Fluency patterns in narratives from children with localization related epilepsy

Abstract

This study assessed the relationship between fluency and language demand in children with epilepsy, a group known to demonstrate depressed language skills. Disfluency type and frequencies were analyzed in elicited narratives from 52 children. Half of these children had localization-related epilepsy (CWE), while the others were age- and gender-matched typically developing (TD) peers. CWE were found to be significantly more disfluent overall than their matched TD peers during narrative productions, and demonstrated a higher proportion of stutter-like disfluencies, particularly prolongations. The current study adds to an emerging literature that has found depressed language skills and listener perceptions of verbal ability in children with chronic seizure activity, and contributes to the small but growing literature that suggests that disfluency during spoken language tasks may be a subtle marker of expressive language impairment.

Speed and complexity characterize attention problems in children with localization‐related epilepsy

“…Children with primary generalized epilepsy were excluded; however, seven (9.3%) have secondarily generalized seizures. Most children with epilepsy had left‐hemisphere localized seizures due to a recruiting bias of the primary aims of several of our clinical research protocols that examine language reorganization and have left‐sided seizure focus as an inclusion criterion . Most children with epilepsy had normal MRI findings as children.…”

Fluency Bank: A new resource for fluency research and practice

“…However, as any reader of JFD is painfully aware, excessive or atypical disfluency can negatively influence perceptions of speaker typicality, nativeness, language competence, formulation effort, and truthfulness, with associated implications for educational, vocational and social progress, intelligence gathering and trial testimony (Arnold, et al, 2007; Boltz, 2005; Bortfeld, et al, 2001; Hartsuiker & Notebaert, 2010; Ozuru & Hirst, 2006). Even in typically developing (TD) children, there is growing evidence that fluency can be a relevant adjunct to standardized assessment findings in isolating expressive language difficulty (Boscolo, Bernstein Ratner & Rescorla, 2002; Guo, Tomblin & Samelson, 2008; Finneran, Leonard, & Miller, 2009; Steinberg, Bernstein Ratner, Berl & Gaillard, 2013). The study of disfluency is also a major emerging issue in second language acquisition (SLA) theory and practice (N.…”

The effects of pediatric epilepsy on a language connectome

“…Language networks are commonly disrupted in patients with epilepsy; this disruption is present early in the course of the disease; furthermore, most young adult focal epilepsy has onset in late childhood and adolescence [Berl et al, 2014;Gaillard et al, 2007]. Functional connectivity during language tasks has not been investigated in children [Parkinson 2002;Steinberg et al, 2013], nor has graph theory been applied to these functional analyses. Therefore, the focus in this study is directed at language network connectivity in older children and adolescents, during a language task, from a graph theoretical perspective.…”