Juliana Perina Gândara

Tendências da aquisição lexical em crianças em desenvolvimento normal e crianças com Alterações Específicas no Desenvolvimento da Linguagem

The aim of the present study was to describe the similarities and differences found throughout lexical acquisition between normally developing children and children with developmental language disorder through an extensive literature review. The search was carried out in the databases SciELO, Lilacs, PubMed, Web of Science and Dedalus, and covered the last decades of studies in the area. The selected studies, of observational or experimental nature, showed great variability of findings related to vocabulary development, describing tendencies and variations, and also other abilities enrolled in the lexical acquisition process. Generally, the results suggest that the lexical difficulties that constitute one of the first alterations observed in children with developmental language disorder are justified by difficulties in abilities and/or characteristics influenced or directly related to mechanisms involved in information processing, which compromise the quality and the retrieval of phonological and semantic representations corresponding to a new lexical item. However, many studies suggest that ostensive situations and great contextual support emphasizing few novel words facilitate the lexical acquisition of children with developmental language disorder.

Aquisição lexical no desenvolvimento normal e alterado de linguagem : um estudo experimental

GÂNDARA, J. P. Lexical acquisition during normal and impaired language development – an experimental study. 2008. 211 f. Thesis (Doctoral) – Faculty of Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, 2008. Lexical acquisition is one of the first observable manifestations of normal language development and, therefore, deficits in this process constitute an early indication of Language Impairment (LI). The aim of the present study was to investigate the lexical acquisition of children within normal language development and children with LI in three different word-learning situations, which reproduced contexts frequently used in language therapy. The subjects were 21 three-year-old children with LI (Research Group – RG) and 30 normally developing controls with the same chronological age (Control Group – CG), randomly designated to one of the exposure subgroups: G1 – symbolic play; G2 – game; G3 – interaction based on a storybook. The same five nonwords were presented to subjects of each subgroup (Phase I), along with their respective unknown referents, over three interaction sessions. The number of presentations was controlled. Subjects’ performances under natural interaction (Phase I) and during tasks of naming, comprehension and recognition of the novel words (Phase II) were analyzed. The research was divided into three studies. Study 1 analyzed the CG performance on the experimental procedure, and showed that CG3 had differed from the other subgroups regarding the measures used to access performance on Phase I. These differences suggested that the physical presence of the referents, the attentional demand and the symbolic abilities necessary to word learning may have influenced the performance of this subgroup. Study 2 analyzed the RG performance on the experimental procedure, comparing the results to those presented by CG children. The processes involved and the influences played by the analyzed variables were the same for both groups. Differences between groups, however, were both quantitative and qualitative, suggesting that children with LI require more experiences and take a longer time than their normally developing peers to learn a novel word. The CG presented better comprehension and naming abilities, and improved throughout the sessions, regarding the variables that indicated acquisition (spontaneous production in Phase I; comprehension and naming of the novel words in Phase II). In both CG and RG, unsolicited imitation was used by some subjects as a word-learning strategy, showing positive correlation with the occurrence of spontaneous production. Study 3 analyzed the correlations between subjects’ abilities in acquiring novel words and lexical knowledge, measured by an expressive vocabulary test. The correlation was positive within each group. In addition, there were also positive correlations among novel word acquisition, expressive vocabulary and the amount of prior language intervention received by RG subjects, which suggested that the practice in learning words positively influenced novel lexical items acquisition. Taken together, the results showed great variability among subjects regardless of their group, indicating that lexical acquisition is an individual and heterogeneous process, and that the abilities of children with LI must be considered individually during therapeutic process, making intervention as effective as possible.

Redação científica e a qualidade dos artigos: em busca de maior impacto

Given the latent concern of scientists and editors on the quality of scientific writing, the aim of this paper was to present topics on the recommended structure of peer-reviewed papers. We described the key points of common sections of original papers and proposed two additional materials that may be useful for scientific writing: one particular guide to help the organization of the main ideas of the paper; and a table with examples of non desirable and desirable structures in scientific writing.