Crianças com Distúrbio Específico de Linguagem (DEL) podem apresentar dificuldades de recepção e emissão da linguagem que podem trazer prejuízos na sua interação com outras crianças, familiares e sociedade uma vez que estudos relatam a importância social da comunicação como um veículo de extensas redes de trocas sociais, pelas quais se forma e se transforma a cultura e, em consequência a própria realidade social. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar as habilidades comunicativas de seis crianças com DEL, na faixa etária entre sete e oito anos e onze meses e comparar com crianças com desenvolvimento típico pertencentes ao grupo controle (GC), pareado por idade e gênero. A investigação compreendeu: (i) a avaliação do período da narrativa oral com quatro figuras de sequência lógico temporal e (ii) avaliação do desempenho em habilidades sociais comunicativas (HSC) por meio da analise de filmagens de situações estruturadas entre cada criança com DEL e seu respectivo par do GC e entre cada criança com DEL e um adulto do gênero feminino. Como resultado, todas as crianças com DEL apresentaram déficits nas HSC tanto nas interações com seus pares quanto com o adulto e cinco delas mostraram desempenho narrativo abaixo do esperado em relação ao GC, o que evidencia prejuízo nas interações sociais desses indivíduos. O estudo permitiu caracterizar e identificar necessidades especiais relacionadas ao repertório social e comportamental, mas são necessários novos estudos sobre protocolos de avaliação e intervenção que tenham como meta tanto a melhoria nos aspectos de fala e linguagem quanto nas relações interpessoais das crianças com DEL. / Children with Specific Language Impairment ( SLI ) may present difficulties in receiving and issuing of language that can bring harm in their interaction with other children , family and society as social studies report the importance of communication as a vehicle for extensive exchange networks social and shape by which the culture is transformed and therefore social reality . The aim of this study was to investigate the communicative abilities of six children with SLI , aged between seven and eight years and eleven months and compared with typically developing children in the control group ( CG) , matched for age and gender . The investigation included: ( i ) assessing the period of oral narrative with four figures logical temporal sequence and ( ii ) assessing performance in communicative social skills ( HSC ) through the analysis of shooting situations structured between each child with SLI and its respective pair of the GC and between each child with SLI and an adult female . As a result , all children with SLI showed deficits in HSC both in interactions with their peers and with adult and five of them showed narrative performance below expectations compared to GC , which show impaired social interactions of these individuals . The study allowed us to characterize and identify special needs related to social and behavioral repertoire , but further studies are needed on protocols for assessment and intervention that have as a goal the improvement in both aspects of speech and language and interpersonal relationships of children with SLI .

It is well known that language processing depends on specialized areas in the left side of the brain in the majority of the population. A popular view is that developmental language disorders result from a poorly lateralized brain, but evidence in support of this has been weak and inconsistent. In this thesis, I investigated language-related asymmetries in brain structure and function, and their behavioural relevance in both individuals with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing adults. Combining different brain imaging techniques, I looked at group-level as well as individual estimates of language laterality and its relationship to language abilities. The aim of my first two studies was to investigate the neural underpinnings of SLI in terms of white matter microstructure and functional organization associated with auditory processing. For this, diffusion and functional MRI data was obtained in a small number of families with a history of SLI and in control families. Compared with neurotypical controls, children with SLI had lower white matter integrity in the corpus callosum, and in white matter areas corresponding to the dorsal and ventral language pathways. The expected functional lateralization for auditory processing was not observed in either group. In the second half of my thesis, I assessed language laterality in 215 neurotypical adults. I demonstrated that functional transcranial Doppler (FTCD) ultrasonography could reliably assess functional lateralization across different language processes. From this large group, I identified 16 individuals with atypical language lateralization and compared them to a group of 16 typically lateralized individuals using a combination of FTCD, MRI and behavioural measures of language laterality and language abilities. The two groups differed significantly in terms of lateralization assessed by functional MRI and diffusion imaging. The atypical group had lower left and greater right hemisphere activation compared with the typical group, and lacked the leftwards asymmetry in the ventral language tract seen in the typical group. The groups did not differ in terms of cognitive measures. Different functional laterality assessments were concordant in the typically lateralized individuals but were inconsistent in the individuals assessed as atypical by FTCD. In brief, my findings suggest that for some individuals language lateralization may be unstable and varies depending on task or other factors. Even so, such differences do not appear to have consequences for language or other cognitive development.

Crianças com Distúrbio Específico de Linguagem (DEL) podem apresentar dificuldades de recepção e emissão da linguagem que podem trazer prejuízos na sua interação com outras crianças, familiares e sociedade uma vez que estudos relatam a importância social da comunicação como um veículo de extensas redes de trocas sociais, pelas quais se forma e se transforma a cultura e, em consequência a própria realidade social. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar as habilidades comunicativas de seis crianças com DEL, na faixa etária entre sete e oito anos e onze meses e comparar com crianças com desenvolvimento típico pertencentes ao grupo controle (GC), pareado por idade e gênero. A investigação compreendeu: (i) a avaliação do período da narrativa oral com quatro figuras de sequência lógico temporal e (ii) avaliação do desempenho em habilidades sociais comunicativas (HSC) por meio da analise de filmagens de situações estruturadas entre cada criança com DEL e seu respectivo par do GC e entre cada criança com DEL e um adulto do gênero feminino. Como resultado, todas as crianças com DEL apresentaram déficits nas HSC tanto nas interações com seus pares quanto com o adulto e cinco delas mostraram desempenho narrativo abaixo do esperado em relação ao GC, o que evidencia prejuízo nas interações sociais desses indivíduos. O estudo permitiu caracterizar e identificar necessidades especiais relacionadas ao repertório social e comportamental, mas são necessários novos estudos sobre protocolos de avaliação e intervenção que tenham como meta tanto a melhoria nos aspectos de fala e linguagem quanto nas relações interpessoais das crianças com DEL. / Children with Specific Language Impairment ( SLI ) may present difficulties in receiving and issuing of language that can bring harm in their interaction with other children , family and society as social studies report the importance of communication as a vehicle for extensive exchange networks social and shape by which the culture is transformed and therefore social reality . The aim of this study was to investigate the communicative abilities of six children with SLI , aged between seven and eight years and eleven months and compared with typically developing children in the control group ( CG) , matched for age and gender . The investigation included: ( i ) assessing the period of oral narrative with four figures logical temporal sequence and ( ii ) assessing performance in communicative social skills ( HSC ) through the analysis of shooting situations structured between each child with SLI and its respective pair of the GC and between each child with SLI and an adult female . As a result , all children with SLI showed deficits in HSC both in interactions with their peers and with adult and five of them showed narrative performance below expectations compared to GC , which show impaired social interactions of these individuals . The study allowed us to characterize and identify special needs related to social and behavioral repertoire , but further studies are needed on protocols for assessment and intervention that have as a goal the improvement in both aspects of speech and language and interpersonal relationships of children with SLI .

A compreensão da relação entre linguagem oral e escrita tem se concentrado nos estudos sobre o processamento fonológico (PF). Limitações neste processamento são apontadas como responsáveis pelas dificuldades fonológicas, lexicais, de compreensão e de escrita das crianças com Distúrbio Especifico de Linguagem (DEL). Os objetivos desta dissertação foram: verificar a ocorrência de alteração nas habilidades da linguagem escrita e nas habilidades do PF em crianças com DEL; comparar o desempenho entre crianças com DEL e com Desenvolvimento Típico de Linguagem (DTL) quanto as habilidades do PF e verificar se ha associação entre as habilidades do PF e as de linguagem escrita em crianças com DEL, e ainda, se ha uma habilidade do PF que se destaca nesta associação. Participaram deste estudo 40 sujeitos: 20 com diagnostico de DEL (GE) e 20 com DTL (GC) com idades entre 7 e 10 anos de ambos os sexos. Para avaliação das habilidades do PF foram aplicados os seguintes procedimentos: prova de repetição de não palavras para avaliação da Memória de Trabalho Fonológica (MTF), Teste de Nomeação Automatizada Rápida (RAN) para avaliação do Acesso Lexical (AL) e Perfil de Habilidades Fonológicas para avaliação da Consciência Fonológica (CF). Para avaliação da linguagem escrita os seguintes sub-testes do Teste de Analise de Leitura e Escrita (TALE) foram utilizados: leitura e compreensão de texto, ditado e escrita espontânea. Para analise estatística foi utilizado o teste Qui Quadrado, sendo adotado nível de significância estatística 0,05. A ocorrência de alterações na linguagem escrita na grande maioria dos sujeitos com DEL na amostra estudada foi constatada. As crianças deste grupo apresentaram desempenhos significantemente piores nas provas do PF quando comparadas as do GC. A existência de associação entre desempenho em provas de leitura e escrita e o desempenho em provas do PF foi confirmada. As analises estatísticas evidenciaram que a MTF foi aquela que apresentou maior nível de significância com as provas de leitura e de escrita. Pode-se concluir que a grande maioria das crianças com DEL apresentam alteração nas habilidades de linguagem escrita e do PF; elas apresentaram desempenho significantemente pior em relação aquelas com DTL nas habilidades do PF; ha associação entre desempenho em provas de leitura e escrita e provas do PF, sendo que as dificuldades nas habilidades do PF podem justificar as dificuldades de linguagem escrita; a MTF foi aquela que apresentou maior associação, o que reforça a hipótese de que defasagem na MTF e um forte marcador psicolingüístico nos quadros de DEL. / The understanding of the relationship between oral language and written language hás focused on studies on the phonological processing (PP). Limitations in this area have been identified as one of those responsible, in addition for lexical difficulties and comprehension difficulties, for the phonological disorders of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and the consequent alteration in the written language. This study aimed: verifying the occurrence of alterations in the written language skills and abilities of the PP in children with SLI; compare the performance between children with SLI and typical language development (TLD) and the abilities of the PP; check the association between the PP and the skills of written language in children with SLI, and, if there is one skill of the PP that stands out in these association. Participated of these study 40 subjects: 20 with SLI (EG) and 20 with TDL (CG), with ages between 7 and 10 years old, of the both sexes. For evaluation of the PP the following procedures had been used: non words repetition proof of the Prova de Memoria de Trabalho Fonologica, Teste de Nomeacao Automatizada e Rapida (RAN), for evaluation the lexical acces, and the Perfil de Habilidades Fonologicas, for evaluate the phonological awareness. For evaluation of written language the following subtests of the Teste de Analise de Leitura e Escrita TALE had been used: reading and understanding of text, dictated and spontaneous writing. Statistical analysis was performed using the Qui Quadrado test, and adopted level of statistical significance 0.05. The occurrence of alteration in the written language in most of the subjects with SLI in the sample was found. Children in this group had significantly worse performance in tests of PP when compared to the CG. The existence of the association between performance in tests of reading and writing and performance in tests of PP was confirmed. Statistical analysis showed that the phonological working memory (PWM) was one that showed higher level of significance with the proof reading and writing. It was observed that the majority of children with SLI have alterations in the skills of written language and the PP, they performed significantly worse for those with skills in TDL of PF; there is association between performance in tests of the PP and evidence reading and writing, and that difficulties in the abilities of the PP may explain the difficulties of written language. The PWM was what stood out most in this association, which reinforces the hypothesis, that deficit the PWM is a strong psycholinguistics marker of SLI.

This study seeks to: (1) determine if differences exist between children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) compared to age-matched (AM) and language- matched (LM) children with typical language development (TL) in rates and proportions of five types of metalinguistic productions and (2) test theories of metalinguistic production. Forty-five children, 24 with TL and 21 with SLI, paired for age or language level, formed two groups. Previously collected data from two studies of verb learning (Proctor-Williams & Fey, 2007; Proctor- Williams, unpublished) were analyzed for rates and types of metalinguistic productions. Results yielded no within or between group significant differences in the rates types. There were differences in proportional use of types of metalinguistic utterances in the LM group. This study showed that children as young as 3;0 produce metalinguistic utterances. Further, it disproved the Piagetian-Based Metalinguistic Development Theory. Interesting trends suggest direction for future research.

De flesta elever med språkstörning går i vanliga grundskoleklasser. Denna grupp elever riskerar dock oftare än andra elever att misslyckas i skolan på grund av bristande stöd och anpassningar, skolors organisation och lärares kompetens (SOU 2016:46). I vår studie undersöks hur föräldrar till barn med språkstörning uppfattar sina barns möjligheter till likvärdig utbildning i skolan. Frågor som studien ger svar på är: Vad anser föräldrar att barnen är i behov av för stöd i skolan? Vilka hinder anser föräldrar att barnen möter i skolan? Vad fungerar bra för barnen – Vilka är framgångsfaktorerna? Hur upplever föräldrar att de kan stötta sina barn i skolan? Som teoretisk utgångspunkt används ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Undersökningen genomfördes som en kvalitativ studie där vi använde öppna diskussionsforum på internet för insamling av data. De öppna forum som vi valde var specifika diskussionsgrupper för föräldrar till barn med språkstörning. För analys av vårt datamaterial utgick vi från en tematisk sex-stegsanalysmodell. Resultatet visar att föräldrar anser att utbildningen inte är likvärdig och att barnen är i behov av mycket stöd i skolan. Stöd som önskas är att skolor organiseras utifrån barnens behov och förutsättningar, större tillgång till talpedagog och logoped, anpassade hjälpmedel, att utredningar görs tidigt för att få större möjlighet till stöd samt att det finns kompetenta lärare som stöttar barnen både socialt och kunskapsmässigt. Föräldrar ser lärares positiva bemötande som en framgångsfaktor för att barnets självkänsla ska stärkas och därmed ha större förutsättningar för att lyckas i skolan. Resultatet visar att det finns ett stort engagemang hos föräldrar kring barnets skolgång, men upplevelsen finns att de inte alltid blir lyssnade på, vilket försvårar samarbetet mellan hem och skola. Tillgången till specialskolor, språkklasser och språkspår är väldigt ojämnt fördelat geografiskt, vilket också försämrar förutsättningarna för barnen.

Language serves as an essential resource to learn about cause and effect throughout childhood. Causal adverbial sentences use causal conjunctions (e.g., because, so) to join two clauses to express cause-effect relationships (Diessel & Hetterle, 2011). Causal adverbial sentences are frequently used to explain causal relationships in academic contexts, such as elementary school science and social studies classes (Kinzie et al., 2014; Williams et al., 2014). Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are at risk for failure in these academically relevant language skills. Here, a multiple probe design was used to examine the effect of language intervention focused on causal adverbials on both causal adverbials and acquisition of academic content for preschool/kindergarten children with SLI. Child performance on sentence elicitation probes of causal adverbials and an untreated control structure were analyzed. Six of seven participants exhibited gains at some level in production of causal adverbials containing because. Performance on daily probes of science content learning, and science unit tests indicate that participants are able to learn science content, but the magnitude of gains may not relate to skill in causal adverbial production. Language intervention for young children with SLI can effectively treat complex syntactic targets such as causal adverbials in the context of science instruction, but it is unclear whether this can affect science content learning.

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.

Syftet med undersökningen är att få en uppfattning kring arbetet som sker på förskolan då det förekommer ett barn med språkstörning. Undersökningen består av fyra intervjuade pedagoger som delar sina kunskaper och erfarenheter kring att arbeta med språkstörning, vilka metoder de använder sig av, hur de anser att miljön på förskolan bör vara utformad samt hur de lägger upp en pedagogisk verksamhet för att barnen på bästa sätt ska utveckla sitt språk Ur resultatet så framkommer det väldigt stor skillnad i både kunskap och pedagogernas kompetens gällande språkstörning, samt att de använder sig av metoder med både manuell och hjälpmedelsbaserad alternativ kompletterande kommunikation. Flera uppfattningar från pedagogerna avser utformning av förskolans miljö samt hur de lägger upp den pedagogiska verksamheten för att barnen ska få bästa möjlighet till språkutveckling. Sammanfattningsvis anser alla de intervjuade pedagogerna att deras viktigaste plikt och förhållningssätt är att de är närvarande pedagoger så att barnen får de rätta förutsättningarna att lära sig språk. / The aim of this study is to gain an understanding of the work that takes place in a preschool when there are children with specific language impairment. The study consists of interviews with four pedagogues who share their knowledge and experience of working with language impairment; the methods they use, how, in their opinion, the preschool environment should be designed, and how they create pedagogical activities for the children to be able to develop their language in the best possible way. The result shows that there is a vast difference in both knowledge and competence among the pedagogues as regards language impairment, and that they use methods of both manual and aided alternative and augmentative communication. Several ideas among the pedagogues concern the design of the preschool environment and how they organize the teaching activity, in order to give the children the best possible chance to develop their language. To sum up, all the pedagogues in the interviews think that as teachers the obligation and attitude that is most important for them is to be present, so that the children will receive the right prerequisites to be able to develop their language.