Diagnosis Of Specific Language Impairment Research Articles

Novel favipiravir pattern-based learning model for automated detection of specific language impairment disorder using vowels.

Specific language impairment (SLI) is one of the most common diseases in children, and early diagnosis can help to obtain better timely therapy economically. It is difficult and time-consuming for clinicians to accurately detect SLI through standard clinical assessments. Hence, machine learning algorithms have been developed to assist in the accurate diagnosis of SLI. This work aims to investigate the graph of the favipiravir molecule-based feature extraction function and propose an accurate SLI detection model using vowels. We proposed a novel handcrafted machine learning framework. This architecture comprises the favipiravir molecular structure pattern, statistical feature extractor, wavelet packet decomposition (WPD), iterative neighborhood component analysis (INCA), and support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Two feature extraction models, statistical and textural, are employed in the handcrafted feature generation methodology. A new nature-inspired graph-based feature extractor that uses the chemical depiction of the favipiravir (favipiravir became popular with the COVID-19 pandemic) is employed for feature extraction. Finally, the proposed favipiravir pattern, statistical feature extractor, and wavelet packet decomposition are used to create a feature vector. Moreover, a statistical feature extractor is used in this work. The WPD generates multilevel features, and the most meaningful features are selected using the NCA feature selector. Finally, these chosen features are fed to SVM classifier for automated classification. Two validation methods, (i) leave one subject out (LOSO) and (ii) tenfold cross-validations (CV), are used to obtain robust classification results. Our proposed favipiravir pattern-based model developed using a vowel dataset can detect SLI children with an accuracy of 99.87% and 98.86% using tenfold and LOSO CV strategies, respectively. These results demonstrated the high vowel classification ability of the proposed favipiravir pattern-based model.

An Innovation-Driven Approach to Specific Language Impairment Diagnosis.

BackgroundSpecific language impairment (SLI) diagnosis is inconvenient due to manual procedures and hardware cost. Computer-aided SLI diagnosis has been proposed to counter these inconveniences. This study focuses on evaluating the feasibility of computer systems used to diagnose SLI.MethodsThe accuracy of Webgazer.js for software-based gaze tracking is tested under different lighting conditions. Predefined time delays of a prototype diagnosis task automation script are contrasted against with manual delays based on human time estimation to understand how automation influences diagnosis accuracy. SLI diagnosis binary classifier was built and tested based on randomised parameters. The obtained results were cross-compared to Singlims_ES.exe for equality.ResultsWebgazer.js achieved an average accuracy of 88.755% under global lighting conditions, 61.379% under low lighting conditions and 52.7% under face-focused lighting conditions. The diagnosis task automation script found to execute with actual time delays with a deviation percentage no more than 0.04%, while manually executing time delays based on human time estimation resulted in a deviation percentage of not more than 3.37%. One-tailed test probability value produced by both the newly built classifier and Singlims_ES were observed to be similar up to three decimal places.ConclusionThe results obtained should serve as a foundation for further evaluation of computer tools to help speech language pathologists diagnose SLI.

Parental perception of stress and emotional-behavioural difficulties of children with autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment.

The daily challenges of caring for a child with autism spectrum disorder affect many areas of everyday life and parental well-being, as well as parents' ability to manage the needs of the family and the child concerned. A better understanding of parents' perception of their child's characteristics can allow better support for them and individualize intervention protocols in a more accurate way. The main objective of this study is the evaluation of the perception of stress by parents of children with autism compared to parents of children with specific language impairment. The parents of 87 children aged between 2 and 6 years were included in this study, 34 children with a specific language impairment diagnosis and 53 children with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis (ASD) or at risk of developing it. They were asked to complete a self-report on perceived stress and rating scales on adaptive/problematic behaviours, executive functions and sensory profile of the child. The results reveal that parents of ASD children, compared to the control group, showed significantly higher levels of stress, mainly due to the difficulty of managing unexpected events, the feeling of loss of control over one's life and the fear of not being able to cope with the adversities they were experiences. The most critical area, both for ASD and control group, concern the executive function related to emotional reactions. Thus, we argue that the difficulties in self-control, sensory modulation and emotional regulation, represent an element of stress for parents of children with developmental disorders.Implications: Regarding the difficulties of children with ASD, supporting the ways in which caregivers adapt to the signals of children is an important strategy, which has now become a key element of treatments for autism mediated by parents.

Two Grammatical Tasks for Screening Language Abilities in Spanish-Speaking Children.

This study assessed concurrent validity evidence for 2 grammatical tasks of a new screener, the Tamiz de Problemas de Lenguaje, for identifying monolingual Spanish-speaking children at risk for specific language impairment with grammatical deficits. A total of 770 4- to 6-year-old monolingual, Spanish-speaking children with and without language impairment were sampled from 3 different states in Mexico. Multiple logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were conducted to assess the predictive utility of the model and the classification accuracy of the tasks. The criterion was diagnosis of specific language impairment with grammatical deficits on the basis of a comprehensive language assessment. Results indicated that sensitivity estimates ranged from .90 to .94 and specificity estimates from .83 to .92. Overall, there was a good balance between sensitivity and specificity estimates with moderate to large positive and negative likelihood ratios. Results suggested that the 2 grammatical tasks are suitable for identifying 4- to 6-year-old monolingual Spanish-speaking children at risk for grammatical deficits.

Consequences of specific language impairment in children

To assess cognitive and emotional disorders in children of primary school age who have a history of specific language impairment (SLI). Eighty-six children, aged 7-9 years, who were previously studied at age of 3-6 years with a diagnosis of SLI with a predominant disorder of expressive speech, were examined. Common neurological examination, psychological and psychometric testing were performed. Clinical manifestations of the developmental disorder of expressive speech of moderate degree remained in 19.8% of children. In 53.4% of cases, the state of children could be regarded as an organic asthenic disorder. Clinical manifestations of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were observed in 24.4% of children. Disorders of the formation of school skills were revealed in 32.5% of children. Thus, the SLI play an important role in the formation of cognitive, emotional and regulatory disorders and can serve as predictors of the development of other neuropsychiatric diseases.

Can executive functioning contribute to the diagnosis of SLI in bilingual children?

Abstract Language tests often fail to diagnose specific language impairment (SLI) in bilinguals due to the confounding impact of SLI and bilingualism on language. The present study focuses on the contribution of executive functioning to the diagnosis of SLI in bilinguals. Performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and without SLI on a task tapping response inhibition was assessed. Results revealed a negative effect of SLI but no effect of bilingualism. The diagnostic accuracy of the task was also estimated. Sensitivity and specificity were low, suggesting that response inhibition could not be considered as a reliable clinical marker of SLI. Although the results at the group level showed that children with SLI seemed more at risk than their typically-developing peers for a deficit in response inhibition, our results on diagnostic accuracy challenge the hypothesis of a relationship between deficits in language and deficits in inhibition in children with SLI.

Specific Language Impairment: Evaluation and detection of differential psycholinguistic markers in phonology and morphosyntax in Spanish-speaking children

BackgroundThe diagnosis of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is very complex, given the variety of clinical pictures described in this disorder. Knowledge about the linguistic markers of SLI can facilitate its differentiation from the normal profile of language development. These markers can also be used as tools that may improve diagnostic. AimsTo determine which psycholinguistic markers best discriminate Spanish-speaking children with SLI from children with typical language development. Method and procedureThe performance of 31 Spanish-speaking children with SLI was analysed using a battery of 13 psycholinguistic tasks organized into two areas: phonology and morphosyntax. The performance of the SLI group was compared to that of two subgroups of controls: aged matched (CA) and linguistically matched (CL). Outcomes and resultsThe data show that the SLI group performed worse than the CA subgroup on all 13 verbal tasks. However, the performance of the SLI group did not significantly differ from that of the CL subgroup on most (11/13) of the tasks. Stepwise discriminant analysis established the canonical function of three tasks (morphologic integration, sentence understanding and diadochokinesis) which significantly discriminated SLI from CA, with sensitivity 84% and specificity 90%. Conclusions and implicationsThese results contribute to determining the psycholinguistic and clinical characteristics of SLI in Spanish-speaking children and provide some methods for screening assessment.

Oral morphosyntactic competence as a predictor of reading comprehension in children with specific language impairment.

Children with a diagnosis of specific language impairment (SLI) present impaired oral comprehension. According to the simple view of reading, general amodal linguistic capacity accounts for both oral and reading comprehension. Considering this, we should expect SLI children to display a reading comprehension deficit. However, previous research regarding the association between reading disorders and SLI has yielded inconsistent results. To study the influence of prior oral comprehension competence over reading comprehension during the first years of reading acquisition of bilingual Catalan-Spanish children with SLI (ages 7-8). We assessed groups of bilingual Catalan-Spanish SLI and matched control children at ages 7 and 8 with standardized reading comprehension tasks including grammatical structures, sentence and text comprehension. Early oral competence and prior non-verbal intelligence were also measured and introduced into regression analyses with the participants' reading results in order to state the relation between the comprehension of oral and written material. Although we found no significant differences between the scores of our two participant groups in the reading tasks, data regarding their early oral competence, but not non-verbal intelligence measures, significantly influence their reading outcome. The results extend our knowledge regarding the course of literacy acquisition of children with SLI and provide evidence in support of the theories that assume common linguistic processes to be responsible for both oral and reading comprehension.

Specific Language Impairment, Nonverbal IQ, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cochlear Implants, Bilingualism, and Dialectal Variants: Defining the Boundaries, Clarifying Clinical Conditions, and Sorting Out Causes.

The purpose of this research forum article is to provide an overview of a collection of invited articles on the topic "specific language impairment (SLI) in children with concomitant health conditions or nonmainstream language backgrounds." Topics include SLI, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, cochlear implants, bilingualism, and dialectal language learning contexts. The topic is timely due to current debates about the diagnosis of SLI. An overarching comparative conceptual framework is provided for comparisons of SLI with other clinical conditions. Comparisons of SLI in children with low-normal or normal nonverbal IQ illustrate the unexpected outcomes of 2 × 2 comparison designs. Comparative studies reveal unexpected relationships among speech, language, cognitive, and social dimensions of children's development as well as precise ways to identify children with SLI who are bilingual or dialect speakers. The diagnosis of SLI is essential for elucidating possible causal pathways of language impairments, risks for language impairments, assessments for identification of language impairments, linguistic dimensions of language impairments, and long-term outcomes. Although children's language acquisition is robust under high levels of risk, unexplained individual variations in language acquisition lead to persistent language impairments.

Narrative production in monolingual and bilingual children with specific language impairment

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to identify potential clinical markers of specific language impairment (SLI) in bilingual children with SLI by using the Greek version of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives. Twenty-one Greek-speaking monolingual and 15 bilingual children with SLI participated, along with monolingual (N = 21) and bilingual (N = 15) age-matched children with typical development. Results showed differences between typically development children and children with SLI in microstructure, while bilingual children with SLI were found to attain similar levels of performance, and even to outperform monolingual children with SLI, in macrostructure. It is suggested that the retelling coding scheme could permit differential diagnosis of SLI among bilingual children within the scope of narrative assessment.

Rapid Naming and Phonemic Awareness in Children With Reading Disabilities and/or Specific Language Impairment: Differentiating Processes?

The objective of this study was to assess and compare the predictive values of group membership for rapid automatized naming (RAN) and phonemic awareness (PA) in Dutch school children with and without reading disabilities (RD) or specific language impairment (SLI). A composite word reading index and a formal SLI diagnosis were used to classify a total of 1,267 children aged 8 to 13 years old either as RD-only (n = 126), SLI-only (n = 21), comorbid (RD+SLI; n = 30), or typically developing (n = 1,090). RAN and PA were assessed with 4 standardized subtests. The clinical subgroups were compared to each other and contrasted with the control group. For each subgroup, results indicate substantial effect sizes of RAN and PA. However, the RD-only group seems to be more affected by poor RAN than the SLI-only group, whereas the 2 groups perform equally poorly on PA. The comorbid group was revealed as most severely impaired on all measurements. In studying RD and SLI, this research indicates that it is important to distinguish between RD-only, SLI-only, and comorbid groups. The comorbid group shows additive effects of both disorders.

The sentence repetition task: a powerful diagnostic tool for French children with specific language impairment.

This study assesses the diagnostic accuracy and construct validity of a sentence repetition task that is commonly used for the identification of French children with specific language impairment (SLI). Thirty-four school-aged children with a confirmed, diagnostically based diagnosis of SLI, and 34 control children matched on age and nonverbal abilities performed the sentence repetition task. Two general scoring measures took into account the verbatim repetition of the sentence and the number of words accurately repeated. Moreover, five other scoring measures were applied to their answers in order to separately take into account their respect of lexical items, functional items, syntax, verb morphology, and the general meaning of the sentence. Results show good to high levels of sensitivity and specificity at the three cut-off points for all scoring measures. A principal component analysis revealed two factors. Scoring measures for the respect of functional words, syntax and verb morphology provided the largest loadings to the first factor, while scoring measures for the respect of lexical words and general semantics provided the largest loadings to the second factor. Sentence repetition appears to be a valuable tool to identify SLI in French children, and the ability to repeat sentences correctly is supported by two factors: a morphosyntactic factor and a lexical factor.

Prenatal, Perinatal, and Neonatal Risk Factors for Specific Language Impairment: A Prospective Pregnancy Cohort Study

Although genetic factors are known to play a causal role in specific language impairment (SLI), environmental factors may also be important. This study examined whether there are prenatal, perinatal, and neonatal factors that are associated with childhood SLI. Participants were members of the Raine Study, a prospective cohort investigation of pregnant women and their offspring. Parent report indicated that 26 children had received a clinical diagnosis of SLI. Data from antenatal and birth medical records were compared between the children with SLI and typically developing comparison children (N = 1,799). There were no statistically significant differences between the SLI and comparison groups in the individual prenatal, perinatal, and neonatal factors examined. Aggregate risk scores were calculated for each period on the basis of factors known to be associated with neurodevelopmental disorder. There were no group differences in aggregate risk scores in the prenatal and perinatal periods. However, significantly more children in the SLI group (50%) compared with the comparison group (27.6%) experienced 2 or more risk factors during the neonatal period. The vast majority of prenatal, perinatal, and neonatal complications do not play a clear causal role in childhood SLI. However, poor neonatal health may signify increased risk for SLI.

Foreword

Background: Recent evidence suggests that specific language impairment (SLI) might be secondary to general cognitive processing limitations in the domain of executive functioning. Previous research has focused almost exclusively on monolingual children with SLI and offers little evidence-based guidance on executive functioning in bilingual children with SLI. Studying bilinguals with SLI is important, especially in the light of increasing evidence that bilingualism can bring advantages in certain domains of executive functioning. Aims: To determine whether executive functioning represents an area of difficulty for bilingual language-minority children with SLI and, if so, which specific executive processes are affected. Methods & Procedures: This cross-cultural research was conducted with bilingual children from Luxembourg and monolingualchildrenfromPortugalwhoallhadPortugueseastheirfirstlanguage.Thedatafrom81eight-year-olds from the following three groups were analysed: (1) 15 Portuguese‐Luxembourgish bilinguals from Luxembourg with an SLI diagnosis; (2) 33 typically developing Portuguese‐Luxembourgish bilinguals from Luxembourg; and (3) 33 typically developing Portuguese-speaking monolinguals from Portugal. Groups were matched on first language, ethnicity, chronological age and socioeconomic status, and they did not differ in nonverbal intelligence. Children completed a battery of tests tapping: expressive and receptive vocabulary, syntacticcomprehension, verbal and visuospatial working memory, selective attention and interference suppression. Outcomes & Results: The bilingual SLI group performed equally well compared with their typically developing peers on measures of visuospatial working memory, but had lower scores than both control groups on tasks of verbal working memory. On measures of selective attention and interference suppression, typically developing children who were bilingual outperformed their monolingual counterparts. For selective attention, performance of the bilingual SLI group did not differ significantly from the controls. For interference suppression the bilingual SLI group performed significantly less well than typically developing bilinguals but not monolinguals. Conclusions&Implications:ThisresearchprovidesfurthersupporttothepositionthatSLIisnotalanguage-specific disorder. The study indicates that although bilingual children with SLI do not demonstrate the same advantages in selective attention and interference suppression as typically developing bilinguals, they do not lag behind typically developing monolinguals in these domains of executive functioning. This finding raises the possibility that bilingualism might represent a protective factor against some of the cognitive limitations that are associated with SLI in monolinguals.

Atypical Right Hemisphere Specialization for Object Representations in an Adolescent with Specific Language Impairment

Individuals with a diagnosis of specific language impairment (SLI) show abnormal spoken language occurring alongside normal non-verbal abilities. Behaviorally, people with SLI exhibit diverse profiles of impairment involving phonological, grammatical, syntactic, and semantic aspects of language. In this study, we used a multimodal neuroimaging technique called anatomically constrained magnetoencephalography (aMEG) to measure the dynamic functional brain organization of an adolescent with SLI. Using single-subject statistical maps of cortical activity, we compared this patient to a sibling and to a cohort of typically developing subjects during the performance of tasks designed to evoke semantic representations of concrete objects. Localized patterns of brain activity within the language impaired patient showed marked differences from the typical functional organization, with significant engagement of right hemisphere heteromodal cortical regions generally homotopic to the left hemisphere areas that usually show the greatest activity for such tasks. Functional neuroanatomical differences were evident at early sensoriperceptual processing stages and continued through later cognitive stages, observed specifically at latencies typically associated with semantic encoding operations. Our findings show with real-time temporal specificity evidence for an atypical right hemisphere specialization for the representation of concrete entities, independent of verbal motor demands. More broadly, our results demonstrate the feasibility and potential utility of using aMEG to characterize individual patient differences in the dynamic functional organization of the brain.

Specific language impairment in Cypriot Greek

Investigating children’s language skills in their native variety is of paramount importance. Clinical practices cannot be based on findings from languages or varieties which have different properties. This paper, after demonstrating the importance of investigating Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in Cyprus, assesses the feasibility of existing language assessments in Standard Modern Greek for the diagnosis of SLI in the Greek Cypriot context, for the children’s native variety of Cypriot Greek. In total, 16 children with SLI (5 to 9 years) and 22 age-matched typically language developing children participated in this study. However, given that not all stimuli in the Standard Greek versions were appropriate for Cypriot Greek-speaking children and because of cultural differences, the tools were adapted. Results showed that the assessment tools can accurately identify children with SLI from typically language developing peers with sensitivity and specificity when the comparison is between children that use the same variety. Keywords: acquisition; bilectalism; diagnosis; sensitivity; specificity

Sleep characteristics in children with specific language impairment: macrostructure and microstrucrure analysis

Introduction Sleep is important for learning, memory and underlying neural plasticity. Studies support that children utilize a dual memory system when acquiring and integrating new vocabulary, and sleep (especially sleep spindles, slow waves sleep and REM sleep) is important for this process. We aimed to describe sleep characteristics in children with diagnosis of Specific Language Impairment because sleep disruption, especially of the microstructure, could have an important role in the development and evolution in these patients. Materials and methods 30 children (24 boys and 6 girls) with 3–5 years old, diagnosed of specific language impairment (development quotient ⩾ 70 in Brunet-Lezine Scale), normal MRI, without epileptiform discharges in EEG, no hearing impairment, no other disorders and with parents in medium–high sociocultural level. Children participated in a polysomnographic (PSG) sleep recording. Sleep disorders like Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pediatric (OSAP), Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD) and parasomnias, and sleep characteristics like sleep stages percentage, spindles characteristics, presence of significant alpha rhythm during sleep (alpha-delta sleep), microarousal index, sleep efficiency and awakenings episodes were analyzed. Results In our sample, we found OSAP only in one patient, and parasomnias in 2 patients. However, data about PLMD was relevant, 93.3% present this disorder with an average index of 9.316 ± 6.11 . We found an average of 4.073 % ± 3.41 of stage 1, 40.76 ± 8.89 of stage 2, 25.381 ± 6.91 of stage 3, 25.587 ± 6.91 of stage REM, 112.76 ± 25.65 of body movements, 3.10 ± 1.6 awakening episodes ⩾ 5 min, 85.14 ± 9.07 of sleep efficiency, 37.556 ± 9.6 of microarousal index (83.4% with microarousal index ⩾ 30 ), 80% present significant percentage of alpha rhythm during sleep and 66.7% presented unsuitable spindles. Conclusion We observed that although the sleep architecture in terms of the macrostructure, like time spent in the different stage of sleep, appears to not be consistently altered in relation with normal values, it is very important the analysis of sleep microstructure because specific features would be altered in these patients and could be related to the problem of language skills. Treatment for specific sleep disorders and treatment to stabilize sleep structure, could improve the symptomatology in these patients.

Periodic Limb Movements Disorder in patients with specific language impairment: an important cause of sleep disruption

Introduction Sleep problems, including Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD) in childhood, mainly associated with disorders like Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity (ADHD) have been well documented, but less is known about this specific sleep disorder in children with Specific Language Impairment. Sleep problems have effects in day- time cognitive and adaptive performance, so the presence of this disorder could be influence in the development of these children. Materials and methods 40 children (31 boys and 9 girls) with 3–5 years old, diagnosed of Specific Language Impairment (development quotient Results In our sample, we found PLMD in 87.5% of the children, with an average index of 9.08+/-5.93. 60% of these patients present foot flexion and extension movements and the remaining 40% present exaggerated movements with knee flexion and extension and sometimes with movements in arms. In this group, the index of movements is higher than in the first one, with statistically significant result (Pearson correlation). We found an average index of periodic limb movement with arousal of 5.86+/-3.56, average arousal index of 36.5+/-8.54 and average sleep efficiency of 86.14+/-8.37. There are no statistically significant correlation between periodic limb movement index and sleep efficiency. Only 4 patients present another specific sleep disorder (2 OSAP and 2 parasomnias). Conclusion We found that Periodic Limb Movement Disorder is common in children with diagnosis of Specific Language Impairment. This disorder disrupts sleep (mainly in microstructure) and secondarily may influence the daily behavior and development of these children. Treatment of this specific disorder could improve the day- time impairment and the language problem in these children. We need to extend the sample size and control the effect of the treatment in clinic and evolution of the children to have more consistent results.

Identificación y clasificación de alumnado con Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje

The aim of this study was two-fold. Firstly, to identify the instruments that help to more accurately distinguish between children with normal development and those with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and, secondly, to establish the most important underlying characteristics that allow children with SLI to be grouped into different subtypes. The sample consisted of 33children diagnosed with SLI and 20children without language problems. Children were enrolled from the last year of preschool education (5years) to Primary5 (11years). The results showed that the test that allows the most accurate diagnosis of SLI is the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Third Edition (CELF-3), and that there are two major subtypes of SLI, the phonological-syntactic subtype and the lexical-syntactic subtype.

Use of Language Tests when Identifying Specific Language Impairment in Primary Health Care

Objective: To evaluate the ability of language tests to identify children with specific language impairment (SLI) in primary health care. All the language tests presently in clinical use in Finland were applied. Method: All the children with SLI living in one city in Finland constituted the cohort. Test scores were collected from 83 subjects drawn from a birth cohort of 4,553 children. Finally 31 case-control pairs were studied. All SLI diagnoses were set in secondary health care. Test scores of 14 language tests were examined that, together with subtests, included 39 different tasks. Results: Out of 39 performed tests, the difference in test scores between children with SLI and their matched controls was statistically significant in 26 tests. A group of six tests had good sensitivity and moderate specificity for SLI diagnosis and they correctly classified children with SLI to either F80.1 or F80.2 diagnosis category. Conclusion: The results suggest that most of the language tests in Finnish identify children with SLI and, furthermore, that these tests identify language deficits that are consistent with those found in other studies. More studies with larger age-matched populations are needed.