Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have difficulties in acquiring language in the absence of other neurodevelopmental issues (e.g. autism, hearing impairment) and despite growing up in an adequate language-learning environment. Previous characterisations of DLD have focused on grammatical processing, phonological memory or rapid auditory processing. This thesis approaches the language-learning difficulties of children with DLD from a novel perspective by considering the potential contribution made by differing levels of sensitivity to the rhythmic properties of language. Children with DLD have been shown to have reduced sensitivity to some of the acoustic cues present in speech which are thought to be important for rhythmic perception. Since rhythm forms the basis of language processing in early development, poorer sensitivity to language rhythm may result in later language problems. To investigate whether children with DLD demonstrate difficulties in processing language rhythm, this thesis explores five areas of language processing which could be affected by poor rhythmic sensitivity: locating word-boundaries, processing novel words, storing lexical stress patterns, representing sentence level structures and the integration of rhythm and syntax. As part of the investigation, measures were also taken of acoustic threshold sensitivity to see whether task performance related to acoustic sensitivity. A parallel strand of the study investigated whether provision of an entraining rhythm prior to task stimuli could support task performance. Three groups of children participated in the study: children with DLD, age-matched TD children (AMC) and younger, language-matched TD children (YLC). The results indicate that rhythmic manipulation of language stimuli affects task responses across the five language areas under investigation. The findings are then discussed in terms of the contribution made to our understanding of the role of rhythm in language and language disorder.

[pt] Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal avaliar o desempenho linguístico de crianças com problemas de aprendizagem, de modo a verificar em que medida essas dificuldades equivalem às características do quadro do DEL (Déficit Específico da Linguagem). Pretende-se ainda avaliar o desempenho de crianças com problemas de aprendizagem por meio de uma tarefa clássica de crenças falsas para caracterização do desenvolvimento da Teoria da Mente (ToM), tendo em vista que esse desenvolvimento tem sido apontado como comprometido diante de um déficit linguístico. Este trabalho também visou a ampliar a amostra de crianças sem queixas de linguagem submetidas à  avaliação por meio do MABILIN (Módulos de Avaliação de Habilidades Linguísticas), em desenvolvimento no LAPAL (Laboratório de Psicolinguí­stica e Aquisição da Linguagem - PUC-RIO), na padronização do teste, de modo a obter-se uma caracterização do desenvolvimento linguístico no Português do Brasil (PB), que possa ser tomada como referência na avaliação de problemas de linguagem e, particularmente, do DEL. Foram avaliadas 30 crianças de cerca de 6 anos de idade, com e sem queixas de aprendizagem, de nível sócio-econômico baixo na rede de ensino público da Secretaria de Estado de Educação do Distrito Federal. Os resultados obtidos mostram que o desempenho de crianças com queixas de aprendizagem foi, de maneira geral, inferior ao das crianças sem queixas de aprendizagem. Tanto em tarefas de compreensão de sentenças simples ativas, passivas reversíveis/irreversíveis, coordenadas, relativas e interrogativas QU, como em tarefas cuja compreensão se faz dependente de concordância de gênero e número, a diferença entre as crianças com queixas de aprendizagem e as crianças sem queixas mostrou-se significativa. Os resultados indicam dificuldades de ordem linguística compartilhadas com o DEL, ainda que o efeito de grupo, independentemente das variáveis linguísticas manipuladas, apontando para um pior desempenho do grupo com queixas de aprendizagem, sugira dificuldades de outra ordem interferindo no desempenho linguístico. O resultado no teste de ToM revela que o grupo de crianças com queixas de aprendizagem, mais do que grupo controle, tem dificuldade em prever a ação de um personagem a partir da atribuição de uma crença falsa a este. Dificuldades no uso de pistas para a solução de tarefas linguísticas e na elaboração de inferências dependentes de ToM pode, portanto, comprometer o desempenho escolar desse grupo. / [en] The primary aim of this dissertation is to evaluate the linguistic performance of 30 children with learning impairment in order to verify the extent to which these difficulties are equivalent to those that characterize the performance of SLI (Specific Language Impairment) children. The performance of children with learning impairment was also evaluated by means of a classic false belief task intended to assess their development as far as Theory of Mind is concerned, since this development has been pointed to be compromised in face of linguistic impairment. Moreover, this research aimed to enlarge the sample of children without language impairment whose linguistic performance is assessed by means of a set of tests (Modules for the Evaluation on Linguistic Abilities), that has been developed in LAPAL (Laboratório de Psicolinguí­stica e Aquisição de Linguagem - PUC-RIO), intended to identify those aspects of language that are particularly affected in SLI Brazilian Portuguese speaking children. The performance of 30 children with and without learning impairment, of low economical background and age average by 6 years old was evaluated at a public school in the outskirts of Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil. The results show that the performance of children with learning impairment was, generally, lower in comparison with children without learning impairment. The performance in comprehension tasks focusing on simple active and passive sentences, reversible/irreversible, coordinated, relative clauses, WH interrogatives, and in tasks focusing on the processing of gender and number agreement was significantly different between children with and without learning impairment. The results indicate linguistics difficulties shared with Specific Language Impairment in the learning impaired group, even though the effect of group, independently of the linguistic variable manipulated, suggests that difficulties of a different order might affect their linguistic performance. The result of the test of false belief task shows that the group with learning impairment, more than the control group, has difficulty in foreseeing the action of a character from a false belief attribution. Difficulties in using clues in the solution of the linguistic tasks and in the elaboration of dependent inferences of ToM can therefore impair the school performance of this group.

O objetivo deste estudo foi comparar o desempenho psicolingüístico de crianças com Distúrbio Específico de Linguagem (DEL) com o de crianças que apresentam desenvolvimento típico de linguagem (DTL), apontando os marcadores psicolingüísticos mais significativos do distúrbio e também comparar a eficácia de dois métodos de intervenção - Modelo de Intervenção no Meio e Modelo Neuropsicolingüístico - no desempenho psicolingüístico das crianças com DEL. Participaram desta investigação 12 pré-escolares de ambos os gêneros, com idade entre 4:0 - 6:11 anos, sendo metade deles pertencentes ao grupo experimental - crianças com DEL, submetidos à intervenção - e os demais ao grupo controle - crianças com DTL, não submetidos à intervenção. A quantificação do rendimento dos sujeitos nas distintas dimensões psicolingüísticas foi obtida mediante a utilização de diversos instrumentos, com o propósito de avaliar o nível primário, secundário e terciário da recepção e produção lingüística. Posteriormente às avaliações préintervenção, o grupo experimental foi distribuído aleatoriamente em dois grupos e submetido a dois diferentes modelos terapêuticos (primeiro ciclo), com duração de quatro meses. Ao fim deste ciclo foi reavaliado, submetido a quatro meses de terapia em que os Modelos foram alternados e os grupos novamente reavaliados. A análise estatística revelou a existência de diferença estatisticamente significante entre o desempenho do grupo experimental e controle em vários níveis de análise e produção lingüística, sendo os marcadores mais significativos encontrados os que envolvem a discriminação auditiva, análise fonológica, recepção e organização morfossintática, memória de curto prazo e habilidades pragmáticas quanto ao uso de turnos expansivos. Já a comparação da eficácia dos dois Modelos de intervenção propostos revelou que as distintas habilidades psicolingüísticas responderam de forma diferente aos mesmos, sugerindo que a combinação das estratégias dos Modelos investigados possa ser o melhor caminho quando se deseja intervir nos quadros de crianças cujas dificuldades encontram-se situadas nos níveis de análise e produção lingüística investigados neste trabalho. / This study aimed to compare the psycholinguistic performance of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) to children with Typical Language Development (TLD), pointing out the most significant psycholinguistic markers, and to compare the effectiveness of two intervention methods, Milieu Teaching Approach and Neuropsycholinguistic Model, in the psycholinguistic performance of children with SLI. The subjects were 12 pre-school boys and girls, 4:00 to 6:11 years old; half of them took part in the experimental group - children with SLI submitted to intervention - and the others in the control group - children with TLD not submitted to intervention. The subject performance quantification in distinct psycholinguistic dimensions was obtained through several tools in order to evaluate the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of linguistic reception and production. After pre-intervention evaluations, the experimental group was randomly distributed into two study groups and submitted to two different therapeutic models (first cycle) during four months. At the end of this cycle, it was evaluated again, submitted to four-month therapy with alternating Models and re-evaluated. Statistical analysis showed the existence of statistically significant difference in the performance between the experimental group and the control one in several levels of linguistic analysis and production. The most significant markers involve auditory discrimination, phonological analysis, morphosyntactic reception and production, short-term memory and pragmatic abilities in relation to the use of expansive turns. The comparison of the effectiveness between the two proposed Models showed that distinct psycholinguistic abilities responded differently to themselves, which suggests that the combination of strategies of the studied Models be the best way to intervene in the performance of children whose difficulties lie in the investigated analysis and linguistic production levels of this study.

Os objetivos deste estudo foram correlacionar o desempenho de crianças com Distúrbio Específico de Linguagem (DEL) nas provas de memória de trabalho e de compreensão de sentenças e verificar, entre as duas provas de memória de trabalho utilizadas, qual a mais eficaz para discriminar crianças com DEL, quando comparadas a crianças com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem (DTL). Foram selecionadas 66 crianças, com idades variando de 37 meses (3:1 anos) a 131 meses (10:11 anos), divididas em três grupos de 22 crianças: um grupo experimental, de crianças com diagnóstico de DEL, e dois grupos controle, de crianças com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem e aprendizagem (DTLA). O primeiro grupo controle (n=22) foi pareado pela idade psicolinguística (GCIPL) e, o segundo (n=22), pareado pela idade cronológica (GCIC). A memória de trabalho foi obtida por meio das provas de repetição de pseudopalavras (PP) e de memória seqüencial para dígitos (ITPA DG), e a compreensão de sentenças por meio do \"Token Test\". A comparação entre o desempenho dos grupos foi realizada pelo teste \"t\" de Student, a correlação entre as provas de memória de trabalho e compreensão de sentenças foi realizada pela correlação de Pearson e, para verificar qual a melhor prova para discriminar as crianças com DEL, utilizou-se a curva ROC. As análises demonstraram que os sujeitos do grupo experimental apresentaram menor número de acertos nas três provas aplicadas (p<0,05). Foi encontrada correlação positiva entre as provas de memória de trabalho e a prova de compreensão de sentenças (PP --> r=0,42, p=0,049; ITPA DG --> r=0,74, p<0,001). Entre as duas provas relacionadas à memória de trabalho, a que demonstrou ter o melhor índice discriminatório de crianças com DEL foi a de pseudopalavras, com acurácia de 95%. Concluiu-se que houve correlação positiva entre a memória de trabalho e o aspecto da linguagem, compreensão, e que a melhor forma de discriminar crianças com DEL e crianças com DTL, entre as duas analisadas é a prova de pseudopalavras. / The objectives of this study was to correlate the children\'s performance with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in the working memory and sentences comprehension tasks and to verify among the two working memory tasks used, which one is more effective to discriminate children with SLI, when compared to children with typical language development (TLD). It was selected 66 children with ages varying of 37 months (3:1 years) to 131 months (10:11 years), divided in 3 groups of 22 children, being one a experimental group of children with diagnosis of SLI and two control groups of children with typical development of language and learning (TDLA), being the first control group (n=22) matched by the psycholinguistic age (CGPLA) and the second (n=22) matched by the chronological age (CGCA). The working memory was obtained through the nonwords repetition (NW) and digit span (ITPA DG) tasks, and the sentences comprehension through \"Token Test\". The comparison among the groups performance was accomplished by the Student\'s t-test, the correlation between the working memory and sentences comprehension tasks was accomplished by the Pearson correlation, and to verify which one is the best task to discriminate the children with SLI, the ROC curve analyses was used. The analyses demonstrated that the experimental group subject presented smaller number of successes in the three applied tasks (p <0,05). It was found positive correlation between the working memory and sentences comprehension tasks (NW-->r=0,42, p=0,049; ITPA DG-->r=0,74, p <0,001). Among the two tasks regarding the working memory, the one that demonstrated to be the best discriminatory index of children with SLI was the NW, with accuracy of 95%. Therefore it is ended that there was positive correlation among the working memory and the aspect of the language, comprehension. And the best form of discriminating children with SLI and children with TLD, among the analyzed two, is the NW task.

[pt] Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal discutir e analisar a possibilidade de se avaliar a expressão obrigatória de argumentos de verbos como índice de manifestação do Déficit Especificamente Lingüístico (DEL) em Português do Brasil (PB) e de prover uma marca clínica para o diagnóstico do DEL com base nessa análise. Tem ainda como objetivo ampliar a amostra de crianças com queixas de linguagem submetidas a uma avaliação lingüística teoricamente embasada, na construção do banco de dados do projeto MABILIN (Módulos de Avaliação de Habilidades Lingüísticas) do LAPAL (Laboratório de Psicolingüística e Aquisição da Linguagem), com vistas a verificar os aspectos lingüísticos mais atingidos no PB. Participaram desse estudo crianças com suspeita de DEL e crianças com desenvolvimento normal de linguagem com 3 e 5 anos. Foram realizados sete experimentos de produção eliciada que avaliam, particularmente, a expressão de argumentos externo (sujeito) e internos (objeto direto, objeto indireto), assim como de adjuntos. Os resultados obtidos sugerem um comprometimento na condução da computação sintática da estrutura argumental de verbos em crianças DEL, o que resulta particularmente na omissão do sujeito em contexto sintaticamente obrigatório. Conclui- se que a omissão do sujeito no contexto obrigatório aqui caracterizado pode ser tomada como um índice do DEL no PB. / [en] This dissertation aims at examining the possibility of taking the obligatory expression of verbs arguments as an index of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and at providing a clinical criterion for SLI diagnoses on the basis of this analysis. A further goal is to enlarge the sample of children with language problems whose linguistic performance is assessed by means of a set of tests (Modules for the Evaluation of Linguistic Abilities) that has been developed in LAPAL (Laboratório de Psicolingüística e Aquisição da Linguagem), in order to identify those aspects of language that are particularly affected in BP. Children with a probable diagnosis of SLI and normally developing children from 3 to 5 years of age constitute the sample. Seven experiments were carried out by means of an elicited production task, which aimed at evaluating the expression of the arguments of the verb -- external argument (subject) and the internal arguments (direct object, indirect object), as well as adjuncts. The results suggest that children in the SLI group have difficulty in the syntactic computation of the verbs argument structure, which is particularly manifested in the omission of the subject argument in an obligatory context. It is concluded that subject omission in the obligatory context characterized here can be taken as an index of SLI in BP.

The diploma thesis deals with speech and language therapeutic issues. It follows children's speech and language development mainly from morphological - syntactic level. It focuses on grammar skills of children at the beginning of school attendance that are evaluated by a newly developed diagnostic material named Test gramatiky pro školní začátečníky, ie Grammar test for school beginners. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with language ontogenesis and development of language levels with a focus on morphological - syntactic level and its diagnostic. It describes grammar issues in detail, its development as well as diagnostic materials used in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. The third chapter presents various diagnosis related to the research where the grammar language level was observed. Particular attention is dedicated to specific language impairment. The empirical part of the thesis represents quantitative research. It evaluates, on a sample of 170 children, practical use of the new test, which is focused on the grammar language level. The research was completed by the method of observation of children and also the feedback and evaluation of the test by clinical speech and language therapists. Through the analysis of acquired data it was found that children with specific language...

Die Rolle des Arbeitsgedächtnisses für die Sprachentwicklung, insbesondere die Wortschatzentwicklung ist mittlerweile überzeugend nachgewiesen (z.B. Hasselhorn &amp; Werner, 2000). Daran anknüpfend beschäftigt sich die vorliegende Studie mit der Wortschatzentwicklung bei dysgrammatisch bzw. spezifisch sprachgestörten Grundschulkindern und mit dem Einfluss des phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnisses auf diesen Entwicklungsprozess. Besonders die Arbeitsgruppe um Gathercole und Baddeley konnten in einer Vielzahl von Arbeiten (z.B. Gathercole &amp; Baddeley, 1990 a, b, 1993) stabile Zusammenhänge zwischen Arbeitsgedächtnis und Wortschatz bzw. Sprache bei normalentwickelten Kindern und spezifisch sprachgestörten Kindern nachweisen. Sie differenzieren 2 Komponenten des phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnisses: den phonetischen Speicher, in dem akustische Informationen 1,5 bis 2 s erhalten bleibt und dann zerfällt, wenn diese Information nicht durch den Rehearsalprozess, eine Art inneres Sprechen wiederholt und damit aufgefrischt und erhalten wird. Das Arbeitsgedächtnis wurde dabei bevorzugt über das Nachsprechen von Kunstwörtern erfasst. Bezüglich dieses Vorgehen gaben z.B. Snowling, Chiat und Hulme (1991) und Bowey (1996, 2001) zu bedenken, dass durch die Komplexität des Kunstwörternachsprechens und die Redundanz zu anderen Aspekten der sprachlichen Verarbeitung der Einfluss des phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnisses überschätzt werden könnte. Sie schlagen daher vor, eher allgemein von phonologischer Verarbeitung zu sprechen und das phonologische Arbeitsgedächtnis nicht davon zu differenzieren, zumindest müsse die Unabhängigkeit des Einflusses des phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnisses von der phonologischen Bewusstheit nachgewiesen werden. Die Leistungsfähigkeit des phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnisses hängt von den Qualitätsmerkmalen seiner beiden Komponenten ab. Nach Hasselhorn, Grube und Mähler (2000) lassen sich für beide Komponenten jeweils zwei Merkmale identifizieren: Die Qualität des phonetischen Speichers hängt von dessen zeitlich dimensionierter Größe und von der Präzision ab, mit der er akustische Information ablegt und wiedergibt. Die Leistungsfähigkeit des subvokalen Rehearsalprozesses wird von seiner (automatischen) Aktivierbarkeit und seiner Geschwindigkeit bestimmt. Längsschnittlich zeigten Gathercole, Willis, Emslie, &amp; Baddeley (1992) Zusammenhänge zwischen früherem Arbeitsgedächtnis und späterem Wortschatz im Alter bis zu sechs Jahren, im Grundschulalter kehrte sich der Zusammenhang um. Diese Beiträge motivierten die vorliegende Arbeit, in der die Fragen gestellt wurden, ob sich das phonologische Gedächtnis von der phonologischen Verarbeitung im allgemeinen differenzieren lässt, welche Qualitätsmerkmale des phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnisses bei sprachgestörten Kindern defizitär sind und wie sich die Entwicklungsdynamiken zwischen phonologischem Arbeitsgedächtnis und Wortschatz bei sprachgestörten und sprachlich unauffälligen Kindern gestalten. Um dies zu klären, wurde eine Längsschnittstudie realisiert, bei der 64 normalentwickelte und 33 sprachgestörte Kinder im Laufe des ersten und zweiten Grundschuljahres dreimal untersucht wurden; der zweite und dritte Meßzeitpunkt bildeten im wesentlichen die Grundlage der vorliegenden Arbeit. Es fanden sich starke empirische Argumente für die Position, dass Störungen im phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnis eine Hauptursache für die Sprachauffälligkeiten dysgrammatisch-sprachgestörter Kinder sind. Abweichend von den Ergebnissen bei sprachlich unauffälligen Kindern, zeigten die sprachgestörten Kinder geringere Leistungen in allen Bereichen, weniger und niedrigere Korrelationen, das phonologische Arbeitsgedächtnis ließ sich faktorenanalytisch von der phonologischen Bewusstheit und dem phonologischen Langzeitwissen klar trennen. Bei der Betrachtung der vier Merkmale des phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnisses (Hasselhorn, Grube &amp; Mähler, 2000) zeigte sich kein Einsatz der Rehearsalstrategie und eine geringere Geschwindigkeit (letzteres vielleicht auch der Ausdruck eingeschränkter Sprechmotorik, siehe Gathercole, Service et al., 1999). Es gab einen Gruppenunterschied bei der Variablen für die Qualität des phonetischen Speichers. Auch die zeitliche Dimension schien reduziert, die sprachgestörten Kinder zeigten bei langen Kunstwörtern einen größeren Leistungsabfall. Bei verrauscht dargebotenen Kunstwörtern ließ sich nach Ausschluss des Einflusses von Alter und Intelligenz kein Gruppenunterschied mehr nachweisen, der bei unverrauscht dargebotenen Kunstwörtern vorhanden war, so dass die Qualität des phonetischen Speichers eine wesentliche Rolle für die Sprachentwicklung zu spielen scheint. Bei den dysgrammatischen Kindern ließ sich weiterhin eine kausale Asymmerie zwischen phonologischem Arbeitsgedächtnis und Wortschatz finden, dergestalt, dass das frühere phonologische Arbeitsgedächtnis einen größeren Einfluss auf den späteren Wortschatz hatte, als umgekehrt. Diese wurde wegen des Entwicklungsrückstands der sprachgestörten Kinder in dieser Form erwartet, bei den sprachlich-unauffälligen Kindern ließ sich kein Zusammenhang zeigen. Die phonologische Bewusstheit zeigte keinen entwicklungsrelevanten Einfluss auf den Wortschatz. Zusammenfassend ist zu sagen, dass die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Studie die Hypothese stützen, dass die Ursache für kindliche Störungen des Spracherwerbs im phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnis und speziell in der Qualität des phonetischen Speichers zu suchen sind. Literatur Bowey, J. A. (1996). On the association between phonological memory and receptive vocabulary in five-year-olds. Journal of Experimantel Child Psychology, 63(1), 44-78. Bowey, J. A. (2001). Nonword repetition and young children`s receptive vocabulary: a longitudinal study. Applied Psycholinguistics, 22, 441-469. Gathercole, S. E. &amp; Baddeley, A. D. (1990a). Phonological memory deficits in language disordered children: Is there a cusal connection? Journal of Educational Psychology, 29, 336-360. Gathercole, S. E. &amp; Baddeley, A. D. (1990b). The role of phonological memory in vocabulary acquisition: A study of young children learning new names. British Journal of Psychology, 81, 439-454. Gathercole, S. E. &amp; Baddeley, A. D. (1993). Working memory and language. Hove, UK: Erlbaum. Gathercole, S. E., Service, E., Hitch, G.J., Adams, A.-M. &amp; Martin, A. J. (1999). Phonological short-term memory and vocabulary development: Furter evidence on the nature of relationship. Applied cognitive psychology, 13, 65-77. Gathercole, S. E., Willis, C., Emslie, H., &amp; Baddeley, A. D. (1992). Phonological memory and vocabulary development during the early school years: a longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 28, 887-898. Hasselhorn, M., Grube, D. &amp; Mähler, C. (2000). Theoretisches Rahmenmodell für ein Diagnostikum zur differentiellen Funktionsanalyse des phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnisses. In M. Hasselhorn, W. Schneider &amp; H. Marx, Diagnostik von Lese-Rechtschreib-Schwierigkeiten, Tests und Trends, Bd. 1 (S.167-182). Hogrefe: Göttingen. Hasselhorn, M. &amp; Werner, I. (2000). Zur Bedeutung des phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnisses für die Sprachentwicklung. In H. Grimm (Hrsg.), Sprachentwicklung (Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Themenbereich C: Theorie und Forschung, Serie III Sprache, Bd. 3) (S. 363-378). Göttingen: Hogrefe. Snowling, M., Chiat, S., &amp; Hulme. C. (1991). Words, non-words, and phonological processes: Some comments on Gathercole, Willis, Emslie, and Baddeley. Applied Psycholinguistics, 12(3), 369-373.

Les enfants et adolescents dysphasiques présentent un trouble spécifique du langage qui se manifeste, en absence d'un déficit cognitif, sous la forme d'une perturbation profonde à l'oral et qui persiste au-delà de l'âge de 6 ans. Basée sur des éléments de psychologie pragmatique développementale (principe de coopération de Grice, 1979, et passage de la phase inter-psychologique à la phase intra-psychologique de Vygotski, 1997), et inspirée des travaux de Berman (2005), cette thèse défend l'idée que dans la dysphasie le langage n'est pas uniformément déficitaire. En d'autres termes, les performances langagières des enfants et des adolescents dysphasiques devraient varier en fonction de la situation de production dans laquelle ils se trouvent (tache standardisée vs. tache communicative), mais aussi en fonction de la modalité de production (oral vs. écrit), et enfin de l'indice linguistiques considéré (e.g. orthographe lexicale vs. orthographe morphologique). Les résultats obtenus montrent que les dysphasiques ont de meilleures performances langagières en situation de communication qu'en situation standardisée, que leurs performances en situation communicative sont meilleures à l'écrit qu'à l'oral, et enfin que le profil développemental de leurs capacités langagières évolue différemment, entre 7-11 ans et 12-18 ans, selon l'indice linguistique considéré. La psychologie pragmatique développementale permet donc de souligner que, dans le cadre de l'évaluation des capacités langagières des enfants et des adolescents dysphasiques, le choix des tâches influence les performances obtenues. De plus, comme le préconisait Ringard (2000), les enfants et adolescents dysphasiques bénéficient pleinement d'une scolarisation en milieu ordinaire et y progressent sur le long terme. / Children and adolescents with a specific language impairment (SLI) present a language disorder that appears in the absence of a cognitive impairment and persists beyond the age of 6. Based on elements of developmental pragmatics (Grice cooperative principle, 1979 and transition from the interpsychological to intrapsychological functioning, Vygotsky, 1997) and inspired by the work of Berman (2005), this thesis defends the idea that in SLI the language is not a uniform deficit. In other words, the language performances of children and adolescents with SLI should vary according to the situation in which they produce language (standardized test vs. communicative situation), but also according to the production modality (oral vs. written), and finally the linguistic measure considered (e.g. morphological spelling vs. lexical spelling). The results show that the participants with SLI perform better in a communicative than in a standardised test situation, and in written than in spoken language. Finally, their performance varies differently according to the measure considered, from 7 to 11 and 12 to 18. The developmental pragmatics framework chosen made it possible to emphasize that, when assessing language abilities in children and adolescents with SLI, the choice of a task affects the performance obtained. Moreover, as advocated by Ringard (2000), children and adolescents with SLI fully benefit from a mainstream school environment, where they can progress in the long term, up to the age of 18.

The diploma thesis is from the area of special pedagogy and speech therapy. It deals with the issue of parenthood of children with developmental dysphasia. The thesis is devided into two parts, the theoretical part and the empirical part. The thesis starts with characterisation of the family with disabilities and continues with further developmental dysphasia, its terminology, classification, etiology, symptomatology, diagnostics and therapy are characterized. The thesis defines the possibilities of speech therapy intervention in children with special impaired speech developmental dyspshasia. This main goal is achieved by research. This diploma thesis can be an inspiration for speech therapists and other professionals who work with families and their children with developmental dysphasia. It can also inspire students and other parents even whose child has been diagnosed with this disease. The thesis may be the starting point for further studies of a scientific character that focus on same subject.

<p>This work presents two studies of language processing and development in children. The first study focuses on passive sentence comprehension in 4-5-year-old children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and same-age peers with typical development (TD). We explore the effect of animacy, morphosyntactic, vocabulary, and event probability cues on children’s offline comprehension and online processing of passive sentences using an eye-tracked looking-while-listening design. The children were first exposed to short videos of agents doing characteristic actions (e.g., hard physical activities or passively observant activities). The children then engaged in an eye-tracked online processing task in which they heard reversible and nonreversible passive sentences describing events that matched or did not match the characteristics set up in the exposure videos. During these sentences, images on-screen were displayed that corresponded to the potential interpretations of the sentence. Online processing data was collected using eye tracking. After each sentence, the children were asked to point to the image corresponding to their interpretation to measure their offline comprehension. The offline comprehension data indicated that compared to the children with TD, the children with DLD were less likely to correctly interpret the passive sentences and made comprehension errors that suggested poorer attention to and integration of potentially informative sentence cues. The eye-tracked online processing data was examined in two ways. First, we analyzed the online processing data to determine to what extent the children’s processing was consistent with the use of the sentence cues. We found that the children in the two groups were just as likely to demonstrate looking patterns consistent with the use animacy cues but children with DLD were less likely to use morphosyntactic, vocabulary, and event probability cues. We then analyzed the online processing data in correctly interpreted sentences only to examine how the sentence cues were integrated over the course of the sentence. We found that in correctly interpreted sentences, children with DLD demonstrated a slower, less robust response to most of the informative cues in the sentences but quicker and less linguistically mediated use of event probability cues. Finally, we examined the relationship between the children’s use of event probability cues and their stimuli-specific vocabulary knowledge but found no strong associations. </p><p><br></p><p> The second study focuses on the semantic network structure of the vocabularies of young 18-30-month-old children and its influence on noun and verb learning. Prior work had examined how noun semantic network structure affects noun learning. Here, we extended that work to ask how noun and verb semantic network structures differ in their influence on noun and verb learning. We examined vocabulary network structure at the word, semantic neighborhood, and lexicon levels in a large sample of child vocabulary checklist data using semantic features. We analyzed the data in three ways. First, we charted the relationship between verb and noun semantic network structure and vocabulary size across children. We found that early-learned nouns tended to have strong network relationships with other nouns and other verbs across network levels. We also found that early-learned verbs tended to have strong network relationships with other nouns but, in contrast, were unlikely to have strong relationships with other verbs. Next, we examined patterns of normative vocabulary development, asking whether the cross-sectional patterns seen in the first analysis influenced the time at which nouns and verbs tended to be learned. We found similar patterns. Nouns with strong semantic connections to other nouns and other verbs tended to be learned early. Verbs with strong semantic connections to other nouns tended to be learned early but verbs with strong semantic connections to other verbs tended to be learned later. Finally, in an effort to determine how the very earliest vocabulary knowledge sets the stage for later word learning, we examined how word knowledge gaps formed and were filled by nouns and verbs in normative vocabulary development. These gaps corresponded to structured “cavities” in the semantic networks. We found that nouns tended to form semantic cavities that were later filled by nouns and verbs, reinforcing the findings from the first analyses that early noun knowledge is a prerequisite for later verb learning. </p>