Familial Aggregation in Specific Language Impairment

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 1172-1182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Tallal ◽  
Linda S. Hirsch ◽  
Teresa Realpe-Bonilla ◽  
Steve Miller ◽  
Linda M. Brzustowicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Familial Aggregation ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Current Testing ◽  
Current Test ◽  
Group Data ◽  
The Family

A case-control family study design, in which the current language-related abilities of all biological, primary relatives (mother, father, siblings) of probands with specific language impairment (SLI) and matched controls were assessed, was used to investigate familial aggregation for language disorders. Current test data from each family member showed the rate of language impairment for mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers of the SLI probands to be significantly higher than for members of control families. Impairment rates for fathers and mothers were approximately equal, whereas rates for brothers were significantly higher than for sisters. In SLI proband families, Language Impairment (LI) occurred in 13.0% of offspring (excluding proband) with neither parent affected, 40% of offspring with one parent affected, and 71.4% of offspring in families in which both parents were language impaired. Rates of impairment as determined in current testing were compared directly to impairment rates estimated from family-history questionnaires collected from the same families. Group data showed impairment rates estimated from the family-history questionnaires to be similar to the rates based on actual testing. Furthermore, both appeared in line with rates based primarily on questionnaire data as reported previously in the literature. However, case-by-case analyses showed poor intrasubject agreement on classification as language impaired on the basis of current testing as compared to history information.

Early Lexical Acquisition in Children with Specific Language Impairment

1982 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 554-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard ◽  
Richard G. Schwartz ◽  
Kathy Chapman ◽  
Lynne E. Rowan ◽  
Patricia A. Prelock ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Lexical Acquisition ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Linguistic Development ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Similar Tendency

This study examined the characteristics of early lexical acquisition in children with specific language impairment. Sixteen unfamiliar words and referents were exposed across 10 sessions to language-impaired and normal children matched for level of linguistic development. Posttesting revealed similar comprehension-production gaps in the two groups of children. In addition, both groups showed greater comprehension and production of words referring to objects than words referring to actions. However, the language-impaired children's object word bias was not as marked as that of the normal children. For both groups, words containing initial consonants within the children's production repertoires were more likely to be acquired in production than words containing consonants absent from the children's phonologies. A similar tendency was not seen for comprehension.

Lexical Imitation and Acquisition in Language-Impaired Children

1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Schwartz ◽  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Lexical Acquisition ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Novel Words

This investigation examined the influence of unsolicited lexical imitation on the comprehension and on the production of novel words by language-impaired children. Subjects were 13 children (2:8–3:1) exhibiting specific language impairment who were presented with 16 unfamiliar words referring to unfamiliar objects or actions over 10 experimental sessions. Unsolicited imitations appeared to facilitate subsequent production of these words on a posttest. This effect was greatest when these words were also produced spontaneously prior to the posttest. Words that were produced imitatively and spontaneously also appeared more frequently in spontaneous usage than words that were only produced spontaneously. No relationship between such imitations and comprehension was observed. These findings suggest that unsolicited imitations benefit children's lexical acquisition primarily by providing them with additional opportunities to produce words that are in the process of being established in their expressive lexicons.

Specific Language Impairment as a Clinical Category

1991 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
Central Mechanism ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Language Measures ◽  
Clinical Category

Many children are diagnosed as "specifically language-impaired" principally on the basis of their low scores relative to the norm on language measures. Yet it is often assumed that such children must suffer from a subtle disruption or defect in some peripheral or central mechanism that is involved in language learning. In this paper, an alternative view is offered: Many of these children may simply be limited in language ability in much the same way that others may be poor in musical, spatial, or bodily kinesthetic abilities.

Auditory Temporal Resolution in Specifically Language-Impaired and Age-Matched Children

1996 ◽  
Vol 83 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1171-1181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny R. Helzer ◽  
Craig A. Champlin ◽  
Ronald B. Gillam
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Masking Condition ◽  
Threshold Criterion ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Auditory Temporal Resolution

Recently there has been renewed interest in the auditory processing capabilities of children with specific language impairment. In this study, eight children with specific language impairment and eight nonimpaired, age-matched peers completed a task to assess temporal resolution abilities. Children were asked to detect a tone in three masking conditions wherein the masker contained silent gaps of 0 msec., 40 msec., or 64 msec. in duration. Thresholds were measured in each masking condition at 500 Hz and 2000 Hz. Across the groups, thresholds decreased (improved) significantly as a function of increases in the duration of the gaps. Children in the two groups exhibited remarkably similar thresholds for the three masking conditions. However, children with specific language impairment required a significantly greater number of ascending trials to achieve the threshold criterion than did age-matched children. Results suggest that language-impaired children perceive temporal aspects of acoustic stimuli as well as their normally developing peers. Attentional mechanisms may play an important role in the difficulties they exhibit in auditory processing.

Specific Language Impairment: Preliminary Investigation of Factors Associated With Family History and With Patterns of Language Performance

1995 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 643-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Lahey ◽  
Jan Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Specific Language

To examine patterns that might suggest etiologic subgroups of specific language impairment (SLI), information, including history of speech-language-learning (SLLD) problems in family members, was obtained on 53 children with SLI aged 4 to 9½ years. The results led to the generation of a number of hypotheses for future research. In particular, the findings suggested that family history is related to pattern of language performance. In comparison with children who had both expressive and receptive language deficits, children with deficits in only expressive language had a higher proportion of affected family members (.47 vs. .22), of affected mothers (.57 vs. .17), and of affected siblings (.53 vs. .27). These and other findings are discussed in terms of their consistency with other data, hypotheses relative to explanations of SLI, and their implications for further research.

Conversational Replies of Children with Specific Language Impairment

1986 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Considerable Variability ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Impaired Children

Conversational replies were examined in two groups of children with comparable vocabularies and speech limited to single-word utterances: children with specific language impairment, ages 2:10 to 3:6 (years:months); and children, ages 1:5 to 1:11, who were developing language normally. In interactions with adults the language-impaired children produced a greater number and variety of replies to both questions and statements than the normal-language children. The findings suggest that language-impaired children can serve as responsive conversationalists when syntactic skill is not a factor and that comprehension, world knowledge, and/or experience with conversations permit considerable variability in conversational skill even within the same level of expressive language ability.

Comments on Specific Language Impairment as a Clinical Category

1991 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy M. Aram
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Heterogeneous Group ◽  
Intervention Programs ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Clinical Category

This paper views specific language disorders as a heterogeneous group of language-impaired children consisting of distinct subtypes, each potentially accounted for by differing causal factors. Identifying causal factors for subgroups of children with specific language impairment is important (a) to extend our discipline beyond the descriptive stage of science, (b) to address questions motivating referrals from parents and professionals, (c) to plan intervention programs, and to prevent specific language disorders.

Using Learning Potential to Evaluate Children with Specific Language Impairment

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mª Auxiliadora Robles-Bello ◽  
Mª Dolores Calero García
Keyword(s):  
Early Intervention ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Cognitive Profile ◽  
Typical Development ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Impaired

AbstractThis article presents research on a learning potential assessment that was administered to 32 preschool children with typical development, and 32 with specific language impairment receiving treatment at CADIT: the Children’s Center for Early Intervention and Development. The study’s main objective was to examine whether the language-impaired group’s cognitive profile could improve by applying learning potential methodology. Its second aim was to demonstrate the effectiveness of mediation in both groups. The results revealed significant differences between the two groups at pretest on most subscales. As for the second objective, we observed differences between pretest and posttest scores in both groups. In the second group, all differences were significant except in the case of classification and auditory memory, while in the first group, the differences between pretest and posttest scores were significant on all sub-scales but visual memory.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document