Introdução: O aumento dos índices de obesidade infantil nas últimas décadas vem merecendo atenção crescente como problema de saúde pública, devido ao impacto que causa na vida das crianças pelas diversas alterações metabólicas e outras patologias, além de trazer consequências sociais, econômicas e psicológicas. Estudos visando a relação obesidade infantil e cognição tiveram início, no entanto, somente nos últimos anos. Objetivo: Investigar a linguagem escrita e as diferentes habilidades cognitivas envolvidas no seu processamento em crianças que foram diagnosticadas com obesidade desde a primeira infância. Material e Métodos: 41 crianças (média de idade: 9,6 anos) participaram desse estudo. Foram divididas em grupos conforme estado nutricional: G1 (n=14) crianças com diagnóstico atual de obesidade e histórico de sobrepeso/obesidade desde antes dos três anos e G2 (n=27) crianças eutróficas (pareadas segundo a idade e tipo de escola). Foram analisados dados do histórico médico e nível de atividade física e realizada a avaliação audiológica (pesquisas dos limiares entre 250Hz e 16000Hz) nos dois grupos. Em seguida foram submetidos à avaliação da leitura de palavras e pseudopalavras, a testes de aritmética, escrita sob ditado, consciência fonológica, nomeação automática rápida, memória de trabalho fonológica, memória de trabalho visuoespacial, atenção (teste por cancelamento) e flexibilidade cognitiva (teste de trilhas). Para a análise estatística utilizou-se o teste de Igualdade de Proporções, o teste Manny-Whitney e Manova Não-Paramétrica = 0,05. Resultados: Os grupos eram homogêneos na proporção de histórico de intercorrências pré e peri natais e histórico de convulsões/otites/anemia e apresentaram igualmente baixo nível de atividade física. Não foram observadas diferenças nos testes de desempenho escolar nas tarefas de leitura/escrita/aritmética, porém, os resultados do teste de avaliação do uso de rotas de leitura, indicou dificuldade de G1 em alternar as rotas fonológicas e lexicais demonstrando dificuldade em flexibilidade cognitiva. Essa dificuldade foi confirmada pelos resultados de desempenho do teste de trilhas e de atenção alternada, apesar de manterem bom desempenho em testes de atenção pura. Não foram encontradas diferenças entre os grupos nas tarefas de nomeação automática rápida e memória de trabalho visuoespacial. Quanto à memória de trabalho fonológica, o G1 apresentou melhor desempenho assim como em tarefas de consciência fonológica que mais se utilizam deste tipo de memória. A avaliação auditiva indicou limiares auditivos dentro do padrão de normalidade nos dois grupos, porém o G1 apresentou limiares auditivos significativamente mais elevados nas frequências mais graves (250hz a 4000hz). Conclusão: O presente estudo demonstrou que a condição de obesidade leva a alterações no desempenho cognitivo em crianças com efeitos positivos sobre a memória de trabalho fonológica e algumas tarefas de consciência fonológica, e efeitos negativos em outras como a flexibilidade cognitiva e atenção alternada que interferiram no processamento da linguagem escrita na habilidade para alternar rotas de leitura. O desempenho escolar em geral, dos grupos foi semelhante, já outros recursos cognitivos que auxiliam em sua aprendizagem podem ter sido requeridos. / Introduction: The rising of obesity rates in childhood has deserved attention as a healthy public problem due to the impact caused in the lives of children by various metabolic and other diseases, causing social, economic and psychological consequences. However, only in recent years the studies aiming the link between obesity in children and cognition has begun. Objective: Evaluate the different cognitive skills involved in the written language in children diagnosed with childhood obesity. Methods and Materials: 41 children (age average: 9,6 years old) participated of this study. The children were divided in groups according to nutritional status: G1 (n = 14) children diagnosed with obesity and with history of overweight / obese since three years or less, and G2 (n = 27) normal weight (matched by age and type of school). Audiological evaluation (thresholds between 250Hz and 16,000Hz) was performed in both groups after evaluation of medical historical data and level of physical activity. Tests involving reading words and pseudo words, arithmetic, writing under dictation, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, phonological working memory, visuospatial working memory, attention (cancellation test) and cognitive flexibility (trail making test) were performed . The Proportions Equality, Manny-Whitney and Manova Non-Parametric - = 0.05 tests were used for statistical analysis. Results: The groups were homogeneous considering the history prenatal and perinatal complications and history of seizures / ear infections / anemia besides the both groups presented low level of physical activity. There were no differences in school performance tests involving reading / writing / arithmetic. However, G1 presented difficulty to alternate the phonological and lexical routes in tests involving the use of reading routes, so indicating difficulties in cognitive flexibility. This difficulty was confirmed by the results obtained in trail making and alternating attention tests, even while maintaining a good performance in pure tests of attention. No differences were observed between groups in rapid automatized naming and visuospatial working memory tests. G1 presented the best performance in tasks involving phonological working memory. The thresholds of hearing were considered present in normal range for both groups in the hearing tests. However G1 presented thresholds of hearing higher in low frequencies (250hz a 4000hz). Conclusion: This study showed that childhood obesity can change cognitive performance in children. Positive effects on phonological working memory and in some phonological awareness tasks were observed. However, negative effects were observed in tasks involving cognitive flexibility and alternating attention which interfered in the processing of written language and in the ability to alternate reading routes. In general the school performance were similar in both groups, however other cognitive resources that assist in their learning may have been required.

Uma das malformações mais comuns na infância é a fissura labiopalatina, esta afecção contribui para alterações no desenvolvimento global, incluindo a fala e linguagem. O objetivo deste estudo foi caracterizar e comparar as habilidades do desenvolvimento infantil em crianças com fissura labiopalatina de 4 anos a 4 anos e 11 meses, com enfoque na linguagem. A amostra foi dividida em grupo amostral (GA), com 27 crianças entre 4 anos a 4 anos e 11 meses com fissura labiopalatina, e o grupo comparativo (GC), com 27 crianças sem fissura labiopalatina de 4 anos a 4 anos e 11 meses provenientes de um Banco de dados. Os grupos foram submetidos à avaliação por meio de três instrumentos: Teste de Screening de Desenvolvimento de Denver II; Escala de Avaliação do Desenvolvimento da Linguagem - ADL e o Inventário MacArthur de Desenvolvimento Comunicativo. O tratamento estatístico constou de análise descritiva e aplicação do Teste t student, Teste exato de Fisher, Teste de Mann-Whitney e Teste Correlação de Spearman. A habilidade com pior desempenho foi a Linguagem, seguido por Motor Fino-Adaptativo, Pessoal-Social e Motor Grosso. Nas habilidades receptiva e expressiva das crianças com fissura labiopalatina mesmo que dentro dos padrões de normalidade, foram inferiores quando comparadas como grupo sem fissura labiopalatina. O desempenho do vocabulário receptivo e expressivo foi inferior quando comparados com o GC. Em relação à caracterização de fala, as crianças com fissura labiopalatina do GA apresentaram comprometimento de inteligibilidade, articulação compensatória e alterações fonológicas. Observou-se desempenho abaixo do esperado nas habilidades do desenvolvimento infantil nas crianças com fissura labioplatina. / One of the most common malformations in children is the cleft lip and palate, this condition interferes with global development, including speech and language. The objective of this study was to characterize and compare the child development abilities in children with cleft lip and palate from 4 years to 4 years and 11 months, with a focus on language. The sample was divided into a sample group (SG), with 27 children between 4 years and 4 years and 11 months with cleft lip and palate, and a comparative group (CG) with 27 children without cleft lip and palate from 4 years to 4 years and 11 months from a database. The groups were submitted to evaluation through three instruments: Denver II Development Screening Test; Language Development Assessment Scale - ADL and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory. The statistical treatment consisted of descriptive analysis and application of Teste t Student, Fischer\'s Exact Test, Mann-Whitney Test and Spearman\'s Correlation Test. The worst results were indicated by the ability related to language, followed by fine-adaptive, personal-social and gross motor. Even though the receptive and expressive abilities of the SG were within normality, they were inferior when compared with the GC. In addition, the receptive and expressive vocabulary performance was inferior when compared to the CG. In relation to speech characterization, the SG presented impairment as for intelligibility, compensatory articulation and phonological alterations. We observed that children with cleft lip and palate had a performance below the expected for child development skills.

This session is developed by the Convention Program Committee. Empirical evidence exists for many child language and phonological interventions; however, less is known about hteir optimal intensity. This seminar will provide an evidence-based review on what is known about session dose, duration and frequency, and total intervention duration. The practical implementation of evidence-based recommendations will be discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation documents the emergence of a new language, Light Warlpiri, in the multilingual community of Lajamanu in northern Australia. It then examines the acquisition of Light Warlpiri language, and of the heritage language, Lajamanu Warlpiri, by children. Light Warlpiri has arisen from contact between Lajamanu Warlpiri (a Pama-Nyungan language), Kriol (an English-based creole), and varieties of English. It is a Mixed Language, meaning that none of its source languages can be considered to be the sole parent language. Most verbs and the verbal morphology are from Aboriginal English or Kriol, while most nouns and the nominal morphology are from Warlpiri. The language input to children is complex. Adults older than about thirty speak Lajamanu Warlpiri and code-switch into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Younger adults, the parents of the current cohort of children, speak Light Warlpiri and code-switch into Lajamanu Warlpiri and into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, the two main input languages to children, both indicate A arguments with ergative case-marking (and they share one allomorph of the marker), but Lajamanu Warlpiri includes the marker much more consistently than Light Warlpiri. Word order is variable in both languages. Children learn both languages from birth, but they target Light Warlpiri as the language of their everyday interactions, and they speak it almost exclusively until four to six years of age. Adults and children show similar patterns of ergative marking and word order in Light Warlpiri. But differences between age groups are found in ergative marking in Lajamanu Warlpiri - for the oldest group of adults, ergative marking is obligatory, but for younger adults and children, it is not. Determining when children differentiate between two input languages has been a major goal in the study of bilingual acquisition. The two languages in this study share lexical and grammatical properties, making distinctions between them quite subtle. Both adults and children distribute ergative marking differently in the two languages, but show similar word order patterns in both. However the children show a stronger correlation between ergative marking and word order patterns than do the adults, suggesting that they are spearheading processes of language change. In their comprehension of sentences in both Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, adults use a case-marking strategy to identify the A argument (i.e. N+erg = A argument, N-erg = O argument). The children are not adult-like in using this strategy at age 5, when they also used a word order strategy, but they gradually move towards being adult-like with increased age.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation documents the emergence of a new language, Light Warlpiri, in the multilingual community of Lajamanu in northern Australia. It then examines the acquisition of Light Warlpiri language, and of the heritage language, Lajamanu Warlpiri, by children. Light Warlpiri has arisen from contact between Lajamanu Warlpiri (a Pama-Nyungan language), Kriol (an English-based creole), and varieties of English. It is a Mixed Language, meaning that none of its source languages can be considered to be the sole parent language. Most verbs and the verbal morphology are from Aboriginal English or Kriol, while most nouns and the nominal morphology are from Warlpiri. The language input to children is complex. Adults older than about thirty speak Lajamanu Warlpiri and code-switch into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Younger adults, the parents of the current cohort of children, speak Light Warlpiri and code-switch into Lajamanu Warlpiri and into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, the two main input languages to children, both indicate A arguments with ergative case-marking (and they share one allomorph of the marker), but Lajamanu Warlpiri includes the marker much more consistently than Light Warlpiri. Word order is variable in both languages. Children learn both languages from birth, but they target Light Warlpiri as the language of their everyday interactions, and they speak it almost exclusively until four to six years of age. Adults and children show similar patterns of ergative marking and word order in Light Warlpiri. But differences between age groups are found in ergative marking in Lajamanu Warlpiri - for the oldest group of adults, ergative marking is obligatory, but for younger adults and children, it is not. Determining when children differentiate between two input languages has been a major goal in the study of bilingual acquisition. The two languages in this study share lexical and grammatical properties, making distinctions between them quite subtle. Both adults and children distribute ergative marking differently in the two languages, but show similar word order patterns in both. However the children show a stronger correlation between ergative marking and word order patterns than do the adults, suggesting that they are spearheading processes of language change. In their comprehension of sentences in both Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, adults use a case-marking strategy to identify the A argument (i.e. N+erg = A argument, N-erg = O argument). The children are not adult-like in using this strategy at age 5, when they also used a word order strategy, but they gradually move towards being adult-like with increased age.

It has been assumed that mathematics testing indicates the development of mathematics concepts, but the linguistic demands of assessment have not been evaluated, especially for children with mild intellectual disabilities. 244 children (grades 2 – 5) were recruited from a larger reading intervention study. Using a multilevel longitudinal SEM model, baseline and post-intervention time points were examined for the contribution of item linguistic complexity, child language skills, and their potential interaction in predicting item level mathematics assessment performance. Item linguistic complexity was an important, stable, and negative predictor of mathematics achievement with children’s language skills significantly and positively predicting mathematics achievement. The interaction between item linguistic complexity and language skills was significant though not stable across time. Following intervention, children with higher language skills performed better on linguistically complex mathematics items. Mathematics achievement may be related to an interaction between children’s language skills and the linguistic demands of the tests themselves.

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on January 5, 2010). Vita. Thesis advisor: Dr. Judith C. Goodman. Includes bibliographical references

本研究探討漢語母子對話中，兒童使用情態動詞(modal verb)「會」的類別、人稱主詞及語用功能。受試者分成第一組(平均兩歲十一個月)與第二組(平均四歲十個月)。研究結果發現認知(epistemic)情態動詞的「會」比動力(dynamic)情態動詞的「會」晚習得，而義務(deontic)情態動詞的「會」則很少出現。其指出不同的習得順序與認知發展有關，即認知上易理解的概念比認知上較不易理解的早習得。在情態動詞「會」的人稱主詞上，兒童在動力和義務情態動詞「會」主要是使用第一人稱當主詞，然而兒童傾向使用第三人稱當認知情態動詞「會」的主詞。而兒童很少使用第二人稱當情態動詞「會」的主詞。情態動詞「會」語句的語用功能方面，動力情態動詞「會」語句包含請求、拒絕、描述、誇耀；義務情態動詞「會」語句只發現承諾的功能；而認知情態動詞「會」語句有爭辯、疑惑、推論的功能。研究結果顯示兒童能掌握情態動詞「會」語句不同的語用功能。 / This study examined Mandarin-speaking children’s different types, person subjects, and pragmatic functions of the modal hui utterances in mother-child conversations. Children were divided into Group I (mean age= 2;11) and Group II (mean age= 4;10). The results showed that the epistemic modal hui was acquired relatively late, compared with the dynamic modal hui. The deontic modal hui was a marginal use. It suggests that the different acquisition order seems to involve cognitive development, which means that the cognitively accessible concept may be acquired earlier than the less cognitively accessible one. As for the person subjects of the modal hui, children mainly used the dynamic and deontic modal hui with the first person subject; however, they tended to use the epistemic modal hui with the third person subject. Children rarely used the modal hui with the second person subject. With regard to the pragmatic functions of the modal hui utterances, it was found that the functions of the dynamic hui utterances included request, refusal, reporting, and boasting. In the deontic hui utterances, only the function of promise was found. The epistemic hui utterances served the functions of argument, puzzlement, and reasoning. The results suggest that children are sensitive to the pragmatic functional aspects of the modal hui utterances.

Language is part of nature, and as such, certain general principles that generate the form of natural systems, will also create the patterns found within linguistic form. Since network theory is one of the best theoretical frameworks for extracting general principles from diverse systems, this thesis examines how a network perspective can shed light on the characteristics and the learning of syntax. It is demonstrated that two word co-occurrence networks constructed from adult and child speech (BNC World Edition 2001; Sachs 1983; MacWhinney 2000a) exhibit three non-atomic syntactic primitives namely, the truncated power law distributions of frequency, degree and the link length between two nodes (the link representing a precedence relation). Since a power law distribution of link lengths characterises a hubterranean structure (Kasturirangan 1999) i.e. a structure that has a few highly connected nodes and many poorly connected nodes, both the adult and the child word co-occurrence networks exhibit hubterranean structure. This structure is formed by an optimisation process that minimises the link length whilst maximising connectivity (Mathias & Gopal 2001 a&b). The link length in a word co-occurrence network is the storage cost of representing two adjacently co-occurring words and is inversely proportion to the transitional probability (TP) of the word pair. Adjacent words that co-occur often together i.e. have a high TP, exhibit a high cohesion and tend to form chunks. These chunks are a cost effective method of storing representations. Thus, on this view, the (multi-) power law of link lengths represents the distribution of storage costs or cohesions within adjacent words. Such cohesions form groupings of linguistic form known as syntactic constituents. Thus, syntactic constituency is not specific to language and is a property derived from the optimisation of the network. In keeping with other systems generated by a cost constraint on the link length, it is demonstrated that both the child and adult word co-occurrence networks are not hierarchically organised in terms of degree distribution (Ravasz and Barabási 2003:1). Furthermore, both networks are disassortative, and in line with other disassortative networks, there is a correlation between degree and betweenness centrality (BC) values (Goh, Kahng and Kim 2003). In agreement with scale free networks (Goh, Oh, Jeong, Kahng and Kim 2002), the BC values in both networks follow a power law distribution. In this thesis, a motif analysis of the two word co-occurrence networks is a richly detailed (non-functional) distributional analysis and reveals that the adult and child significance profiles for triad subgraphs correlate closely. Furthermore, the most significant 4-node motifs in the adult network are also the most significant in the child network. Utilising this non-functional distributional analysis in a word co-occurrence network, it is argued that the notion of a general syntactic category is not evidenced and as such is inadmissible. Thus, non-general or construction-specific categories are preferred (in line with Croft 2001). Function words tend to be the hub words of the network (see Ferrer i Cancho and Solé 2001a), being defined and therefore identified by their high type and token frequency. These properties are useful for identifying syntactic categories since function words are traditionally associated with particular syntactic categories (see Cann 2000). Consequently, a function word and thus a syntactic category may be identified by the interception of the frequency and degree power laws with their truncated tails. As a given syntactic category captures the type of words that may co-occur with the function word, the category then encourages consistency within the functional patterns in the network and re-enforces the network’s (near-) optimised state. Syntax then, on this view, is both a navigator, manoeuvring through the ever varying sea of linguistic form and a guide, forging an uncharted course through novel expression. There is also evidence suggesting that the hubterranean structure is not only found in the word co-occurrence network, but within other theoretical syntactic levels. Factors affecting the choice of a verb that is generalised early relate to the formation and the characteristics of hubs. In that, the property of a high (token) frequency in combination with either a high degree (type frequency) or a low storage cost, point to certain verbs within the network and these highly ‘visible’ verbs tend to be generalised early (in line with Boyd and Goldberg forthcoming). Furthermore, the optimisation process that creates hubterranean structure is implicated in the verb-construction subpart network of the adult’s linguistic knowledge, the mapping of the constructions’ form-to-meaning pairings, the construction inventory size as well as certain strategies aiding first language learning and adult artificial language learning.

Language is part of nature, and as such, certain general principles that generate the form of natural systems, will also create the patterns found within linguistic form. Since network theory is one of the best theoretical frameworks for extracting general principles from diverse systems, this thesis examines how a network perspective can shed light on the characteristics and the learning of syntax. It is demonstrated that two word co-occurrence networks constructed from adult and child speech (BNC World Edition 2001; Sachs 1983; MacWhinney 2000a) exhibit three non-atomic syntactic primitives namely, the truncated power law distributions of frequency, degree and the link length between two nodes (the link representing a precedence relation). Since a power law distribution of link lengths characterises a hubterranean structure (Kasturirangan 1999) i.e. a structure that has a few highly connected nodes and many poorly connected nodes, both the adult and the child word co-occurrence networks exhibit hubterranean structure. This structure is formed by an optimisation process that minimises the link length whilst maximising connectivity (Mathias & Gopal 2001 a&b). The link length in a word co-occurrence network is the storage cost of representing two adjacently co-occurring words and is inversely proportion to the transitional probability (TP) of the word pair. Adjacent words that co-occur often together i.e. have a high TP, exhibit a high cohesion and tend to form chunks. These chunks are a cost effective method of storing representations. Thus, on this view, the (multi-) power law of link lengths represents the distribution of storage costs or cohesions within adjacent words. Such cohesions form groupings of linguistic form known as syntactic constituents. Thus, syntactic constituency is not specific to language and is a property derived from the optimisation of the network. In keeping with other systems generated by a cost constraint on the link length, it is demonstrated that both the child and adult word co-occurrence networks are not hierarchically organised in terms of degree distribution (Ravasz and Barabási 2003:1). Furthermore, both networks are disassortative, and in line with other disassortative networks, there is a correlation between degree and betweenness centrality (BC) values (Goh, Kahng and Kim 2003). In agreement with scale free networks (Goh, Oh, Jeong, Kahng and Kim 2002), the BC values in both networks follow a power law distribution. In this thesis, a motif analysis of the two word co-occurrence networks is a richly detailed (non-functional) distributional analysis and reveals that the adult and child significance profiles for triad subgraphs correlate closely. Furthermore, the most significant 4-node motifs in the adult network are also the most significant in the child network. Utilising this non-functional distributional analysis in a word co-occurrence network, it is argued that the notion of a general syntactic category is not evidenced and as such is inadmissible. Thus, non-general or construction-specific categories are preferred (in line with Croft 2001). Function words tend to be the hub words of the network (see Ferrer i Cancho and Solé 2001a), being defined and therefore identified by their high type and token frequency. These properties are useful for identifying syntactic categories since function words are traditionally associated with particular syntactic categories (see Cann 2000). Consequently, a function word and thus a syntactic category may be identified by the interception of the frequency and degree power laws with their truncated tails. As a given syntactic category captures the type of words that may co-occur with the function word, the category then encourages consistency within the functional patterns in the network and re-enforces the network’s (near-) optimised state. Syntax then, on this view, is both a navigator, manoeuvring through the ever varying sea of linguistic form and a guide, forging an uncharted course through novel expression. There is also evidence suggesting that the hubterranean structure is not only found in the word co-occurrence network, but within other theoretical syntactic levels. Factors affecting the choice of a verb that is generalised early relate to the formation and the characteristics of hubs. In that, the property of a high (token) frequency in combination with either a high degree (type frequency) or a low storage cost, point to certain verbs within the network and these highly ‘visible’ verbs tend to be generalised early (in line with Boyd and Goldberg forthcoming). Furthermore, the optimisation process that creates hubterranean structure is implicated in the verb-construction subpart network of the adult’s linguistic knowledge, the mapping of the constructions’ form-to-meaning pairings, the construction inventory size as well as certain strategies aiding first language learning and adult artificial language learning.