Relationship between working memory and complex syntax in children with Developmental Language Disorder

Sentence Repetition as a Diagnostic Tool for Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PURPOSE

This systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis examines the accuracy of sentence repetition (SR) tasks in distinguishing between typically developing (TD) children and children with developmental language disorder (DLD). It explores variation in the way that SR tasks are administered and/or evaluated and examines whether variability in the reported ability of SR to detect DLD is related to these differences.

METHOD

Four databases were searched to identify studies that had used an SR task on groups of monolingual children with DLD and TD children. Searches produced 3,459 articles, of which, after screening, 66 were included in the systematic review. A multilevel meta-analysis was then conducted using 46 of these studies. Multiple preregistered subgroup analyses were conducted in order to explore the sources of heterogeneity.

RESULTS

The systematic review found a great deal of methodological variation, with studies spanning 19 languages, 39 SR tasks, and four main methods of production scoring. There was also variation in study design, with different sampling (clinical and population sampling) and matching (age and language matching) methods. The overall meta-analysis found that, on average, TD children outperformed children with DLD on the SR tasks by 2.08 SDs. Subgroup analyses found that effect size only varied as a function of the matching method and language of the task.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that SR tasks can distinguish children with DLD from both age- and language-matched samples of TD children. The usefulness of SR appears robust to most kinds of task and study variation.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25864405.

Disfluencies in the narratives of Russian-Hebrew bilingual children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

The present study examined disfluencies in the narratives of Russian-Hebrew bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Typical Language Development (TLD) in both Russian (home language) and Hebrew (societal language), with a focus on the independent and combined effects of language disorder and cross-linguistic differences on the rates and loci of disfluencies. Narratives were collected from 44 bilingual children (14 with DLD), ages 5;7-6;6, using a story retelling procedure. The narrative coding system targeted ratios of the following disfluencies (per C-unit): silent pauses, repetitions, self-corrections, and filled pauses. Silent pauses longer than 0.25 sec were identified using PRAAT software© and were classified according to the following durations: more than 0.5 sec, 1 sec, 1.5 sec, and 2 sec. In addition, the loci of pauses (utterance-initial or utterance-internal) and repetitions (content or function words) were coded. Overall, children with DLD and TLD had comparable rates of disfluencies but differed for pauses longer than 0.5 sec and repetition of content words in both languages. For the overall ratio of pauses (more than 0.25 sec), children with and without DLD had more pauses in Russian. Long pauses and repetition of content words reflect difficulties for bilingual children with DLD in dealing with the demands of storytelling, in particular planning processes. A higher ratio of pauses in Russian suggests that they reflect lower proficiency in that language.

Enhancing Syntactic Knowledge in School-Age Children With Developmental Language Disorder: The Promise of Syntactic Priming

PURPOSE

We propose that implicit learning, including syntactic priming, has therapeutic promise to enhance the syntactic knowledge of children with developmental language disorder (DLD).

METHOD

We review the chunk-based learning framework of syntactic learning, the developmental evidence in support of it, and the developmental literature on syntactic priming as an instance of chunk-based statistical learning. We use this framework to help understand the nature of the syntactic learning difficulties of children with DLD. We then briefly review the available explicit treatments for syntactic deficits and end by proposing an implicit training activity that integrates syntactic priming with the principles of statistical learning.

RESULTS

Statistically induced chunk-based learning is a powerful driver of syntactic learning, and syntactic priming is a form of this learning. Repeated priming episodes during everyday language interactions lead children to create abstract and global syntactic representations in long-term memory. We offer some thoughts on an implicit language intervention approach with syntactic priming at its center.

CONCLUSIONS

Children's learning of syntactic structures is influenced by repeated syntactic priming experiences. Including a syntactic priming activity in our language intervention toolbox has the promise to enhance children's syntactic knowledge and sentence comprehension and production abilities.

Acquisition of Mandarin long passives by children with developmental language disorder

This study investigated the comprehension and production of long passives (i.e. bei-constructions with an overt agent) in Mandarin-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Seventeen preschool children with DLD (1 female; mean age: 61 months old) and 23 typically developing (TD) children (6 females; mean age: 62 months old) participated in a sentence-picture matching task (for comprehension) and an elicited production task. Their nonverbal working memory (NVWM) was measured with the fourth edition of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Results showed that children with DLD were less accurate and more likely to choose the picture with reversed thematic roles than their TD peers on passives in the sentence-picture matching task; in the elicited production task, they produced fewer target responses than TD children in passives. For NVWM, although that of the DLD group was lower than that of TD children, most children in the DLD group were within the average range. Furthermore, their performance on passives in the comprehension and production tasks was significantly correlated with their NVWM, which adds to the body of work suggesting links between complex syntax and working memory. However, the fact that NVWM could be preserved in the face of difficulties with passives suggests that this link may be due to NVWM enhancing performance during tasks with a high visual component, while it may not be underlyingly responsible for syntactic impairments in children with DLD.

Comprehension of complex syntax by non-English-speaking children with developmental language disorder: A scoping review

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are characterised by impaired language abilities both in comprehension and production. Complex syntax is a specific domain which is often considered challenging for children with DLD. Research regarding complex syntax is mostly concerned with the production patterns of speakers and usually employs English-speaking populations. This scoping review aims to systematically map the abilities of non-English-speaking children with DLD to comprehend complex syntactic structures, comparing these results with the broader literature on English-speaking children with DLD. It also aims to consider the account (i.e. grammatical vs processing) by which these abilities can be explained. Four online databases were used to extract original research articles published between 2011 and 2021. Of the 264 studies initially identified, 20 studies were included in the review. The results demonstrated that children with DLD present with difficulties in comprehending object relative clauses, wh-questions, sentences with non-canonical word order, passives, and other types of complex syntax. All of these challenges are also evident in English-speaking children with DLD and can be mainly attributed either to the inability of children to assign thematic roles, their restricted working memory capacities, or a combination thereof. It is concluded that the comprehension of complex syntax might be a universal marker of DLD, which can be explained on the basis of either a grammatical or a processing account, or both. Common challenges in certain structures across languages can be used to design a comprehension assessment tool that can be applied in several languages.

Nonverbal Executive Functioning in Relation to Vocabulary and Morphosyntax in Preschool Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

PURPOSE

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is characterized by persistent and unexplained difficulties in language development. Accumulating evidence shows that children with DLD also present with deficits in other cognitive domains, such as executive functioning (EF). There is an ongoing debate on whether exclusively verbal EF abilities are impaired in children with DLD or whether nonverbal EF is also impaired, and whether these EF impairments are related to their language difficulties. The aims of this study were to (a) compare nonverbal performance of preschoolers with DLD and typically developing (TD) peers, (b) examine how nonverbal EF and language abilities are related, and (c) investigate whether a diagnosis of DLD moderates the relationship between EF and language abilities.

METHOD

A total of 143 children (nDLD = 65, nTD = 78) participated. All children were between 3 and 6.5 years old and were monolingual Dutch. We assessed nonverbal EF with a visual selective attention task, a visuospatial short-term and working memory task, and a task gauging broad EF abilities. Vocabulary and morphosyntax were each measured with two standardized language tests. We created latent variables for EF, vocabulary, and morphosyntax.

RESULTS

Analyses showed that children with DLD were outperformed by their TD peers on all nonverbal EF tasks. Nonverbal EF abilities were related to morphosyntactic abilities in both groups, whereas a relationship between vocabulary and EF skills was found in the TD group only. These relationships were not significantly moderated by a diagnosis of DLD.

CONCLUSIONS

We found evidence for nonverbal EF impairments in preschool children with DLD. Moreover, nonverbal EF and morphosyntactic abilities were significantly related in these children. These findings may have implications for intervention and support the improvement of prognostic accuracy.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24121287.

Morphosyntactic development in German-speaking individuals with Down syndrome-longitudinal data

Introduction

The present study provides longitudinal data on the development of receptive and expressive grammar in children and adolescents with Down syndrome and addresses the role of nonverbal cognitive abilities and verbal short-term memory for morphosyntactic development.

Method

Seventeen German-speaking individuals with Down syndrome (aged 4;6-17;1 years at first testing (T1)) were assessed twice, 4;4-6;6 years apart. For a subset of five participants, there was also a third assessment 2 years after the second. Receptive grammar, nonverbal cognition, and verbal short-term memory were tested using standardized measures. For expressive grammar, elicitation tasks were used to assess the production of subject-verb agreement and of wh-questions.

Results

At group level, the participants showed a significant increase in grammar comprehension from T1 to T2. However, progress diminished with increasing chronological age. Notable growth could not be observed beyond the age of 10 years.With respect to expressive grammatical abilities, progress was limited to those participants who had mastered verbal agreement inflection around age 10 years. Individuals who did not master verbal agreement by late childhood achieved no progress in producing wh-questions, either.There was an increase in nonverbal cognitive abilities in the majority of participants. Results for verbal short-term memory followed a similar pattern as those for grammar comprehension. Finally, neither nonverbal cognition nor verbal short-term memory were related to changes in receptive or expressive grammar.

Discussion

The results point to a slowdown in the acquisition of receptive grammar which starts before the teenage years. For expressive grammar, improvement in wh-question production only occurred in individuals with good performance in subject-verb agreement marking, which suggests that the latter might have a trigger function for further grammatical development in German-speaking individuals with Down syndrome. The study provides no indication that nonverbal cognitive abilities or verbal short-term memory performance determined the receptive or expressive development. The results lead to clinical implications for language therapy.

The association of cognitive abilities with language disorder in 8-year-old children: A population-based clinical sample

BACKGROUND

Despite accumulated evidence that language development depends on basic cognitive processes, the balance in contributions of verbal and non-verbal cognitive skills to language abilities is still underexplored. Little is known about which cognitive measures best predict the degree of severity in children with language disorder (LD).

AIMS

To examine the association between verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities with language abilities in typically developing and language impaired 8-year-old children, as well as which cognitive abilities are most effective in distinguishing LD severity levels.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Children (N = 509) from the Language-8 Study, which oversampled probable cases of children with LD from a population-based cohort in Norway, were assessed at 8 years. Language skills were assessed using the Norwegian Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4 (CELF-4). Children's verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities were assessed via standardized cognitive measures. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was first conducted to uncover the underlying factor structure of the cognitive variables. Using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, we then examined to what extent the non-verbal cognition factor explained language abilities above and beyond verbal cognition factors. Lastly, multinomial logistic regression was used to examine which cognitive measures best predicted the degree of severity in the children with LD.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

The EFA resulted in three factors (Verbal Cognition, Processing Speed and Memory, and Non-Verbal Cognition). The hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that all three cognitive factors contributed significantly to individual variation in language abilities. Non-Verbal Cognition explained 5.4% variance in language abilities above and beyond that accounted for by Verbal Cognition and Processing Speed and Memory. Results from the multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that cognitive subtests, including Familiar Sequences, WASI Vocabulary and WASI Similarities, not only distinguished LD from typically developing children, but were also efficient in distinguishing severity of LD symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

This study confirms concurrent links between language and non-verbal cognitive skills above and beyond the contribution of verbal cognitive skills. The results provide further evidence that children with LD experience both language and cognitive problems in mid-childhood. Our findings suggest implications for LD intervention and diagnosis. The findings support the importance of measuring both verbal and non-verbal cognitive skills when making an LD diagnosis, and point to the potential of targeting underlying cognitive skills as one strategy to support language abilities.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject Language development is dependent on basic cognitive processes. These include both verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities. Children with LD often experience both language and cognitive problems. There is evidence that performance on cognitive tests may be associated with the degree of severity of LD. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The current results from a large population-based cohort establish that a number of verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities are tightly linked to variation in language abilities and the degree of severity of LD. Our study confirms concurrent links between language and non-verbal cognitive abilities above and beyond the contribution of verbal cognitive abilities. We also identify specific verbal and non-verbal cognitive tests that distinguish between typical children and children with LD, as well as LD severity. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Our findings support the importance of measuring both verbal and non-verbal cognitive skills when making an LD diagnosis. Our findings also point to the potential of targeting underlying cognitive skills as one strategy to support language abilities. We suggest that future intervention studies focus on the impact of non-verbal cognitive skills on language development in children with LD.

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

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.

Identifying Linguistic Markers of French-Speaking Teenagers With Developmental Language Disorder: Which Tasks Matter?

PURPOSE

This research aimed to identify reliable tasks discriminating French-speaking adolescents with developmental language disorder (DLD) from their peers with typical language (TL) and to assess which linguistic domains represent areas of particular weakness in DLD. Unlike English, morphosyntax has not been identified as a special area of weakness when compared with lexicosemantics in French preschoolers with DLD. Since there is evidence that subject-verb number agreement is consolidated in later childhood, one might expect morphosyntax to be a particular weakness and marker of French DLD only in (pre)adolescence.

METHOD

We administered 20 subtasks that assessed linguistic and phonological working memory skills of two groups: 17 adolescents clinically identified as having DLD (M = 14.1 years) and 20 (pre)teens with TL (M = 12.2 years). Using robust statistics that are less affected by outliers, we selected the most discriminating subtasks between our groups, calculated their optimal cutoff score, and derived diagnostic accuracy statistics. We combined these subtasks in a multivariable model to identify which subtasks contributed the most to the identification of DLD.

RESULTS

Seven subtasks were selected as discriminating between our groups, and three showed outstanding diagnostic accuracy: Recalling Sentences, a multiword task assessing lexicosemantic skills, and a subject-verb number agreement production task. When combined, we found that the latter contributed the most to our multivariable model.

CONCLUSION

This study provides evidence that the most relevant markers to identify DLD in French teenagers are tasks assessing lexicosemantics and morphosyntactic domains, and that morphosyntax should be considered an important area of weakness in French-speaking teenagers with DLD.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21753932.

Working memory training in children with developmental language disorder: Effects on complex syntax in narratives

This study assesses the impact of a working memory training program on the syntactic complexity of the spontaneous speech of French-speaking children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Thirty-nine 6- to 12-year-old children with DLD were allocated to a WM training (DLD^MM, N = 20) or an active control group (DLD^SQULA, N = 19). The computerized training sessions took place three times a week, yielding 12 training hours per participant. Syntactic complexity was assessed in storytelling, measuring mean length of utterances, use of embedded clauses and rate of errors in complex utterances. The performance of participants with DLD was first compared to previous spontaneous data of 40 typically-developing (TD) children of the same age. Then, intragroup (pre- vs. post-test) and intergroup (DLD^MM vs. DLD^SQULA) comparisons were made to assess the impact of the working memory training on the language measures. Global results confirmed syntactic impairment in children with DLD, as opposed to TD children, with large differences for the use of embedded clauses. Findings also suggested gains in the mastery of embedded clauses in children who participated in the WM training, whereas no gains were observed in the DLD control group. These findings confirm deficits in complex syntax in children with DLD, in particular in embedded clauses, and may encourage the clinical use of language sample analysis, which provides an ecological account of children's language performance. While our results should be replicated on a larger scale, they also suggest positive transfer effects of working memory training on the capacity of participants with DLD to produce embedded clauses, in line with previous studies showing a positive effect of WM training on tasks of expressive syntax. It thus seems that working memory training can yield benefits for language, which leaves open the door to new therapeutic approaches for children with DLD.

The effect of sentence length on question comprehension in children with cochlear implants

OBJECTIVES

The present study investigated the comprehension of subject and object who and which questions in children with cochlear implants (CI).

METHODS

Growth Curve Analysis (GCA) was used to compare eye gaze fixations and gaze patterns to the appropriate subject or object nouns within a four-picture array between 16 children with CI and 31 children with typical hearing (aged 7;0-12;0) on wh-questions with and without added adjectives to increase length. Offline accuracy was also compared.

RESULTS

Findings indicated children with typical hearing exhibited more fixations to the target noun across all conditions, supporting higher comprehension accuracy. Both groups of children demonstrated more fixations to the target noun in object questions and questions without added length. Patterns of eye movement were significantly different between groups, suggesting different patterns of eye gaze across the array before fixation on the target noun. Children with CI exhibited fewer fixations, slower speed to fixation, and differences in gaze patterns that may imply the presence of processing limitations. Error analyses also suggested that children with CI frequently fixated on a picture similar to the target noun.

CONCLUSIONS

Results indicate children with CI comprehend questions more slowly than their hearing peers, which may be related to limitations in working memory.

When Developmental Language Disorder Meets Diglossia: A Cross-Sectional Investigation of Listening Comprehension Among Native Arabic-Speaking Preschoolers

Diglossia in the Arabic language refers to the existence of two varieties of the same language: the Spoken Arabic (SA) and the Literary Arabic (LA). This study examined the development of listening comprehension (LC) among diglossic Arabic K1-K3. For this purpose, a large sample of typically developing (TD; N = 210) and developmental language disorder children (DLD; N = 118) were examined using SA and LA texts. The analysis of variance conducted on their performance in LC revealed significant effects of K-level, group (TD vs. DLD) and text affiliation (SA vs. LA): higher scores in TD and in SA. A significant interaction between text affiliation and K-level was observed among the TD but not the DLD group. This interaction indicated that the gap in LC between the SA and LA varieties decreased with age only among TD children. The theoretical and pedagogical implications of these results are discussed.

Working Memory-Based Cognitive Rehabilitation: Spoken Language of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

This research examined the effect of the Working Memory-based Cognitive Rehabilitation (WMCR) intervention on the spoken language development of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. In this clinical trial study, 28 DHH children aged between 5 and 6 years were selected by random sampling method. The participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in the WMCR intervention involving 11 sessions. All participants were assessed pre-and postintervention. Data were collected by the Newsha Development Scale and analyzed through MANCOVA. The results revealed a significant difference between the scores of the receptive and expressive language of the experimental group that were exposed to the WMCR intervention compared with the control group. The receptive and expressive language skills of the experimental group indicated a significant improvement after the intervention. Therefore, the WMCR intervention is an effective method that affects the spoken language skills of DHH children. These findings have critical implications for teachers, parents, and therapists in supporting DHH young children to develop their language skills.

Längsschnittliche Zusammen­hänge von Wortschatz, Grammatik und Leseverständnis mit mathematischen Fähigkeiten bei Grundschulkindern mit nicht-deutscher Familiensprache

Zusammenfassung. Ein wesentlicher Erklärungsfaktor für die geringeren mathematischen Leistungen von Lernenden nicht-deutscher Familiensprache sind ihre weniger gut ausgeprägten sprachlichen Kompetenzen in der Instruktionssprache. Allerdings fehlt es an Untersuchungen, welche die längsschnittlichen Zusammenhänge zwischen verschiedenen sprachlichen und mathematischen Fähigkeitsfacetten in dieser Population abbilden. Die Studie untersucht deshalb das komplexe Zusammenhangsgefüge zwischen Wortschatz- und Grammatikkenntnissen, Leseverständnis und den mathematischen Fähigkeiten in Arithmetik, Textaufgaben sowie Fachwortschatzkenntnissen an einer Stichprobe von 370 Grundschulkindern nicht-deutscher Familiensprache anhand eines Cross-Lagged-Panel-Designs mit drei Messzeitpunkten. Dabei zeigte sich unter Kontrolle der allgemeinen kognitiven Grundfähigkeiten und der Vorleistungen, dass allgemeine Wortschatzkenntnisse einen signifikanten Beitrag zur Vorhersage der Fähigkeit Textaufgaben zu lösen und der Fachwortschatzkenntnisse leisteten (kreuzverzögerte Pfade). Gleichzeitig erwies sich Grammatikkompetenz als signifikanter Prädiktor für spätere Fachwortschatzkenntnisse. Die untersuchten sprachlichen Teilkompetenzen hatten hingegen keinen Vorhersagewert für die spätere Arithmetikleistung. Ein reziproker Effekt konnte für Fachwortschatz und den allgemeinen Wortschatz gefunden werden. Signifikante Zusammenhänge der Residuen von Textaufgaben und Fachwortschatz mit den Residuen der sprachlichen Fähigkeitsfacetten zum zweiten und dritten Messzeitpunkt weisen darauf hin, dass die Leistungszuwächse miteinander assoziiert sind.

A Preliminary Examination of the Impact of Working Memory Training on Syntax and Processing Speed in Children with ASD

In addition to deficits in pragmatics, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have weaknesses in complex syntax and working memory (WM). These two deficits may be closely related. Previous work investigated the effects of WM training in developmental language disorders and showed significant improvement in both WM and syntax. The current study tests the impact of 12 h of WM training across 8 weeks in 30 children with ASD, aged 5 to 11. Results showed direct improvements on untrained WM tasks, as well as transfer effects to syntax and processing speed. Stronger WM led to better syntactic abilities. While they must be replicated, these exciting results provide impetus for further studies of WM interventions.

Efficacy of cogmed working memory training program in improving working memory in school-age children with and without neurological insults or disorders: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis assessed the efficacy of the Cogmed Working Memory Training program in improving near-transfer measures (verbal and visuospatial working memory) and far-transfer measures (attention, executive function, and academic achievement) in school-age children with and without neurological insults or disorders. Relevant studies were searched in databases and clinical trial registries using the keyword Cogmed. Ten published studies and unpublished data from one study met the inclusion criteria. Hedges g was calculated for each outcome measure obtained at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 3-6 month time points. Analysis compared outcome measures in the control versus experimental groups and examined the role of moderators on treatment effects (control group intervention, intervention environment). Data revealed significant medium-size effects of the Cogmed program in improving verbal and visuospatial working memory post-intervention and for verbal working memory only at the 3-6 month time point. However, the training did not generalize to the far-transfer measures. Analyses indicated that only the type of intervention provided for the control group moderated treatment effects on verbal and visual working memory. Meta-analytic findings suggest that the Cogmed program leads to short-term improvements and in some cases, long-term improvements in working memory in school-age children; however, these effects may not generalize to far-transfer measures.

Comprehension of Welcher-Questions in German-Speaking Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose This study examined whether monolingual German-speaking preschool children with developmental language disorder (DLD) were facilitated by the presence of case-marking cues in their interpretation of German subject and object welcher ("which")-questions, as reported for their typically developing peers. We also examined whether knowledge of case-marking and/or phonological working memory modulated children's ability to revise early assigned interpretations of ambiguous questions. Method Sixty-three monolingual German-speaking children with and without DLD aged between 4;0 and 5;11 (years;months) participated in an offline picture selection task targeting the comprehension of welcher-questions in German. We manipulated question type (subject, object), case-marking transparency, and case-marking position within the question (sentence-initial/-final). Results The typically developing children outperformed the children with DLD across conditions, and all children performed better on subject than on object wh-questions. Transparent and early cues elicited higher accuracy than late-arriving cues. For the DLD children, their working memory capacity explained their inability to revise early assigned interpretations to ambiguous questions, whereas their knowledge of case did not. Conclusions The results suggest that disambiguating morphosyntactic cues can only partly facilitate comprehension of German welcher-questions in children with DLD, whose poor phonological working memory rather than their knowledge of case-marking mediates performance on these structures.

Consistency of a Nonword Repetition Task to Discriminate Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder in Catalan-Spanish and European Portuguese Speaking Children

Nonword repetition has been proposed as a diagnostic marker of developmental language disorder (DLD); however, the inconsistency in the ability of nonword repetition tasks (NRT) to identify children with DLD raises significant questions regarding its feasibility as a clinical tool. Research suggests that some of the inconsistency across NRT may be due to differences in the nature of the nonword stimuli. In this study, we compared children's performance on NRT between two cohorts: the children in the Catalan-Spanish cohort (CS) were bilingual, and the children in the European Portuguese cohort (EP) were monolingual. NRT performance was assessed in both Spanish and Catalan for the bilingual children from Catalonia-Spain and in Portuguese for the monolingual children from Portugal. Results show that although the absolute performance differed across the two cohorts, with NRT performance being lower for the CS, in both Catalan and Spanish, as compared to the EP cohort in both, the cut-points for the likelihood ratios (LH) were similar across the three languages and mirror those previously reported in previous studies. However, the absolute LH ratio values for this study were higher than those reported in prior research due in part to differences in wordlikeness and frequency of the stimuli in the current study. Taken together, the findings from this study show that an NRT consisting of 3-, 4-, and 5-syllable nonwords, which varies in wordlikeness ratings, when presented in a random order accurately identifies and correctly differentiates children with DLD from TD controls the child is bilingual or monolingual.

Training Complements for Belief Reasoning in Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) experience difficulties with an important Theory of Mind milestone, namely, false belief (FB) reasoning. Their FB success relates to mastery of a linguistic structure that is also challenging for them, namely, sentential complements (e.g., Claire says/thinks [that Santa Claus exists]). Training typically developing (TD) children on complements has been shown to boost complements and, in turn, enhance FB, but such training has never been explored with children with DLD, which is the aim of the current study. Method Fifty French-speaking children followed a novel training program: 30 with DLD (M _age = 7;3) and 20 TD (M _age = 4;3). They engaged in iPad applications targeting complementation with verbs of communication (e.g., say, shout, answer) during eight to 12 sessions lasting 30 min. Training commenced within 1-2 weeks of pretests and ceased 1-2 weeks before immediate posttests. After immediate posttests, the majority of children were available to be tested with follow-up tests after 4-6 weeks of no training. Results Findings revealed that both TD and DLD groups benefited from the training to significantly improve their complementation and FB scores. The gains achieved during immediate posttests were moreover maintained 6-8 weeks after training ceased, as revealed by preserved levels of performance during follow-up posttests. Conclusion This research thus suggests new avenues for therapeutic interventions for children with DLD, namely, the incorporation of a program directly training complements, which holds the promise of a double benefit, both for these structures and for Theory of Mind.