The central aim of this project is to determine how linguistic intentions are instantiated in motor actions and how motor and representational factors are related to language disorders. Specific language impairment (SLI) is a disorder that affects approximately 7 percent of children at the time they enter kindergarten. Because of the longstanding adverse academic, social, and communicative consequences of SLI, it is imperative to understand the bases of the disorder for the development of appropriate intervention strategies. Many current approaches to SLI focus entirely on language factors. However, language is expressed through movement, and deficits in motor skill have also been implicated in children with SLI. In both normal and disordered development, an important aspect of the developmental process is the linking of motor output patterns with emerging linguistic representations. A major hypothesis underlying this work is that, because linguistic and motor capacities mature at different (and protracted) rates, during development there is a complex bi-directional interface between language and motor processes. In the present research the primary language-motor link to be explored is the acquisition of the rhythmic structure of language, or prosody. The strategy in these studies will be to examine the development of rhythmic structure in a variety of linguistic, manual, and oral motor tasks. The experiments combine new physiological analyses of movement with existing acoustic and phonetic approaches. In the first set of experiments, the primary objective is to understand how prosodic distinctions are produced across different lexical and morphosyntactic contexts. The structure of movement and acoustic output will be examined both when children produce and when they overtly omit function and content forms (omission is a frequently observed error type for children with SLI). In a second set of experiments, the effect of linguistic processing will be removed to test if prosodic deficits are generalized across other motor systems (i.e., non-speech oral and manual movements) or are specific to the complexities of linguistic output. The results of these experiments will have important implications both for understanding how speech production processes develop and for designing appropriate intervention for children with SLI.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC004826-03
Application #
6649788
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BBBP-3 (01))
Program Officer
Cooper, Judith
Project Start
2001-09-28
Project End
2006-08-31
Budget Start
2003-09-01
Budget End
2004-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$298,500
Indirect Cost
Name
Purdue University
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
072051394
City
West Lafayette
State
IN
Country
United States
Zip Code
47907
Benham, Sara; Goffman, Lisa; Schweickert, Richard (2018) An Application of Network Science to Phonological Sequence Learning in Children With Developmental Language Disorder. J Speech Lang Hear Res 61:2275-2291
Saletta, Meredith; Goffman, Lisa; Ward, Caitlin et al. (2018) Influence of Language Load on Speech Motor Skill in Children With Specific Language Impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res 61:675-689
Gladfelter, Allison; Goffman, Lisa (2018) Semantic richness and word learning in children with autism spectrum disorder. Dev Sci 21:
Vuolo, Janet; Goffman, Lisa; Zelaznik, Howard N (2017) Deficits in Coordinative Bimanual Timing Precision in Children With Specific Language Impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res 60:393-405
Vuolo, Janet; Goffman, Lisa (2017) An exploratory study of the influence of load and practice on segmental and articulatory variability in children with speech sound disorders. Clin Linguist Phon 31:331-350
Richtsmeier, Peter T; Goffman, Lisa (2017) Perceptual statistical learning over one week in child speech production. J Commun Disord 68:70-80
Saletta, Meredith; Goffman, Lisa; Brentari, Diane (2016) Reading Skill and Exposure to Orthography Influence Speech Production. Appl Psycholinguist 37:411-434
Heisler, Lori; Goffman, Lisa (2016) The influence of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density on children's production of newly learned words. Lang Learn Dev 12:338-356
Saletta, Meredith; Goffman, Lisa; Hogan, Tiffany P (2016) Orthography and Modality Influence Speech Production in Adults and Children. J Speech Lang Hear Res 59:1421-1435
Richtsmeier, Peter T; Goffman, Lisa (2015) Learning trajectories for speech motor performance in children with specific language impairment. J Commun Disord 55:31-43

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