Developmental Language Disorder Group Research Articles

Sentence Repetition as a Clinical Marker for Mandarin-Speaking Preschoolers With Developmental Language Disorder.

Sentence repetition (SR) is believed to be a clinical marker for developmental language disorder (DLD) across many languages. This study explored the potential of a self-designed Mandarin SR task (MSRT) to reflect Mandarin-speaking preschoolers' language ability and to differentiate children with and without DLD in this population. Furthermore, we aimed to compare five scoring systems for evaluating children's MSRT performance. In Study 1, the MSRT was administered to 59 typically developing (TD) children aged 3;6 (years;months) to 6;5 in China. The task was examined regarding its ability to correlate with language indices derived from children's narrative samples. In Study 2, both a TD and a DLD group were recruited to investigate the task's sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios to distinguish between children with and without DLD. Study 1 showed that, using four of the five scoring methods, TD children's performance on the MSRT significantly correlated with all the language measures derived from narratives. Study 2 showed that the MSRT was able to differentiate children with and without DLD. The MSRT is a promising tool to reflect language abilities and identify DLD in Mandarin-speaking preschoolers. Based on the current evidence, we recommend that researchers and clinicians select the number of errors in the syllable method or the binary method when scoring responses to meet their specific needs. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19386257.

An Investigation of Working Memory Profile and Fluid Intelligence in Children With Neurodevelopmental Difficulties.

The present study aims to evaluate the distinct patterns of working memory (WM) capacity of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), High-functioning children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and children with Down syndrome (DS). More specifically, the current study investigates the complex relationship of fluid intelligence and WM between 39 children with DLD, 20 H igh-functioning children with ASD, and 15 children with DS. All children were evaluated in different measures of Phonological Working Memory, Visual-spatial Working Memory whereas Fluid Intelligence was measured with Raven Progressive Matrices. The result analysis revealed a significant difference among the three groups, both among each function separately and the correlations among them, as well. The results revealed that the DLD groups and High-functioning ASD group exhibited a common picture or an overlap of performances in all Phonological and Visuo-spatial working memory measures, except Backward Digit Recall task. As for the DS group research findings revealed different and unique working memory patterns in comparison to DLD group and High-functioning ASD. Their differences have been studied and further conclusions have been drawn about the different patterns of working memory among the three clinical groups. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of support for learning. The common profile that characterize the two developmental conditions and the distinct pattern of working memory performance in DS group underlies the need for further research in the field.

Insights from real-time comprehension of Spanish verbal tense in children with developmental language disorder: An eye-tracking study

AbstractThe comprehension of Spanish verbal future and past tense of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) was evaluated in an eye-tracking experiment with 96 Spanish- and Catalan-speaking participants distributed in 4 groups: 24 children with DLD (Mage7.8 years), 24 children with the same chronological age (Mage7.8), 24 children with the same linguistic level (Mage6.8 years), and 24 adults (Mage22.5 years). Empirical data revealed that children with DLD can comprehend verbal tense, at least in the present experimental conditions. Based on the empirical results and despite some minor differences between the DLD group and the chronological control group, we suggest that tense morphology comprehension in DLD might be more typical than what is generally considered. Additionally, we propose that verbal comprehension difficulties in children with DLD might be less related to the lack of understanding of specific morphological markers, and more to an accumulation of difficulty which leads to a linguistic processing slowdown.

Neural Responses to Novel and Existing Words in Children with Autism Spectrum and Developmental Language Disorder.

The formation of new phonological representations is key in establishing items in the mental lexicon. Phonological forms become stable with repetition, time and sleep. Atypicality in the establishment of new word forms is characteristic of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet neural changes in response to novel word forms over time have not yet been directly compared in these groups.This study measured habituation of event-related-potentials (ERPs) to novel and known words within and between two sessions spaced 24 hours apart in typically developing (TD) children, and their peers with DLD or ASD. We hypothesised that modulation of the auditory N400 amplitude would mark real-time changes in lexical processing with habituation evident within and across sessions in the TD group, while the DLD group would show attenuated habituation within sessions, and the ASD group attenuated habituation between sessions.Twenty-one typically developing children, 19 children with ASD, and 16 children with DLD listened passively to known and novel words on two consecutive days, while ERPs were recorded using dry electrodes. Counter to our hypotheses, no habituation effect emerged within sessions. However, responses did habituate between sessions, with this effect being reduced in the DLD group, indicating less pre-activation of lexical representations in response to words encountered the previous day. No differences in change over time were observed between the TD and ASD groups. These data are in keeping with theories stressing the importance of sleep-related consolidation in word learning.

Evaluation of elements in hair samples of children with developmental language disorder (DLD)

ABSTRACT Background Recent studies have highlighted a role for trace elements and toxic metals across neurodevelopmental disorders, including developmental stuttering, Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, these environmental influences have yet to be explored in relation to Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Methods Elemental hair composition of seven elements; zinc (64Zn), magnesium (26Mg), iron (57Fe), potassium (39K), aluminum (27Al), lead (208Pb), and barium (138Ba) were analyzed in hair samples from 35 children affected by DLD and 35 controls with typical language development (TLD) using both inductive coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP–OES) and inductive coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP–MS). Results The concentration of 64Zn was significantly lower in the hair of DLD group compared to the TLD control group. All other elements showed similar levels between cases and controls. This pilot study demonstrates the utility of trace elements and toxic metals screening in relation to language disorders and the use of hair samples in such investigations. Conclusion The finding that zinc levels differed between cases and controls could represent a clinically relevant result and should be replicated in larger sample size across time. A wider battery of related elements will help to better understand the role of trace elements and toxic metals in DLD.

Language Learning Under Varied Conditions: Neural Indices of Speech Perception in Bilingual Turkish-German Children and in Monolingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).

Lateral temporal measures of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) including the T-complex (positive Ta and negative Tb), as well as an earlier negative peak (Na) index maturation of auditory/speech processing. Previous studies have shown that these measures distinguish neural processing in children with typical language development (TD) from those with disorders and monolingual from bilingual children. In this study, bilingual children with Turkish as L1 and German as L2 were compared with monolingual German-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and monolingual German-speaking children with TD in order to disentangle effects of limited language input vs. reduced perceptual abilities in the processing of speech and non-speech stimuli. Sensory processing reflected by the T-complex (or from lateral temporal electrode sites) was compared in response to a German vowel and a sine-wave tone in the three groups of children, ages 5 through 6 years. Stimuli were presented while children watched a muted video. Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were time-locked to the vowels and tones. AEPs to the frequent (standard) stimuli within an oddball paradigm were analyzed at the left (T7) and right (T8) temporal electrode sites.The results revealed language status (monolingual, bilingual, and DLD), stimulus (vowel and tone), and language test measures (receptive and expressive) all influenced the T-complex amplitudes. Particularly, the peak amplitude of Ta was modulated by language status and stimulus type. Bilingual children had significantly more negative Ta responses than the monolingual children with TD for both vowels and tones while DLD children differed from TD children only for the vowel stimulus. The amplitude of the T-complex was overall more negative at the left than at the right site. The Na peak latency was longer for the bilingual group than that observed for the two monolingual groups. The Tb latency was shorter for DLD and bilingual groups than that for TD children in the vowel condition, but no such latency difference between DLD and bilingual children was found. We suggest that the attenuated T-complex for bilingual children indicates continued plasticity of the auditory cortex to allow for learning of novel, second-language speech sounds.

The Bouba-Kiki Effect in Children With Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

The bouba-kiki (BK) effect refers to associations between visual shapes and auditory pseudonames. Thus, when tested, people tend to associate the pseudowords bouba and kiki with round or spiky shapes, respectively. This association requires cross-modal sensory integration. The ability to integrate information from different sensory modalities is crucial for speech development. A clinical population that may be impaired in cross-modal sensory integration is children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The purpose of this study was to examine the involvement of cross-modal sensory integration in children with (CAS). The BK effect was assessed in participants with CAS (n = 18) and two control groups: One control group was composed of children with developmental language disorder (DLD), also termed specific language impairment (n = 15), and a second group included typically developing (TD) children (n = 22). The children were presented with 14 pairs of novel visual displays and nonwords. All the children were asked to state which shape and nonword correspond to one another. In addition, background cognitive (Leiter-3) and language measures (Hebrew PLS-4) were determined for all children. Children in the CAS group were less successful in associating between visual shapes and corresponding auditory pseudonames (e.g., associating the spoken word "bouba" with a round shape; the spoken word "kiki" with a spiky shape). Thus, children with CAS demonstrated a statistically significant reduced BK effect compared with participants with TD and participants with DLD. No significant difference was found between the TD group and the DLD group. The reduced BK effect in children with CAS supports the notion that cross-modal sensory integration may be altered in these children. Cross-modal sensory integration is the basis for speech production. Thus, difficulties in sensory integration may contribute to speech difficulties in CAS.

Vocabulary Abilities and Parents' Emotional Regulation Predict Emotional Regulation in School-Age Children but Not Adolescents With and Without Developmental Language Disorder.

A comprehensive approach, including social and emotional affectations, has been recently proposed as an important framework to understand Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). There is an increasing considerable interest in knowing how language and emotion are related, and as far as we know, the role of the emotional regulation (ER) of parents of children with and without DLD, and their impact on their children’s ER is still unknown. The main aims of this study are to advance our knowledge of ER in school-age children and adolescents with and without DLD, to analyze the predictive value of expressive and receptive vocabulary on ER in school-age children and adolescents, and to explore parental ER and their effect on their children’s and adolescents’ ER. To cover all objectives, we carried out three studies. In the first and second study, expressive and receptive vocabulary were assessed in wave 1, and ER (Emotional Regulation Checklist -ERC- for children and Emotion Regulation Scale -DERS- for adolescents) was assessed in wave 2, 4 years later. Participants in the first study consisted of two groups of school-aged children (13 had DLD and 20 were typically developing children -TD). Participants in the second study consisted of two groups of adolescents (16 had DLD and 16 were TD adolescents). In the third study, the ER of 65 of the parents of the children and adolescents from study 1 were assessed during wave 2 via self-reporting the DERS questionnaire. Results showed no significant differences in ER between DLD and TD groups neither in middle childhood nor in adolescence. Concerning vocabulary and ER, expressive language predicted ER in school-age children but not in adolescents. Finally, parental ER explained their school-age children’s ER, but this was not the case in adolescents. In conclusion, the present data indicated that expressive vocabulary has a fundamental role in ER, at least during primary school years, and adds new evidence of the impact of parents’ ER upon their children’s ER, encouraging educators and speech language pathologists to include parents’ assessments in holistic evaluations and interventions for children with language and ER difficulties.

Intervention for oral language comprehension skills in preschoolers with developmental language disorder.

There is a clear predominance of programmes aimed at improving aspects related to language production in pupils with developmental language disorder (DLD). However, programmes aimed at improving their receptive skills are limited. The main aim was to assess the effectiveness of an intervention programme for oral language comprehension skills in preschoolers with typical development (TD) and pupils with DLD. Participants were 99 five-year-old pupils, with and without DLD, divided into four groups: two control groups (TD-C = 25; DLD-C = 25) and two experimental groups (TD-T = 24; DLD-T = 25), from schools on the Spanish island of Tenerife. The study used, as pre- and post-measures, the receptive language subtests of the CELF-4-Spanish: Concepts and Following Directions, Word Classes-Receptive and Sentence Structure, as well as two tasks assessing comprehension of paragraphs and narratives. Due to the strong link between oral comprehension skills and executive functions, working memory and semantic fluency are included in this research. The Backward Digit Span subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) and Semantic Fluency subtest of the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) were used to assess working memory and semantic fluency, respectively. The intervention programme followed a multitiered system of support (MTSS) model, with 95 sessions lasting 60 min each delivered jointly by teachers and speech and language therapists, and focused on lexical-semantic, morphological, syntactic and narrative skills; inferences; verbal working memory; and semantic fluency. The results showed, as expected, that pupils diagnosed with DLD initially performed worse on oral language comprehension and executive functions than pupils with TD. Further, the DLD-T and TD-T groups showed greater gains following the programme, especially in word classes-receptive, sentence structure, verbal working memory and semantic fluency. Finally, a significant positive correlation was found between the gains obtained by the participants in verbal working memory and semantic fluency, with the gains obtained in the three CELF-4-Spanish subtests. An intervention programme applied at an early age fosters oral language comprehension skills and executive functions in pupils with DLD and TD. The intervention organized at different levels of support, following an MTSS model, showed clear progress of the DLD and TD groups in oral language comprehension and executive functions. Pupils with DLD present deficits in linguistic comprehension and executive functions. There are many intervention programs focused on improving language production skills. It is also necessary to consider the skills underlying language problems in pupils with DLD. Oral language, inference, working memory and semantic fluency activities improve comprehension. A collaborative and inclusive intervention of teachers and speech language therapists. Psycholinguistic and neuropsychological skills training should become part of the academic curriculum as early as preschool age. What is already known on the subject Pupils with DLD show problems related to both comprehension and production language. However, there is a clear predominance of programs just aimed at improving aspects related to language production. Clinical implications of this study An intervention program applied at an early age fosters oral language comprehension skills and executive function in pupils with DLD. The intervention organized at different levels of support, following an adaptation of the Response Tier Intervention models, showed clear progress of the DLD in comprehension oral language and executive functions.

Artificial Grammar Learning in Children With Developmental Language Disorder.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate implicit learning in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) by employing a visual artificial grammar learning task. Thirteen children with DLD and 24 children with typical language development between the ages of 8 and 12 years completed a visual artificial grammar learning task. During the training phase of the task, participants were presented with strings of shapes that followed the underlying structure of a finite grammar. During the testing phase, participants were asked to judge whether new strings were grammatical or nongrammatical. Grammatical judgment of new strings served to measure generalization of the underlying grammatical structure. Endorsement based on chunk strength, or similarity to training exemplars, served to evaluate the extent to which children relied on surface features to guide their task performance. As a group, children with typical development performed better on the artificial grammar learning task, compared with children with DLD, and accepted more grammatical strings regardless of their similarity to training exemplars. Task performance in both groups was not affected by surface features. Performance of children with DLD whose test accuracy exceeded the learning threshold of 0.5 was consistent with a generalization of the underlying grammatical structure that was unaffected by surface features. The study found group differences in learning outcomes between children with and without DLD. Consistent with previous reports, children with typical development correctly endorsed more grammatical strings than children with DLD, suggesting a better acquisition of the grammatical structure. However, there was no evidence to suggest that children in the DLD group (learners and nonlearners) relied on surface features (i.e., familiarity to training exemplars) in their grammatical judgment. These results refute our hypothesis that children in the DLD group would show judgment based on familiarity.

Sentence Repetition as a Clinical Marker of Developmental Language Disorder: Evidence From Arabic.

Research on the typical and impaired grammatical acquisition of Arabic is limited. This study systematically examined the morphosyntactic abilities of Arabic-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) using a novel sentence repetition task. The usefulness of the task as an indicator of DLD in Arabic was determined. A LITMUS (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings) sentence repetition task was developed in Palestinian Arabic (LITMUS-SR-PA-72) and administered to 30 children with DLD (M = 61.50 months, SD = 11.27) and 60 age-matched typically developing (TD) children (M = 63.85 months, SD = 10.16). The task targeted grammatical structures known to be problematic for Arabic-speaking children with DLD (language specific) and children with DLD across languages (language independent). Responses were scored using binary, error, and structural scoring methods. Children with DLD scored below TD children on the LITMUS-SR-PA-72, in general, and in the repetition of language-specific and language-independent structures. The frequency of morphosyntactic errors was higher in the DLD group relative to the TD group. Despite the large similarity of the type of morphosyntactic errors between the two groups, some atypical errors were exclusively produced by the DLD group. The three scoring methods showed good diagnostic power in the discrimination between children with DLD and children without DLD. Sentence repetition was an area of difficulty for Palestinian Arabic-speaking children with DLD. The DLD group demonstrated difficulties with language-specific and language-independent structures, particularly complex sentences with noncanonical word order. Most grammatical errors made by the DLD group resembled those of the TD group and were mostly omissions or substitutions of grammatical affixes or omissions of function words. SR appears to hold promise as a good indicator for the presence or absence of DLD in Arabic. Further validation of these findings using population-based studies is warranted. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16968043.

Logopedia-considerații praxiologice: interogații, bune practice și intervenție bazată pe dovezi științifice

INTRODUCTION: Although speech therapy in Romania has a tradition of over 70 years, the practice in the field is in a full process of affirmation and clarification. The initial training system and some professional organizations contribute to the updating and dissemination of standards and good practices in the field. OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to describe some aspects of Romanian speech therapy practice and to draw attention to some discrepancies in the reporting of language and communication disorders. Some suggestions on concrete ways of intervention and evidence-based speech therapy are also offered. METHODS: (1) The statistical data reported by the Iași Inter-School Speech Therapy Center between 2011 and 2020 were analyzed. The data are compared with those available internationally. (2) Two children groups were considered: one diagnosed with developmental language disorder (DLD) (n = 67) and another diagnosed with language delay (LD) (n = 57), aged between 3 and 12 years (M = 5 years 8 months). Tests were used to establish the psychological language age, active and passive vocabulary, record the phonetic inventory and language samples analysis (LSA) for qualitative observations. RESULTS: (1) Statistical data reveal a concordance of reports for speech sound disorders. There are major discrepancies for the other language and communication disorders. Causal explanations and potential directions for remedying this situation are proposed. (2) A statistical analysis (Student’s t test) was conducted in order to compare the children in LD and DLD groups. The data obtained from this analysis along with LSA indicate that the language skills differ between the two groups on the following aspects: lexical, pragmatic, semantic, syntactic, morphological and phonological. Significant differences (p<0.05) occur for onset speech therapy age, phonological disorder, passive vocabulary and language psychological age. Results for active vocabulary did not indicate statistical difference between LD and DLD children. CONCLUSIONS: Explorations reveal a situation with potential negative consequences on children with language and communication disorders. It is desirable to ensure a consensus among practitioners, from the identification phase to the construction of the remediation plan. The use of guidelines for language development and communication skills can contribute to a unitary and effective practice. The study is a prospective one, this issue being subject for further exhaustive approaches.

Definitional Skills of Learners with and without Developmental Language Disorder

Definitions exhibit aspects of mental lexicon organization. Learners with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have limited vocabulary knowledge (in breadth and depth) and, thus, less mature definitional skills. Word characteristics affect the definitional skills. This study investigated the definitional skills of learners with and without DLD considering different word characteristics. Moreover, issues like deviant vs. delayed abilities and the link between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are addressed. Thirty-six learners were divided into three groups (a DLD and two control groups [CG] of typically developing learners matched on either age or vocabulary). They were asked to define 16 words. Answers were scored for content and form. Findings revealed that the DLD group scored lower than both CGs in content, while no differences were found in form. Definitions of abstract and compound words were more demanding for all. Correlations between vocabulary and definitional skills were detected only in the age-matched CG. From the above, we deduce that DLD learners’ definitional skills are deviant. In addition, clinical practice should not look at effects of isolated variables, but rather investigate the interrelation of different parameters. Finally, the link between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge may require more time to emerge in DLD learners.

Objects Shape Activation during Spoken Word Recognition in Preschoolers with Typical and Atypical Language Development: An Eye-tracking Study

ABSTRACT Visually situated spoken words activate phonological, visual, and semantic representations guiding overt attention during visual exploration. We compared the activation of these representations in children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) across four eye-tracking experiments, with a particular focus on visual (shape) representations. Two types of trials were presented in each experiment. In Experiment 1, participants heard a word while seeing (1) an object visually associated with the spoken word (i.e., shape competitor) together with a phonologically related object (i.e., cohort competitor), or (2) a shape competitor with an unrelated object. In Experiment 2 and 3, participants heard a word while seeing (1) a shape competitor with an object semantically related to the spoken word (i.e., semantic competitor), or (2) a shape competitor with an unrelated object. In Experiment 4, children heard a word while seeing a semantic competitor with (1) the visual referent of the spoken or (2) with an unrelated object. The visual context was previewed for three seconds before the spoken word, except for Experiment 2, where it appeared at the onset of the spoken word (i.e., no preview). The results showed that when a preview was provided both groups were equally attracted by cohort and semantic competitors and preferred the shape competitors over the unrelated objects. However, shape preference disappeared in the DLD group when no preview was provided and when the shape competitor was presented with a semantic competitor. Our results indicate that children with DLD have a less efficient retrieval of shape representation during word recognition compared to typically developing children.

Cognitive Processes Related to Memory Capacity Explain Nearly All of the Variance in Language Test Performance in School-Age Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

The purpose of this study was to investigate the dimensionality of the cognitive processes related to memory capacity and language ability and to assess the magnitude of the relationships among these processes in children developing typically (TD) and children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Participants were 234 children between the ages of 7;0 and 11;11 (117 TD and 117 DLD) who were propensity matched on age, sex, mother education and family income. Latent variables created from cognitive processing tasks and standardized measures of comprehension and production of lexical and sentential aspects of language were tested with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural regression. A five-factor CFA model that included the constructs of Fluid Intelligence, Controlled Attention, Working Memory, Long-Term Memory for Language Knowledge and Language Ability yielded better fit statistics than two four-factor nested models. The four cognitive abilities accounted for more than 92% of the variance in the language measures. A structural regression model indicated that the relationship between working memory and language ability was significantly greater for the TD group than the DLD group. These results are consistent with a broad conceptualization of the nature of language impairment in older, school-age children as encompassing a dynamic system in which cognitive abilities account for nearly all of the variance in linguistic abilities.

Emergent literacy skills of Saudi Arabic speaking children with and without developmental language disorder

ABSTRACT Research with English-speaking populations has shown that there is a relationship between developmental language disorder (DLD) and emergent literacy skills in children. A small number of Arabic studies have indirectly investigated this relationship in typically developing (TD) children, and children with reading difficulties, and demonstrated the important role of morphosyntactic skills in Arabic reading acquisition. However, none of the previous work has examined the relationship between oral language and emergent literacy skills in children with and without DLD. The aims of this study are twofold: to investigate the language and emergent literacy skills of Saudi Arabic children with DLD aged between 4;0– 6;11 years of age; to compare their performance to age and socioeconomic status matched TD children, and to investigate the relationship between language and emergent literacy skills in both groups. A comprehensive Arabic language and emergent literacy battery was administered. Findings demonstrated that the TD group significantly outperformed the DLD group on most emergent literacy tasks. The DLD group was significantly less accurate than the TD group on syllable segmentation, and phoneme awareness skills. There were significant associations between oral language skills and emergent literacy skills in the DLD group. In the TD group, vocabulary knowledge and syntactic skills were associated with some emergent literacy skills. Syntactic skills were found to have moderately significant relationship with all emergent literacy skills in both groups. This might suggest the important role of morphosyntactic skills to literacy development in Arabic. Overall, findings were consistent with existing literature, and demonstrated strong relationships between oral language and emergent literacy skills in the Arabic language.

Implicit manual and oculomotor sequence learning in developmental language disorder.

Procedural memory functioning in developmental language disorder (DLD) has largely been investigated by examining implicit sequence learning by the manual motor system. This study examined whether poor sequence learning in DLD is present in the oculomotor domain. Twenty children with DLD and 20 age-matched typically developing (TD) children were presented with a serial reaction time (SRT) task. On the task, a visual stimulus repeatedly appears in different positions on a computer display which prompts a manual response. The children were unaware that on the first three blocks and final block of trials, the visual stimulus followed a sequence. On the fourth block, the stimulus appeared in random positions. Manual reaction times (RT) and saccadic amplitudes were recorded, which assessed sequence learning in the manual and oculomotor domains, respectively. Manual RT were sensitive to sequence learning for the TD group, but not the DLD group. For the TD group, manual RT increased when the random block was presented. This was not the case for the DLD group. In the oculomotor domain, sequence learning was present in both groups. Specifically, sequence learning was found to modulate saccadic amplitudes resulting in both DLD and TD children being able to anticipate the location of the visual stimulus. Overall, the study indicates that not all aspects of the procedural memory system are equally impaired in DLD.

Working memory training enhances complex syntax in children with Developmental Language Disorder

AbstractLinguistic deficits attested in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have been explained in terms of limitations in working memory (WM). The goal of this research is to assess whether a tailored WM program can improve the syntactic abilities of children with DLD and those with typical development (TD). We created a novel iPad application consisting of five activities specifically designed to train the components of WM that have been shown to be the most predictive of performance on tests assessing complex syntax. Thirty-two children with DLD (M = 9;0) and 18 with TD (M = 8;5) followed the WM training (lasting 12 hours). Results show significant improvement in verbal WM (direct effects) in both TD and DLD groups, and in sentence repetition (transfer effects) in the DLD group, with the most pronounced improvements observed for complex syntactic structures. This progression is not observed for 38 age-matched children of the same age who followed an alternative, global scholastic training (20 DLD, 18 TD), which proves the specific efficacy of our WM training. The logical next step will be to incorporate the training into the therapy of children with DLD in order to reinforce the potential benefit of their interventions.

Nonword Repetition Performance of Arabic-Speaking Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder: A Study on Diagnostic Accuracy

PurposeThis study evaluates the effectiveness of a nonword repetition (NWR) task in discriminating between Palestinian Arabic–speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and age-matched typically developing (TD) children.MethodParticipants were 30 children with DLD aged between 4;0 and 6;10 (years;months) and 60 TD children aged between 4;0 and 6;8 matched on chronological age. The Arabic version of a Quasi-Universal NWR task was administered. The task comprises 30 nonwords that vary in length, presence of consonant clusters (CCs) and wordlikeness ratings. Responses were scored using an item-level scoring method to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the task. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted to determine the best cutoff point with the highest sensitivity and specificity values, and likelihood ratios were calculated.ResultsChildren with DLD scored significantly lower on the NWR task than their age-matched TD peers. Only the DLD group was influenced by the phonological complexity of the nonwords, with nonwords with two CC being more difficult than nonwords with no or only one CC. For both groups, three-syllable nonwords were repeated less accurately than two- and one-syllable nonwords. Also, high word-like nonwords were repeated more accurately than nonwords with low wordlikeness ratings. The best cutoff score had sensitivity and specificity of 93% and highly informative likelihood ratios.ConclusionsNWR was an area of difficulty for Palestinian Arabic–speaking children with DLD. NWR showed excellent discriminatory power in differentiating Arabic-speaking children diagnosed with DLD from their age-matched TD peers. NWR appears to hold promise for clinical use as it is a useful indicator of DLD in Arabic. These results need to be further validated using population-based studies.Supplemental Materialhttps://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14880360

Word Recognition and Word Prediction in Preschoolers With (a Suspicion of) a Developmental Language Disorder: Evidence From Eye Tracking.

Purpose This study compares online word recognition and prediction in preschoolers with (a suspicion of) a developmental language disorder (DLD) and typically developing (TD) controls. Furthermore, it investigates correlations between these measures and the link between online and off-line language scores in the DLD group. Method Using the visual world paradigm, Dutch children ages 3;6 (years;months) with (a suspicion of) DLD (n = 51) and TD peers (n = 31) listened to utterances such as, "Kijk, een hoed!" (Look, a hat!) in a word recognition task, and sentences such as, "Hé, hij leest gewoon een boek" (literal translation: Hey, he reads just a book) in a word prediction task, while watching a target and distractor picture. Results Both groups demonstrated a significant word recognition effect that looked similar directly after target onset. However, the DLD group looked longer at the target than the TD group and shifted slower from the distractor to target pictures. Within the DLD group, word recognition was linked to off-line expressive language scores. For word prediction, the DLD group showed a smaller effect and slower shifts from verb onset compared to the TD group. Interestingly, within the DLD group, prediction behavior varied considerably, and was linked to receptive and expressive language scores. Finally, slower shifts in word recognition were related to smaller prediction effects. Conclusions While the groups' word recognition abilities looked similar, and only differed in processing speed and dwell time, the DLD group showed atypical verb-based prediction behavior. This may be due to limitations in their processing capacity and/or their linguistic knowledge, in particular of verb argument structure.