Finding an early and objective way to identify language impairment in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has the potential to lead to earlier speech and language intervention for affected children. Previous magnetoencephalography studies utilizing the mismatch field component (MMF) component have shown that increased MMF latency is a predictor of language impairment in children with ASD. We attempted to replicate these results using the mismatch negativity (MMN), the electroencephalography (EEG) equivalent of MMF. EEG was recorded in children ages 5 to 10 with ASD plus language impairment (ASD +LI), ASD minus language impairment (ASD –LI), and typically developing controls (TD) during a passive auditory oddball experiment presenting speech and nonspeech sounds. Contrary to previous MMF findings, individuals with ASD +LI demonstrated decreased MMN latency in the left hemisphere in response to novel vowel sounds compared to individuals with ASD –LI and TD controls. A positive correlation between left hemisphere MMN latency and language scores on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals was found when combining both ASD groups. Our results lend support to the theory that some children with ASD +LI have increased connectivity in primary sensory cortices at the expense of computational connectivity between association areas of the brain. This may account for faster speech sound processing despite low language scores in these children. Further research needs to be done in order to determine if grouping children by hyper– versus hyposensitivity to auditory stimuli could explain conflicting results between studies and elucidate a neurophysiological biomarker of language impairment in subgroups of children with ASD.

Research has identified language impairment as a pervasive disability (Bishop & Edmundson, 1987; Greenhalgh & Strong, 2001). Classroom communication behaviors have a role in the maintenance of special education eligibility and functional communication difficulties for young children with language impairment. This paper reviews the theoretical and experimental literature on narrative skills and language impairment as well as empirical support for understanding language delays as part of a group of risk factors that affect child development. The present study describes patterns in the communication skills of a small group of young children with a predetermined diagnosis of language impairment using a case and field mixed methods research design. The study contributes to our conceptual understanding of the pervasive nature of language impairment by focusing on patterns in oral narrative skills and their relationship to communication at school, at home, and in the community. Study results differentiate participants by the severity of utterance formulation difficulties as well as social communication differences and emotional health symptoms to identify patterns. This study was unique in that information from classroom teachers and parents in addition to an analysis of multiple language samples created a thick description of patterns across participants. Discussion elaborates upon patterns in the data and implications for assessment and practice implications for school based services from a speech-language pathologist.

This paper explores the interaction of children with language impairment (LI). The present essay is a conversation analytic study of child-child and child-therapist dyads. The aim was to explore in what ways children with LI reach common understanding. Another purpose was to investigate if there are differences in interaction between dyads with children with LI and dyads with children with LI and speech language therapist. Seven children, three girls and four boys, with LI participated in the study. All the children are enrolled at a language unit. The dialogues were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The results revealed no differences in the children’s length of utterance between the child-child dyads and the child-SLT dyads. Another important finding was that it became more of a course of event in the play between child and SLT in contrast to the child-child dyads, where the communication more concerned one or a couple of objects. In general, the children managed to initiate, respond, give feedback, negotiate and make requests of clarification and repair utterances in conversation with each other. One important conclusion is that conversation analysis could be used in identification of strengths and weaknesses in children’s communication. The knowledge from the analyses ought to be applicable in intervention with children with LI. / Föreliggande studie behandlar hur barn med språkstörning interagerar. Vidare är den en samtalsanalytisk studie av samtal barn-barn och barn-logoped. Syftet var att studera hur gemensam förståelse uppnås i kommunikation samt att undersöka om skillnader förelåg mellan de två samtalstyperna. Sju barn, tre flickor och fyra pojkar, med generell språkstörning deltog i studien. Samtliga går på språkförskola i södra Sverige. Samtalen spelades in, transkriberades samt analyserades. Resultaten visade att barnen initierade och responderade, återkopplade, förhandlade, begärde förtydligande samt reparerade yttranden relativt väl. Vidare framkom ingen skillnad i yttrandelängd hos barnen beroende på vem de kommunicerade med. Barnen upprätthöll ett samtalsämne tämligen adekvat. I logopedbarnsamtalen utvecklades samspelet mer till ett längre händelseförlopp, till skillnad från barnbarnsamtalen, där samtalen centrerades kring ett eller ett par föremål. Samtalsanalys förefaller vara ett bra verktyg vid bedömning av kommunikation. Metoden visar barns språkliga styrkor och svagheter i vardagligt samspel. Samtalsanalysens resultat kan därefter användas för att träna social interaktion i vardagen, och där torde logopeden ha en betydande roll gällande handledning av kommunikativ träning.

<p>This paper explores the interaction of children with language impairment (LI). The present essay is a conversation analytic study of child-child and child-therapist dyads. The aim was to explore in what ways children with LI reach common understanding. Another purpose was to investigate if there are differences in interaction between dyads with children with LI and dyads with children with LI and speech language therapist. Seven children, three girls and four boys, with LI participated in the study. All the children are enrolled at a language unit. The dialogues were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The results revealed no differences in the children’s length of utterance between the child-child dyads and the child-SLT dyads. Another important finding was that it became more of a course of event in the play between child and SLT in contrast to the child-child dyads, where the communication more concerned one or a couple of objects. In general, the children managed to initiate, respond, give feedback, negotiate and make requests of clarification and repair utterances in conversation with each other. One important conclusion is that conversation analysis could be used in identification of strengths and weaknesses in children’s communication. The knowledge from the analyses ought to be applicable in intervention with children with LI.</p> / <p>Föreliggande studie behandlar hur barn med språkstörning interagerar. Vidare är den en samtalsanalytisk studie av samtal barn-barn och barn-logoped. Syftet var att studera hur gemensam förståelse uppnås i kommunikation samt att undersöka om skillnader förelåg mellan de två samtalstyperna. Sju barn, tre flickor och fyra pojkar, med generell språkstörning deltog i studien. Samtliga går på språkförskola i södra Sverige. Samtalen spelades in, transkriberades samt analyserades. Resultaten visade att barnen initierade och responderade, återkopplade, förhandlade, begärde förtydligande samt reparerade yttranden relativt väl. Vidare framkom ingen skillnad i yttrandelängd hos barnen beroende på vem de kommunicerade med. Barnen upprätthöll ett samtalsämne tämligen adekvat. I logopedbarnsamtalen utvecklades samspelet mer till ett längre händelseförlopp, till skillnad från barnbarnsamtalen, där samtalen centrerades kring ett eller ett par föremål. Samtalsanalys förefaller vara ett bra verktyg vid bedömning av kommunikation. Metoden visar barns språkliga styrkor och svagheter i vardagligt samspel. Samtalsanalysens resultat kan därefter användas för att träna social interaktion i vardagen, och där torde logopeden ha en betydande roll gällande handledning av kommunikativ träning.</p>

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Orientador: Ruth Elisabeth Vasconcellos Lopes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T05:22:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Arvigo_MariaClaudia_M.pdf: 2310306 bytes, checksum: bb233c9ad0e9205ce7d4d95f43360732 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Crianças acometidas pelo Déficit Específico de Linguagem (DEL) apresentam dificuldades na composição da estrutura gramatical de sua língua. Uma das dificuldades mais documentadas refere-se à morfologia de tempo, sendo que esta categoria funcional pode ser omitida assistematicamente ou substituída de forma irregular. Tempo e Aspecto encontram-se relacionados intrinsecamente, impossibilitando o estudo do primeiro sem a observação do segundo. Estudos anteriores referem que crianças com DEL apresentam bom reconhecimento de temporalidade (passado, presente e futuro), mas encontram relativa dificuldade em compreender a relação entre eventos completos/ incompletos e o passado progressivo (aspecto gramatical imperfectivo). Este comportamento seria resultado de uma baixa sensibilidade às propriedades aspectuais, evidenciada pela pouca ou nenhuma variação do desempenho com relação ao aspecto lexical. Tais resultados referem-se a pesquisas com crianças anglófonas, já o presente estudo buscou verificar se o mesmo ocorre em crianças com DEL adquirindo o português brasileiro. Resultados encontrados demonstram que os indivíduos participantes apresentam variações em seu comportamento que podem ser atribuídas à presença do aspecto lexical, enfraquecendo a hipótese da insensibilidade aspectual, ao menos no que se refere ao português brasileiro. Outra questão abordada foi a distinção entre evento e não-evento por meio de pares de figuras representando um evento e um objeto tanto com verbos e nomes existentes na língua como com palavras novas ou pseudopalavras. O que se viu foi o melhor desempenho com verbos, demonstrando sensibilidade às pistas morfológicas ao menos com palavras pertencentes ao léxico / Abstract: Children affected by the Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have difficulties with the composition of the grammatical structure of their language. One of the most documented difficulties concerns the tense morphology, a functional category that can be unsystematically omitted or irregularly replaced. Tense and Aspect are intrinsically linked, making it impossible to study the first without observing the latter. According to previous researches, children with SLI show good recognition of temporality (past, present and future), but find relative difficulty in understanding the relationship between complete/ incomplete events and past progressive (imperfective grammatical aspect). This behavior would be the result of a low sensitivity to the aspectual proprieties, evidenced by little or no change in performance with regards to lexical aspect. These results have been seen in other researches with English-speaking children, and this study sought to verify whether the same occurs in children with SLI acquiring Brazilian Portuguese. Results have shown that individuals vary in their behavior, which can be attributed to the presence of lexical aspect, weakening the hypothesis of aspectual insensitivity, at least in relation to Brazilian Portuguese. Another issue discussed was the distinction between event and nonevent by means of pairs of figures representing an event and an object with both real verbs and real nouns as with new verbs and nouns or pseudo-words. What we saw was that the best performance happened with verbs, demonstrating sensitivity to morphological clues at least with words belonging to the lexicon / Mestrado / Linguistica / Mestre em Linguística