Preschool Children's Comprehension Research Articles

Narrative skills and language comprehension in preschool children with cochlear implants: A comparison with children with Developmental Language Disorder or typical development

IntroductionThe narrative skills of children with cochlear implants (CIs) are fragile, but the factors at play and whether these difficulties could be similar to those detected in language impairment are not clear. The present study aims to assess, at the microstructural level, narrative skills, comparing children with CIs with children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) or Typical Development (TD). Furthermore, the relationship between verbal (lexical and morphosyntactic) comprehension and narrative skills across groups is investigated. MethodsThe narratives of 19 children with CIs (Mage = 62.42 months, SD = 6.83), 13 children with DLD (Mage = 65.38 months, SD = 4.27), and 18 preschool children with TD (Mage = 63.67 months, SD = 4.31) were assessed in a standardized task. Articles, prepositions, pronouns, gender and number agreement, accuracy in the use of verbs, and number of arguments in each sentence were analysed. Lexical and morphosyntactic comprehension were also assessed. Performance was compared across groups using ANOVAs or Kruskal–Wallis tests. The role of lexical and morphosyntactic comprehension in predicting each morphological and syntactic element in the narrative task was examined using linear regressions. ResultsData analysis showed that both children with CIs and DLD had fragilities in narration, both in the morphological and syntactic components. Although some differences between children with CIs and those with DLD emerged in descriptive analyses, these were not statistically significant. Regressions showed that morphosyntactic comprehension predicted the number of pronouns produced only in the TD group. ConclusionsThe scarce differences between CI and DLD groups and the absence of an effect of morphosyntactic comprehension on pronoun production may be due to their low production of these elements in the narrative task and/or to a difficulty in managing pronouns in an expressive task regardless of their ability to comprehend them. Potential implications of these results are discussed.

Same name, different representational levels? Misalignment of indirect parent-reported and direct alternative forced choice measures of emotion word comprehension in preschool children.

This study assessed the relationship between preschoolers' directly and indirectly assessed emotion word comprehension. Forty-nine two-to-five-year-old Norwegian children were assessed in a tablet-based 4-alternative forced choice (AFC) task on their comprehension of six basic and six complex emotions using facial expression photographs. Parents reported emotion word comprehension and production of the same words. Parent-reported emotion word production interacted with age to predict preschoolers' performance, with a parent-child alignment only observed for older children. Parent-reported word comprehension did not significantly predict accuracy. The results suggest that, in preschoolers, direct and indirect assessments might address distinct representational levels of emotion word comprehension.

Making oral comprehension interventions TIDieR: A narrative synthesis of interventions improving comprehension in children from 1 to 5 years with language difficulties.

Oral comprehension difficulties are prevalent in preschool children with language difficulties and are frequently the target of speech and language therapy (SLT) intervention. To support the implementation of research to practice, there is a need to identify effective interventions for this population and to describe their components. To date, reviews of oral comprehension intervention have not used inclusion criteria aligned with common clinical practice, particularly in the United Kingdom. No studies have previously used the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist to describe developmental SLT interventions. To identify intervention studies effective for oral comprehension in preschool children with language difficulties, using the UK definition of 'preschool' as children under 5 years; to describe the components of these interventions. This followed two phases: (1) an International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews registered search, which identified 20 systematic reviews; and (2) an exploration of individual studies within these reviews. Seventeen individual studies described effective intervention for children from 1 to 5 years old with language difficulties. Data were extracted from each study against headings from the TIDieR checklist. Findings were analysed and reported using narrative synthesis. A wide variety of rationales, techniques, procedures, settings and intensities were associated with effective intervention. The TIDieR checklist highlighted components that were unreported or under-described. Studies show that intervention can be effective for improving oral comprehension in preschool children with language difficulties. Analysis of intervention components has relevance to clinical practice and research, and highlights the importance of naturally occurring interactions, cross-over between oral comprehension and expressive language and the variety in delivery models and dosage. What is already known on this subject There is a reported lack of research into interventions developing oral comprehension in children with language difficulties. Intervention checklists such as the Template for Intervention Description and Replication are valuable tools for understanding interventions and supporting the application of research to practice, but none have been used to describe interventions for children with language difficulties. What this study adds There is evidence that intervention developing oral comprehension in preschool children (using UK definition, those under 5 years) with language difficulties can be effective. Analysing intervention components reveals key points for consideration by clinicians. What are the clinical implications of this work? Intervention components identified by this study support the implementation of research to practice by highlighting particular areas for consideration by clinicians. For researchers, gaps in reporting demonstrate the need to describe all aspects of intervention to support replication and implementation.

Development of Metaphor Reasoning Comprehension in Infants

Purpose: This study investigated the development of early metaphor comprehension based on gender and age in preschool children and measured its correlation with vocabulary acquisition.Methods: A total of forty-nine Korean preschoolers aged 4 to 6 years old (17 boys, 32 girls) with normal receptive and expressive vocabulary development were included in this study. Children were divided into three groups depending on age, their mean ages being 4;8, 5;4, 6;3, respectively. Metaphor reasoning comprehension was measured using MRAC(Metaphor and Reasoning Comprehension Test), and children were asked to listen to a sentence and point to one of the three pictures.Results: There was no significant difference among the groups in the metaphor reasoning score by age and gender of preschool children (<i>p</i>>0.05). In addition, the Pearson correlation showed a positive relationship between metaphor and reasoning comprehension scores, as well as receptive vocabulary scores (<i>r</i>=0.302, <i>p</i>=0.035) and a positive relationship between metaphor and reasoning comprehension scores and expressive vocabulary scores (<i>r</i>=0.314, <i>p</i>=0.028). In addition, most errors occur in understanding the literal meaning rather than the implied meaning or metaphor of the sentence.Conclusion: In early young children, vocabulary plays an essential role in the metaphor interpretation process. However, to better understand the development of metaphor language comprehension in preschool children, exploring other factors affecting their ability to understand metaphor language and investigating their relationships is necessary.

Effect of an integrated active-lessons programme on vocabulary and narrative comprehension in pre-school children

The acquisition of vocabulary and narrative comprehension are key abilities for children’s literacy development and to potentiate cognitive and academic skills from early ages. The aim with this study was to analyse the effects of a 6-week integrated active-lessons programme based on playful games, vocabulary, and narrative comprehension. Ninety-two pre-school children (45.7% girls) aged 35.83 ± 2.57 months were split into experimental and control groups. Results from the pre- and post-intervention assessments show improvements of 56.1% in vocabulary (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.759) and 24.7% in narrative comprehension (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.710) in the treatment group. The results do not vary based on gender or age (31−36 and 37−42 months). Active lessons based on playful games within the classroom are suggested as support for the acquisition of vocabulary and narrative comprehension in childhood education.

Using the Question-Answer Relationship Strategy to Improve Listening Comprehension in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Our purpose in this study was to examine the effects of an intervention package consisting of shared book reading and an adapted question-answer relationship (QAR) strategy comprised of visual supports and think-aloud scripts on listening comprehension in four preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We used a single-subject concurrent multiple-baseline design across participants with continuous acquisition probes to evaluate the effects of the intervention package on producing acquisition and maintenance of listening comprehension across four types of comprehension questions. Visual analysis and Tau-U effect size indicated that the intervention package was effective in producing acquisition and maintenance of listening comprehension in preschool children with ASD. Directions for future research and clinical implications for early education practice are discussed.

Intuitive Theories of Parenting and the Development of Emotion Understanding in Preschoolers

Emotion understanding develops intensively in preschool and junior school. Although the parent/family environment has been shown to affect the development of emotion understanding in children, very little research has examined examined how parents’ view upbringing and education and how they are related to their child’s emotion understanding, given that the intuitive theories of parenting are reflected in actual parent behavior. This study fills this gap in the literature and examines the links between children’s ability to understand emotions and their parents’ intuitive theories of parenting. The sample was 171 5- to 6-year-old children and their parents. Analyses revealed a significant relation between intuitive theories of parenting and children’s emotion understanding. In particular, the intuitive attitude of uninvolved parenting was associated with the understanding of mental causes of emotions and the overall level of emotion understanding in preschool children. Integrating these results will allow us to reach more informed conclusions about the role of parental beliefs in the development of emotion comprehension in preschool children.

Improving language comprehension in preschool children with language difficulties: a cluster randomized trial.

Children with language comprehension difficulties are at risk of educational and social problems, which in turn impede employment prospects in adulthood. However, few randomized trials have examined how such problems can be ameliorated during the preschool years. We conducted a cluster randomized trial in 148 preschool classrooms. Our intervention targeted language comprehension skills and lasted 1 year and 1 month, with five blocks of 6 weeks and intervention three times per week (about 75min per week). Effects were assessed on a range of measures of language performance. Immediately after the intervention, there were moderate effects on both near, intermediate and distal measures of language performance. At delayed follow-up (7 months after the intervention), these reliable effects remained for the distal measures. It is possible to intervene in classroom settings to improve the language comprehension skills of children with language difficulties. However, it appears that such interventions need to be intensive and prolonged.

The Role of Executive Functions in Language Comprehension in Preschool Children

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship among various aspects of executive functions (inhibitory control, working memory, planning and cognitive flexibility) and language comprehension in preschool children. The final sample included 203 children, four or five years old, with average nonverbal cognitive development. The measuring instruments for assessment of the children’s executive functions were Grass/Snow task; Inhibition task (NEPSY-II); Digit Span task; CANTAB tasks and Dimensional Change Card Sort. The Reynell Developmental Language Scales were used for the assessment of language comprehension. The results showed that the only significant predictors of language comprehension were verbal working memory, as measured by the Digit Span task, and inhibitory control, as measured by the Grass/Snow task. This study emphasises the importance of inhibitory control and working memory for language comprehension in preschool children.

Deverbal compound comprehension in preschool children

When English-speaking children first attempt to produce deverbal compound words (like muffin maker), they often misorder the noun and the verb (e.g., make-muffin, maker muffin, or making-muffin). The purpose of the present studies was to test Usage-based and Distributional Morphology-based explanations of children’s errors. In Study 1, we compared three to four-year old children’s interpretations of Verb-Noun (e.g., push-ball) to Verb-erNoun (e.g., pusher-ball). In Study 2, we compared three- to five-year old children’s interpretations of Verb-erNoun (e.g., pusher-ball) to Noun-Verb-er (e.g., ball pusher). Results from both studies suggest that while preschool children’s understanding of deverbal compounds is still developing, they already show some sensitivity to word ordering within compounds. We argue that these results are interpretable within Usage-based approaches.

Understanding and Assessing Word Comprehension.

The Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL) task was developed to assess comprehension in infants and toddlers. We extend this methodology to examine word comprehension in preschool children using two measures: proportion of looking time to target (LTT) and longest look (LL) to target. Children (3-6 years) were tested with the IPL for comprehension of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Both LTT and LL scores showed that, across all ages, eye gaze to the target word increased from baseline to test; there were higher scores for nouns compared to verbs and adjectives. We also compare IPL performance to scores on a standardized test of receptive vocabulary (PPVT-4). Correlations with PPVT-4 scores were stronger for LTT than LL measures. The IPL may provide an alternative method for assessing word comprehension in preschool children with behavioral limitations.

Non-literal speech comprehension in preschool children – an example from a study on verbal irony

Abstract The study aims to answer questions about the developmental trajectories of irony comprehension. The research focuses on the problem of the age at which ironic utterances can first be understood. The link between ironic utterance comprehension and early Theory of Mind (ToM) is examined as well. In order to approach the topic, 46 preschool children were tested with the Irony Comprehension Task (Banasik & Bokus, 2013) and the Reflection on Thinking Test (Białecka-Pikul, 2012) in three age groups: four-year-olds, five-year-olds and six-year-olds. The study showed no age effect in the Irony Comprehension Task and a significant effect in the Reflection on Thinking Test. On some of the measures, irony comprehension correlates with theory of mind. Also, an analysis of children’s narratives was conducted to observe how children explain the intention of the speaker who uttered the ironic statement. The children’s responses fall into four categories, one of which involves a function similar to a white lie being ascribed to the utterance.

Sequential reasoning and listening text comprehension in preschool children

Both sequential reasoning skills and listening text comprehension are complex abilities that have their major development stages during the preschool period. Theoretically, an association between these skills could have its origins in the script construct: the knowledge of how events develop in real life could lead to a better comprehension of temporal and causal relationships. This study addressed the existence of a specific association between children's performance on a listening comprehension test and their performance on a picture arrangement task that was specifically developed for this project. The participants were 110 preschool children ranging in age from 3 to 6 years. The results show that children's listening text comprehension ability is mainly explained by their lexical comprehension, but at 3 years of age, their competence in correctly arranging events in a sequential order plays a significant role in explaining children's comprehension of textual information.

Listening comprehension in preschoolers: The role of memory

The current study analyzed the relationship between text comprehension and memory skills in preschoolers. We were interested in verifying the hypothesis that memory is a specific contributor to listening comprehension in preschool children after controlling for verbal abilities. We were also interested in analyzing the developmental path of the relationship between memory skills and listening comprehension in the age range considered. Forty-four, 4-year-olds (mean age = 4 years and 6 months, SD = 4 months) and 40, 5-year-olds (mean age = 5 years and 4 months, SD = 5 months) participated in the study. The children were administered measures to evaluate listening comprehension ability (story comprehension), short-term and working memory skills (forward and backward word span), verbal intelligence and receptive vocabulary. Results showed that both short-term and working memory predicted unique and independent variance in listening comprehension after controlling for verbal abilities, with working memory explaining additional variance over and above short-term memory. The predictive power of memory skills was stable in the age range considered. Results also confirm a strong relation between verbal abilities and listening comprehension in 4- and 5-year-old children.

Assessing Story Comprehension in Preschool Children

Many of the foundational abilities that are necessary for learning to read emerge in preschool children's oral language in advance of formal literacy instruction. This is not only true of phonemic awareness skills but also true of oral language comprehension, particularly of stories. Thus, clinical evaluation of preschoolers' story comprehension abilities is an important part of a preliteracy assessment. Ensuring that the outcomes of these evaluations accurately reflect children's abilities and lead to optimal clinical decisions requires familiarity with the available tools, their task demands, and psychometric properties. To provide clinicians with information necessary for making evidence-based choices in their assessment of story comprehension, we review the development of story comprehension in young children with and without language impairment. We then describe the procedures, both traditional and novel, that have been used to measure early story comprehension, assessing strengths and limitations.

THE ROLE OF GESTURE IN CHILDREN'S COMPREHENSION OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE: NOW THEY NEED IT, NOW THEY DON'T

Two experiments investigated gesture as a form of external support for spoken language comprehension. In both experiments, children selected blocks according to a set of videotaped instructions. Across trials, the instructions were given using no gesture, gestures that reinforced speech, and gestures that conflicted with speech. Experiment 1 used spoken messages that were complex for preschool children but not for kindergarten children. Reinforcing gestures facilitated speech comprehension for preschool children but not for kindergarten children, and conflicting gestures hindered comprehension for kindergarten children but not for preschool children. Experiment 2 tested preschool children with simpler spoken messages. Unlike Experiment 1, preschool children's comprehension was not facilitated by reinforcing gestures. However, children's comprehension also was not hindered by conflicting gestures. Thus, the effects of gesture on speech comprehension depend both on the relation of gesture to speech, and on the complexity of the spoken message.

Preschool Children's Comprehension of the Word “Handicapped”

A group of 4- and 5-yr.-old children were asked the meaning of the word "handicapped," while another group were asked the meaning of a nonsense word. Five of 15 children claimed to know the meaning of "handicapped" but none could supply a factual definition. Two of 15 children in the comparison group claimed to know the meaning of the nonsense word. Despite their lack of knowledge, children in both groups continued to answer questions regarding their attitudes toward the word. The results cast doubt on the effective use of verbal measures of attitudes toward persons with disabilities when the subjects are preschool children.

Preschool children's comprehension of aSesame Street video tape: The effects of repeated viewing and previewing instructions

Twenty male and 20 female 4-year-olds viewed a 19-minute Sesame Street video tape once a week for three weeks to determine whether comprehension of the plot of the video tape would improve if the children were given ample time to process the tape, and if they participated in one of two previewing instruction conditions. Findings indicated that repeated viewing of the tape was the most important factor in children's ability to comprehend the plot. Previewing instructions and gender did not influence plot comprehension. It is suggested that repeated viewing allowed the children to process the formal features of the tape and use them to construct a framework within which to interpret the plot of the show. Additional findings are discussed in terms of children's script representation and how such representation is acquired.

Preschool children's comprehension and production of directive forms

Thirty preschool children, 10 each at the 3-,4-, and 5-year-old levels, participated in two structured tasks designed to assess both comprehension and production of a full range of directive forms. In contrast to previous reports, the results indicated no significant differences in directive comprehension or production as a function of age; children in all age groups demonstrated the ability to understand and verbally encode the intent of most types of directive forms. However, the two most implicit forms, Question Directives and Hints, were complied with significantly less frequently than the more explicit forms, and were uused less often in the production task. The present findings indicate the importance of analyzing directive forms along a continuum of explicitness rather than dichotomizing them as direct versus indirect. Finally, the results are interpreted as providing indirect support for the general notion that mastery of some implicit forms may be achieved later than the acquisition of more explicit forms.

Preschool children's comprehension of agency.

ABSTRACTAn acting-out task and two modified forms of the token-assignment task described by Braine & Wells (1978) were used to test the ability of 72 children aged 3;0–4;6 to identify the actor in an event; in one token-assignment task the children were required to respond after watching silent enactments of transitive events, and in the other the children heard verbal descriptions of similar events. Comparison of individual response patterns across the tasks revealed that whereas 62 of the 72 children could identify the actor in the non-verbal task, 19 of them subsequently failed to perform as well when they had to base their judgement on active sentences in the verbal task; and of the 44 who responded accurately in the verbal token-assignment task only 34 responded consistently correctly when required to act out those sentences. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the development of syntactic comprehension.