This competing continuation proposal aims to extend the current studies of a grammatical marker of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in young children. Current cross-sectional and longitudinal studies provide strong support for a grammatical phenotype of SLI characterized by an extended period of acquisition of tense-related grammatical morphemes. Unresolved issues include how long this period persists in affected children, the grammatical symptomology in adolescents and adults, relationships among the grammatical marker and other linguistic and cognitive indices, and whether the grammatical marker is an inherited condition. In order to study these questions, we propose the following specific aims: (1) To identify grammatical markers for the condition of SLI for children in the adolescent age range. This would be the first documentation of detailed morphosyntactic abilities in this age range for affected children. (2) To describe the full developmental trajectory of the grammatical marker and the transition from a child grammar to an adult grammar. Recruitment and study of additional participants would generate descriptive evidence and growth curves over the period from 3 years to 19 years, comprising the most detailed and extended picture of morphosyntactic development available to date. (3) To develop and evaluate multivariate models of the grammatical marker, associated linguistic and cognitive abilities and change over time. This would provide unprecedented formal evaluation of the interrelationships between the grammatical marker and other variables over time. 4) To investigate the genetics of SLI, by assessing the language competencies of the nuclear family members of SLI probands, identifying affected family members of the probands, and initiating molecular genetic studies of the families.
The aim i s to increase the number of families with direct assessment and DNA samples to provide suitable power for linkage and association analyses with dichotomous and quantitative phenotypes. The research objectives outlined above will take advantage of a well-documented clinical longitudinal sample of interest because these children continue to show affectedness at early adolescence, and their families show an elevated rate of affectedness via direct assessment. The study outcomes will be immediately relevant for clinical methods of identification of affected individuals who are unlikely to """"""""outgrow"""""""" early childhood language impairments. The outcomes will contribute advances in our understanding of individual variation in morphosyntactic competencies across the life span, and etiological factors in the condition of SLI.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC001803-13
Application #
7319659
Study Section
Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM)
Program Officer
Cooper, Judith
Project Start
1993-08-01
Project End
2009-11-30
Budget Start
2007-12-01
Budget End
2008-11-30
Support Year
13
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$549,207
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Kansas Lawrence
Department
Pediatrics
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
076248616
City
Lawrence
State
KS
Country
United States
Zip Code
66045
Rice, Mabel L; Russell, Jonathan S; Frederick, Toni et al. (2018) Risk for Speech and Language Impairments in Preschool Age HIV-exposed Uninfected Children With In Utero Combination Antiretroviral Exposure. Pediatr Infect Dis J 37:678-685
Rice, Mabel L (2016) Specific Language Impairment, Nonverbal IQ, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cochlear Implants, Bilingualism, and Dialectal Variants: Defining the Boundaries, Clarifying Clinical Conditions, and Sorting Out Causes. J Speech Lang Hear Res 59:122-32
Rice, Mabel L; Hoffman, Lesa (2015) Predicting vocabulary growth in children with and without specific language impairment: a longitudinal study from 2;6 to 21 years of age. J Speech Lang Hear Res 58:345-59
Abel, Alyson D; Rice, Mabel L; Bontempo, Daniel E (2015) Effects of verb familiarity on finiteness marking in children with specific language impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res 58:360-72
Ash, Andrea C; Rice, Mabel L; Redmond, Sean M (2014) Effect of language context on ratings of shy and unsociable behaviors in English language learner children. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 45:52-66
Rice, Mabel L; Blossom, Megan (2013) What do children with specific language impairment do with multiple forms of DO? J Speech Lang Hear Res 56:222-35
Rice, Mabel L; Zeldow, Bret; Siberry, George K et al. (2013) Evaluation of risk for late language emergence after in utero antiretroviral drug exposure in HIV-exposed uninfected infants. Pediatr Infect Dis J 32:e406-13
Rice, Mabel L (2013) Language growth and genetics of specific language impairment. Int J Speech Lang Pathol 15:223-33
Rice, Mabel L (2012) Toward epigenetic and gene regulation models of specific language impairment: looking for links among growth, genes, and impairments. J Neurodev Disord 4:27
Rice, Mabel L; Buchanan, Ashley L; Siberry, George K et al. (2012) Language impairment in children perinatally infected with HIV compared to children who were HIV-exposed and uninfected. J Dev Behav Pediatr 33:112-23

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