Conversational interactions between mothers and learning-disabled or nondisabled children during a problem-solving task

Objective eye-gaze behaviour during face-to-face communication with proficient alaryngeal speakers: a preliminary study

BACKGROUND

There is a large body of research demonstrating the impact of visual information on speaker intelligibility in both normal and disordered speaker populations. However, there is minimal information on which specific visual features listeners find salient during conversational discourse.

AIMS

To investigate listeners' eye-gaze behaviour during face-to-face conversation with normal, laryngeal and proficient alaryngeal speakers.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Sixty participants individually participated in a 10-min conversation with one of four speakers (typical laryngeal, tracheoesophageal, oesophageal, electrolaryngeal; 15 participants randomly assigned to one mode of speech). All speakers were > 85% intelligible and were judged to be 'proficient' by two certified speech-language pathologists. Participants were fitted with a head-mounted eye-gaze tracking device (Mobile Eye, ASL) that calculated the region of interest and mean duration of eye-gaze. Self-reported gaze behaviour was also obtained following the conversation using a 10 cm visual analogue scale.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

While listening, participants viewed the lower facial region of the oesophageal speaker more than the normal or tracheoesophageal speaker. Results of non-hierarchical cluster analyses showed that while listening, the pattern of eye-gaze was predominantly directed at the lower face of the oesophageal and electrolaryngeal speaker and more evenly dispersed among the background, lower face, and eyes of the normal and tracheoesophageal speakers. Finally, results show a low correlation between self-reported eye-gaze behaviour and objective regions of interest data.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Overall, results suggest similar eye-gaze behaviour when healthy controls converse with normal and tracheoesophageal speakers and that participants had significantly different eye-gaze patterns when conversing with an oesophageal speaker. Results are discussed in terms of existing eye-gaze data and its potential implications on auditory-visual speech perception.

Language problems in children with learning disabilities: do they interfere with maternal communication?

In this study, parent-child interaction in two carefully matched subgroups-school-age boys with learning disabilities (LD) who showed a discrepancy between their verbal IQ and performance IQ and had more extensive difficulties in higher-level language abilities (VIQ < PIQ, n = 8) and boys with LD who did not manifest a discrepancy between verbal IQ and performance IQ (VIQ = PIQ, n = 8), were investigated. The effects of the child's language problems on child task performance and on the quality of maternal communication were analyzed in a mother-child problem solving task. Children in the VIQ < PIQ group were found to be less successful on the task than children in the VIQ = PIQ group, and their mothers exhibited lower communication clarity in their instructions than the mothers of the children in the VIQ = PIQ group. An interesting interaction effect was found for communication deviances. For mothers in the VIQ < PIQ group the extent of deficient communication increased from the monologue to the dialogue situation, whereas communication deviances decreased for mothers in the VIQ = PIQ group. Three possible models are discussed in light of the differences between the subgroups.

Expanding Language Norms for School-Age Children and Adolescents

Despite decades of research, we currently have only limited norms of pragmatic development and use. These generally consist of skills that are aspects of pragmatic functioning, but in themselves do not capture the pragmatic difficulties exhibited by children in classroom, home, and social environments. A discussion of some of the problems associated with deriving pragmatic norms is presented, along with some of the current insights we have concerning the pragmatic abilities of older children and adolescents. These diverse findings are organized into a single coherent model for analyzing and comparing pragmatic performance across tasks. Implications for further research also are presented.

Mother-child teaching strategies and learning disabilities

The teaching strategies used by mothers of sons with learning disabilities (LD) (n = 30) and normally achieving sons (NLD) (n = 30) were examined. The children were matched for age (8- to 11-year-olds) and for parents' socioeconomic status. The behavior of mother-child pairs was videotaped in a teaching task that was constructed to resemble a homework assignment. The results showed that the mothers of children with LD used fewer high-level strategies, and their total time used in teaching was less than that of the mothers of NLD children. The mothers of children with LD exhibited more dominance and less emotionality and cooperation than did the mothers of NLD children; however, the mothers did not differ in task motivation. The children with LD seemed to have more inactive learning strategies, evident in their weaker initiative and greater dependence on their mothers. Analyses concerning the variation of maternal strategies within the LD group revealed that the mothers' motivation, combined with their emotionality and proportion of high-level strategies, had a strong positive association with their children's success in learning.

Communication deviances and clarity among the mothers of normally achieving and learning-disabled boys

The main purpose of the study was to reexamine the association between maternal communication deviances and learning disabilities in children. In this study, we adapted and extended the procedure used by Ditton, Green, and Singer (1987). A two-part experimental task was used: one in which the child could not request any clarification of mother's instructions, and another in which the mother and child could communicate. Both communication deviances and the clarity of mothers' communication were analyzed. The subjects were 60 mother-child pairs in which half of the children had learning disabilities and the other half were normally achieving children matched for age and parents' SES. The dyads were videotaped in a laboratory setting. The mothers of learning-disabled (LD) children were found to give less exact instructions and to present more ambiguous messages to the child than the mothers of non-LD children. Despite the more inaccurate input from their mother, the LD boys did not request clarification for ambiguous statements any more than did the NLD boys.

Learning disabilities

Although the major manifestations of learning disabilities are expressed in the classroom, the pediatrician has several important roles to play. Identification may be achieved in the early school years by systematic observation of the child's neurodevelopment and school progress. Confirmation of the diagnosis is the most commonly assumed role. Interpretation and explanation of learning disabilities to the parents and child follow. The goals of treatment of learning disabilities are achievement of academic competence, treatment of associated deficits, and prevention of adverse mental health outcomes. The long-term relationship between the family and pediatrician facilitates the performance of longitudinal monitoring to ensure that the program is accomplishing its goals and that outcome is optimal.