The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of heterogeneous grouping and homogeneous grouping in the language development of severely retarded students. A further purpose was to determine how beneficial either of the grouping procedures would be for this level of student.

No description available.

This study presents a longitudinal analysis of three monolingual Iranian children's language development between ages 1;8-2;6, 2;2-3;2 and 2;4-3;4. The overall aims are to identify and establish the structural patterns in the acquisition of Persian, a pro-drop, inflectional and mostly verb final language. Structural patterns particular to Persian are identified in contrast to English and data drawn from the children's language progress are discussed in the light of recent theories of language acquisition. In addition, the study provides a comprehensive and systematic description of children's syntactic development in such a way as to be useful for clinical data analysis by Iranian speech and language therapists and includes some cross-linguistic comparisons with other research on language acquisition. The applicability of MLU (Mean Length of Utterance) measures to Persian is investigated and it is found that MLU measured in morphemes is most appropriate for evaluating the Iranian children's early language development up to value 4. In order to give a more detailed analysis of the children's language acquisition, the LARSP (Language Assessment Remediation and Screening Procedure) framework (Crystal, Fletcher and Garman, 1989) is adapted to Persian. Analysing Persian data with LARSP categories shows that there are many features common to both languages. Particular categories are identified. A PLARSP (Persian LARSP) profile is established based on the hypothesis that structures can be assigned to stages according to their number of elements at clause and phrase levels. The profile provides a framework for the analysis of language development in Persian and is employed in chapters 6 and 7 to set out the developmental picture of the children's language at approximately equal MLU values in the early stages, and age in the later stages. Close examination of the data points to the use of formulas by the children at early stages. Apart from the formulas, although the children show different strategies of language acquisition, the resulting distribution of categories is found to fit the data well, presenting an orderly progress down the chart according to MLU and age.

Previous research has highlighted a different pattern in the use of grammatical forms to successfully maintain coherent discourse by individuals with Down's syndrome. To maintain coherent discourse both linguistic and non-linguistic information must be integrated and maintained in a mental representation of current discourse. The ability of children with Down's syndrome to use such a mental representation has been assessed in this study. The ability of adults with Down's syndrome to comprehend and produce a range of grammatical forms was initially assessed, using a grammaticality judgement task, an imitation task, and a spontaneous speech sample. Results indicated that the production and comprehension of pronouns was found moderately difficult. The successful use of a pronoun depends on the ability to use a mental representation to retain information about its antecedent in order to assist correct interpretation and avoid ambiguity. A narrative task was used to investigate the use of referential forms by children with Down's syndrome and typically developing children. The effects of certain contextual features on the use of referential forms were investigated: the status of each character and the number of characters in the story; the method of presenting the story; and the position of a listener while the story was narrated. When narrating a story typically developing children distinguished the status of characters in the stories by consistently using different referential forms for each. As age increased this strategy was used more successfully and flexibly. Children with Down's syndrome did not use referential forms in the same way as typically developing children. It is likely that this is a consequence of a difficulty in maintaining information about the whole story-where many sources of information must be accessed, integrated and maintained in a mental representation. At a local level within the story, children with Down's syndrome used referential strategies successfully, demonstrating an ability to integrate limited amounts of information about characters in a story. The inability to maintain information in a mental representation across longer periods of discourse indicates the importance of short term memory in language production.

Recognizing and learning one’s native language requires knowledge of the phonetic and rhythmical characteristics of the language. Few studies address the rich source of language information available in a speaker’s face. Solely visual speech permits language discrimination in adults (Soto-Faraco et al., 2007). This thesis tested infants and adults on their ability to use only information available in a speaker’s face to discriminate rhythmically dissimilar languages. Monolingual English infants discriminated French and English using only visual speech at 4 and 6 months old, but failed this task at 8 months old. To test the role of language experience, bilingual (English/French) 6 and 8-month-old infants were tested and successfully discriminated the languages. An optimal period for sensitivity to visual language information necessary for discriminating languages may exist in early life. To confirm an optimal period, adults who had acquired English as a second language were tested. If English was learned before age 6 years, adults discriminated English and French, but if English was learned after age 6, adults performed at chance. Experience with visual speech information in early childhood influences adult performance. To better understand the developmental trajectory of visual language discrimination, visual correlates of phonetic segments and rhythmical information were examined. When clips were manipulated to remove rhythmical information, infants used segmental visual phonetic cues to discriminate languages at 4, but not 8 months old. This suggests that a decline in non-native visual phonetic discrimination (similar to the decline seen for non-native auditory phonetic information; Werker & Tees, 1984), may be impairing language discrimination at 8 months. Infants as young as newborn use rhythmical auditory information to discriminate languages presented forward, but not backward (Mehler et al., 1988). This thesis showed that both 4 and 8-month-old infants could discriminate French from English when shown reversed language clips. Unlike auditory speech, reversed visual speech must conserve cues that permit language discrimination. Infants’ abilities to distinguish languages using visual speech parallel auditory speech findings, but also diverge to highlight unique characteristics of visual speech. Together, these studies further enrich our understanding of how infants come to recognize and learn their native language(s).

No description available.

Recognizing and learning one’s native language requires knowledge of the phonetic and rhythmical characteristics of the language. Few studies address the rich source of language information available in a speaker’s face. Solely visual speech permits language discrimination in adults (Soto-Faraco et al., 2007). This thesis tested infants and adults on their ability to use only information available in a speaker’s face to discriminate rhythmically dissimilar languages. Monolingual English infants discriminated French and English using only visual speech at 4 and 6 months old, but failed this task at 8 months old. To test the role of language experience, bilingual (English/French) 6 and 8-month-old infants were tested and successfully discriminated the languages. An optimal period for sensitivity to visual language information necessary for discriminating languages may exist in early life. To confirm an optimal period, adults who had acquired English as a second language were tested. If English was learned before age 6 years, adults discriminated English and French, but if English was learned after age 6, adults performed at chance. Experience with visual speech information in early childhood influences adult performance. To better understand the developmental trajectory of visual language discrimination, visual correlates of phonetic segments and rhythmical information were examined. When clips were manipulated to remove rhythmical information, infants used segmental visual phonetic cues to discriminate languages at 4, but not 8 months old. This suggests that a decline in non-native visual phonetic discrimination (similar to the decline seen for non-native auditory phonetic information; Werker & Tees, 1984), may be impairing language discrimination at 8 months. Infants as young as newborn use rhythmical auditory information to discriminate languages presented forward, but not backward (Mehler et al., 1988). This thesis showed that both 4 and 8-month-old infants could discriminate French from English when shown reversed language clips. Unlike auditory speech, reversed visual speech must conserve cues that permit language discrimination. Infants’ abilities to distinguish languages using visual speech parallel auditory speech findings, but also diverge to highlight unique characteristics of visual speech. Together, these studies further enrich our understanding of how infants come to recognize and learn their native language(s).

During the past decade, the prevalence of any developmental disability has increased from 12.84% to 15.04% (Boyle et al., 2011). In particular, the current rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is estimated to effect 1 in every 68 children, 1 in 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls (Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee & US Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). Given that the prevalence of autism and other related disorders continues to increase, the number of children diagnosed with ASD who will become adolescents and adults over the next few years is considerable. More intensive evaluations and services are needed to address this aging population. A multiple probe design was used in the current study to demonstrate the effectiveness of the PEAK Relational Training System (PEAK; Dixon, 2014) in development of language and cognition in adults with autism. Additionally, this study evaluated if generalized behavior change occurred for participants following the implementation of the PEAK Direct Training assessment. This study will measure the effectiveness of the PEAK Relational Training System by comparing assessment scores from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale-II (Sparrow, Cicchetti, & Balla, 2005) and the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP; Sundberg, 2008). Results revealed that verbal repertoires and adaptive functioning levels for participants increased following the implementation of programs from the PEAK Direct Training Assessment. Generalizes behavior change was achieved for all three participants through the acquisition of new untrained skills. Overall, this study provides empirical support for the PEAK Relational Training System in the development of language and cognition for adults with autism.

Recognizing and learning one’s native language requires knowledge of the phonetic and rhythmical characteristics of the language. Few studies address the rich source of language information available in a speaker’s face. Solely visual speech permits language discrimination in adults (Soto-Faraco et al., 2007). This thesis tested infants and adults on their ability to use only information available in a speaker’s face to discriminate rhythmically dissimilar languages. Monolingual English infants discriminated French and English using only visual speech at 4 and 6 months old, but failed this task at 8 months old. To test the role of language experience, bilingual (English/French) 6 and 8-month-old infants were tested and successfully discriminated the languages. An optimal period for sensitivity to visual language information necessary for discriminating languages may exist in early life. To confirm an optimal period, adults who had acquired English as a second language were tested. If English was learned before age 6 years, adults discriminated English and French, but if English was learned after age 6, adults performed at chance. Experience with visual speech information in early childhood influences adult performance. To better understand the developmental trajectory of visual language discrimination, visual correlates of phonetic segments and rhythmical information were examined. When clips were manipulated to remove rhythmical information, infants used segmental visual phonetic cues to discriminate languages at 4, but not 8 months old. This suggests that a decline in non-native visual phonetic discrimination (similar to the decline seen for non-native auditory phonetic information; Werker & Tees, 1984), may be impairing language discrimination at 8 months. Infants as young as newborn use rhythmical auditory information to discriminate languages presented forward, but not backward (Mehler et al., 1988). This thesis showed that both 4 and 8-month-old infants could discriminate French from English when shown reversed language clips. Unlike auditory speech, reversed visual speech must conserve cues that permit language discrimination. Infants’ abilities to distinguish languages using visual speech parallel auditory speech findings, but also diverge to highlight unique characteristics of visual speech. Together, these studies further enrich our understanding of how infants come to recognize and learn their native language(s). / Medicine, Faculty of / Graduate

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the psycholinguistic abilities which the disadvantaged child brings with him to the preschool setting, and the growth in language development made during his participation in the program.