Developmental Language Disorder Research Articles

Genetic outcomes in children with developmental language disorder: a systematic review.

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a common childhood condition negatively influencing communication and psychosocial development. An increasing number of pathogenic variants or chromosomal anomalies possibly related to DLD have been identified. To provide a base for accurate clinical genetic diagnostic work-up for DLD patients, understanding the specific genetic background is crucial. This study aims to give a systematic literature overview of pathogenic variants or chromosomal anomalies causative for DLD in children. We conducted a systematic search in PubMed and Embase on available literature related to the genetic background of diagnosed DLD in children. Included papers were critically appraised before data extraction. An additional search in OMIM was performed to see if the described DLD genes are associated with a broader clinical spectrum. The search resulted in 15,842 papers. After assessing eligibility, 47 studies remained, of which 25 studies related to sex chromosome aneuploidies and 15 papers concerned other chromosomal anomalies (SCAs) and/or Copy Number Variants (CNVs), including del15q13.1-13.3 and del16p11.2. The remaining 7 studies displayed a variety of gene variants. 45 (candidate) genes related to language development, including FOXP2, GRIN2A, ERC1, and ATP2C2. After an additional search in the OMIM database, 22 of these genes were associated with a genetic disorder with a broader clinical spectrum, including intellectual disability, epilepsy, and/or autism. Our study illustrates that DLD can be related to SCAs and specific CNV's. The reported (candidate) genes (n = 45) in the latter category reflect the genetic heterogeneity and support DLD without any comorbidities and syndromic language disorder have an overlapping genetic etiology.

The Development of manual for speech and language treatment for parents of children with cleft palate ages 0-3 years old

Background: Cleft palate is a congenital disability affecting the palate’s structure and function, which may lead to delayed speech and language development and communication disorders. There is a shortage of speech therapists in Thailand. Therefore, developing a manual for speech and language treatment for the parents of children with a cleft palate would be an essential early intervention that parents could perform. Objectives: This research aimed to develop a speech and language treatment manual for parents of children with cleft palate ages 0-3 years old and evaluate the manual’s effectiveness, satisfaction, and feedback. Materials and methods: This research was divided into Phase 1, which involved developing a speech and language treatment manual for parents of children with cleft palate ages 0-3 years old and assessing its validity and reliability. Phase 2 tested the manual’s effectiveness by conducting a three-month of 16 participants, who were divided into two groups: A control group without the manual and an experimental group with the manual and phase 3 data analysis. Results: The content validity of the manual and satisfaction of the questionnaires were found to have a content validity index of 0.87 and 0.92, respectively. The total language and speech development scores before and after participating between groups found a statistically significant difference. After participating, the number of the experimental group who passed the 90th percentile of language development was higher than the control group. The language between the children and parents showed that the experimental group displayed more communication skills than the control group. Conclusion: The speech and language treatment manual for parents of children with cleft palate ages 0-3 years old could stimulate the language and speech development of the experimental group more effectively than the control group that did not receive the manual.

Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions for Developmental Language Disorder.

Naturalistic-developmental-behavioral interventions (NDBIs) are a widely accepted and validated approach for treating language-related symptoms in autism spectrum disorder, including deficits in vocabulary, social skills, and grammar. The purpose of this article is to define the elements naturalistic, developmental, and behavioral as applied to children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and to provide an example of how this type of intervention can be implemented to teach vocabulary and test cross-modal generalization between expressive and receptive modalities. A vocabulary intervention using hybrid NDBI methods (storybook reading and conversational recast interaction) was provided to three participants with DLD using a single-case design. The results indicated that all participants successfully learned receptive and expressive vocabulary targets with extensive cross-modal generalization. However, generalization was limited in some of the participants. This article provided definitions of key elements of NDBI (naturalistic, developmental, and behavioral) including a rationale for extending NDBI procedures to language intervention for children with DLD. In addition, a single-case design demonstrated that NDBI can be implemented in DLD and that broadly defined naturalistic-developmental applied behavior analysis techniques are applicable to language interventions for children with language disorders. Moreover, diverse naturalistic and developmental procedures meet the highest standards for evidence-based practice to treat DLD.

Effect of online parent training in promoting language development of children with language delay in Hubei province, China.

Training parents to implement language and communication intervention strategies is an effective approach to promote language development for children with language delay. This study introduces an online parent training program conducted in Hubei province, China, which was designed to help parents of language-delayed children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developmental language disorder (DLD) or global developmental delay (GDD) apply language intervention strategies into daily interactions and promote their children's language development at home. The Bethel Hearing and Speaking Training Center Family Training for Early Communication & Language Development (Bethel Family Training Program, BFT) (Bethel HSTC, 2020) was designed to improve the language and communication skills for children with language delay in a naturalistic way. The caregivers (including parents, grandparents and other main caregivers) participated in an 8-h online program, including lectures on milestones in child language development, common misunderstandings of child language development, and three basic family language intervention strategies ('Looking together, playing together, and talking together') incorporating active learning through video analysis and discussion. Tongji Hospital in Hubei then continued with 3 months of online home intervention monitoring to all the caregivers via weekly online Q&As led by BFT certified speech therapists' team. The Gesell Developmental Schedules (GDS) was carried out before the online parent training program and after the 3-month online home intervention monitoring. 146 families whose children aged 12-68 months with language delay participated in the online training program. The results of the GDS assessments conducted before and after the program showed that not only did the developmental quotient (DQ) of language improve, but so did the DQ of social behaviour and adaptive behaviour (p < 0.001). There is no between-group difference in the application of three strategies between the ASD group and the DLD or GDD group (p > 0.05). Furthermore, both caregivers' ability to apply 'looking together, playing together, talking together' strategies and the effective interaction time played important roles in improving the child's language abilities. The online parent training focusing on improving daily interaction with children through speech-language stimulation strategies promoted the development of language skills. It is an economic and practical approach for children with language delay who have limited access to local language intervention programs. What is already known on the subject Parent-implemented language intervention is an effective approach at improving children's language development. Telepractice is an appropriate model of service delivery for audiologists and speech-language therapists and may be the primary mode of service delivery or may supplement in-person services. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge This paper explores the effectiveness of an online parent training program and provides new evidence that online training on language support strategies (looking together, playing together, talking together) followed by home intervention monitoring works for Mandarin-speaking children and it is equally effective for children with ASD and non-ASD diagnosis. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Developmental behavioural paediatricians and speech-language therapists in countries and areas that lack sufficient training resource for every child will have the option to deliver parent training and home intervention monitoring online, which will save time and cost considerably while offering convenience.

How word meaning structure relates to executive functioning and theory of mind in children with developmental language disorder: A multiple case study.

Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have difficulties in executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM). These difficulties might be explained by the theory that children's conceptual understanding changes over five stages of word meaning structure, from concrete and context-dependent to abstract and precise. We present a multiple case study examining how word meaning structure relates to EF and ToM in children with DLD. Participants were five children with DLD aged 9-12 and five typically developing children matched for age, gender, and nonverbal intelligence. Word meaning structure was assessed using new dynamic test. EF was assessed using the Zoo Map Task and Behavioral Rating Inventory for EF. ToM was assessed using the ToM test, Frith-Happé Animations, and Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire. Behavioral problems were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist. Anamnestic interviews with the parents were conducted to describe the case histories. For the children with DLD, lower scores in the word meaning structure task were observed compared to those observed for their matched peers, with no statistical test applied. Word meaning structure related positively to EF and ToM, but not to behavioral problems. Instances in which word meaning structure dissociates from EF and ToM are discussed in individual case descriptions. By linking language to conceptual development, variations in word meaning structure may explain some EF and ToM difficulties in children with DLD. The present study offers a basis for future research on the relationships among word meaning structure, EF, and ToM.

THE USE OF CLASSIFIERS IN VIETNAMESE IN TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT.

The acquisition of numeral classifiers and their associated syntactic structures has been documented and studied in a broad range of East and Southeast Asian languages among typically-developing (TD) young speakers. However, little research has considered how classifiers are acquired by children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The current paper compares and analyzes the development of numeral classifier patterns among a set of Vietnamese speakers, TD and DLD, studied over three years, from kindergarten to second grade. The investigation highlights differences in the performance of children with TD and DLD and describes the areas of classifier use that seem to be most challenging. Children with DLD produced more errors of classifier omission in kindergarten, showed more random alternations in representational forms, and delays in the development of three element classifier structures. Findings are discussed in terms of future directions in the study of classifier use in Vietnamese speakers with DLD.

Perfil de atos comunicativos de crianças com transtorno do desenvolvimento de linguagem

ABSTRACT Purpose To characterize the communicative acts of children with Developmental Language Disorder, verifying the number of communicative acts, interactive communicative acts, and their relationship with chronological age. Methods Forty children of both sexes with a diagnosis of Developmental Language Disorder aged between 3 years and seven years and 11 months were subjects. All subjects were assessed with the ABFW Pragmatics Test - Child Language Test in their initial assessment. Specifically, this study focused on verifying the number of communicative acts, communicative acts per minute, interactive communicative acts, and the number of communicative initiatives. Results The data indicate that children with Developmental Language Disorder present significant alterations concerning communicative acts and communicative interactions, and there is a correlation between these variables and chronological age. Conclusion Children with Developmental Language Disorder show a decrease in the number of communicative acts, interactive communicative acts, and communicative interactions when compared to the reference values of typical children, regardless of age.

Performance in decoding and writing of children with Developmental Language Disorder: preliminary data.

to verify the performance of children with Developmental Language Disorder in decoding and writing tests in order to better understand their manifestations and the process of acquiring written language skills. The study subjects were 80 children. The Research Group consisted of 16 children diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorder, 13 males and 3 females, mean age of 7.3. The Control Group counted on 64 subjects paired in gender, age, education and socioeconomic level with the Control Group in a 4:1 ratio. The ability to decode words and pseudowords of both groups was evaluated, measuring the time spent to correctly read words and the percentage of correct answers, also considering the length of the word/pseudoword. The writing evaluation was carried out in the control group, which had its spelling errors analyzed and categorized. All data underwent descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The data indicated a longer decoding time and a lower percentage of correct answers for the children from the Research Group. Regarding spelling errors, there was a predominance of arbitrary spelling errors. The data showed that children with Developmental Language Disorder tend to have a longer decoding time, greater percentage of errors than their peers and tend to present spelling errors more concentrated in natural orthography.

Desempenho em decodificação e escrita de crianças com Transtorno do Desenvolvimento da Linguagem: dados preliminares

ABSTRACT Purpose to verify the performance of children with Developmental Language Disorder in decoding and writing tests in order to better understand their manifestations and the process of acquiring written language skills. Methods The study subjects were 80 children. The Research Group consisted of 16 children diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorder, 13 males and 3 females, mean age of 7.3. The Control Group counted on 64 subjects paired in gender, age, education and socioeconomic level with the Control Group in a 4:1 ratio. The ability to decode words and pseudowords of both groups was evaluated, measuring the time spent to correctly read words and the percentage of correct answers, also considering the length of the word/pseudoword. The writing evaluation was carried out in the control group, which had its spelling errors analyzed and categorized. All data underwent descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Results The data indicated a longer decoding time and a lower percentage of correct answers for the children from the Research Group. Regarding spelling errors, there was a predominance of arbitrary spelling errors. Conclusion The data showed that children with Developmental Language Disorder tend to have a longer decoding time, greater percentage of errors than their peers and tend to present spelling errors more concentrated in natural orthography.

Assessing Psychological Implications in Children with Delayed Verbal Communication and Vocabulary Development: A Systematic Review

Background: Delayed verbal communication and vocabulary development can significantly impact children&amp;apos;s emotional well-being, social interactions, and overall psychological development. This systematic review aims to synthesize existing research on the psychological effects associated with these delays, focusing on how they affect children&amp;apos;s emotional health, social skills, and cognitive functioning. Methodology: This review systematically analyzed studies that investigated the psychological consequences of delayed verbal communication and vocabulary development in children. The studies included were diverse in design, including cross-sectional, longitudinal, and mixed-method approaches. Key measures across studies included assessments of depressive and anxiety symptoms, social-emotional functioning, language skills, and cognitive abilities. The analysis synthesized findings from a range of populations, including children with developmental language disorders (DLD), specific language impairment (SLI), and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). Results: The review found that children with delayed verbal communication and vocabulary development are at increased risk for a variety of psychological issues. These include higher levels of anxiety and depression, difficulties in social interactions, and cognitive challenges. Specifically, children with DLD and SLI were more likely to experience emotional difficulties, such as depressive symptoms and anxiety, compared to their peers. Pragmatic language difficulties were found to be particularly associated with later psychotic experiences and depressive symptoms. Peer problems, bullying, and socioemotional challenges were prominent among youth with language impairments. Additionally, deficits in higher-order language skills and cognitive abilities were linked to greater emotional and social difficulties. Conclusion: The psychological impacts of delayed verbal communication and vocabulary development are profound, affecting children&amp;apos;s emotional well-being, social interactions, and cognitive development. Interventions should address both language difficulties and associated emotional and social challenges.

Theory of mind in children with developmental language disorder: Developmental tendencies

Theory of mind in children with developmental language disorder: Developmental tendencies

Social Recognition of Joint Attention Cycles in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by impairments in joint attention (JA) comprising two components: responding to JA (RJA) and initiating JA (IJA). RJA and IJA are considered two interrelated aspects of JA, related to different stages of infant development. While recent technologies have been used to characterize RJA emerging in earlier childhood, only a limited number of studies have attempted to explore IJA, which progressively becomes evident as a hallmark of ASD. This study aims to achieve the social recognition of both RJA and IJA by vision-based human behavior perception through a multi-modal framework automatically and comprehensively. The first three layers of this framework leverage localization, feature extraction, and activity recognition. On this basis, three critical activities in JA are recognized: attention estimation, spontaneous pointing, and showing actions. Then different behaviors are linked through the fourth layer, semantic interpretation, to model the JA event. The proposed framework is evaluated on experiments of four groups: 7 children with ASD, 5 children with mental retardation (MR), 5 children with developmental language disorder (DLD), and 3 typically developed children (TD). Experimental results compared with human codings demonstrate recognition reliability with an intra-class coefficient of 0.959. In addition, statistical analysis suggests significant group difference and correlations. The multi-modal human behavior perception-based framework is a feasible solution for the recognition of joint attention in unconstrained environments. Thus the proposed approach has the potential to improve the clinical diagnosis of autism by offering quantitative monitoring and statistical analysis.

Profile of communicative acts of children with developmental language disorder

RESUMO Objetivo Caracterizar os atos comunicativos de crianças com transtorno do desenvolvimento da linguagem, verificando a quantidade de atos comunicativos, atos comunicativos interativos e sua relação com a idade cronológica. Métodos Foram participantes 40 crianças de ambos os gêneros com diagnóstico de transtorno do desenvolvimento da linguagem com idades entre 3 anos e 2 meses e 7 anos e 11 meses. Todos os sujeitos foram avaliados com a Prova de Pragmática ABFW - Teste de Linguagem Infantil, em sua avaliação inicial. Especificamente para este estudo, focou-se na verificação da quantidade de atos comunicativos, atos comunicativos por minuto, atos comunicativos interativos e número de iniciativas comunicativas. Resultados Os dados indicaram que crianças com transtorno do desenvolvimento da linguagem apresentam alterações importantes em relação aos atos comunicativos e interações comunicativas e há correlação dessas variáveis com a idade cronológica. Conclusão Crianças com transtorno do desenvolvimento da linguagem apresentam diminuição no número de atos comunicativos, atos comunicativos interativos e interações comunicativas, quando comparadas aos valores de referência de crianças típicas, independentemente da idade.

The use of information computer technologies in the independent consolidation of knowledge in younger schoolchildren in the correction of dysgraphy

The relevance of studying the formation of independent consolidation of knowledge in children with disabilities is presented in a reasoned manner. Information and communication technologies are proposed by the authors as a tool for self-consolidation of knowledge. The authors consider such categories as independence, skills formation and children with disabilities, students with disabilities. Three directions in the theory of independent activity of P.I. Pidkasisty are revealed. The following authors made a great contribution to the study of self-consolidation of knowledge in children with disabilities: A. I. Herzen, V. G.Belinsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov, N. G. Chernyshevsky, D. I. Pisarev, E.Ya. Golant, Ushinsky K.D., Kaptereva P.F., Vakhterova V.P. In the study, the authors selected subcategories of children with disabilities, especially children with oral and written speech violation. L.S. Volkova’s classification of written speech is revealed. The group of 40 primary school students (second grades) took part in the study. The analyzed speech disorders in children of primary school age revealed the importance of independent consolidation skills of knowledge at all stages of remedial work. The results of studies revealing the peculiarity of using information and communication technologies (ICT) in the process of forming of independent consolidation skills of knowledge in children are considered. Special attention is paid to the consideration of the speech therapy program for the correction of written speech in primary schoolchildren with developmental language disorder (DLD) and using of computer technology, and the peculiarity of consolidating new knowledge at each stage of the study. The possibilities of using ICT as an effective resource for the formation of the of self-consolidation skills of knowledge in children with speech disorders are shown.

Anxiety disorders as comorbid conditions in neuropsychiatric diseases in children

The variants of heterotypic comorbidity of anxiety disorders (AD) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, speech and language development disorders, specific learning disabilities (dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia), migraine, tension type headache in children and adolescents are discussed. In cases of heterotypic comorbidity the patients with AD referrals to specialists may be primarily associated with their emotional problems. Meanwhile, the comorbidity of AD with these diseases leads to a deterioration of their clinical manifestations and a worsening of the prognosis, and anxiety symptoms often not only persist, but also increase with age. It should be borne in mind that AD in children with neurodevelopmental disorders contribute to a decrease in the quality of life, academic failure, have a negative impact on peer relationships and the family environment, and in young adulthood, patients have an increased risk of depression and substance abuse. Therefore, early intervention and a comprehensive therapeutic approach with a dynamic assessment of the patient's condition are becoming important. When choosing pharmacotherapy, it is advisable to choose medictions that have a complex effect on the pathogenetic mechanisms of the underlying disease and concomitant AD, which include Tenoten for children.

Predicting language outcome at birth.

Even though most children acquire language effortlessly, not all do. Nowadays, language disorders are difficult to diagnose before 3-4 years of age, because diagnosis relies on behavioral criteria difficult to obtain early in life. Using electroencephalography, I investigated whether differences in newborns' neural activity when listening to sentences in their native language (French) and a rhythmically different unfamiliar language (English) relate to measures of later language development at 12 and 18 months. Here I show that activation differences in the theta band at birth predict language comprehension abilities at 12 and 18 months. These findings suggest that a neural measure of language discrimination at birth could be used in the early identification of infants at risk of developmental language disorders.

Mismatch Responses to Speech Contrasts in Preschoolers with and without Developmental Language Disorder.

This study compared cortical responses to speech in preschoolers with typical language development (TLD) and with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). We investigated whether top-down language effects modulate speech perception in young children in an adult-like manner. We compared cortical mismatch responses (MMRs) during the passive perception of speech contrasts in three groups of participants: preschoolers with TLD (n = 11), preschoolers with DLD (n = 16), and adults (n = 20). We also measured children's phonological skills and investigated whether they are associated with the cortical discrimination of phonemic changes involving different linguistic complexities. The results indicated top-down language effects in adults, with enhanced cortical discrimination of lexical stimuli but not of non-words. In preschoolers, the TLD and DLD groups did not differ in the MMR measures, and no top-down effects were detected. Moreover, we found no association between MMRs and phonological skills, even though the DLD group's phonological skills were significantly lower. Our findings suggest that top-down language modulations in speech discrimination may not be present during early childhood, and that children with DLD may not exhibit cortical speech perception deficits. The lack of association between phonological and MMR measures indicates that further research is needed to understand the link between language skills and cortical activity in preschoolers.

The role of working memory in the comprehension of syntactically complex sentences in children with and without developmental language disorder: A literature review

Working memory (WΜ) components are investigated as correlates of complex sentence comprehension (cSC) in children, under the consideration of WM as a cognitive system of limited capacity. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between WM components and cSC in children of typical language development (TLD) as well as in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), by systematically reviewing relevant studies. First, different tasks that are used to assess three distinct WM components are presented and task purity considerations on each of them are taken into account. Second, syntactically complex sentence types that are considered to constrain the already limited resources of WM are presented. Then, the systematic methods of the PRISMA-P protocol are followed. Based on them, six databases were thoroughly searched. After an initial screening stage and a final evaluation stage, twenty-eight studies were found to meet the inclusion criteria. Narrative synthesis was performed on the included studies. In TLD children, results on the role of verbal short-term memory (vST) and verbal working memory (vWM) in cSC are inconclusive, either supporting or questioning the capacity-limit approach. In DLD children, verbal working memory (vWM) has an important effect on cSC, rather than verbal short-term memory (vSTM). This suggests that a processing-execution component is important in DLD children’s cSC. For both children groups, a component serving as an interface between vSTM/vWM and long-term memory (vSTM/vWM-LTM) seems to play an important role; however, it is greatly understudied. Based on the results, future research directions and educational implications are suggested.

Reported speech uses in children with and without developmental language disorder

This study compares the use of reporting speech devices (RS) in narrative retells by Spanish-speaking children with (and without) Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). We assessed 50 7-year-old children (25 with DLD and 25 with TD) and analyzed the narrative retells’ length and the RS forms introduced by children. In addition, we considered the Type of Reported Speech linguistic mechanism (TRSm) and the Type of Voice Assignment (TVA). Neither the number of RS sequences introduced, narrative retells’ length, nor the number of original sequences exhibit significant differences between both groups. We found a mean correlation among groups’ differences and TRSm (Spearman: 0356 rho&gt;: 0011). Although both groups behave in a very similar way in some indicators, we found slight differences that characterize different communicative profiles for DLD and TD. The results have implications for planning DLD language interventions, mainly in those designed to improve DLD grammar and narrative usages.

Preparing Student Clinicians to Provide Recast Therapy on Complement Clauses: A Training Program.

This study reports on a program to train student clinicians to provide recast therapy on complement clauses to children with developmental language disorder (DLD). To determine the efficacy of the program, we conducted secondary data analysis based on Owen Van Horne et al. (2023) and examined student clinicians' recasts after training and children's progress after treatment. Three student clinicians received a two-stage training, followed by a real intervention program targeting complement clauses in six children with DLD. A third of the intervention sessions were coded for the total number and number of unique verbs in complement clauses provided by the student clinicians. An elicited production task was completed to test children's knowledge of the target structure. On average, student clinicians provided 30 targeted recasts to each child during each intervention session. They provided a greater number of and more variable input for that compared to WH complements. Children demonstrated significant improvement only in WH, but not in that, complements. A targeted training program could strengthen clinicians' ability to provide recast therapy on complex syntax; however, future refinements should shorten and broaden training to include more targets. A mismatch between input patterns and learning patterns was observed. WH complement input is more stable than that input, given the less variable complement-taking verbs provided by the student clinicians and the overtness of the WH word as a stable complementizer, which may have facilitated the identification and extraction of the target syntactic structure.