Keith E. Nelson

Temperament and language : relations from toddlerhood to middle childhood

This study examined contemporaneous and longitudinal relations between temperament and language in toddlerhood and middle childhood. Language was assessed using the Sequenced Inventory of Communicative Development in 229 children at age 2 and in 212 of these children at age 2. Observers rated dimensions of the childrens temperament at age 2 on the Infant Behavior Record. In addition, 164 of these children were administered a battery of language measures after the completion of Ist grade. Affect-extraversion at age 2 made a unique contribution to individual differences in both receptive and expressive language at age 3 and to receptive language skills at age 7

Treatment efficiency as a function of target selection in the remediation of child language disorders

A number of studies appearing in the recent literature examined the effectiveness of treating language impairments using indirect, conversationally based interventions. However, such studies have been difficult to interpret, due, in part, to a lack of direct comparisons of treatment types. The present study was designed to compare directly elicited imitation treatment and conversational treatment using linguistic targets matched for structural stage and assigned randomly to treatment condition. These treatments were applied to four specifically language-impaired children (age range 4;9 to 5;11) during a 16-week training period. Spontaneous productions occurred following significantly fewer presentations within the conversational treatment. Additionally, the results indicated that both kinds of treatments were effective and that certain individual targets were acquired more rapidly within the elicited imitation treatment. These findings are discussed in terms of the differing approaches to treatment and in terms of more general theories of language learning.

THEORIES OF THE CHILD'S ACQUISITION OF SYNTAX: A LOOK AT RARE EVENTS AND AT NECESSARY, CATALYTIC, AND IRRELEVANT COMPONENTS OF MOTHER‐CHILD CONVERSATION

In acquiring a syntax or grammar governing sentence structures the young child encounters extensive conversational input. In this paper we will consider completed and proposed research that may help to reveal particular components of the input that directly affect the ease with which the child makes advances in language. Because the input is highly complex and because the child’s language level and the caregiver’s conversation usually will mutually influence each other, it appears that naturalistic analyses of child-adult conversations must be supplemented by experimental work controlling aspects of the adult’s conversational behavior. In combination the outcomes of the observational and experimental studies may present a convergent pattern of evidence allowing powerful inferences to be drawn about the way in which input components are used by the child in constructing new syntactic rules. Thus, a broad goal of the discussion is to stimulate the gathering of more-differentiated and persuasive evidence than past work has provided on the relations between input components and syntactic progress. This evidence is expected to lead to more refined theoretical accounts of how the child processes and uses the input. Because the input the child receives must be used by the child to construct discourse rules and other language components, and because the processes involved may be related to those in syntax acquisition, the analysis here of theory and evidence will not be sharply restricted to syntax. In the first section of the paper, naturalistic work on relationships between input and language growth are reviewed. The next section of the paper presents a theoretically motivated, systematic analysis of potential effects of various input components. A third portion discusseshdividual differences within this framework. These two middle sections give particular attention to possible “rare events”-infrequent, but important instances in which an adult, replying to a child’s utterance, provides structural information not yet in the child’s system that the child can code in relation to the structure of his or her original utterance. In the final part of the paper the discussion considers in some specificity the ways in which a theoretical account can be constructed through the use of convergent experimental and observational techniques. 45

Concepts and words in the 18-month-old: Acquiring concept names under controlled conditions

Abstract The young childs use of available evidence in acquiring words was examined longitudinally. In comparison with previous work on early word meaning, two essential departures in design were employed — word use by the children was exhaustively detailed in an experimental setting, and this setting permitted systematic control and limitation in patterns of referent object encounter and of adult naming for the objects (toys). Although the children (n = 10) were presented relatively few examples from which to learn word and concept meanings, they succeeded in learning to use many of the words appropriately. Variations in the course of learning for different children are discussed, with special attention to the ways in which nonverbal action or mother-child interaction could have influenced the childs progress.

Gains in Literacy through the Use of a Spcially Developed Multimedia Computer Strategy Positive Findings from 13 Children with Autism

The present study investigates the use of a specially developed multimedia program for enhancing language and reading development in children with autism. Thirteen children with autism(mean chronological age 9:8 years, mental age 7:3 years and language age 5:2 years) participated in the study. All the children used the program as a supplement to their ordinary reading and language training. A quasi-experimental design that included measures of reading and phonological awareness during baseline, treatment, and follow-up phases was used throughout. Highly significant gains were observed for both reading and phonological awareness during the treatment phase. A significant effect was also observed for phonology at follow-up, but not for reading. A response time index also revealed that reading became more rapid following intervention. It is concluded that the intervention improved reading and language development and that children with autism with various cognitive abilities might benefit from a strategy that combines a motivating multimedia program with focused and positive interactions with the teacher.

Sign language and autism

Research findings and issues in teaching sign language to nonspeaking autistic children are reviewed. Data on over 100 children indicate that nearly all autistic children learn receptive and expressive signs, and many learn to combine signs. These children also exhibit marked improvement in adaptive behaviors. Speech skills are acquired by fewer children and may be developed through simultaneous speech and sign training. Possible explanations for these results are given, together with suggestions for future research and data collection. Recommended innovations include exposure to fluent signers and training in discourse and code-switching. Different sign language teaching methods need to be investigated more fully, including emphasis on training sign language within the childrens total environment and with greater staff and parental participation.

Language delays of impoverished preschool children in relation to early academic and emotion recognition skills

Prevalence of delayed language vs. normative language was examined in impoverished preschool children. On the basis of vocabulary, syntax comprehension, and syntax expression, 336 4-year-olds attending Head Start preschools in the US were assigned to five language status categories. A majority of these children living in poverty demonstrated clinically significant language delays, and this held true equally for Majority (White European) and Minority (here African-American or Latino) children. Many of the children living in poverty showed delays that place them in Strong Delay or Moderate Delay status rather than Mild Delay status. Moreover, as children’s language status declined from High Language to Low-Average Language to the three increasingly strong language delays, their academic and socioemotional skills decreased systematically. This conclusion holds, with large effect sizes, for emotion recognition skills, basic mathematics, print knowledge, phonological elision, and phonological blending. Given the high prevalence of language delays and the strong associations of language status levels to multiple skills considered important for school readiness, it may be advisable in intervention, education, and clinical service programs to expand the use of high-quality and high-quantity language teaching and language therapy procedures. Further, it is suggested that making more adjustments in instruction to current levels of language mastery by children in poverty might facilitate instructional effectiveness in most preschool skill domains. These recommendations are discussed in relation to dynamic systems theory and prior intervention studies.

Psycholinguistic and Educational Implications of Deafness

The linguistic abilities, cognitive abilities, and educational achievements of the deaf are reviewed. The reviewed indicates three conclusions about the abilities of deaf persons relative to hearing p

Interaction Patterns Between Children and their Teachers when Using a Specific Multimedia and Communication Strategy Observations from Children with Autism and Mixed Intellectual Disabilities

This study reports on observed interaction patterns between 20 children with autism and mixed intellectual disabilities (mean chronological age = 11:4 years; language age = 4:7 years) and their nine teachers working with a specially developed multimedia program aiming to increase literacy skills. An increase in verbal expression was found over time for the total group. Children with autism also showed increased enjoyment and willingness to seek help from their teachers. Teachers for both diagnostic groups reduced their instructions on how to handle the computer during the program but the decrease was greater in the teachers for children with autism. When the total group of children was subdivided according to language age (high versus low), it appears that those with a low language age showed an increase in verbal expressiveness from start to end of training. Those with a high language age showed increased enjoyment. It is concluded that more detailed studies of the interaction patterns between teachers and children are needed, and these should be related to children’s language level as well as to diagnostic group.

Memory development in children: Evidence from nonverbal tasks*

Across the age range of 7–13 years, younger and older children showed equivalent immediate retention and equivalent long-term forgetting in picture recognition. But older children were better than younger children in reconstructing from memory an arrangement of six to nine picture cards. These results are interpreted in terms of different developmental patterns for different component processes in memory tasks.