Expressive Specific Language Impairment Research Articles

Behavioral disorders in children with specific language impairment

To study emotional and behavioral disorders in children with specific language impairment (SLI). The study group included 60 children with a diagnosis of specific expressive language impairment at the age of 4-6 years. The following methods were used to assess emotional and behavioral disorders: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the SNAP-IV scale, and the Questionnaire created by G.P. Lavrentieva and T.M. Titarenko. To objectify the severity of speech disorders, 10-point scales were used, assessing the level of comprehension of the addressed speech, the volume of the active vocabulary and the lexico-grammatical structure of speech. The control group consisted of 30 children of the same age without psycho-neurological disorders. Speech disorders in children are often combined with behavioral disorders (61.7%). Children with SLI have significant attention disorders, hyperactivity and difficulties in relationships with peers compared with the control group. A comparative study shows that combined SLI and behavioral disorders lead to a more severe course of speech impairment.

The Relationship Between Gesture and Speech in Preschool Children with Expressive Specific Language Impairment and Typically Developing Children

Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between gesture and speech in the preschool children with expressive language impairment (E-SLI). Methods Thirty-six preschool children-12 E-SLI, 12 typically developing children matched for chronological age (CA-TD), and 12 typically developing children matched for language age (LA-TD)- completed a picture naming task and a description task. Three-way mixed analysis of variance was used to analyze the modality of expression, the types of gestures, and the semantic relationship between gestures and co-occurring speech. Results The frequency of ‘speech + gesture’ in children with E-SLI was significantly higher than in CA-TD children. In addition, the frequency of ‘only speech’ and ‘speech + gesture’ in children with E-SLI was similar to that in LA-TD children. In terms of the gesture types, children with E-SLI used significantly more deictic gestures than CA-TD children did. Further, the frequency of representational gestures in children with E-SLI was similar to that of LA-TD children. Conclusion In educational and clinical settings, it is important to acknowledge that the gestures accompanying with limited verbal expression in children with E-SLI deliver additional semantic information. Therefore, it is essential for educators and clinicians to carefully examine the use of gestures when treating children with E-SLI . Keywords: speech & gesture, expressive specific language impairment, nonverbal communication

Children with mixed developmental language disorder have more insecure patterns of attachment

BackgroundDevelopmental Language disorders (DLD) are developmental disorders that can affect both expressive and receptive language. When severe and persistent, they are often associated with psychiatric comorbidities and poor social outcome. The development of language involves early parent-infant interactions. The quality of these interactions is reflected in the quality of the child’s attachment patterns.We hypothesized that children with DLD are at greater risk of insecure attachment, making them more vulnerable to psychiatric comorbidities. Therefore, we investigated the patterns of attachment of children with expressive and mixed expressive- receptive DLD.MethodsForty-six participants, from 4 years 6 months to 7 years 5 months old, 12 with expressive Specific Language Impairment (DLD), and 35 with mixed DLD, were recruited through our learning disorder clinic, and compared to 23 normally developing children aged 3 years and a half. The quality of attachment was measured using the Attachment Stories Completion Task (ASCT) developed by Bretherton.ResultsChildren with developmental mixed language disorders were significantly less secure and more disorganized than normally developing children.ConclusionsInvestigating the quality of attachment in children with DLD in the early stages could be important to adapt therapeutic strategies and to improve their social and psychiatric outcomes later in life.

Executive functions and language in children with different subtypes of specific language impairment

IntroductionThe marked heterogeneity among children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI) highlights the importance of studying and describing cases based on the distinction between the expressive and receptive-expressive SLI subtypes. The main objective of this study was to examine neuropsychological, linguistic, and narrative behaviours in children with different SLI subtypes. MethodA comprehensive battery of language and neuropsychological tests was administered to a total of 58 children (29 with SLI and 29 normal controls) between 5.60 and 11.20 years old. ResultsBoth SLI subtypes performed more poorly than the control group in language skills, narrative, and executive function. Furthermore, the expressive SLI group demonstrated substantial ungrammaticality, as well as problems with verbal fluency and both verbal and spatial working memory, while the receptive-expressive SLI subtype displayed poorer neuropsychological performance in general. ConclusionsOur findings showed that children with either SLI subtype displayed executive dysfunctions that were not limited to verbal tasks but rather extended to nonverbal measures. This could reflect a global cognitive difficulty which, along with declining linguistic and narrative skills, illustrates the complex profile of this impairment.

RENDIMIENTO LECTOR EN ALUMNADO CON TRASTORNO ESPECÍFICO DEL LENGUAJE. IMPLICACIONES EDUCATIVAS SOBRE DIFERENTES SUBTIPOS

INTRODUCTION. All explanatory models of reading learning agree on the participation of two major processes: decoding and comprehension. Children who often have problems in decoding (dyslexia) or understanding (poor comprehenders), but there is a group of children which present a problem of mixed reading, i.e., they are affected by both processes. These students are diagnosed with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). This research has deepened in the study of different reading processes affecting a sample of students classified in two subtypes of SLI: the Receptive - Expressive SLI (SLI ER) and Expressive SLI (SLI E). METHOD . A battery of tests were used to measure linguistic, neuropsychological and reading skills to a total of 58 children (29 typically developing and 29SLI, 16 SLI ER and 13 SLI E) between 5.6 and 11.2 years old. RESULTS . Both SLI subtypes have similar performance in the lexical- phonological factor, but clearly differ in the semantic-grammatical one. This would lead us to conclude that children with SLI have a mixed reading disorder affecting both the decoding process and reading comprehension. However, children with SLI ER have a worse performance in the semantic -grammatical factor and they differentiate significantly from the SLI E subtype. DISCUSSION . The educational intervention with these students should keep in mind that you will need to automate the lexicalphonological processes with the two subtypes of SLI, but a more intensive program of reading comprehension must be established with the SLI ER subtype.

Spontaneous Gesture Production and Lexical Abilities in Children With Specific Language Impairment in a Naming Task.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the role that cospeech gestures play in lexical production in preschool-age children with expressive specific language impairment (E-SLI). Fifteen preschoolers with E-SLI and 2 groups of typically developing (TD) children matched for chronological age (n = 15, CATD group) and for language abilities (n = 15, LATD group) completed a picture-naming task. The accuracy of the spoken answers (coded for types of correct and incorrect answers), the modality of expression (spoken and/or gestural), types of gestures, and semantic relationship between gestures and speech produced by children in the different groups were compared. Children with SLI produced higher rates of phonological simplifications and unintelligible answers than CATD children, but lower rates of semantic errors than LATD children. They did not show a significant preference for spoken answers, as TD children did. Similarly to LATD children, they used gestures at higher rates than CATD, both deictic and representational, and both reinforcing the information conveyed in speech and adding correct information to co-occurring speech. These findings support the hypotheses that children with SLI rely on gestures for scaffolding their speech and do not have a clear preference for the spoken modality, as TD children do, and have implications for educational and clinical practice.

99. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by human syllables, musical notes/chords and animal sounds in pre-school children with specific expressive language disorders (SELDs) for assessing the selectiveness of auditory processing

Auditory ERP recordings are a useful neurophysiological means of assessing the temporal domain of the pre-linguistic and linguistic sensory deficits involved in expressive specific language impairment (SLI). We recorded auditory ERPs in 32 pre-school children aged 3–5 years with SLI before they underwent a rehabilitation programme. The ERPs were evoked using syllables (SyERPs), music (MuERPs) and animal sounds (AnERP) chosen from among those used in the trials carried out before, during and after an intensive rehabilitation programme in order assess: (a) the quality of ERP abnormalities; (b) the selectiveness of the ERP changes associated with the three types of stimuli; and (c) the changes induced by the rehabilitation programme. The SyERPs and MuERPs gave rise to four components (in P1, N1, N2 and P2) classified on the basis of their latency and polarity; the AnERPs only gave rise to P1 and N1 components. The ERPs had both common and distinctive features in terms of their waveforms and topographical distribution: the SyERPs were more left lateralised, and the MuERP more right lateralised. Later negative components were also recorded depending on the type of stimulus. In comparison with controls, P1 and P2 SyERPs were the most abnormal. As the rehabilitation led to selective SyERP changes, these may be useful for diagnosis and monitoring SLI.

Funciones ejecutivas y lenguaje en subtipos de niños con trastorno específico del lenguaje

IntroductionThe marked heterogeneity among children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI) highlights the importance of studying and describing cases based on the distinction between the expressive and receptive-expressive SLI subtypes. The main objective of this study was to examine neuropsychological, linguistic, and narrative behaviours in children with different SLI subtypes. MethodA comprehensive battery of language and neuropsychological tests was administered to a total of 58 children (29 with SLI and 29 normal controls) between 5.60 and 11.20 years old. ResultsBoth SLI subtypes performed more poorly than the control group in language skills, narrative, and executive function. Furthermore, the expressive SLI group demonstrated substantial ungrammaticality, as well as problems with verbal fluency and both verbal and spatial working memory, while the receptive-expressive SLI subtype displayed poorer neuropsychological performance in general. ConclusionsOur findings showed that children with either SLI subtype displayed executive dysfunctions that were not limited to verbal tasks but rather extended to nonverbal measures. This could reflect a global cognitive difficulty which, along with declining linguistic and narrative skills, illustrates the complex profile of this impairment.

Gesture and speech during shared book reading with preschoolers with specific language impairment.

This study examined (a) the relationship between gesture and speech produced by children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing (TD) children, and their mothers, during shared book-reading, and (b) the potential effectiveness of gestures accompanying maternal speech on the conversational responsiveness of children. Fifteen preschoolers with expressive SLI were compared with fifteen age-matched and fifteen language-matched TD children. Child and maternal utterances were coded for modality, gesture type, gesture-speech informational relationship, and communicative function. Relative to TD peers, children with SLI used more bimodal utterances and gestures adding unique information to co-occurring speech. Some differences were mirrored in maternal communication. Sequential analysis revealed that only in the SLI group maternal reading accompanied by gestures was significantly followed by child's initiatives, and when maternal non-informative repairs were accompanied by gestures, they were more likely to elicit adequate answers from children. These findings support the 'gesture advantage' hypothesis in children with SLI, and have implications for educational and clinical practice.

Maternal input to children with specific language impairment during shared book reading: is mothers’ language in tune with their children's production?

The literature on input addressed to children with specific language impairment (SLI) has shown contrasting results on the role that parents assume during conversational interactions. Some studies have shown that parents compensate for the child's linguistic limitations. In contrast, other studies have indicated that mothers are able to adjust their communication in response to their children's language characteristics. To assess the 'closeness of fit' between maternal input and child language profiles in children with SLI during shared book reading. To achieve this aim, the individual linguistic features of a group of children with SLI and their mothers were compared with those of two typically developing (TD) groups and the 'distances' (i.e., the differences between the mother's and her child's linguistic indices) within each dyad were compared. Three groups of children with their mothers participated in the study: 14 children with expressive SLI, 14 language age-matched TD children (LA-matched group), and 14 chronological age-matched TD children (CA-matched group). Each mother-child dyad was videotaped during two weekly sessions of shared book reading, at home. All sessions were entirely transcribed. For each session, the following indices were then considered: whole-word phonological indices, grammatical categories and lexical indices for types and tokens, and the distance between the mother's and the child's linguistic indices within individual dyads. Analysis of the differences between phonological, lexical and morphosyntactic characteristics of the mothers' and children's language indicated that both children with SLI and their mothers produced adjectives and adverbs with lower phonological complexity and with higher frequency of use compared with the CA-matched group, and nouns with lower frequency of use and higher age of acquisition compared with the LA-matched group. In addition, individual dyads within the SLI group displayed reduced distances between linguistic indices produced by the mother and child compared with dyads within the CA-matched group. On the whole these findings suggest that mothers of children with SLI are able to tune their language to their children's linguistic limitations. These findings may contribute to improving early intervention programmes with children with SLI by focusing on the mother-child interaction during shared book reading.

Recognition of Face Identity and Emotion in Expressive Specific Language Impairment

Objective: To study face and emotion recognition in children with mostly expressive specific language impairment (SLI-E). Subjects and Methods: A test movie to study perception and recognition of faces and mimic-gestural expression was applied to 24 children diagnosed as suffering from SLI-E and an age-matched control group of normally developing children. Results: Compared to a normal control group, the SLI-E children scored significantly worse in both the face and expression recognition tasks with a preponderant effect on emotion recognition. The performance of the SLI-E group could not be explained by reduced attention during the test session. Conclusion: We conclude that SLI-E is associated with a deficiency in decoding non-verbal emotional facial and gestural information, which might lead to profound and persistent problems in social interaction and development.

Motor skills, haptic perception and social abilities in children with mild speech disorders

Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate motor skills, haptic object recognition and social interaction in 5-year-old children with mild specific expressive language impairment (expressive-SLI) and articulation disorder (AD) in comparison of age- and gender matched healthy children. Methods: Twenty nine children (23 boys and 6 girls) with expressive-SLI, 27 children (20 boys and 7 girls) with AD and 30 children (23 boys and 7 girls) with typically developing language as controls participated in our study. The children were examined for manual dexterity, ball skills, static and dynamic balance by M-ABC test, haptic object recognition and for social interaction by questionnaire completed by teachers. Results: Children with mild expressive-SLI demonstrated significantly poorer results in all subtests of motor skills ( p < 0.05), in haptic object recognition and social interaction ( p < 0.01) compared to controls. There were no statistically significant differences ( p > 0.05) in measured parameters between children with AD and controls. Children with expressive-SLI performed considerably poorer compared to AD group in balance subtest ( p < 0.05), and in overall M-ABC test ( p < 0.01). Conclusions: In children with mild expressive-SLI the functional motor performance, haptic perception and social interaction are considerably more affected than in children with AD. Although motor difficulties in speech production are prevalent in AD, it is localised and does not involve children’s general motor skills, haptic perception or social interaction.

Knowledge of Mathematical Equivalence in Children With Specific Language Impairment: Insights From Gesture and Speech

This study investigated understanding of mathematical equivalence in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). A total of 34 children (ages 8;1 [years;months] to 11;7), including 9 with expressive SLI (E-SLI), 8 with expressive and receptive SLI (ER-SLI), and 17 age-matched typically developing (TD) children completed addition and mathematical equivalence problems. The problem-solving strategies revealed in solutions and in gestural and verbal explanations were coded. The children with SLI were less accurate than their TD peers in solving addition and equivalence problems. None of the children in the ER-SLI group solved the equivalence problems correctly; however, the number of children who solved any of the equivalence problems correctly did not differ in the E-SLI and CA groups. Children in the ER-SLI group tended to express incorrect strategies for solving the equivalence problems in both gesture and speech, whereas children in the E-SLI group often expressed correct strategies in gestures, but incorrect strategies in speech. Children with SLI showed delays in their knowledge of mathematical equivalence. Children with ER-SLI displayed greater delays than children with E-SLI. Children with E-SLI sometimes expressed more advanced knowledge in gestures, suggesting that their knowledge is represented in a nonverbal format.

Short-Term Memory (STM) Constraints in Children With Specific Language Impairment (SLI): Are There Differences Between Receptive and Expressive SLI?

Specific language impairment (SLI) is assumed to be causally related to deficits in auditory short-term memory (STM). Although verbal STM deficits have been consistently found in SLI, the results of visual STM tests are inconsistent. Do these inconsistencies reflect different study populations of expressive SLI (ELI) and receptive-expressive SLI (R/ELI)? Twenty-one children (ages 6-11) with ELI, 21 with R/ELI, and 21 controls (CG) matched on age and nonverbal intelligence were retrospectively compared with regard to their visual and auditory STM. ELI children and R/ELI children performed significantly poorer than the CG in auditory-verbal STM tests. On tests for visual STM (symbol sequences), the R/ELI children performed significantly poorer than the CG. For hand movements, children with R/ELI scored slightly poorer compared to both other groups but without reaching statistical significance. Correlation analyses showed significant associations between symbol sequences and receptive language measures. Regression analysis found that the scores of symbol sequences and digit sequences together accounted for 39% of the variance of the receptive language measures, whereas the scores for nonsense syllables accounted for 24% of the variance of the expressive language measures. R/ELI children appear to have more complex STM deficits, as they showed visual STM constraints in addition to auditory STM constraints.

Severe receptive language disorder in childhood—familial aspects and long-term outcomes: results from a Scottish study

Background and aims: Little is known about the familial characteristics of children with severe receptive specific language impairment (SLI). Affected children are more likely to have long-term problems than those...

The role of syntax in encoding and recall of pictorial narratives: Evidence from specific language impairment

Previous research on typically developing children has shown that their memory for events depends on how they are encoded. As children grow older, they start to mention causal and temporal relationships between events, including psychological causes. Children with specific language impairment (SLI) were studied to disentangle the effects of syntactic skill and non‐verbal IQ on event encoding and recall. Children with receptive SLI (SLI‐R;N=34) had a significant discrepancy between non‐verbal IQ and scores on a receptive language measure. Those with expressive SLI (SLI‐E;N=29) did not have significant receptive impairment, but had low scores on at least one expressive language test. Controls were 32 typically developing children of similar age and non‐verbal IQ. Children were shown two sequences of photographs, and in each case, were asked first to describe the story, and then, without warning, to recall it after a delay of 30–40 minutes. Compared with controls, children with SLI recalled significantly less story material. For the SLI‐E group, poor recall was totally accounted for by poor initial encoding of the story content. However, for the SLI‐R group, story memory was poor even after adjusting for amount of information in the initial narrative. Description and recall of the story ideas were related to use of complex syntax, and failure to use cognitive state terms predicted poor recall. We conclude that use of complex syntax and causal concepts are more important than non‐verbal IQ in determining children's event memory.

Fluency of School-Aged Children With a History of Specific Expressive Language Impairment

A large volume of literature now links language demand and fluency behaviors in children. Although it might be reasonable to assume that children with relatively weak language skills might demonstrate higher levels of disfluency, the sparse literature on this topic is characterized by conflicting findings on the relationship between language impairment and disfluency. However, in studies finding elevated disfluency in children with specific language impairment, a higher frequency of disfluencies more characteristic of stuttering has been noted. This study asks whether children with long-standing histories of language delay and impairment are more disfluent, and display different types of disfluencies than their typically developing, age-matched peers. Elicited narratives from 22 pairs of 9-year-old children were analyzed for fluency characteristics. Half of the children had histories of specific expressive language impairment (HSLI-E), whereas the others had typical developmental histories. The children with HSLI-E were significantly more disfluent than their peers and produced more stutter-like disfluencies, although these behaviors were relatively infrequent in both groups. Implications for clinical intervention and future research are discussed.

Third person pronoun errors by children with and without language impairment

Research findings have been mixed about pronoun case problems in the language-learning profile of children with specific language impairment (SLI). This study ( N=36) extended previous findings and located a number of error patterns using detailed error analyses. Results indicated that the children with expressive SLI produced more errors with third person singular (3Psg) pronouns than did their age-level peers, but they did not make more errors than their MLU-matched peers. Error patterns were similar in the children with SLI and their language-level peers. The most frequent type of error was the substitution of the objective case for the nominative case. More errors were made on the feminine pronoun, she, than on the masculine pronoun, he. Implications for theories and clinical practice were explored. Educational objectives: As a result of this activity, the reader will (1) learn how children with SLI compare to their peers in producing third person pronouns, (2) learn the most common types of pronoun errors made by the children matched for mean length of utterance (MLU), and (3) evaluate how the findings relate to two current theories: one from typical language development and one from the area of SLI.

Meta-syntactic therapy using visual coding for children with severe persistent SLI.

The results of a pilot study into meta-syntactic therapy using visual coding for four children (age 11-13 years) with severe receptive and expressive specific language impairment (SLI) are presented. The coding system uses shapes, colours and a system of arrows to teach grammatical rules. A time-series design established baseline pre-therapy measures of comprehension and production of both passives and 'wh' questions. All participants made progress with passives and this was significant in three cases of the four. Comprehension and production of 'wh' questions also improved in all participants, although this did not always reach statistical significance. The results indicate that meta-syntactic therapy of grammatical rules, capitalizing on visual strengths, can improve both comprehension and production in secondary age children with severe persistent SLI.

Syllable structure development of toddlers with expressive specific language impairment

A total of 35 children – 20 with expressive specific language impairment (SLI-E) and 15 typically developing (TD) peers – were compared longitudinally from 24 to 36 months with respect to their production of syllable shapes in 10-minute spontaneous speech samples. SLI-E 24-month-olds predominantly produced earlier developing syllable shapes containing vowels, liquids, and glides. TD 24-month-olds and SLI-E 36-month-olds produced approximately the same proportion of syllable types, with the exception of consonant clusters, where TD 24-month-olds produced more than SLI-E 36-month-olds. TD children at 36 months showed the greatest use of syllable shapes containing two different consonants and consonant clusters. Detailed analyses revealed that SLI-E children produced fewer syllable shapes containing final consonants, more than one consonant type, and consonant clusters. Furthermore, the children with SLI-E were found to vocalize less often than their TD peers. The possible relationships between these findings, SLI-E children's concomitant deficits in morphology and syntax, and the implications for diagnosis and remediation are discussed.