Eleanor M. Semel

Language disabilities in children and adolescents

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Productive Language Abilities in Learning Disabled Adolescents

This study assessed and compared the accuracy and speed with which 32 LD and 32 academically achieving adolescents (1) named verbal opposites, pictorial presentations, and members of the classes Foods, Animals, and Toys, (2) produced sentences when given stimulus words, and (3) defined words. Ratings of speech characteristics (melodic line, phrase length, verbal agility, grammatical form, paraphasia, word finding) were also compared. LD adolescents were significantly less quick and accurate in naming verbal opposites and pictorial presentations. To a significant degree they also (1) named fewer foods, (2) produced more agrammatical sentences and grammatical sentences of shorter length, (3) had longer response lags in producing sentences, and (4) gave more incorrect word definitions than academic achievers. Ratings of speech characteristics indicated greatest reductions for phrase length and grammatical form. These findings suggest productive language deficits in learning disabilities are related to (1) delays in specific aspects of cognition and convergent and divergent production of semantic units and (2) reductions in the retrieval of verbal labels and syntactic structures.

Comparison of Rapid Naming Abilities in Language-Learning-Disabled and Academically Achieving Eight-Year-Olds.

This study evaluated the sensitivity of two independent rapid naming tests, Naming Pictured Objects and Producing Names on Confrontation, in differentiating 16 children with language and learning disabilities from 16 age peers with normal language development and academic achievement. Total naming time and accuracy measures on the Naming Pictured Objects Test and Producing Names on Confrontation: Card III task (color-form combinations) differentiated between the two groups at the .01 level of significance. Among children with language and learning disabilities, measures of total naming time increased significantly as the accuracy of naming decreased on both tasks (pictured objects and color-form combinations). The interrelationship between total naming time and accuracy measures proved positive and significant in this group on both naming tasks. All LLD children with evidence of word-finding difficulties in spontaneous speech (14 of 16) were identified by total naming time measures on the Naming Pictured ...

DEVELOPMENT OF COMPREHENSION OF LOGICO-GRAMMATICAL SENTENCES BY GRADE SCHOOL CHILDREN

The development of comprehension of 50 sentences expressing comparative, passive, temporal, spatial, and familial relationships was evaluated in 210 grade school children. Significant increases in correct responses occurred during the first five grades but not between Grades 5 and 8. The periods during which significant increases occurred differed for sentence categories. In the early grades comparative relationships were easiest followed by passive, temporal, spatial, and familial relationships. The findings suggest that spatial relationships are established earlier in a developmental sequence than temporal relationships. In Grades 1 and 2 WISC Full Scale IQ and comprehension of logico-grammatical sentences correlated significantly.

Relationships Among Language Processing and Production Abilities of Learning Disabled Adolescents

This study assessed the relationships among various language processing and production abilities of 32 learning disabled adolescents. Kendall rank correlation coefficients indicated that 1 chronological age correlated negatively with performance on three of the language tests, and 2 WISC Verbal IQs correlated positively with performance on all but one of the language processing subtests and with performance on two of the language production subtests: Performance on the various language processing subtests tended to correlate positively with each other and negatively with performance on language production subtests. Measures of the accuracy of responses on the language production subtests generally correlated positively with each other and negatively with measures of speed of retrieval. These findings suggest that the learning disabled adolescents had reached a performance plateau and that developmental factors no longer produced an increase in their language abilities. They also suggest the presence of at least two distinct language deficit syndromes within the learning disabled population. These are: 1 cognitive-linguistic processing deficits characterized by reductions in morphology and syntax and in the comprehension of linguistic concepts and 2 “dysnomia” characterized by verbal paraphasias and word finding and retrieval deficits.

LOGICO-GRAMMATICAL SENTENCE COMPREHENSION BY ADOLESCENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

The comprehension of 50 logico-grammatical sentences was assessed for 30 learning disabled adolescents ranging in age from 12 to 16 yr. Performances were compared with existing data for normative age peers. A significant proportion of the learning disabled children exhibited quantitative reductions. Performances correlated positively and significantly with age scores for Psycholinguistic Age, Auditory Association, Reception, Sequential Memory, and Manual Expression (ITPA). The findings suggest that the experimental test may be used to identify deficits in processing linguistic concepts by adolescents with learning disabilities.

PERCEPTION AND INTERPRETATION OF AMBIGUOUS SENTENCES BY LEARNING DISABLED TWELVE-YEAR- OLDS

The present research assessed and compared the abilities of 27 learning disabled twelve-year-olds, 27 academically achieving age controls, 10 academically achieving seven- to eight-year-olds, and 10 normally developing five- to six-year-olds to perceive and interpret lexical and syntactic ambiguities in sentences. Eight lexically ambiguous, eight syntactically ambiguous, and four unambiguous control sentences were presented for interpretation of their alternatives in meaning. Each experimental sentence was associated with four pictorial choices. Significant differences in the ability to perceive and interpret the alternative meanings of both lexical and syntactical ambiguities were found between the learning disabled and the academically achieving twelve-year-olds. No significant difference existed in the ability of the learning disabled twelve-year-olds and the seven- to eight-year-old controls to perceive and interpret lexical ambiguities; however, they differed significantly in the ability to interpret the syntactic ambiguities. Comparison of the ability of the learning disabled twelve-year-olds and the five- to six-year-old controls to interpret the syntactic ambiguities indicated no significant differences. Among the learning disabled twelve-year-olds, performances on the ambiguous sentence test correlated positively with performances on tests of delayed sentence recall (NSST-Expressive) and of comprehension of sentences with linguistic concepts and relationships (Semel & Wiig, 1980). Performances did not correlate significantly with measures of verbal intelligence (WISC-R Verbal Scale). The present findings support previous observations of linguistic deficits among learning disabled children and adolescents and suggest that significant limitations may exist in the acquisition of linguistic competence by some children in this diagnostic group.

Semel Auditory Processing Program: Training Effects Among Children With Language-Learning Disabilities

This investigation considered whether language processing abilities among school-age children with language-learning disabilities could be improved through training with the Semel Auditory Processing Program (SAPP) (Semel 1976). Selected sections of the SAPP were administered to 45 language-learning disabled youngsters, aged 7½ to 11 years old, over a period of 15 weeks in 30-minute sessions daily. A significant proportion made language age gains of more than six months on subtests of the ITPA and DTLA and on the Carrow Elicited Language Inventory. The mean performance gain on the ITPA Grammatic Closure subtest was 15.48 months. On the DTLA Auditory Attention Span for Unrelated Words and Verbal Absurdities subtests, the mean gains were 15.73 and 22.0 months, respectively. The mean performance gain on the Carrow Elicited Language Inventory was 12.57%. The results suggested that substantial gains in selected language processing skills may be observed when they have been the focus of specific training even though the contents of training did not match the contents of criterion tests.

A Cross-Cultural, Cross-Linguistic Comparison of Language Abilities of 7- to 8- and 12- to 13-Year-Old Children with Learning Disabilities

This study compared relative strengths and weaknesses in the language abilities of German and American learning disabled and academically achieving children. To assess language abilities, the 11 major diagnostic subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Functions (CELF) were administered in the English version or in an idiomatic German translation. Subjects were (a) 15 German and 15 American 7- to 8-year-old children with learning disabilities and 15 academically achieving German and American age-level controls and (b) 15 German and 15 American 12- to 13-year-old children with learning disabilities and 15 academically achieving German and American age-level controls. German and American children with learning disabilities performed significantly poorer than their age-level controls on semantic, syntactic, auditory memory, and word retrieval tasks. The majority of the language tasks also differentiated the two age levels (7- to 8- and 12- to 13-year olds). On all but one of the tasks, German and American 12- to 13-year-olds with learning disabilities performed either poorer than or similar to the 7- to 8-year-old academic achievers. The findings concur with previous observations of language delays among children and adolescents with learning disabilities. The observations tentatively suggest cross-cultural and cross-linguistic similarities in the language disorder syndrome associated with learning disabilities.

Perception and interpretation of explicit negations by learning-disabled children and adolescents.

The present study evaluated and compared the perception and interpretation of 21 explicit negative sentences by 15 learning disabled third graders and 15 controls, 20 learning disabled adolescents and 20 controls, and 16 randomly selected adults. The proportions of correct interpretations of the experimental sentences did not differ significantly among subject groups. In a similar vein the proportions of correct responses to individual test items did not differ significantly. The findings suggest that the learning-disabled third graders and adolescents adequately perceived the stressed negated elements and interpreted the meanings of the explicit negative sentences appropriately. These findings conflict with previous observations that dyslexic children experienced problems in processing prosodic suprasegmental features (Vogel, 1974).