Learning disabled children's syntactic proficiency on a communicative task

A Comparative Study of the Communication Profile of Typically Developing Children and Children with Receptive-Expressive Language Disorders: A Parental Perceptive

Background:

Parental concerns pertaining to communication abilities are essential as it does aid in the identification of the children at risk of physical and mental health problems.

Objectives:

The current study followed a cross sectional study design. The study focussed on developing a questionnaire targeting the parental concerns in Typically developing (TD) children and children with Receptive-Expressive Language Disorders (CWRELD) between 3.7 and 6.6 years of age; to administer the developed questionnaire on parents of TD children and CWRELD; and to analyse and compare the concerns faced by parents of TD children and CWRELD across 3.7 and 6.6 years of age.

Methods:

Fifty-one parents of TD children and 51 parents of CWRELD participated in the study. The study was carried out in three phases- Phase I included the development and validation of questionnaire; Phase II included data collection using the developed questionnaire; and Phase III included performing statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics was done to determine the mean and standard deviation (SD) for both the TD and CWRELD groups.

Results:

The results revealed that the concerns exhibited by parents of CWRELD were significantly higher than that of parents of TD children. Chi square results indicated statistically significant findings across all the domains between TD children and CWRELD (p<0.05).

Conclusion:

The developed questionnaire can be used in clinical settings to help track parental concerns which may aid in the early identification of children at risk of various communication disorders. Additionally, this questionnaire may be considered for monitoring parental concerns throughout the course of the intervention program.

The Chicago Institute for the Study of Learning Disabilities

Research at the Chicago institute focused on the social competence of LD children. Studies included investigations of LD children's communicative competence (e.g., adapting one's style to listeners, conversational skills), reading abilities (oral reading and comprehension), causal attributions of success and failure, and the immediate impression LD children make on naive observers.

Linguistic humor comprehension in children with articulation impairments

This study investigated the ability of children with articulation disorders to comprehend linguistic humor. It was hypothesized that children with articulation disorders would have more difficulty understanding humor based on phonological differences than humor based on lexical differences. A second hypothesis predicted that children with articulation disorders would have more difficulty understanding riddles in which the phoneme they misarticulated, either /s/ or /r/, was the source of ambiguity than riddles in which the source of ambiguity did not involve the phoneme they misarticulated. Results did not confirm the first hypothesis as there were no statistically significant differences between groups with regard to the children's ability to understand phonological vs lexical humor. The second hypothesis was supported. Children had significantly more difficulty understanding riddles in which the source of ambiguity related to the phoneme they misarticulated, either /s/ or /r/ than they did understanding phonological humor involving nonerror phonemes.

Interpretation and comprehension of linguistic humour by adolescents with head injury: a group analysis

The aim of the present study was to determine the ability of adolescents with a head injury to interpret and comprehend linguistic humour. Nine adolescents with head injury aged between 12 years 1 month and 15 years 4 months, and nine individually matched adolescents aged between 12 years 1 month and 16 years 1 month were administered a humour test, a standard language battery, the CELF-3, and the Self-Esteem Index. The test of humour abilities required each subject to recognize and select an explanation from a group of three, as to what made each item funny. Items were based on morphological, semantic and syntactic humour elements. Comparison at a group level demonstrated that adolescents with head injury performed significantly poorer in the interpretation and comprehension of linguistic humour than a group of individually matched peers. Contrary to expectations, a relationship between the level of self-esteem and humour comprehension did not exist. The findings of the present study suggest that further research into the effects of head injury on linguistic humour in adolescents is warranted, particularly from a case-by-case perspective.

Learning disabilities existing concomitantly with communication disorder

This article describes the characteristics of language disorders that occur with learning disabilities. In this context, formal and naturalistic language, including specific standardized test batteries and curriculum-based language assessment, portfolio assessment, and others, are discussed. In addition, service delivery models and interventions that focus on the enhancement of semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic development are presented. Finally, future directions for research in the area of learning disabilities and secondary language disorders are suggested. Intervention strategies, including supportive scaffolding, whole language, and collaborative consultation, are reviewed; and implications for language assessment, intervention, and future research are discussed.

Children’s Comprehension of Idioms in the Context of Humor

Comprehension of idioms embedded in the context of humor was examined for 90 third, fourth, and fifth grade children (30 children from each grade). Tasks involved detection and explanation of the idioms. Results show that, as expected, detection tasks were significantly easier than explanation tasks for all grades, and significant improvement in understanding occurs with age. The data seem to suggest that idiom comprehension is affected by the level of idiom transparency, the degree of contextual support available in the humor items, and the level of familiarity of the idioms. These factors need to be studied further.

Metaphoric Comprehension in Adolescents With Traumatic Brain Injury and in Adolescents With Language Learning Disability

The purpose of the present study was to compare comprehension of figurative language in the form of metaphors between adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and adolescents with language learning disability (LLD). The metaphoric comprehension subtest of the Test of Language Competence (Wiig & Secord, 1985) was administered to adolescents and young adults with TBI, to those with LLD, and to subjects without TBI and LLD (normal subjects). The results indicated that the subjects with TBI comprehended metaphors little differently than did the normal subjects. The subjects with LLD, in contrast, demonstrated significantly poorer comprehension of metaphors than both the normal subjects and subjects with TBI. These results are discussed in relation to appropriate special education needs and placement of the student with TBI.

Language disorders in childhood and adolescence: implications for learning and socialization

Children and adolescents with language disorders encounter disruption in the fluency of social interaction. Because of the chronic nature of language disabilities, problems in academic achievement and success become the hallmark of the disorders during the school years. Since adolescence represents a time of experimentation and definition of the self, individuals with language disorders are at high risk for the development of fragmented and inappropriate perspectives about themselves. Treatment must address, in a functionally coordinated manner, the acquisition of essential linguistic and basic academic skills, the learning of curriculum content, and the development of appropriate perspectives of the self and the environment.

Social skills assessment and training for the learning disabled: who's on first and what's on second? Part I

This month's Topical Review is the first in a two-part series on the social skills of learning disabled children. In a field traditionally dominated by concerns about intellectual functioning, concern for the development of social skills in LD children has been sparked by data showing that skill deficiencies in this area are associated with poor long-term adjustment and success both in and out of the classroom. This two-part Review presents information about the social skills deficits of LD children, methods for assessing social skills, and treatment programs designed to ameliorate weaknesses in social skills. The first two of these topics are covered this month, while the last topic will be addressed in the next issue.--J.K.T.