared across languages of administration. Few latent mean differences emerged. These results are discussed in terms of the measurement of acculturation in linguistically diverse populations. PMID:24188146

Analysis of five-year trends in self-reported language preference and issues of item non-response among Hispanic persons in a large cross-sectional health survey: implications for the measurement of an ethnic minority population

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Significant differences in health outcomes have been documented among Hispanic persons, the fastest-growing demographic segment of the United States. The objective of this study was to examine trends in population growth and the collection of health data among Hispanic persons, including issues of language preference and survey completion using a national health survey to highlight issues of measurement of an increasingly important demographic segment of the United States. Design Data from the 2003-2007 United States Census and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were used to compare trends in population growth and survey sample size as well as differences in survey response based on language preference among a Hispanic population. Percentages of item non-response on selected survey questions were compared for Hispanic respondents choosing to complete the survey in Spanish and those choosing to complete the survey in English. The mean number of attempts to complete the survey was also compared based on language preference among Hispanic respondents. Results The sample size of Hispanic persons in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System saw little growth compared to the actual growth of the Hispanic population in the United States. Significant differences in survey item non-response for nine of 15 survey questions were seen based on language preference. Hispanic respondents choosing to complete the survey in Spanish had a significantly fewer number of call attempts for survey completion compared to their Hispanic counterparts choosing to communicate in English. Conclusions Including additional measures of acculturation and increasing the sample size of Hispanic persons in a national health survey such as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System may result in more precise findings that could be used to better target prevention and health care needs for an ethnic minority population. PMID:20412575

Sample Length Affects the Reliability of Language Sample Measures in 3-Year-Olds: Evidence from Parent-Elicited Conversational Samples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guo, Ling-Yu; Eisenberg, Sarita

2015-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which sample length affected the reliability of total number of words (TNW), number of different words (NDW), and mean length of C-units in morphemes (MLCUm) in parent-elicited conversational samples for 3-year-olds. Method: Participants were sixty 3-year-olds. A 22-min language…

The development of executive function and language skills in the early school years.

PubMed

Gooch, Debbie; Thompson, Paul; Nash, Hannah M; Snowling, Margaret J; Hulme, Charles

2016-02-01

The developmental relationships between executive functions (EF) and early language skills are unclear. This study explores the longitudinal relationships between children's early EF and language skills in a sample of children with a wide range of language abilities including children at risk of dyslexia. In addition, we investigated whether these skills independently predict children's attention/behaviour skills. Data are presented from 243 children at four time points. Children were selected for being at risk of reading difficulties either because of a family history of dyslexia (FR; N = 90) or because of concerns regarding their language development (LI; N = 79) or as typically developing controls (TD; N = 74). The children completed tasks to assess their executive function and language skills at ages 4, 5 and 6 years. At 6 (T4) and 7 years (T5) parents and teachers rated the children's attention/behaviour skills. There was a strong concurrent relationship between language and EF at each assessment. Longitudinal analyses indicated a considerable degree of stability in children's language and EF skills: the influence of language on later EF skills (and vice versa) was weak and not significant in the current sample. Children's EF, but not language, skills at T3 predicted attention/behaviour ratings at T4/T5. There is a strong concurrent association between language and EF skills during the preschool and early school years, when children with language impairment show persistent EF deficits. Latent variables measuring language and EF show high longitudinal stability with little evidence of significant or strong reciprocal influences between these constructs. EF, but not language, skills predict later ratings of children's attention and behaviour. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Parenting and Later Substance Use among Mexican-Origin Youth: Moderation by Preference for a Common Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schofield, Thomas J.; Toro, Rosa I.; Parke, Ross D.; Cookston, Jeffrey T.; Fabricius, William V.; Coltrane, Scott

2017-01-01

The primary goal of the current study was to test whether parent and adolescent preference for a common language moderates the association between parenting and rank-order change over time in offspring substance use. A sample of Mexican-origin 7th-grade adolescents (M[subscript age] = 12.5 years, N = 194, 52% female) was measured longitudinally on…

Predictors of Second Language Acquisition in Latino Children With Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Gutiérrez-Clellen, Vera; Simon-Cereijido, Gabriela; Sweet, Monica

2012-01-01

Purpose This study evaluated the extent to which the language of intervention, the child’s development in Spanish, and the effects of English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure predict differences in the rates of acquisition of English in Latino children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method In this randomized controlled trial, 188 Latino preschoolers with SLI participated in a small-group academic enrichment program for 12 weeks and were followed up 3 and 5 months later. Children were randomly assigned to either a bilingual or an English-only program. Predictors of English growth included measures of Spanish language skills and English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure. Performance on English outcomes (i.e., picture description and narrative sample) was assessed over time. A series of longitudinal models were tested via multilevel modeling with baseline and posttreatment measures nested within child. Results Children demonstrated growth on the English outcomes over time. The language of intervention, Spanish skills, English vocabulary, and English use significantly predicted differences in rates of growth across children for specific measures of English development. Conclusions This study underscores the role of the child’s first language skills, the child’s level of English vocabulary development, and level of English use for predicting differences in English acquisition in Latino preschoolers with SLI. These factors should be carefully considered in making clinical decisions. PMID:22230174

Developing and Validating a Science Notebook Rubric for Fifth-Grade Non-Mainstream Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huerta, Margarita; Lara-Alecio, Rafael; Tong, Fuhui; Irby, Beverly J.

2014-07-01

We present the development and validation of a science notebook rubric intended to measure the academic language and conceptual understanding of non-mainstream students, specifically fifth-grade male and female economically disadvantaged Hispanic English language learner (ELL) and African-American or Hispanic native English-speaking students. The science notebook rubric is based on two main constructs: academic language and conceptual understanding. The constructs are grounded in second-language acquisition theory and theories of writing and conceptual understanding. We established content validity and calculated reliability measures using G theory and percent agreement (for comparison) with a sample of approximately 144 unique science notebook entries and 432 data points. Results reveal sufficient reliability estimates, indicating that the instrument is promising for use in future research studies including science notebooks in classrooms with populations of economically disadvantaged Hispanic ELL and African-American or Hispanic native English-speaking students.

Your Laptop to the Rescue: Using the Child Language Data Exchange System Archive and CLAN Utilities to Improve Child Language Sample Analysis.

PubMed

Ratner, Nan Bernstein; MacWhinney, Brian

2016-05-01

In this article, we review the advantages of language sample analysis (LSA) and explain how clinicians can make the process of LSA faster, easier, more accurate, and more insightful than LSA done "by hand" by using free, available software programs such as Computerized Language Analysis (CLAN). We demonstrate the utility of CLAN analysis in studying the expressive language of a very large cohort of 24-month-old toddlers tracked in a recent longitudinal study; toddlers in particular are the most likely group to receive LSA by clinicians, but existing reference "norms" for this population are based on fairly small cohorts of children. Finally, we demonstrate how a CLAN utility such as KidEval can now extract potential normative data from the very large number of corpora now available for English and other languages at the Child Language Data Exchange System project site. Most of the LSA measures that we studied appear to show developmental profiles suggesting that they may be of specifically higher value for children at certain ages, because they do not show an even developmental trajectory from 2 to 7 years of age. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Evaluating the Discriminant Accuracy of a Grammatical Measure With Spanish-Speaking Children

PubMed Central

Gutiérrez-Clellen, Vera F.; Restrepo, M. Adelaida; Simón-Cereijido, Gabriela

2012-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the discriminant accuracy of a grammatical measure for the identification of language impairment in Latino Spanish-speaking children. The authors hypothesized that if exposure to and use of English as a second language have an effect on the first language, bilingual children might exhibit lower rates of grammatical accuracy than their peers and be more likely to be misclassified. Method Eighty children with typical language development and 80 with language impairment were sampled from 4 different geographical regions and compared using linear discriminant function analysis. Results Results indicated fair-to-good sensitivity from 4;0 to 5;1 years, good sensitivity from 5;2 to 5;11 years, and poor sensitivity above age 6 years. The discriminant functions derived from the exploratory studies were able to predict group membership in confirmatory analyses with fair-to-excellent sensitivity up to age 6 years. Children who were bilingual did not show lower scores and were not more likely to be misclassified compared with their Spanish-only peers. Conclusions The measure seems to be appropriate for identifying language impairment in either Spanish-dominant or Spanish-only speakers between 4 and 6 years of age. However, for older children, supplemental testing is necessary. PMID:17197491

Social cognition and externalizing psychopathology: an investigation of the mediating role of language.

PubMed

Zadeh, Zohreh Yaghoub; Im-Bolter, Nancie; Cohen, Nancy J

2007-04-01

The present study integrates findings from three lines of research on the association of social cognition and externalizing psychopathology, language and externalizing psychopathology, and social cognition and language functioning using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). To date these associations have been examined in pairs. A sample of 354 clinic-referred children (aged 7 to 14 years) recruited from a children's mental health centre were tested on measures of language, social cognition, working memory, and child psychopathology. We compared a hypothesized model presenting language functioning as a mediator of the association between social cognition and externalizing psychopathology to a model presenting the independent contribution of language and social cognition to externalizing psychopathology. As hypothesized, we found that the mediation model fits the data better than the alternative model. Our findings have implications for developing and modifying intervention techniques for children with dual language and externalizing psychopathology.

Early hearing loss and language abilities in children with Down syndrome.

PubMed

Laws, Glynis; Hall, Amanda

2014-01-01

Although many children with Down syndrome experience hearing loss, there has been little research to investigate its impact on speech and language development. Studies that have investigated the association give inconsistent results. These have often been based on samples where children with the most severe hearing impairments have been excluded and so results do not generalize to the wider population with Down syndrome. Also, measuring children's hearing at the time of a language assessment does not take into account the fluctuating nature of hearing loss in children with Down syndrome or possible effects of losses in their early years. To investigate the impact of early hearing loss on language outcomes for children with Down syndrome. Retrospective audiology clinic records and parent report for 41 children were used to categorize them as either having had hearing difficulties from 2 to 4 years or more normal hearing. Differences between the groups on measures of language expression and comprehension, receptive vocabulary, a narrative task and speech accuracy were investigated. After accounting for the contributions of chronological age and nonverbal mental age to children's scores, there were significant differences between the groups on all measures. Early hearing loss has a significant impact on the speech and language development of children with Down syndrome. Results suggest that speech and language therapy should be provided when children are found to have ongoing hearing difficulties and that joint audiology and speech and language therapy clinics could be considered for preschool children. © 2014 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

When learning a second language does not mean losing the first: bilingual language development in low-income, Spanish-speaking children attending bilingual preschool.

PubMed

Winsler, A; Díaz, R M; Espinosa, L; Rodríguez, J L

1999-01-01

This article discusses two investigations which explored the bilingual language development outcomes of comparable groups of low-income, Spanish-speaking, Mexican American children who either did or did not attended a bilingual (Spanish/English) preschool. Study 1 is a replication of a study by Rodríguez, Díaz, Duran, and Espinosa, involving a new sample of 26 children who attended bilingual preschool for one year and 20 control children who remained at home. Study 2 represents a 1-year, longitudinal follow-up of Rodríguez et al.'s, sample of children during and after the children spent another year at home or in the preschool. In both investigations, standardized, objective measures of three components of children's language proficiency (productive language, receptive language, and language complexity) in English and Spanish were obtained at the beginning and end of the academic year. Contrary to fears that have been expressed by some that early exposure to English would lead to children's native language loss, the results of both studies offered no evidence of Spanish proficiency loss for children attending bilingual preschool. Children who attended bilingual preschool, compared to those who remained at home, showed significant and parallel gains in Spanish language development as well as significant and greater increases in English language proficiency over time. Results are discussed in terms of the need for more systematic research to be conducted in this area to inform policy and practice in the early education and development of language-minority children.

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.

Language Measures of the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery

PubMed Central

Gershon, Richard C.; Cook, Karon F.; Mungas, Dan; Manly, Jennifer J.; Slotkin, Jerry; Beaumont, Jennifer L.; Weintraub, Sandra

2015-01-01

Language facilitates communication and efficient encoding of thought and experience. Because of its essential role in early childhood development, in educational achievement and in subsequent life adaptation, language was included as one of the subdomains in the NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB). There are many different components of language functioning, including syntactic processing (i.e., morphology and grammar) and lexical semantics. For purposes of the NIHTB-CB, two tests of language—a picture vocabulary test and a reading recognition test—were selected by consensus based on literature reviews, iterative expert input, and a desire to assess in English and Spanish. NIHTB-CB’s picture vocabulary and reading recognition tests are administered using computer adaptive testing and scored using item response theory. Data are presented from the validation of the English versions in a sample of adults ages 20–85 years (Spanish results will be presented in a future publication). Both tests demonstrated high test–retest reliability and good construct validity compared to corresponding gold-standard measures. Scores on the NIH Toolbox measures were consistent with age-related expectations, namely, growth in language during early development, with relative stabilization into late adulthood. PMID:24960128

Use of Language Sample Analysis by School-Based SLPs: Results of a Nationwide Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pavelko, Stacey L.; Owens, Robert E., Jr.; Ireland, Marie; Hahs-Vaughn, Debbie L.

2016-01-01

Purpose: This article examines use of language sample analysis (LSA) by school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs), including characteristics of language samples, methods of transcription and analysis, barriers to LSA use, and factors affecting LSA use, such as American Speech-Language-Hearing Association certification, number of years'…

Use of the Children's Communication Checklist-2 for classification of language impairment risk in young school-age children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Timler, Geralyn R

2014-02-01

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at elevated risk for language impairment (LI). This study examined the feasibility of using the Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2; Bishop, 2006) to classify risk for LI in young children, ages 5-8 years, with ADHD. Parents of 32 children with ADHD and 12 typically developing peers completed the CCC-2. The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fourth Edition (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003) and the Test of Narrative Language (Gillam & Pearson, 2004) were administered to diagnose LI. Language samples were collected to examine clinical markers of LI. CCC-2 General Communication Composite scores ≤ 85 correctly classified 10 participants with ADHD diagnosed with LI as defined by composite scores ≤ 85 on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fourth Edition, or on the Test of Narrative Language. Five of these participants demonstrated 1 or more clinical markers of LI in language samples. Three additional participants, who received a General Communication Composite score ≤ 85 yet scored above 85 on the language tests, demonstrated CCC-2 profiles suggestive of pragmatic impairment. Sensitivity and specificity rates were 100% and 85.29%, respectively. CCC-2 scores and most measures were significantly correlated. The results support the feasibility of using the CCC-2 as a screener to identify children with ADHD who are at elevated risk for LI and need referral for comprehensive assessment.

The Agreement between Parent-Reported and Directly Measured Child Language and Parenting Behaviors

PubMed Central

Bennetts, Shannon K.; Mensah, Fiona K.; Westrupp, Elizabeth M.; Hackworth, Naomi J.; Reilly, Sheena

2016-01-01

Parenting behaviors are commonly targeted in early interventions to improve children’s language development. Accurate measurement of both parenting behaviors and children’s language outcomes is thus crucial for sensitive assessment of intervention outcomes. To date, only a small number of studies have compared parent-reported and directly measured behaviors, and these have been hampered by small sample sizes and inaccurate statistical techniques, such as correlations. The Bland–Altman Method and Reduced Major Axis regression represent more reliable alternatives because they allow us to quantify fixed and proportional bias between measures. In this study, we draw on data from two Australian early childhood cohorts (N = 201 parents and slow-to-talk toddlers aged 24 months; and N = 218 parents and children aged 6–36 months experiencing social adversity) to (1) examine agreement and quantify bias between parent-reported and direct measures, and (2) to determine socio-demographic predictors of the differences between parent-reported and direct measures. Measures of child language and parenting behaviors were collected from parents and their children. Our findings support the utility of the Bland–Altman Method and Reduced Major Axis regression in comparing measurement methods. Results indicated stronger agreement between parent-reported and directly measured child language, and poorer agreement between measures of parenting behaviors. Child age was associated with difference scores for child language; however, the direction varied for each cohort. Parents who rated their child’s temperament as more difficult tended to report lower language scores on the parent questionnaire, compared to the directly measured scores. Older parents tended to report lower parenting responsiveness on the parent questionnaire, compared to directly measured scores. Finally, speaking a language other than English was associated with less responsive parenting behaviors on the videotaped observation compared to the parent questionnaire. Variation in patterns of agreement across the distribution of scores highlighted the importance of assessing agreement comprehensively, providing strong evidence that simple correlations are grossly insufficient for method comparisons. We discuss implications for researchers and clinicians, including guidance for measurement selection, and the potential to reduce financial and time-related expenses and improve data quality. Further research is required to determine whether findings described here are reflected in more representative populations. PMID:27891102

Evaluating the Predictive Validity of the Computerized Comprehension Task: Comprehension Predicts Production

PubMed Central

Friend, Margaret; Schmitt, Sara A.; Simpson, Adrianne M.

2017-01-01

Until recently, the challenges inherent in measuring comprehension have impeded our ability to predict the course of language acquisition. The present research reports on a longitudinal assessment of the convergent and predictive validity of the CDI: Words and Gestures and the Computerized Comprehension Task (CCT). The CDI: WG and the CCT evinced good convergent validity however the CCT better predicted subsequent parent reports of language production. Language sample data in the third year confirm this finding: the CCT accounted for 24% of the variance in unique word use. These studies provide evidence for the utility of a behavior-based approach to predicting the course of language acquisition into production. PMID:21928878

Factorial Invariance of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) for Adults of Mexican Descent across Nativity Status, Language Format, and Gender

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torres, Lucas; Miller, Matthew J.; Moore, Kelly M.

2013-01-01

The cultural equivalence of psychological outcome measures remains a major area of investigation. The current study sought to test the factor structure and factorial invariance of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) with a sample of adult individuals of Mexican descent (N = 923) across nativity status (U.S.- vs. foreign-born), language format…

Relationship Between Surface-Based Brain Morphometric Measures and Intelligence in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Influence of History of Language Delay.

PubMed

Balardin, Joana Bisol; Sato, João Ricardo; Vieira, Gilson; Feng, Yeu; Daly, Eileen; Murphy, Clodagh; Murphy, Declan; Ecker, Christine

2015-10-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of conditions that show abnormalities in the neuroanatomy of multiple brain regions. The variability in the development of intelligence and language among individuals on the autism spectrum has long been acknowledged, but it remains unknown whether these differences impact on the neuropathology of ASD. In this study, we aimed to compare associations between surface-based regional brain measures and general intelligence (IQ) scores in ASD individuals with and without a history of language delay. We included 64 ASD adults of normal intelligence (37 without a history of language delay and 27 with a history of language delay and 80 neurotypicals). Regions with a significant association between verbal and nonverbal IQ and measures of cortical thickness (CT), surface area, and cortical volume were first identified in the combined sample of individuals with ASD and controls. Thicker dorsal frontal and temporal cortices, and thinner lateral orbital frontal and parieto-occipital cortices were associated with greater and lower verbal IQ scores, respectively. Correlations between cortical volume and verbal IQ were observed in similar regions as revealed by the CT analysis. A significant difference between ASD individuals with and without a history of language delay in the association between CT and verbal IQ was evident in the parieto-occipital region. These results indicate that ASD subgroups defined on the basis of differential language trajectories in childhood can have different associations between verbal IQ and brain measures in adulthood despite achieving similar levels of cognitive performance. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Translation and validation of a Spanish-language genetic health literacy screening tool.

PubMed

Rodríguez, Sally Ann; Roter, Debra L; Castillo-Salgado, Carlos; Hooker, Gillian W; Erby, Lori H

2015-02-01

Literacy deficits and underutilization of medical services have been linked to health disparities among minorities, and this appears especially relevant for the Latino population. Given the increasing importance of genetics, assessment of genetic health literacy may direct future efforts to better serve this vulnerable population. The current study was designed to contribute to this area by translating and validating a Spanish-language genetic health literacy measure. This was a cross-sectional study involving an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Eligible individuals were Latinos between the ages of 18 and 75 residing in Maryland, who self-reported Spanish as their primary language, recruited through convenience sampling. The genetic health literacy measure components were adapted from existing English-language measures [Erby, Roter, Larson, & Cho's (2008) Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Genetics (REAL-G) and Hooker et al.'s (2014) Genetic Literacy and Comprehension]. An existing Spanish-language general health literacy measure was used to establish preliminary concurrent validity [Lee, Bender, Ruiz, & Cho's (2006) SAHLSA]. 116 individuals completed the assessment. The Spanish-language REAL-G (REAL-G-Sp) was found to correlate well with the SAHLSA (Pearson's r = .77, p < .01). A cut-off score of 59 (out of 62) distinguished low versus high genetic health literacy with a sensitivity of 86% and specificity of 71%, identifying 28% of participants as having inadequate genetic health literacy. The REAL-G-Sp was found to have preliminary concurrent validity with an existing health literacy measure in the Latino population residing in Maryland. Significant proportions of this population are predicted to have limitations in genetic health literacy, even when information is provided in Spanish.

The psychometric properties of the generalized anxiety disorder-7 scale in Hispanic Americans with English or Spanish language preference.

PubMed

Mills, Sarah D; Fox, Rina S; Malcarne, Vanessa L; Roesch, Scott C; Champagne, Brian R; Sadler, Georgia Robins

2014-07-01

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (GAD-7) is a self-report questionnaire that is widely used to screen for anxiety. The GAD-7 has been translated into numerous languages, including Spanish. Previous studies evaluating the structural validity of the English and Spanish versions indicate a unidimensional factor structure in both languages. However, the psychometric properties of the Spanish language version have yet to be evaluated in samples outside of Spain, and the measure has not been tested for use among Hispanic Americans. This study evaluated the reliability, structural validity, and convergent validity of the English and Spanish language versions of the GAD-7 for Hispanic Americans in the United States. A community sample of 436 Hispanic Americans with an English (n = 210) or Spanish (n = 226) language preference completed the GAD-7. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the goodness-of-fit of the unidimensional factor structure of the GAD-7 across language-preference groups. Results from the multiple-group CFA indicated a similar unidimensional factor structure with equivalent response patterns and item intercepts, but different variances, across language-preference groups. Internal consistency was good for both English and Spanish language-preference groups. The GAD-7 also evidenced good convergent validity as demonstrated by significant correlations in expected directions with the Perceived Stress Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and the Physical Health domain of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF assessment. The unidimensional GAD-7 is suitable for use among Hispanic Americans with an English or Spanish language preference.

The pragmatic language, communication skills, parent-child relationships, and symptoms of children with ADHD and their playmates 18-months after a parent-delivered play-based intervention.

PubMed

Wilkes-Gillan, Sarah; Cantrill, Alycia; Parsons, Lauren; Smith, Cally; Cordier, Reinie

2017-07-01

This study examined the communication skills, pragmatic language, parent-child relationships, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms of children with ADHD and their playmates 18-months after a pilot parent-delivered intervention for improving social play skills and pragmatic language. Participants were five children with ADHD, their parents, and five typically-developing playmates. Outcomes were measured immediately post and 18-months following the intervention. Parent-rated norm-based assessments and an observational measure were used. Differences within and between the ADHD and playmate groups were examined. Children maintained all skills gained 18-months following the intervention. Compared to a normative sample, children with ADHD remained below the average range on aspects of communication skills, parent-child relationships, and ADHD symptom levels 18-months following intervention. After intervention, children with ADHD still experienced pragmatic language skills below those of their peers on norm-based assessments that measure their skills across contexts. School-based interventions are needed to facilitate ongoing skill development and generalization.

Analysis of oral narratives of children who stutter and their fluent peers: kindergarten through second grade.

PubMed

Bajaj, Amit

2007-03-01

Measures of language sample length (in c-units) and morphological, syntactic, and narrative abilities were obtained from oral narrative transcripts of 22 children who stutter and 22 children who do not stutter; participants attended kindergarten, first, and second grades. A two-way MANOVA yielded significant main effects for grade, with significant differences on some measures evidenced between participants in kindergarten and second grades. No significant differences between groups or group-grade interaction effects on the measures were obtained. Grade-wise comparisons (through t-tests) indicated that the performance of children who stutter did not differ significantly from their typically fluent peers on all dependent measures; however, kindergarten children who stutter obtained the most discrepant (lower) scores than their grade-matched fluent peers on the Narrative Scoring Scheme measure, with group differences approaching statistical significance on this measure. The findings suggest that children who do and do not stutter evidence similar expressive language abilities, even as subgroups of children who stutter may lag behind their grade-matched fluent peers in particular language domains.

Role of auditory non-verbal working memory in sentence repetition for bilingual children with primary language impairment.

PubMed

Ebert, Kerry Danahy

2014-01-01

Sentence repetition performance is attracting increasing interest as a valuable clinical marker for primary (or specific) language impairment (LI) in both monolingual and bilingual populations. Multiple aspects of memory appear to contribute to sentence repetition performance, but non-verbal memory has not yet been considered. To explore the relationship between a measure of non-verbal auditory working memory (NVWM) and sentence repetition performance in a sample of bilingual children with LI. Forty-seven school-aged Spanish-English bilingual children with LI completed sentence repetition and non-word repetition tasks in both Spanish and English as well as an NVWM task. Hierarchical multiple linear regression was used to predict sentence repetition in each language using age, non-word repetition and NVWM. NVWM predicted unique variance in sentence repetition performance in both languages after accounting for chronological age and language-specific phonological memory, as measured by non-word repetition. Domain-general memory resources play a unique role in sentence repetition performance in children with LI. Non-verbal working memory weaknesses may contribute to the poor performance of children with LI on sentence repetition tasks. © 2014 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Dense home-based recordings reveal typical and atypical development of tense/aspect in a child with delayed language development.

PubMed

Chin, Iris; Goodwin, Matthew S; Vosoughi, Soroush; Roy, Deb; Naigles, Letitia R

2018-01-01

Studies investigating the development of tense/aspect in children with developmental disorders have focused on production frequency and/or relied on short spontaneous speech samples. How children with developmental disorders use future forms/constructions is also unknown. The current study expands this literature by examining frequency, consistency, and productivity of past, present, and future usage, using the Speechome Recorder, which enables collection of dense, longitudinal audio-video recordings of children's speech. Samples were collected longitudinally in a child who was previously diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, but at the time of the study exhibited only language delay [Audrey], and a typically developing child [Cleo]. While Audrey was comparable to Cleo in frequency and productivity of tense/aspect use, she was atypical in her consistency and production of an unattested future form. Examining additional measures of densely collected speech samples may reveal subtle atypicalities that are missed when relying on only few typical measures of acquisition.

Verbal short-term memory development and spoken language outcomes in deaf children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Harris, Michael S; Kronenberger, William G; Gao, Sujuan; Hoen, Helena M; Miyamoto, Richard T; Pisoni, David B

2013-01-01

Cochlear implants (CIs) help many deaf children achieve near-normal speech and language (S/L) milestones. Nevertheless, high levels of unexplained variability in S/L outcomes are limiting factors in improving the effectiveness of CIs in deaf children. The objective of this study was to longitudinally assess the role of verbal short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) capacity as a progress-limiting source of variability in S/L outcomes after CI in children. Longitudinal study of 66 children with CIs for prelingual severe-to-profound hearing loss. Outcome measures included performance on digit span forward (DSF), digit span backward (DSB), and four conventional S/L measures that examined spoken-word recognition (Phonetically Balanced Kindergarten word test), receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test ), sentence-recognition skills (Hearing in Noise Test), and receptive and expressive language functioning (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Fourth Edition Core Language Score; CELF). Growth curves for DSF and DSB in the CI sample over time were comparable in slope, but consistently lagged in magnitude relative to norms for normal-hearing peers of the same age. For DSF and DSB, 50.5% and 44.0%, respectively, of the CI sample scored more than 1 SD below the normative mean for raw scores across all ages. The first (baseline) DSF score significantly predicted all endpoint scores for the four S/L measures, and DSF slope (growth) over time predicted CELF scores. DSF baseline and slope accounted for an additional 13 to 31% of variance in S/L scores after controlling for conventional predictor variables such as: chronological age at time of testing, age at time of implantation, communication mode (auditory-oral communication versus total communication), and maternal education. Only DSB baseline scores predicted endpoint language scores on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and CELF. DSB slopes were not significantly related to any endpoint S/L measures. DSB baseline scores and slopes taken together accounted for an additional 4 to 19% of variance in S/L endpoint measures after controlling for the conventional predictor variables. Verbal STM/WM scores, process measures of information capacity, develop at an average rate in the years after cochlear implantation, but were found to consistently lag in absolute magnitude behind those reported for normal-hearing peers. Baseline verbal STM/WM predicted long-term endpoint S/L outcomes, but verbal STM slopes predicted only endpoint language outcomes. Verbal STM/WM processing skills reflect important underlying core elementary neurocognitive functions and represent potential intervention targets for improving endpoint S/L outcomes in pediatric CI users.

Joint Engagement and Early Language in Young Children With Fragile X Syndrome

PubMed Central

Brady, Nancy C.; Fleming, Kandace K.; Warren, Steven F.

2016-01-01

Purpose In this study, we examine joint engagement (JE) in young children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and its relationship to language abilities and autism spectrum disorder symptomatology at 24 to 36 months (toddler period) and 59 to 68 months (child period). Method Participants were 28 children with FXS (24 boys, four girls) and their mothers. Videotaped home observations were conducted during the toddler period and coded for JE. Language abilities were measured at both ages from a developmental assessment, a functional measure, and from a language sample. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Schopler, Reichler, & Renner, 1988) was completed at both ages. Results Children with FXS spent more time in supported JE than in coordinated JE. Using a weighted JE variable, we found that children with FXS who had higher weighted JE scores also had more advanced expressive language skills at both the toddler and child periods. Weighted JE was negatively related to autism symptomatology in the toddler period. Conclusion This study provides evidence that children with FXS who use more JE also have more advanced expressive language skills in early development. Therefore, existing early interventions that target JE behaviors may be effective for promoting language, social communication, and social interaction in this population. PMID:27681878

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.

Language ability of children with and without a history of stuttering: a longitudinal cohort study.

PubMed

Watts, Amy; Eadie, Patricia; Block, Susan; Mensah, Fiona; Reilly, Sheena

2015-02-01

This study aims to determine whether the communication and language skills of children who have a history of stuttering are different from children who do not have a history of stuttering at ages 2-5 years. This study utilizes data from the Early Language in Victoria Study (ELVS), a longitudinal study with a community sample of 1910 children recruited in Melbourne, Australia, as well as a concurrent study examining the onset and progression of stuttering. Participants with a history of stuttering (n = 181) and a control group without a history of stuttering (n = 1438) were identified according to the established protocol of these two existing studies. The stuttering group scored higher than the non-stuttering group on all of the communication and language outcomes measured. The group differences were statistically significant on four of the seven measures and these findings were maintained when potentially confounding factors were controlled for. Importantly, the children with a history of stuttering, as a group, and the control group without a history of stuttering demonstrated developmentally-appropriate early communication and language skills.

Maternal Personality, Parenting Cognitions, and Parenting Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bornstein, Marc H.; Hahn, Chun-Shin; Haynes, O. Maurice

2011-01-01

A community sample of 262 European American mothers of firstborn 20-month-olds completed a personality inventory and measures of parenting cognitions (knowledge, self-perceptions, and reports about behavior) and was observed in interaction with their children from which measures of parenting practices (language, sensitivity, affection, and play)…

Measuring University Students' Approaches to Learning Statistics: An Invariance Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiesi, Francesca; Primi, Caterina; Bilgin, Ayse Aysin; Lopez, Maria Virginia; del Carmen Fabrizio, Maria; Gozlu, Sitki; Tuan, Nguyen Minh

2016-01-01

The aim of the current study was to provide evidence that an abbreviated version of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) was invariant across different languages and educational contexts in measuring university students' learning approaches to statistics. Data were collected on samples of university students attending…

The English proficiency and academic language skills of Australian bilingual children during the primary school years.

PubMed

Dennaoui, Kamelia; Nicholls, Ruth Jane; O'Connor, Meredith; Tarasuik, Joanne; Kvalsvig, Amanda; Goldfeld, Sharon

2016-04-01

Evidence suggests that early proficiency in the language of school instruction is an important predictor of academic success for bilingual children. This study investigated whether English-proficiency at 4-5 years of age predicts academic language and literacy skills among Australian bilingual children at 10-11 years of age, as part of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children ( LSAC, 2012 ). The LSAC comprises a nationally representative clustered cross-sequential sample of Australian children. Data were analysed from a sub-sample of 129 bilingual children from the LSAC Kindergarten cohort (n = 4983), for whom teachers completed the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) checklist (a population measure of early childhood development) and the Academic Rating Scale (ARS) language and literacy subscale. Linear regression analyses revealed that bilingual children who commenced school with stronger English proficiency had higher academic language and literacy scores at the end of primary school (β = 0.45). English proficiency remained a significant predictor, even when accounting for gender and socio-economic disadvantage (β = 0.38). The findings indicate that bilingual children who begin school without English proficiency are at risk of difficulties with academic language and literacy, even after 6 years of schooling. Risk factors need to be identified so early support can be targeted towards the most vulnerable children.

Words that describe chronic musculoskeletal pain: implications for assessing pain quality across cultures.

PubMed

Sharma, Saurab; Pathak, Anupa; Jensen, Mark P

2016-01-01

People from different cultures who speak different languages may experience pain differently. This possible variability has important implications for evaluating the validity of pain quality measures that are directly translated into different languages without cultural adaptations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of language and culture on the validity of pain quality measures by comparing the words that individuals with chronic pain from Nepal use to describe their pain with those used by patients from the USA. A total of 101 individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain in Nepal were asked to describe their pain. The rates of the different pain descriptor domains and phrases used by the Nepali sample were then compared to the published rates of descriptors used by patients from the USA. The content validity of commonly used measures for assessing pain quality was then evaluated. While there was some similarity between patients from Nepal and the USA in how they describe pain, there were also important differences, especially in how pain quality was described. For example, many patients from Nepal used metaphors to describe their pain. Also, the patients from Nepal often used a category of pain descriptor - which describes a physical state - not used by patients from the USA. Only the original McGill Pain Questionnaire was found to have content validity for assessing pain quality in patients from Nepal, although other existing pain quality measures could be adapted to be content valid by adding one or two additional descriptors, depending on the measure in question. The findings indicate that direct translations of measures that are developed using samples of patients from one country or culture are not necessarily content valid for use in other countries or cultures; some adaptations may be required in order for such measures to be most useful in new language and culture.

Longitudinal Comparison of the Speech and Language Performance of United States-Born and Internationally Adopted Toddlers with Cleft Lip and Palate: A Pilot Study.

PubMed

Scherer, Nancy J; Baker, Shauna; Kaiser, Ann; Frey, Jennifer R

2018-01-01

Objective This study compares the early speech and language development of children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip who were adopted internationally with children born in the United States. Design Prospective longitudinal description of early speech and language development between 18 and 36 months of age. Participants This study compares four children (age range = 19 to 38 months) with cleft palate with or without cleft lip who were adopted internationally with four children (age range = 19 to 38 months) with cleft palate with or without cleft lip who were born in the United States, matched for age, gender, and cleft type across three time points over 10 to 12 months. Main Outcome Measures Children's speech-language skills were analyzed using standardized tests, parent surveys, language samples, and single-word phonological assessments to determine differences between the groups. Results The mean scores for the children in the internationally adopted group were lower than the group born in the United States at all three time points for expressive language and speech sound production measures. Examination of matched pairs demonstrated observable differences for two of the four pairs. No differences were observed in cognitive performance and receptive language measures. Conclusions The results suggest a cumulative effect of later palate repair and/or a variety of health and environmental factors associated with their early circumstances that persist to age 3 years. Early intervention to address the trajectory of speech and language is warranted. Given the findings from this small pilot study, a larger study of the long-term speech and language development of children who are internationally adopted and have cleft palate with or without cleft lip is recommended.

Same Talker, Different Language: A Replication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stockmal, Verna; Bond, Z. S.

This research investigated judgments of language samples produced by bilingual speakers. In the first study, listeners judged whether two language samples produced by bilingual speakers were spoken in the same language or in two different languages. Four bilingual African talkers recorded short passages in Swahili and in their home language (Akan,…

Spanish translation and validation of the Scale for Contraversive Pushing to measure pusher behaviour.

PubMed

Martín-Nieto, A; Atín-Arratibel, M Á; Bravo-Llatas, C; Moreno-Bermejo, M I; Martín-Casas, P

2018-06-08

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a Spanish-language version of the Scale for Contraversive Pushing, used to diagnose and measure pusher behaviour in stroke patients. Translation-back translation was used to create the Spanish-language Scale for Contraversive Pushing; we subsequently evaluated its validity and reliability by administering it to a sample of patients. We also analysed its sensitivity to change in patients identified as pushers who received neurological physiotherapy. Experts indicated that the content of the scale was valid. Internal consistency was very good (Cronbach's alpha of 0.94). The intraclass correlation coefficient showed high intra- and interobserver reliability (0.999 and 0.994, respectively). The Kappa and weighted Kappa coefficients were used to measure the reliability of each item; the majority obtained values above 0.9. Lastly, the differences between baseline and final evaluations of pushers were significant (paired sample t test), showing that the scale is sensitive to changes obtained through physical therapy. The Spanish-language version of the Scale for Contraversive Pushing is valid and reliable for measuring pusher behaviour in stroke patients. In addition, it is able to evaluate the ongoing changes in patients who have received physical therapy. Copyright © 2018 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Technology-assisted language intervention for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing; a pilot study of augmentative and alternative communication for enhancing language development.

PubMed

Meinzen-Derr, Jareen; Wiley, Susan; McAuley, Rose; Smith, Laura; Grether, Sandra

2017-11-01

Pilot study to assess the effect of augmentative and alternative communication technology to enhance language development in children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Five children ages 5-10 years with permanent bilateral hearing loss who were identified with language underperformance participated in an individualized 24-week structured program using the application TouchChat WordPower on iPads ® . Language samples were analyzed for changes in mean length of utterance, vocabulary words and mean turn length. Repeated measures models assessed change over time. The baseline median mean length of utterance was 2.41 (range 1.09-6.63; mean 2.88) and significantly increased over time (p = 0.002) to a median of 3.68 at final visit (range 1.97-6.81; mean 3.62). At baseline, the median total number of words spoken per language sample was 251 (range 101-458), with 100 (range 36-100) different words spoken. Total words and different words significantly increased over time (β = 26.8 (7.1), p = 0.001 for total words; β = 8.0 (2.7), p = 0.008 for different words). Mean turn length values also slightly increased over time. Using augmentative and alternative communication technology on iPads ® shows promise in supporting rapid language growth among elementary school-age children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing with language underperformance.

Inhibitory Control of Spanish-Speaking Language-Minority Preschool Children: Measurement and Association With Language, Literacy, and Math Skills.

PubMed

Lonigan, Christopher J; Allan, Darcey M; Goodrich, J Marc; Farrington, Amber L; Phillips, Beth M

Children's self-regulation, including components of executive function such as inhibitory control, is related concurrently and longitudinally with elementary school children's reading and math abilities. Although several recent studies have examined links between preschool children's self-regulation or executive function and their academic skill development, few included large numbers of Spanish-speaking language-minority children. Among the fastest growing segments of the U.S. school-age population, many of these children are at significant risk of academic difficulties. We examined the relations between inhibitory control and academic skills in a sample containing a large number of Spanish-speaking preschoolers. Overall, the children demonstrated substantial academic risk based on preschool-entry vocabulary scores in the below-average range. Children completed assessments of language, literacy, and math skills in English and Spanish, when appropriate, at the start and end of their preschool year, along with a measure of inhibitory control, the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task, which was administered at the start of the preschool year in the child's dominant conversational language. Scores on this last measure were lower for children for whom it was administered in Spanish. For both English and Spanish outcomes, those scores were significantly and uniquely associated with higher scores on measures of phonological awareness and math skills but not vocabulary or print knowledge skills.

Automated identification of wound information in clinical notes of patients with heart diseases: Developing and validating a natural language processing application.

PubMed

Topaz, Maxim; Lai, Kenneth; Dowding, Dawn; Lei, Victor J; Zisberg, Anna; Bowles, Kathryn H; Zhou, Li

2016-12-01

Electronic health records are being increasingly used by nurses with up to 80% of the health data recorded as free text. However, only a few studies have developed nursing-relevant tools that help busy clinicians to identify information they need at the point of care. This study developed and validated one of the first automated natural language processing applications to extract wound information (wound type, pressure ulcer stage, wound size, anatomic location, and wound treatment) from free text clinical notes. First, two human annotators manually reviewed a purposeful training sample (n=360) and random test sample (n=1100) of clinical notes (including 50% discharge summaries and 50% outpatient notes), identified wound cases, and created a gold standard dataset. We then trained and tested our natural language processing system (known as MTERMS) to process the wound information. Finally, we assessed our automated approach by comparing system-generated findings against the gold standard. We also compared the prevalence of wound cases identified from free-text data with coded diagnoses in the structured data. The testing dataset included 101 notes (9.2%) with wound information. The overall system performance was good (F-measure is a compiled measure of system's accuracy=92.7%), with best results for wound treatment (F-measure=95.7%) and poorest results for wound size (F-measure=81.9%). Only 46.5% of wound notes had a structured code for a wound diagnosis. The natural language processing system achieved good performance on a subset of randomly selected discharge summaries and outpatient notes. In more than half of the wound notes, there were no coded wound diagnoses, which highlight the significance of using natural language processing to enrich clinical decision making. Our future steps will include expansion of the application's information coverage to other relevant wound factors and validation of the model with external data. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Role of Oral Proficiency on Reading Comprehension: Within-Language and Cross-Language Relationships

PubMed Central

Uchikoshi, Yuuko; Yang, Lu; Lohr, Brandi; Leung, Genevieve

2016-01-01

This longitudinal study examined the role of oral proficiency, as measured with elicited narratives using a wordless picture book, Frog Where are You? (Meyer, 1969/1994), on English reading comprehension with a total of 102 English Language Learners (ELLs), including both Spanish and Cantonese speakers. Narrative samples were collected in the winter of first grade and reading skills were assessed on the same children one year later in second grade. Children were enrolled in either bilingual programs or mainstream programs. Multiple regression results show it was not the quantity and variety of words used in the narratives that predicted English reading comprehension one year later. Instead, the ability to produce a coherent oral narrative, in either the home language or English, explained a small variance in English reading comprehension for both English learner groups. These findings highlight the importance of examining narrative skills, especially as measured by narrative structure. Implications for parents and educators are discussed. PMID:28717774

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.

Caregiver-Child Verbal Interactions in Child Care: A Buffer against Poor Language Outcomes when Maternal Language Input is Less

PubMed Central

Vernon-Feagans, Lynne; Bratsch-Hines, Mary E.

2013-01-01

Recent research has suggested that high quality child care can buffer young children against poorer cognitive and language outcomes when they are at risk for poorer language and readiness skills. Most of this research measured the quality of parenting and the quality of the child care with global observational measures or rating scales that did not specify the exact maternal or caregiver behaviors that might be causally implicated in the buffering of these children from poor outcomes. The current study examined the actual language by the mother to her child in the home and the verbal interactions between the caregiver and child in the child care setting that might be implicated in the buffering effect of high quality childcare. The sample included 433 rural children from the Family Life Project who were in child care at 36 months of age. Even after controlling for a variety of covariates, including maternal education, income, race, child previous skill, child care type, the overall quality of the home and quality of the child care environment; observed positive caregiver-child verbal interactions in the child care setting interacted with the maternal language complexity and diversity in predicting children’s language development. Caregiver-child positive verbal interactions appeared to buffer children from poor language outcomes concurrently and two years later if children came from homes where observed maternal language complexity and diversity during a picture book task was less. PMID:24634566

Natural language indicators of differential gene regulation in the human immune system.

PubMed

Mehl, Matthias R; Raison, Charles L; Pace, Thaddeus W W; Arevalo, Jesusa M G; Cole, Steve W

2017-11-21

Adverse social conditions have been linked to a conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA) in circulating leukocytes that may contribute to social gradients in disease. However, the CNS mechanisms involved remain obscure, in part because CTRA gene-expression profiles often track external social-environmental variables more closely than they do self-reported internal affective states such as stress, depression, or anxiety. This study examined the possibility that variations in patterns of natural language use might provide more sensitive indicators of the automatic threat-detection and -response systems that proximally regulate autonomic induction of the CTRA. In 22,627 audio samples of natural speech sampled from the daily interactions of 143 healthy adults, both total language output and patterns of function-word use covaried with CTRA gene expression. These language features predicted CTRA gene expression substantially better than did conventional self-report measures of stress, depression, and anxiety and did so independently of demographic and behavioral factors (age, sex, race, smoking, body mass index) and leukocyte subset distributions. This predictive relationship held when language and gene expression were sampled more than a week apart, suggesting that associations reflect stable individual differences or chronic life circumstances. Given the observed relationship between personal expression and gene expression, patterns of natural language use may provide a useful behavioral indicator of nonconsciously evaluated well-being (implicit safety vs. threat) that is distinct from conscious affective experience and more closely tracks the neurobiological processes involved in peripheral gene regulation. Copyright © 2017 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

The Psychometric Properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale in Hispanic Americans with English or Spanish Language Preference

PubMed Central

Mills, Sarah D.; Fox, Rina S.; Malcarne, Vanessa L.; Roesch, Scott C.; Champagne, Brian R.; Sadler, Georgia Robins

2014-01-01

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (GAD-7) is a self-report questionnaire that is widely used to screen for anxiety. The GAD-7 has been translated into numerous languages, including Spanish. Previous studies evaluating the structural validity of the English and Spanish versions indicate a uni-dimensional factor structure in both languages. However, the psychometric properties of the Spanish language version have yet to be evaluated in samples outside of Spain, and the measure has not been tested for use among Hispanic Americans. This study evaluated the reliability, structural validity, and convergent validity of the English and Spanish language versions of the GAD-7 for Hispanic Americans in the United States. A community sample of 436 Hispanic Americans with an English (n = 210) or Spanish (n = 226) language preference completed the GAD-7. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the goodness of fit of the uni-dimensional factor structure of the GAD-7 across language-preference groups. Results from the multiple-group CFA indicated a similar unidimensional factor structure with equivalent response patterns and item intercepts, but different variances, across language-preference groups. Internal consistency was good for both English and Spanish language-preference groups. The GAD-7 also evidenced good convergent validity as demonstrated by significant correlations in expected directions with the Perceived Stress Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and the Physical health domain of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF assessment. The uni-dimensional GAD-7 is suitable for use among Hispanic Americans with an English or Spanish language preference. PMID:25045957

Long-term language levels and reading skills in mandarin-speaking prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Wu, Che-Ming; Chen, Yen-An; Chan, Kai-Chieh; Lee, Li-Ang; Hsu, Kuang-Hung; Lin, Bao-Guey; Liu, Tien-Chen

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to document receptive and expressive language levels and reading skills achieved by Mandarin-speaking children who had received cochlear implants (CIs) and used them for 4.75-7.42 years. The effects of possible associated factors were also analyzed. Standardized Mandarin language and reading tests were administered to 39 prelingually deaf children with Nucleus 24 devices. The Mandarin Chinese version of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test was used to assess their receptive vocabulary knowledge and the Revised Primary School Language Assessment Test for their receptive and expressive language skills. The Graded Chinese Character Recognition Test was used to test their written word recognition ability and the Reading Comprehension Test for their reading comprehension ability. Raw scores from both language and reading measurements were compared to normative data of nor- mal-hearing children to obtain standard scores. The results showed that the mean standard score for receptive vocabulary measurement and the mean T scores for the receptive language, expressive language and total language measurement were all in the low-average range in comparison to the normative sample. In contrast, the mean T scores for word and text reading comprehension were almost the same as for their age-matched hearing counterparts. Among all children with CIs, 75.7% scored within or above the normal range of their age-matched hearing peers on receptive vocabulary measurement. For total language, Chinese word recognition and reading scores, 71.8, 77 and 82% of children with CIs were age appropriate, respectively. A strong correlation was found between language and reading skills. Age at implantation and sentence perception scores account for 37% of variance for total language outcome. Sentence perception scores and preimplantation residual hearing were revealed to be associated with the outcome of reading comprehension. We concluded that by using standard tests, the language development and reading skill of Mandarin-speaking children who use CIs from a young age appear to fall within the normal range of their hearing age mates, at least after 4.8-7.4 years of experience. However, to fully evaluate the fine linguistic skills of these subjects, a more detailed study and longer follow-up period are needed. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

A developmental perspective on reading dysfunction: accuracy and rate criteria in the subtyping of dyslexic children.

PubMed

Lovett, M W

1984-05-01

Children referred with specific reading dysfunction were subtyped as accuracy disabled or rate disabled according to criteria developed from an information processing model of reading skill. Multiple measures of oral and written language development were compared for two subtyped samples matched on age, sex, and IQ. The two samples were comparable in reading fluency, reading comprehension, word knowledge, and word retrieval functions. Accuracy disabled readers demonstrated inferior decoding and spelling skills. The accuracy disabled sample proved deficient in their understanding of oral language structure and in their ability to associate unfamiliar pseudowords and novel symbols in a task designed to simulate some of the learning involved in initial reading acquisition. It was suggested that these two samples of disabled readers may be best described with respect to their relative standing along a theoretical continuum of normal reading development.

Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the school and home language environments of preschool-aged children with ASD.

PubMed

Burgess, Sloane; Audet, Lisa; Harjusola-Webb, Sanna

2013-01-01

The purpose of this research was to begin to characterize and compare the school and home language environments of 10 preschool-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Naturalistic language samples were collected from each child, utilizing Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) digital voice recorder technology, at 3-month intervals over the course of one year. LENA software was used to identify 15-min segments of each sample that represented the highest number of adult words used during interactions with each child for all school and home language samples. Selected segments were transcribed and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT). LENA data was utilized to evaluate quantitative characteristics of the school and home language environments and SALT data was utilized to evaluate quantitative and qualitative characteristics of language environment. Results revealed many similarities in home and school language environments including the degree of semantic richness, and complexity of adult language, types of utterances, and pragmatic functions of utterances used by adults during interactions with child participants. Study implications and recommendations for future research are discussed. The reader will be able to, (1) describe how two language sampling technologies can be utilized together to collect and analyze language samples, (2) describe characteristics of the school and home language environments of young children with ASD, and (3) identify environmental factors that may lead to more positive expressive language outcomes of young children with ASD. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

The use of main concept analysis to measure discourse production in Cantonese-speaking persons with aphasia: a preliminary report.

PubMed

Kong, Anthony Pak-Hin

2009-01-01

Discourse produced by speakers with aphasia contains rich and valuable information for researchers to understand the manifestation of aphasia as well as for clinicians to plan specific treatment components for their clients. Various approaches to investigate aphasic discourse have been proposed in the English literature. However, this is not the case in Chinese. As a result, clinical evaluations of aphasic discourse have not been a common practice. This problem is further compounded by the lack of validated stimuli that are culturally appropriate for language elicitation. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to develop and validate four sequential pictorial stimuli for elicitation of language samples in Cantonese speakers with aphasia, and (b) to investigate the use of a main concept measurement, a clinically oriented quantitative system, to analyze the elicited language samples. Twenty speakers with aphasia and ten normal speakers were invited to participate in this study. The aphasic group produced significantly less key information than the normal group. More importantly, a strong relationship was also found between aphasia severity and production of main concepts. While the results of the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability suggested the scoring system to be reliable, the test-retest results yielded strong and significant correlations across two testing sessions one to three weeks apart. Readers will demonstrate better understanding of (1) the development and validation of newly devised sequential pictorial stimuli to elicit oral language production, and (2) the use of a main concept measurement to quantify aphasic connected speech in Cantonese Chinese.

Social communication in children with autism: the relationship between theory of mind and discourse development.

PubMed

Hale, Courtney M; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2005-05-01

This longitudinal study investigated the developmental trajectory of discourse skills and theory of mind in 57 children with autism. Children were tested at two time points spaced 1 year apart. Each year they provided a natural language sample while interacting with one parent, and were given standardized vocabulary measures and a developmentally sequenced battery of theory of mind tasks. The language samples were coded for conversational skills, specifically the child's use of topic-related contingent utterances. Children with autism made significant gains over 1 year in the ability to maintain a topic of discourse. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that theory of mind skills contributed unique variance to individual differences in contingent discourse ability and vice versa, when measured concurrently; however, they did not predict longitudinal changes. The findings offer some empirical support for the hypothesis that theory of mind is linked to communicative competence in children with autism.

Using Language Sample Databases

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heilmann, John J.; Miller, Jon F.; Nockerts, Ann

2010-01-01

Purpose: Over the past 50 years, language sample analysis (LSA) has evolved from a powerful research tool that is used to document children's linguistic development into a powerful clinical tool that is used to identify and describe the language skills of children with language impairment. The Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT; J.…

Psychometric properties and norms of the German ABC-Community and PAS-ADD Checklist.

PubMed

Zeilinger, Elisabeth L; Weber, Germain; Haveman, Meindert J

2011-01-01

The aim of the present study was to standardize and generate psychometric evidence of the German language versions of two well-established English language mental health instruments: the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community (ABC-C) and the Psychiatric Assessment Schedule for Adults with Developmental Disabilities (PAS-ADD) Checklist. New methods in this field were introduced: a simulation method for testing the factor structure and an exploration of long-term stability over two years. The checklists were both administered to a representative sample of 270 individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and, two years later in a second data collection, to 128 participants of the original sample. Principal component analysis and parallel analysis were performed. Reliability measures, long-term stability, subscale intercorrelations, as well as standardized norms were generated. Prevalence of mental health problems was examined. Psychometric properties were mostly excellent, with long-term stability showing moderate to strong effects. The original factor structure of the ABC-C was replicated. PAS-ADD Checklist produced a similar, but still different structure compared with findings from the English language area. The overall prevalence rate of mental health problems in the sample was about 20%. Considering the good results on the measured psychometric properties, the two checklists are recommended for the early detection of mental health problems in persons with ID. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic personality assessment through social media language.

PubMed

Park, Gregory; Schwartz, H Andrew; Eichstaedt, Johannes C; Kern, Margaret L; Kosinski, Michal; Stillwell, David J; Ungar, Lyle H; Seligman, Martin E P

2015-06-01

Language use is a psychologically rich, stable individual difference with well-established correlations to personality. We describe a method for assessing personality using an open-vocabulary analysis of language from social media. We compiled the written language from 66,732 Facebook users and their questionnaire-based self-reported Big Five personality traits, and then we built a predictive model of personality based on their language. We used this model to predict the 5 personality factors in a separate sample of 4,824 Facebook users, examining (a) convergence with self-reports of personality at the domain- and facet-level; (b) discriminant validity between predictions of distinct traits; (c) agreement with informant reports of personality; (d) patterns of correlations with external criteria (e.g., number of friends, political attitudes, impulsiveness); and (e) test-retest reliability over 6-month intervals. Results indicated that language-based assessments can constitute valid personality measures: they agreed with self-reports and informant reports of personality, added incremental validity over informant reports, adequately discriminated between traits, exhibited patterns of correlations with external criteria similar to those found with self-reported personality, and were stable over 6-month intervals. Analysis of predictive language can provide rich portraits of the mental life associated with traits. This approach can complement and extend traditional methods, providing researchers with an additional measure that can quickly and cheaply assess large groups of participants with minimal burden. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Quantum probabilistic logic programming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balu, Radhakrishnan

2015-05-01

We describe a quantum mechanics based logic programming language that supports Horn clauses, random variables, and covariance matrices to express and solve problems in probabilistic logic. The Horn clauses of the language wrap random variables, including infinite valued, to express probability distributions and statistical correlations, a powerful feature to capture relationship between distributions that are not independent. The expressive power of the language is based on a mechanism to implement statistical ensembles and to solve the underlying SAT instances using quantum mechanical machinery. We exploit the fact that classical random variables have quantum decompositions to build the Horn clauses. We establish the semantics of the language in a rigorous fashion by considering an existing probabilistic logic language called PRISM with classical probability measures defined on the Herbrand base and extending it to the quantum context. In the classical case H-interpretations form the sample space and probability measures defined on them lead to consistent definition of probabilities for well formed formulae. In the quantum counterpart, we define probability amplitudes on Hinterpretations facilitating the model generations and verifications via quantum mechanical superpositions and entanglements. We cast the well formed formulae of the language as quantum mechanical observables thus providing an elegant interpretation for their probabilities. We discuss several examples to combine statistical ensembles and predicates of first order logic to reason with situations involving uncertainty.

Communication restriction in adults who stutter: Part II.

PubMed

Lee, Amanda; Robb, Michael; van Dulm, Ondene; Ormond, Tika

This article presents a follow-up study to Lee, van Dulm, Robb, and Ormond (2015). The aim was to explore communication restriction in adults with stuttering (AWS) using typical language measures and systemic functional linguistics (SFL) analyses. The article compared the pre- and post-treatment performance of AWS in language productivity and complexity, transitivity, modality, appraisal, and theme. Ten-minute conversational samples were obtained from 20 AWS before and after participation in intensive stuttering treatment. Transcripts were analysed for quantity and complexity of verbal output, and frequency of transitivity, modality, appraisal and theme resources. Between pre- and post-treatment, the following differences were observed: (1) a significant increase in frequency of modal operators, and trends approaching significance for (2) increased language complexity (3) increased language expressing appraisal. These changes suggest increased flexibility of language use in AWS following treatment, particularly towards interpersonal engagement. The value of SFL to this area of research is discussed.

Working memory mediates the effects of gestational age at birth on expressive language development in children.

PubMed

Riva, Valentina; Cantiani, Chiara; Dionne, Ginette; Marini, Andrea; Mascheretti, Sara; Molteni, Massimo; Marino, Cecilia

2017-07-01

This study tested the role of temporary memory, measured by phonological short-term memory (pSTM) and verbal working memory (vWM), as a mediator of the effect of 3 putative risk factors (i.e., socioeconomic status, home literacy environment, birth gestational age) upon expressive and receptive language. A community-based sample of 646 Italian children aged 6-11 years was assessed with a comprehensive battery of language and cognitive tests. A mediation analysis was used to examine whether memory mediates environmental/biological effects on language. The results demonstrated a developmental cascade of effects, whereby the duration of pregnancy drives vWM functioning that, in turn, may affect expressive linguistic outcome Conclusion: Treatments focused on vWM, specifically to preterm children, may improve their language development, with enduring consequences on educational and psychosocial outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Potential communicative acts in children with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Braddock, Barbara A; Pickett, Colleen; Ezzelgot, Jamie; Sheth, Shivani; Korte-Stroff, Emily; Loncke, Filip; Bock, Lynn

2015-01-01

To describe potential communicative acts in a sample of 17 children with autism spectrum disorders who produced few to no intelligible words (mean age = 32.82 months). Parents reported on children's potential communicative acts for 10 different communicative functions. A potential communicative act was defined as any behavior produced by an individual that may be interpreted by others to serve a communicative purpose. Significant associations were found between higher number of gesture types and increased scores on language comprehension, language expression, and non-verbal thinking measures. Relative to other types of potential communicative acts, parents reported that children used higher proportions of body movement. Number of body movement types was not related to child ability, while number of gesture types was related to receptive and expressive language. Findings underscore the link between language and gesture, and offer support for an ecological systems perspective of language learning.

Can You Hear What I Think? Theory of Mind in Young Children With Moderate Hearing Loss.

PubMed

Netten, Anouk P; Rieffe, Carolien; Soede, Wim; Dirks, Evelien; Korver, Anna M H; Konings, Saskia; Briaire, Jeroen J; Oudesluys-Murphy, Anne Marie; Dekker, Friedo W; Frijns, Johan H M

The first aim of this study was to examine various aspects of Theory of Mind (ToM) development in young children with moderate hearing loss (MHL) compared with hearing peers. The second aim was to examine the relation between language abilities and ToM in both groups. The third aim was to compare the sequence of ToM development between children with MHL and hearing peers. Forty-four children between 3 and 5 years old with MHL (35 to 70 dB HL) who preferred to use spoken language were identified from a nationwide study on hearing loss in young children. These children were compared with 101 hearing peers. Children were observed during several tasks to measure intention understanding, the acknowledgement of the other's desires, and belief understanding. Parents completed two scales of the child development inventory to assess expressive language and language comprehension in all participants. Objective language test scores were available from the medical files of children with MHL. Children with MHL showed comparable levels of intention understanding but lower levels of both desire and belief understanding than hearing peers. Parents reported lower language abilities in children with MHL compared with hearing peers. Yet, the language levels of children with MHL were within the average range compared with test normative samples. A stronger relation between language and ToM was found in the hearing children than in children with MHL. The expected developmental sequence of ToM skills was divergent in approximately one-fourth of children with MHL, when compared with hearing children. Children with MHL have more difficulty in their ToM reasoning than hearing peers, despite the fact that their language abilities lie within the average range compared with test normative samples.

The Role of Auditory Nonverbal Working Memory in Sentence Repetition for Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Ebert, Kerry Danahy

2015-01-01

Background Sentence repetition performance is attracting increasing interest as a valuable clinical marker for Primary (or Specific) Language Impairment (LI) in both monolingual and bilingual populations. Multiple aspects of memory appear to contribute to sentence repetition performance, but nonverbal memory has not yet been considered. Aims The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between a measure of nonverbal auditory working memory (NVWM) and sentence repetition performance in a sample of bilingual children with LI. Methods & Procedures Forty-seven school-aged Spanish-English bilingual children with LI completed sentence repetition and nonword repetition tasks in both Spanish and English as well as an NVWM task. Hierarchical multiple linear regression was used to predict sentence repetition in each language using age, nonword repetition, and NVWM. Outcomes & Results NVWM predicted unique variance in sentence repetition performance in both languages after accounting for chronological age and language-specific phonological memory, as measured by nonword repetition. Conclusions & Implications Domain-general memory resources play a unique role in sentence repetition performance in children with LI. Nonverbal working memory weaknesses may contribute to the poor performance of children with LI on sentence repetition tasks. PMID:24894308

Predicting behavior problems in deaf and hearing children: The influences of language, attention, and parent–child communication

PubMed Central

Barker, David H.; Quittner, Alexandra L.; Fink, Nancy E.; Eisenberg, Laurie S.; Tobey, Emily A.; Niparko, John K.

2009-01-01

The development of language and communication may play an important role in the emergence of behavioral problems in young children, but they are rarely included in predictive models of behavioral development. In this study, cross-sectional relationships between language, attention, and behavior problems were examined using parent report, videotaped observations, and performance measures in a sample of 116 severely and profoundly deaf and 69 normally hearing children ages 1.5 to 5 years. Secondary analyses were performed on data collected as part of the Childhood Development After Cochlear Implantation Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Hearing-impaired children showed more language, attention, and behavioral difficulties, and spent less time communicating with their parents than normally hearing children. Structural equation modeling indicated there were significant relationships between language, attention, and child behavior problems. Language was associated with behavior problems both directly and indirectly through effects on attention. Amount of parent–child communication was not related to behavior problems. PMID:19338689

Reading and language in 9- to 12-year olds prenatally exposed to cigarettes and marijuana.

PubMed

Fried, P A; Watkinson, B; Siegel, L S

1997-01-01

Facets of reading and language were examined in 131 9- to 12-year-old children for whom prenatal exposure to marijuana and cigarettes had been ascertained. The subjects were from a low-risk, predominantly middle class sample who are participants in an ongoing longitudinal study. Discriminant Function Analysis revealed a dose-dependent association that remained after controlling for potential confounds, between prenatal cigarette exposure and lower language and lower reading scores, particularly on auditory-related aspects of this latter measure. The findings are interpreted as consistent with earlier observations of an association between cigarette smoking during pregnancy and altered auditory functioning in the offspring. Similarities and differences between the reading observations and dyslexia are discussed. Maternal prenatal passive smoke exposure did not appear to contribute to either the language or reading outcomes at this age but postnatal secondhand smoke exposure by the child was associated with poorer language scores. Prenatal marijuana exposure was not significantly related to either the reading or language outcomes.

Predicting behavior problems in deaf and hearing children: the influences of language, attention, and parent-child communication.

PubMed

Barker, David H; Quittner, Alexandra L; Fink, Nancy E; Eisenberg, Laurie S; Tobey, Emily A; Niparko, John K

2009-01-01

The development of language and communication may play an important role in the emergence of behavioral problems in young children, but they are rarely included in predictive models of behavioral development. In this study, cross-sectional relationships between language, attention, and behavior problems were examined using parent report, videotaped observations, and performance measures in a sample of 116 severely and profoundly deaf and 69 normally hearing children ages 1.5 to 5 years. Secondary analyses were performed on data collected as part of the Childhood Development After Cochlear Implantation Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Hearing-impaired children showed more language, attention, and behavioral difficulties, and spent less time communicating with their parents than normally hearing children. Structural equation modeling indicated there were significant relationships between language, attention, and child behavior problems. Language was associated with behavior problems both directly and indirectly through effects on attention. Amount of parent-child communication was not related to behavior problems.

High heritability of speech and language impairments in 6-year-old twins demonstrated using parent and teacher report.

PubMed

Bishop, Dorothy V M; Laws, Glynis; Adams, Caroline; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2006-03-01

Previous twin studies have demonstrated high heritability of specific language impairment (SLI) when the diagnosis is based on psychometric testing. The current study measured the effectiveness of parent and teacher ratings of communication skills in identifying heritable language impairment. The Children's Communication Checklist was completed by parents and teachers of 6-year-old twins recruited from a general population sample. One hundred and thirty twin pairs (65 MZ) were selected because at least one twin had low language skills at 4 years of age; a further 66 pairs (37 MZ) were a low risk group with no indication of language difficulties at 4 years. Internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, and validity in identifying language impairment were assessed for all CCC scales. CCC scales, especially those assessing structural language skills, were highly effective in identifying cases of language impairment, but agreement between parent and teacher ratings was modest. Genetic analysis revealed negligible environmental influence and substantial genetic influence on most scales. A rater-specific effects model was fit to the data to assess how far parents and teachers assess a common genetic factor on the CCC. Ratings of parents and teachers were influenced to some extent by the same child characteristics, but rater-specific effects were also evident, especially on scales measuring pragmatic aspects of communication. This study shows that there are strong genetic influences on both structural and pragmatic language impairments in children, and these can be detected using a simple checklist completed by parents or teachers.

Kidwatching: A Vygotskyan Approach to Children's Language In the "Star Wars" Age.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monroe, Suzanne S.

A Vygotskyan review of children's language examines language samples of a 7-year-old boy at home, at a birthday party, and at play in a sandbox. The language samples indicate common patterns, including his use of tools and symbol together in play. A common thread in the samples is his involvement with high tech tools of futuristic toys. Vygotsky…

Multidimensional Aspects of Young Children's Sex-Role Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schau, Candace Garrett; Busch, Judith Wilde

This article reports a study in which a sample of 89 White and 34 Spanish-language heritage children from ages 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 from the lower- and middle-classes responded to two cognitive measures (classification skill and gender knowledge), three verbal sex-typing measures (occupations, toys, and peer behaviors), and a behavioral sex-typing…

Stability of Measures from Children's Interviews: The Effects of Time, Sample Length, and Topic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heilmann, John; DeBrock, Lindsay; Riley-Tillman, T. Chris

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of, and sources of variability in, language measures from interviews collected from young school-age children. Method: Two 10-min interviews were collected from 20 at-risk kindergarten children by an examiner using a standardized set of questions. Test-retest reliability…

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.

Longitudinal Development of Phonology and Morphology in Children with Late-Identified Mild-Moderate Sensorineural Hearing Loss

PubMed Central

Moeller, Mary Pat; McCleary, Elizabeth; Putman, Coille; Tyler-Krings, Amy; Hoover, Brenda; Stelmachowicz, Patricia

2010-01-01

Objective Studies of language development in children with mild-moderate hearing loss are relatively rare. Longitudinal studies of children with late-identified hearing loss have not been conducted, and they are relevant for determining how a period of unaided mild-moderate hearing loss impacts development. In recent years, newborn hearing screening programs have effectively reduced the ages of identification for most children with permanent hearing loss. However, some children continue to be identified late and research is needed to guide management decisions. Further, studies of this group may help to discern if language normalizes following intervention, and/or if certain aspects of language might be vulnerable to persistent delays. The current study examines the impact of late identification and reduced audibility on speech and language outcomes via a longitudinal study of four children with mild-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Design Longitudinal outcomes of four children with late-identified mild-moderate sensorinueral hearing loss were studied using standardized measures and language sampling procedures, from at or near the point of identification (28 – 41 months) through 84 months of age. The children with hearing loss were compared to ten age-matched children with normal hearing on a majority of the measures through 60 months of age. Spontaneous language samples were collected from mother-child interaction sessions, recorded at consistent intervals in a laboratory-based play setting. Transcripts were analyzed using computer-based procedures (Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts) and the Index of Productive Syntax. Possible influences of audibility were explored by examining the onset and productive use of a set of verb tense markers, and by monitoring the children’s accuracy in use of morphological endings. Phonological samples at baseline were transcribed and analyzed using Computerized Profiling. Results At entry to the study, the four children with hearing loss demonstrated language delays, with pronounced delays in phonological development. Three of the four children demonstrated rapid progress with development and interventions, and performed within the average range on standardized speech and language measures compared to age-matched children by 60-months of age. However, persistent differences from children with normal hearing were observed in the areas of morphosyntax, speech intelligibility in conversation, and production of fricatives. Children with mild-moderate hearing loss demonstrated later than typical emergence of certain verb tense markers, which may be related to reduced or inconsistent audibility. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that early communication delays will resolve for children with late-identified mild-moderate hearing loss, given appropriate amplification and intervention services. A positive result is that three of four children demonstrated normalization of broad language behaviors by 60-months of age, in spite of significant delays at baseline. However, these children are at risk for persistent delays in phonology at the conversational level and for accuracy in use of morphological markers. The ways in which reduced auditory experiences and audibility may contribute to these delays are explored, along with implications for evaluation of outcomes. PMID:20548239

The Simple View of Reading in Bilingual Language-Minority Children Acquiring a Highly Transparent Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonifacci, Paola; Tobia, Valentina

2017-01-01

The present study evaluated which components within the simple view of reading model better predicted reading comprehension in a sample of bilingual language-minority children exposed to Italian, a highly transparent language, as a second language. The sample included 260 typically developing bilingual children who were attending either the first…

The Latent Structure and Test-Retest Stability of Connected Language Measures in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP).

PubMed

Mueller, Kimberly D; Koscik, Rebecca L; Clark, Lindsay R; Hermann, Bruce P; Johnson, Sterling C; Turkstra, Lyn S

2017-11-24

While it is well known that discourse-related language functions are impaired in the dementia phase of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), the presymptomatic temporal course of discourse dysfunction are not known earlier in the course of AD. To conduct discourse-related studies in this phase of AD, validated psychometric instruments are needed. This study investigates the latent structure, validity, and test-retest stability of discourse measures in a late-middle-aged normative group who are relatively free from sporadic AD risk factors. Using a normative sample of 399 participants (mean age = 61), exploratory factor analyses (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted on 18 measures of connected language derived from picture descriptions. Factor invariance across sex and family history and longitudinal test-retest stability measures were calculated. The EFA revealed a four-factor solution, consisting of semantic, syntax, fluency, and lexical constructs. The CFA model substantiated the structure, and factors were invariant across sex and parental history of AD status. Test-retest stability measures were within acceptable ranges. Results confirm a factor structure that is invariant across sex and parental AD history. The factor structure could be useful in similar cohorts designed to detect early language decline in investigations of preclinical or clinical AD or as outcome measures in clinical prevention trials. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The Incredible Years Parent-Toddler Programme and parental language: a randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Gridley, N; Hutchings, J; Baker-Henningham, H

2015-01-01

Parental language is associated with children's later language development. Parenting programmes, based on social learning theory, enhance a range of parenting behaviours, yet there is limited evidence for their effect on parental language. To assess the benefits of a behavioural-based parenting programme, which features components of language and communication, to enhance parental language. Parents of toddlers, aged 12 to 36 months, were recruited from eight Flying Start early intervention centres across Wales. Participants were randomised 2:1 either to a parenting programme (n = 60) or to a wait-list control group (n = 29). Researchers were blind to participant allocation throughout the trial. Fifteen-minute video-recorded observations of parents and children interacting during free-play, both at a pre-intervention and at 6-month follow-up, provided the data for the study. Five observed measures of parental language were assessed; quantity and variety, encouraging, critical, child-led and parent led interactions. The Incredible Years Parent-Toddler Programme (IYPTP) is a 12-week group-based behavioural intervention that teaches effective relationship and behavioural management skills including social, emotional and persistence coaching to enable parents to better support their children's development. Of 89 dyads that completed pre-intervention assessments 81 (54 intervention and 27 control) met the criteria for the current study. Intention to treat analysis indicated that child-led language interactions significantly benefited from the intervention [regression coefficient (B) = -1.44, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = -2.59 to -0.29, P = 0.015, effect size (ES) = 0.47] and a positive trend for encouraging language in favour of the intervention sample was evident. Per-protocol sample analysis replicated these findings with encouraging language reaching statistical significance (B = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.11 to 2.03, P = 0.03, ES = 0.52). No further benefits were evident. The IYPTP has limited evidence as an effective programme for enhancing some aspects of parental language. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Lexical Diversity and Omission Errors as Predictors of Language Ability in the Narratives of Sequential Spanish-English Bilinguals: A Cross-Language Comparison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobson, Peggy F.; Walden, Patrick R.

2013-01-01

Purpose: This study explored the utility of language sample analysis for evaluating language ability in school-age Spanish-English sequential bilingual children. Specifically, the relative potential of lexical diversity and word/morpheme omission as predictors of typical or atypical language status was evaluated. Method: Narrative samples were…

Comparison of Conversation, Freeplay, and Story Generation as Methods of Language Sample Elicitation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Southwood, Frenette; Russell, Ann F.

2004-01-01

The spontaneous language sample forms an important part of the language evaluation protocol (M. Dunn, J. Flax, M. Sliwinski, & D. Aram, 1996; J. L. Evans & H. K. Craig, 1992; L. E. Evans & J. Miller, 1999) because of the limitations of standardized language tests and their unavailability in certain languages, such as Afrikaans. This study examined…

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of Child Acute Stress Measures in Spanish and English

PubMed Central

Kassam-Adams, Nancy; Gold, Jeffrey I.; Montaño, Zorash; Kohser, Kristen L.; Cuadra, Anai; Muñoz, Cynthia; Armstrong, F. Daniel

2015-01-01

Clinicians and researchers need tools for accurate early assessment of children’s acute stress reactions and acute stress disorder (ASD). There is a particular need for independently validated Spanish-language measures. The current study reports on 2 measures of child acute stress (a self-report checklist and a semi-structured interview), describing the development of the Spanish version of each measure and psychometric evaluation of both the Spanish and English versions. Children between the ages of 8 to 17 years who had experienced a recent traumatic event completed study measures in Spanish (n = 225) or in English (n = 254). Results provide support for reliability (internal consistency of the measures in both languages ranges from .83 to .89; cross-language reliability of the checklist is .93) and for convergent validity (with later PTSD symptoms, and with concurrent anxiety symptoms). Comparing checklist and interview results revealed a strong association between severity scores within the Spanish and English samples. Checklist-interview differences in evaluating the presence of ASD appear to be linked to different content coverage for dissociation symptoms. Future studies should further assess the impact of differing assessment modes, content coverage, and the use of these measures in children with diverse types of acute trauma exposure in English- and Spanish-speaking children. PMID:23371337

Language laterality in autism spectrum disorder and typical controls: a functional, volumetric, and diffusion tensor MRI study.

PubMed

Knaus, Tracey A; Silver, Andrew M; Kennedy, Meaghan; Lindgren, Kristen A; Dominick, Kelli C; Siegel, Jeremy; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2010-02-01

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 investigated in ASD. The goal of this study was to examine differences in gray matter volume of perisylvian language regions, connections between language regions, and language abilities in individuals with typical left lateralized language compared to those with atypical (bilateral or right) asymmetry of language functions. Fourteen adolescent boys with ASD and 20 typically developing adolescent boys participated, including equal numbers of left- and right-handed individuals in each group. Participants with typical left lateralized language activation had smaller frontal language region volume and higher fractional anisotropy of the arcuate fasciculus compared to the group with atypical language laterality, across both ASD and control participants. The group with typical language asymmetry included the most right-handed controls and fewest left-handers with ASD. Atypical language laterality was more prevalent in the ASD than control group. These findings support an association between laterality of language function and language region anatomy. They also suggest anatomical differences may be more associated with variation in language laterality than specifically with ASD. Language laterality therefore may provide a novel way of subdividing samples, resulting in more homogenous groups for research into genetic and neurocognitive foundations of developmental disorders. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Validation of an Arabic Version of the Obesity-Related Wellbeing (ORWELL 97) Questionnaire in Adults with Obesity.

PubMed

Itani, Leila; Calugi, Simona; Kreidieh, Dima; El Kassas, Germine; El Masri, Dana; Tannir, Hana; Dalle Grave, Riccardo; Harfoush, Aya; El Ghoch, Marwan

2018-01-10

No specific questionnaire that evaluates Health-Related Quality Of Life (HRQOL) in individuals with obesity is available in the Arabic language. The aim of this study was therefore to propose and examine the validity and reliability of an Arabic language version of the ORWELL 97, a validated obesity-related HRQOL questionnaire. The ORWELL 97 questionnaire was translated from English to Arabic language and administered to 318 Arabic-speaking participants (106 from clinical and 212 from community samples), and underwent internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct and discriminative validity analysis. Internal consistency and the test-retest reliability were excellent for ORWELL 97 global scores in the clinical sample. Participants with obesity displayed significantly higher ORWELL 97 scores than participants from the community sample, confirming the good discriminant validity of the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis in the clinical sample revealed a good fit for a modified two-factor structure. Overall, the Arabic version of the ORWELL 97 can be considered validated in Arabic adult patients with obesity, paving the way to further assessment of its responsiveness in measuring changes in health-related quality of life associated with obesity treatment. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

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

Impact of cognitive function and dysarthria on spoken language and perceived speech severity in multiple sclerosis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feenaughty, Lynda

Purpose: The current study sought to investigate the separate effects of dysarthria and cognitive status on global speech timing, speech hesitation, and linguistic complexity characteristics and how these speech behaviors impose on listener impressions for three connected speech tasks presumed to differ in cognitive-linguistic demand for four carefully defined speaker groups; 1) MS with cognitive deficits (MSCI), 2) MS with clinically diagnosed dysarthria and intact cognition (MSDYS), 3) MS without dysarthria or cognitive deficits (MS), and 4) healthy talkers (CON). The relationship between neuropsychological test scores and speech-language production and perceptual variables for speakers with cognitive deficits was also explored. Methods: 48 speakers, including 36 individuals reporting a neurological diagnosis of MS and 12 healthy talkers participated. The three MS groups and control group each contained 12 speakers (8 women and 4 men). Cognitive function was quantified using standard clinical tests of memory, information processing speed, and executive function. A standard z-score of ≤ -1.50 indicated deficits in a given cognitive domain. Three certified speech-language pathologists determined the clinical diagnosis of dysarthria for speakers with MS. Experimental speech tasks of interest included audio-recordings of an oral reading of the Grandfather passage and two spontaneous speech samples in the form of Familiar and Unfamiliar descriptive discourse. Various measures of spoken language were of interest. Suprasegmental acoustic measures included speech and articulatory rate. Linguistic speech hesitation measures included pause frequency (i.e., silent and filled pauses), mean silent pause duration, grammatical appropriateness of pauses, and interjection frequency. For the two discourse samples, three standard measures of language complexity were obtained including subordination index, inter-sentence cohesion adequacy, and lexical diversity. Ten listeners judged each speech sample using the perceptual construct of Speech Severity using a visual analog scale. Additional measures obtained to describe participants included the Sentence Intelligibility Test (SIT), the 10-item Communication Participation Item Bank (CPIB), and standard biopsychosocial measures of depression (Beck Depression Inventory-Fast Screen; BDI-FS), fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale; FSS), and overall disease severity (Expanded Disability Status Scale; EDSS). Healthy controls completed all measures, with the exception of the CPIB and EDSS. All data were analyzed using standard, descriptive and parametric statistics. For the MSCI group, the relationship between neuropsychological test scores and speech-language variables were explored for each speech task using Pearson correlations. The relationship between neuropsychological test scores and Speech Severity also was explored. Results and Discussion: Topic familiarity for descriptive discourse did not strongly influence speech production or perceptual variables; however, results indicated predicted task-related differences for some spoken language measures. With the exception of the MSCI group, all speaker groups produced the same or slower global speech timing (i.e., speech and articulatory rates), more silent and filled pauses, more grammatical and longer silent pause durations in spontaneous discourse compared to reading aloud. Results revealed no appreciable task differences for linguistic complexity measures. Results indicated group differences for speech rate. The MSCI group produced significantly faster speech rates compared to the MSDYS group. Both the MSDYS and the MSCI groups were judged to have significantly poorer perceived Speech Severity compared to typically aging adults. The Task x Group interaction was only significant for the number of silent pauses. The MSDYS group produced fewer silent pauses in spontaneous speech and more silent pauses in the reading task compared to other groups. Finally, correlation analysis revealed moderate relationships between neuropsychological test scores and speech hesitation measures, within the MSCI group. Slower information processing and poorer memory were significantly correlated with more silent pauses and poorer executive function was associated with fewer filled pauses in the Unfamiliar discourse task. Results have both clinical and theoretical implications. Overall, clinicians should demonstrate caution when interpreting global measures of speech timing and perceptual measures in the absence of information about cognitive ability. Results also have implications for a comprehensive model of spoken language incorporating cognitive, linguistic, and motor variables.

Effects of age, gender, education and race on two tests of language ability in community-based older adults.

PubMed

Snitz, Beth E; Unverzagt, Frederick W; Chang, Chung-Chou H; Bilt, Joni Vander; Gao, Sujuan; Saxton, Judith; Hall, Kathleen S; Ganguli, Mary

2009-12-01

Neuropsychological tests, including tests of language ability, are frequently used to differentiate normal from pathological cognitive aging. However, language can be particularly difficult to assess in a standardized manner in cross-cultural studies and in patients from different educational and cultural backgrounds. This study examined the effects of age, gender, education and race on performance of two language tests: the animal fluency task (AFT) and the Indiana University Token Test (IUTT). We report population-based normative data on these tests from two combined ethnically divergent, cognitively normal, representative population samples of older adults. Participants aged > or =65 years from the Monongahela-Youghiogheny Healthy Aging Team (MYHAT) and from the Indianapolis Study of Health and Aging (ISHA) were selected based on (1) a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) score of 0; (2) non-missing baseline language test data; and (3) race self-reported as African-American or white. The combined sample (n = 1885) was 28.1% African-American. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression was used to model the effects of demographic characteristics on test scores. On both language tests, better performance was significantly associated with higher education, younger age, and white race. On the IUTT, better performance was also associated with female gender. We found no significant interactions between age and sex, and between race and education. Age and education are more potent variables than are race and gender influencing performance on these language tests. Demographically stratified normative tables for these measures can be used to guide test interpretation and aid clinical diagnosis of impaired cognition.

The mini-cog: a cognitive 'vital signs' measure for dementia screening in multi-lingual elderly.

PubMed

Borson, S; Scanlan, J; Brush, M; Vitaliano, P; Dokmak, A

2000-11-01

The Mini-Cog, a composite of three-item recall and clock drawing, was developed as a brief test for discriminating demented from non-demented persons in a community sample of culturally, linguistically, and educationally heterogeneous older adults. All 129 who met criteria for probable dementia based on informant interviews and 120 with no history of cognitive decline were included; 124 were non-English speakers. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic value of the Mini-Cog were compared with those of the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) and Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI). The Mini-Cog had the highest sensitivity (99%) and correctly classified the greatest percentage (96%) of subjects. Moreover, its diagnostic value was not influenced by education or language, while that of the CASI was adversely influenced by low education, and both education and language compromised the diagnostic value of the MMSE. Administration time for the Mini-Cog was 3 minutes vs 7 minutes for the MMSE. The Mini-Cog required minimal language interpretation and training to administer, and no test forms of scoring modifications were needed to compensate for the extensive linguistic and educational heterogeneity of the sample. Validation in clinical and population-based samples is warranted, as its brevity and ease of administration suggest that the Mini-Cog might be readily incorporated into general practice and senior care settings as a routine 'cognitive vital signs' measure. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Examining Measurement Properties of an English Self-Efficacy Scale for English Language Learners in Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Chuang; Kim, Do-Hong; Bong, Mimi; Ahn, Hyun Seon

2013-01-01

This study provides evidence for the validity of the Questionnaire of English Self-Efficacy in a sample of 167 college students in Korea. Results show that the scale measures largely satisfy the Rasch model for unidimensionality. The rating scale appeared to function effectively. The item hierarchy was consistent with the expected item order. The…

Improving Spoken Language Outcomes for Children With Hearing Loss: Data-driven Instruction.

PubMed

Douglas, Michael

2016-02-01

To assess the effects of data-driven instruction (DDI) on spoken language outcomes of children with cochlear implants and hearing aids. Retrospective, matched-pairs comparison of post-treatment speech/language data of children who did and did not receive DDI. Private, spoken-language preschool for children with hearing loss. Eleven matched pairs of children with cochlear implants who attended the same spoken language preschool. Groups were matched for age of hearing device fitting, time in the program, degree of predevice fitting hearing loss, sex, and age at testing. Daily informal language samples were collected and analyzed over a 2-year period, per preschool protocol. Annual informal and formal spoken language assessments in articulation, vocabulary, and omnibus language were administered at the end of three time intervals: baseline, end of year one, and end of year two. The primary outcome measures were total raw score performance of spontaneous utterance sentence types and syntax element use as measured by the Teacher Assessment of Spoken Language (TASL). In addition, standardized assessments (the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals--Preschool Version 2 (CELF-P2), the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT), the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (ROWPVT), and the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation 2 (GFTA2)) were also administered and compared with the control group. The DDI group demonstrated significantly higher raw scores on the TASL each year of the study. The DDI group also achieved statistically significant higher scores for total language on the CELF-P and expressive vocabulary on the EOWPVT, but not for articulation nor receptive vocabulary. Post-hoc assessment revealed that 78% of the students in the DDI group achieved scores in the average range compared with 59% in the control group. The preliminary results of this study support further investigation regarding DDI to investigate whether this method can consistently and significantly improve the achievement of children with hearing loss in spoken language skills.

Seeking Temporal Predictability in Speech: Comparing Statistical Approaches on 18 World Languages.

PubMed

Jadoul, Yannick; Ravignani, Andrea; Thompson, Bill; Filippi, Piera; de Boer, Bart

2016-01-01

Temporal regularities in speech, such as interdependencies in the timing of speech events, are thought to scaffold early acquisition of the building blocks in speech. By providing on-line clues to the location and duration of upcoming syllables, temporal structure may aid segmentation and clustering of continuous speech into separable units. This hypothesis tacitly assumes that learners exploit predictability in the temporal structure of speech. Existing measures of speech timing tend to focus on first-order regularities among adjacent units, and are overly sensitive to idiosyncrasies in the data they describe. Here, we compare several statistical methods on a sample of 18 languages, testing whether syllable occurrence is predictable over time. Rather than looking for differences between languages, we aim to find across languages (using clearly defined acoustic, rather than orthographic, measures), temporal predictability in the speech signal which could be exploited by a language learner. First, we analyse distributional regularities using two novel techniques: a Bayesian ideal learner analysis, and a simple distributional measure. Second, we model higher-order temporal structure-regularities arising in an ordered series of syllable timings-testing the hypothesis that non-adjacent temporal structures may explain the gap between subjectively-perceived temporal regularities, and the absence of universally-accepted lower-order objective measures. Together, our analyses provide limited evidence for predictability at different time scales, though higher-order predictability is difficult to reliably infer. We conclude that temporal predictability in speech may well arise from a combination of individually weak perceptual cues at multiple structural levels, but is challenging to pinpoint.

Seeking Temporal Predictability in Speech: Comparing Statistical Approaches on 18 World Languages

PubMed Central

Jadoul, Yannick; Ravignani, Andrea; Thompson, Bill; Filippi, Piera; de Boer, Bart

2016-01-01

Temporal regularities in speech, such as interdependencies in the timing of speech events, are thought to scaffold early acquisition of the building blocks in speech. By providing on-line clues to the location and duration of upcoming syllables, temporal structure may aid segmentation and clustering of continuous speech into separable units. This hypothesis tacitly assumes that learners exploit predictability in the temporal structure of speech. Existing measures of speech timing tend to focus on first-order regularities among adjacent units, and are overly sensitive to idiosyncrasies in the data they describe. Here, we compare several statistical methods on a sample of 18 languages, testing whether syllable occurrence is predictable over time. Rather than looking for differences between languages, we aim to find across languages (using clearly defined acoustic, rather than orthographic, measures), temporal predictability in the speech signal which could be exploited by a language learner. First, we analyse distributional regularities using two novel techniques: a Bayesian ideal learner analysis, and a simple distributional measure. Second, we model higher-order temporal structure—regularities arising in an ordered series of syllable timings—testing the hypothesis that non-adjacent temporal structures may explain the gap between subjectively-perceived temporal regularities, and the absence of universally-accepted lower-order objective measures. Together, our analyses provide limited evidence for predictability at different time scales, though higher-order predictability is difficult to reliably infer. We conclude that temporal predictability in speech may well arise from a combination of individually weak perceptual cues at multiple structural levels, but is challenging to pinpoint. PMID:27994544

The Reliability of Morphological Analyses in Language Samples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tommerdahl, Jodi; Kilpatrick, Cynthia D

2014-01-01

It is currently unclear to what extent a spontaneous language sample of a given number of utterances is representative of a child's ability in morphology and syntax. This lack of information about the regularity of children's linguistic productions and the reliability of spontaneous language samples have serious implications for language…

The Rules of the Game: Properties of a Database of Expository Language Samples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heilmann, John; Malone, Thomas O.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The authors created a database of expository oral language samples with the aims of describing the nature of students' expository discourse and providing benchmark data for typically developing preteen and teenage students. Method: Using a favorite game or sport protocol, language samples were collected from 235 typically developing…

Synthesizing Information from Language Samples and Standardized Tests in School-Age Bilingual Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ebert, Kerry Danahy; Pham, Giang

2017-01-01

Purpose: Although language samples and standardized tests are regularly used in assessment, few studies provide clinical guidance on how to synthesize information from these testing tools. This study extends previous work on the relations between tests and language samples to a new population--school-age bilingual speakers with primary language…

Acoustic Sources of Accent in Second Language Japanese Speech.

PubMed

Idemaru, Kaori; Wei, Peipei; Gubbins, Lucy

2018-05-01

This study reports an exploratory analysis of the acoustic characteristics of second language (L2) speech which give rise to the perception of a foreign accent. Japanese speech samples were collected from American English and Mandarin Chinese speakers ( n = 16 in each group) studying Japanese. The L2 participants and native speakers ( n = 10) provided speech samples modeling after six short sentences. Segmental (vowels and stops) and prosodic features (rhythm, tone, and fluency) were examined. Native Japanese listeners ( n = 10) rated the samples with regard to degrees of foreign accent. The analyses predicting accent ratings based on the acoustic measurements indicated that one of the prosodic features in particular, tone (defined as high and low patterns of pitch accent and intonation in this study), plays an important role in robustly predicting accent rating in L2 Japanese across the two first language (L1) backgrounds. These results were consistent with the prediction based on phonological and phonetic comparisons between Japanese and English, as well as Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. The results also revealed L1-specific predictors of perceived accent in Japanese. The findings of this study contribute to the growing literature that examines sources of perceived foreign accent.

Content and Form in the Narratives of Children with Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Colozzo, Paola; Gillam, Ronald B.; Wood, Megan; Schnell, Rebecca D.; Johnston, Judith R.

2013-01-01

Purpose: This project investigated the relationship of content and form in the narratives of school-age children. Method: Two samples of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their age-matched peers (British Columbia sample, M age 9;0, n = 26; Texas/Kansas sample, M age 7;6, n = 40) completed the Test of Narrative Language (TNL, Gillam & Pearson, 2004). The relative strength of content elaboration and grammatical accuracy was measured for each child using variables derived from the TNL scoring system (Study 1) and from analysis of the story texts (Study 2). Results: Both studies indicated that, compared to age peers, the children with SLI were more likely to produce stories of uneven strength, either stories with poor content that were grammatically quite accurate, or stories with elaborated content that were less grammatical. Conclusions: These findings suggest that school-age children with SLI may struggle with the cumulative load of creating a story that is both elaborate and grammatical. They also show that the absence of errors is not necessarily a sign of strength. Finally, they underscore the value of comparing individual differences in multiple linguistic domains, including the elaboration of content, grammatical accuracy, and syntactic complexity. PMID:21930617

Spoken Language Production in Young Adults: Examining Syntactic Complexity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nippold, Marilyn A.; Frantz-Kaspar, Megan W.; Vigeland, Laura M.

2017-01-01

Purpose: In this study, we examined syntactic complexity in the spoken language samples of young adults. Its purpose was to contribute to the expanding knowledge base in later language development and to begin building a normative database of language samples that potentially could be used to evaluate young adults with known or suspected language…

Diagnosis of aphasia in stroke populations: A systematic review of language tests

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Background and purpose Accurate aphasia diagnosis is important in stroke care. A wide range of language tests are available and include informal assessments, tests developed by healthcare institutions and commercially published tests available for purchase in pre-packaged kits. The psychometrics of these tests are often reported online or within the purchased test manuals, not the peer-reviewed literature, therefore the diagnostic capabilities of these measures have not been systematically evaluated. This review aimed to identify both commercial and non-commercial language tests and tests used in stroke care and to examine the diagnostic capabilities of all identified measures in diagnosing aphasia in stroke populations. Methods Language tests were identified through a systematic search of 161 publisher databases, professional and resource websites and language tests reported to be used in stroke care. Two independent reviewers evaluated test manuals or associated resources for cohort or cross-sectional studies reporting the tests’ diagnostic capabilities (sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios or diagnostic odds ratios) in differentiating aphasic and non-aphasic stroke populations. Results Fifty-six tests met the study eligibility criteria. Six “non-specialist” brief screening tests reported sensitivity and specificity information, however none of these measures reported to meet the specific diagnostic needs of speech pathologists. The 50 remaining measures either did not report validity data (n = 7); did not compare patient test performance with a comparison group (n = 17); included non-stroke participants within their samples (n = 23) or did not compare stroke patient performance against a language reference standard (n = 3). Diagnostic sensitivity analysis was completed for six speech pathology measures (WAB, PICA, CADL-2, ASHA-FACS, Adult FAVRES and EFA-4), however all studies compared aphasic performance with that of non-stroke healthy controls and were consequently excluded from the review. Conclusions No speech pathology test was found which reported diagnostic data for identifying aphasia in stroke populations. A diagnostically validated post-stroke aphasia test is needed. PMID:29566043

Examination of the Relationship Between Autonomy and English Achievement as Mediated by Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety.

PubMed

Ghorbandordinejad, Farhad; Ahmadabad, Roghayyeh Moradian

2016-06-01

This study investigated the relationship between autonomy and English language achievement among third-grade high school students as mediated by foreign language classroom anxiety in a city in the north-west of Iran. A sample of 400 students (187 males, and 213 females) was assessed for their levels of autonomy and foreign language anxiety using the Autonomy Questionnaire and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), respectively. Participants' scores on their final English exam were also used as the measurement of their English achievement. The results of Pearson correlation revealed a strong correlation between learners' autonomy and their English achievement (r [Formula: see text] .406, n [Formula: see text] 400, [Formula: see text]). Also, foreign language classroom anxiety was found to be significantly and negatively correlated with English achievement (r [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text].472, n [Formula: see text] 400, [Formula: see text]). Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess the ability of autonomy to predict language learning achievement, after controlling for the influence of anxiety. In sum, the results of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that foreign language classroom anxiety significantly mediates the relationship between autonomy and English language achievement. Implications for both teachers and learners, and suggestions for further research are provided.

Performance of South African children on the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales-Developmental Profile (CSBS DP).

PubMed

Chambers, Nola; Stronach, Sheri T; Wetherby, Amy M

2016-05-01

Substantial development in social communication skills occurs in the first two years of life. Growth should be evident in sharing emotion and eye gaze; rate of communication, communicating for a variety of functions; using gestures, sounds and words; understanding language, and using functional and pretend actions with objects in play. A delay in these early social communication skills may be the first sign of a developmental delay in young children in nearly all categories of disabilities-including specific language impairment, autism spectrum disorder, HIV/AIDS, lack of environmental stimulation or institutionalization, and global developmental delays-and early detection of these delays is critical for enrolment in appropriate early intervention services. No standardized tests of early social communication skills exist for very young children in South Africa (SA). An existing evaluation tool that has the potential to be culturally fair for children from cultural backgrounds different to the standardization group is the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales-Developmental Profile (CSBS DP). This study aimed to document the performance of a group of English-speaking SA children ranging in age from 12 to 24 months on the CSBS DP and to compare this performance with the original standardization sample. Sixty-seven English-speaking SA children from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds were assessed on the CSBS DP Behaviour Sample. Group scores were compared with the original standardization sample using inferential statistics. The results provide preliminary support for the suitability and validity of the face-to-face Behaviour Sample as a measure of early social communication skills in this sample of English-speaking SA children from a range of cultural groups between 12 and 24 months of age. While further research in the SA population is needed, these findings are a first step towards validating a culturally appropriate measure for early detection of social communication delays in a sample of SA toddlers. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Language Sample Analysis and Elicitation Technique Effects in Bilingual Children With and Without Language Impairment.

PubMed

Kapantzoglou, Maria; Fergadiotis, Gerasimos; Restrepo, M Adelaida

2017-10-17

This study examined whether the language sample elicitation technique (i.e., storytelling and story-retelling tasks with pictorial support) affects lexical diversity (D), grammaticality (grammatical errors per communication unit [GE/CU]), sentence length (mean length of utterance in words [MLUw]), and sentence complexity (subordination index [SI]), which are commonly used indices for diagnosing primary language impairment in Spanish-English-speaking children in the United States. Twenty bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children with typical language development and 20 with primary language impairment participated in the study. Four analyses of variance were conducted to evaluate the effect of language elicitation technique and group on D, GE/CU, MLUw, and SI. Also, 2 discriminant analyses were conducted to assess which indices were more effective for story retelling and storytelling and their classification accuracy across elicitation techniques. D, MLUw, and SI were influenced by the type of elicitation technique, but GE/CU was not. The classification accuracy of language sample analysis was greater in story retelling than in storytelling, with GE/CU and D being useful indicators of language abilities in story retelling and GE/CU and SI in storytelling. Two indices in language sample analysis may be sufficient for diagnosis in 4- to 5-year-old bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children.

The real-time prediction and inhibition of linguistic outcomes: Effects of language and literacy skill.

PubMed

Kukona, Anuenue; Braze, David; Johns, Clinton L; Mencl, W Einar; Van Dyke, Julie A; Magnuson, James S; Pugh, Kenneth R; Shankweiler, Donald P; Tabor, Whitney

2016-11-01

Recent studies have found considerable individual variation in language comprehenders' predictive behaviors, as revealed by their anticipatory eye movements during language comprehension. The current study investigated the relationship between these predictive behaviors and the language and literacy skills of a diverse, community-based sample of young adults. We found that rapid automatized naming (RAN) was a key determinant of comprehenders' prediction ability (e.g., as reflected in predictive eye movements to a white cake on hearing "The boy will eat the white…"). Simultaneously, comprehension-based measures predicted participants' ability to inhibit eye movements to objects that shared features with predictable referents but were implausible completions (e.g., as reflected in eye movements to a white but inedible white car). These findings suggest that the excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms that support prediction during language processing are closely linked with specific cognitive abilities that support literacy. We show that a self-organizing cognitive architecture captures this pattern of results. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The vocabulary profile of Slovak children with primary language impairment compared to typically developing Slovak children measured by LITMUS-CLT.

PubMed

Kapalková, Svetlana; Slančová, Daniela

2017-01-01

This study compared a sample of children with primary language impairment (PLI) and typically developing age-matched children using the crosslinguistic lexical tasks (CLT-SK). We also compared the PLI children with typically developing language-matched younger children who were matched on the basis of receptive vocabulary. Overall, statistical testing showed that the vocabulary of the PLI children was significantly different from the vocabulary of the age-matched children, but not statistically different from the younger children who were matched on the basis of their receptive vocabulary size. Qualitative analysis of the correct answers revealed that the PLI children showed higher rigidity compared to the younger language-matched children who are able to use more synonyms or derivations across word class in naming tasks. Similarly, an examination of the children's naming errors indicated that the language-matched children exhibited more semantic errors, whereas PLI children showed more associative errors.

Auditory Deprivation Does Not Impair Executive Function, But Language Deprivation Might: Evidence From a Parent-Report Measure in Deaf Native Signing Children

PubMed Central

Hall, Matthew L.; Eigsti, Inge-Marie; Bortfeld, Heather; Lillo-Martin, Diane

2017-01-01

Deaf children are often described as having difficulty with executive function (EF), often manifesting in behavioral problems. Some researchers view these problems as a consequence of auditory deprivation; however, the behavioral problems observed in previous studies may not be due to deafness but to some other factor, such as lack of early language exposure. Here, we distinguish these accounts by using the BRIEF EF parent report questionnaire to test for behavioral problems in a group of Deaf children from Deaf families, who have a history of auditory but not language deprivation. For these children, the auditory deprivation hypothesis predicts behavioral impairments; the language deprivation hypothesis predicts no group differences in behavioral control. Results indicated that scores among the Deaf native signers (n = 42) were age-appropriate and similar to scores among the typically developing hearing sample (n = 45). These findings are most consistent with the language deprivation hypothesis, and provide a foundation for continued research on outcomes of children with early exposure to sign language. PMID:27624307

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.

Two measures of bilingualism in the memories of immigrants and indigenous minorities: crossover memories and codeswitching.

PubMed

Altman, Carmit

2015-04-01

Two indices of bilingualism, crossover memories and codeswitching (CS), were explored in five groups of immigrant (English-Hebrew, Georgian-Hebrew Russian-Hebrew) and indigenous bilinguals (Arabic-Hebrew, Hebrew-English). Participants recalled memories in response to cue words and then were asked to report the language of retrieval and provide a more elaborate narrative. More memories were 'same language' memories, recalled in the language of the experimental session/cue word, but as many as 48 % of the memories were crossovers, i.e. memories reported in a language other than the language of the session/cue word. In an effort to examine the ecological validity of the self-reported language of the memories, the frequency of CS in the elaborated narratives was investigated. For the entire sample, more CS was found for self-reported crossover memories in L2 sessions. In a further analysis of CS in crossover memories, collapsed across L1 and L2 sessions, significant differences emerged between immigrants and indigenous bilinguals. Differences between immigrant and non-immigrant bilinguals are discussed in terms of the role of activation in crossover memories.

Text Comprehension and Oral Language as Predictors of Word-Problem Solving: Insights into Word-Problem Solving as a Form of Text Comprehension

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Fuchs, Douglas; Seethaler, Pamela M.; Martin, BrittanyLee N.

2018-01-01

This study was designed to deepen insights on whether word-problem (WP) solving is a form of text comprehension (TC) and on the role of language in WPs. A sample of 325 second graders, representing high, average, and low reading and math performance, was assessed on (a) start-of-year TC, WP skill, language, nonlinguistic reasoning, working memory, and foundational skill (word identification, arithmetic) and (b) year-end WP solving, WP-language processing (understanding WP statements, without calculation demands), and calculations. Multivariate, multilevel path analysis, accounting for classroom and school effects, indicated that TC was a significant and comparably strong predictor of all outcomes. Start-of-year language was a significantly stronger predictor of both year-end WP outcomes than of calculations, whereas start-of-year arithmetic was a significantly stronger predictor of calculations than of either WP measure. Implications are discussed in terms of WP solving as a form of TC and a theoretically coordinated approach, focused on language, for addressing TC and WP-solving instruction. PMID:29643723

Language Outcomes in Deaf or Hard of Hearing Teenagers Who Are Spoken Language Users: Effects of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Early Confirmation.

PubMed

Pimperton, Hannah; Kreppner, Jana; Mahon, Merle; Stevenson, Jim; Terlektsi, Emmanouela; Worsfold, Sarah; Yuen, Ho Ming; Kennedy, Colin R

This study aimed to examine whether (a) exposure to universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) and b) early confirmation of hearing loss were associated with benefits to expressive and receptive language outcomes in the teenage years for a cohort of spoken language users. It also aimed to determine whether either of these two variables was associated with benefits to relative language gain from middle childhood to adolescence within this cohort. The participants were drawn from a prospective cohort study of a population sample of children with bilateral permanent childhood hearing loss, who varied in their exposure to UNHS and who had previously had their language skills assessed at 6-10 years. Sixty deaf or hard of hearing teenagers who were spoken language users and a comparison group of 38 teenagers with normal hearing completed standardized measures of their receptive and expressive language ability at 13-19 years. Teenagers exposed to UNHS did not show significantly better expressive (adjusted mean difference, 0.40; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.26 to 1.05; d = 0.32) or receptive (adjusted mean difference, 0.68; 95% CI, -0.56 to 1.93; d = 0.28) language skills than those who were not. Those who had their hearing loss confirmed by 9 months of age did not show significantly better expressive (adjusted mean difference, 0.43; 95% CI, -0.20 to 1.05; d = 0.35) or receptive (adjusted mean difference, 0.95; 95% CI, -0.22 to 2.11; d = 0.42) language skills than those who had it confirmed later. In all cases, effect sizes were of small size and in favor of those exposed to UNHS or confirmed by 9 months. Subgroup analysis indicated larger beneficial effects of early confirmation for those deaf or hard of hearing teenagers without cochlear implants (N = 48; 80% of the sample), and these benefits were significant in the case of receptive language outcomes (adjusted mean difference, 1.55; 95% CI, 0.38 to 2.71; d = 0.78). Exposure to UNHS did not account for significant unique variance in any of the three language scores at 13-19 years beyond that accounted for by existing language scores at 6-10 years. Early confirmation accounted for significant unique variance in the expressive language information score at 13-19 years after adjusting for the corresponding score at 6-10 years (R change = 0.08, p = 0.03). This study found that while adolescent language scores were higher for deaf or hard of hearing teenagers exposed to UNHS and those who had their hearing loss confirmed by 9 months, these group differences were not significant within the whole sample. There was some evidence of a beneficial effect of early confirmation of hearing loss on relative expressive language gain from childhood to adolescence. Further examination of the effect of these variables on adolescent language outcomes in other cohorts would be valuable.

Effect of Elicitation Variables on Analysis of Language Samples for Normal and Language-Disordered Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fields, Thomas A.; Ashmore, Lear L.

1980-01-01

Expressive language samples were obtained from 20 children in four location-stimulus combinations and from wireless radio telemetry. No significant differences existed between the locations of home and clinic, but significant differences were noted among samples elicited using pictures as opposed to open-ended questions as compared to telemetry…

Sample Language of Modified Contract Elements from Existing CBAs, MOUs, or EWAs to Support Turnaround

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mass Insight Education (NJ1), 2011

2011-01-01

Organized by the key conditions areas for turnaround, "People, Program, Time and Money," this tool offers sample language for each contract element to serve as a model for modifications from a traditional CBA that may support a district's turnaround efforts. Sample language is offered from existing provisions in district-wide collective bargaining…

Exploring Effectiveness and Moderators of Language Learning Strategy Instruction on Second Language and Self-Regulated Learning Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ardasheva, Yuliya; Wang, Zhe; Adesope, Olusola O.; Valentine, Jeffrey C.

2017-01-01

This meta-analysis synthesized recent research on strategy instruction (SI) effectiveness to estimate SI effects and their moderators for two domains: second/foreign language and self-regulated learning. A total of 37 studies (47 independent samples) for language domain and 16 studies (17 independent samples) for self-regulated learning domain…

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…

Interventional Cultural and Language Assistance Program: Associations between Cultural and Linguistic Factors and Satisfaction with Cancer Care

PubMed Central

Costas-Muniz, R; Amir, J; Paris, M; Spratt, D; Arevalo-Perez, J; Fareedy, S; González, CJ; Gany, F; Camacho-Rivera, M; Osborne, JR

2017-01-01

Addressing language and cultural nuance is required to improve the quality of care among all patients. The tenth version of the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care (CLAS) recommends implementing ongoing assessments to integrate specific actions into measurement and continuous quality improvement activities. To this end, we have created the Interventional Cultural and Language Assistance Program (ICLAP). As part of ICLAP, we conducted a cross-sectional needs assessment survey with 564 consecutive patients receiving outpatient Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging at a comprehensive cancer center in the five most prevalent languages of New York City: English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic. The purpose of this study is to describe the language assistance characteristics and needs of a sample of patients receiving care in the cancer center. We examined the relationship between race, ethnicity, birthplace, communication and language assistance characteristics and the satisfaction with the care received. Our results show that race and ethnicity, birthplace, cultural beliefs, language assistance, and communication characteristics were all factors associated with patients’ satisfaction with care, illustrating that there is an unmet need among cancer patients to have cultural and linguistic sensitive services. PMID:29423339

Reading Emotions from Body Movement: A Generalized Impairment in Schizophrenia.

PubMed

Vaskinn, Anja; Sundet, Kjetil; Østefjells, Tiril; Nymo, Katharina; Melle, Ingrid; Ueland, Torill

2015-01-01

Body language reading is a social cognitive process with importance for successful maneuvering of social situations. In this study, we investigated body language reading as assessed with human point-light displays in participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 84) compared to healthy control participants (n = 84), aiming to answer three questions: (1) whether persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia have poorer body language reading abilities than healthy persons; (2) whether some emotions are easier to read from body language than others, and if this is the same for individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals, and (3) whether there are sex differences in body language reading in participants with schizophrenia and healthy participants. A fourth research aim concerned associations of body language reading with symptoms and functioning in participants with schizophrenia. Scores on the body language reading measure was first standardized using a separate sample of healthy control participants (n = 101). Further results showed that persons with schizophrenia had impaired body language reading ability compared to healthy persons. A significant effect of emotion indicated that some emotions (happiness, neutral) were easier to recognize and this was so for both individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. There were no sex differences for either diagnostic group. Body language reading ability was not associated with symptoms or functioning. In conclusion; schizophrenia was characterized by a global impairment in body language reading that was present for all emotions and across sex.

A Level-of-Question Effect on ESL Reading Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perkins, Kyle; And Others

A sample of 150 Japanese English-as-a-Second-Language students at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale was given a reading comprehension test containing three levels of questions: factual, generalization, and inference, to measure comprehension effects at different proficiency strata. The results indicated that there were significant…

Development and psychometric evaluation of child acute stress measures in Spanish and English.

PubMed

Kassam-Adams, Nancy; Gold, Jeffrey I; Montaño, Zorash; Kohser, Kristen L; Cuadra, Anai; Muñoz, Cynthia; Armstrong, F Daniel

2013-02-01

Clinicians and researchers need tools for accurate early assessment of children's acute stress reactions and acute stress disorder (ASD). There is a particular need for independently validated Spanish-language measures. The current study reports on 2 measures of child acute stress (a self-report checklist and a semistructured interview), describing the development of the Spanish version of each measure and psychometric evaluation of both the Spanish and English versions. Children between the ages of 8 to 17 years who had experienced a recent traumatic event completed study measures in Spanish (n = 225) or in English (n = 254). Results provide support for reliability (internal consistency of the measures in both languages ranged from .83 to .89; cross-language reliability of the checklist was .93) and for convergent validity (with later PTSD symptoms, and with concurrent anxiety symptoms). Comparing checklist and interview results revealed a strong association between severity scores within the Spanish and English samples. Differences between the checklist and interview in evaluating the presence of ASD appear to be linked to different content coverage for dissociation symptoms. Future studies should further assess the impact of differing assessment modes, content coverage, and the use of these measures in children with diverse types of acute trauma exposure in English- and Spanish-speaking children. Copyright © 2013 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Specific profiles of neurocognitive and reading functions in a sample of 42 Italian boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

PubMed

Lorusso, Maria Luisa; Civati, Federica; Molteni, Massimo; Turconi, Anna Carla; Bresolin, Nereo; D'Angelo, Maria Grazia

2013-01-01

A group of 42 Italian boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy was compared with a control group of 10 boys with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Osteogenesis Imperfecta on tests assessing general intellectual ability, language, neuropsychological functions, and reading skills with the aim of describing a comprehensive profile of the various functions and investigating their interrelationships. The influence of general intellectual level on performance was analyzed. Further, correlations between various neuropsychological measures and language performances were computed for the group with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, as well as the correlations between reading scores and other cognitive and linguistic measures. A general lowering in VIQ, PIQ, and FSIQ scores was found to characterize the group with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Expressive language skills were within the normal range, while syntactic and grammatical comprehension were significantly impaired. The presence of below-average reading performances was further confirmed. However, unlike previous studies on irregular orthographies, the present results show that (a) the mild reading difficulties found in the sample essentially concern speed rather than accuracy; (b) they concern word rather than nonword reading; (c) lower reading performances are related to lower scores in general IQ; (d) no correlations emerge with phonological abilities, verbal short-term memory, or working memory, but rather with long-term memory and lexical skills. This may suggest that language-specific effects modulate the cognitive expressions of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and raises the possibility that the dysfunctions underlying the reading difficulties observed in affected readers of regular orthographies involve different neurocognitive systems than the cortico-cerebellar circuits usually invoked.

Race, gender, and language concordance in the primary care setting.

PubMed

Martin, Brian C; Shi, Leiyu; Ward, Ryan D

2009-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine race, gender and language concordance in terms of importance to primary care. The 2003 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS) was used. Four distinguishing primary care attributes and selected measures were operationalized primarily from a sample subset that identified a usual source of care (USC): accessibility to USC; interface between primary care and specialist services; treatment decisions; and preventive services received from the USC. Bivariate and multivariate results are reported. Adjusting for covariates, the following items remained statistically significant: race--choosing primary care physician as USC, USC having office hours, and going to USC for new health problems; gender--choosing primary care physician as USC and USC having office hours; and language--lack of difficulty contacting the USC after hours. However, these items appear to be isolated cases rather than indicators that concordance plays a key role in determining primary care quality. Language barriers/communication issues are the only areas where improvement appears warranted. While the study has strong accessibility and interpersonal relationship measures, service coordination and comprehensiveness indicators are limited. The analyses' cross-sectional nature also poses a problem in drawing causal relationships and conclusive findings. Finally, sample size limitations preclude stratified analyses across racial/ethnic groups, an important consideration as the relationships between concordance and quality may vary across groups. This study indicates that more research is needed in this area to determine future resource allocation and policy direction. The unique contribution of the study is to suggest that race and gender concordance may not accurately predict primary health care quality.

Evaluating the dimensionality of first grade written composition

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Folsom, Jessica S.; Greulich, Luana; Puranik, Cynthia

2013-01-01

Purpose We examined dimensions of written composition using multiple evaluative approaches such as an adapted 6+1 trait scoring, syntactic complexity measures, and productivity measures. We further examined unique relations of oral language and literacy skills to the identified dimensions of written composition. Method A large sample of first grade students (N = 527) was assessed on their language, reading, spelling, letter writing automaticity, and writing in the spring. Data were analyzed using a latent variable approach including confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results The seven traits in the 6+1 trait system were best described as two constructs: substantive quality, and spelling and writing conventions. When the other evaluation procedures such as productivity and syntactic complexity indicators were included, four dimensions emerged: substantive quality, productivity, syntactic complexity, and spelling and writing conventions. Language and literacy predictors were differentially related to each dimension in written composition. Conclusions These four dimensions may be a useful guideline for evaluating developing beginning writer’s compositions. PMID:24687472

Sexual Self-Schemas in the Real World: Investigating the Ecological Validity of Language-Based Markers of Childhood Sexual Abuse

PubMed Central

Stanton, Amelia M.; Meston, Cindy M.

2017-01-01

Abstract This is the first study to examine language use and sexual self-schemas in natural language data extracted from posts to a large online forum. Recently, two studies applied advanced text analysis techniques to examine differences in language use and sexual self-schemas between women with and without a history of childhood sexual abuse. The aim of the current study was to test the ecological validity of the differences in language use and sexual self-schema themes that emerged between these two groups of women in the laboratory. Archival natural language data were extracted from a social media website and analyzed using LIWC2015, a computerized text analysis program, and other word counting approaches. The differences in both language use and sexual self-schema themes that manifested in recent laboratory research were replicated and validated in the large online sample. To our knowledge, these results provide the first empirical examination of sexual cognitions as they occur in the real world. These results also suggest that natural language analysis of text extracted from social media sites may be a potentially viable precursor or alternative to laboratory measurement of sexual trauma phenomena, as well as clinical phenomena, more generally. PMID:28570129

Auditory and verbal memory predictors of spoken language skills in children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

de Hoog, Brigitte E; Langereis, Margreet C; van Weerdenburg, Marjolijn; Keuning, Jos; Knoors, Harry; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-10-01

Large variability in individual spoken language outcomes remains a persistent finding in the group of children with cochlear implants (CIs), particularly in their grammatical development. In the present study, we examined the extent of delay in lexical and morphosyntactic spoken language levels of children with CIs as compared to those of a normative sample of age-matched children with normal hearing. Furthermore, the predictive value of auditory and verbal memory factors in the spoken language performance of implanted children was analyzed. Thirty-nine profoundly deaf children with CIs were assessed using a test battery including measures of lexical, grammatical, auditory and verbal memory tests. Furthermore, child-related demographic characteristics were taken into account. The majority of the children with CIs did not reach age-equivalent lexical and morphosyntactic language skills. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that lexical spoken language performance in children with CIs was best predicted by age at testing, phoneme perception, and auditory word closure. The morphosyntactic language outcomes of the CI group were best predicted by lexicon, auditory word closure, and auditory memory for words. Qualitatively good speech perception skills appear to be crucial for lexical and grammatical development in children with CIs. Furthermore, strongly developed vocabulary skills and verbal memory abilities predict morphosyntactic language skills. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spanish translation and cross-language validation of a sleep habits questionnaire for use in clinical and research settings.

PubMed

Baldwin, Carol M; Choi, Myunghan; McClain, Darya Bonds; Celaya, Alma; Quan, Stuart F

2012-04-15

To translate, back-translate and cross-language validate (English/Spanish) the Sleep Heart Health Study Sleep Habits Questionnaire for use with Spanish-speakers in clinical and research settings. Following rigorous translation and back-translation, this cross-sectional cross-language validation study recruited bilingual participants from academic, clinic, and community-based settings (N = 50; 52% women; mean age 38.8 ± 12 years; 90% of Mexican heritage). Participants completed English and Spanish versions of the Sleep Habits Questionnaire, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans II one week apart in randomized order. Psychometric properties were assessed, including internal consistency, convergent validity, scale equivalence, language version intercorrelations, and exploratory factor analysis using PASW (Version18) software. Grade level readability of the sleep measure was evaluated. All sleep categories (duration, snoring, apnea, insomnia symptoms, other sleep symptoms, sleep disruptors, restless legs syndrome) showed Cronbach α, Spearman-Brown coefficients and intercorrelations ≥ 0.700, suggesting robust internal consistency, correlation, and agreement between language versions. The Epworth correlated significantly with snoring, apnea, sleep symptoms, restless legs, and sleep disruptors) on both versions, supporting convergent validity. Items loaded on 4 factors accounted for 68% and 67% of the variance on the English and Spanish versions, respectively. The Spanish-language Sleep Habits Questionnaire demonstrates conceptual and content equivalency. It has appropriate measurement properties and should be useful for assessing sleep health in community-based clinics and intervention studies among Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans. Both language versions showed readability at the fifth grade level. Further testing is needed with larger samples.

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

Psychometric Properties of the Revised Teachers' Attitude toward Inclusion Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monsen, Jeremy J.; Ewing, Donna L.; Boyle, James

2015-01-01

This paper presents the psychometric properties of a questionnaire measure that updates and extends Larrivee and Cook's (1979) Opinions Relative to Mainstreaming Scale in terms of structure, terminology, and language. The revised scale was tested using a sample of 106 teachers based in inclusive mainstream schools. Using Principal Component…

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…

The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) in an Argentine Population

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montes, Silvana Andrea; Ledesma, Rubén Daniel; García, Natalia Mariana; Poó, Fernando Martín

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to provide evidence of validity for the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale scores in an Argentine sample (Spanish-language version). Results indicated satisfactory psychometric properties (a one-factor structure, good item discrimination, high reliability, and significant correlations with additional measures). This…

Automated Speech Rate Measurement in Dysarthria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martens, Heidi; Dekens, Tomas; Van Nuffelen, Gwen; Latacz, Lukas; Verhelst, Werner; De Bodt, Marc

2015-01-01

Purpose: In this study, a new algorithm for automated determination of speech rate (SR) in dysarthric speech is evaluated. We investigated how reliably the algorithm calculates the SR of dysarthric speech samples when compared with calculation performed by speech-language pathologists. Method: The new algorithm was trained and tested using Dutch…

Sample Undergraduate Linguistics Courses. Linguistics in the Undergraduate Curriculum, Appendix 5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linguistic Society of America, Washington, DC.

Thirty-six nontraditional undergraduate courses in linguistics are described. Course topics include: animal communication, bilingualism, sociolinguistics, introductory linguistics, language and formal reasoning, language and human conflict, language and power, language and sex, language and the brain, language planning, language typology and…

Metapragmatic explicitation ability in children with typical language development: development and validation of a novel clinical assessment.

PubMed

Collins, Anna; Lockton, Elaine; Adams, Catherine

2014-01-01

Speech-language practitioners recognise the importance of metapragmatic (MP) ability (the ability to explicitly reflect on pragmatic rules) in therapy for children with pragmatic and social communication difficulties. There is inconclusive evidence in the literature regarding both the development of metapragmatic ability in children with typical language and the expected levels of explicitation (reflection on pragmatic behaviours) in children's metapragmatic descriptions. The main purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability of a novel task of metapragmatic awareness (the Assessment of Metapragmatics or AMP) and to investigate typical developmental trends of metapragmatic ability and metapragmatic explicitation using the AMP task. Analysis of pooled data from 40 children with typical language development aged between six and eleven years and 48 children with communication impairments indicated that the AMP task had satisfactory internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. For children with typical language development, there was no relationship between gender and metapragmatic ability as measured by AMP. There was a linear relationship between age and AMP task scores and between age and explicitation. The scoring system used in the AMP task was sensitive to age-related changes in metapragmatic ability in a normative sample. The sophistication of metapragmatic awareness (explicitation) also increased with age. At age six years, children demonstrated metapragmatic awareness in their responses to 74% of AMP stimuli items; this increased to 95% of AMP items at ages 10-11 years. The AMP is a reliable measure of development in MP explicitation for children with satisfactory face validity in terms of acceptability to communication professionals and to child participants. From age six, children have some awareness of pragmatic acts and can identify and relate linguistic cues or pragmatic rules in atypical interactions of the type depicted in the AMP. The AMP task solicited significantly increased frequency of use of higher levels of MP explication beyond seven years of age in children with typical language development. Readers will explain the development, reliability and structure of a novel task that measures the ability of a child to understand and explain pragmatic rules. Readers will also identify age related changes in this ability in a sample of typically developing child participants. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Inductive reasoning and the understanding of intention in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Corcoran, Rhiannon

2003-08-01

The study explored the relationship between the understanding of intention in veiled speech acts and the ability to reason inductively. A total of 39 people with DSM-IV-defined schizophrenia with no behavioural signs and 44 healthy participants performed the Hinting Task, a measure of pragmatic language in which the speaker's intention must be inferred, and a measure of inductive reasoning (Aha! Sentences) in which the meaning of ambiguous nonsocial sentences had to be inferred. The participants also completed measures of general intellectual ability, immediate memory for narrative and social problem-solving ability. A substantial correlation was found between performance on the inductive reasoning task and the Hinting Task in the sample of people with schizophrenia. The same relationship was not seen in the normal control sample. The robust relationship between these two measures in this sample survived when the roles of immediate memory for narrative and intellectual ability were controlled for. Furthermore, the relationship was distinctly more compelling for the patients who were currently ill compared to those in remission. These data suggest that people with schizophrenia use a different strategy to infer the meaning behind pragmatic language than that used by normally functioning adults. It is suggested that a reliance on different, possibly less specialised, skills in this group to perform this simple social inference task underlies their deficient performance on this and other measures of social inference. The fact that the relationship between the tasks in patients in remission is not as robust implies that the use of specialised skills to perform social inference tasks may be compromised most significantly during acute phases.

Case-mix adjustment and the comparison of community health center performance on patient experience measures.

PubMed

Johnson, M Laura; Rodriguez, Hector P; Solorio, M Rosa

2010-06-01

To assess the effect of case-mix adjustment on community health center (CHC) performance on patient experience measures. A Medicaid-managed care plan in Washington State collected patient survey data from 33 CHCs over three fiscal quarters during 2007-2008. The survey included three composite patient experience measures (6-month reports) and two overall ratings of care. The analytic sample includes 2,247 adult patients and 2,859 adults reporting for child patients. We compared the relative importance of patient case-mix adjusters by calculating each adjuster's predictive power and variability across CHCs. We then evaluated the impact of case-mix adjustment on the relative ranking of CHCs. Important case-mix adjusters included adult self-reported health status or parent-reported child health status, adult age, and educational attainment. The effects of case-mix adjustment on patient reports and ratings were different in the adult and child samples. Adjusting for race/ethnicity and language had a greater impact on parent reports than adult reports, but it impacted ratings similarly across the samples. The impact of adjustment on composites and ratings was modest, but it affected the relative ranking of CHCs. To ensure equitable comparison of CHC performance on patient experience measures, reports and ratings should be adjusted for adult self-reported health status or parent-reported child health status, adult age, education, race/ethnicity, and survey language. Because of the differential impact of case-mix adjusters for child and adult surveys, initiatives should consider measuring and reporting adult and child scores separately.

Learning to drive in young adults with language impairment.

PubMed

Durkin, Kevin; Toseeb, Umar; Pickles, Andrew; Botting, Nicola; Conti-Ramsden, Gina

2016-10-01

Language impairment (LI) is a common developmental disorder which affects many aspects of young people's functional skills and engagement with society. Little is known of early driving behaviour in those with this disability. This longitudinal study examines early driving experience in a sample of young adults with LI, compared with a sample of typically developing age-matched peers (AMPs). At age 24 years, significantly fewer participants with LI had acquired a driving licence. A crucial hurdle for those with LI appeared to be the Theory part of the (UK) test. Logistic regression analysis indicated that language ability and a measure of independence at age 17 contributed to the prediction of licence possession at age 24. There was no evidence of differences in traffic violations or accident rates between those with and without LI. There is little evidence that young people with LI are at greater risk on the roads than peers without LI, but some individuals with LI might benefit from support in the course of preparation for driving and in the driving test.

Sampling Assumptions Affect Use of Indirect Negative Evidence in Language Learning.

PubMed

Hsu, Anne; Griffiths, Thomas L

2016-01-01

A classic debate in cognitive science revolves around understanding how children learn complex linguistic patterns, such as restrictions on verb alternations and contractions, without negative evidence. Recently, probabilistic models of language learning have been applied to this problem, framing it as a statistical inference from a random sample of sentences. These probabilistic models predict that learners should be sensitive to the way in which sentences are sampled. There are two main types of sampling assumptions that can operate in language learning: strong and weak sampling. Strong sampling, as assumed by probabilistic models, assumes the learning input is drawn from a distribution of grammatical samples from the underlying language and aims to learn this distribution. Thus, under strong sampling, the absence of a sentence construction from the input provides evidence that it has low or zero probability of grammaticality. Weak sampling does not make assumptions about the distribution from which the input is drawn, and thus the absence of a construction from the input as not used as evidence of its ungrammaticality. We demonstrate in a series of artificial language learning experiments that adults can produce behavior consistent with both sets of sampling assumptions, depending on how the learning problem is presented. These results suggest that people use information about the way in which linguistic input is sampled to guide their learning.

Sampling Assumptions Affect Use of Indirect Negative Evidence in Language Learning

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

A classic debate in cognitive science revolves around understanding how children learn complex linguistic patterns, such as restrictions on verb alternations and contractions, without negative evidence. Recently, probabilistic models of language learning have been applied to this problem, framing it as a statistical inference from a random sample of sentences. These probabilistic models predict that learners should be sensitive to the way in which sentences are sampled. There are two main types of sampling assumptions that can operate in language learning: strong and weak sampling. Strong sampling, as assumed by probabilistic models, assumes the learning input is drawn from a distribution of grammatical samples from the underlying language and aims to learn this distribution. Thus, under strong sampling, the absence of a sentence construction from the input provides evidence that it has low or zero probability of grammaticality. Weak sampling does not make assumptions about the distribution from which the input is drawn, and thus the absence of a construction from the input as not used as evidence of its ungrammaticality. We demonstrate in a series of artificial language learning experiments that adults can produce behavior consistent with both sets of sampling assumptions, depending on how the learning problem is presented. These results suggest that people use information about the way in which linguistic input is sampled to guide their learning. PMID:27310576

Language Outcomes in Deaf or Hard of Hearing Teenagers Who Are Spoken Language Users: Effects of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Early Confirmation

PubMed Central

Pimperton, Hannah; Kreppner, Jana; Mahon, Merle; Stevenson, Jim; Terlektsi, Emmanouela; Worsfold, Sarah; Yuen, Ho Ming

2017-01-01

Objectives: This study aimed to examine whether (a) exposure to universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) and b) early confirmation of hearing loss were associated with benefits to expressive and receptive language outcomes in the teenage years for a cohort of spoken language users. It also aimed to determine whether either of these two variables was associated with benefits to relative language gain from middle childhood to adolescence within this cohort. Design: The participants were drawn from a prospective cohort study of a population sample of children with bilateral permanent childhood hearing loss, who varied in their exposure to UNHS and who had previously had their language skills assessed at 6–10 years. Sixty deaf or hard of hearing teenagers who were spoken language users and a comparison group of 38 teenagers with normal hearing completed standardized measures of their receptive and expressive language ability at 13–19 years. Results: Teenagers exposed to UNHS did not show significantly better expressive (adjusted mean difference, 0.40; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.26 to 1.05; d = 0.32) or receptive (adjusted mean difference, 0.68; 95% CI, −0.56 to 1.93; d = 0.28) language skills than those who were not. Those who had their hearing loss confirmed by 9 months of age did not show significantly better expressive (adjusted mean difference, 0.43; 95% CI, −0.20 to 1.05; d = 0.35) or receptive (adjusted mean difference, 0.95; 95% CI, −0.22 to 2.11; d = 0.42) language skills than those who had it confirmed later. In all cases, effect sizes were of small size and in favor of those exposed to UNHS or confirmed by 9 months. Subgroup analysis indicated larger beneficial effects of early confirmation for those deaf or hard of hearing teenagers without cochlear implants (N = 48; 80% of the sample), and these benefits were significant in the case of receptive language outcomes (adjusted mean difference, 1.55; 95% CI, 0.38 to 2.71; d = 0.78). Exposure to UNHS did not account for significant unique variance in any of the three language scores at 13–19 years beyond that accounted for by existing language scores at 6–10 years. Early confirmation accounted for significant unique variance in the expressive language information score at 13–19 years after adjusting for the corresponding score at 6–10 years (R2 change = 0.08, p = 0.03). Conclusions: This study found that while adolescent language scores were higher for deaf or hard of hearing teenagers exposed to UNHS and those who had their hearing loss confirmed by 9 months, these group differences were not significant within the whole sample. There was some evidence of a beneficial effect of early confirmation of hearing loss on relative expressive language gain from childhood to adolescence. Further examination of the effect of these variables on adolescent language outcomes in other cohorts would be valuable. PMID:28399063

Adaptation and validation of the Spanish-language Trauma Symptom Inventory in Puerto Rico.

PubMed

Gutiérrez Wang, Lisa; Cosden, Merith; Bernal, Guillermo

2011-02-01

This research was conducted to assess the Spanish-language Trauma Symptom Inventory's (Briere, 1995) suitability for use with a Puerto Rican sample. Minor revisions were made to the original instrument following a comprehensive appraisal involving a bilingual committee and pilot focus group. The present study outlines the review and adaptation process and examines the psychometric properties of the revised instrument, the Inventario de Síntomas de Trauma-Revisado (IST-R). A sample of 225 students (155 women, 70 men) at the University of Puerto Rico, age 20 to 59 (M = 23.24, SD = 4.69), participated in the validation study. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire; a self-report trauma exposure instrument; and measures of psychological distress, including Spanish-language versions of the Beck Depression Inventory, Symptom Checklist-36, and the Dissociative Experiences Scale. Reliability coefficients for the IST-R clinical scales ranged from .69 to .91 (mean α = .84), and correlation coefficients were strongest for scales measuring the same constructs. Factor loadings obtained were consistent with those reported in the literature. Results support the internal consistency and construct validity of the IST-R. Culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment instruments are needed to address the mental health needs of diverse populations. Results from this study provide evidence for the clinical and research promise of the IST-R as a screening tool for trauma-related symptoms.

Seeking a valid gold standard for an innovative, dialect-neutral language test.

PubMed

Pearson, Barbara Zurer; Jackson, Janice E; Wu, Haotian

2014-04-01

PURPOSE In this study, the authors explored alternative gold standards to validate an innovative, dialect-neutral language assessment. METHOD Participants were 78 African American children, ages 5;0 (years;months) to 6;11. Twenty participants had previously been identified as having language impairment. The Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Norm Referenced (DELV-NR; Seymour, Roeper, & J. de Villiers, 2005) was administered, and concurrent language samples (LSs) were collected. Using LS profiles as the gold standard, sensitivity, specificity, and other measures of diagnostic accuracy were compared for diagnoses made from the DELV-NR and participants' clinical status prior to recruitment. In a second analysis, the authors used results from the first analysis to make evidence-based adjustments in the estimates of DELV-NR diagnostic accuracy. RESULTS Accuracy of the DELV-NR relative to LS profiles was greater than that of prior diagnoses, indicating that the DELV-NR was an improvement over preexisting diagnoses for this group. Specificity met conventional standards, but sensitivity was somewhat low. Reanalysis using the positive and negative predictive power of the preexisting diagnosis in a discrepant-resolution procedure revealed that estimates for sensitivity and specificity for the DELV-NR were .85 and .93, respectively. CONCLUSION The authors found that, even after making allowances for the imperfection of available gold standards, clinical decisions made with the DELV-NR achieved high values on conventional measures of diagnostic accuracy.

Defying Expectations: Vocabulary Growth Trajectories of High Performing Language Minority Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hwang, Jin Kyoung; Lawrence, Joshua Fahey; Snow, Catherine E.

2017-01-01

We investigated general vocabulary and academic vocabulary growth trajectories of adolescent language minority students using an individual growth modeling approach. Our analytical sample included 3161 sixth- to eighth-grade students from an urban school district in California. The language minority students in our sample were classified as…

Association of Postpartum Maternal Morbidities with Children's Mental, Psychomotor and Language Development in Rural Bangladesh

PubMed Central

Tofail, F.; Hilaly, A.; Mehrin, F.; Shiraji, S.; Banu, S.; Huda, S.N.

2012-01-01

Little is known from developing countries about the effects of maternal morbidities diagnosed in the postpartum period on children's development. The study aimed to document the relationships of such morbidities with care-giving practices by mothers, children's developmental milestones and their language, mental and psychomotor development. Maternal morbidities were identified through physical examination at 6-9 weeks postpartum (n=488). Maternal care-giving practices and postnatal depression were assessed also at 6-9 weeks postpartum. Children's milestones of development were measured at six months, and their mental (MDI) and psychomotor (PDI) development, language comprehension and expression, and quality of psychosocial stimulation at home were assessed at 12 months. Several approaches were used for identifying the relationships among different maternal morbidities, diagnosed by physicians, with children's development. After controlling for the potential confounders, maternal anaemia diagnosed postpartum showed a small but significantly negative effect on children's language expression while the effects on language comprehension did not reach the significance level (p=0.085). Children's development at 12 months was related to psychosocial stimulation at home, nutritional status, education of parents, socioeconomic status, and care-giving practices of mothers at six weeks of age. Only a few mothers experienced each specific morbidity, and with the exception of anaemia, the sample-size was insufficient to make a conclusion regarding each specific morbidity. Further research with a sufficient sample-size of individual morbidities is required to determine the association of postpartum maternal morbidities with children's development. PMID:22838161

Pleiotropic Effects of DCDC2 and DYX1C1 Genes on Language and Mathematics Traits in Nuclear Families of Developmental Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Mascheretti, Sara; Riva, Valentina; Cattaneo, Francesca; Rigoletto, Catia; Rusconi, Marianna; Gruen, Jeffrey R.; Giorda, Roberto; Lazazzera, Claudio; Molteni, Massimo

2014-01-01

Converging evidence indicates that developmental problems in oral language and mathematics can predate or co-occur with developmental dyslexia (DD). Substantial genetic correlations have been found between language, mathematics and reading traits, independent of the method of sampling. We tested for association of variants of two DD susceptibility genes, DCDC2 and DYX1C1, in nuclear families ascertained through a proband with DD using concurrent measurements of language and mathematics in both probands and siblings by the Quantitative Transmission Disequilibrium Test. Evidence for significant associations was found between DCDC2 and ‘Numerical Facts’ (p value = 0.02, with 85 informative families, genetic effect = 0.57) and between ‘Mental Calculation’ and DYX1C1 markers −3GA (p value = 0.05, with 40 informative families, genetic effect = −0.67) and 1249GT (p value = 0.02, with 49 informative families, genetic effect = −0.65). No statistically significant associations were found between DCDC2 or DYX1C1 and language phenotypes. Both DCDC2 and DYX1C1 DD susceptibility genes appear to have a pleiotropic role on mathematics but not language phenotypes. PMID:21046216

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.

Pleiotropic effects of DCDC2 and DYX1C1 genes on language and mathematics traits in nuclear families of developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Marino, Cecilia; Mascheretti, Sara; Riva, Valentina; Cattaneo, Francesca; Rigoletto, Catia; Rusconi, Marianna; Gruen, Jeffrey R; Giorda, Roberto; Lazazzera, Claudio; Molteni, Massimo

2011-01-01

Converging evidence indicates that developmental problems in oral language and mathematics can predate or co-occur with developmental dyslexia (DD). Substantial genetic correlations have been found between language, mathematics and reading traits, independent of the method of sampling. We tested for association of variants of two DD susceptibility genes, DCDC2 and DYX1C1, in nuclear families ascertained through a proband with DD using concurrent measurements of language and mathematics in both probands and siblings by the Quantitative Transmission Disequilibrium Test. Evidence for significant associations was found between DCDC2 and 'Numerical Facts' (p value = 0.02, with 85 informative families, genetic effect = 0.57) and between 'Mental Calculation' and DYX1C1 markers -3GA (p value = 0.05, with 40 informative families, genetic effect = -0.67) and 1249GT (p value = 0.02, with 49 informative families, genetic effect = -0.65). No statistically significant associations were found between DCDC2 or DYX1C1 and language phenotypes. Both DCDC2 and DYX1C1 DD susceptibility genes appear to have a pleiotropic role on mathematics but not language phenotypes.

American Sign Language Comprehension Test: A Tool for Sign Language Researchers.

PubMed

Hauser, Peter C; Paludneviciene, Raylene; Riddle, Wanda; Kurz, Kim B; Emmorey, Karen; Contreras, Jessica

2016-01-01

The American Sign Language Comprehension Test (ASL-CT) is a 30-item multiple-choice test that measures ASL receptive skills and is administered through a website. This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the test based on a sample of 80 college students including deaf native signers, hearing native signers, deaf non-native signers, and hearing ASL students. The results revealed that the ASL-CT has good internal reliability (α = 0.834). Discriminant validity was established by demonstrating that deaf native signers performed significantly better than deaf non-native signers and hearing native signers. Concurrent validity was established by demonstrating that test results positively correlated with another measure of ASL ability (r = .715) and that hearing ASL students' performance positively correlated with the level of ASL courses they were taking (r = .726). Researchers can use the ASL-CT to characterize an individual's ASL comprehension skills, to establish a minimal skill level as an inclusion criterion for a study, to group study participants by ASL skill (e.g., proficient vs. nonproficient), or to provide a measure of ASL skill as a dependent variable. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Current management for word finding difficulties by speech-language therapists in South African remedial schools.

PubMed

de Rauville, Ingrid; Chetty, Sandhya; Pahl, Jenny

2006-01-01

Word finding difficulties frequently found in learners with language learning difficulties (Casby, 1992) are an integral part of Speech-Language Therapists' management role when working with learning disabled children. This study investigated current management for word finding difficulties by 70 Speech-Language Therapists in South African remedial schools. A descriptive survey design using a quantitative and qualitative approach was used. A questionnaire and follow-up focus group discussion were used to collect data. Results highlighted the use of the Renfrew Word Finding Scale (Renfrew, 1972, 1995) as the most frequently used formal assessment tool. Language sample analysis and discourse analysis were the most frequently used informal assessment procedures. Formal intervention programmes were generally not used. Phonetic, phonemic or phonological cueing were the most frequently used therapeutic strategies. The authors note strengths and raise concerns about current management for word finding difficulties in South African remedial schools, particularly in terms of bilingualism. Opportunities are highlighted regarding the development of assessment and intervention measures relevant to the diverse learning disabled population in South Africa.

Reading anxiety, classroom anxiety, language motivation, reader self-perception, and arabic achievement of Arab-American students learning arabic as a second language.

PubMed

Alkhateeb, Haitham M

2014-12-01

The present study assessed the relations between reading anxiety, classroom anxiety, language motivation, and readers' self-perception for a sample of Arab-American students in Arabic classes. The effects of sex, grade, and years studying Arabic on academic achievement were examined as well. Measures were administered to 118 middle school students (56 boys, 62 girls; M age = 13.0 yr., SD = 0.8), and teachers reported academic grades in Arabic. Reading anxiety was significantly correlated with classroom anxiety and reader self-perception. Classroom anxiety scores were significantly correlated with motivation and reader self-perception. Significant positive correlations were found between language motivation and reader self-perception scores, and between years studying Arabic and reader self-perception scores. Boys in the second year of Arabic had significantly lower classroom anxiety than girls, and students in Grade 7 had higher reader self-perception than those in Grade 8. Classroom anxiety, language motivation, and reader self-perception significantly predicted Arabic achievement. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Intensity of Multilingual Language Use Predicts Cognitive Performance in Some Multilingual Older Adults

PubMed Central

Keijzer, Merel; de Bot, Kees

2018-01-01

Cognitive advantages for bilinguals have inconsistently been observed in different populations, with different operationalisations of bilingualism, cognitive performance, and the process by which language control transfers to cognitive control. This calls for studies investigating which aspects of multilingualism drive a cognitive advantage, in which populations and under which conditions. This study reports on two cognitive tasks coupled with an extensive background questionnaire on health, wellbeing, personality, language knowledge and language use, administered to 387 older adults in the northern Netherlands, a small but highly multilingual area. Using linear mixed effects regression modeling, we find that when different languages are used frequently in different contexts, enhanced attentional control is observed. Subsequently, a PLS regression model targeting also other influential factors yielded a two-component solution whereby only more sensitive measures of language proficiency and language usage in different social contexts were predictive of cognitive performance above and beyond the contribution of age, gender, income and education. We discuss these findings in light of previous studies that try to uncover more about the nature of bilingualism and the cognitive processes that may drive an advantage. With an unusually large sample size our study advocates for a move away from dichotomous, knowledge-based operationalisations of multilingualism and offers new insights for future studies at the individual level. PMID:29783764

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.

Profiles of verbal working memory growth predict speech and language development in children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Kronenberger, William G; Pisoni, David B; Harris, Michael S; Hoen, Helena M; Xu, Huiping; Miyamoto, Richard T

2013-06-01

Verbal short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) skills predict speech and language outcomes in children with cochlear implants (CIs) even after conventional demographic, device, and medical factors are taken into account. However, prior research has focused on single end point outcomes as opposed to the longitudinal process of development of verbal STM/WM and speech-language skills. In this study, the authors investigated relations between profiles of verbal STM/WM development and speech-language development over time. Profiles of verbal STM/WM development were identified through the use of group-based trajectory analysis of repeated digit span measures over at least a 2-year time period in a sample of 66 children (ages 6-16 years) with CIs. Subjects also completed repeated assessments of speech and language skills during the same time period. Clusters representing different patterns of development of verbal STM (digit span forward scores) were related to the growth rate of vocabulary and language comprehension skills over time. Clusters representing different patterns of development of verbal WM (digit span backward scores) were related to the growth rate of vocabulary and spoken word recognition skills over time. Different patterns of development of verbal STM/WM capacity predict the dynamic process of development of speech and language skills in this clinical population.

An Investigation of Language Environment Analysis Measures for Spanish-English Bilingual Preschoolers From Migrant Low-Socioeconomic-Status Backgrounds.

PubMed

Wood, Carla; Diehm, Emily A; Callender, Maya F

2016-04-01

The current study was designed to (a) describe average hourly Language Environment Analysis (LENA) data for preschool-age Spanish-English bilinguals (SEBs) and typically developing monolingual peers and (b) compare LENA data with mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) and total number of words (TNW) calculated on a selected sample of consecutive excerpts of audio files (CEAFs). Investigators examined average hourly child vocalizations from daylong LENA samples for 42 SEBs and 39 monolingual English-speaking preschoolers. The relationship between average hourly child vocalizations, conversational turns, and adult words from the daylong samples and MLUw from a 50-utterance CEAF was examined and compared between groups. MLUw, TNW, average hourly child vocalizations, and conversational turns were lower for young SEBs than monolingual English-speaking peers. Average hourly child vocalizations were not strongly related to MLUw performance for monolingual or SEB participants (r = .29, r = .25, respectively). In a similar manner, average hourly conversational turns were not strongly related to MLUw for either group (r = .22, r = .21, respectively). Young SEBs from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds showed lower average performance on LENA measures, MLUw, and TNW than monolingual English-speaking peers. MLUw from monolinguals were also lower than typical expectations when derived from CEAFs. LENA technology may be a promising tool for communication sampling with SEBs; however, more research is needed to establish norms for interpreting MLUw and TNW from selected CEAF samples.

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.

Acculturation and Depression among Puerto Ricans in the Mainland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramos, Blanca M.

2005-01-01

The relationship between acculturation and depression in a sample of 1,510 Puerto Ricans residing in the U.S. was examined. Acculturation was measured by assessing subjects' spoken, preferred, read, and written language. Depression was evaluated by the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. The scale yielded a three-factor structure…

L2 Reading Comprehension and Its Correlates: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jeon, Eun Hee; Yamashita, Junko

2014-01-01

The present meta-analysis examined the overall average correlation (weighted for sample size and corrected for measurement error) between passage-level second language (L2) reading comprehension and 10 key reading component variables investigated in the research domain. Four high-evidence correlates (with 18 or more accumulated effect sizes: L2…

Teachers' Implicit Theories of Intelligence: Influences from Different Disciplines and Scientific Theories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jonsson, Anna-Carin; Beach, Dennis; Korp, Helena; Erlandson, Peter

2012-01-01

A sample of 226 Swedish high school teachers from various knowledge domains completed self-report measures of intelligence regarding implicit theories and scientific theories of intelligence. A mixed ANOVA showed that teachers from language, social science and practical disciplines had a significant preference for an incremental theory of…

Exploring the Unknown: The Autonomy of Saudi EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alrabai, Fakieh

2017-01-01

This study addresses a new area of research in Saudi Arabia. Using a sample of 630 Saudi students, it investigates learners' level of autonomy and its relationship to academic achievement in English as a foreign language (EFL). Learners' level of autonomy was measured by a survey, whereas their achievement was evaluated using standardized…

The Growth of Tense Productivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rispoli, Matthew; Hadley, Pamela A.; Holt, Janet K.

2009-01-01

Purpose: This study tests empirical predictions of a maturational model for the growth of tense in children younger than 36 months using a type-based productivity measure. Method: Caregiver-child language samples were collected from 20 typically developing children every 3 months from 21 to 33 months of age. Growth in the productivity of tense…

Objectively measured sedentary time and academic achievement in schoolchildren.

PubMed

Lopes, Luís; Santos, Rute; Mota, Jorge; Pereira, Beatriz; Lopes, Vítor

2017-03-01

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between objectively measured total sedentary time and academic achievement (AA) in Portuguese children. The sample comprised of 213 children (51.6% girls) aged 9.46 ± 0.43 years, from the north of Portugal. Sedentary time was measured with accelerometry, and AA was assessed using the Portuguese Language and Mathematics National Exams results. Multilevel linear regression models were fitted to assess regression coefficients predicting AA. The results showed that objectively measured total sedentary time was not associated with AA, after adjusting for potential confounders.

Unit 802: Language Varies with Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis. Center for Curriculum Development in English.

This eighth-grade language unit stresses developing the student's sensitivity to variations in language, primarily the similarities and differences between spoken and written language. Through sample lectures and discussion questions, the students are helped to form generalizations about language: that speech is the primary form of language; that…

The influence of acculturation on breast-feeding initiation and duration in low-income women in the US.

PubMed

Sussner, Katarina M; Lindsay, Ana C; Peterson, Karen E

2008-09-01

While the 'immigrant health paradox' posits better health behaviours and outcomes for immigrants upon arrival to the US, research suggests that this advantage may deteriorate over time. This study analysed the relationship of acculturation and breast-feeding initiation and duration among a sample of predominantly Latina, low-income women in the US. The four measures of acculturation included: mother's nativity (foreign born vs US born), mother's parents' nativity (foreign born vs US born), years of US residence (<8 years vs > or =8 years) and a dichotomous measure of language acculturation adapted from three items on Marin's acculturation scale (preferred language spoken at home, reading language and writing language) as exclusive use of native language versus non-exclusive use (mixed or English only) (Marin et al., 1987; Marin & Gamba, 1996). Final multivariable models showed that mothers who exclusively used their native language were more likely to initiate breast-feeding as well as breast-feed for longer duration compared with mothers with non-exclusive use, whereas years of US residence and mother's nativity were not significantly associated with breast-feeding initiation or duration. Mother's parents' nativity also emerged as a significant predictor of breast-feeding duration, both within final models for immigrants and across study participants. Programmes providing nutrition education to low-income women may wish to consider the role of language as an important determinant of breast-feeding. The role of mother's parents' nativity on breast-feeding practices deserves exploration in future studies, as the cultural practices taught by family members born outside the US may exert strong pressure within immigrant families now living in the US.

Assessment of grammar optimizes language tasks for the intracarotid amobarbital procedure.

PubMed

Połczyńska, Monika; Kuhn, Taylor; You, S Christine; Walshaw, Patricia; Curtiss, Susan; Bookheimer, Susan

2017-11-01

A previous study showed that assessment of language laterality could be improved by adding grammar tests to the recovery phase of the intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP) (Połczyńska et al. 2014). The aim of this study was to further investigate the extent to which grammar tests lateralize language function during the recovery phase of the IAP in a larger patient sample. Forty patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (14 females, thirty-two right-handed, mean age 38.5years, SD=10.6) participated in this study. On EEG, 24 patients had seizures originating in the left hemisphere (LH), 13 in the right hemisphere (RH), and 4 demonstrated mixed seizure origin. Thirty participants (75%) had bilateral injections, and ten (25%) had unilateral injections (five RH and five LH). Based on results from the encoding phase, we segregated our study participants to a LH language dominant and a mixed dominance group. In the recovery phase of the IAP, the participants were administered a new grammar test (the CYCLE-N) and a standard language test. We analyzed the laterality index measure and effect sizes in the two tests. In the LH-dominant group, the CYCLE-N generated more profound language deficits in the recovery phase than the standard after injection to either hemisphere (p<0.001). At the same time, the laterality index for the grammar tasks was still higher than for the standard tests. Critically, the CYCLE-N administered in the recovery phase was nearly as effective as the standard tests given during the encoding phase. The results may be significant for individuals with epilepsy undergoing IAP. The grammar tests may be a highly efficient measure for lateralizing language function in the recovery phase. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Social cohesion, social support, and health among Latinos in the United States.

PubMed

Mulvaney-Day, Norah E; Alegría, Margarita; Sribney, William

2007-01-01

The role of individual versus community level social connections in promoting health is an important factor to consider when addressing Latino health. This analysis examines the relationships between social support, social cohesion, and health in a sample of Latinos in the United States. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Study, the analysis uses ordered logistic regression to explore the relationships of family support, friend support, family cultural conflict, and neighborhood social cohesion with self-rated physical and mental health, taking into account language proficiency and use, nativity, and sociodemographic variables. Family support, friend support, and neighborhood social cohesion were positively related to self-rated physical and mental health, and family cultural conflict was negatively related when controlled only for sex and age. After controlling for education, income, and other demographic measures, only family support was found to have a weak association with self-rated physical health; however, the relationship seemed to be mediated by language. In contrast, family support and family cultural conflict were strongly associated with self-rated mental health, after controlling for language, education, income, and other demographic measures. The study did not find neighborhood social cohesion to be significantly related to either self-rated physical or mental health, after accounting for the effects of the other social connection variables. Language of interview did not explain the highly significant effects of language proficiency and use. Social connections are important for health and mental health, but language and other sociodemographic factors seem to be related to how Latinos establish these social linkages. Further investigation into the role of language in the development and maintenance of social connections may help unravel the mechanisms by which they promote or decrease health.

Sensitivity and Specificity of French Language and Processing Measures for the Identification of Primary Language Impairment at Age 5

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thordardottir, Elin; Kehayia, Eva; Mazer, Barbara; Lessard, Nicole; Majnemer, Annette; Sutton, Ann; Trudeau, Natacha; Chilingaryan, Gevorg

2011-01-01

Purpose: Research on the diagnostic accuracy of different language measures has focused primarily on English. This study examined the sensitivity and specificity of a range of measures of language knowledge and language processing for the identification of primary language impairment (PLI) in French-speaking children. Because of the lack of…

Language Sample Analysis and Elicitation Technique Effects in Bilingual Children with and without Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapantzoglou, Maria; Fergadiotis, Gerasimos; Restrepo, M. Adelaida

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study examined whether the language sample elicitation technique (i.e., storytelling and story-retelling tasks with pictorial support) affects lexical diversity (D), grammaticality (grammatical errors per communication unit [GE/CU]), sentence length (mean length of utterance in words [MLUw]), and sentence complexity (subordination…

Incorporating Computer-Aided Language Sample Analysis into Clinical Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, Lisa Hammett; Hendricks, Sean; Cook, Colleen

2010-01-01

Purpose: During the evaluation of language abilities, the needs of the child are best served when multiple types and sources of data are included in the evaluation process. Current educational policies and practice guidelines further dictate the use of authentic assessment data to inform diagnosis and treatment planning. Language sampling and…

Rapid Profile: A Second Language Screening Procedure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackey, Alison; And Others

1991-01-01

Rapid Profile, developed by Manfred Pienemann of National Languages Institute of Australia/Language Acquisition Research Centre, is a computer-based procedure for screening speech samples collected from language learners to assess their level of language development as compared to standard patterns in the acquisition of the target language. Rapid…

Cross-cultural measurement invariance of the General Health Questionnaire-12 in a German and a Colombian population sample.

PubMed

Romppel, Matthias; Hinz, Andreas; Finck, Carolyn; Young, Jeremy; Brähler, Elmar; Glaesmer, Heide

2017-12-01

While the General Health Questionnaire, 12-item version (GHQ-12) has been widely used in cross-cultural comparisons, rigorous tests of the measurement equivalence of different language versions are still lacking. Thus, our study aims at investigating configural, metric and scalar invariance across the German and the Spanish version of the GHQ-12 in two population samples. The GHQ-12 was applied in two large-scale population-based samples in Germany (N = 1,977) and Colombia (N = 1,500). To investigate measurement equivalence, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted in both samples. In the German sample mean GHQ-12 total scores were higher than in the Colombian sample. A one-factor model including response bias on the negatively worded items showed superior fit in the German and the Colombian sample; thus both versions of the GHQ-12 showed configural invariance. Factor loadings and intercepts were not equal across both samples; thus GHQ-12 showed no metric and scalar invariance. As both versions of the GHQ-12 did not show measurement equivalence, it is not recommendable to compare both measures and to conclude that mental distress is higher in the German sample, although we do not know if the differences are attributable to measurement problems or represent a real difference in mental distress. The study underlines the importance of measurement equivalence in cross-cultural comparisons. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Critical thinking about fables: examining language production and comprehension in adolescents.

PubMed

Nippold, Marilyn A; Frantz-Kaspar, Megan W; Cramond, Paige M; Kirk, Cecilia; Hayward-Mayhew, Christine; MacKinnon, Melanie

2015-04-01

This study was designed primarily to determine if a critical-thinking task involving fables would elicit greater syntactic complexity than a conversational task in adolescents. Another purpose was to determine how well adolescents understand critical-thinking questions about fables. Forty adolescents (N=20 boys and 20 girls; mean age=14 years) with typical language development answered critical-thinking questions about the deeper meanings of fables. They also participated in a standard conversational task. The syntactic complexity of their responses during the speaking tasks was analyzed for mean length of communication unit (MLCU) and clausal density (CD). Both measures of syntactic complexity, MLCU and CD, were substantially greater during the critical-thinking task compared with the conversational task. It was also found that the adolescents understood the questions quite well, earning a mean accuracy score of 80%. The critical-thinking task has potential for use as a new type of language-sampling tool to examine language production and comprehension in adolescents.

Parenting and Later Substance Use Among Mexican-Origin Youth: Moderation by Preference for a Common Language

PubMed Central

Schofield, Thomas J.; Toro, Rosa I.; Parke, Ross D.; Cookston, Jeffrey T.; Fabricius, William V.; Coltrane, Scott

2016-01-01

The primary goal of the current study was to test whether parent and adolescent preference for a common language moderates the association between parenting and rank-order change over time in offspring substance use. A sample of Mexican-origin seventh-grade adolescents (mean age = 12.5, N = 194, 52% female) was measured longitudinally on use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. Mother, father, and adolescent all reported on consistent discipline and monitoring of the adolescent. Consistent discipline and monitoring both predicted relative decreases in substance use into early adulthood, but only among parent-offspring dyads who expressed preference for the same language (either English or Spanish). This moderation held after controlling for parent substance use, family structure, having completed schooling in Mexico, years lived in the U.S., family income, and cultural values. An unintended consequence of the immigration process may be the loss of parenting effectiveness that is normally present when parents and adolescents prefer to communicate in a common language. PMID:28080082

New Evidence About Language and Cognitive Development Based on a Longitudinal Study: Hypotheses for Intervention

PubMed Central

Goldin-Meadow, Susan; Levine, Susan C.; Hedges, Larry V.; Huttenlocher, Janellen; Raudenbush, Stephen W.; Small, Steven L.

2014-01-01

We review findings from a four-year longitudinal study of language learning conducted on two samples: a sample of typically developing children whose parents vary substantially in socioeconomic status, and a sample of children with pre- or perinatal brain injury. This design enables us to study language development across a wide range of language learning environments and a wide range of language learners. We videotaped samples of children's and parents' speech and gestures during spontaneous interactions at home every four months, and then we transcribed and coded the tapes. We focused on two behaviors known to vary across individuals and environments—child gesture and parent speech—behaviors that have the potential to index, and perhaps even play a role in creating, differences across children in linguistic and other cognitive skills. Our observations have led to four hypotheses that have promise for the development of diagnostic tools and interventions to enhance language and cognitive development and brain plasticity after neonatal injury. One kind of hypothesis involves tools that could identify children who may be at risk for later language deficits. The other involves interventions that have the potential to promote language development. We present our four hypotheses as a summary of the findings from our study because there is scientific evidence behind them and because this evidence has the potential to be put to practical use in improving education. PMID:24911049

First Language Proficiency and Successful Foreign Language Learning: The Case of High School Students Learning French as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gnintedem, Antoine

2014-01-01

This study investigated whether there was a correlation between first language proficiency as measured by the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT II) Reading and Language Arts and foreign language proficiency as measured by the French Language Proficiency Test. Data for the independent variable, first language proficiency, was collected from the…

Early vocabulary development in deaf native signers: a British Sign Language adaptation of the communicative development inventories.

PubMed

Woolfe, Tyron; Herman, Rosalind; Roy, Penny; Woll, Bencie

2010-03-01

There is a dearth of assessments of sign language development in young deaf children. This study gathered age-related scores from a sample of deaf native signing children using an adapted version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI (Fenson et al., 1994). Parental reports on children's receptive and expressive signing were collected longitudinally on 29 deaf native British Sign Language (BSL) users, aged 8-36 months, yielding 146 datasets. A smooth upward growth curve was obtained for early vocabulary development and percentile scores were derived. In the main, receptive scores were in advance of expressive scores. No gender bias was observed. Correlational analysis identified factors associated with vocabulary development, including parental education and mothers' training in BSL. Individual children's profiles showed a range of development and some evidence of a growth spurt. Clinical and research issues relating to the measure are discussed. The study has developed a valid, reliable measure of vocabulary development in BSL. Further research is needed to investigate the relationship between vocabulary acquisition in native and non-native signers.

Corticosteroid therapy in regressive autism: a retrospective study of effects on the Frequency Modulated Auditory Evoked Response (FMAER), language, and behavior

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Up to a third of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) manifest regressive autism (R-ASD).They show normal early development followed by loss of language and social skills. Absent evidence-based therapies, anecdotal evidence suggests improvement following use of corticosteroids. This study examined the effects of corticosteroids for R-ASD children upon the 4 Hz frequency modulated evoked response (FMAER) arising from language cortex of the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and upon EEG background activity, language, and behavior. An untreated clinical convenience sample of ASD children served as control sample. Methods Twenty steroid-treated R-ASD (STAR) and 24 not-treated ASD patients (NSA), aged 3 - 5 years, were retrospectively identified from a large database. All study participants had two sequential FMAER and EEG studies;Landau-Kleffner syndrome diagnosis was excluded. All subjects’ records contained clinical receptive and expressive language ratings based upon a priori developed metrics. The STAR group additionally was scored behaviorally regarding symptom severity as based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV) ASD criteria list. EEGs were visually scored for abnormalities. FMAER responses were assessed quantitatively by spectral analysis. Treated and untreated group means and standard deviations for the FMAER, EEG, language, and behavior, were compared by paired t-test and Fisher’s exact tests. Results The STAR group showed a significant increase in the 4 Hz FMAER spectral response and a significant reduction in response distortion compared to the NSA group. Star group subjects’ language ratings were significantly improved and more STAR than NSA group subjects showed significant language improvement. Most STAR group children showed significant behavioral improvement after treatment. STAR group language and behavior improvement was retained one year after treatment. Groups did not differ in terms of minor EEG abnormalities. Steroid treatment produced no lasting morbidity. Conclusions Steroid treatment was associated with a significantly increased FMAER response magnitude, reduction of FMAER response distortion, and improvement in language and behavior scores. This was not observed in the non-treated group. These pilot findings warrant a prospective randomized validation trial of steroid treatment for R-ASD utilizing FMAER, EEG, and standardized ASD, language and behavior measures, and a longer follow-up period. Please see related article http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/12/79 PMID:24885033

Long-Term Speech and Language Outcomes in Prelingually Deaf Children, Adolescents and Young Adults Who Received Cochlear Implants in Childhood

PubMed Central

Ruffin, Chad V.; Kronenberger, William G.; Colson, Bethany G.; Henning, Shirley C.; Pisoni, David B.

2013-01-01

This study investigated long-term speech and language outcomes in 51 prelingually deaf children, adolescents, and young adults who received cochlear implants (CIs) prior to 7 years of age and used their implants for at least 7 years. Average speech perception scores were similar to those found in prior research with other samples of experienced CI users. Mean language test scores were lower than norm-referenced scores from nationally representative normal-hearing, typically-developing samples, although a majority of the CI users scored within one standard deviation of the normative mean or higher on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (63%) and Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fourth Edition (69%). Speech perception scores were negatively associated with a meningitic etiology of hearing loss, older age at implantation, poorer pre-implant unaided pure tone average thresholds, lower family income, and the use of Total Communication. Users of CIs for 15 years or more were more likely to have these characteristics and were more likely to score lower on measures of speech perception compared to users of CIs for 14 years or less. The aggregation of these risk factors in the > 15 years of CI use subgroup accounts for their lower speech perception scores and may stem from more conservative CI candidacy criteria in use at the beginning of pediatric cochlear implantation. PMID:23988907

Comparison of African American Children's Performances on a Minimal Competence Core for Morphosyntax and the Index of Productive Syntax.

PubMed

Stockman, Ida J; Newkirk-Turner, Brandi L; Swartzlander, Elaina; Morris, Lekeitha R

2016-02-01

This study is a response to the need for evidence-based measures of spontaneous oral language to assess African American children under the age of 4 years. We determined if pass/fail status on a minimal competence core for morphosyntax (MCC-MS) was more highly related to scores on the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn)-the measure of convergent criterion validity-than to scores on 3 measures of divergent validity: number of different words (Watkins, Kelly, Harbers, & Hollis, 1995), Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised (Shriberg, Austin, Lewis, McSweeney, & Wilson, 1997), and the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised (Roid & Miller, 1997). Archival language samples for 68 African American 3-year-olds were analyzed to determine MCC-MS pass/fail status and the scores on measures of convergent and divergent validity. Higher IPSyn scores were observed for 60 children who passed the MCC-MS than for 8 children who did not. A significant positive correlation, rpb = .73, between MCC-MS pass/fail status and IPSyn scores was observed. This coefficient was higher than MCC-MS correlations with measures of divergent validity: rpb = .13 (Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised), rpb = .42 (number of different words in 100 utterances), and rpb = .46 (Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised). The MCC-MS has convergent criterion validity with the IPSyn. Although more research is warranted, both measures can be potentially used in oral language assessments of African American 3-year-olds.

Acculturation and blood pressure in a community-based sample of Chaldean-American women.

PubMed

Dallo, F J; James, S A

2000-07-01

With the steady increase of non-European, non-English speaking immigrants to the United States, the relationship between acculturation and risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an issue of growing importance to researchers interested in the health of new immigrant populations. The influence of acculturation processes on adverse changes in blood pressure (BP), a major risk factor for CVD, has been examined in Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans. Published studies on this relationship in Arab-Americans are lacking, however, despite their growing numbers. With a specific focus on Chaldean-Americans, a major subgroup of the large Arab-American population located in metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, the current study investigates the influence of level of acculturation on BP in a community probability sample of 130 Chaldean-American women. Study participants were interviewed in their homes (92% response rate). Physical measurements included BP, body mass index (BMI), and waist-hip ratio. Demographic and acculturation data were obtained through a standardized questionnaire. The crude hypertension prevalence in the sample was 16%. Three dimensions of acculturation were identified through content and factor analysis: English language preference, parental school involvement, and ethnic identity. In unadjusted analyses, both English language preference and Chaldean-American ethnic identity were associated (p < 0.01) with lower mean BP, but these differences became nonsignificant when age, BMI, and waist-hip ratio were statistically controlled. Parental school involvement was not associated with BP in any analyses. In this study, the strongest predictors of BP were BMI and waist-hip ratio, both of which were inversely correlated with age, education, English language preference, employment outside the home, and parental school involvement. Future studies of acculturation and BP in Chaldean-Americans (and other Arab-American populations) should use improved measures of acculturation, broader assessments of behavioral and socioeconomic status, and larger samples that includes both genders.

The effect of differential listening experience on the development of expressive and receptive language in children with bilateral cochlear implants.

PubMed

Hess, Christi; Zettler-Greeley, Cynthia; Godar, Shelly P; Ellis-Weismer, Susan; Litovsky, Ruth Y

2014-01-01

Growing evidence suggests that children who are deaf and use cochlear implants (CIs) can communicate effectively using spoken language. Research has reported that age of implantation and length of experience with the CI play an important role in a predicting a child's linguistic development. In recent years, the increase in the number of children receiving bilateral CIs (BiCIs) has led to interest in new variables that may also influence the development of hearing, speech, and language abilities, such as length of bilateral listening experience and the length of time between the implantation of the two CIs. One goal of the present study was to determine how a cohort of children with BiCIs performed on standardized measures of language and nonverbal cognition. This study examined the relationship between performance on language and nonverbal intelligence quotient (IQ) tests and the ages at implantation of the first CI and second CI. This study also examined whether early bilateral activation is related to better language scores. Children with BiCIs (n = 39; ages 4 to 9 years) were tested on two standardized measures, the Test of Language Development and the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised, to evaluate their expressive/receptive language skills and nonverbal IQ/memory. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to evaluate whether BiCI hearing experience predicts language performance. While large intersubject variability existed, on average, almost all the children with BiCIs scored within or above normal limits on measures of nonverbal cognition. Expressive and receptive language scores were highly variable, less likely to be above the normative mean, and did not correlate with Length of first CI Use, defined as length of auditory experience with one cochlear implant, or Length of second CI Use, defined as length of auditory experience with two cochlear implants. All children in the present study had BiCIs. Most IQ scores were either at or above that found in the general population of typically hearing children. However, there was greater variability in their performance on a standardized test of expressive and receptive language. This cohort of children, who are mainstreamed in schools at age-appropriate grades, whose mothers' education is high, and whose families' socioecononomic status is high, had, as a group, on average, language scores within the same range as the normative sample of hearing children. Further research identifying the predictors that contribute to the high variability in both expressive and receptive language scores in children with BiCIs will provide useful information that can aid in clinical management and decision making.

Adaptation and Validation of the Social and Emotional Health Survey-Secondary into Turkish Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Telef, Bülent Baki; Furlong, Michael J.

2017-01-01

This study investigated the psychometric properties of a Turkish-language adaptation of the Social and Emotional Health Survey-Secondary (SEHS-S), a measure of core psychological assets hypothesized to be associated with adolescents' flourishing mental health. Convenience samples of students (Grades 9-12) from six Turkish high schools were used;…

From Accountability to Actionability: Making Sense of Multiple Measures in Local Control Accountability Plans. Policy Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beach, Paul; Thier, Michael; Lench, Sarah Collins; Coleman, Matt

2015-01-01

"Understanding Entry-Level Courses in American Institutions of Higher Education" outlines a study conducted by EPIC that empirically identifies the characteristics of work at the college- and career-readiness level in English/language arts, science, and social sciences courses. Using a previously collected national sample of over two…

Toward an Understanding of Dimensions, Predictors, and the Gender Gap in Written Composition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Wanzek, Jeanne; Gatlin, Brandy

2015-01-01

We had 3 aims in the present study: (a) to examine the dimensionality of various evaluative approaches to scoring writing samples (e.g., quality, productivity, and curriculum-based measurement [CBM] writing scoring), (b) to investigate unique language and cognitive predictors of the identified dimensions, and (c) to examine gender gap in the…

Common Aetiology for Diverse Language Skills in 4 1/2-Year-Old Twins

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.; Kovas, Yulia; Harlaar, Nicole; Plomin, Robert; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.; Dale, Philip S.

2006-01-01

Multivariate genetic analysis was used to examine the genetic and environmental aetiology of the interrelationships of diverse linguistic skills. This study used data from a large sample of 4 1/2-year-old twins who were tested on measures assessing articulation, phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and verbal memory. Phenotypic analysis suggested two…

Using Google Scholar to Estimate the Impact of Journal Articles in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Aalst, Jan

2010-01-01

This article discusses the potential of Google Scholar as an alternative or complement to the Web of Science and Scopus for measuring the impact of journal articles in education. Three handbooks on research in science education, language education, and educational technology were used to identify a sample of 112 accomplished scholars. Google…

German-American Bilingualism: Cui Malo? Mother Tongue and Socioeconomic Status among the Second Generation in 1940.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamphoefner, Walter D.

1994-01-01

Utilizes language data from the 1940 Census Public Law Sample to measure the socioeconomic impact of a foreign mother tongue by comparing second-generation Germans who grew up speaking German and English, respectively. Results show that the disadvantages of a foreign mother tongue proved to be negligible for this group. (GR)

Social Communication in Children with Autism: The Relationship Between Theory of Mind and Discourse Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hale, Courtney M.; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2005-01-01

This longitudinal study investigated the developmental trajectory of discourse skills and theory of mind in 57 children with autism. Children were tested at two time points spaced 1 year apart. Each year they provided a natural language sample while interacting with one parent, and were given standardized vocabulary measures and a developmentally…

Cross-cultural feigning assessment: A systematic review of feigning instruments used with linguistically, ethnically, and culturally diverse samples.

PubMed

Nijdam-Jones, Alicia; Rosenfeld, Barry

2017-11-01

The cross-cultural validity of feigning instruments and cut-scores is a critical concern for forensic mental health clinicians. This systematic review evaluated feigning classification accuracy and effect sizes across instruments and languages by summarizing 45 published peer-reviewed articles and unpublished doctoral dissertations conducted in Europe, Asia, and North America using linguistically, ethnically, and culturally diverse samples. The most common psychiatric symptom measures used with linguistically, ethnically, and culturally diverse samples included the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology, the Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The most frequently studied cognitive effort measures included the Word Recognition Test, the Test of Memory Malingering, and the Rey 15-item Memory test. The classification accuracy of these measures is compared and the implications of this research literature are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The association between neuropsychological scores and ethnicity, language, and acculturation variables in a large patient population.

PubMed

Boone, Kyle Brauer; Victor, Tara L; Wen, Johnny; Razani, Jill; Pontón, Marcel

2007-03-01

The relationship between ethnicity and cognitive test performance was examined in a sample of 161 patients referred for evaluation at a public hospital-affiliated neuropsychology clinic; 83 patients were Caucasian (non-Hispanic), 31 were African-American, 30 were Hispanic, and 17 were Asian. Significant group differences were present on some measures of language (Boston Naming Test), attention (Digit Span ACSS), constructional ability (Rey-Osterrieth [RO] copy), nonverbal processing speed (Trails A), and executive skills (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test [WCST]). Comparison of those who spoke English as a first language (or who learned English concurrently with a second language) versus those who spoke English as a second language (ESL) revealed significantly higher performance in the non-ESL group for Digit Span, Boston Naming Test, and FAS, and a higher score in the ESL group for RO copy. Boston Naming Test scores were significantly related to years educated in the United States; Boston Naming Test and Digit Span scores were significantly correlated with age at which conversational English was first learned and number of years in the United States; and finally, FAS scores were also significantly related to number of years in the United States. These findings are consistent with data from published literature on ethnic differences and the effects of acculturation on cognitive test performance in nonpatients, and also indicate that these observations are not attenuated by the presence of psychiatric or neurologic illness. The results further caution that normative data derived on Caucasian samples may not be appropriate for use with other ethnic groups.

Spanish Translation and Cross-Language Validation of a Sleep Habits Questionnaire for Use in Clinical and Research Settings

PubMed Central

Baldwin, Carol M.; Choi, Myunghan; McClain, Darya Bonds; Celaya, Alma; Quan, Stuart F.

2012-01-01

Study Objectives: To translate, back-translate and cross-language validate (English/Spanish) the Sleep Heart Health Study Sleep Habits Questionnaire for use with Spanish-speakers in clinical and research settings. Methods: Following rigorous translation and back-translation, this cross-sectional cross-language validation study recruited bilingual participants from academic, clinic, and community-based settings (N = 50; 52% women; mean age 38.8 ± 12 years; 90% of Mexican heritage). Participants completed English and Spanish versions of the Sleep Habits Questionnaire, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans II one week apart in randomized order. Psychometric properties were assessed, including internal consistency, convergent validity, scale equivalence, language version intercorrelations, and exploratory factor analysis using PASW (Version18) software. Grade level readability of the sleep measure was evaluated. Results: All sleep categories (duration, snoring, apnea, insomnia symptoms, other sleep symptoms, sleep disruptors, restless legs syndrome) showed Cronbach α, Spearman-Brown coefficients and intercorrelations ≥ 0.700, suggesting robust internal consistency, correlation, and agreement between language versions. The Epworth correlated significantly with snoring, apnea, sleep symptoms, restless legs, and sleep disruptors) on both versions, supporting convergent validity. Items loaded on 4 factors accounted for 68% and 67% of the variance on the English and Spanish versions, respectively. Conclusions: The Spanish-language Sleep Habits Questionnaire demonstrates conceptual and content equivalency. It has appropriate measurement properties and should be useful for assessing sleep health in community-based clinics and intervention studies among Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans. Both language versions showed readability at the fifth grade level. Further testing is needed with larger samples. Citation: Baldwin CM; Choi M; McClain DB; Celaya A; Quan SF. Spanish translation and cross-language validation of a Sleep Habits Questionnaire for use in clinical and research settings. J Clin Sleep Med 2012;8(2):137-146. PMID:22505858

Assessing Mild Cognitive Impairment among Older African Americans

PubMed Central

Gamaldo, Alyssa A.; Allaire, Jason C.; Sims, Regina C.; Whitfield, Keith E.

2009-01-01

OBJECTIVES To examine the frequency of MCI in African American older adults. The study also plans to explore the specific cognitive domains of impairment as well as whether there are differences in demographics, health, and cognitive performance between MCI and normal participants. DESIGN Cross-sectional. SETTING Independent-living sample of urban dwelling elders in Baltimore, Maryland. PARTICIPANTS The sample consisted of 554 subjects ranging in age from 50 to 95 (mean = 68.79 ± 9.60). MEASUREMENTS Socio-demographics and health were assessed. Several cognitive measures were administered to assess inductive reasoning, declarative memory, perceptual speed, working memory, executive functioning, language, global cognitive functioning. RESULTS Approximately 22% of participants were considered MCI (i.e. 18% non-amnestic vs. 4% amnestic). A majority of the non-amnestic MCI participants had impairment in one cognitive domain, particularly language and executive function. Individuals classified as non-amnestic MCI were significantly older and had more years of education than normal individuals. The MCI groups were not significantly different than cognitively normal individuals on health factors. Individuals classified as MCI performed significantly worse on global cognitive measures as well as across specific cognitive domains than cognitively normal individuals. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that impairment in a non-memory domain may be an early indicator of cognitive impairment, particularly among African Americans. PMID:20069588

Describing the trajectory of language development in the presence of severe-to-profound hearing loss: a closer look at children with cochlear implants versus hearing aids.

PubMed

Yoshinaga-Itano, Christine; Baca, Rosalinda L; Sedey, Allison L

2010-10-01

The objective of this investigation was to describe the language growth of children with severe or profound hearing loss with cochlear implants versus those children with the same degree of hearing loss using hearing aids. A prospective longitudinal observation and analysis. University of Colorado Department of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences. There were 87 children with severe-to-profound hearing loss from 48 to 87 months of age. All children received early intervention services through the Colorado Home Intervention Program. Most children received intervention services from a certified auditory-verbal therapist or an auditory-oral therapist and weekly sign language instruction from an instructor who was deaf or hard of hearing and native or fluent in American Sign Language. The Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language, 3rd Edition, and the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test, 3rd Edition, were the assessment tools for children 4 to 7 years of age. The expressive language subscale of the Minnesota Child Development was used in the infant/toddler period (birth to 36 mo). Average language estimates at 84 months of age were nearly identical to the normative sample for receptive language and 7 months delayed for expressive vocabulary. Children demonstrated a mean rate of growth from 4 years through 7 years on these 2 assessments that was equivalent to their normal-hearing peers. As a group, children with hearing aids deviated more from the age equivalent trajectory on the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language, 3rd Edition, and the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test, 3rd Edition, than children with cochlear implants. When a subset of children were divided into performance categories, we found that children with cochlear implants were more likely to be "gap closers" and less likely to be "gap openers," whereas the reverse was true for the children with hearing aids for both measures. Children who are educated through oral-aural combined with sign language instruction can achieve age-appropriate language levels on expressive vocabulary and receptive syntax ages 4 through 7 years. However, it is easier to maintain a constant rate of development rather than to accelerate from birth through 84 months of age, which represented approximately 80% of our sample. However, acceleration of language development is possible in some children and could result from cochlear implantation.

Reduced Left Lateralization of Language in Congenitally Blind Individuals.

PubMed

Lane, Connor; Kanjlia, Shipra; Richardson, Hilary; Fulton, Anne; Omaki, Akira; Bedny, Marina

2017-01-01

Language processing depends on a left-lateralized network of frontotemporal cortical regions. This network is remarkably consistent across individuals and cultures. However, there is also evidence that developmental factors, such as delayed exposure to language, can modify this network. Recently, it has been found that, in congenitally blind individuals, the typical frontotemporal language network expands to include parts of "visual" cortices. Here, we report that blindness is also associated with reduced left lateralization in frontotemporal language areas. We analyzed fMRI data from two samples of congenitally blind adults (n = 19 and n = 13) and one sample of congenitally blind children (n = 20). Laterality indices were computed for sentence comprehension relative to three different control conditions: solving math equations (Experiment 1), a memory task with nonwords (Experiment 2), and a "does this come next?" task with music (Experiment 3). Across experiments and participant samples, the frontotemporal language network was less left-lateralized in congenitally blind than in sighted individuals. Reduction in left lateralization was not related to Braille reading ability or amount of occipital plasticity. Notably, we observed a positive correlation between the lateralization of frontotemporal cortex and that of language-responsive occipital areas in blind individuals. Blind individuals with right-lateralized language responses in frontotemporal cortices also had right-lateralized occipital responses to language. Together, these results reveal a modified neurobiology of language in blindness. Our findings suggest that, despite its usual consistency across people, the neurobiology of language can be modified by nonlinguistic experiences.

Foreign Language Anxiety of Students Studying English Language and Literature: A Sample from Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elaldi, Senel

2016-01-01

A considerable number of foreign language learners experience a feeling of anxiety in language learning process. The purpose of this research was to find out foreign language anxiety levels of students studying in the Faculty of English Language and Literature at Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey when they were in preparatory class and when…

XML: A Language To Manage the World Wide Web. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis-Tanous, Jennifer R.

This digest provides an overview of XML (Extensible Markup Language), a markup language used to construct World Wide Web pages. Topics addressed include: (1) definition of a markup language, including comparison of XML with SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) and HTML (HyperText Markup Language); (2) how XML works, including sample tags,…

The union of narrative and executive function: different but complementary

PubMed Central

Friend, Margaret; Bates, Raven Phoenix

2014-01-01

Oral narrative production develops dramatically from 3 to 5 years of age, and is a key factor in a child's ability to communicate about the world. Concomitant with this are developments in executive function (EF). For example, executive attention and behavioral inhibition show marked development beginning around 4 years of age. Both EF and oral narrative abilities have important implications for academic success, but the relationship between them is not well understood. The present paper utilizes a cross-lagged design to assess convergent and predictive relations between EF and narrative ability. As a collateral measure, we collected a Language Sample during 10 min of free play. Language Sample did not share significant variance with Narrative Production, thus general language growth from Wave 1 to Wave 2 cannot account for the predictive relations between EF and Narrative. Our findings suggest that although EF and Narrative ability appear independent at each Wave, they nevertheless support each other over developmental time. Specifically, the ability to maintain focus at 4 years supports subsequent narrative ability and narrative ability at 4 years supports subsequent facility and speed in learning and implementing new rules. PMID:24872811

Expressive and receptive language in Prader-Willi syndrome: report on genetic subtype differences.

PubMed

Dimitropoulos, Anastasia; Ferranti, Angela; Lemler, Maria

2013-01-01

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), most recognized for the hallmark hyperphagia and food preoccupations, is caused by the absence of expression of the paternally active genes in the q11-13 region of chromosome 15. Since the recognition of PWS as a genetic disorder, most research has focused primarily on the medical, genetic, and behavioral aspects of the syndrome. Extensive research has not been conducted on the cognitive, speech, and language abilities in PWS. In addition, language differences with regard to genetic mechanism of PWS have not been well investigated. To date, research indicates overall language ability is markedly below chronological age with expressive language more impaired than receptive language in people with PWS. Thus, the aim of the present study was to further characterize expressive and receptive language ability in 35 participants with PWS and compare functioning by genetic subtype using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4 (CELF-IV). Results indicate that core language ability is significantly impaired in PWS and both expressive and receptive abilities are significantly lower than verbal intelligence. In addition, participants with the maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD) genetic subtype exhibit discrepant language functioning with higher expressive vs. receptive language abilities. Future research is needed to further examine language functioning in larger genetic subtype participant samples using additional descriptive measures. Further work should also delineate findings with respect to size of the paternal deletion (Type 1 and Type 2 deletions) and explore how overexpression of maternally expressed genes in the 15q11-13 region may relate to verbal ability. After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) summarize primary characteristics of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), (2) describe differentiating characteristics for the PWS genetic subtypes, (3) recall limited research regarding language functioning in PWS to date, (4) summarize potential genetic variations of language ability in Prader-Willi syndrome, and (5) summarize language ability in PWS with respect to adaptive functioning. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Grammatical Deviations in the Spoken and Written Language of Hebrew-Speaking Children With Hearing Impairments.

PubMed

Tur-Kaspa, Hana; Dromi, Esther

2001-04-01

The present study reports a detailed analysis of written and spoken language samples of Hebrew-speaking children aged 11-13 years who are deaf. It focuses on the description of various grammatical deviations in the two modalities. Participants were 13 students with hearing impairments (HI) attending special classrooms integrated into two elementary schools in Tel Aviv, Israel, and 9 students with normal hearing (NH) in regular classes in these same schools. Spoken and written language samples were collected from all participants using the same five preplanned elicitation probes. Students with HI were found to display significantly more grammatical deviations than their NH peers in both their spoken and written language samples. Most importantly, between-modality differences were noted. The participants with HI exhibited significantly more grammatical deviations in their written language samples than in their spoken samples. However, the distribution of grammatical deviations across categories was similar in the two modalities. The most common grammatical deviations in order of their frequency were failure to supply obligatory morphological markers, failure to mark grammatical agreement, and the omission of a major syntactic constituent in a sentence. Word order violations were rarely recorded in the Hebrew samples. Performance differences in the two modalities encourage clinicians and teachers to facilitate target linguistic forms in diverse communication contexts. Furthermore, the identification of linguistic targets for intervention must be based on the unique grammatical structure of the target language.

Pronominal Reference Skills of Second and Fourth Grade Children with Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finestack, Lizbeth H.; Fey, Marc E.; Catts, Hugh W.

2006-01-01

Pronominal referencing was evaluated in a sample of 569 children comprising four diagnostic subgroups: typical language (TL), specific language impairment (SLI), nonspecific language impairment (NLI), and typical language with low nonverbal IQ (LNIQ). Participants generated oral narratives in second grade and again in fourth grade. The narratives…

Usage-Based Language: Investigating the Latent Structures That Underpin Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Nick C.; O'Donnell, Matthew Brook; Romer, Ute

2013-01-01

Each of us as language learners had different language experiences, yet somehow we have converged upon broadly the same language system. From diverse, often noisy samples, we have attained similar linguistic competence. How so? What mechanisms channel language acquisition? Could our linguistic commonalities possibly have converged from our shared…

Narratives in Two Languages: Storytelling of Bilingual Cantonese-English Preschoolers.

PubMed

Rezzonico, Stefano; Goldberg, Ahuva; Mak, Katy Ka-Yan; Yap, Stephanie; Milburn, Trelani; Belletti, Adriana; Girolametto, Luigi

2016-06-01

The aim of this study was to compare narratives generated by 4-year-old and 5-year-old children who were bilingual in English and Cantonese. The sample included 47 children (23 who were 4 years old and 24 who were 5 years old) living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who spoke both Cantonese and English. The participants spoke and heard predominantly Cantonese in the home. Participants generated a story in English and Cantonese by using a wordless picture book; language order was counterbalanced. Data were transcribed and coded for story grammar, morphosyntactic quality, mean length of utterance in words, and the number of different words. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed higher story grammar scores in English than in Cantonese, but no other significant main effects of language were observed. Analyses also revealed that older children had higher story grammar, mean length of utterance in words, and morphosyntactic quality scores than younger children in both languages. Hierarchical regressions indicated that Cantonese story grammar predicted English story grammar and Cantonese microstructure predicted English microstructure. However, no correlation was observed between Cantonese and English morphosyntactic quality. The results of this study have implications for speech-language pathologists who collect narratives in Cantonese and English from bilingual preschoolers. The results suggest that there is a possible transfer in narrative abilities between the two languages.

Severity of specific language impairment predicts delayed development in number skills

PubMed Central

Durkin, Kevin; Mok, Pearl L. H.; Conti-Ramsden, Gina

2013-01-01

The extent to which mathematical development is dependent upon language is controversial. This longitudinal study investigates the role of language ability in children's development of number skills. Participants were 229 children with specific language impairment (SLI) who were assessed initially at age 7 and again 1 year later. All participants completed measures of psycholinguistic development (expressive and receptive), performance IQ, and the Basic Number Skills subtest of the British Ability Scales. Number skills data for this sample were compared with normative population data. Consistent with predictions that language impairment would impact on numerical development, average standard scores were more than 1 SD below the population mean at both ages. Although the children showed improvements in raw scores at the second wave of the study, the discrepancy between their scores and the population data nonetheless increased over time. Regression analyses showed that, after controlling for the effect of PIQ, language skills explained an additional 19 and 17% of the variance in number skills for ages 7 and 8, respectively. Furthermore, logistic regression analyses revealed that less improvement in the child's language ability over the course of the year was associated with a greater odds of a drop in performance in basic number skills from 7 to 8 years. The results are discussed in relation to the interaction of linguistic and cognitive factors in numerical development and the implications for mathematical education. PMID:24027548

A failure of left temporal cortex to specialize for language is an early emerging and fundamental property of autism

PubMed Central

Pierce, Karen; Courchesne, Eric

2012-01-01

Failure to develop normal language comprehension is an early warning sign of autism, but the neural mechanisms underlying this signature deficit are unknown. This is because of an almost complete absence of functional studies of the autistic brain during early development. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we previously observed a trend for abnormally lateralized temporal responses to language (i.e. greater activation on the right, rather than the expected left) in a small sample (n = 12) of sleeping 2–3 year olds with autism in contrast to typically developing children, a finding also reported in autistic adults and adolescents. It was unclear, however, if findings of atypical laterality would be observed in a larger sample, and at even earlier ages in autism, such as around the first birthday. Answers to these questions would provide the foundation for understanding how neurofunctional defects of autism unfold, and provide a foundation for studies using patterns of brain activation as a functional early biomarker of autism. To begin to examine these issues, a prospective, cross-sectional design was used in which brain activity was measured in a large sample of toddlers (n = 80) during the presentation of a bedtime story during natural sleep. Forty toddlers with autism spectrum disorder and 40 typically developing toddlers ranging in age between 12–48 months participated. Any toddler with autism who participated in the imaging experiment prior to final diagnosis was tracked and diagnoses confirmed at a later age. Results indicated that at-risk toddlers later diagnosed as autistic display deficient left hemisphere response to speech sounds and have abnormally right-lateralized temporal cortex response to language; this defect worsens with age, becoming most severe in autistic 3- and 4-year-olds. Typically developing children show opposite developmental trends with a tendency towards greater temporal cortex response with increasing age and maintenance of left-lateralized activation with age. We have now demonstrated lateralized abnormalities of temporal cortex processing of language in autism across two separate samples, including a large sample of young infants who later are diagnosed with autism, suggesting that this pattern may reflect a fundamental early neural developmental pathology in autism. PMID:22350062

Interfacing of high temperature Z-meter setup using python

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patel, Ashutosh; Sisodia, Shashank; Pandey, Sudhir K.

2017-05-01

In this work, we interface high temperature Z-meter setup to automize the whole measurement process. A program is built on open source programming language `Python' which convert the manual measurement process into fully automated process without any cost addition. Using this program, simultaneous measurement of Seebeck coefficient (α), thermal conductivity (κ) and electrical resistivity (ρ), are performed and using all three, figure-of-merit (ZT) is calculated. Developed program is verified by performing measurement over p-type Bi0.36Sb1.45Te3 sample and the data obtained are found to be in good agreement with the reported data.

Development and validation of the Australian version of the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R).

PubMed

Jefford, Elaine; Hollins Martin, Caroline J; Martin, Colin R

2018-02-01

The 10-item Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) has recently been endorsed by international expert consensus for global use as the birth satisfaction outcome measure of choice. English-language versions of the tool include validated UK and US versions; however, the instrument has not, to date, been contextualised and validated in an Australian English-language version. The current investigation sought to develop and validate an English-language version of the tool for use within the Australian context. A two-stage study. Following review and modification by expert panel, the Australian BSS-R (A-BSS-R) was (Stage 1) evaluated for factor structure, internal consistency, known-groups discriminant validity and divergent validity. Stage 2 directly compared the A-BSS-R data set with the original UK data set to determine the invariance characteristics of the new instrument. Participants were a purposive sample of Australian postnatal women (n = 198). The A-BSS-R offered a good fit to data consistent with the BSS-R tridimensional measurement model and was found to be conceptually and measurement equivalent to the UK version. The A-BSS-R demonstrated excellent known-groups discriminant validity, generally good divergent validity and overall good internal consistency. The A-BSS-R represents a robust and valid measure of the birth satisfaction concept suitable for use within Australia and appropriate for application to International comparative studies.

A new self-report inventory of dyslexia for students: criterion and construct validity.

PubMed

Tamboer, Peter; Vorst, Harrie C M

2015-02-01

The validity of a Dutch self-report inventory of dyslexia was ascertained in two samples of students. Six biographical questions, 20 general language statements and 56 specific language statements were based on dyslexia as a multi-dimensional deficit. Dyslexia and non-dyslexia were assessed with two criteria: identification with test results (Sample 1) and classification using biographical information (both samples). Using discriminant analyses, these criteria were predicted with various groups of statements. All together, 11 discriminant functions were used to estimate classification accuracy of the inventory. In Sample 1, 15 statements predicted the test criterion with classification accuracy of 98%, and 18 statements predicted the biographical criterion with classification accuracy of 97%. In Sample 2, 16 statements predicted the biographical criterion with classification accuracy of 94%. Estimations of positive and negative predictive value were 89% and 99%. Items of various discriminant functions were factor analysed to find characteristic difficulties of students with dyslexia, resulting in a five-factor structure in Sample 1 and a four-factor structure in Sample 2. Answer bias was investigated with measures of internal consistency reliability. Less than 20 self-report items are sufficient to accurately classify students with and without dyslexia. This supports the usefulness of self-assessment of dyslexia as a valid alternative to diagnostic test batteries. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Measurement invariance of neuropsychological tests in diverse older persons.

PubMed

Mungas, Dan; Widaman, Keith F; Reed, Bruce R; Tomaszewski Farias, Sarah

2011-03-01

Comparability of meaning of neuropsychological test results across ethnic, linguistic, and cultural groups is important for clinicians challenged with assessing increasing numbers of older ethnic minorities. We examined the dimensional structure of a neuropsychological test battery in linguistically and demographically diverse older adults. The Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales (SENAS), developed to provide psychometrically sound measures of cognition for multiethnic and multilingual applications, was administered to a community dwelling sample of 760 Whites, 443 African Americans, 451 English-speaking Hispanics, and 882 Spanish-speaking Hispanics. Cognitive function spanned a broad range from normal to mildly impaired to demented. Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine equivalence of the dimensional structure for the SENAS across the groups defined by language and ethnicity. Covariance among 16 SENAS tests was best explained by five cognitive dimensions corresponding to episodic memory, semantic memory/language, spatial ability, attention/working memory, and verbal fluency. Multiple Group confirmatory factor analysis supported a common dimensional structure in the diverse groups. Measures of episodic memory showed the most compelling evidence of measurement equivalence across groups. Measurement equivalence was observed for most but not all measures of semantic memory/language and spatial ability. Measures of attention/working memory defined a common dimension in the different groups, but results suggest that scores are not strictly comparable across groups. These results support the applicability of the SENAS for use with multiethnic and bilingual older adults, and more broadly, provide evidence of similar dimensions of cognition in the groups represented in the study. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved

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

Using the preschool language scale, fourth edition to characterize language in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Volden, Joanne; Smith, Isabel M; Szatmari, Peter; Bryson, Susan; Fombonne, Eric; Mirenda, Pat; Roberts, Wendy; Vaillancourt, Tracy; Waddell, Charlotte; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie; Georgiades, Stelios; Duku, Eric; Thompson, Ann

2011-08-01

The Preschool Language Scale, Fourth Edition (PLS-4; Zimmerman, Steiner, & Pond, 2002) was used to examine syntactic and semantic language skills in preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to determine its suitability for use with this population. We expected that PLS-4 performance would be better in more intellectually able children and that receptive skills would be relatively more impaired than expressive abilities, consistent with previous findings in the area of vocabulary. Our sample consisted of 294 newly diagnosed preschool children with ASD. Children were assessed via a battery of developmental measures, including the PLS-4. As expected, PLS-4 scores were higher in more intellectually able children with ASD, and overall, expressive communication was higher than auditory comprehension. However, this overall advantage was not stable across nonverbal developmental levels. Expressive skills were significantly better than receptive skills at the youngest developmental levels, whereas the converse applied in children with more advanced development. The PLS-4 can be used to obtain a general index of early syntax and semantic skill in young children with ASD. Longitudinal data will be necessary to determine how the developmental relationship between receptive and expressive language skills unfolds in children with ASD.

A weighted reliability measure for phonetic transcription.

PubMed

Oller, D Kimbrough; Ramsdell, Heather L

2006-12-01

The purpose of the present work is to describe and illustrate the utility of a new tool for assessment of transcription agreement. Traditional measures have not characterized overall transcription agreement with sufficient resolution, specifically because they have often treated all phonetic differences between segments in transcriptions as equivalent, thus constituting an unweighted approach to agreement assessment. The measure the authors have developed calculates a weighted transcription agreement value based on principles derived from widely accepted tenets of phonological theory. To investigate the utility of the new measure, 8 coders transcribed samples of speech and infant vocalizations. Comparing the transcriptions through a computer-based implementation of the new weighted and the traditional unweighted measures, they investigated the scaling properties of both. The results illustrate better scaling with the weighted measure, in particular because the weighted measure is not subject to the floor effects that occur with the traditional measure when applied to samples that are difficult to transcribe. Furthermore, the new weighted measure shows orderly relations in degree of agreement across coded samples of early canonical-stage babbling, early meaningful speech in English, and 3 adult languages. The authors conclude that the weighted measure may provide improved foundations for research on phonetic transcription and for monitoring of transcription reliability.

Different Dimensions of Cognitive Style in Typical and Atypical Cognition: New Evidence and a New Measurement Tool.

PubMed

Mealor, Andy D; Simner, Julia; Rothen, Nicolas; Carmichael, Duncan A; Ward, Jamie

2016-01-01

We developed the Sussex Cognitive Styles Questionnaire (SCSQ) to investigate visual and verbal processing preferences and incorporate global/local processing orientations and systemising into a single, comprehensive measure. In Study 1 (N = 1542), factor analysis revealed six reliable subscales to the final 60 item questionnaire: Imagery Ability (relating to the use of visual mental imagery in everyday life); Technical/Spatial (relating to spatial mental imagery, and numerical and technical cognition); Language & Word Forms; Need for Organisation; Global Bias; and Systemising Tendency. Thus, we replicate previous findings that visual and verbal styles are separable, and that types of imagery can be subdivided. We extend previous research by showing that spatial imagery clusters with other abstract cognitive skills, and demonstrate that global/local bias can be separated from systemising. Study 2 validated the Technical/Spatial and Language & Word Forms factors by showing that they affect performance on memory tasks. In Study 3, we validated Imagery Ability, Technical/Spatial, Language & Word Forms, Global Bias, and Systemising Tendency by issuing the SCSQ to a sample of synaesthetes (N = 121) who report atypical cognitive profiles on these subscales. Thus, the SCSQ consolidates research from traditionally disparate areas of cognitive science into a comprehensive cognitive style measure, which can be used in the general population, and special populations.

Different Dimensions of Cognitive Style in Typical and Atypical Cognition: New Evidence and a New Measurement Tool

PubMed Central

Mealor, Andy D.; Simner, Julia; Rothen, Nicolas; Carmichael, Duncan A.; Ward, Jamie

2016-01-01

We developed the Sussex Cognitive Styles Questionnaire (SCSQ) to investigate visual and verbal processing preferences and incorporate global/local processing orientations and systemising into a single, comprehensive measure. In Study 1 (N = 1542), factor analysis revealed six reliable subscales to the final 60 item questionnaire: Imagery Ability (relating to the use of visual mental imagery in everyday life); Technical/Spatial (relating to spatial mental imagery, and numerical and technical cognition); Language & Word Forms; Need for Organisation; Global Bias; and Systemising Tendency. Thus, we replicate previous findings that visual and verbal styles are separable, and that types of imagery can be subdivided. We extend previous research by showing that spatial imagery clusters with other abstract cognitive skills, and demonstrate that global/local bias can be separated from systemising. Study 2 validated the Technical/Spatial and Language & Word Forms factors by showing that they affect performance on memory tasks. In Study 3, we validated Imagery Ability, Technical/Spatial, Language & Word Forms, Global Bias, and Systemising Tendency by issuing the SCSQ to a sample of synaesthetes (N = 121) who report atypical cognitive profiles on these subscales. Thus, the SCSQ consolidates research from traditionally disparate areas of cognitive science into a comprehensive cognitive style measure, which can be used in the general population, and special populations. PMID:27191169

Gesture, Play, and Language Development of Spanish-Speaking Toddlers with Developmental Language Disorders: A Preliminary Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guiberson, Mark

2016-01-01

The purpose of this preliminary study was to (a) examine relationships between the symbolic and language skills of a mixed (developmental language disordered [DLD] and typical language [TL]) Spanish-speaking sample; (b) describe gesture, play, and language skills of DLD and TL groups; (c) compare the development between groups; and (d) explore…

The Prevalence of Speech and Language Disorders in French-Speaking Preschool Children From Yaoundé (Cameroon).

PubMed

Tchoungui Oyono, Lilly; Pascoe, Michelle; Singh, Shajila

2018-05-17

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of speech and language disorders in French-speaking preschool-age children in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon. A total of 460 participants aged 3-5 years were recruited from the 7 communes of Yaoundé using a 2-stage cluster sampling method. Speech and language assessment was undertaken using a standardized speech and language test, the Evaluation du Langage Oral (Khomsi, 2001), which was purposefully renormed on the sample. A predetermined cutoff of 2 SDs below the normative mean was applied to identify articulation, expressive language, and receptive language disorders. Fluency and voice disorders were identified using clinical judgment by a speech-language pathologist. Overall prevalence was calculated as follows: speech disorders, 14.7%; language disorders, 4.3%; and speech and language disorders, 17.1%. In terms of disorders, prevalence findings were as follows: articulation disorders, 3.6%; expressive language disorders, 1.3%; receptive language disorders, 3%; fluency disorders, 8.4%; and voice disorders, 3.6%. Prevalence figures are higher than those reported for other countries and emphasize the urgent need to develop speech and language services for the Cameroonian population.

Low literacy self-care management patient education for a multi-lingual heart failure population: Results of a pilot study.

PubMed

Dickson, Victoria Vaughan; Chyun, Deborah; Caridi, Cristina; Gregory, Jill K; Katz, Stuart

2016-02-01

The purpose of this pilot study was to test the impact of language-free, low literacy self-care management patient education materials in an ethnically diverse multilingual heart failure (HF) population. A one group pre-test-post-test design measured changes in self-care, knowledge and health-related quality of life (HRQL) after a 1 month intervention using language-free, low literacy self-care management patient education materials and delivered by a health educator. The ethnically diverse sample (n=21) was predominately male (72%), 48% Black, 42% Hispanic, and 28% marginal/inadequate literacy. There were significant improvements in self-care and knowledge but not HRQL. Language-free, low literacy self-care patient education may facilitate improved self-care and knowledge in diverse populations who are at risk for poor HF outcomes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Combining Voxel-based Lesion-symptom Mapping (VLSM) With A-tDCS Language Treatment: Predicting Outcome of Recovery in Nonfluent Chronic Aphasia.

PubMed

Campana, Serena; Caltagirone, Carlo; Marangolo, Paola

2015-01-01

Most of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) studies in aphasia have already shown that significant changes in language performance could be improved by increased monitoring of the perilesional cortex in the left lesioned hemisphere with excitatory anodal tDCS (A-tDCS). However, no report to date has investigated which areas may be less predictable or may play a major role in the recovery from language impairment after brain stimulation. We investigated the relationship between the localization of damage in the left hemisphere and the amount of language recovery after A-tDCS. We conducted a Voxel-lesion mapping-symptom (VLSM) analysis on twenty non-fluent aphasics who underwent a language treatment in concomitance with left A-tDCS delivered over the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and a sham condition. Significant changes in language performance before and after the two conditions were examined in three language tasks (picture description, noun and verb naming). VLSM analysis revealed that damage to distinct left hemispheric structures and, in particular, to the basal ganglia, the insula and the superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi, resulted in lower responses to A-tDCS in all language measures. Beneficial effects after A-tDCS over the left IFG depend on the anatomical integrity of different left subcortical structures among which are the white matter language pathways. Future studies combining different approaches on larger samples of subjects will further elucidate our understanding of how the human brain responds to tDCS. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Le Jeu des Colis--An Exercise in Foreign Language Communication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Barry

1979-01-01

Teacher prepared taped exchanges of realia between foreign language classes and classes of speakers of the target language provide language lessons through personal contact similar to those gained through a trip to the country of the target language. Sample lessons offer linguistic, cultural, and practical guidelines for implementing such a…

Language screening in preschool Chinese children.

PubMed

Wong, V; Lee, P W; Lieh-Mak, F; Yeung, C Y; Leung, P W; Luk, S L; Yiu, E

1992-01-01

The incidence of language delay in Chinese preschool children was studied by a stratified proportional sampling of all 3 year olds in Hong Kong. The Developmental Language Screening Scale (DLSS) devised for use with Cantonese speaking children was used to identify children with language delay. Of 855 children sampled in the stage I screening procedure, 4%, 2.8% and 3.3% were identified as having delay in verbal comprehension, expression or both respectively. The stage II clinical diagnostic study included a randomly selected group of children screened in stage I with or without any associated behavioural problem. Among these, 3.4% were identified as having a language delay using the Reynell Language Developmental Scale (RDLS) with a criterion of language age of less than or equal to two-thirds of the chronological age; 3% had specific language delay using the criteria of language age less than or equal to two-thirds the chronological age and developmental age more than or equal to two-thirds the chronological age. More boys were found to have language delay, although this was not statistically significant.

Concurrent and Construct Validity of Oral Language Measures with School-Age Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, LaVae M.; Loeb, Diane Frome; Brandel, Jayne; Gillam, Ronald B.

2011-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated the psychometric properties of 2 oral language measures that are commonly used for diagnostic purposes with school-age children who have language impairments. Method: Two hundred sixteen children with specific language impairment were assessed with the Test of Language Development--Primary, Third Edition (TOLD-P:3;…

Indonesian Sign Language Number Recognition using SIFT Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahfudi, Isa; Sarosa, Moechammad; Andrie Asmara, Rosa; Azrino Gustalika, M.

2018-04-01

Indonesian sign language (ISL) is generally used for deaf individuals and poor people communication in communicating. They use sign language as their primary language which consists of 2 types of action: sign and finger spelling. However, not all people understand their sign language so that this becomes a problem for them to communicate with normal people. this problem also becomes a factor they are isolated feel from the social life. It needs a solution that can help them to be able to interacting with normal people. Many research that offers a variety of methods in solving the problem of sign language recognition based on image processing. SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform) algorithm is one of the methods that can be used to identify an object. SIFT is claimed very resistant to scaling, rotation, illumination and noise. Using SIFT algorithm for Indonesian sign language recognition number result rate recognition to 82% with the use of a total of 100 samples image dataset consisting 50 sample for training data and 50 sample images for testing data. Change threshold value get affect the result of the recognition. The best value threshold is 0.45 with rate recognition of 94%.

Early Histories of School-Aged Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loe, Irene M.; Balestrino, Maria D.; Phelps, Randall A.; Kurs-Lasky, Marcia; Chaves-Gnecco, Diego; Paradise, Jack L.; Feldman, Heidi M.

2008-01-01

In a prospective study of developmental outcomes in relation to early-life otitis media, behavioral, cognitive, and language measures were administered to a large, diverse sample of children at 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9-11 years of age (N = 741). At 9-11 years of age, 9% of the children were categorized as having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder…

Stability of Language in Childhood: A Multi-Age, -Domain, -Measure, and -Source Study

PubMed Central

Bornstein, Marc H.; Putnick, Diane L.

2011-01-01

The stability of language across childhood is traditionally assessed by exploring longitudinal relations between individual language measures. However, language encompasses many domains and varies with different sources (child speech, parental report, experimenter assessment). This study evaluated individual variation in multiple age-appropriate measures of child language derived from multiple sources and stability between their latent variables in 192 young children across more than 2 years. Structural equation modeling demonstrated the loading of multiple measures of child language from different sources on single latent variables of language at ages 20 and 48 months. A large stability coefficient (r = .84) obtained between the 2 language latent variables. This stability obtained even when accounting for family socioeconomic status, maternal verbal intelligence, education, speech, and tendency to respond in a socially desirable fashion, and child social competence. Stability was also equivalent for children in diverse childcare situations and for girls and boys. Across age, from the beginning of language acquisition to just before school entry, aggregating multiple age-appropriate methods and measures at each age and multiple reporters, children show strong stability of individual differences in general language development. PMID:22004343

The Issues in the Measurement of Bilingual Language Dominance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeh, Mary C. L.

This paper deals with measurement of language dominance at the early-childhood level using a rating scale to help bilingual programs with student classification and placement. Some of the assumptions unique in the measurement of language dominance are discussed and applied to the validation procedure on a Spanish/English language dominance scale…

Oral literacy demand of preventive dental visits in a pediatric medical office: a pilot study.

PubMed

Kranz, Ashley M; Pahel, Bhavna T; Rozier, R Gary

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the oral literacy demands placed on parents of young children during preventive dental visits in a pediatric medical office. Transcripts of audio recordings for 15 pediatric medical visits were analyzed to assess the oral literacy demand of the visit, as measured by use of terminology, language complexity, and structural characteristics of the dialogue. Parent-completed surveys were used to determine recall of dental concepts discussed during the visit. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to identify relationships among these measures and parental recall of the visit. Visits were interactive and used limited jargon and uncomplicated language. Oral literacy demand measures were associated with each other. Parental recall of the visit was associated with measures of high oral literacy demand. Assessing measures of oral literacy demand is a novel method for examining provider communication used during preventive dental visits in a pediatric medical office. Providers displayed low oral literacy demand when communicating with parents. Parental recall of dental concepts, however, was associated unexpectedly with higher oral literacy demand. Further research should examine a larger sample size and the effect of measures of oral literacy demand among low- and high-literacy patients.

American Sign Language Syntax and Analogical Reasoning Skills Are Influenced by Early Acquisition and Age of Entry to Signing Schools for the Deaf

PubMed Central

Henner, Jon; Caldwell-Harris, Catherine L.; Novogrodsky, Rama; Hoffmeister, Robert

2016-01-01

Failing to acquire language in early childhood because of language deprivation is a rare and exceptional event, except in one population. Deaf children who grow up without access to indirect language through listening, speech-reading, or sign language experience language deprivation. Studies of Deaf adults have revealed that late acquisition of sign language is associated with lasting deficits. However, much remains unknown about language deprivation in Deaf children, allowing myths and misunderstandings regarding sign language to flourish. To fill this gap, we examined signing ability in a large naturalistic sample of Deaf children attending schools for the Deaf where American Sign Language (ASL) is used by peers and teachers. Ability in ASL was measured using a syntactic judgment test and language-based analogical reasoning test, which are two sub-tests of the ASL Assessment Inventory. The influence of two age-related variables were examined: whether or not ASL was acquired from birth in the home from one or more Deaf parents, and the age of entry to the school for the Deaf. Note that for non-native signers, this latter variable is often the age of first systematic exposure to ASL. Both of these types of age-dependent language experiences influenced subsequent signing ability. Scores on the two tasks declined with increasing age of school entry. The influence of age of starting school was not linear. Test scores were generally lower for Deaf children who entered the school of assessment after the age of 12. The positive influence of signing from birth was found for students at all ages tested (7;6–18;5 years old) and for children of all age-of-entry groupings. Our results reflect a continuum of outcomes which show that experience with language is a continuous variable that is sensitive to maturational age. PMID:28082932

American Sign Language Syntax and Analogical Reasoning Skills Are Influenced by Early Acquisition and Age of Entry to Signing Schools for the Deaf.

PubMed

Henner, Jon; Caldwell-Harris, Catherine L; Novogrodsky, Rama; Hoffmeister, Robert

2016-01-01

Failing to acquire language in early childhood because of language deprivation is a rare and exceptional event, except in one population. Deaf children who grow up without access to indirect language through listening, speech-reading, or sign language experience language deprivation. Studies of Deaf adults have revealed that late acquisition of sign language is associated with lasting deficits. However, much remains unknown about language deprivation in Deaf children, allowing myths and misunderstandings regarding sign language to flourish. To fill this gap, we examined signing ability in a large naturalistic sample of Deaf children attending schools for the Deaf where American Sign Language (ASL) is used by peers and teachers. Ability in ASL was measured using a syntactic judgment test and language-based analogical reasoning test, which are two sub-tests of the ASL Assessment Inventory. The influence of two age-related variables were examined: whether or not ASL was acquired from birth in the home from one or more Deaf parents, and the age of entry to the school for the Deaf. Note that for non-native signers, this latter variable is often the age of first systematic exposure to ASL. Both of these types of age-dependent language experiences influenced subsequent signing ability. Scores on the two tasks declined with increasing age of school entry. The influence of age of starting school was not linear. Test scores were generally lower for Deaf children who entered the school of assessment after the age of 12. The positive influence of signing from birth was found for students at all ages tested (7;6-18;5 years old) and for children of all age-of-entry groupings. Our results reflect a continuum of outcomes which show that experience with language is a continuous variable that is sensitive to maturational age.

Understanding the Role of Academic Language on Conceptual Understanding in an Introductory Materials Science and Engineering Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelly, Jacquelyn

Students may use the technical engineering terms without knowing what these words mean. This creates a language barrier in engineering that influences student learning. Previous research has been conducted to characterize the difference between colloquial and scientific language. Since this research had not yet been applied explicitly to engineering, conclusions from the area of science education were used instead. Various researchers outlined strategies for helping students acquire scientific language. However, few examined and quantified the relationship it had on student learning. A systemic functional linguistics framework was adopted for this dissertation which is a framework that has not previously been used in engineering education research. This study investigated how engineering language proficiency influenced conceptual understanding of introductory materials science and engineering concepts. To answer the research questions about engineering language proficiency, a convenience sample of forty-one undergraduate students in an introductory materials science and engineering course was used. All data collected was integrated with the course. Measures included the Materials Concept Inventory, a written engineering design task, and group observations. Both systemic functional linguistics and mental models frameworks were utilized to interpret data and guide analysis. A series of regression analyses were conducted to determine if engineering language proficiency predicts group engineering term use, if conceptual understanding predicts group engineering term use, and if conceptual understanding predicts engineering language proficiency. Engineering academic language proficiency was found to be strongly linked to conceptual understanding in the context of introductory materials engineering courses. As the semester progressed, this relationship became even stronger. The more engineering concepts students are expected to learn, the more important it is that they are proficient in engineering language. However, exposure to engineering terms did not influence engineering language proficiency. These results stress the importance of engineering language proficiency for learning, but warn that simply exposing students to engineering terms does not promote engineering language proficiency.

Client Predictors of Short-term Psychotherapy Outcomes among Asian and White American Outpatients

PubMed Central

Kim, Jin E.; Zane, Nolan W.; Blozis, Shelley A.

2015-01-01

Purpose To examine predictors of psychotherapy outcomes, focusing on client characteristics that are especially salient for culturally diverse clients. Method Sixty clients (31 women; 27 White Americans, 33 Asian Americans) participated in this treatment study. Client characteristics were measured at pre-treatment, and outcomes were measured post-fourth session via therapist ratings of functioning and symptomatology. Regression analyses were utilized to test for predictors of outcomes, and bootstrap analyses were utilized to test for mediators. Results Higher levels of somatic symptoms predicted lower psychosocial functioning at post-treatment. Avoidant coping style predicted more negative symptoms and more psychological discomfort. Non-English language preference predicted worse outcomes; this effect was mediated by an avoidant coping style. Conclusions Language preference, avoidant coping style, and somatic symptoms predicted treatment outcome in a culturally diverse sample. Findings suggest that race/ethnicity-related variables may function through mediating proximal variables to affect outcomes. PMID:22836681

Quality of Work: Validation of a New Instrument in Three Languages

PubMed Central

Steffgen, Georges; Kohl, Diane; Reese, Gerhard; Happ, Christian; Sischka, Philipp

2015-01-01

Introduction and objective: A new instrument to measure quality of work was developed in three languages (German, French and Luxembourgish) and validated in a study of employees working in Luxembourg. Methods and results: A representative sample (n = 1529) was taken and exploratory factor analysis revealed a six-factor solution for the 21-item instrument (satisfaction and respect, mobbing, mental strain at work, cooperation, communication and feedback, and appraisal). Reliability analysis showed satisfying reliability for all six factors and the total questionnaire. In order to examine the construct validity of the new instrument, regression analyses were conducted to test whether the instrument predicted work characteristics’ influence on three components of well-being—burnout, psychological stress and maladaptive coping behaviors. Conclusion: The present validation offers a trilingual inventory for measuring quality of work that may be used, for example, as an assessment tool or for testing the effectiveness of interventions. PMID:26703634

Quality of Work: Validation of a New Instrument in Three Languages.

PubMed

Steffgen, Georges; Kohl, Diane; Reese, Gerhard; Happ, Christian; Sischka, Philipp

2015-11-26

A new instrument to measure quality of work was developed in three languages (German, French and Luxembourgish) and validated in a study of employees working in Luxembourg. A representative sample (n = 1529) was taken and exploratory factor analysis revealed a six-factor solution for the 21-item instrument (satisfaction and respect, mobbing, mental strain at work, cooperation, communication and feedback, and appraisal). Reliability analysis showed satisfying reliability for all six factors and the total questionnaire. In order to examine the construct validity of the new instrument, regression analyses were conducted to test whether the instrument predicted work characteristics’ influence on three components of well-being -- burnout, psychological stress and maladaptive coping behaviors. The present validation offers a trilingual inventory for measuring quality of work that may be used, for example, as an assessment tool or for testing the effectiveness of interventions.

The contribution of theory of mind, counterfactual reasoning, and executive function to pre-readers' language comprehension and later reading awareness and comprehension in elementary school.

PubMed

Guajardo, Nicole R; Cartwright, Kelly B

2016-04-01

The current longitudinal study examined the roles of theory of mind, counterfactual reasoning, and executive function in children's pre-reading skills, reading awareness, and reading comprehension. It is the first to examine this set of variables with preschool and school-aged children. A sample of 31 children completed language comprehension, working memory, cognitive flexibility, first-order false belief, and counterfactual reasoning measures when they were 3 to 5 years of age and completed second-order false belief, cognitive flexibility, reading comprehension, and reading awareness measures at 6 to 9 years of age. Results indicated that false belief understanding contributed to phrase and sentence comprehension and reading awareness, whereas cognitive flexibility and counterfactual reasoning accounted for unique variance in reading comprehension. Implications of the results for the development of reading skill are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Article 7: Measures of digit span and verbal rehearsal speed in deaf children following more than 10 years of cochlear implantation

PubMed Central

Pisoni, David; Kronenberger, William; Roman, Adrienne; Geers, Ann

2011-01-01

Precis This paper reports results on the development of immediate memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed in 112 children with more than ten years of CI use. We found less than half of the sample showed increases in both forward and backward digit spans suggesting disturbances in basic mechanisms related to storage or rehearsal of verbal information. Both spans and verbal rehearsal speeds in elementary school were found to be correlated with speech and language outcomes in high school. These developmental results provide new insights in the elementary neurocognitive information processes associated with high variability in speech and language outcomes. PMID:21832890

Predicting neuropsychological test performance on the basis of temporal orientation.

PubMed

Ryan, Joseph J; Glass, Laura A; Bartels, Jared M; Bergner, CariAnn M; Paolo, Anthony M

2009-05-01

Temporal orientation is often disrupted in the context of psychiatric or neurological disease; tests assessing this function are included in most mental status examinations. The present study examined the relationship between scores on the Temporal Orientation Scale (TOS) and performance on a battery of tests that assess memory, language, and cognitive functioning in a sample of patients with Alzheimer's disease (N = 55). Pearson-product moment correlations showed that, in all but two instances, the TOS was significantly correlated with each neuropsychological measure, p values < or = .05. Also, severely disoriented (i.e., TOS score < or = -8) patients were consistently 'impaired' on memory tests but not on tests of language and general cognitive functioning.

Early Postimplant Speech Perception and Language Skills Predict Long-Term Language and Neurocognitive Outcomes Following Pediatric Cochlear Implantation

PubMed Central

Kronenberger, William G.; Castellanos, Irina; Pisoni, David B.

2017-01-01

Purpose We sought to determine whether speech perception and language skills measured early after cochlear implantation in children who are deaf, and early postimplant growth in speech perception and language skills, predict long-term speech perception, language, and neurocognitive outcomes. Method Thirty-six long-term users of cochlear implants, implanted at an average age of 3.4 years, completed measures of speech perception, language, and executive functioning an average of 14.4 years postimplantation. Speech perception and language skills measured in the 1st and 2nd years postimplantation and open-set word recognition measured in the 3rd and 4th years postimplantation were obtained from a research database in order to assess predictive relations with long-term outcomes. Results Speech perception and language skills at 6 and 18 months postimplantation were correlated with long-term outcomes for language, verbal working memory, and parent-reported executive functioning. Open-set word recognition was correlated with early speech perception and language skills and long-term speech perception and language outcomes. Hierarchical regressions showed that early speech perception and language skills at 6 months postimplantation and growth in these skills from 6 to 18 months both accounted for substantial variance in long-term outcomes for language and verbal working memory that was not explained by conventional demographic and hearing factors. Conclusion Speech perception and language skills measured very early postimplantation, and early postimplant growth in speech perception and language, may be clinically relevant markers of long-term language and neurocognitive outcomes in users of cochlear implants. Supplemental materials https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5216200 PMID:28724130

Observational studies of patients in the emergency department: a comparison of 4 sampling methods.

PubMed

Valley, Morgan A; Heard, Kennon J; Ginde, Adit A; Lezotte, Dennis C; Lowenstein, Steven R

2012-08-01

We evaluate the ability of 4 sampling methods to generate representative samples of the emergency department (ED) population. We analyzed the electronic records of 21,662 consecutive patient visits at an urban, academic ED. From this population, we simulated different models of study recruitment in the ED by using 2 sample sizes (n=200 and n=400) and 4 sampling methods: true random, random 4-hour time blocks by exact sample size, random 4-hour time blocks by a predetermined number of blocks, and convenience or "business hours." For each method and sample size, we obtained 1,000 samples from the population. Using χ(2) tests, we measured the number of statistically significant differences between the sample and the population for 8 variables (age, sex, race/ethnicity, language, triage acuity, arrival mode, disposition, and payer source). Then, for each variable, method, and sample size, we compared the proportion of the 1,000 samples that differed from the overall ED population to the expected proportion (5%). Only the true random samples represented the population with respect to sex, race/ethnicity, triage acuity, mode of arrival, language, and payer source in at least 95% of the samples. Patient samples obtained using random 4-hour time blocks and business hours sampling systematically differed from the overall ED patient population for several important demographic and clinical variables. However, the magnitude of these differences was not large. Common sampling strategies selected for ED-based studies may affect parameter estimates for several representative population variables. However, the potential for bias for these variables appears small. Copyright © 2012. Published by Mosby, Inc.

The Home Language Environment of Monolingual and Bilingual Children and Their Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheele, Anna F.; Leseman, Paul P. M.; Mayo, Aziza Y.

2010-01-01

This study investigated the relationships between home language learning activities and vocabulary in a sample of monolingual native Dutch (n = 58) and bilingual immigrant Moroccan-Dutch (n = 46) and Turkish-Dutch (n = 55) 3-year-olds, speaking Tarifit-Berber, a nonscripted language, and Turkish as their first language (L1), respectively. Despite…

The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners' Beliefs about Language Learning and Their Use of Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azar, Fereshteh Khaffafi; Saeidi, Mahnaz

2013-01-01

The present study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' learning strategies use and their language learning beliefs. A sample of 200 Iranian EFL learners who were all English language learners at different language institutes participated in this study. Two instruments, Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) and…

The Use of Self-Modeling To Train Expressive Language Skills with Preschool Children with Language Delays.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buggey, Tom

In this investigation, a case study approach was used with two preschool children with language delays to determine whether videotaped self-modeling (VSM) intervention would influence their expressive language development. Language samples of both children were videotaped and then edited to leave only the best examples of the target language…

The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners' Beliefs about Language Learning and Language Learning Strategy Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zarei, Abbas Ali; Rahmani, Hanieh

2015-01-01

The present study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' beliefs about language learning and language learning strategy use. A sample of 104 B.A and M.A Iranian EFL learners majoring in English participated in this study. Three instruments, the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), Beliefs about Language…

Comparison of Oral Language Usage among English Language Learners Diagnosed with a Learning Disability and Those in General Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pray, Lisa

2009-01-01

The investigator compared the linguistic characteristics of Spanish and English language samples taken from English language learners (ELLs) diagnosed with an academic learning disability (LD) and ELLs in general education to determine if the errors and characteristics of their language use differ. There was a statistically significant difference…

Language, the Learner and the School. Penguin Papers in Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Douglas

This book is concerned with language as it is used by the teacher, as it affects the learner, and as it can function to integrate the curriculum. Douglas Barnes, in "Language in the Secondary Classroom," discusses the student-teacher language interaction in 12 sample lessons, and analyzes the importance upon student learning of the languages used…

Lexical Acquisition over Time in Minority First Language Children Learning English as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Golberg, Heather; Paradis, Johanne; Crago, Martha

2008-01-01

The English second language development of 19 children (mean age at outset = 5 years, 4 months) from various first language backgrounds was examined every 6 months for 2 years, using spontaneous language sampling, parental questionnaires, and a standardized receptive vocabulary test. Results showed that the children's mean mental age equivalency…

Teaching Language-Deviant Children to Generalize Newly Taught Language: A Socio-Ecological Approach. Volume I. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schiefelbusch, R. L.; Rogers-Warren, Ann

The report examines longitudinal research on language generalization in natural environments of 32 severely retarded, moderately retarded, and mildly language delayed preschool children. All Ss received language training on one of two programs and Ss' speech samples in a natural environment were collected and analyzed for evidence of…

The Correlation among EFL Learners' Test Anxiety, Foreign Language Anxiety and Language Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cakici, Dilek

2016-01-01

The main aim of this study was to investigate the correlation among test anxiety (TA), foreign language anxiety (FLA) and language achievement of university preparatory students learning English as a foreign language. The sample of the research consisted of 301 (211 females, 90 males) attending a one-year EFL preparatory school at Ondokuz Mayis…

Trends in Sexual Orientation Missing Data Over a Decade of the California Health Interview Survey

PubMed Central

Viana, Joseph; Grant, David; Cochran, Susan D.; Lee, Annie C.; Ponce, Ninez A.

2015-01-01

Objectives. We explored changes in sexual orientation question item completion in a large statewide health survey. Methods. We used 2003 to 2011 California Health Interview Survey data to investigate sexual orientation item nonresponse and sexual minority self-identification trends in a cross-sectional sample representing the noninstitutionalized California household population aged 18 to 70 years (n = 182 812 adults). Results. Asians, Hispanics, limited-English-proficient respondents, and those interviewed in non-English languages showed the greatest declines in sexual orientation item nonresponse. Asian women, regardless of English-proficiency status, had the highest odds of item nonresponse. Spanish interviews produced more nonresponse than English interviews and Asian-language interviews produced less nonresponse when we controlled for demographic factors and survey cycle. Sexual minority self-identification increased in concert with the item nonresponse decline. Conclusions. Sexual orientation nonresponse declines and the increase in sexual minority identification suggest greater acceptability of sexual orientation assessment in surveys. Item nonresponse rate convergence among races/ethnicities, language proficiency groups, and interview languages shows that sexual orientation can be measured in surveys of diverse populations. PMID:25790399

Parenting and later substance use among Mexican-origin youth: Moderation by preference for a common language.

PubMed

Schofield, Thomas J; Toro, Rosa I; Parke, Ross D; Cookston, Jeffrey T; Fabricius, William V; Coltrane, Scott

2017-04-01

The primary goal of the current study was to test whether parent and adolescent preference for a common language moderates the association between parenting and rank-order change over time in offspring substance use. A sample of Mexican-origin 7th-grade adolescents (Mage = 12.5 years, N = 194, 52% female) was measured longitudinally on use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. Mothers, fathers, and adolescents all reported on consistent discipline and monitoring of adolescents. Both consistent discipline and monitoring predicted relative decreases in substance use into early adulthood but only among parent-offspring dyads who expressed preference for the same language (either English or Spanish). This moderation held after controlling for parent substance use, family structure, having completed schooling in Mexico, years lived in the United States, family income, and cultural values. An unintended consequence of the immigration process may be the loss of parenting effectiveness that is normally present when parents and adolescents prefer to communicate in a common language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Differential item functioning of the patient-reported outcomes information system (PROMIS®) pain interference item bank by language (Spanish versus English).

PubMed

Paz, Sylvia H; Spritzer, Karen L; Reise, Steven P; Hays, Ron D

2017-06-01

About 70% of Latinos, 5 years old or older, in the United States speak Spanish at home. Measurement equivalence of the PROMIS ® pain interference (PI) item bank by language of administration (English versus Spanish) has not been evaluated. A sample of 527 adult Spanish-speaking Latinos completed the Spanish version of the 41-item PROMIS ® pain interference item bank. We evaluate dimensionality, monotonicity and local independence of the Spanish-language items. Then we evaluate differential item functioning (DIF) using ordinal logistic regression with item response theory scores estimated from DIF-free "anchor" items. One of the 41 items in the Spanish version of the PROMIS ® PI item bank was identified as having significant uniform DIF. English- and Spanish-speaking subjects with the same level of pain interference responded differently to 1 of the 41 items in the PROMIS ® PI item bank. This item was not retained due to proprietary issues. The original English language item parameters can be used when estimating PROMIS ® PI scores.

Development and validation of an item response theory-based Social Responsiveness Scale short form.

PubMed

Sturm, Alexandra; Kuhfeld, Megan; Kasari, Connie; McCracken, James T

2017-09-01

Research and practice in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) rely on quantitative measures, such as the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), for characterization and diagnosis. Like many ASD diagnostic measures, SRS scores are influenced by factors unrelated to ASD core features. This study further interrogates the psychometric properties of the SRS using item response theory (IRT), and demonstrates a strategy to create a psychometrically sound short form by applying IRT results. Social Responsiveness Scale analyses were conducted on a large sample (N = 21,426) of youth from four ASD databases. Items were subjected to item factor analyses and evaluation of item bias by gender, age, expressive language level, behavior problems, and nonverbal IQ. Item selection based on item psychometric properties, DIF analyses, and substantive validity produced a reduced item SRS short form that was unidimensional in structure, highly reliable (α = .96), and free of gender, age, expressive language, behavior problems, and nonverbal IQ influence. The short form also showed strong relationships with established measures of autism symptom severity (ADOS, ADI-R, Vineland). Degree of association between all measures varied as a function of expressive language. Results identified specific SRS items that are more vulnerable to non-ASD-related traits. The resultant 16-item SRS short form may possess superior psychometric properties compared to the original scale and emerge as a more precise measure of ASD core symptom severity, facilitating research and practice. Future research using IRT is needed to further refine existing measures of autism symptomatology. © 2017 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Measurement Invariance of the Short Version of the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ-SV) across Eight Languages.

PubMed

Lopez-Fernandez, Olatz; Kuss, Daria J; Pontes, Halley M; Griffiths, Mark D; Dawes, Christopher; Justice, Lucy V; Männikkö, Niko; Kääriäinen, Maria; Rumpf, Hans-Jürgen; Bischof, Anja; Gässler, Ann-Kathrin; Romo, Lucia; Kern, Laurence; Morvan, Yannick; Rousseau, Amélie; Graziani, Pierluigi; Demetrovics, Zsolt; Király, Orsolya; Schimmenti, Adriano; Passanisi, Alessia; Lelonek-Kuleta, Bernadeta; Chwaszcz, Joanna; Chóliz, Mariano; Zacarés, Juan José; Serra, Emilia; Dufour, Magali; Rochat, Lucien; Zullino, Daniele; Achab, Sophia; Landrø, Nils Inge; Suryani, Eva; Hormes, Julia M; Terashima, Javier Ponce; Billieux, Joël

2018-06-08

The prevalence of mobile phone use across the world has increased greatly over the past two decades. Problematic Mobile Phone Use (PMPU) has been studied in relation to public health and comprises various behaviours, including dangerous, prohibited, and dependent use. These types of problematic mobile phone behaviours are typically assessed with the short version of the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ⁻SV). However, to date, no study has ever examined the degree to which the PMPU scale assesses the same construct across different languages. The aims of the present study were to (i) determine an optimal factor structure for the PMPUQ⁻SV among university populations using eight versions of the scale (i.e., French, German, Hungarian, English, Finnish, Italian, Polish, and Spanish); and (ii) simultaneously examine the measurement invariance (MI) of the PMPUQ⁻SV across all languages. The whole study sample comprised 3038 participants. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and Cronbach's alpha coefficients were extracted from the demographic and PMPUQ-SV items. Individual and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses alongside MI analyses were conducted. Results showed a similar pattern of PMPU across the translated scales. A three-factor model of the PMPUQ-SV fitted the data well and presented with good psychometric properties. Six languages were validated independently, and five were compared via measurement invariance for future cross-cultural comparisons. The present paper contributes to the assessment of problematic mobile phone use because it is the first study to provide a cross-cultural psychometric analysis of the PMPUQ-SV.

Efficacy of a reading and language intervention for children with Down syndrome: a randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

Burgoyne, Kelly; Duff, Fiona J; Clarke, Paula J; Buckley, Sue; Snowling, Margaret J; Hulme, Charles

2012-01-01

Background This study evaluates the effects of a language and literacy intervention for children with Down syndrome. Methods Teaching assistants (TAs) were trained to deliver a reading and language intervention to children in individual daily 40-min sessions. We used a waiting list control design, in which half the sample received the intervention immediately, whereas the remaining children received the treatment after a 20-week delay. Fifty-seven children with Down syndrome in mainstream primary schools in two UK locations (Yorkshire and Hampshire) were randomly allocated to intervention (40 weeks of intervention) and waiting control (20 weeks of intervention) groups. Assessments were conducted at three time points: pre-intervention, after 20 weeks of intervention, and after 40 weeks of intervention. Results After 20 weeks of intervention, the intervention group showed significantly greater progress than the waiting control group on measures of single word reading, letter-sound knowledge, phoneme blending and taught expressive vocabulary. Effects did not transfer to other skills (nonword reading, spelling, standardised expressive and receptive vocabulary, expressive information and grammar). After 40 weeks of intervention, the intervention group remained numerically ahead of the control group on most key outcome measures; but these differences were not significant. Children who were younger, attended more intervention sessions, and had better initial receptive language skills made greater progress during the course of the intervention. Conclusions A TA-delivered intervention produced improvements in the reading and language skills of children with Down syndrome. Gains were largest in skills directly taught with little evidence of generalization to skills not directly taught in the intervention. PMID:22533801

Automated identification of patients with pulmonary nodules in an integrated health system using administrative health plan data, radiology reports, and natural language processing.

PubMed

Danforth, Kim N; Early, Megan I; Ngan, Sharon; Kosco, Anne E; Zheng, Chengyi; Gould, Michael K

2012-08-01

Lung nodules are commonly encountered in clinical practice, yet little is known about their management in community settings. An automated method for identifying patients with lung nodules would greatly facilitate research in this area. Using members of a large, community-based health plan from 2006 to 2010, we developed a method to identify patients with lung nodules, by combining five diagnostic codes, four procedural codes, and a natural language processing algorithm that performed free text searches of radiology transcripts. An experienced pulmonologist reviewed a random sample of 116 radiology transcripts, providing a reference standard for the natural language processing algorithm. With the use of an automated method, we identified 7112 unique members as having one or more incident lung nodules. The mean age of the patients was 65 years (standard deviation 14 years). There were slightly more women (54%) than men, and Hispanics and non-whites comprised 45% of the lung nodule cohort. Thirty-six percent were never smokers whereas 11% were current smokers. Fourteen percent of the patients were subsequently diagnosed with lung cancer. The sensitivity and specificity of the natural language processing algorithm for identifying the presence of lung nodules were 96% and 86%, respectively, compared with clinician review. Among the true positive transcripts in the validation sample, only 35% were solitary and unaccompanied by one or more associated findings, and 56% measured 8 to 30 mm in diameter. A combination of diagnostic codes, procedural codes, and a natural language processing algorithm for free text searching of radiology reports can accurately and efficiently identify patients with incident lung nodules, many of whom are subsequently diagnosed with lung cancer.

The Influence of Linguistic Proficiency on Masked Text Recognition Performance in Adults With and Without Congenital Hearing Impairment.

PubMed

Huysmans, Elke; Bolk, Elske; Zekveld, Adriana A; Festen, Joost M; de Groot, Annette M B; Goverts, S Theo

2016-01-01

The authors first examined the influence of moderate to severe congenital hearing impairment (CHI) on the correctness of samples of elicited spoken language. Then, the authors used this measure as an indicator of linguistic proficiency and examined its effect on performance in language reception, independent of bottom-up auditory processing. In groups of adults with normal hearing (NH, n = 22), acquired hearing impairment (AHI, n = 22), and moderate to severe CHI (n = 21), the authors assessed linguistic proficiency by analyzing the morphosyntactic correctness of their spoken language production. Language reception skills were examined with a task for masked sentence recognition in the visual domain (text), at a readability level of 50%, using grammatically correct sentences and sentences with distorted morphosyntactic cues. The actual performance on the tasks was compared between groups. Adults with CHI made more morphosyntactic errors in spoken language production than adults with NH, while no differences were observed between the AHI and NH group. This outcome pattern sustained when comparisons were restricted to subgroups of AHI and CHI adults, matched for current auditory speech reception abilities. The data yielded no differences between groups in performance in masked text recognition of grammatically correct sentences in a test condition in which subjects could fully take advantage of their linguistic knowledge. Also, no difference between groups was found in the sensitivity to morphosyntactic distortions when processing short masked sentences, presented visually. These data showed that problems with the correct use of specific morphosyntactic knowledge in spoken language production are a long-term effect of moderate to severe CHI, independent of current auditory processing abilities. However, moderate to severe CHI generally does not impede performance in masked language reception in the visual modality, as measured in this study with short, degraded sentences. Aspects of linguistic proficiency that are affected by CHI thus do not seem to play a role in masked sentence recognition in the visual modality.

Caregiver Talk to Young Spanish-English Bilinguals: Comparing Direct Observation and Parent-Report Measures of Dual-Language Exposure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marchman, Virginia A.; Martínez, Lucía Z.; Hurtado, Nereyda; Grüter, Theres; Fernald, Anne

2017-01-01

In research on language development by bilingual children, the early language environment is commonly characterized in terms of the relative amount of exposure a child gets to each language based on parent report. Little is known about how absolute measures of child-directed speech in two languages relate to language growth. In this study of…

The African Language Program at Michigan State University.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dwyer, David

1979-01-01

Describes the African language program at Michigan State University, which provides (1) supervised, individualized instruction for high-demand languages, on two levels; (2) regular classroom instruction for Swahili and Hausa; and (3) non-credit, self-instructional programs for low-demand languages. Sample forms are appended. (AM)

Effects of Embedded and Direct Language Strategies on Prekindergarten Students' Cognitive and Social Emotional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dominy, Matthew L.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study is to measure the effect of a standard of care embedded language strategies program utilized in combination with direct language strategy instruction on the measured expressive language, cognitive development, social emotional development, and language development of prekindergarten students attending three neighborhood…

The Role of Language and Private Speech in Preschoolers' Self-Regulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bono, Katherine E.; Bizri, Rana

2014-01-01

The present study explored relations among language skills, private speech, and self-regulation in three- to five-year-old children. Language skills were assessed with a standardised measure of language ability and by teacher reports of adaptive use of language in the classroom. Private speech was measured by observing children during a…

Using Trialogues to Measure English Language Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

So, Youngsoon; Zapata-Rivera, Diego; Cho, Yeonsuk; Luce, Christine; Battistini, Laura

2015-01-01

We explored the use of technology-assisted, trialogue-based tasks to measure the English language proficiency of students learning English as a second or foreign language. A presumed benefit of the system for language assessment is its suitability for use in scenario-based tasks that integrate multiple language skills. This integration allows test…

Links that speak: the global language network and its association with global fame.

PubMed

Ronen, Shahar; Gonçalves, Bruno; Hu, Kevin Z; Vespignani, Alessandro; Pinker, Steven; Hidalgo, César A

2014-12-30

Languages vary enormously in global importance because of historical, demographic, political, and technological forces. However, beyond simple measures of population and economic power, there has been no rigorous quantitative way to define the global influence of languages. Here we use the structure of the networks connecting multilingual speakers and translated texts, as expressed in book translations, multiple language editions of Wikipedia, and Twitter, to provide a concept of language importance that goes beyond simple economic or demographic measures. We find that the structure of these three global language networks (GLNs) is centered on English as a global hub and around a handful of intermediate hub languages, which include Spanish, German, French, Russian, Portuguese, and Chinese. We validate the measure of a language's centrality in the three GLNs by showing that it exhibits a strong correlation with two independent measures of the number of famous people born in the countries associated with that language. These results suggest that the position of a language in the GLN contributes to the visibility of its speakers and the global popularity of the cultural content they produce.

Predictive validity of the classroom strategies scale-observer form on statewide testing scores: an initial investigation.

PubMed

Reddy, Linda A; Fabiano, Gregory A; Dudek, Christopher M; Hsu, Louis

2013-12-01

The present study examined the validity of a teacher observation measure, the Classroom Strategies Scale--Observer Form (CSS), as a predictor of student performance on statewide tests of mathematics and English language arts. The CSS is a teacher practice observational measure that assesses evidence-based instructional and behavioral management practices in elementary school. A series of two-level hierarchical generalized linear models were fitted to data of a sample of 662 third- through fifth-grade students to assess whether CSS Part 2 Instructional Strategy and Behavioral Management Strategy scale discrepancy scores (i.e., ∑ |recommended frequency--frequency ratings|) predicted statewide mathematics and English language arts proficiency scores when percentage of minority students in schools was controlled. Results indicated that the Instructional Strategy scale discrepancy scores significantly predicted mathematics and English language arts proficiency scores: Relatively larger discrepancies on observer ratings of what teachers did versus what should have been done were associated with lower proficiency scores. Results offer initial evidence of the predictive validity of the CSS Part 2 Instructional Strategy discrepancy scores on student academic outcomes. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Grammatical morphology in school-age children with and without language impairment: a discriminant function analysis.

PubMed

Moyle, Maura Jones; Karasinski, Courtney; Ellis Weismer, Susan; Gorman, Brenda K

2011-10-01

The purpose of this study was to test Bedore and Leonard's (1998) proposal that a verb morpheme composite may hold promise as a clinical marker for specific language impairment (SLI) in English speakers and serve as an accurate basis for the classification of children with and without SLI beyond the preschool level. The language transcripts of 50 school-age children with SLI (M(age) = 7;9 [years;months]) and 50 age-matched typically developing peers (M(age) = 7;9) were analyzed. Following the Bedore and Leonard (1998) procedure, 3 variables were measured: a finite verb morpheme composite, a noun morpheme composite, and mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLU(m)). Overall findings indicated that neither grammatical morpheme composite alone adequately discriminated the groups at this developmental level. However, combining the verb and noun grammatical morpheme composite measures with MLU(m) resulted in good discriminant accuracy in classifying subgroups of the youngest children with and without SLI in the school-age sample. Verb morphology alone is not a useful clinical marker of SLI in school-age children. Potential explanations for these findings and ideas for future research are discussed.

Discrimination of the Language Behavior of College- and Middle-Aged Encoders.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

And Others; Gorcyca, Diane Atkinson

1979-01-01

Language samples of college- and middle-aged respondents were analyzed to determine if the language use of college students is appropriate for generalizations to other elements of the population. (PD)

Textbook presentations of weight: Conceptual difficulties and language ambiguities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taibu, Rex; Rudge, David; Schuster, David

2015-06-01

The term "weight" has multiple related meanings in both scientific and everyday usage. Even among experts and in textbooks, weight is ambiguously defined as either the gravitational force on an object or operationally as the magnitude of the force an object exerts on a measuring scale. This poses both conceptual and language difficulties for learners, especially for accelerating objects where the scale reading is different from the gravitational force. But while the underlying physical constructs behind the two referents for the term weight (and their relation to each other) are well understood scientifically, it is unclear how the concept of weight should be introduced to students and how the language ambiguities should be dealt with. We investigated treatments of weight in a sample of twenty introductory college physics textbooks, analyzing and coding their content based on the definition adopted, how the distinct constructs were dealt with in various situations, terminologies used, and whether and how language issues were handled. Results indicate that language-related issues, such as different, inconsistent, or ambiguous uses of the terms weight, "apparent weight," and "weightlessness," were prevalent both across and within textbooks. The physics of the related constructs was not always clearly presented, particularly for accelerating bodies such as astronauts in spaceships, and the language issue was rarely addressed. Our analysis of both literature and textbooks leads us to an instructional position which focuses on the physics constructs before introducing the term weight, and which explicitly discusses the associated language issues.

Common Genetic Variants in FOXP2 Are Not Associated with Individual Differences in Language Development.

PubMed

Mueller, Kathryn L; Murray, Jeffrey C; Michaelson, Jacob J; Christiansen, Morten H; Reilly, Sheena; Tomblin, J Bruce

2016-01-01

Much of our current knowledge regarding the association of FOXP2 with speech and language development comes from singleton and small family studies where a small number of rare variants have been identified. However, neither genome-wide nor gene-specific studies have provided evidence that common polymorphisms in the gene contribute to individual differences in language development in the general population. One explanation for this inconsistency is that previous studies have been limited to relatively small samples of individuals with low language abilities, using low density gene coverage. The current study examined the association between common variants in FOXP2 and a quantitative measure of language ability in a population-based cohort of European decent (n = 812). No significant associations were found for a panel of 13 SNPs that covered the coding region of FOXP2 and extended into the promoter region. Power analyses indicated we should have been able to detect a QTL variance of 0.02 for an associated allele with MAF of 0.2 or greater with 80% power. This suggests that, if a common variant associated with language ability in this gene does exist, it is likely of small effect. Our findings lead us to conclude that while genetic variants in FOXP2 may be significant for rare forms of language impairment, they do not contribute appreciably to individual variation in the normal range as found in the general population.

Modelling the Perceived Value of Compulsory English Language Education in Undergraduate Non-Language Majors of Japanese Nationality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rivers, Damian J.

2012-01-01

Adopting mixed methods of data collection and analysis, the current study models the "perceived value of compulsory English language education" in a sample of 138 undergraduate non-language majors of Japanese nationality at a national university in Japan. During the orientation period of a compulsory 15-week English language programme,…

English use among older bilingual immigrants in linguistically concentrated neighborhoods: Social proficiency and internal speech as intracultural variation

PubMed Central

Schrauf, Robert W.

2013-01-01

This research focuses on patterns of English proficiency and use-of-English among older immigrants living in linguistically concentrated, ethnic neighborhoods. A sample (n=60) of older Puerto Ricans, who moved from the island to the mainland in their twenties, were divided into English proficiency groups (fluent, high intermediate, low intermediate) via the Adult Language Assessment Scales. Participants then provided self-ratings of their English proficiency (understanding, speaking, reading, and writing), their use of English in social domains (language spoken with own-family, in-laws, spouse, children, neighbors, and workmates), and their use of English in private psychological domains (language of talking to oneself, counting, writing notes to oneself, thinking, dreaming, praying, and expressing feelings). Finally, all participants completed the Puerto Rican Bicultural Scale. Results show a cohort of immigrant elders whose first language is protected by their ethnic neighborhoods but whose domestic and private lives are increasingly permeated by English. In particular, children emerge as powerful forces of language socialization in English for their parents. Further, there are important individual differences by level of proficiency, with a lowest proficiency group that is less acculturated, lower in socioeconomic status, and even more linguistically isolated than groups with higher proficiency. In essence, level of second language proficiency is a potent source of intracultural variation. Methodologically, the paper makes the important point that self-rated patterns of language use are consistent with scores on formal measures of proficiency. The paper also provides empirical verification of the logic of dividing language use into external, social speech and internal, psychological speech. PMID:19184621

The Impact of Electronic Communication Technology on Written Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamzah, Mohd. Sahandri Gani B.; Ghorbani, Mohd. Reza; Abdullah, Saifuddin Kumar B.

2009-01-01

Communication technology is changing things. Language is no exception. Some language researchers argue that language is deteriorating due to increased use in electronic communication. The present paper investigated 100 randomly selected electronic mails (e-mails) and 50 short messaging system (SMS) messages of a representative sample of…

The relationship between information carrying words, memory and language skills in school age children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Frizelle, Pauline; Harte, Jennifer; O'Sullivan, Kathleen; Fletcher, Paul; Gibbon, Fiona

2017-01-01

The receptive language measure information-carrying word (ICW) level, is used extensively by speech and language therapists in the UK and Ireland. Despite this it has never been validated via its relationship to any other relevant measures. This study aims to validate the ICW measure by investigating the relationship between the receptive ICW score of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their performance on standardized memory and language assessments. Twenty-seven children with SLI, aged between 5;07 and 8;11, completed a sentence comprehension task in which the instructions gradually increased in number of ICWs. The children also completed subtests from The Working Memory Test Battery for children and The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals- 4. Results showed that there was a significant positive relationship between both language and memory measures and children's ICW score. While both receptive and expressive language were significant in their contribution to children's ICW score, the contribution of memory was solely determined by children's working memory ability. ICW score is in fact a valid measure of the language ability of children with SLI. However therapists should also be cognisant of its strong association with working memory when using this construct in assessment or intervention methods.

Formal verification of medical monitoring software using Z language: a representative sample.

PubMed

Babamir, Seyed Morteza; Borhani, Mehdi

2012-08-01

Medical monitoring systems are useful aids assisting physicians in keeping patients under constant surveillance; however, taking sound decision by the systems is a physician concern. As a result, verification of the systems behavior in monitoring patients is a matter of significant. The patient monitoring is undertaken by software in modern medical systems; so, software verification of modern medial systems have been noticed. Such verification can be achieved by the Formal Languages having mathematical foundations. Among others, the Z language is a suitable formal language has been used to formal verification of systems. This study aims to present a constructive method to verify a representative sample of a medical system by which the system is visually specified and formally verified against patient constraints stated in Z Language. Exploiting our past experience in formal modeling Continuous Infusion Insulin Pump (CIIP), we think of the CIIP system as a representative sample of medical systems in proposing our present study. The system is responsible for monitoring diabetic's blood sugar.

Knowledge Structure Measures of Reader's Situation Models across Languages: Translation Engenders Richer Structure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Kyung; Clariana, Roy B.

2015-01-01

In order to further validate and extend the application of recent knowledge structure (KS) measures to second language settings, this investigation explores how second language (L2, English) situation models are influenced by first language (L1, Korean) translation tasks. Fifty Korean low proficient English language learners were asked to read an…

The Quest for Fairness in Language Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karami, Hossein

2013-01-01

The search for fairness in language testing is distinct from other areas of educational measurement as the object of measurement, that is, language, is part of the identity of the test takers. So, a host of issues enter the scene when one starts to reflect on how to assess people's language abilities. As the quest for fairness in language testing…

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.

Safety and efficacy of rivastigmine in children with Down syndrome: A double blind placebo controlled trial.

PubMed

Spiridigliozzi, Gail A; Hart, Sarah J; Heller, James H; Schneider, Heather E; Baker, Jane Ann; Weadon, Cathleen; Capone, George T; Kishnani, Priya S

2016-06-01

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) have decreased cholinergic function and an uneven profile of cognitive abilities, with more pronounced deficits in learning, memory, and expressive language. Cholinesterase inhibitors may improve cognitive function in adults and adolescents with DS, but studies in children with DS have been limited. This study aimed to: (i) investigate the safety and efficacy of rivastigmine treatment; (ii) build upon our open-label studies in children with DS in a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial; and (iii) investigate specific cognitive domains that may respond to rivastigmine treatment. We conducted a 20-week double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of rivastigmine in 22 children and adolescents with DS aged 10-17 years. Safety measures included reports of adverse events, laboratory parameters, and electrocardiograms. Efficacy measures included parental assessments of adaptive behavior and executive function, and direct measures of language and memory. No group differences were found on safety measures and 22 of 24 participants that passed study screening completed the study. The results did not demonstrate evidence for significant improvement in aspects of cognition, language, or overall function in the children receiving rivastigmine. Our results suggest that rivastigmine is safe and well-tolerated for children and adolescents with DS, but may not be effective for improving performance on the selected measures in this study. However, larger samples and/or alternate measures could possibly reveal improvements in cognitive function with rivastigmine treatment. Further research is needed to define a battery of cognitive measures that is sensitive to treatment effects in DS. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Genetic Influences on Language, Reading, and Mathematics Skills in a National Sample: An Analysis Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hart, Sara A.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Kamp Dush, Claire M.

2010-01-01

Purpose: The present study had two purposes: provide an illustration of use of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Children's (CNLSY; U.S. Department of Labor, 2009) database and use the database to seek convergent evidence regarding the magnitude and significance of genetic effects influencing low and typical performers on measures of…

Chameleon Effects in Homework Research: The Homework-Achievement Association Depends on the Measures Used and the Level of Analysis Chosen

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trautwein, Ulrich; Schnyder, Inge; Niggli, Alois; Neumann, Marko; Ludtke, Oliver

2009-01-01

Using a data set specifically tailored to homework research, with a sample of 1275 students from 70 classes in Switzerland, the association between homework and achievement in French as a second language was tested at three levels (class level, between-student level, and within-student level). The strength and direction of the homework-achievement…

A Latent Variable Investigation of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening-Kindergarten Assessment: Construct Identification and Multigroup Comparisons between Spanish-Speaking English-Language Learners (ELLs) and Non-ELL Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Francis L.; Konold, Timothy R.

2014-01-01

Psychometric properties of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Kindergarten (PALS-K) instrument were investigated in a sample of 2844 first-time public school kindergarteners. PALS-K is a widely used English literacy screening assessment. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a theoretically defensible measurement structure that was…

Growth of finiteness in the third year of life: replication and predictive validity.

PubMed

Hadley, Pamela A; Rispoli, Matthew; Holt, Janet K; Fitzgerald, Colleen; Bahnsen, Alison

2014-06-01

The authors of this study investigated the validity of tense and agreement productivity (TAP) scoring in diverse sentence frames obtained during conversational language sampling as an alternative measure of finiteness for use with young children. Longitudinal language samples were used to model TAP growth from 21 to 30 months of age for 37 typically developing toddlers. Empirical Bayes (EB) linear and quadratic growth coefficients and child sex were then used to predict elicited grammar composite scores on the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (TEGI; Rice & Wexler, 2001) at 36 months. A random-effects quadratic model with no intercept best characterized TAP growth, replicating the findings of Rispoli, Hadley, and Holt (2009). The combined regression model was significant, with the 3 variables accounting for 55.5% of the variance in the TEGI composite scores. These findings establish TAP growth as a valid metric of finiteness in the 3rd year of life. Developmental and theoretical implications are discussed.

[A capillary blood flow velocity detection system based on linear array charge-coupled devices].

PubMed

Zhou, Houming; Wang, Ruofeng; Dang, Qi; Yang, Li; Wang, Xiang

2017-12-01

In order to detect the flow characteristics of blood samples in the capillary, this paper introduces a blood flow velocity measurement system based on field-programmable gate array (FPGA), linear charge-coupled devices (CCD) and personal computer (PC) software structure. Based on the analysis of the TCD1703C and AD9826 device data sheets, Verilog HDL hardware description language was used to design and simulate the driver. Image signal acquisition and the extraction of the real-time edge information of the blood sample were carried out synchronously in the FPGA. Then a series of discrete displacement were performed in a differential operation to scan each of the blood samples displacement, so that the sample flow rate could be obtained. Finally, the feasibility of the blood flow velocity detection system was verified by simulation and debugging. After drawing the flow velocity curve and analyzing the velocity characteristics, the significance of measuring blood flow velocity is analyzed. The results show that the measurement of the system is less time-consuming and less complex than other flow rate monitoring schemes.

Individualized Foreign Language Islands: Sample Materials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mountain View School District, CA.

Students at Mountain View High School, California, are participating in an experimental foreign language program which is based on individualized instruction within a modular schedule. This collection of sample materials which students and parents receive reflects the goals and requirements of the program. Materials include: (1) program…

Microcomputer Analysis of Children's Language Samples.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenkoetter, Sharon E.; Rice, Mabel L.

The workshop paper examines the use of microcomputer packages to analyze spontaneous language samples of children with communication disorders. Advantages of computerized analysis are seen to include time saving, more efficient data management, and increased objectivity. To help consumers determine which programs to buy, four aspects are…

The Measurement of Language Diversity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brougham, James

Accepting that language diversity is functionally related to other variables characterizing human societies, much discussion stems from the advantages or disadvantageous nature of language diversity in terms of national development and national unity. To discover ways of measuring language diversity would help, in part, to solve the language…

Links that speak: The global language network and its association with global fame

PubMed Central

Ronen, Shahar; Gonçalves, Bruno; Hu, Kevin Z.; Vespignani, Alessandro; Pinker, Steven; Hidalgo, César A.

2014-01-01

Languages vary enormously in global importance because of historical, demographic, political, and technological forces. However, beyond simple measures of population and economic power, there has been no rigorous quantitative way to define the global influence of languages. Here we use the structure of the networks connecting multilingual speakers and translated texts, as expressed in book translations, multiple language editions of Wikipedia, and Twitter, to provide a concept of language importance that goes beyond simple economic or demographic measures. We find that the structure of these three global language networks (GLNs) is centered on English as a global hub and around a handful of intermediate hub languages, which include Spanish, German, French, Russian, Portuguese, and Chinese. We validate the measure of a language’s centrality in the three GLNs by showing that it exhibits a strong correlation with two independent measures of the number of famous people born in the countries associated with that language. These results suggest that the position of a language in the GLN contributes to the visibility of its speakers and the global popularity of the cultural content they produce. PMID:25512502

The role of joint engagement in the development of language in a community-derived sample of slow-to-talk children.

PubMed

Conway, L J; Levickis, P A; Mensah, F; Smith, J A; Wake, M; Reilly, S

2018-06-21

We explored whether supported (SJE) or coordinated joint engagement (CJE) between mothers recruited from the community and their 24-month-old children who were slow-to-talk at 18 months old were associated with child language scores at ages 24, 36, and 48 months (n = 197). We further explored whether SJE or CJE modified the concurrent positive associations between maternal responsive behaviours and language scores. Previous research has shown that SJE, maternal expansions, imitations, and responsive questions were associated with better language scores. Our main finding was that SJE but not CJE was consistently positively associated with 24- and 36-month-old expressive and receptive language scores, but not with 48-month-old language scores. SJE modified how expansions and imitations, but not responsive questions, were associated with language scores; the associations were evident in all but the highest levels of SJE. Further research is necessary to test these findings in other samples before clinical recommendations can be made.

Procedures for Obtaining and Analyzing Writing Samples of School-Age Children and Adolescents.

PubMed

Price, Johanna R; Jackson, Sandra C

2015-10-01

Many students' writing skills are below grade-level expectations, and students with oral language difficulties are at particular risk for writing difficulties. Speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') expertise in language applies to both the oral and written modalities, yet evidence suggests that SLPs' confidence regarding writing assessment is low. Writing samples are a clinically useful, criterion-referenced assessment technique that is relevant to helping students satisfy writing-related requirements of the Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010a). This article provides recommendations for obtaining and analyzing students' writing samples. In this tutorial, the authors provide a comprehensive literature review of methods regarding (a) collection of writing samples from narrative, expository (informational/explanatory), and persuasive (argument) genres; (b) variables of writing performance that are useful to assess; and (c) manual and computer-aided techniques for analyzing writing samples. The authors relate their findings to expectations for writing skills expressed in the Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010a). SLPs can readily implement many techniques for obtaining and analyzing writing samples. The information in this article provides SLPs with recommendations for the use of writing samples and may help increase SLPs' confidence regarding written language assessment.

Early Adolescent Outcomes of Institutionally-Deprived and Non-Deprived Adoptees. II: Language as a Protective Factor and a Vulnerable Outcome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Croft, Carla; Beckett, Celia; Rutter, Michael; Castle, Jenny; Colvert, Emma; Groothues, Christine; Hawkins, Amanda; Kreppner, Jana; Stevens, Suzanne E.; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J. S.

2007-01-01

Background: There is uncertainty about the extent to which language skills are part of general intelligence and even more uncertainty on whether deprivation has differential effects on language and non-language skills. Methods: Language and cognitive outcomes at 6 and 11 years of age were compared between a sample of 132 institution-reared…

What Box: A task for assessing language lateralization in young children.

PubMed

Badcock, Nicholas A; Spooner, Rachael; Hofmann, Jessica; Flitton, Atlanta; Elliott, Scott; Kurylowicz, Lisa; Lavrencic, Louise M; Payne, Heather M; Holt, Georgina K; Holden, Anneka; Churches, Owen F; Kohler, Mark J; Keage, Hannah A D

2018-07-01

The assessment of active language lateralization in infants and toddlers is challenging. It requires an imaging tool that is unintimidating, quick to setup, and robust to movement, in addition to an engaging and cognitively simple language processing task. Functional Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound (fTCD) offers a suitable technique and here we report on a suitable method to elicit active language production in young children. The 34-second "What Box" trial presents an animated face "searching" for an object. The face "finds" a box that opens to reveal a to-be-labelled object. In a sample of 95 children (1 to 5 years of age), 81% completed the task-32% with ≥10 trials. The task was validated (ρ = 0.4) against the gold standard Word Generation task in a group of older adults (n = 65, 60-85 years of age), though was less likely to categorize lateralization as left or right, indicative of greater measurement variability. Existing methods for active language production have been used with 2-year-old children while passive listening has been conducted with sleeping 6-month-olds. This is the first active method to be successfully employed with infants through to pre-schoolers, forming a useful tool for populations in which complex instructions are problematic.

A family-centred model of care in paediatric speech-language pathology.

PubMed

McKean, Kate; Phillips, Bev; Thompson, Acushla

2012-06-01

Developments in paediatric models of care support family-centred practice (FCP); however, there is limited evidence for its use in speech-language pathology. This randomized controlled study examined whether parent satisfaction with FCP (n = 10) was greater than with usual practice (UP; n = 10) over 14 weeks for children with mild-moderate speech and/or language disorders. The FCP included parental goal decision-making; greater parent responsibility for clinic therapy tasks; and two home visits. There was a non-significant trend for the FCP group to have a higher mean score for the "Providing specific information" scale of the Measures of Process of Care. Goals for the FCP and UP groups were respectively targeted towards the Activities and Participation or the Body Function components of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth. While there were no significant differences between groups for speech/language outcomes post-intervention; it is clinically interesting that more children in the FCP group improved on the Renfrew Action Picture Test than the UP group. This study did not demonstrate a significant benefit for FCP over a relatively short timeframe in a small sample of children. Further research is warranted to determine if there is evidence for the use of FCP in speech-language pathology.

Warm-hearted businessmen, competitive housewives? Effects of gender-fair language on adolescents’ perceptions of occupations

PubMed Central

Vervecken, Dries; Gygax, Pascal M.; Gabriel, Ute; Guillod, Matthias; Hannover, Bettina

2015-01-01

Recent studies from countries with grammatical gender languages (e.g., French) found both children and adults to more frequently think of female jobholders and to consider women’s success in male dominated occupations more likely when the jobs were described in pair forms (i.e., by explicit reference to male and female jobholders, e.g., inventeuses et inventeurs; French feminine and masculine plural forms for inventors), rather than masculine only forms (e.g., inventors). To gain a better understanding of this phenomenon, we systematically varied the gender connotation of occupations (males overrepresented, females overrepresented, equal share of males and females) and measured additional dependent variables, predicting that gender fair language would reduce the impact of the gender connotation on participants’ perceptions. In a sample of 222 adolescents (aged 12–17) from French speaking Switzerland, we found that pair forms attenuated the difference in the ascription of success to male and female jobholders in gendered occupations and attenuated the differential ascription of warmth to prototypical jobholders in male vs. female dominated jobs. However, no effect of language form on the ascription of competence was found. These findings suggest that language policies are an effective tool to impact gendered perceptions, however, they also hint at competence-related gender stereotypes being in decline. PMID:26441805

Adapting Tests of Sign Language Assessment for Other Sign Languages--A Review of Linguistic, Cultural, and Psychometric Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haug, Tobias; Mann, Wolfgang

2008-01-01

Given the current lack of appropriate assessment tools for measuring deaf children's sign language skills, many test developers have used existing tests of other sign languages as templates to measure the sign language used by deaf people in their country. This article discusses factors that may influence the adaptation of assessment tests from…

Parental Language Mixing: Its Measurement and the Relation of Mixed Input to Young Bilingual Children's Vocabulary Size

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byers-Heinlein, Krista

2013-01-01

Is parental language mixing related to vocabulary acquisition in bilingual infants and children? Bilingual parents (who spoke English and another language; n = 181) completed the Language Mixing Scale questionnaire, a new self-report measure that assesses how frequently parents use words from two different languages in the same sentence, such as…

Children's Language Assessment--Situational Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conrad, Eva E.; And Others

The Children's Language Assessment-Situational Tasks (CLA-ST) was developed to collect language samples within a normally operating classroom. The language is taken on a cassette tape recorder, which is placed at the foot of a small table. At this table, in a committee setting, four children are engaged with a teacher in an activity similar to…

F-LARSP 1.0: An Adaptation of the LARSP Language Profile for French

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maillart, Christelle; Parisse, Christophe; Tommerdahl, Jodi

2012-01-01

The Language Assessment, Remediation and Screening Procedure (Crystal, Fletcher and Garman, 1976; "The grammatical analysis of language disability". London: Edward Arnold) is a linguistic profile commonly used by researchers and clinicians to carry out detailed analyses of the grammar and morphology of children's spontaneous language samples. This…

A Program That Acquires Language Using Positive and Negative Feedback.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brand, James

1987-01-01

Describes the language learning program "Acquire," which is a sample of grammar induction. It is a learning algorithm based on a pattern-matching scheme, using both a positive and negative network to reduce overgeneration. Language learning programs may be useful as tutorials for learning the syntax of a foreign language. (Author/LMO)

The Development of Executive Function and Language Skills in the Early School Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gooch, Debbie; Thompson, Paul; Nash, Hannah M.; Snowling, Margaret J.; Hulme, Charles

2016-01-01

Background: The developmental relationships between executive functions (EF) and early language skills are unclear. This study explores the longitudinal relationships between children's early EF and language skills in a sample of children with a wide range of language abilities including children at risk of dyslexia. In addition, we investigated…

Preschool Teachers' Language and Literacy Practices with Dual Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawyer, Brook E.; Hammer, Carol Scheffner; Cycyk, Lauren M.; Lopez, Lisa; Blair, Clancy; Sandilos, Lia; Komaroff, Eugene

2016-01-01

The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the degree to which teachers used linguistically responsive practices to support the language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners (DLL) and (b) to investigate the associations between these practices and select teacher-level factors. The sample consisted of 72 preschool…

Preschool Teachers' Language and Literacy Practices with Dual Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawyer, Brook E.; Hammer, Carol Scheffner; Cycyk, Lauren M.; López, Lisa; Blair, Clancy; Sandilos, Lia; Komaroff, Eugene

2016-01-01

The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the degree to which teachers used linguistically responsive practices to support the language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners (DLL) and (b) to investigate the associations between these practices and select teacher-level factors. The sample consisted of 72 preschool…

Incidental Language Learning in Foreign Language Content Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodgers, Daryl M.

2015-01-01

This study examined the extent to which 40 students enrolled in upper level foreign language literary/cultural studies content courses showed evidence of incidental language learning over the course of a semester. Students completed a cloze passage and provided both writing and speaking samples at the beginning and end of the semester. In…

Using Spoken Language Benchmarks to Characterize the Expressive Language Skills of Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Weismer, Susan Ellis

2015-01-01

Purpose Spoken language benchmarks proposed by Tager-Flusberg et al. (2009) were used to characterize communication profiles of toddlers with autism spectrum disorders and to investigate if there were differences in variables hypothesized to influence language development at different benchmark levels. Method The communication abilities of a large sample of toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (N = 105) were characterized in terms of spoken language benchmarks. The toddlers were grouped according to these benchmarks to investigate whether there were differences in selected variables across benchmark groups at a mean age of 2.5 years. Results The majority of children in the sample presented with uneven communication profiles with relative strengths in phonology and significant weaknesses in pragmatics. When children were grouped according to one expressive language domain, across-group differences were observed in response to joint attention and gestures but not cognition or restricted and repetitive behaviors. Conclusion The spoken language benchmarks are useful for characterizing early communication profiles and investigating features that influence expressive language growth. PMID:26254475

Measuring Cultural Socialization Attitudes and Behaviors of Mexican-Origin Mothers With Young Children: A Longitudinal Investigation

PubMed Central

Derlan, Chelsea L.; Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J.; Toomey, Russell B.; Jahromi, Laudan B.; Updegraff, Kimberly A.

2016-01-01

We describe the development and psychometric testing of the Cultural Socialization Behaviors Measure (CSBM) and the Cultural Socialization Attitudes Measure (CSAM). The CSBM assesses cultural socialization behaviors that parents use with young children, and the CSAM assesses the attitudes that parents have regarding the importance of socializing their young children about their culture. Both measures demonstrated strong reliability, validity, and cross-language equivalence (i.e., Spanish and English) among a sample of 204 Mexican-origin young mothers (Mage = 20.94 years, SD = 1.01) with 4-year-old children. In addition, the measures demonstrated longitudinal equivalence when children were 4 and 5 years of age. PMID:27990040

Measuring Cultural Socialization Attitudes and Behaviors of Mexican-Origin Mothers With Young Children: A Longitudinal Investigation.

PubMed

Derlan, Chelsea L; Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J; Toomey, Russell B; Jahromi, Laudan B; Updegraff, Kimberly A

2016-07-01

We describe the development and psychometric testing of the Cultural Socialization Behaviors Measure (CSBM) and the Cultural Socialization Attitudes Measure (CSAM). The CSBM assesses cultural socialization behaviors that parents use with young children, and the CSAM assesses the attitudes that parents have regarding the importance of socializing their young children about their culture. Both measures demonstrated strong reliability, validity, and cross-language equivalence (i.e., Spanish and English) among a sample of 204 Mexican-origin young mothers ( M age = 20.94 years, SD = 1.01) with 4-year-old children. In addition, the measures demonstrated longitudinal equivalence when children were 4 and 5 years of age.

Longitudinal Analyses of Expressive Language Development Reveal Two Distinct Language Profiles among Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Tek, Saime; Mesite, Laura; Fein, Deborah; Naigles, Letitia

2013-01-01

Although children with ASD show significant variation in language skills, research on what type(s) of language profiles they demonstrate has been limited. Using growth-curve analyses, we investigated how different groups of young children with ASD show increases in the size of their lexicon, morpho-syntactic production as measured by Brown’s 14 grammatical morphemes, and wh-question complexity, compared to TD children, across six time points. Children with ASD who had higher verbal skills were comparable to TD children on most language measures, whereas the children with ASD who had low verbal skills had flatter trajectories in most language measures. Thus, two distinct language profiles emerged for children with ASD. PMID:23719855

Adapting tests of sign language assessment for other sign languages--a review of linguistic, cultural, and psychometric problems.

PubMed

Haug, Tobias; Mann, Wolfgang

2008-01-01

Given the current lack of appropriate assessment tools for measuring deaf children's sign language skills, many test developers have used existing tests of other sign languages as templates to measure the sign language used by deaf people in their country. This article discusses factors that may influence the adaptation of assessment tests from one natural sign language to another. Two tests which have been adapted for several other sign languages are focused upon: the Test for American Sign Language and the British Sign Language Receptive Skills Test. A brief description is given of each test as well as insights from ongoing adaptations of these tests for other sign languages. The problems reported in these adaptations were found to be grounded in linguistic and cultural differences, which need to be considered for future test adaptations. Other reported shortcomings of test adaptation are related to the question of how well psychometric measures transfer from one instrument to another.

Using a genetic algorithm to abbreviate the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R).

PubMed

Eisenbarth, Hedwig; Lilienfeld, Scott O; Yarkoni, Tal

2015-03-01

Some self-report measures of personality and personality disorders, including the widely used Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R), are lengthy and time-intensive. In recent work, we introduced an automated genetic algorithm (GA)-based method for abbreviating psychometric measures. In Study 1, we used this approach to generate a short (40-item) version of the PPI-R using 3 large-N German student samples (total N = 1,590). The abbreviated measure displayed high convergent correlations with the original PPI-R, and outperformed an alternative measure constructed using a conventional approach. Study 2 tested the convergent and discriminant validity of this short version in a fourth student sample (N = 206) using sensation-seeking and sensitivity to reward and punishment scales, again demonstrating similar convergent and discriminant validity for the PPI-R-40 compared with the full version. In a fifth community sample of North American participants acquired using Amazon Mechanical Turk, the PPI-R-40 showed similarly high convergent correlations, demonstrating stability across language, culture, and data-collection method. Taken together, these studies suggest that the GA approach is a viable method for abbreviating measures of psychopathy, and perhaps personality measures in general. 2015 APA, all rights reserved

Psychometric comparability of English- and Spanish-language measures of anxiety and related affective symptoms.

PubMed

Novy, D M; Stanley, M A; Averill, P; Daza, P

2001-09-01

An array of measures of anxiety and related disorders (viz., Albany Panic and Phobia Questionnaire; Anxiety Sensitivity Index; Beck Anxiety Inventory; Beck Depression Inventory-II; Body Sensation Questionnaire; Fear Questionnaire; Padua Inventory; Penn State Worry Questionnaire; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Diagnostic Scale; Social Interaction Anxiety Inventory; and Worry Scale) was edited or translated from English into Spanish. Following an extensive edit and translation process, bilingual participants (n = 98) were assessed with the English and Spanish versions of these measures. Coefficient alphas were excellent and comparable across language versions. Means and standard deviations were also comparable across language versions. Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity was found for both language versions. The two language versions of each measure correlated highly with each other. This psychometric comparability adds confidence in using the newly edited or translated Spanish language measures in clinical practice and research.

A practical approach to language complexity: a Wikipedia case study.

PubMed

Yasseri, Taha; Kornai, András; Kertész, János

2012-01-01

In this paper we present statistical analysis of English texts from Wikipedia. We try to address the issue of language complexity empirically by comparing the simple English Wikipedia (Simple) to comparable samples of the main English Wikipedia (Main). Simple is supposed to use a more simplified language with a limited vocabulary, and editors are explicitly requested to follow this guideline, yet in practice the vocabulary richness of both samples are at the same level. Detailed analysis of longer units (n-grams of words and part of speech tags) shows that the language of Simple is less complex than that of Main primarily due to the use of shorter sentences, as opposed to drastically simplified syntax or vocabulary. Comparing the two language varieties by the Gunning readability index supports this conclusion. We also report on the topical dependence of language complexity, that is, that the language is more advanced in conceptual articles compared to person-based (biographical) and object-based articles. Finally, we investigate the relation between conflict and language complexity by analyzing the content of the talk pages associated to controversial and peacefully developing articles, concluding that controversy has the effect of reducing language complexity.

Physical Aggression and Language Ability from 17 to 72 Months: Cross-Lagged Effects in a Population Sample

PubMed Central

Girard, Lisa-Christine; Pingault, Jean-Baptiste; Falissard, Bruno; Boivin, Michel; Dionne, Ginette; Tremblay, Richard E.

2014-01-01

Background Does poor language ability in early childhood increase the likelihood of physical aggression or is language ability delayed by frequent physical aggression? This study examined the longitudinal associations between physical aggression and language ability from toddlerhood to early childhood in a population sample while controlling for parenting behaviours, non-verbal intellectual functioning, and children’s sex. Methods Children enrolled in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD) (N = 2, 057) were assessed longitudinally from 17 to 72 months via parent reports and standardized assessments. Results The cross-lagged models revealed modest reciprocal associations between physical aggression and language performance from 17 to 41 months but not thereafter. Conclusions Significant associations between physical aggression and poor language ability are minimal and limited to the period when physical aggression and language performance are both substantially increasing. During that period parenting behaviours may play an important role in supporting language ability while reducing the frequency of physical aggression. Further studies are needed that utilize multiple assessments of physical aggression, assess multiple domains of language abilities, and that examine the potential mediating role of parenting behaviours between 12 and 48 months. PMID:25375971

"When Music Speaks": Auditory Cortex Morphology as a Neuroanatomical Marker of Language Aptitude and Musicality.

PubMed

Turker, Sabrina; Reiterer, Susanne M; Seither-Preisler, Annemarie; Schneider, Peter

2017-01-01

Recent research has shown that the morphology of certain brain regions may indeed correlate with a number of cognitive skills such as musicality or language ability. The main aim of the present study was to explore the extent to which foreign language aptitude, in particular phonetic coding ability, is influenced by the morphology of Heschl's gyrus (HG; auditory cortex), working memory capacity, and musical ability. In this study, the auditory cortices of German-speaking individuals ( N = 30; 13 males/17 females; aged 20-40 years) with high and low scores in a number of language aptitude tests were compared. The subjects' language aptitude was measured by three different tests, namely a Hindi speech imitation task (phonetic coding ability), an English pronunciation assessment, and the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT). Furthermore, working memory capacity and musical ability were assessed to reveal their relationship with foreign language aptitude. On the behavioral level, significant correlations were found between phonetic coding ability, English pronunciation skills, musical experience, and language aptitude as measured by the MLAT. Parts of all three tests measuring language aptitude correlated positively and significantly with each other, supporting their validity for measuring components of language aptitude. Remarkably, the number of instruments played by subjects showed significant correlations with all language aptitude measures and musicality, whereas, the number of foreign languages did not show any correlations. With regard to the neuroanatomy of auditory cortex, adults with very high scores in the Hindi testing and the musicality test (AMMA) demonstrated a clear predominance of complete posterior HG duplications in the right hemisphere. This may reignite the discussion of the importance of the right hemisphere for language processing, especially when linked or common resources are involved, such as the inter-dependency between phonetic and musical aptitude.

Toward real-time performance benchmarks for Ada

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clapp, Russell M.; Duchesneau, Louis; Volz, Richard A.; Mudge, Trevor N.; Schultze, Timothy

1986-01-01

The issue of real-time performance measurements for the Ada programming language through the use of benchmarks is addressed. First, the Ada notion of time is examined and a set of basic measurement techniques are developed. Then a set of Ada language features believed to be important for real-time performance are presented and specific measurement methods discussed. In addition, other important time related features which are not explicitly part of the language but are part of the run-time related features which are not explicitly part of the language but are part of the run-time system are also identified and measurement techniques developed. The measurement techniques are applied to the language and run-time system features and the results are presented.

Review of Sample Size for Structural Equation Models in Second Language Testing and Learning Research: A Monte Carlo Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

In'nami, Yo; Koizumi, Rie

2013-01-01

The importance of sample size, although widely discussed in the literature on structural equation modeling (SEM), has not been widely recognized among applied SEM researchers. To narrow this gap, we focus on second language testing and learning studies and examine the following: (a) Is the sample size sufficient in terms of precision and power of…

Robot Path Planning in Uncertain Environments: A Language-Measure-Theoretic Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-03-01

in the framework of probabilistic finite state automata (PFSA) and language measure from a control-theoretic perspective. The proposed concept has been...DOI: 10.1115/1.4027876] Keywords: path planning, language measure, probabilistic finite state automata 1 Motivation and Introduction In general

Aptitude and Language Learning of FBI Special Agents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Marijke; And Others

This study investigated the relationship between aptitude, as measured by Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) scores, and oral proficiency as measured by the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) scores of 72 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents who completed basic foreign language training at the Defense Language Institute (DLI).…

Accurately Predicting Future Reading Difficulty for Bilingual Latino Children at Risk for Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petersen, Douglas B.; Gillam, Ronald B.

2013-01-01

Sixty-three bilingual Latino children who were at risk for language impairment were administered reading-related measures in English and Spanish (letter identification, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and sentence repetition) and descriptive measures including English language proficiency (ELP), language ability (LA),…

Cultural Transfer and Creating Cultural Awareness in Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language: A Sample from Gaziosmanpasa University Tömer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iscan, Adem; Karagöz, Beytullah; Konyar, Merve

2017-01-01

Culture and language are two phenomena that have existed by influencing each other for centuries. It is impossible to think independently of the culture on which the language is cultivated, nor on the language, which influences culture. One of the best signs of mastering a language is the ability to understand the cultural elements and the…

Food marketing to children on U.S. Spanish-language television.

PubMed

Kunkel, Dale; Mastro, Dana; Ortiz, Michelle; McKinley, Christopher

2013-01-01

Latino children in particular are at risk of childhood obesity. Because exposure to televised food marketing is a contributor to childhood obesity, it is important to examine the nutritional quality of foods advertised on Spanish-language children's programming. The authors analyzed a sample of 158 Spanish-language children's television programs for its advertising content and compared them with an equivalent sample of English-language advertising. The authors evaluated nutritional quality of each advertised product using a food rating system from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition, the authors assessed compliance with industry self-regulatory pledges. The authors found that amount of food advertising on Spanish-language channels (M = 2.2 ads/hour) was lower than on English-language programs, but the nutritional quality of food products on Spanish-language channels was substantially poorer than on English channels. Industry self-regulation was less effective on Spanish-language channels. The study provides clear evidence of significant disparities. Food advertising targeted at Spanish-speaking children is more likely to promote nutritionally poor food products than advertising on English-language channels. Industry self-regulation is less effective on Spanish-language television channels. Given the disproportionately high rate of childhood obesity among Latinos, the study's findings hold important implications for public health policy.

The factor structure and psychometric properties of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) in Norwegian clinical and non-clinical samples

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) is a 34-item instrument developed to monitor clinically significant change in out-patients. The CORE-OM covers four domains: well-being, problems/symptoms, functioning and risk, and sums up in two total scores: the mean of All items, and the mean of All non-risk items. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Norwegian translation of the CORE-OM. Methods A clinical sample of 527 out-patients from North Norwegian specialist psychiatric services, and a non-clinical sample of 464 persons were obtained. The non-clinical sample was a convenience sample consisting of friends and family of health personnel, and of students of medicine and clinical psychology. Students also reported psychological stress. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed in half the clinical sample. Confirmatory (CFA) factor analyses modelling the theoretical sub-domains were performed in the remaining half of the clinical sample. Internal consistency, means, and gender and age differences were studied by comparing the clinical and non-clinical samples. Stability, effect of language (Norwegian versus English), and of psychological stress was studied in the sub-sample of students. Finally, cut-off scores were calculated, and distributions of scores were compared between clinical and non-clinical samples, and between students reporting stress or no stress. Results The results indicate that the CORE-OM both measures general (g) psychological distress and sub-domains, of which risk of harm separates most clearly from the g factor. Internal consistency, stability and cut-off scores compared well with the original English version. No, or only negligible, language effects were found. Gender differences were only found for the well-being domain in the non-clinical sample and for the risk domain in the clinical sample. Current patient status explained differences between clinical and non-clinical samples, also when gender and age were controlled for. Students reporting psychological distress during last week scored significantly higher than students reporting no stress. These results further validate the recommended cut-off point of 1 between clinical and non-clinical populations. Conclusions The CORE-OM in Norwegian has psychometric properties at the same level as the English original, and could be recommended for general clinical use. A cut-off point of 1 is recommended for both genders. PMID:23521746

48 CFR 752.211-70 - Language and measurement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Language and measurement. 752.211-70 Section 752.211-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL....211-70 Language and measurement. The following clause shall be used in all USAID-direct contracts...

Composing in a Second Language: A Case Study of a Russian College Student.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Anna Charr

The case study examined the development of English writing skills in a native Russian-speaking college student with no previous instruction in English as a Second Language. It drew on writing samples from 2 years of English language instruction. Theories of first and second language acquisition, especially in written expression, are analyzed in…

Effect of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety on Turkish University Students' Academic Achievement in Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tuncer, Murat; Dogan, Yunus

2015-01-01

This study was carried out in order to identify to what extent the Turkish students' English classroom anxiety affects their academic achievement in English language. In this quantitative descriptive study, a correlational survey model was employed, and the convenience sampling was done. In order to collect data, the Foreign Language Classroom…

The Complex Relationship between Bilingual Home Language Input and Kindergarten Children's Spanish and English Oral Proficiencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cha, Kijoo; Goldenberg, Claude

2015-01-01

This study examined how emergent bilingual children's English and Spanish proficiencies moderated the relationships between Spanish and English input at home (bilingual home language input [BHLI]) and children's oral language skills in each language. The sample comprised over 1,400 Spanish-dominant kindergartners in California and Texas. BHLI was…

School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists' Use of iPads

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romane, Garvin Philippe

2017-01-01

This study explored school-based speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') use of iPads and apps for speech and language instruction, specifically for articulation, language, and vocabulary goals. A mostly quantitative-based survey was administered to approximately 2,800 SLPs in a K-12 setting; the final sample consisted of 189 licensed SLPs. Overall,…

A Sample Corpus Integration in Language Teacher Education through Coursebook Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asik, Asuman

2017-01-01

The use of corpora has an increased interest in language teaching in the past two decades. Many corpora have been utilized for several purposes in language classrooms directly or indirectly. In spite of the increasing awareness towards the use of corpora and the corpus tools, language teacher education programs still do not include corpus…

Clinical Impact of Wordless Picture Storybooks on Bilingual Narrative Language Production: A Comparison of the "Frog" Stories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heilmann, John J.; Rojas, Raúl; Iglesias, Aquiles; Miller, Jon F.

2016-01-01

Background: Language sampling, recognized as a gold standard for expressive language assessment, is often elicited using wordless picture storybooks. A series of wordless storybooks, commonly referred to as "Frog" stories, have been frequently used in language-based research with children from around the globe. Aims: To examine the…

Expressive Language in Preschoolers Born Preterm: Results of Language Sample Analysis and Standardized Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Imgrund, Caitlin

2017-01-01

Children born preterm constitute one of the largest populations of children at risk for the development of language impairments. A little over one in ten pregnancies result in a preterm birth and approximately 25% of these children go on to experience subsequent difficulties with language (CDC, 2015; Foster-Cohen, Friesen, Champion, &…

When It Comes to Explaining: A Preliminary Investigation of the Expository Language Skills of African American School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koonce, Nicole M.

2015-01-01

This research investigated the expository language of school-age speakers of African American English. Specifically, the study describes the language productivity, syntax, and pragmatic features present in expository language samples produced by African American children and compares their performance with White children in the extant literature.…

Manual versus Automated Narrative Analysis of Agrammatic Production Patterns: The Northwestern Narrative Language Analysis and Computerized Language Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Chien-Ju; Thompson, Cynthia K.

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the outcomes of the manually coded Northwestern Narrative Language Analysis (NNLA) system, which was developed for characterizing agrammatic production patterns, and the automated Computerized Language Analysis (CLAN) system, which has recently been adopted to analyze speech samples of individuals…

Using qualitative methods to improve questionnaires for Spanish speakers: assessing face validity of a food behavior checklist.

PubMed

Banna, Jinan C; Vera Becerra, Luz E; Kaiser, Lucia L; Townsend, Marilyn S

2010-01-01

Development of outcome measures relevant to health nutrition behaviors requires a rigorous process of testing and revision. Whereas researchers often report performance of quantitative data collection to assess questionnaire validity and reliability, qualitative testing procedures are often overlooked. This report outlines a procedure for assessing face validity of a Spanish-language dietary assessment tool. Reviewing the literature produced no rigorously validated Spanish-language food behavior assessment tools for the US Department of Agriculture's food assistance and education programs. In response to this need, this study evaluated the face validity of a Spanish-language food behavior checklist adapted from a 16-item English version of a food behavior checklist shown to be valid and reliable for limited-resource English speakers. The English version was translated using rigorous methods involving initial translation by one party and creation of five possible versions. Photos were modified based on client input and new photos were taken as necessary. A sample of low-income, Spanish-speaking women completed cognitive interviews (n=20). Spanish translation experts (n=7) fluent in both languages and familiar with both cultures made minor modifications but essentially approved client preferences. The resulting checklist generated a readability score of 93, indicating low reading difficulty. The Spanish-language checklist has adequate face validity in the target population and is ready for further validation using convergent measures. At the conclusion of testing, this instrument may be used to evaluate nutrition education interventions in California. These qualitative procedures provide a framework for designing evaluation tools for low-literate audiences participating in the US Department of Agriculture food assistance and education programs. Copyright 2010 American Dietetic Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Using Qualitative Methods to Improve Questionnaires for Spanish Speakers: Assessing Face Validity of a Food Behavior Checklist

PubMed Central

BANNA, JINAN C.; VERA BECERRA, LUZ E.; KAISER, LUCIA L.; TOWNSEND, MARILYN S.

2015-01-01

Development of outcome measures relevant to health nutrition behaviors requires a rigorous process of testing and revision. Whereas researchers often report performance of quantitative data collection to assess questionnaire validity and reliability, qualitative testing procedures are often overlooked. This report outlines a procedure for assessing face validity of a Spanish-language dietary assessment tool. Reviewing the literature produced no rigorously validated Spanish-language food behavior assessment tools for the US Department of Agriculture’s food assistance and education programs. In response to this need, this study evaluated the face validity of a Spanish-language food behavior checklist adapted from a 16-item English version of a food behavior checklist shown to be valid and reliable for limited-resource English speakers. The English version was translated using rigorous methods involving initial translation by one party and creation of five possible versions. Photos were modified based on client input and new photos were taken as necessary. A sample of low-income, Spanish-speaking women completed cognitive interviews (n=20). Spanish translation experts (n=7) fluent in both languages and familiar with both cultures made minor modifications but essentially approved client preferences. The resulting checklist generated a readability score of 93, indicating low reading difficulty. The Spanish-language checklist has adequate face validity in the target population and is ready for further validation using convergent measures. At the conclusion of testing, this instrument may be used to evaluate nutrition education interventions in California. These qualitative procedures provide a framework for designing evaluation tools for low-literate audiences participating in the US Department of Agriculture food assistance and education programs. PMID:20102831

The Psychometric Properties of English and Spanish Versions of the Life Orientation Test-Revised in Hispanic Americans.

PubMed

Pan, Tonya M; Mills, Sarah D; Fox, Rina S; Baik, Sharon H; Harry, Kadie M; Roesch, Scott C; Sadler, Georgia Robins; Malcarne, Vanessa L

2017-12-01

The Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) is a widely used measure of optimism and pessimism, with three positively worded and three negatively worded content items. This study examined the structural validity and invariance, internal consistency reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the English and Spanish versions of the LOT-R among Hispanic Americans. A community sample of Hispanic Americans ( N = 422) completed self-report measures, including the LOT-R, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, in their preferred language of English or Spanish. Based on the literature, four structural models were tested: one-factor , oblique two-factor , orthogonal two-factor method effects with positive specific factor , and orthogonal two-factor method effects with negative specific factor . Baseline support for both of the English and Spanish versions was not achieved for any model; in all models, the negatively worded items in Spanish had non-significant factor loadings. Therefore, the positively worded three-item optimism subscale of the LOT-R was examined separately and fit the data, with factor loadings equivalent across language-preference groups. Coefficient alphas for the optimism subscale were consistent across both language-preference groups (αs = .61 [English] and .66 [Spanish]). In contrast, the six-item total score and three-item pessimism subscale demonstrated extremely low or inconsistent alphas. Convergent and divergent validity were established for the optimism subscale in both languages. In sum, the optimism subscale of the LOT-R demonstrated minimally acceptable to good psychometric properties across English and Spanish language-preference groups. However, neither the total score nor the pessimism subscale showed adequate psychometric properties for Spanish-speaking Hispanic Americans, likely due to translation and cultural adaptation issues, and thus are not supported for use with this population.

Perceived discrimination among three groups of refugees resettled in the USA: associations with language, time in the USA, and continent of origin.

PubMed

Hadley, Craig; Patil, Crystal

2009-12-01

The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence and predictors of discrimination among a community-based sample of refugees resettled in the USA. We sought to test whether language, gender, time in the USA and country of origin were associated with the experience of discrimination among individuals resettled in the USA as part of the refugee resettlement program. Perceived discrimination was assessed among individuals from East Africa (n = 92), West Africa (n = 74), and from Eastern Europe (n = 112) using a multi-item measure of discrimination. Bivariate associations revealed statistically significant associations between experiences of discrimination and time in the USA, language ability, and sending country. A logistic regression model revealed that refugees from African sending countries were more likely than Eastern European individuals to experience discrimination, even after controlling for potentially confounding factors. We interpret this finding as evidence of racism and discuss the implications for population health and resettlement practice.

Caregiver talk to young Spanish-English bilinguals: Comparing direct observation and parent-report measures of dual-language exposure

PubMed Central

Marchman, Virginia A.; Martínez, Lucía Z.; Hurtado, Nereyda; Grüter, Theres; Fernald, Anne

2016-01-01

In research on language development by bilingual children, the early language environment is commonly characterized in terms of the relative amount of exposure a child gets to each language based on parent report. Little is known about how absolute measures of child-directed speech in two languages relate to language growth. In this study of 3-year-old Spanish-English bilinguals (n = 18), traditional parent-report estimates of exposure were compared to measures of the number of Spanish and English words children heard during naturalistic audio recordings. While the two estimates were moderately correlated, observed numbers of child-directed words were more consistently predictive of children's processing speed and standardized test performance, even when controlling for reported proportion of exposure. These findings highlight the importance of caregiver engagement in bilingual children's language outcomes in both of the languages they are learning. PMID:27197746

The Persian developmental sentence scoring as a clinical measure of morphosyntax in children.

PubMed

Jalilevand, Nahid; Kamali, Mohammad; Modarresi, Yahya; Kazemi, Yalda

2016-01-01

Background: Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) was developed as a numerical measurement and a clinical method based on the morphosyntactic acquisition in the English language. The aim of this study was to develop a new numerical tool similar to DSS to assess the morphosyntactic abilities in Persian-speaking children. Methods: In this cross-sectional and comparative study, the language samples of 115 typically developing Persian-speaking children aged 30 - 65 months were audio recorded during the free play and picture description sessions. The Persian Developmental Sentence Score (PDSS) and the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) were calculated. Pearson correlation and one - way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. Results: The correlation between PDSS and MLU in morphemes (convergent validity) was significant with a correlation coefficient of 0.97 (p< 0.001). The value Cronbach's Alpha (α= 0.79) in the grammatical categories and the split-half coefficient (0.86) indicated acceptable internal consistency reliability. Conclusion: The PDSS could be used as a reliable numerical measurement to estimate the syntactic development in Persian-speaking children.

The Persian developmental sentence scoring as a clinical measure of morphosyntax in children

PubMed Central

Jalilevand, Nahid; Kamali, Mohammad; Modarresi, Yahya; Kazemi, Yalda

2016-01-01

Background: Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) was developed as a numerical measurement and a clinical method based on the morphosyntactic acquisition in the English language. The aim of this study was to develop a new numerical tool similar to DSS to assess the morphosyntactic abilities in Persian-speaking children. Methods: In this cross-sectional and comparative study, the language samples of 115 typically developing Persian-speaking children aged 30 - 65 months were audio recorded during the free play and picture description sessions. The Persian Developmental Sentence Score (PDSS) and the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) were calculated. Pearson correlation and one – way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. Results: The correlation between PDSS and MLU in morphemes (convergent validity) was significant with a correlation coefficient of 0.97 (p< 0.001). The value Cronbach's Alpha (α= 0.79) in the grammatical categories and the split-half coefficient (0.86) indicated acceptable internal consistency reliability. Conclusion: The PDSS could be used as a reliable numerical measurement to estimate the syntactic development in Persian-speaking children. PMID:28210600

Association Between Gait and Dual Task With Cognitive Domains in Older People With Cognitive Impairment.

PubMed

Ansai, Juliana Hotta; Andrade, Larissa Pires de; Rossi, Paulo Giusti; Almeida, Mariana Luciano; Carvalho Vale, Francisco Assis; Rebelatto, José Rubens

2017-09-13

The authors investigated whether impaired gait and dual-task performances are associated with specific cognitive domains among older people with preserved cognition (PC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). The sample comprised 40 older adults with PC, 40 with MCI, and 38 with mild AD. The assessment consisted of gait (measured by 10-m walk test and Timed Up and Go Test [TUGT]), dual task (measured by TUGT associated with a cognitive-motor task of calling a phone number), and cognition (domains of the Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination-Revised and Frontal Assessment Battery [FAB]). For data analysis, the Pearson product-moment correlation and the backward stepwise linear regression were conducted. Language, fluency, and visuospatial domains predicted the 10-m walk test measure specifically in PC, MCI, and AD groups. Only the visuospatial domain was independently associated with the TUGT measure in the MCI and AD groups. FAB score, language domain, and FAB score and fluency domain were the strongest predictors for the isolated cognitive-motor task measure in the PC, MCI, and AD groups, respectively. The visuospatial domain was independently associated with the dual-task test measure in all 3 groups. The study findings demonstrate the influence of specific cognitive domains in daily mobility tasks in people with different cognitive profiles.

The measure matters: Language dominance profiles across measures in Spanish–English bilingual children*

PubMed Central

BEDORE, LISA M.; PEÑA, ELIZABETH D.; SUMMERS, CONNIE L.; BOERGER, KARIN M.; RESENDIZ, MARIA D.; GREENE, KAI; BOHMAN, THOMAS M.; GILLAM, RONALD B.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if different language measures resulted in the same classifications of language dominance and proficiency for a group of bilingual pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners. Data were analyzed for 1029 Spanish–English bilingual pre-kindergarteners who spanned the full range of bilingual language proficiency. Parent questionnaires were used to quantify age of first exposure and current language use. Scores from a short test of semantic and morphosyntactic development in Spanish and English were used to quantify children’s performance. Some children who were in the functionally monolingual range based on interview data demonstrated minimal knowledge of their other languages when tested. Current use accounted for more of the variance in language dominance than did age of first exposure. Results indicate that at different levels of language exposure children differed in their performance on semantic and morphosyntax tasks. These patterns suggest that it may be difficult to compare the results of studies that employ different measures of language dominance and proficiency. Current use is likely to be a useful metric of bilingual development that can be used to build a comprehensive picture of child bilingualism. PMID:23565049

A longitudinal study of language and speech in children who were internationally adopted at different ages.

PubMed

Glennen, Sharon

2014-07-01

The author followed 56 internationally adopted children during the first 3 years after adoption to determine how and when they reached age-expected language proficiency in Standard American English. The influence of age of adoption was measured, along with the relationship between early and later language and speech outcomes. Children adopted from Eastern Europe at ages 12 months to 4 years, 11 months, were assessed 5 times across 3 years. Norm-referenced measures of receptive and expressive language and articulation were compared over time. In addition, mean length of utterance (MLU) was measured. Across all children, receptive language reached age-expected levels more quickly than expressive language. Children adopted at ages 1 and 2 "caught up" more quickly than children adopted at ages 3 and 4. Three years after adoption, there was no difference in test scores across age of adoption groups, and the percentage of children with language or speech delays matched population estimates. MLU was within the average range 3 years after adoption but significantly lower than other language test scores. Three years after adoption, age of adoption did not influence language or speech outcomes, and most children reached age-expected language levels. Expressive syntax as measured by MLU was an area of relative weakness.

Reliability of the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS).

PubMed

Mailend, Marja-Liisa; Plante, Elena; Anderson, Michele A; Applegate, E Brooks; Nelson, Nickola W

2016-07-01

As new standardized tests become commercially available, it is critical that clinicians have access to the information about a test's psychometric properties, including aspects of reliability. The purpose of the three studies reported in this article was to investigate the reliability of a new test, the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS), with consideration of both internal and external sources of measurement error. The TILLS was administered to children aged 6;0-18;11 years. The participants varied in terms of their language and literacy skills and included children with typical language development as well as those diagnosed with language or learning disability. The sample of children also varied in terms of their racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Study 1 (N = 1056) assessed the internal consistency of TILLS calculating the coefficient omega for each subtest. Study 2 (N = 103) and Study 3 (N = 39) used the intra-class correlation coefficients to report on test-retest and inter-rater reliability respectively. The results indicate strong internal consistency and inter-rater reliability for all subtests of TILLS. The test-retest reliability was strong for all but one subtest, for which the intra-class correlation coefficient was in the acceptable range. This article provides clinicians with essential scientific information that supports the internal and external reliability of a new test of oral and written language skills, the TILLS. Information about reliability is critical for guiding the selection of an appropriate diagnostic tool amongst a number of options. © 2016 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Alignment of classification paradigms for communication abilities in children with cerebral palsy

PubMed Central

Hustad, Katherine C.; Oakes, Ashley; McFadd, Emily; Allison, Kristen M.

2015-01-01

Aim We examined three communication ability classification paradigms for children with cerebral palsy (CP): the Communication Function Classification System (CFCS), the Viking Speech Scale (VSS), and the Speech Language Profile Groups (SLPG). Questions addressed inter-judge reliability, whether the VSS and the CFCS captured impairments in speech and language, and whether there were differences in speech intelligibility among levels within each classification paradigm. Method 80 children (42 males) with a range of types and severity levels of CP participated (mean age, 60 months; SD 4.8 months). Two speech-language pathologists classified each child via parent-child interaction samples and previous experience with the children for the CFCS and VSS, and uisng quantitative speech and language assessment data for the SLPG. Intelligibility scores were obtained using standard clinical intelligibility measurement. Results Kappa values were .67 (95% CI [.55, .79]) for the CFCS, .82 (95% CI [.72, .92]), for the VSS, .95 (95% CI [.72, .92]) for the SLPG. Descriptively, reliability within levels of each paradigm varied, with the lowest agreement occurring within the CFCS at levels II (42%), III (40%), and IV (61%). Neither the CFCS nor the VSS were sensitive to language impairments captured by the SLPG. Significant differences in speech intelligibility were found among levels for all classification paradigms. Interpretation Multiple tools are necessary to understand speech, language, and communication profiles in children with CP. Characterization of abilities at all levels of the ICF will advance our understanding of the ways that speech, language, and communication abilities present in children with CP. PMID:26521844

Effects of Sampling Context on Spontaneous Expressive Language in Males with Fragile X Syndrome or Down Syndrome

PubMed Central

Kover, Sara T.; McDuffie, Andrea; Abbeduto, Leonard; Brown, W. Ted

2012-01-01

Purpose This study examined the impact of sampling context on multiple aspects of expressive language in males with fragile X syndrome in comparison to males with Down syndrome or typical development. Method Participants with fragile X syndrome (n = 27), ages 10 to 17 years, were matched groupwise on nonverbal mental age to adolescents with Down syndrome (n = 15) and typically developing 3- to 6-year-olds (n = 15). Language sampling contexts were an interview-style conversation and narration of a wordless book, with scripted examiner behavior. Language was assessed in terms of amount of talk, MLU of communication unit (MLCU), lexical diversity, fluency, and intelligibility. Results Participants with fragile X syndrome had lower MLCU and lexical diversity than participants with typical development. Participants with Down syndrome produced yet lower MLCU. A differential effect of context among those with fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome, and typical development emerged for the number of attempts per minute, MLCU, and fluency. For participants with fragile X syndrome, autism symptom severity related to the number of utterances produced in conversation. Aspects of examiner behavior related to participant performance. Conclusions Sampling context characteristics should be considered when assessing expressive language in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities. PMID:22232386

From language identification to language distance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gamallo, Pablo; Pichel, José Ramom; Alegria, Iñaki

2017-10-01

In this paper, we define two quantitative distances to measure how far apart two languages are. The distance measure that we have identified as more accurate is based on the perplexity of n-gram models extracted from text corpora. An experiment to compare forty-four European languages has been performed. For this purpose, we computed the distances for all the possible language pairs and built a network whose nodes are languages and edges are distances. The network we have built on the basis of linguistic distances represents the current map of similarities and divergences among the main languages of Europe.

Using early standardized language measures to predict later language and early reading outcomes in children at high risk for language-learning impairments.

PubMed

Flax, Judy F; Realpe-Bonilla, Teresa; Roesler, Cynthia; Choudhury, Naseem; Benasich, April

2009-01-01

The aim of the study was to examine the profiles of children with a family history (FH+) of language-learning impairments (LLI) and a control group of children with no reported family history of LLI (FH-) and identify which language constructs (receptive or expressive) and which ages (2 or 3 years) are related to expressive and receptive language abilities, phonological awareness, and reading abilities at ages 5 and 7 years. Participants included 99 children (40 FH+ and 59 FH-) who received a standardized neuropsychological battery at 2, 3, 5, and 7 years of age. As a group, the FH+ children had significantly lower scores on all language measures at 2 and 3 years, on selected language and phonological awareness measures at 5 years, and on phonological awareness and nonword reading at 7 years. Language comprehension at 3 years was the best predictor of later language and early reading for both groups. These results support past work suggesting that children with a positive family history of LLI are at greater risk for future language and reading problems through their preschool and early school-age years. Furthermore, language comprehension in the early years is a strong predictor of future language-learning status.

Controlling behavioral experiments with a new programming language (SORCA) for microcomputer systems.

PubMed

Brinkhus, H B; Klinkenborg, H; Estorf, R; Weber, R

1983-01-01

A new programming language SORCA has been defined and a compiler has been written for Z80-based microcomputer systems with CP/M operating system. The language was developed to control behavioral experiments by external stimuli and by time schedule in real-time. Eight binary hardware input lines are sampled cyclically by the computer and can be used to sense switches, level detectors and other binary information, while 8 binary hardware output lines, that are cyclically updated, can be used to control relays, lamps, generate tones or for other purposes. The typical reaction time (cycle time) of a SORCA-program is 500 microseconds to 1 ms. All functions can be programmed as often as necessary. Included are the basic logic functions, counters, timers, majority gates and other complex functions. Parameters can be given as constants or as a result of a step function or of a random process (with Gaussian or equal distribution). Several tasks can be performed simultaneously. In addition, results of an experiment (e.g., number of reactions or latencies) can be measured and printed out on request or automatically. The language is easy to learn and can also be used for many other control purposes.

How Many U.S. High School Students Have a Foreign Language Reading "Disability"? Reading Without Meaning and the Simple View.

PubMed

Sparks, Richard L; Luebbers, Julie

Conventional wisdom suggests that students classified as learning disabled will exhibit difficulties with foreign language (FL) learning, but evidence has not supported a relationship between FL learning problems and learning disabilities. The simple view of reading model posits that reading comprehension is the product of word decoding and language comprehension and that there are good readers and 3 types of poor readers-dyslexic, hyperlexic, and garden variety-who exhibit different profiles of strengths and/or deficits in word decoding and language comprehension. In this study, a random sample of U.S. high school students completing first-, second-, and third-year Spanish courses were administered standardized measures of Spanish word decoding and reading comprehension, compared with monolingual Spanish readers from first to eleventh grades, and classified into reader types according to the simple view of reading. The majority of students fit the hyperlexic profile, and no participants fit the good reader profile until they were compared with first- and second-grade monolingual Spanish readers. Findings call into question the practice of diagnosing an FL "disability" before a student engages in FL study.

School readiness of children with language impairment: predicting literacy skills from pre-literacy and social-behavioural dimensions.

PubMed

Pentimonti, Jill M; Murphy, Kimberly A; Justice, Laura M; Logan, Jessica A R; Kaderavek, Joan N

2016-03-01

School readiness generally captures the notion that children do best when they arrive at formal schooling with a certain threshold of skill that will help them thrive in the classroom's academic and social milieu. To examine the dimensionality of the construct of school readiness among children with language impairment (LI), as well as the extent to which these dimensions relate to children's end-of-kindergarten literacy skills. Participants were 136 preschool-aged children with LI. Children were assessed on measures of pre-literacy, social, and behavioural skills in preschool and reading and spelling in kindergarten. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that school readiness for this sample of children with LI is best characterized as two dimensions: pre-literacy and socio-emotional. Of the two dimensions, pre-literacy readiness was predictive of children's future performance in reading and spelling. The results further our theoretical understanding of the dimensions of school readiness, as well as our knowledge of how these skills are related among children with LI. Identifying domain-specific readiness skills that are predictive of kindergarten success can help to identify means of early assessment and targets for speech-language intervention. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Influences of Phonological Context on Tense Marking in Spanish–English Dual Language Learners

PubMed Central

Barlow, Jessica A.; Potapova, Irina; Pruitt-Lord, Sonja

2017-01-01

Purpose The emergence of tense-morpheme marking during language acquisition is highly variable, which confounds the use of tense marking as a diagnostic indicator of language impairment in linguistically diverse populations. In this study, we seek to better understand tense-marking patterns in young bilingual children by comparing phonological influences on marking of 2 word-final tense morphemes. Method In spontaneous connected speech samples from 10 Spanish–English dual language learners aged 56–66 months (M = 61.7, SD = 3.4), we examined marking rates of past tense -ed and third person singular -s morphemes in different environments, using multiple measures of phonological context. Results Both morphemes were found to exhibit notably contrastive marking patterns in some contexts. Each was most sensitive to a different combination of phonological influences in the verb stem and the following word. Conclusions These findings extend existing evidence from monolingual speakers for the influence of word-final phonological context on morpheme production to a bilingual population. Further, novel findings not yet attested in previous research support an expanded consideration of phonological context in clinical decision making and future research related to word-final morphology. PMID:28750415

An Empirical Study of the Dominating Predictive Features of Spoken Language in a Representative Sample of School Pupils: A Multivariate Description and Analysis of Oral Language Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marascuilo, Leonard A.; Loban, Walter

To determine whether language behavior represents an early conditioned verbal response or whether it changes with age and experience was the purpose of this study which attempted to define unique isolates of language on the basis of actual language produced by young children. Tape recorded data were collected for 12 years from 211 children in…

Effects of language proficiency and language of the environment on aphasia therapy in a multilingual

PubMed Central

Goral, Mira; Rosas, Jason; Conner, Peggy S.; Maul, Kristen K.; Obler, Loraine K.

2011-01-01

We examined the relative proficiency of four languages (Spanish, German, French, English) of a multilingual speaker with aphasia, JM. JM’s self-rated proficiency was consistent with his naming accuracy for nouns and verbs (The Object and Action Naming Battery, Druks & Masterson, 2000) and with his performance on selected subtests of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (Paradis & Libben, 1987). Within and between-language changes were measured following two periods of language treatment, one in a highly-proficient language (Spanish) and one in a less-proficient language (English). The various outcome measures differed in their sensitivity to treatment-associated changes. Cross-language treatment effects were linked to the language of the environment at the time of testing and to relative language proficiency. PMID:23185107

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Post-stroke Chronic Aphasia: The Impact of Baseline Severity and Task Specificity in a Pilot Sample

PubMed Central

Norise, Catherine; Sacchetti, Daniela; Hamilton, Roy

2017-01-01

Emerging evidence suggests that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can improve aspects of language production in persons with chronic non-fluent aphasia due to left hemisphere stroke. However, to date, studies exploring factors that predict response to tDCS in this or any patient population remain sparse, as are studies that investigate the specific aspects of language performance that are most responsive to stimulation. The current study explored factors that could predict recovery of language fluency and which aspects of language fluency could be expected to improve with the identified factor(s). We report nine patients who demonstrated deficits in fluency as assessed using the Cookie Theft picture description task of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. In the treatment condition, subjects received a 2.0 mA current through 5 cm × 5 cm electrodes for 20 min at a site previously shown to elicit a patient-dependent optimal response to tDCS. They were then tested 2-weeks and 2-months after treatment. In the sham condition, a subset of these subjects were tested on the same protocol with sham instead of real tDCS. The current study assessed language fluency improvements in measures of production at the word-level and sentence level, grammatical accuracy, and lexical selection as a function of baseline aphasia severity. A more severe baseline language profile was associated with larger improvements in fluency at the word-level after real tDCS but not sham stimulation. These improvements were maintained at the 2-week follow-up. The results suggest that for at least some outcome measures, baseline severity may be an important factor in predicting the response to tDCS in patients with chronic non-fluent aphasia. Moving forward, the ability to identify patient factors that can predict response could help refine strategies for the administration of therapeutic tDCS, focusing attention on those patients most likely to benefit from stimulation. PMID:28611609

The Two-Systems Account of Theory of Mind: Testing the Links to Social- Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities

PubMed Central

Meinhardt-Injac, Bozana; Daum, Moritz M.; Meinhardt, Günter; Persike, Malte

2018-01-01

According to the two-systems account of theory of mind (ToM), understanding mental states of others involves both fast social-perceptual processes, as well as slower, reflexive cognitive operations (Frith and Frith, 2008; Apperly and Butterfill, 2009). To test the respective roles of specific abilities in either of these processes we administered 15 experimental procedures to a large sample of 343 participants, testing ability in face recognition and holistic perception, language, and reasoning. ToM was measured by a set of tasks requiring ability to track and to infer complex emotional and mental states of others from faces, eyes, spoken language, and prosody. We used structural equation modeling to test the relative strengths of a social-perceptual (face processing related) and reflexive-cognitive (language and reasoning related) path in predicting ToM ability. The two paths accounted for 58% of ToM variance, thus validating a general two-systems framework. Testing specific predictor paths revealed language and face recognition as strong and significant predictors of ToM. For reasoning, there were neither direct nor mediated effects, albeit reasoning was strongly associated with language. Holistic face perception also failed to show a direct link with ToM ability, while there was a mediated effect via face recognition. These results highlight the respective roles of face recognition and language for the social brain, and contribute closer empirical specification of the general two-systems account. PMID:29445336

Adolescent relationship violence and acculturation among NYC Latinos.

PubMed

DuPont-Reyes, Melissa; Fry, Deborah; Rickert, Vaughn; Davidson, Leslie L

2015-07-01

Acculturation has been shown to positively and negatively affect Latino health. Little research investigates the overlap between acculturation and the different types of relationship violence among Latino youth and most research in this area predominantly involves Mexican-American samples. The current study examined associations between indices of acculturation (language use at home, chosen survey language, and nativity) and relationship physical violence and sexual coercion, both received and delivered, among predominantly Dominican and Puerto Rican adolescents from New York City. From 2006 to 2007, 1,454 adolescents aged 13-21 years in New York City completed an anonymous survey that included the Conflict in Adolescent Relationships Inventory which estimates experiences of physical violence and sexual coercion, both received and delivered, in the previous year. This analysis includes bivariate and multivariate methods to test the associations between language use at home, chosen survey language, and nativity with the different types of relationship violence. Among females, there is a significant association between language use at home and overall level of acculturation with delivering and receiving relationship physical violence; however, we did not find this association in delivering and receiving relationship sexual coercion. We found no association between acculturation and any type of relationship violence among males. Among Latina females, language spoken at home is an indicator of other protective factors of physical relationship violence. Future research in this area should explore the potential protective factors surrounding relationship violence among Latina females of various subgroups using comprehensive measures of acculturation, household composition and family engagement.

Developmental delay in communication among toddlers and its relationship to caregiving behavior among violence-exposed, posttraumatically stressed mothers.

PubMed

Torrisi, R; Arnautovic, E; Pointet Perizzolo, V C; Vital, M; Manini, A; Suardi, F; Gex-Fabry, M; Rusconi Serpa, S; Schechter, D S

2018-05-10

This study aimed to understand if maternal interpersonal violence-related posttraumatic stress disorder (IPV-PTSD) is associated with delayed language development among very young children ("toddlers"). Data were collected from 61 mothers and toddlers (ages 12-42 months, mean age = 25.6 months SD = 8.70). Child expressive and receptive language development was assessed by the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) communication subscale (ASQCS) that measures language acquisition. Observed maternal caregiving behavior was coded from videos of 10-min free-play interactions via the CARE-Index. Correlations, Mann-Whitney tests, and multiple linear regression were performed. There was no significant association between maternal IPV-PTSD severity and the ASQCS. Maternal IPV-PTSD severity was associated with continuous maternal behavior variables (i.e. sensitive and controlling behavior on the CARE-Index) across the entire sample and regardless of child gender. Maternal sensitivity was positively and significantly associated with the ASQCS. Controlling behavior was negatively and significantly associated with the ASQCS. Results are consistent with the literature that while maternal IPV-PTSD severity is not associated with child language delays, the quality of maternal interactive behavior is associated both with child language development and with maternal IPV-PTSD severity. Further study is needed to understand if the level of child language development contributes to intergenerational risk or resilience for relational violence and/or victimization. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effects of bilingualism on stuttering during late childhood

PubMed Central

Howell, P; Davis, S; Williams, R

2009-01-01

Objectives: To examine stuttering by children speaking an alternative language exclusively (LE) or with English (BIL) and to study onset of stuttering, school performance and recovery rate relative to monolingual speakers who stutter (MONO). Design: Clinical referral sample with supplementary data obtained from speech recordings and interviews. Setting: South-East England, 1999–2007. Participants: Children aged 8–12 plus who stuttered (monolingual and bilingual) and fluent bilingual controls (FB). Main outcome measures: Participants’ stuttering history, SATS scores, measures of recovery or persistence of stuttering. Results: 69 (21.8%) of 317 children were bilingual. Of 38 children who used a language other than English at home, 36 (94.7%) stuttered in both languages. Fewer LE (15/38, 39.5%) than BIL (23/38, 60.5%) children stuttered at first referral to clinic, but more children in the fluent control sample were LE (28/38, 73.7%) than BIL (10/38, 26.3%). The association between stuttering and bilingual group (LE/BIL) was significant by χ2 test; BIL speakers have more chance of stuttering than LE speakers. Age at stuttering onset and male/female ratio for LE, BIL and MONO speakers were similar (4 years 9 months, 4 years 10 months and 4 years 3 months, and 4.1:1, 4.75:1 and 4.43:1, respectively). Educational achievement was not affected by bilingualism relative to the MONO and FB groups. The recovery rate for the LE and MONO controls together (55%) was significantly higher by χ2 test than for the BIL group (25%). Conclusions: BIL children had an increased risk of stuttering and a lower chance of recovery from stuttering than LE and MONO speakers. PMID:18782846

Spirituality as a Scientific Construct: Testing Its Universality across Cultures and Languages

PubMed Central

MacDonald, Douglas A.; Friedman, Harris L.; Brewczynski, Jacek; Holland, Daniel; Salagame, Kiran Kumar K.; Mohan, K. Krishna; Gubrij, Zuzana Ondriasova; Cheong, Hye Wook

2015-01-01

Using data obtained from 4004 participants across eight countries (Canada, India, Japan, Korea, Poland, Slovakia, Uganda, and the U.S.), the factorial reliability, validity and structural/measurement invariance of a 30-item version of Expressions of Spirituality Inventory (ESI-R) was evaluated. The ESI-R measures a five factor model of spirituality developed through the conjoint factor analysis of several extant measures of spiritual constructs. Exploratory factor analyses of pooled data provided evidence that the five ESI-R factors are reliable. Confirmatory analyses comparing four and five factor models revealed that the five dimensional model demonstrates superior goodness-of-fit with all cultural samples and suggest that the ESI-R may be viewed as structurally invariant. Measurement invariance, however, was not supported as manifested in significant differences in item and dimension scores and in significantly poorer fit when factor loadings were constrained to equality across all samples. Exploratory analyses with a second adjective measure of spirituality using American, Indian, and Ugandan samples identified three replicable factors which correlated with ESI-R dimensions in a manner supportive of convergent validity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the meaning of the findings and directions needed for future research. PMID:25734921

Immersion Education Outcomes and the Gaelic Community: Identities and Language Ideologies among Gaelic Medium-Educated Adults in Scotland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunmore, Stuart S.

2017-01-01

Scholars have consistently theorised that language ideologies can influence the ways in which bilingual speakers in minority language settings identify and engage with the linguistic varieties available to them. Research conducted by the author examined the interplay of language use and ideologies among a purposive sample of adults who started in…

Development of Early English Language and Literacy Skills among Spanish-Speaking Children: Does Preschool Make a Difference?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Myae; Silva, Luisa; Vukelich, Carol; Buell, Martha; Hou, Likun

2014-01-01

This study examined the early English language and literacy skill development of 179 children from 11 Head Start classrooms who participated in an added focus on language and literacy skill-building supported by Early Reading First programme. Of this sample, 118 children were Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELL). All children were…

Transition from Senior Secondary to Tertiary Languages Study: Student Attitudes in Three Sydney Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moloney, Robyn; Harbon, Lesley

2014-01-01

This paper reports on a small study of attitudes to tertiary language study amongst senior secondary language learners in three independent New South Wales schools. The study examines what elements of preparedness may be the most effective in supporting transition to tertiary study for this sample of languages students. An analysis of survey data…

Examination of the Relationship between Autonomy and English Achievement as Mediated by Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghorbandordinejad, Farhad; Ahmadabad, Roghayyeh Moradian

2016-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between autonomy and English language achievement among third-grade high school students as mediated by foreign language classroom anxiety in a city in the north-west of Iran. A sample of 400 students (187 males, and 213 females) was assessed for their levels of autonomy and foreign language anxiety using…

The Association between Morphological Awareness and Literacy in English Language Learners from Different Language Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marinova-Todd, Stefka H.; Siegel, Linda S.; Mazabel, Silvia

2013-01-01

Purpose: The main goal of this study was to examine whether the morphological structure of a child's first language determined the strength of association between morphological awareness and reading and spelling skills in English, their second language. Methods: The sample consisted of 888 Grade six students who had English as their first language…

Mean Length of Utterance Levels in 6-Month Intervals for Children 3 to 9 Years with and without Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Mabel L.; Smolik, Filip; Perpich, Denise; Thompson, Travis; Rytting, Nathan; Blossom, Megan

2010-01-01

Purpose: The mean length of children's utterances is a valuable estimate of their early language acquisition. The available normative data lack documentation of language and nonverbal intelligence levels of the samples. This study reports age-referenced mean length of utterance (MLU) data from children with specific language impairment (SLI) and…

Language and Social Competence in Typically Developing Children and Late Talkers between 18 and 35 Months of Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longobardi, Emiddia; Spataro, Pietro; Frigerio, Alessandra; Rescorla, Leslie

2016-01-01

The present study examined the relation between language and social ability in a sample of 268 preschoolers aged 18-35 months. Expressive language was assessed with the Italian adaptation of the Language Development Survey (LDS), and Social Competence was assessed with the Questionnaire on Peer Interactions in the Kindergarten (QPI). Results…

E-Story and Writing Skill among Second Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abd Rahim, Normaliza; Abdul Halim, Hazlina; Mansor, Nor Shahila

2017-01-01

The study focused on the use of e-story and writing skill among the second language Korean learners. The objectives of the study were to identify and discuss the students' writing in the second language by using e-story. The samples of the study involved all 21 participants from two classes of Malay language at one of the universities in South…

Phonology and Vocal Behavior in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Schoen, Elizabeth; Paul, Rhea; Chawarska, Katyrzyna

2011-01-01

Scientific Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the phonological and other vocal productions of children, 18-36 months, with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to compare these productions to those of age-matched and language-matched controls. Speech samples were obtained from 30 toddlers with ASD, 11 age-matched toddlers and 23 language-matched toddlers during either parent-child or clinician-child play sessions. Samples were coded for a variety of speech-like and non-speech vocalization productions. Toddlers with ASD produced speech-like vocalizations similar to those of language-matched peers, but produced significantly more atypical non-speech vocalizations when compared to both control groups.Toddlers with ASD show speech-like sound production that is linked to their language level, in a manner similar to that seen in typical development. The main area of difference in vocal development in this population is in the production of atypical vocalizations. Findings suggest that toddlers with autism spectrum disorders might not tune into the language model of their environment. Failure to attend to the ambient language environment negatively impacts the ability to acquire spoken language. PMID:21308998

Typological Asymmetries in Round Vowel Harmony: Support from Artificial Grammar Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finley, Sara

2012-01-01

Providing evidence for the universal tendencies of patterns in the world's languages can be difficult, as it is impossible to sample all possible languages, and linguistic samples are subject to interpretation. However, experimental techniques, such as artificial grammar learning paradigms, make it possible to uncover the psychological reality of…

Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chinnery, George M.

2006-01-01

Practically since their availability, a succession of audiovisual recording devices (e.g., reel-to-reel, VCRs, PCs) has been used to capture language samples, and myriad playback and broadcast devices (e.g., phonographs, radios, televisions) have provided access to authentic speech samples. The espousal of audiolingual theory in the 1950s brought…

Sex-Specific Associations between Umbilical Cord Blood Testosterone Levels and Language Delay in Early Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitehouse, Andrew J. O.; Mattes, Eugen; Maybery, Murray T.; Sawyer, Michael G.; Jacoby, Peter; Keelan, Jeffrey A.; Hickey, Martha

2012-01-01

Background: Preliminary evidence suggests that prenatal testosterone exposure may be associated with language delay. However, no study has examined a large sample of children at multiple time-points. Methods: Umbilical cord blood samples were obtained at 861 births and analysed for bioavailable testosterone (BioT) concentrations. When…

Applications of Text Analysis Tools for Spoken Response Grading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crossley, Scott; McNamara, Danielle

2013-01-01

This study explores the potential for automated indices related to speech delivery, language use, and topic development to model human judgments of TOEFL speaking proficiency in second language (L2) speech samples. For this study, 244 transcribed TOEFL speech samples taken from 244 L2 learners were analyzed using automated indices taken from…

Effects of early auditory experience on the spoken language of deaf children at 3 years of age.

PubMed

Nicholas, Johanna Grant; Geers, Ann E

2006-06-01

By age 3, typically developing children have achieved extensive vocabulary and syntax skills that facilitate both cognitive and social development. Substantial delays in spoken language acquisition have been documented for children with severe to profound deafness, even those with auditory oral training and early hearing aid use. This study documents the spoken language skills achieved by orally educated 3-yr-olds whose profound hearing loss was identified and hearing aids fitted between 1 and 30 mo of age and who received a cochlear implant between 12 and 38 mo of age. The purpose of the analysis was to examine the effects of age, duration, and type of early auditory experience on spoken language competence at age 3.5 yr. The spoken language skills of 76 children who had used a cochlear implant for at least 7 mo were evaluated via standardized 30-minute language sample analysis, a parent-completed vocabulary checklist, and a teacher language-rating scale. The children were recruited from and enrolled in oral education programs or therapy practices across the United States. Inclusion criteria included presumed deaf since birth, English the primary language of the home, no other known conditions that interfere with speech/language development, enrolled in programs using oral education methods, and no known problems with the cochlear implant lasting more than 30 days. Strong correlations were obtained among all language measures. Therefore, principal components analysis was used to derive a single Language Factor score for each child. A number of possible predictors of language outcome were examined, including age at identification and intervention with a hearing aid, duration of use of a hearing aid, pre-implant pure-tone average (PTA) threshold with a hearing aid, PTA threshold with a cochlear implant, and duration of use of a cochlear implant/age at implantation (the last two variables were practically identical because all children were tested between 40 and 44 mo of age). Examination of the independent influence of these predictors through multiple regression analysis revealed that pre-implant-aided PTA threshold and duration of cochlear implant use (i.e., age at implant) accounted for 58% of the variance in Language Factor scores. A significant negative coefficient associated with pre-implant-aided threshold indicated that children with poorer hearing before implantation exhibited poorer language skills at age 3.5 yr. Likewise, a strong positive coefficient associated with duration of implant use indicated that children who had used their implant for a longer period of time (i.e., who were implanted at an earlier age) exhibited better language at age 3.5 yr. Age at identification and amplification was unrelated to language outcome, as was aided threshold with the cochlear implant. A significant quadratic trend in the relation between duration of implant use and language score revealed a steady increase in language skill (at age 3.5 yr) for each additional month of use of a cochlear implant after the first 12 mo of implant use. The advantage to language of longer implant use became more pronounced over time. Longer use of a cochlear implant in infancy and very early childhood dramatically affects the amount of spoken language exhibited by 3-yr-old, profoundly deaf children. In this sample, the amount of pre-implant intervention with a hearing aid was not related to language outcome at 3.5 yr of age. Rather, it was cochlear implantation at a younger age that served to promote spoken language competence. The previously identified language-facilitating factors of early identification of hearing impairment and early educational intervention may not be sufficient for optimizing spoken language of profoundly deaf children unless it leads to early cochlear implantation.

Robust model selection and the statistical classification of languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García, J. E.; González-López, V. A.; Viola, M. L. L.

2012-10-01

In this paper we address the problem of model selection for the set of finite memory stochastic processes with finite alphabet, when the data is contaminated. We consider m independent samples, with more than half of them being realizations of the same stochastic process with law Q, which is the one we want to retrieve. We devise a model selection procedure such that for a sample size large enough, the selected process is the one with law Q. Our model selection strategy is based on estimating relative entropies to select a subset of samples that are realizations of the same law. Although the procedure is valid for any family of finite order Markov models, we will focus on the family of variable length Markov chain models, which include the fixed order Markov chain model family. We define the asymptotic breakdown point (ABDP) for a model selection procedure, and we show the ABDP for our procedure. This means that if the proportion of contaminated samples is smaller than the ABDP, then, as the sample size grows our procedure selects a model for the process with law Q. We also use our procedure in a setting where we have one sample conformed by the concatenation of sub-samples of two or more stochastic processes, with most of the subsamples having law Q. We conducted a simulation study. In the application section we address the question of the statistical classification of languages according to their rhythmic features using speech samples. This is an important open problem in phonology. A persistent difficulty on this problem is that the speech samples correspond to several sentences produced by diverse speakers, corresponding to a mixture of distributions. The usual procedure to deal with this problem has been to choose a subset of the original sample which seems to best represent each language. The selection is made by listening to the samples. In our application we use the full dataset without any preselection of samples. We apply our robust methodology estimating a model which represent the main law for each language. Our findings agree with the linguistic conjecture, related to the rhythm of the languages included on our dataset.

Effects of Acculturation on Prenatal Anxiety among Latina Women

PubMed Central

de Mendoza, Veronica Barcelona; Harville, Emily; Theall, Katherine; Buekens, Pierre; Chasan-Taber, Lisa

2016-01-01

Purpose Anxiety in pregnancy has been associated with adverse birth outcomes. Relatively few studies have investigated how acculturation affects mental health in pregnancy among Latinas. The goal of this study was to determine if acculturation was associated with anxiety over the course of pregnancy in a sample of predominantly Puerto Rican women. Methods Women were recruited in pregnancy for participation in Proyecto Buena Salud, a prospective cohort study of Latina women (n=1412). Acculturation was measured via the Psychological Acculturation Scale (PAS), language preference and generation in the US. Anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Instrument. Linear and logistic multivariable regression were used to investigate associations. Results After adjustment, women with bicultural identification had significantly lower trait anxiety scores in early pregnancy (beta −3.62, SE 1.1, p<0.001) than low acculturated women. Women with higher levels of acculturation as indicated by English language preference (β=1.41, SE 0.7, p=0.04) and second or third generation in the US had significantly higher trait anxiety scores in early pregnancy (β=1.83, SE 0.6, p<.01). Conclusions Bicultural psychological acculturation was associated with lower trait anxiety in early pregnancy, while English language preference and higher generation in the US were associated with higher trait anxiety in early pregnancy. PMID:26790686

Acculturation and Intention to Breastfeed among a Population of Predominantly Puerto Rican Women.

PubMed

Barcelona de Mendoza, Veronica; Harville, Emily; Theall, Katherine; Buekens, Pierre; Chasan-Taber, Lisa

2016-03-01

Latinas have high overall breastfeeding initiation rates, yet Puerto Ricans have among the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates. This study sought to determine if acculturation was associated with intent to breastfeed in a predominantly Puerto Rican population. A cohort of Latina women were enrolled in Proyecto Buena Salud, and provided information on infant feeding intent (n = 1,323). Acculturation was assessed via the Psychological Acculturation Scale (PAS), language preference, and generation in the United States. Increasing acculturation as measured by English language preference (aOR 0.61 [95% CI 0.42-0.88]) and second or third generation in the United States (aOR 0.70 [95% CI 0.52-0.95)] was inversely associated with odds of intending to exclusively breastfeed. Similarly, women with higher levels of acculturation as measured by the PAS (aOR 0.67 [95% CI 0.45-0.99]), English language preference (aOR 0.48 [95% CI 0.33-0.70]) and second or third generation in the United States (aOR 0.42 [95% CI 0.31-0.58]) were less likely to report intent to combination feed as compared with women with lower acculturation. Acculturation was inversely associated with intent to exclusively breastfeed and intent to combination feed in this predominantly Puerto Rican sample. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Measuring Grammatical Development in Bilingual Mandarin-English Speaking Children with a Sentence Repetition Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woon, Chai Ping; Yap, Ngee Thai; Lim, Hui Woan; Wong, Bee Eng

2014-01-01

Sentence repetition (SR) tasks have been used to measure children's expressive language skills in normal and abnormal language development, and to examine the development of the speaking skills in second language acquisition, as well as to survey the proficiency of bilingual language development. Recently, SR tasks have been recognized as a…

The Rasch Wars: The Emergence of Rasch Measurement in Language Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNamara, Tim; Knoch, Ute

2012-01-01

This paper examines the uptake of Rasch measurement in language testing through a consideration of research published in language testing research journals in the period 1984 to 2009. Following the publication of the first papers on this topic, exploring the potential of the simple Rasch model for the analysis of dichotomous language test data, a…

Discriminating Children with Language Impairment among English-Language Learners from Diverse First-Language Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paradis, Johanne; Schneider, Phyllis; Duncan, Tamara Sorenson

2013-01-01

Purpose: In this study, the authors sought to determine whether a combination of English-language measures and a parent questionnaire on first-language development could adequately discriminate between English-language learners (ELLs) with and without language impairment (LI) when children had diverse first-language backgrounds. Method:…

Measuring positive and negative affect and physiological hyperarousal among Serbian youth.

PubMed

Stevanovic, Dejan; Laurent, Jeff; Lakic, Aneta

2013-01-01

This study extended previous cross-cultural work regarding the tripartite model of anxiety and depression by developing Serbian translations of the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C), the Physiological Hyperarousal Scale for Children (PH-C), and the Affect and Arousal Scale (AFARS). Characteristics of the scales were examined using 449 students (M age = 12.61 years). Applying item retention criteria established in other studies, PH-C, PANAS-C, and AFARS translations with psychometric properties similar to English-language versions were identified. Preliminary validation of the scales was conducted using a subset of 194 students (M age = 12.37 years) who also completed measures of anxiety and depression. Estimates of reliability, patterns of correlations among scales, and age and gender differences were consistent with previous studies with English-speaking samples. Findings regarding scale validity were mixed, although consistent with existing literature. Serbian translations of the PH-C, PANAS-C, and AFARS mirror the original English-language scales in terms of both strengths and weaknesses.

Statistical Learning is Related to Early Literacy-Related Skills

PubMed Central

Spencer, Mercedes; Kaschak, Michael P.; Jones, John L.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2015-01-01

It has been demonstrated that statistical learning, or the ability to use statistical information to learn the structure of one’s environment, plays a role in young children’s acquisition of linguistic knowledge. Although most research on statistical learning has focused on language acquisition processes, such as the segmentation of words from fluent speech and the learning of syntactic structure, some recent studies have explored the extent to which individual differences in statistical learning are related to literacy-relevant knowledge and skills. The present study extends on this literature by investigating the relations between two measures of statistical learning and multiple measures of skills that are critical to the development of literacy—oral language, vocabulary knowledge, and phonological processing—within a single model. Our sample included a total of 553 typically developing children from prekindergarten through second grade. Structural equation modeling revealed that statistical learning accounted for a unique portion of the variance in these literacy-related skills. Practical implications for instruction and assessment are discussed. PMID:26478658

Measuring Cross-Cultural Supernatural Beliefs with Self- and Peer-Reports.

PubMed

Bluemke, Matthias; Jong, Jonathan; Grevenstein, Dennis; Mikloušić, Igor; Halberstadt, Jamin

2016-01-01

Despite claims about the universality of religious belief, whether religiosity scales have the same meaning when administered inter-subjectively-or translated and applied cross-culturally-is currently unknown. Using the recent "Supernatural Belief Scale" (SBS), we present a primer on how to verify the strong assumptions of measurement invariance required in research on religion. A comparison of two independent samples, Croatians and New Zealanders, showed that, despite a sophisticated psychometric model, measurement invariance could be demonstrated for the SBS except for two noninvariant intercepts. We present a new approach for inspecting measurement invariance across self- and peer-reports as two dependent samples. Although supernatural beliefs may be hard to observe in others, the measurement model was fully invariant for Croatians and their nominated peers. The results not only establish, for the first time, a valid measure of religious supernatural belief across two groups of different language and culture, but also demonstrate a general invariance test for distinguishable dyad members nested within the same targets. More effort needs to be made to design and validate cross-culturally applicable measures of religiosity.

Measuring Cross-Cultural Supernatural Beliefs with Self- and Peer-Reports

PubMed Central

Bluemke, Matthias; Jong, Jonathan; Grevenstein, Dennis; Mikloušić, Igor; Halberstadt, Jamin

2016-01-01

Despite claims about the universality of religious belief, whether religiosity scales have the same meaning when administered inter-subjectively–or translated and applied cross-culturally–is currently unknown. Using the recent “Supernatural Belief Scale” (SBS), we present a primer on how to verify the strong assumptions of measurement invariance required in research on religion. A comparison of two independent samples, Croatians and New Zealanders, showed that, despite a sophisticated psychometric model, measurement invariance could be demonstrated for the SBS except for two noninvariant intercepts. We present a new approach for inspecting measurement invariance across self- and peer-reports as two dependent samples. Although supernatural beliefs may be hard to observe in others, the measurement model was fully invariant for Croatians and their nominated peers. The results not only establish, for the first time, a valid measure of religious supernatural belief across two groups of different language and culture, but also demonstrate a general invariance test for distinguishable dyad members nested within the same targets. More effort needs to be made to design and validate cross-culturally applicable measures of religiosity. PMID:27760206

Cross-cultural measurement equivalence of the 5-level EQ-5D (EQ-5D-5L) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Singapore.

PubMed

Wang, Ye; Tan, Ngiap-Chuan; Tay, Ee-Guan; Thumboo, Julian; Luo, Nan

2015-07-16

This study aimed to assess the measurement equivalence of the 5-level EQ-5D (EQ-5D-5L) among the English, Chinese, and Malay versions. A convenience sample of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were enrolled from a public primary health care institution in Singapore. The survey questionnaire comprised the EQ-5D-5L and questions assessing participants' socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Multiple linear regression models were used to assess the difference in EQ-5D-5L index (calculated using an interim algorithm) and EQ-visual analog scale (EQ-VAS) scores across survey language (Chinese vs. English, Malay vs. English, and Malay vs. Chinese). Measurement equivalence was examined by comparing the 90% confidence interval of difference in the EQ-5D-5L index and EQ-VAS scores with a pre-determined equivalence margin. Multiple logistic regression models were used to assess the response patterns of the 5 Likert-type items of the EQ-5D-5L across survey language. Equivalence was demonstrated between the Chinese and English versions and between the Malay and English versions of the EQ-5D-5L index scores. Equivalence was also demonstrated between the Chinese and English versions and between the Malay and Chinese versions of the EQ-VAS scores. Equivalence could not be determined between the Malay and Chinese versions of the EQ-5D-5L index score and between the Malay and English versions of the EQ-VAS score. No significant difference was found in responses to EQ-5D-5L items between any languages, except that patients who chose to complete the Chinese version were more likely to report "no problems" in mobility compared to those who completed the Malay version of the questionnaire. This study provided evidence for the measurement equivalence of the different language versions of EQ-5D-5L in Singapore.