Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Specific language impairment (SLI) in bilingual Malaysian children is grossly underidentified for two reasons. First, there is an absence of locally-developed norm-referenced language assessment tools. The challenge in developing a local assessment tool comes from the inadequate knowledge of children’s English as it develops in the bilingual environment. Second, the characteristics of Malaysian English, a non-Standard form of English, are often confused with the features of SLI in monolingual children learning Standard English. To date, the literature has no information on SLI in bilingual children learning a non-Standard English because research mainly focuses on bilingual Standard English and monolingual non-Standard English. Spontaneous language sample is the recommended language assessment tool for bilingual Malaysian children because it provides quantitative and qualitative information for language development and assessment in communities with complex language environment. Phase 1 of the current study investigated the developmental sensitivity of four language sample measures (LSMs), including mean length of utterances (MLU), lexical diversity (D), the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn), and frequency of code-switching (FCS), by examining the relationship between these LSMs and age in 52 bilingual Chinese-English Malaysian children with normal language development (NLD), aged between 3;06 and 6;09. Analyses showed a highly significant linear relationship with age in D (r=.536) and IPSyn (r=.451), moderately significant linear relationship with MLU (r=.364), but not in FCS. The findings suggested that MLU, D, and IPSyn were developmentally sensitive to non-Standard English in the bilingual Malaysian children studied. Phase 2 compared the same measures obtained from nine children with SLI and their age-matched controls from the NLD group in Phase 1. The SLI group had significantly lower MLU and the IPSyn scores than the NLD group. Discriminant function analysis indicated that the IPSyn alone classified children into SLI and NLD groups at 77.8% classification accuracy. The four misclassified children, two in the SLI and two in the NLD group, were aged below 4;06 years. MLU and the IPSyn showed potential as SLI markers for bilingual Malaysian children. Two types of error patterns were observed from the SLI group. The first pattern included verb and the copula -be omissions which were also observed in younger children from the NLD group. The second pattern was omission of prepositions which was not observed in younger NLD group, reflected linguistic transfer from the first language. Future research in this area is suggested to a) extend the age range of the study to include older children to further verify the diagnostic potential of LSMs, b) consider longitudinal research design so that language development over time can be described and c) include non-linguistic measures given reports of these measures as potential markers of SLI. As an initial study on bilingual children learning non-Standard English, the current study provided empirical data for charting language development and also suggested potential markers for SLI. The study can serve as the basic framework not only for further research on other bilingual non-Standard English-speaking groups but also for children with language impairment secondary to developmental disorders in the same language group. / published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

The primarily goal of this study was to examine the patterns of cognitive and language processing of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and how they related to their text comprehension, interpreted within constructivism. The study aimed to characterize the difference in language, character decoding, metacognitive processing and text comprehension between children with SLI and those under typical development; to identify the inter-relationships among their language processing, character decoding, metacognitive processing and text comprehension; and to investigate how the implementation of cognitive reading strategies instruction change their language processing, character decoding, metacognitive processing, belief towards reading and text comprehension. Two studies were carried out. In Study One, 73 participants were recruited from two Hong Kong primary schools; they were at second and third grade, 42 were diagnosed of SLI and the other were under typical development. Standardized instruments were used to tap children’s language processing and character decoding respectively. Researcher developed Metacognitive Processing Scale were adopted to rate their metacognitive and deep processing of text. A set of comprehension test, comprised of forced-choice inferential questions and two recall tasks, were used to assess their depth in understanding different types of text. Analyses indicated that SLI students did not only score poorer in language processing, but also in character decoding, metacognitive processing and text comprehension. Further analyses of both the entire sample and the SLI sample, indicated that there were significant correlations between character decoding, language processing, metacognitive processing with children’s text comprehension scores. In Study Two, there were 40 participants recruited from the SLI sample of the Study One. Cognitive reading strategy instruction program were developed. 21 participants was randomly selected to receive the experimental instruction and the another 19 were under conventional instruction as control. Besides the measures used in the Study One, interviews and teacher-reporting questionnaires were used to tap children’s belief towards reading and their classroom engagement. Analysis of pre-instruction and post-instruction tests indicated the experimental children showed significantly better progress on their oral language, text comprehension and belief about reading. Both the experimental and the control group showed similar progress on character decoding. The study offers both theoretical and educational contribution on the literacy development among the population of SLI. It identifies the role of metacognitive processing on literacy achievement. It provides the evidence of implementing cognitively-based reading strategies for literacy instruction for children with SLI within Chinese context. Upon the introduction of inclusive education, teachers now face students with much wider diversity, including a significant number of children with SLI. Possible collaboration between frontline teachers and speech therapists in designing potential classroom activities is discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

Rationale. Definition of complex behavioral disorders is generally phenomenological in nature and guided by pragmatic, rather than genetic, concerns. Consequently, important aspect of genetic analysis is the search for novel phenotypic definitions from the familial/genetic perspective. SLI study 1. SLI denotes an inability to acquire normal language in the absence of peripheral hearing impairment, neurological disorder, and mental retardation. Sibling resemblance for several theoretically derived specific components of the SLI phenotype was examined in families of SLI children. In 38 sib-pairs from 10 French-speaking pedigrees, Verb Tense Morphology sub-tests (Real and Non-real Words) showed nonparametric correlations of 0.39 and 0.35, respectively (p < 0.05, 2-tailed). In a densely affected Anglophone pedigree, 41 sib-pair showed familial resemblance with respect to Derivational Morphology (r = 0.52, p < 0.01). SLI study 2. Family history study in 27 families examined the relationship between attention deficit/hyperactivity in SLI children and familial risk of speech/language disorders. Higher odds of speech/language disorders were observed in first-degree relatives of 13 SLI children who also had a medical record of attention deficit/hyperactivity (15/27 vs. 4/46, p = 0.001). Alcoholism study 1. Latent class analysis (LCA) including gender and 15 antisocial behaviors (>15yr) was performed in 236 broadly ascertained alcohol-dependent subjects (121 males, 115 females). Evidence for 3 qualitative behavioral classes was obtained: Socially Adjusted Adults, SAA; Antisocial Non-Aggressive Adults, ANAA; and Antisocial Aggressive Adults, AAA. In both, genders, the AAA class had the earliest age of onset for alcohol dependence (p = 0.001), more alcoholic first-degree relatives and more of other psychopathology. In females, the ANAA class was intermediate. In the ANAA males, socially adjusted childhood behavior differentiated the late onset from the intermediate ons

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-163). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed April 3, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 118-131).

Thesis (M.A.)--California State University Channel Islands, 2007. / Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Education.. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed August 31, 2008).

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-56).

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As South Africa is a culturally and linguistically diverse country, there is a great need for an accurate evaluation instrument that can identify children with specific language impairment (SLI) early, regardless of their language group. The language tests that are available in South Africa are mostly available in only English or Afrikaans (see Penn 1998). In the literature four repetition tasks have been identified as potential markers of SLI: nonword repetition (Coady and Evans 2008:11), sentence repetition and digit repetition (Ziethe, Eysholdt and Doellinger 2013:1) as well as real word repetition (Dispaldro, Benelli, Marcolini and Stella 2009:941). The purpose of this study was to compare the sensitivity of these four potential markers with each other in an attempt to compile an accurate measuring instrument of SLI for Afrikaans and English. The study also aimed to collect baseline data with isiXhosa-speaking children. The participants consisted of five groups of five-year-olds: The first three groups consisted of 20 typical developing (TD) Afrikaans-, 20 TD English-, and 20 TD isiXhosa-speaking children. The fourth and fifth group consisted of five Afrikaans-speaking and five English-speaking children with SLI. All four repetition tasks were performed with both Afrikaans- and both English-speaking groups; only digit repetition and nonword repetition were performed with the isiXhosa-speaking group. Refined and graded items were (i) selected from longer lists of items that were used in the pilot study, and (ii) based on the results of the pilot study, were recorded on a CD in a recording studio. This recording served as method of presentation of the items to each participant individually during the main study. There were no statistically significant differences between the performance of the TD Afrikaans- and the TD English-speaking groups. The TD isiXhosa-speaking group, however, performed significantly better on the nonword repetition task but worse on the digit repetition task than the other two TD groups. Both groups with SLI performed poorly, and significantly poorer than their corresponding TD group, in all four of the repetition tasks. For the Afrikaans-speaking children, sentence repetition followed by real word repetition distinguished best between participants with and without SLI. Sentence repetition, followed by nonword repetition, was shown to be most sensitive in distinguishing TD children from children with SLI in the English group. The percentage sounds/words correctly repeated per word/sentence, for both the nonword repetition task and the real word repetition task, was more accurate than the raw scores for the Afrikaans- and English-speaking groups. Some items did prove to be more sensitive for the difference between the performance of the TD and the SLI groups in Afrikaans and English. These more sensitive items may be appropriate for inclusion in a screening tool for SLI for use with five-year-olds. In conclusion, the results of this study confirm all four repetition tasks to be markers of SLI. Sentence repetition and nonword repetition were more sensitive markers of SLI in English-speaking five-year-olds, with sentence repetition and real word repetition being the more sensitive markers of SLI in Afrikaans-speaking five-year-olds. The isiXhosa-speaking group performed similarly to the Afrikaans- and English-speaking groups in the nonword repetition- and digit repetition tasks. Based on these results, recommendations are made regarding the content and presentation mode of a screening test comprising repetition tasks for the identification of possible SLI in Afrikaans- and English-speaking children. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Aangesien Suid-Afrika ‘n kultureel en linguisties diverse land is, is daar ‘n groot behoefte aan ‘n metingsinstrument wat kinders met spesifieke taalgestremdheid (STG) , uit alle taalgroepe, vroegtydig en akkuraat kan identifiseer. Die taaltoetse wat wel in Suid-Afrika gebruik kan word, is bykans slegs in Afrikaans of Engels beskikbaar (kyk Penn 1998). In die literatuur is daar vier herhalingstake geïdentifiseer wat potensiële merkers van STG kan wees: onsinwoordherhaling (Coady en Evans 2008:11), sinsherhaling en getalherhaling (Ziethe, Eysholdt en Doellinger 2013:1) asook regtewoordherhaling (Dispaldro, Benelli, Marcolini en Stella 2009:941). Die doel van hierdie studie was om die sensitiwiteit van hierdie vier potensiële merkers met mekaar te vergelyk in ‘n poging om ‘n akkurate metingsinstrument van STG vir Afrikaans en Engels op te stel. Basislyndata oor herhaling deur isiXhosasprekende kinders is ook in hierdie studie ingesamel. Die deelnemers het uit vyf groepe vyfjariges bestaan. Die eerste drie groepe was 20 tipies ontwikkelende (TO) Afrikaans-, 20 TO Engels-, en 20 TO isiXhosasprekendes. Die vierde en vyfde groep het uit vyf Afrikaanssprekende- en vyf Engelsprekende kinders met STG bestaan. Al vier herhalingstake is met die twee Afrikaans- en die twee Engelssprekende groepe uitgevoer; slegs getalherhaling en onsinwoordherhaling is met die isiXhosasprekende groep uitgevoer. Verfynde en gegradeerde items geselekteer (i) uit die langer itemlyste gebruik in die loodsstudie en (ii) op grond van die loosstudieresultate, is op CD opgeneem in ‘n klankateljee, en dié opname is gebruik as die metode van aanbieding van die items aan elke deelnemer individueel tydens die hoofstudie. Daar is geen statisties beduidende verskil tussen die prestasie van die TO Afrikaans- en TO Engelssprekende-groepe gevind nie. Die TO isiXhosa-sprekende groep het egter beter as hierdie twee groepe gepresteer in onsinwoordherhaling maar swakker in getalherhaling. Die twee STG-groepe het beide swak, en beduidend swakker as hul ooreenstemmende TO-groep, op alle herhalingstake gevaar. Vir Afrikaanssprekendes het sinsherhaling, gevolg deur regtewoordherhaling, die beste tussen die deelnemers met en sonder STG onderskei, terwyl die mees sensitiewe take vir die Engelssprekende deelnemers sinsherhaling gevolg deur onsinwoordherhaling was. Persentasie klanke/woorde korrek herhaal per woord/sin was in die geval van onsinwoordherhalings- en regtewoordherhalingstake vir beide Afrikaans en Engels meer akkuraat as wat roupunttellings was. Sommige items in elk van die herhalingstake was beide vir Engels en Afrikaans meer sensitief vir die verskil tussen die prestasies van die TO- en STG-groepe. Hierdie meer sensitiewe items mag toepaslik wees vir insluiting in ʼn siftingstoets vir STG vir gebruik met vyfjariges. Opsommend: Die resulate bevestig al vier herhalingstake as merkers van STG. Sinsherhaling en onsinwoordherhaling is meer sensitiewe merkers van STG vir Engelssprekende vyfjariges, met sinsherhaling en regtewoordherhaling wat meer sensitiewe merkers van STG vir Afrikaanssprekende vyfjariges is. Die isiXhosasprekende groep het soortgelyk aan die Afrikaans- en Engelssprekende groepe ten opsigte van onsinwoordherhaling en getalherhaling presteer. Op grond van die resultate word aanbevelings gemaak vir die inhoud en aanbeidingswyse van ‘n siftingstoets bestaande uit herhalingstake vir die identifisering van moontlike STG in Afrikaans- en Engelssprekende kinders.