What Children with Developmental Language Disorder Teach Us About Cross‐Situational Word Learning

McGregor, Karla K.; Smolak, Erin; Jones, Michelle; Oleson, Jacob; Eden, Nichole; Arbisi‐Kelm, Timothy; Pomper, Ronald

doi:10.1111/cogs.13094

Cited by 24 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 152 publications

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“…This would have been difficult to do in our study because we did not know the other languages spoken by the children before the testing began. Second, recall of semantic features was not sensitive enough to discriminate between children with and without DLD, consistent with the frequent finding that recall of semantic features is easier than recall of phonological information (36,42,102). The higher scores for semantic features could also be explained by the fact that, in our semantic task, the child could see the object and thus easily describe its appearance or say what it was.…”

Section: Limitationssupporting

confidence: 80%

“…They notably require more support using cues ( 40 ) or more retrieval practice (i.e., more naming during the learning ( 41 )) depending on the type of task. These deficits may be explained by difficulties in the initial encoding of the word form-meaning link ( 42 ). They may also be associated with difficulties in short-term memory and executive functions since the word learning performance of children with DLD has been found to be positively correlated with inhibition, verbal short-term memory and verbal working memory ( 37 , 43 ), and it is well know that children with DLD have weaknesses in executive functions ( 44 , 45 ) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A new dynamic word learning task to diagnose language disorder in French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children

Matrat

Delage

Kehoe

2023

Front. Rehabil. Sci.

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Tools to effectively assess the language performance of bilingual children are lacking. Static tests assessing vocabulary knowledge (e.g., naming task) are not appropriate for testing bilingual children due to different types of bias. Alternative methods have been developed to diagnose bilingual children, including measuring language learning (e.g., word learning) through dynamic assessment. Research conducted with English-speaking children indicates that DA of word learning is effective in diagnosing language disorders in bilingual children. In this study, we examine whether a dynamic word learning task, using shared-storybook reading, can differentiate French-speaking (monolingual and bilingual) children with developmental language disorder (DLD) from those with typical development (TD). Sixty children (4–8 years), 43 with TD and 17 with DLD, participated: 30 were monolinguals and 25 were bilinguals. The dynamic word-learning task used a shared-storybook reading context. The children had to learn four non-words, paired with novel objects, as well as their semantic characteristics (a category and a definition) during the reading of a story. Post-tests assessed the recall of the phonological form and the semantic features of the objects. Phonological and semantic prompts were given if the child was unable to name or describe the objects. Results indicated that children with DLD performed less well than those with TD on phonological recall, leading to fair sensitivity and good specificity at delayed post-test for young children (4–6 years). Semantic production did not differentiate the two groups: all children performed well at this task. In sum, children with DLD have more difficulties encoding the phonological form of the word. Our findings suggest that a dynamic word learning task using shared-storybook reading is a promising approach for diagnosing lexical difficulties in young French-speaking, monolingual and bilingual, children.

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Section: Limitationssupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new dynamic word learning task to diagnose language disorder in French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children

Matrat

Delage

Kehoe

2023

Front. Rehabil. Sci.

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“…Obeid et al's metaanalysis, already mentioned above (2016), showed that individuals with developmental language disorder (DLD) performed more poorly on statistical learning tasks compared to typically developing controls (g = 0.46, p \ 0.001) (recall that autistic participants did not). Similarly, it has been suggested that word learning difficulties in children and adults with DLD are closely related to encoding the word form, with the pairing of form to meaning and retrieval less delayed (Leonard & Deevy, 2020;McGregor et al, 2020McGregor et al, , 2022. It is not clear that this would be an issue in autism.…”

Section: Atypical Social Communication or Attentional Bias?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Atypical vocabulary acquisition in autism: where is it coming from?

Saldaña

2022

J Cult Cogn Sci

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Word-learning development is extremely varied among children with autism, with some showing a peak of abilities in vocabulary and others little or no comprehension or expression of isolated words. Typical word learning mechanisms, such as the application of mutual exclusivity, cross-situational mapping, the whole-object principle, and the noun-naming bias also share this heterogeneity: some mechanisms appear to develop in a typical fashion and others depend on the individuals’ language level. The reason for which word-learning processes could be atypical in autism is still the object of debate. Atypical attentional biases or early social interaction could both play a role in early word acquisition. But it is also unclear whether differences in vocabulary acquisition simply reflect the impact of co-morbid language impairment or there is a degree of specificity in autism. Finally, I propose that a more dimensional view in the study of word learning could be useful to move the field forward.

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“…The raw data, analysis code, plots of data distributions, videotaped examples, and a link to the registration appear in McGregor et al (2020 , OSF | Children’s Vocabulary Project; Remote Communication)…”

Section: Data Code and Materials Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childrenʼs language abilities predict success in remote communication contexts

McGregor

Pomper

Eden

et al. 2021

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Remote communicative contexts are part of everyday social, familial, and academic interactions for the modern child. We investigated the ability of second-graders to engage in remote discourse, and we determined whether language ability, theory of mind, and shy temperament predicted their success. Fifty 7-to-9-year-old monolingual English speakers with a wide range of language abilities participated in standardized testing and an expository discourse task in which they taught two adults to solve the Tower of London, one in an audiovisual condition to simulate video chat and a second in an audio-only condition to simulate phone communication. The discourse was scored with a rubric of 15 items deemed relevant to the explanation. Children included 27% to 87% of the items, with more items communicated via gesture than spoken word in both conditions. Gesture scores and spoken scores were highly correlated. Children specified more rubric items overall in the audio condition and more rubric items in the spoken modality when in the audio condition than the audiovisual condition. Performance in both conditions was positively associated with scores on independent measures of language ability. There was no relationship between performance and theory of mind, shy temperament, ability to solve the Tower of London, age, or sex. We conclude that 7-to-9-year-olds adjust the modality and content of their message to suit their remote partner’s needs, but their success in remote discourse contexts varies significantly from individual to individual. Children with below-average language skills are at risk for functional impairments in remote communication.

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What Children with Developmental Language Disorder Teach Us About Cross‐Situational Word Learning

Cited by 24 publications

References 152 publications

A new dynamic word learning task to diagnose language disorder in French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children

A new dynamic word learning task to diagnose language disorder in French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children

Atypical vocabulary acquisition in autism: where is it coming from?

Childrenʼs language abilities predict success in remote communication contexts

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