Phonological Priming in Children with Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract

<p>本研究利用跨模式圖字干擾作業探討與比較習華語發展性語言障礙兒童(DLD)和典型發展兒童(TD)在音節、聲調與次音節單位（聲母及韻母）的音韻促發效應，以更深入了解兒童音韻表徵的型態及處理歷程。共有16名4至6歲11個月的DLD兒童和16名與其性別和年齡配對的TD兒童。促發項之音韻類型包括同音節、同聲母、同韻母、同聲調及無關項；促發項相對於目標項所呈現的時間為前150毫秒(SOA -150)、同時(SOA 0)及後150毫秒(SOA +150)。研究結果指出：(1)TD兒童的反應速度和正確率優於DLD兒童；(2)兩組兒童皆呈現同音節促進效應，且均無同聲調促進效應，代表華語兒童詞彙提取歷程中已具有音節框架的存在，而聲調對於詞彙提取的貢獻有限；(3)兩組主要的差異在次音節單位，DLD兒童在SOA -150和SOA +150時均呈現同韻母促進效應，而TD兒童僅在SOA 0呈現同聲母抑制效應。據此推論DLD兒童在次音節單位的處理方式與TD兒童不同，TD兒童可能是採用Cohort model的處理模式，而DLD兒童則未使用或尚未發展成熟到能使用此處理模式，其依賴語音知覺顯著性較高的韻母協助詞彙提取。整體而言，DLD兒童音韻處理歷程較無效率，顯現出詞彙提取困難。綜上推論，建議教學與臨床治療需重視DLD兒童詞彙提取與音韻處理能力之評估與訓練。</p> <p> </p><p>Phonological priming with cross-modal picture-word interference task was used to in-vestigate the phonological processing in children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Sixteen children with DLD aged 4 to 6 years and 11 months, and 16 gender- and age-matched children with typical development (TD) were recruited. The target words were paired with 6 types of phonological primes (identical, syllable-related, onset-related, rhyme-related, tone-related, unrelated), and primes were presented 150ms before (SOA -150), simultaneously (SOA 0), or 150ms after (SOA +150) the target. Results showed that (1) the TD group performed faster and more accurately than the DLD group; (2) both groups demonstrated syllable priming and lack tone priming at all SOAs, which suggests children selected a syllable frame in the lexical access process and the contribution of tone is limited; (3) the primary differences between these two groups were at sub-syllabic level. The DLD group exhibited rhyme priming at SOA -150 and SOA +150, while the TD group only ex-hibited onset interference at SOA 0. Based on these results, the possible inference was that children with TD may apply Cohort model to perceive incoming phonological information, however, children with DLD may not utilize this manner or they were not mature enough to use it, and their word retrieval process depended on high-saliency rhyme. Overall, the phonological processing in children with DLD was inefficient, and they revealed word re-trieval difficulty. Thus, it is recommended to evaluate and intervene word retrieval and phonological processing in children with DLD.</p> <p> </p>