The purpose of this project is to investigate the nature of knowledge representations in children with Specific Language Impairments (SLI). Processing based accounts of SLI have focused primarily on the extent to which limitations in processing capacity account for the language impairments seen in these children. In particular, these accounts have focused primarily on the extent to which slower rates of processing or less efficient access to information leads to capacity limitations in SLI. Within these accounts, little emphasis has been placed on the nature of the information being manipulated. Recently, however, it has been suggested that mental representations in children with SLI may differ from those of typically developing children. Specifically, it has been suggested that children with SLI may be working with mental representations that are more concrete and grounded in nature and thus more cumbersome and inefficient to manipulate and store as compared to more abstract representations used by their normal language peers. The purpose of this project is to investigate the extent to which children with SLI are relying on representations that are more grounded as compared to NL controls. A total of 148 children will participate in this 5-year project, including 74 children with SLI, 7-9 years of age, 34 normal language controls matched on mental age (MA), nonverbal l.Q., gender, and SES, and 40 younger NL controls matched on gender, SES, and quantitative knowledge (QK). A total of 6 cognitive problem solving studies are proposed. Studies 1-4 will examine the impact of grounded versus abstract problem representations on the speed and accuracy of problem solutions for children with SLI (N = 34) and MA controls (N = 34). Studies 5 and 6 will examine the nature and rate of change of knowledge representations for a group of children with SLI (N = 40) and a group of younger QM controls (N = 40). Study 5 will examine children's spontaneous problem solutions for mathematical problems and Study 6 will use a microgenetic design to examine the nature and rate of shifts in representations of mathematical knowledge for children with SLI (N = 40) and QM controls (N = 40). The outcomes of this project will serve to advance our understanding of the nature of processing deficits in children with SLI, and provide valuable insights into the development of effective models of intervention.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC005650-03
Application #
6787251
Study Section
Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes 3 (BBBP)
Program Officer
Cooper, Judith
Project Start
2002-09-01
Project End
2007-08-31
Budget Start
2004-09-01
Budget End
2005-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2004
Total Cost
$335,132
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Wisconsin Madison
Department
Pediatrics
Type
Other Domestic Higher Education
DUNS #
161202122
City
Madison
State
WI
Country
United States
Zip Code
53715
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Borovsky, Arielle; Ellis, Erica M; Evans, Julia L et al. (2016) Lexical leverage: category knowledge boosts real-time novel word recognition in 2-year-olds. Dev Sci 19:918-932
Ellis, Erica M; Borovsky, Arielle; Elman, Jeffrey L et al. (2015) Novel word learning: An eye-tracking study. Are 18-month-old late talkers really different from their typical peers? J Commun Disord 58:143-57
Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Evans, Julia L (2014) Do statistical segmentation abilities predict lexical-phonological and lexical-semantic abilities in children with and without SLI? J Child Lang 41:327-51
Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Alibali, Martha W; Hostetter, Autumn B et al. (2014) Gesture-speech integration in children with specific language impairment. Int J Lang Commun Disord 49:761-70
Brown, Timothy T; Erhart, Matthew; Avesar, Daniel et al. (2014) Atypical right hemisphere specialization for object representations in an adolescent with specific language impairment. Front Hum Neurosci 8:82
Coady, Jeffry A; Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Evans, Julia L (2013) Phonological and lexical effects in verbal recall by children with specific language impairments. Int J Lang Commun Disord 48:144-59
Borovsky, Arielle; Burns, Erin; Elman, Jeffrey L et al. (2013) Lexical activation during sentence comprehension in adolescents with history of Specific Language Impairment. J Commun Disord 46:413-27
Travis, Katherine E; Leonard, Matthew K; Chan, Alexander M et al. (2013) Independence of early speech processing from word meaning. Cereb Cortex 23:2370-9
Coady, Jeffry A (2013) Rapid naming by children with and without specific language impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res 56:604-17

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