Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, is estimated to occur in up to sixteen percent of people between the ages of 75 and 84. Deficits in linguistic skills that effect communication are a hallmark of the disease and have been the primary focus of past Alzheimer's research. Among other deficits, researchers have found that people with Alzheimer's often use indexical expressions without clear referents and convey less information that is relevant to the task they have been asked to perform than healthy subjects. Relatively little research has examined how Alzheimer's subjects use their linguistic knowledge to communicate with others in natural, open-ended interaction. The purpose of the present study was to identify what communication skills remain intact that enable an Alzheimer's subject to maintain conversational fluency despite lexical and pragmatic deficits. The study focused specifically on language skills that play a functional role in facilitating conversation. The data used in this study consisted of eight naturally occurring conversations between the subject and three interlocutors who had a close relationship with the subject. The interactions were recorded in the Alzheimer's wing of the subject's nursing home. The transcribed conversations were analyzed according to three types of functional language drawn from Nattinger and DeCarrico's (1992) work on lexical phrases: (1) conversational maintenance; (2) conversational purpose; and (3) familiar topics. The role played by lexical phrases in facilitating each of these functional categories was also examined. This study found that the subject had an intact knowledge of functional language skills that allowed her to successfully participate in conversation despite serious language deficits. Within the category of conversational maintenance, the subject retained skills necessary to share control in opening and closing conversations as well as nominating and shifting topics and requesting and offering clarification. In the category of conversational purpose, the subject used functional language to signal utterances intended to convey general politeness, gratitude and compliments as well as informing the interlocutor of her attitude in relation to the content of utterances. The study also found that lexical phrases played a central role in facilitating the subject's use of functional language.

This study investigated the language skills and behavior characteristic of 63 students with severe behavior disorders who were referred by a large, mostly urban school district for a neuropsychiatric evaluation between 2001 and 2005. Archival data were retrieved by chart review for this study and was used to answer the following questions: 1) What is the prevalence of language disorders in children referred for a psychiatric evaluation? 2) Do behavioral symptoms vary among children with and without a language disorder? and 3) What is the initial area of concern identified by the parents of children with language and behavior disorders? The study revealed: (1) prevalence rates of language disorders in children with severe behavior was 57%; (2) behavioral symptoms did not vary significantly among children with and without language disorders on the parent version of Child Behavior Check List; and (3) no relationship existed between parent initial area of concern about their child and communication. Study results support the need for teacher education about the high prevalence of language disorders in children with severe behavioral problems in school populations.

No description available.

[Truncated abstract] Some children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show poor performance on behavioural tasks designed to measure rapid auditory processing, such as the Repetition Test developed by Tallal and colleagues. Stemming from concerns about whether this task reflects higher-order, cognitive variables, this thesis sought to determine whether the performance deficits SLI children show were evident at the neurophysiological level, with minimal cognitive influences, such as attention, using paradigms designed to elicit the mismatch negativity (MMN) and late discriminative negativity (LDN). In the first two studies, a MMN paradigm, equivalent to the Repetition Test, was trialled with a group of 8 adults. In this paired paradigm, the second tone of a pair of pure tones ascending in frequency ('low'-'high') was occasionally replaced with a 'low' tone. The aim was to determine a 'long' and 'short' intra-pair interval (IPI) with which MMN was generated utilizing this paradigm and that were congruent with the Repetition Test findings (i.e., a long IPI at which SLI were able to perform the task, and a short IPI at which SLI children's performance was selectively impaired). In Study One, MMN to a within-pair frequency change was generated with the 30 ms IPI, but not the 700 ms IPI. The grouping parameters of the temporal window of integration (TWI) and temporal distinctiveness were considered less than optimal for the grouping of the pairs presented at 700 ms IPI for the pre-attentive system to register the within-pair frequency change. ... The frequency difference limens (DLs) of the SLI group were significantly higher than a group of 18 normally developing age- and intelligence-matched peers, but there was no significant difference between the groups in their performance on a control intensity discrimination task. The iii SLI group also showed poorer reading skills, yet frequency discrimination was related to oral language ability only. In the final study, MMN was measured to examine the pre-attentive neurophysiological basis of the SLI group's frequency discrimination deficit. Two frequency deviants that were just above each group's 75% DL on the frequency discrimination task were employed in a simple frequency change paradigm: 40 Hz difference for the control group, and 80 Hz difference for the SLI group. MMN and LDN were elicited in the group of 15 normally developing children to their 40 Hz suprathreshold frequency difference and to the 80 Hz difference. A significant MMN was not observed in the group of 13 SLI children to the 40 Hz difference, which was below their threshold level. However, despite discrimination at the behavioural level, MMN did not reach significance in the SLI group to their 80 Hz suprathreshold frequency difference, yet LDN was observed. MMN was larger in both groups for the 80 Hz difference. Furthermore, MMN and LDN amplitude to the suprathreshold deviants were predictive of both frequency and intensity DLs. These results suggested that SLI children have a pre-attentive neurophysiologically mediated insensitivity to small frequency differences, and that MMN (and LDN) to suprathreshold frequency deviants is a sensitive indicator of group discrimination differences and brain-behaviour relationships in children with and without SLI.

Objective: The aim of this work is to find out how a number of educators work when giving children support and opportunities for language development. Questions: What have preschool for policy to monitor/assess the children’s language development? What experiences do teachers have of children who need support in language development? How do educator’s regard support from specialised educator’s? Do these efforts support the children to enhance language development? Methods: Qualitative methodology, Interviews with six teachers and two specialised educators from three kindergartens in the municipality. Summary of conclusions: The municipality in which the survey was conducted has a document that provides guide lines on how to work with children’s language development in school and preschool. Pedagogical documentation is a tool that teachers use in nursery school which educators and parents can follow, which shows children’s learning processes and learn strategies. Research shows that through play, music, creative activities, photos, etc. and the educator’s ways of supporting and giving children context-rich words supported language development. This study shows that teachers use methods that research shows to be congenial to language development. Educators work in their own ways and use different methods to ultimately support the child in its language development. With various efforts from the preschool teacher, language teacher, parents, speech therapy and special education teachers, the educator seeks to support the child’s continued language development.

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-70).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-178). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-80).

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences