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Purpose: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are faced with the challenge of quickly and accurately identifying children who present with speech sound disorders (SSD) compared to typically developing (TD) children. The goal of this study was to compare the clinical relevance of two speech sampling methods (single-word vs. connected speech samples) in how sensitive they are in detecting atypical speech sound development in children, and to know whether the information obtained from single-word samples is representative enough of children's overall speech sound performance. Method: We compared the speech sound performance of 37 preschool children with SSD (Mage = 4;11 years) and 37 age-sex-matched typically developing children (Mage = 5;0 years) by eliciting their speech in two ways: (a) a picture-naming task to elicit single words, and (b) a storyretelling task to elicit connected speech. Four speech measures were compared across sample type (single words vs. connected speech) and across groups (SSD vs. TD): intelligibility, speech accuracy, phonemic inventory, and phonological patterns. Results: Interaction effects were found between sample type and group on several speech sound performance measures. Single-word speech samples were found to differentiate the SSD group from the TD group, and were more sensitive than connected speech samples across various measures. The effect size of single-word samples was consistently higher than connected speech samples for three measures: intelligibility, speech accuracy, and phonemic inventory. The gap in sample type informativeness may be attributed to salience and avoidance effects, given that children tend to avoid producing unfamiliar phonemes in connected speech. The number of phonological patterns produced was the only measure that revealed no gap between two sampling types for both groups. Conclusions: On measures of intelligibility, speech accuracy, and phonemic inventory, obtaining a single-word sample proved to be a more informative method of differentiating children with SSD from TD children than connected speech samples. This finding may guide SLPs in their choice of sampling type when they are under time pressure. We discuss how children's performance on the connected speech sample may be biased by salience and avoidance effects and/or task design, and may, therefore, not necessarily reveal a poorer performance than single-word samples, particularly in intelligibility, speech accuracy, and the number of phonological patterns, if these task limitations are circumvented. Our findings show that the performance gap, typically observed between the two sampling types, largely depends on which performance measures are evaluated with the speech sample. Our study is the first to address sampling type differences in SSD versus TD children and has significant clinical implications for SLPs looking for sampling types and measures that reliably identify SSD in preschool-aged children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This article examines whether syntactic and vocabulary abilities in American Sign Language (ASL) facilitate 6 categories of language-based analogical reasoning. Method: Data for this study were collected from 267 deaf participants, aged 7;6 (years;months) to 18;5. The data were collected from an ongoing study initially funded by the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences in 2010. The participants were given assessments of ASL vocabulary and syntax knowledge and a task of language-based analogies presented in ASL. The data were analyzed usingmixed-effects linearmodeling to first see how language-based analogical reasoning developed in deaf children and then to see how ASL knowledge influenced this developmental trajectory. Results: Signing deaf children were shown to demonstrate language-based reasoning abilities in ASL consistent with both chronological age and home language environment. Notably, when ASL vocabulary and syntax abilities were statistically taken into account, these were more important in fostering the development of language-based analogical reasoning abilities than were chronological age and home language. We further showed that ASL vocabulary ability and ASL syntactic knowledge made different contributions to different analogical reasoning subconstructs. Conclusions: ASL is a viable language that supports the development of language-based analogical reasoning abilities in deaf children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study aims to describe receptive language skills in children with intellectual disability (ID) and to contribute to the debate on deviant versus delayed language development. This is the 1st study of receptive skills in children with ID who speak a Slavic language, providing insight into how language development is affected by disability and also language typology. Method: Twenty-eight Slovak-speaking children participated in the study (14 children with ID and 14 typically developing [TD] children matched on nonverbal reasoning abilities). The children were assessed by receptive language tasks targeting words, sentences, and stories, and the groups were compared quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: The groups showed similar language profiles, with a better understanding of words, followed by sentences, with the poorest comprehension for stories. Nouns were comprehended better than verbs; sentence constructions also showed a qualitatively similar picture, although some dissimilarities emerged. Verb comprehension was strongly related to sentence comprehension in both groups and related to story comprehension in the TD group only. Conclusion: The findings appear to support the view that receptive language skills follow the same developmental route in children with ID as seen in younger TD children, suggesting that language development is a robust process and does not seem to be differentially affected by ID even when delayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To effectively implement a response to intervention approach, there is a need for timely and specific information about student learning in response to treatment to ensure that treatment decisions are appropriate. This exploratory study examined responsivity to a supplemental, Tier 2 vocabulary intervention delivered to preschool children with limited language abilities. Method: A secondary analysis of a cluster-randomized trial of a supplemental vocabulary intervention was conducted. Responsivity (e.g., adequate learning) to the intervention was examined, and learning in the 1st few weeks of intervention was evaluated as a possible predictor of response to intervention. Results: Using a criterion of learning of 20% of target vocabulary, nearly one third of participants were identified as poor responders. A 1st unit benchmark was identified that maximized the sensitivity to identification of children who were likely to respond to the intervention. Conclusions: Even for generally effective interventions, there is likely to be a substantial proportion of children who are not responsive. Learning in the 1st few weeks of intervention may be a useful indicator of appropriate response to treatment and could inform instructional decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This investigation was conducted to determine whether young children with autism spectrum disorders exhibited a canonical neural response to word stimuli and whether putative event-related potential (ERP) measures of word processing were correlated with a concurrent measure of receptive language. Additional exploratory analyses were used to examine whether the magnitude of the association between ERP measures of word processing and receptive language varied as a function of the number of word stimuli the participants reportedly understood. Method: Auditory ERPs were recorded in response to spoken words and nonwords presented with equal probability in 34 children aged 2-5 years with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder who were in the early stages of language acquisition. Average amplitudes and amplitude differences between word and nonword stimuli within 200-500 ms were examined at left temporal (T3) and parietal (P3) electrode clusters. Receptive vocabulary size and the number of experimental stimuli understood were concurrently measured using the MacArthur- Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Results: Across the entire participant group, word-nonword amplitude differences were diminished. The average word- nonword amplitude difference at T3 was related to receptive vocabulary only if 5 or more word stimuli were understood. Conclusions: If ERPs are to ever have clinical utility, their construct validity must be established by investigations that confirm their associations with predictably related constructs. These results contribute to accruing evidence, suggesting that a valid measure of auditory word processing can be derived from the left temporal response to words and nonwords. In addition, this measure can be useful even for participants who do not reportedly understand all of the words presented as experimental stimuli, though it will be important for researchers to track familiarity with word stimuli in future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether the word-learning challenges associated with developmental language disorder (DLD) result from encoding or retention deficits. Method: In Study 1, 59 postsecondary students with DLD and 60 with normal development (ND) took the California Verbal Learning Test--Second Edition, Adult Version (Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 2000). In Study 2, 23 postsecondary students with DLD and 24 with ND attempted to learn 9 novel words in each of 3 training conditions: uncued test, cued test, and no test (passive study). Retention was measured 1 day and 1 week later. Results: By the end of training, students with DLD had encoded fewer familiar words (Study 1) and fewer novel words (Study 2) than their ND peers as evinced by word recall. They also demonstrated poorer encoding as evinced by slower growth in recall from Trials 1 to 2 (Studies 1 and 2), less semantic clustering of recalled words, and poorer recognition (Study 1). The DLD and ND groups were similar in the relative amount of information they could recall after retention periods of 5 and 20 min (Study 1). After a 1-day retention period, the DLD group recalled less information that had been encoded via passive study, but they performed as well as their ND peers when recalling information that had been encoded via tests (Study 2). Compared to passive study, encoding via tests also resulted in more robust lexical engagement after a 1-week retention for DLD and ND groups. Conclusions: Encoding, not retention, is the problematic stage of word learning for adults with DLD. Self-testing with feedback lessens the deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to identify the brain bases of phonological working memory (the shortterm maintenance of speech sounds) using behavioral tasks analogous to clinically sensitive assessments of nonword repetition. The secondary purpose of the study was to identify how individual differences in brain activation were related to participants' nonword repetition abilities. Method: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neurophysiological response during a nonword discrimination task derived from standard clinical assessments of phonological working memory. Healthy adult control participants (N = 16) discriminated pairs of real words or nonwords under varying phonological working memory load which we manipulated by parametrically varying the number of syllables in target (non)words. Participants' cognitive and phonological abilities were also measured using standardized assessments. Results: Neurophysiological responses in bilateral superior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and supplementary motor area increased with greater phonological working memory load. Activation in left superior temporal gyrus during nonword discrimination correlated with participants' performance on standard clinical nonword repetition tests. Conclusion: These results suggest that phonological working memory is related to the function of cortical structures that canonically underlie speech perception and production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this study pupillometry was used to investigate the allocation of attentional resources associated with sentence comprehension in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Eighteen children with SLI (age: M = 6.4 years) and 18 typically developing (TD) children (age: M = 6.3 years) participated in the study. A sentence comprehension task was presented that comprised items designated as easy or hard. Easy sentences contained 4 or 5 words, and hard sentences contained 6 or 7 words. Results: For the TD group, pupil size was significantly larger when comprehending hard sentences compared with easy sentences. There was no effect of sentence difficulty on pupil size in the SLI group. Comparisons between groups revealed pupil sizes for the SLI group were significantly larger than those for the TD group for easy sentences. There were no group differences for the hard sentences. Conclusion: In TD children, pupillometry was sensitive to the attentional demands associated with sentence comprehension. Between-subjects comparisons indicated that the TD group allocated less attention than did the children with SLI for the easy sentences but not for the hard sentences. This study provides evidence of attentional differences between children with SLI and TD children under conditions of low processing demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The goal of this study was to examine language development and factors related to language impairments in children with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MMHL). Method: Ninety children, aged 8–16 years (46 children with MMHL; 44 aged-matched controls), were administered a battery of standardized language assessments, including measures of phonological processing, receptive and expressive vocabulary and grammar, word and nonword reading, and parental report of communication skills. Group differences were examined after controlling for nonverbal ability. Results: Children with MMHL performed as well as controls on receptive vocabulary and word and nonword reading. They also performed within normal limits, albeit significantly worse than controls, on expressive vocabulary, and on receptive and expressive grammar, and worse than both controls and standardized norms on phonological processing and parental report of communication skills. However, there was considerable variation in performance, with 26% showing evidence of clinically significant oral or written language impairments. Poor performance was not linked to severity of hearing loss nor age of diagnosis. Rather, outcomes were related to nonverbal ability, maternal education, and presence/absence of family history of language problems. Conclusions: Clinically significant language impairments are not an inevitable consequence of MMHL. Risk factors appear to include lower maternal education and family history of language problems, whereas nonverbal ability may constitute a protective factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to add to our understanding of the dimensionality of oral language in children and to determine whether oral language and listening comprehension are separate constructs in children enrolled in preschool (PK) through 3rd grade. Method: In the spring of the school year, children from 4 states (N = 1,869) completed multiple measures of oral language (i.e., expressive and receptive vocabulary and grammar) and listening comprehension as part of a larger study of the language bases of reading comprehension. Results: Initial confirmatory factor analysis found evidence that measures of oral language and listening comprehension loaded on two separate factors in PK through 3rd grade; however, these factors were highly correlated at all grades. Conclusions: These results suggest that oral language and listening comprehension are best characterized as a single oral language construct in PK through 3rd grade. The implications for early identification and intervention are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study was designed to (a) identify sociodemographic, pregnancy and birth, family health, and parenting and child care risk factors for being a late talker at 24 months of age; (b) determine whether late talkers continue to have low vocabulary at 48 months; and (c) investigate whether being a late talker plays a unique role in children's school readiness at 60 months. Method: We analyzed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, a population-based sample of 9,600 children. Data were gathered when the children were 9, 24, 48, and 60 months old. Results: The risk of being a late talker at 24 months was significantly associated with being a boy, lower socioeconomic status, being a nonsingleton, older maternal age at birth, moderately low birth weight, lower quality parenting, receipt of day care for less than 10 hr/week, and attention problems. Being a late talker increased children's risk of having low vocabulary at 48 months and low school readiness at 60 months. Family socioeconomic status had the largest and most profound effect on children's school readiness. Conclusions: Limited vocabulary knowledge at 24 and 48 months is uniquely predictive of later school readiness. Young children with low vocabularies require additional supports prior to school entry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Articulatory control and speech production accuracy were examined in children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and typically developing (TD) controls within a novel word-learning task to better understand the influence of planning and programming deficits in the production of unfamiliar words. Method: Participants included 16 children between the ages of 5 and 6 years (8 CAS, 8 TD). Short- and long-term changes in lip and jaw movement, consonant and vowel accuracy, and token-to-token consistency were measured for 2 novel words that differed in articulatory complexity. Results: Children with CAS displayed short- and long-term changes in consonant accuracy and consistency. Lip and jaw movements did not change over time. Jaw movement duration was longer in children with CAS than in TD controls. Movement stability differed between low- and high-complexity words in both groups. Conclusions: Children with CAS displayed a learning effect for consonant accuracy and consistency. Lack of change in movement stability may indicate that children with CAS require additional practice to demonstrate changes in speech motor control, even within production of novel word targets with greater consonant and vowel accuracy and consistency. The longer movement duration observed in children with CAS is believed to give children additional time to plan and program movements within a novel skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study compared the language performance of young children with developmental delays who were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 parent-coached language interventions. Differences in performance on augmented and spoken word size and use, vocabulary size, and communication interaction skills were examined. Method: Sixty-eight toddlers with fewer than 10 spoken words were randomly assigned to augmented communication input (AC-I), augmented communication output (AC-O), or spoken communication (SC) interventions; 62 children completed the intervention. This trial assessed the children's symbolic language performance using communication measures from the language transcripts of the 18th and 24th intervention sessions and coding of target vocabulary use. Results: All children in the AC-O and AC-I intervention groups used augmented and spoken words for the target vocabulary items, whereas children in the SC intervention produced a very small number of spoken words. Vocabulary size was substantially larger for AC-O and AC-I than for SC groups. Conclusions: This study found that augmented language interventions that include parent coaching have a positive communication effect on young children with developmental delays who begin with fewer than 10 spoken words. Clinical implications suggest that augmented communication does not hinder, and actually aids, speech production abilities in young children with developmental delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To explore the phonological awareness skills of deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs) and relationships with vocabulary and reading development. Method: Forty-three deaf children with implants who were between 5 and 15 years of age were tested; 21 had been implanted at around 2.5 years of age (Early CI group), and 22 had been implanted at around 5 years of age (Late CI group). Two control groups—a deaf hearing aided group (16 children) and a typically developing group of hearing children (19 children) —were also tested. All children received a battery of phonological processing tasks along with measures of reading, vocabulary, and speech-reading. Analyses focus on deaf children within the normal IQ range (n = 53). Results: Age at cochlear implantation had a significant effect on vocabulary and reading outcomes when quotient scores were calculated. Individual differences in age at implant, duration of fit, phonological development, vocabulary development, auditory memory, visual memory, and speech intelligibility were all strongly associated with progress in reading for the deaf implanted children. Patterns differed somewhat depending on whether quotient scores or standard scores were used. Conclusions: Cochlear implantation is associated with development of the oral language, auditory memory, and phonological awareness skills necessary for developing efficient word recognition skills. There is a benefit of earlier implantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To determine whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) show deficits in lexical-semantic organization and, if so, whether these deficits are commensurate with their delay in vocabulary size and whether the deficits affect all children with SLI. Method: Fourteen children with SLI, 14 age matches (AM), and 14 expressive vocabulary matches (VM) generated 3 associations to each of 48 words. Associations were coded as semantic (e.g., dog-pet), clang (e.g., cow-how), or erroneous (e.g., spoon-Disney). Results: Relative to the AM children, children with SLI produced fewer semantic responses, more clangs, and more errors. Relative to the VM children, fewer semantic responses and more errors in the children with SLI were found in by-item analyses. Across elicitation trials, semantic responses decreased in the AM and VM children but remained stable in the SLI children. Examination of individual performance in the SLI group revealed that poor semantic performance was associated with a deficit in expressive vocabulary and a gap between receptive and expressive vocabularies. Conclusions: Significant variability in lexical-semantic organization skills exists among children with SLI. Deficits in lexical-semantic organization were demonstrated by a subgroup of children with SLI who likely had concomitant word-finding difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose was to determine the number of semantic neighbors, namely, semantic set size, for 88 nonobjects (J. F. Kroll & M. C. Potter, 1984) and determine how semantic set size related to other measures and age. Method: Data were collected from 82 adults and 92 preschool children in a discrete association task. The nonobjects were presented via computer, and participants reported the first word that came to mind that was meaningfully related to the nonobject. Words reported by 2 or more participants were considered semantic neighbors. The strength of each neighbor was computed as the proportion of participants who reported the neighbor. All data are provided online in a Microsoft Excel file accompanying this article (the data file can be found accompanying this article online at http://jslhr.asha.org). Results: Results showed that semantic set size was not significantly correlated with objectlikeness ratings or object decision reaction times from J. F. Kroll and M. C. Potter (1984). However, semantic set size was significantly negatively correlated with the strength of the strongest neighbor(s). In terms of age effects, adult and child semantic set sizes were significantly positively correlated and the majority of numeric differences were on the order of 0-3 neighbors. Comparison of actual neighbors showed greater discrepancies; however, this varied by neighbor strength. Conclusions: Semantic set size can be determined for nonobjects. Specific guidelines are suggested for using these nonobjects in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This project was designed to identify relative strengths and weaknesses in vocabulary ability for children with Williams syndrome (WS) and to demonstrate the importance of stringent matching criteria for cross-group comparisons. Method: Children with WS and typically developing (TD) children completed standardized assessments of intellectual and language ability. Children with WS also completed a visuospatial construction ability assessment. Results: Study 1: Concrete and relational vocabulary standard scores were significantly lower for 5- to 7-year-olds with WS than for TD children. Children with WS earned significantly higher standard scores for concrete than for relational vocabulary. When groups were stringently matched for relational vocabulary size, children with WS did not evidence a specific weakness in spatial vocabulary. Study 2: Standard scores for relational vocabulary were similar to those for visuospatial construction ability for 5- to 7-year-olds with WS. Study 3: Nine- to 11-year-olds with WS demonstrated very limited relational vocabulary ability; relational vocabulary ability at 5-7 years was highly correlated with later relational language ability. Conclusions: Concrete vocabulary is a relative strength for children with WS; relational vocabulary ability is very limited and is at about the level of visuospatial construction ability. Accurate determination of group comparison results depends on stringent group matching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]