Monthly Archives: February 2011
Language skills of school-aged children prenatally exposed to antiepileptic drugs
Conclusions: Fetal exposure to sodium valproate increases the risk of language impairment. This should be taken into account when making treatment decisions for women with epilepsy of childbearing age.
from Neurology
Regional differences in the listener’s phonemic inventory affect semantic processing: A mismatch negativity (MMN) study
Using the mismatch negativity (MMN) response, we examined how Standard French and Southern French speakers access the meaning of words ending in /e/ or /ε/ vowels which are contrastive in Standard French but not in Southern French. In Standard French speakers, there was a significant difference in the amplitude of the brain response after the deviant-minus-standard subtraction between the frontocentral (FC) and right lateral (RL) recording sites for the final-/ε/ word but not the final-/e/ word. In contrast, the difference in the amplitude of the brain response between the FC and RL recording sites did not significantly vary as a function of the word’s final vowel in Southern French speakers. Our findings provide evidence that access to lexical meaning in spoken word recognition depends on the speaker’s native regional accent.
from Brain and Language
Semantic dementia and persisting Wernicke’s aphasia: Linguistic and anatomical profiles
Few studies have directly compared the clinical and anatomical characteristics of patients with progressive aphasia to those of patients with aphasia caused by stroke. In the current study we examined fluent forms of aphasia in these two groups, specifically semantic dementia (SD) and persisting Wernicke’s aphasia (WA) due to stroke. We compared 10 patients with SD to 10 age- and education-matched patients with WA in three language domains: language comprehension (single words and sentences), spontaneous speech and visual semantics. Neuroanatomical involvement was analyzed using disease-specific image analysis techniques: voxel-based morphometry (VBM) for patients with SD and overlays of lesion digitized lesion reconstructions in patients with WA. Patients with SD and WA were both impaired on tasks that involved visual semantics, but patients with SD were less impaired in spontaneous speech and sentence comprehension. The anatomical findings showed that different regions were most affected in the two disorders: the left anterior temporal lobe in SD and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus in chronic WA. This study highlights that the two syndromes classically associated with language comprehension deficits in aphasia due to stroke and neurodegenerative disease are clinically distinct, most likely due to distinct distributions of damage in the temporal lobe.
from Brain and Language
Benefit and Quality of Life After Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid Fitting in Children With Unilateral or Bilateral Hearing Impairment
Conclusion Overall, BAHA fitting can be considered effective and beneficial in children with bilateral or unilateral hearing loss.
Early Prediction of Postmeningitic Hearing Loss in Children Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Conclusion Gadolinium-enhanced MRI detected meningitic labyrinthitis at early stages and accurately predicted which patients would later develop hearing loss.
Early word formation in German language acquisition: A study on word formation growth during the second and third years
This study investigates the development of German word formation as an important step in mastering complex lexical items for the language learning child. Thirty mother— child dyads participated. Means of word formation and resulting word categories were analyzed in children’s spontaneous speech at ages 1;9, 1;11, 2;6, and 3;0. In contrast to the acquisition of English, the results show simultaneous development of compounds and derivations. German toddlers produce more verbal than nominal derivations and more compounds based on verbs than on nouns. The findings suggest that (1) there are cross-linguistic differences in the development of word formation devices, and (2) children rely heavily on verbs in word formation.
from First Language
Gender and patterns of language development in mother-toddler and father-toddler dyads
The study examined parent, child, and dyadic gender effects in parent reports of words and MLUs. Mothers and fathers from 113 families completed the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Toddlers when the toddlers were 1;7; half completed a follow-up at 2;0. Child gender differences in words and MLUs increased over time and parent gender differences decreased. Dyadic analyses revealed bidirectional influences. At 1;7, dyadic scores for words and MLUs displayed a descending pattern from mother—daughter, to mother—son, to father—daughter, to father—son dyads. At 2;0, the most and fewest words were reported in mother—daughter and mother—son dyads, respectively; and the longest and shortest MLUs in father—daughter and father—son dyads, respectively. The data raise questions about the ‘bridge hypothesis.’ They suggest that fathers are more likely to provide a bridge for daughters than for sons; daughters may play an active role in eliciting this behavior.
from First Language
Object associations of early-learned light and heavy English verbs
Many of the verbs that young children learn early have been characterized as ‘light.’ However, there is no agreed upon definition of ‘lightness’ and no useable metric that could be applied to a wide array of verbs. This article provides evidence for one metric by which the ‘lightness’ of early-learned verbs might be measured: the number of objects with which they are associated (in adult judgment) or co-occur (in speech to and by children). The results suggest that early-learned light verbs and heavy verbs differ in the breadth of the objects they are associated with: light verbs have weak associations with specific objects, whereas heavy verbs are strongly associated with specific objects. However, there is an indication that verbs have narrower associations to objects in speech to children. The methodological usefulness of this metric is discussed as are the implications of the patterns of distributions for children’s learning of common verbs.
from First Language
Attention to multiple events helps two-and-a-half-year-olds extend new verbs
An important question in verb learning is how children extend new verbs to new situational contexts. In Study 1, two-and-a-half-year-old children were shown a complex event followed by new events that preserved only the action from the initial event, only the result, or no new events. Children seeing events that preserved either the action or the result produced appropriate verb extensions at test while children without this information did not. In a follow-up study, children hearing new verbs produced more extensions than did children hearing non-labeling speech. These studies suggest that attention to related events is helpful to young verb learners, perhaps because they structurally align these events during verb learning.
from First Language
Socio-emotional engagement, joint attention, imitation, and conversation skill: Analysis in typical development and specific language impairment
According to Racine and Carpendale’s constructivist theory, the acquisition of shared linguistic practice is grounded in the development of competence in shared forms of activity such as joint attention which are naturally embedded in socio-emotional engagement. The present study investigated the relationships among socio-emotional engagement, joint attention, imitation, and conversation skill by establishing a model of these relationships in 94 typically developing children (M age = 5;4) and further assessing this model in another group of 93 typically developing children (M age = 5;1) and 30 children with specific language impairment (M age = 5;3). Joint attention and imitation were found to mediate the relationship between socio-emotional engagement and conversation skill.
from First Language
The transition into ambient language: A longitudinal study of babbling and first word production of Italian children
The present study investigates the appearance of certain phonetic, phonological, and prosodic aspects of Italian in the early language of native speakers; a longitudinal analysis of babbling and word production in 11 Italian children ranging in age from 0;10 to 2;0 is reported. It focuses in particular on the syllabic frequency of babbling utterances and the distribution of consonant sounds in relation to their place of articulation in babbling and first words. It analyzes also the role of phonotactic characteristics and accentual patterns of word targets in production correctness and word shape constraints. Results show that the relationships with the frequency characteristics of the Italian lexicon become increasingly evident in language production from age 0;11 on. The data also provide substantiation for the role of phonotactic characteristics and accentual patterns in influencing correct word production. Finally, a continuity between babbling and words emerged from an analysis of individual differences. The discussion focuses on the role of ambient characteristics of language versus universal articulatory constraints in early phonological development.
from First Language
“W” is for bath: Can associative errors be cued?
Semantic aphasia (SA) refers to a condition in which the control processes associated with the use of semantic information become compromised. This condition compromises patients’ abilities to accurately name pictures, and they produce semantic errors in the form of co-ordinate items, such as “shower” for BATH. Previous research has demonstrated that these patients are sensitive to phonemic cues during picture naming, whether they promote the correct response (e.g., /b/) or the incorrect semantically related response (e.g., /sh/). A similar pattern is observed in normal participants when asked to perform tempo picture naming, in which the timing constraints undermine semantic control processes. SA patients are also known to produce associative errors in picture naming, such as “water” for BATH. In this study, we extended previous work on phonemic cueing in SA patients and in normal participants in two ways: firstly, by using associative miscues to promote associative errors (e.g., /w/), and secondly, to confirm miscueing effects still hold when assessed relative to a neutral condition of an unrelated phoneme rather a simple beep. The results revealed that associative miscues are effective in reducing accuracy and promoting semantic errors in SA patients. Correlations between associative cueing effects and executive tests showed that the impact of associative miscues was more pronounced in those with greater semantic control impairment. Associative miscueing was also seen for normal participants during tempo picture naming, including a latency cost. Both the associative and also the co-ordinate miscueing effects were still apparent when the neutral condition consisted of an unrelated phoneme. The implications of these results for models of speech production and semantic representation are outlined.
from the Journal of Neurolinguistics
Children with speech difficulties: an exploratory survey of clinical practice in the Western Cape.
This study investigated the methods of assessment and intervention used by speech-language therapists (SLTs) in the Western Cape when working with children with speech difficulties. Children with speech difficulties are likely to form a considerable part of SLT caseloads in South Africa, but assessment choice may not be clear-cut given the linguistic diversity of the region and that few assessments have been developed specifically for the SA population. Selection of intervention approaches may also pose difficulties, linked to the lack of assessments and the limited evidence base in our context. A questionnaire was sent to SLTs working with pre- and/or primary-school-aged children. Twenty-nine clinicians responded (18.7% response rate). The majority (89%) use informal assessment in combination with formal assessment. When using formal assessments, more than 50% of SLTs surveyed make procedural or linguistic modifications. Participants used a variety of interventions such as auditory discrimination and phonological awareness, often in combination, and based on a child’s profile of difficulties. Forty-six per cent of SLTs felt unsure about the selection of assessments and intervention for bi/multilingual children. Clinical implications arising from this preliminary investigation are discussed together with some suggestions for developing knowledge of children’s speech difficulties in South Africa.
Comparison of postmenopausal voice changes across professional and non-professional users of the voice.
Menopause effects a permanent change in certain body functions, including voice. If the voice is used continually as part of one’s occupation, this may further impact on postmenopausal voice changes. The present study investigated individual and combined effects of menopause and professional voice use on voice. Ninety-two women were classified into reproductive (52) and postmenopausal (40) groups. Each group was divided into level II (teachers) and level IV (clerks) of Koufman and Isaacson’s (1991) classification. Voice samples were recorded and analysed using the VisiPitch III software. Aerodynamic parameters were manually calculated. The Voice Handicap Index (VHI) was included to improve face validity of the study. Results suggest that fundamental frequency (F(o)), speaking fundamental frequency (SF(o)) and maximum phonation time (MPT) decrease after menopause while noise-to-harmonic ratio and voice turbulence index increase. Being a professional voice user seems to affect the nature of postmenopausal voice changes, since an interaction effect was observed for some voice parameters. VHI scores reflect that teachers are aware of voice problems caused by vocal abuse, though relatively unaware of postmenopausal voice changes. The study has implications for improving the working conditions of teachers in India, developing norms for menopausal changes and modifying allowable limits for voice recognition systems in future.
