Although receptive language deficits are commonly identified during the later school years and in adulthood, such deficits are less readily identified during the preschool years. This may be due to the difficulty of measuring receptive language at ages where performance expectations are low, and to the use of methods for which contextual support is high. As a result, we know little about how frequently receptive language deficits occur at younger ages or which of the component skills of receptive language might be impaired. A new paradigm is needed in order to improve identification of receptive deficits at younger ages. Infant studies have provided paradigms for dissociating components of receptive language skills that could be readily applied to understanding receptive language deficits in children with SLI. This literature has brought to light the types of cues to language structure and meaning that allow infants to translate the ongoing acoustic signal of speech into language. These include the ability to perceive speech sounds and their allowable sequences, the ability to extract words and sentence structure from the auditory signal, and the ability to attach meaning to words. The studies outlined in this grant proposal sample basic skills involved in language processing at multiple levels. All of the skills sampled are ones for which infants can demonstrate ability, and therefore represent skills that should be present by the preschool years. Behavioral methods are used to study children with specific language impairment in order to determine whether their ability to capitalize on selected cues to language structure and meaning is equivalent to that of their normally-developing peers. Extensions of these behavioral studies to adult subjects with and without language-based learning disabilities will determine whether early patterns of strengths and weaknesses persist into adulthood.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC004726-04
Application #
6876071
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SSS-C (04))
Program Officer
Cooper, Judith
Project Start
2002-04-01
Project End
2007-03-31
Budget Start
2005-04-01
Budget End
2006-03-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$265,125
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Arizona
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
806345617
City
Tucson
State
AZ
Country
United States
Zip Code
85721
Plante, Elena; Ogilvie, Trianna; Vance, Rebecca et al. (2014) Variability in the language input to children enhances learning in a treatment context. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 23:530-45
Plante, Elena; Vance, Rebecca; Moody, Amanda et al. (2013) What influences children's conceptualizations of language input? J Speech Lang Hear Res 56:1613-24
Dailey, Natalie S; Plante, Elena; Vance, Rebecca (2013) Talker discrimination in preschool children with and without specific language impairment. J Commun Disord 46:330-7
von Koss Torkildsen, Janne; Dailey, Natalie S; Aguilar, Jessica M et al. (2013) Exemplar variability facilitates rapid learning of an otherwise unlearnable grammar by individuals with language-based learning disability. J Speech Lang Hear Res 56:618-29
Plante, Elena; Bahl, Megha; Vance, Rebecca et al. (2011) Beyond phonotactic frequency: presentation frequency effects word productions in specific language impairment. J Commun Disord 44:91-102
Plante, Elena; Bahl, Megha; Vance, Rebecca et al. (2010) Children with specific language impairment show rapid, implicit learning of stress assignment rules. J Commun Disord 43:397-406
Kittleson, Megan M; Aguilar, Jessica M; Tokerud, Gry Line et al. (2010) Implicit language learning: Adults' ability to segment words in Norwegian. Biling (Camb Engl) 13:513-523
Bahl, Megha; Plante, Elena; Gerken, LouAnn (2009) Processing prosodic structure by adults with language-based learning disability. J Commun Disord 42:313-23
Greenslade, Kathryn J; Plante, Elena; Vance, Rebecca (2009) The diagnostic accuracy and construct validity of the structured photographic expressive language test--preschool: second edition. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 40:150-60
Alt, Mary; Gutmann, Michelle L (2009) Fast mapping semantic features: performance of adults with normal language, history of disorders of spoken and written language, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on a word-learning task. J Commun Disord 42:347-64

Showing the most recent 10 out of 20 publications