No description available.

Against the background of a broad range of language features that are identified as characteristic of specific language impairment (SLI), some researchers have identified a narrower set of clinical markers considered the hallmark of SLI. However, comparisons with language impairments that fall outside the criteria for SLI are limited. This thesis is concerned with determining which language features, if any, are capable of differentiating children with SLI from children with non-specific language impairment (NLI). Conversation and oral narrative language samples were collected from seventy five children aged 2 ½ to 6 years comprising four research groups: 21 participants with SLI, 13 participants with NLI, 21 age-matched participants with normally developing language (AM) and 20 younger language-matched participants with normally developing language (LM). Matching for group comparisons required that the SLI and NLI groups had similar levels of language ability on a standardised assessment and mean length of utterance (MLU), which reduced the SLI group to 15 participants for these comparisons. The LM group was also matched to the SLI and NLI groups on MLU. A wide range of language variables from the conversation and narrative samples were analysed, covering the domains of general sample measures, morphosyntactic accuracy and complexity, narrative structure and cohesion. The SLI and NLI groups performed similarly in all domains and could not be differentiated diagnostically on the measures examined. The most consistent group effects were for comparisons between the AM and LM groups, which demonstrated the effects of maturation and development. The language impairment (LI) and LM groups could not be differentiated on the majority of general language sample or morphosyntactic measures but the SLI group produced narratives that were structurally more complex and cohesive than the LM group. Language tasks varied in their effectiveness in differentiating groups. More consistent group effects for the grammatical accuracy measures were obtained from the conversations than the narratives, and from composite measures compared to individual morpheme measures. Targeted elicitation tasks were more effective than the conversations or narratives in producing consistent group effects for accuracy of individual verb tense morphemes. More consistent group effects for the narrative features were obtained from a wordless picture book than a single scene picture. A set of discriminant function analyses showed that LI was most effectively identified using a combination of key morphosyntactic measures from the conversations and key narrative feature measures from the two narratives. The results have implications for diagnostic practices, intervention practices and theoretical constructs and explanations of SLI and NLI. In particular, a broad, holistic view of LI is supported, as an impairment that impacts on all domains of language which interact with each other and must be considered collectively, rather than as individual, splintered skills.

Specific language impairment (SLI) describes a form of language acquisition difficulty that is not secondary to other developmental conditions. Researchers have identified a number of social and emotional difficulties in children and young people with SLI. However, less is known about the influences upon these difficulties, particularly at times of major change. This longitudinal study therefore examines the social well-being of children with receptive SLI during their transition from primary to secondary schooling. It focuses on peer social position and social anxiety and considers whether the severity of receptive language impairment, along with other factors, has particular importance for these markers. The markers are explored in terms of their definition, interrelationship and the degree to which they present singularly in children with SLI. The study uses a mixed method design to address six related research questions. The quantitative results showed that the participants with SLI had higher social anxiety than typical comparisons at both Time 1 and Time 2, but lower self-rated social acceptance at Time 2 only. However, teachers at Time 1 rated their social acceptance lower than they rated typical comparisons. There were no significant changes in self-rated measures from Time 1 to Time 2. A moderately strong and longitudinally robust association was found between social acceptance and social anxiety and between social acceptance and verbal/non-verbal discrepancy. Furthermore, social acceptance predicted social anxiety. The qualitative findings indicated that a number of factors singly and ecologically influenced the social well-being of children with SLI following secondary transition. Of these, receptive language level, pragmatic development and parental support were found to be particularly important. There was considerable variation in levels of social well-being, but they were generally lower than in a group of children with specific learning difficulties (SpLD). Overall, the study suggested that some children with SLI face greater social challenges than their peers at this life stage. However, secondary transition did not invariably result in greater difficulties. The study raised questions about policy, provision and practice in relation to children with SLI and identified areas for future research. Key words: specific language impairment (SLI); special educational needs (SEN); specific learning difficulties (SpLD); peer social position; social anxiety; ecological relationships

Studien har som ambition att öppna upp för en diskussion om likvärdighet för elever med språkstörning i den svenska skolan. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och fokuserar på informanternas erfarenheter och tankar om två kommuners organisation av verksamheten som bedrivs för elever med språkstörning. Datainsamlingen genomfördes genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex informanter verksamma på förvaltnings- och/eller skolnivå i de två undersökta kommunerna samt en representant för Statens Specialpedagogiska Myndighet, SPSM. Urvalet skedde genom målstyrt urval samt snöbollsurval och därefter analyserades det transkriberade intervjumaterialet genom att använda tematisk analys. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultatet på att de båda kommunerna valt att organisera arbetet kring elever med språkstörning på olika sätt, genom tal- och kommunikationsklass respektive reguljär klass. Resultatet visar att de elever med språkstörning som får en placering i tal- och kommunikationsklass får mer stöttning än elever i reguljär klass, då personaltätheten är bestydligt högre i tal- och kommunikationsklasserna. Trots detta framkom ingen ökad måluppfyllelse för elever i tal- och kommunikationsklass jämfört med elever med språkstörning i reguljär klass, utan måluppfyllelsen ses som generellt låg i elevgruppen oavsett placering. Resultatet visar att resurser såsom kompetens hos lärare, tillgång till professioner såsom logoped och specialpedagog, SPSM och ekonomi, påverkar verksamheten och därigenom den undervisning och det särskilda stöd eleven med generell språkstörning får. Brist på resurser ansågs utgöra ett hot mot dessa elevers utveckling och lärande.  Studiens slutsats betonar vikten av att se till helheten för eleven. Den viktiga sociala aspekten, det trygga sammanhanget där eleven vill vara, kan ibland vara viktigare än att eleven får "skräddarsydd" undervisning, i synnerhet då informanterna inte ser någon ökad måluppfyllelse för elever i tal- och kommunikationsklass. Var går gränsen, vad och vems röst ska avgöra? Utifrån resultatet i studiens analys framkommer att ingen av de båda kommunerna har kunskap och kompetens i tillräcklig utsträckning, för att uppnå likvärdighet för denna elevgrupp.

No description available.

Limited research is available about how lexical and phonological verb properties interact with past tense production by children. Frequency of the inflected form and phonotactic probability might serve as input-driven alternatives to previously-studied factors such as lexical aspect and coda composition. Archival elicited production data from 4-9 year old children with typical language (N = 24) and specific language impairment (N=14) using 108 two-clause complex sentences/85 different verbs were analyzed for past tense use, coda composition, telicity, phonotactic probability (Vitevitch & Luce, 2004), and lexical frequency (CHILDES; MacWhinney, 2000). Several regression models were considered, including one with only categorical factors (e.g. obstruent/continuant ending), one with only continuous factors (e.g. average biphone probability), one with only phonological factors, one with only lexical factors, and several mixed models. Diagnostic status and verb regularity accounted for the majority of the variance. The combination of lexical frequency of the inflected form with residuals of stem lexical frequency was the best lexical model. Place and manner information for the final consonant of the stem comprised the best phonological model. These two models combined into a final overall predictive model.

The construction of 3D models of real-world scenes using non-contact methods is an important problem in computer vision. Some of the more successful methods belong to a class of techniques called structured light illumination (SLI). While SLI methods are generally very successful, there are cases where their performance is poor. Examples include scenes with a high dynamic range in albedo or scenes with strong interreflections. These scenes are referred to as optically challenging environments. The work in this dissertation is aimed at improving SLI performance in optically challenging environments. A new method of high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) based on pixel-by-pixel Kalman filtering is developed. Using objective metrics, it is show to achieve as much as a 9.4 dB improvement in signal-to-noise ratio and as much as a 29% improvement in radiometric accuracy over a classic method. Quality checks are developed to detect and quantify multipath interference and other quality defects using phase measuring profilometry (PMP). Techniques are established to improve SLI performance in the presence of strong interreflections. Approaches in compressed sensing are applied to SLI, and interreflections in a scene are modeled using SLI. Several different applications of this research are also discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

Syftet med denna studie är att med fokus på språkstörning och läs- och skrivlärande undersöka hur pedagoger ser på begreppet språkstörning, samt vilka erfarenheter de har vid undervisning av elever med språkstörning. Studien handlar om elevens utveckling när de hamnar i den situationen där en eventuell språkstörning kan bli ett hinder i språk-, läs- och skrivlärandet. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av semistrukturerade gruppintervjuer på fyra olika skolor inom samma kommun. Informanterna har ingått i ett arbetslag som har erfarenhet av elever med språkstörning. De områden som valts att fokusera på är läs- och skrivlärande processen, metoder och arbetssätt och lärmiljön. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt används det sociokulturella perspektivet där kommunikation och språkanvändning är centrala begrepp, dessa begrepp utgör länken mellan barnet och omgivningen. Resultaten är uppdelade under områdena: begreppet språkstörning, metoder och arbetssätt, pedagogers erfarenheter, lärmiljön, pedagogiska utmaningar och framgångsfaktorer. Dessa områden har sedan sammankopplats i diskussionen med den forsknings- och litteraturgenomgång som genomförts. Resultatet visar att begreppet språkstörning innefattar många olika områden och används inte alltid i rätt syfte. Arbetslagen utgår alltid från flera metoder och arbetssätt, de provar sig fram och utgår från elevens behov. Viktiga aspekter i lärmiljön är att använda tydlighet, struktur, ett gemensamt förhållningssätt, fasta rutiner och att alltid ha ett mål att vara flera vuxna i klassrummet. Pedagogiska utmaningar innebär att kartlägga elevens behov för att sätta in rätta åtgärder. En språkstörning hos en elev kan yttra sig på olika vis vilket innebär behov av stöd inom flera områden.