Language Skills In Young Children Research Articles

Childhood stuttering and dissociations across linguistic domains

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the possible presence of dissociations in the speech and language skills of young children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) using a correlation-based statistical procedure [Bates, E., Appelbaum, M., Salcedo, J., Saygin, A. P., & Pizzamiglio, L. (2003). Quantifying dissociations in neuropsychological research. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 1128–1153]. Participants were 45 preschool CWS and 45 CWNS between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 (years;months), with the two groups matched by age, gender, race, and parental socioeconomic status. Children participated in a parent–child interaction for the purpose of disfluency analysis and responded to four standardized speech-language tests for subsequent analyses as main dependent variables. Findings indicated that CWS were over three times more likely than CWNS to exhibit dissociations across speech-language domains, with 44 cases of dissociation for CWS and 14 for CWNS across 10 possible comparisons. Results suggest that there may be a subgroup of CWS who exhibit dissociations across speech-language domains, which may result in a greater susceptibility to breakdowns in speech fluency. Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) summarize findings from previous studies examining differences in speech and language performance between children who do and do not stutter; (2) describe what is meant by “dissociations” in the speech and language skills of young children who do and do not stutter; and (3) discuss three hypotheses that could account for the present findings that suggest CWS, more often than CWNS, exhibit dissociations in their speech-language system.

Assessment of Language Skills in Young Children with Profound Hearing Loss under Two Years of Age.

This article presents an initial evaluation of a technique known as the Diary of Early Language (Di-EL), designed to obtain data about early lexical development in young children with profound hearing loss using cochlear implants, hearing aids, or both. The validity of the Di-EL, a parent report technique, was examined through comparisons with other measures of language development. Lexical data reported by parents using the Di-EL was found to agree with that reported by the same parents for the same children using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI), although some differences in the lexical items were noted. Rate of lexical acquisition on the Di-EL was found to correlate highly with that measured by the CDI and with expressive language skills as measured by the Rossetti Infant Toddler Language Scale, suggesting that the Di-EL is a valid measure of early lexical progress. These results are discussed with reference to other diary studies, along with research and clinical applications of the Di-EL.

Language Skills of Young Children With Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate Following Infant Orthopedics: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract Objective: To investigate the effects of infant orthopedics (IO) on the language skills of children with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). Design: In a prospective randomized clinical trial (Dutchcleft), two groups of children with complete UCLP were followed up longitudinally: one group was treated with IO based on a modified Zurich approach in the first year of life (IO group); the other group did not receive this treatment (non-IO group). At the ages of 2, 2½, 3, and 6 years, language development was evaluated in 12 children (six IO and six non-IO). Receptive language skills were assessed using the Reynell test. Expressive language skills of the toddlers were evaluated by calculating mean length of utterance (MLU) and mean length of longest utterances (MLLU); in the 6-year-olds, the expressive language skills were measured using standardized Dutch language tests. Patients: The participants had complete UCLP without soft tissue bands or other malformations. Results: IO did not af...

Early amplification options

Children with permanent hearing loss have been remediated with hearing amplification devices for decades. The influx of young infants identified with hearing loss through successful newborn hearing screening programs has established a need for amplification resources for infants within the first six months of life. For the approximately two of every 1000 infants born who are identified with bilateral hearing loss [Mehl and Thomson, 1998, Pediatrics 101, p. e4], the use of amplification is commonly the first step in treating the sequella of their loss. The use of hearing aids, combined with early intervention, has been shown to significantly improve the speech and language skills of young children with hearing loss [Yoshinaga-Itano, 2000, Seminars in Hearing 21, p. 309]. Speech and language delays have contributed to compromised academic performance of school aged children with hearing loss [Johnson et al., 1997, Educational Audiology Handbook, Singular Publishing, San Diego]. Most hard-of-hearing and deaf children use hearing aids and other assistive listening devices every day throughout their lifetime and the life expectancy of a hearing aid is only five to eight years. The current challenge for pediatric audiologists is selecting and evaluating the available amplification to provide the best options for children and their families. Amplification technology has seen an explosion in growth the past few years and the options continue to expand rapidly. This article examines currently available amplification technology and reviews the selection criteria that may be used for infants and young children. Issues such as style, type, amplification features, signal processing strategies, and verification and validation tools are also discussed.

Language Intervention: Computer Training for Young Children with Special Needs

Three studies that explore the usefulness and effectiveness of computers for training language skills of young children with communication disabilities are reviewed. A study of eight toddlers with Down syndrome compared traditional individual language intervention with computer‐based instruction for developing comprehension of vocabulary and early grammatical patterns over a period of three months. Both approaches showed a similar, highly significant effect, indicating that computer‐based intervention was as successful as traditional one‐to‐one language therapy.A second study used 52 children (ages 4–10) who were enrolled in special education classes for children with severe language, learning and behavioral disabilities. The effectiveness of adding twice a week, 30‐minute interactive computer language training sessions to the regular classsroom language curriculum was examined. Children showed significantly more progress in vocabulary, general language ability and social communication during the 10 week period they were receiving the computer training.Lastly, the effectiveness of using a parent volunteer to work with toddlers on computer‐based language tasks was compared with language progress when these children worked with a professional speech language pathologist. Four out of five of the children showed more progress when working with the parent volunteer.The article concludes with a discussion of educational considerations for planning computer‐based language intervention and includes a sample language lesson for the computer as well as software evaluation guidelines.

Early Language Milestone Scale and Language Screening of Young Children

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the use of the Early Language Milestone Scale (ELM) in screening language skills in young children. In this study, 657 children from birth to 36 months of age were evaluated with the ELM. The overall failure rate was 8%. Children who failed the ELM screening were evaluated with the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD) that was used as the "gold standard" for diagnosing language disorders. In the 12-month age and younger group, there was poor agreement between the ELM Scale and the SICD. For infants 13 to 24 months of age, there was moderately good agreement between the SICD and a second ELM that was administered 1 to 2 weeks after the initial screening. In the 25- to 36-month age group, there was excellent agreement between the SICD and a rescreen ELM. The agreement between the two instruments indicated that the rescreen ELM correctly classified 79% of the 13- to 24-month-old infants and 89% of the 25- to 36-month-old toddlers.

Testing the Receptive Language Skills of Severely Handicapped Preschool Children

Many school speech-language pathologists now assess communication skills of children as young as 3 years. Some of these young children are severely and multiply handicapped and difficult to test. When possible, norm-referenced and criterion-referenced measures are used to evaluate language skills of young children. Two norm-referenced tests—Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL,—age range 3 to 7 years) and Preschool Language Scale (PLS—age range 1 to 7 years)—and one criterion-referenced task, the Basic Two-Choice Object Discrimination Task (no age range specified)—were administered to nine severely handicapped preschool children. The purpose was not to compare the tests, which do not tap equivalent receptive language skills, but to study patterns of testing behavior and performance for each subject compared under test and retest conditions. Ratings were also assigned to each test and retest judging the degree to which results correlated with subjective estimates of each subject's receptive skills. Overall, performance and behavioral ratings for subjects tended to be best for the Two-Choice Task and worst for the TACL. Results of the Two-Choice Task were consistently judged to reflect each subject's receptive skills most accurately. Factors which may have influenced subject performance and behavior are discussed.

Syntax model games and language in early education

Some procedures for developing language skills in young children are set forth. These procedures, “syntax model games,” were developed with consideration for children's language development and their developmental styles, and a consideration for transformational-generative grammar. Through the syntax model games, participants inductively acquire language patterns through functional use in a playful setting. A purpose of the activities was to support more efficient and flexible use of language. In addition to discussing induction as a way of knowing language, this article deals with the contrast of understanding and using language, the relation of metalinguistic awareness, some processes of syntactic development, relevant aspects of transformational-generative grammar, and a detailing of some syntax model games that were used with several hundred children between 5 and 9 years of age.