Case marking in German-speaking children with specific language impairment and with phonological impairment

Microstructure competences and grammatical errors of Danish-speaking children with developmental language disorder when telling and retelling narratives and engaging in spontaneous language

BACKGROUND

Research on the grammatical characteristics of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) across languages has challenged accounts about the nature of DLD. Studies of the characteristics of DLD in different languages can reveal which components of DLD emerge irrespective of language and which components are language specific.

AIMS

To examine the grammatical characteristics of children with DLD acquiring Danish (microstructure and error types) in order to contribute to research on language-general and language-specific characteristics of DLD.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Language samples from two telling narratives, one retelling narrative and one session of semi-spontaneous talk were collected from 39 Danish-speaking children aged 5;0-8;6, comprising one group of children with DLD (n = 15) and two control groups (age- and language-matched: n = 15 and = 9, respectively). The data were analysed with reference to microstructure and grammatical errors. The DLD children's performance was compared with that of their peers with typical language development (AM) and to that of a younger group matched on language comprehension (LM). Task effects were also analysed.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

A significant group difference in microstructure was present in the results for mean length of utterance (MLU), where the AM group had significant higher MLU compared with the DLD group. Two variables clearly distinguished DLD children from both AM and LM children in terms of errors, namely word order errors and omission errors. The analysis of grammatical errors also revealed that the most salient challenges for Danish-speaking children with DLD were not clearly morphological in nature. Although the children with DLD, as expected, made more morphological errors compared with the AM group, they did not produce more errors compared with the LM group. Task effects were present for some but not all results.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

This research emphasizes the importance of cross-linguistic comparisons of the linguistic error profiles in the elicited language of children with DLD and the importance of considering the methodological context when analysing the grammatical language abilities of children with DLD. The results are relevant for clinicians and for developing screening tools.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on this subject DLD is characterized by challenges in producing and comprehending language. Ample research is available on English-speaking children with DLD, and which has reported on challenges acquiring morphology. Studies of children with DLD acquiring other languages than English show challenges related to specific grammatical features of the respective language. What this study adds to the existing knowledge This study is the first to investigate microstructure abilities and grammatical errors produced by Danish-speaking children with DLD and using different language samples (narrative telling, narrative retelling and spontaneous language). It enhances our knowledge about DLD in Scandinavian languages and cross-linguistically and reinforces cross-linguistic findings that grammatical and structural challenges in language acquisition for children with DLD might not be reducible exclusively to morphology. While some components of DLD children's language challenges may appear universal and be attributed to overarching factors other components seem more specific to the structure of the target language. Results from this study additionally draw attention to the importance of considering contextual constraints when investigating productive grammatical abilities in children with DLD. What are the practical and clinical implications of this work? More detailed analysis of grammatical error types seen in children with DLD acquiring languages other than English and of individual differences contribute to clinical advancement in the field. A better insight into grammatical difficulties of Danish-speaking children with DLD may contribute to improved assessment procedures and planning of therapy for children with DLD.

Morphosyntactic profiles among preschoolers with and without speech sound disorders

The aim of the current study was to identify whether certain morphosyntactic constructs are more difficult for children with speech sound disorder than children with typical speech development. In this post-hoc study, we used chi-square analyses to identify group differences on individual questions on a standardised test of expressive morphosyntax. Participants included 80 preschool-age children, 40 with typical speech and language development (TD), and 40 with speech sound disorder and typical language development (SSD). A chi-square analysis revealed group (TD vs. SSD) differences in usage of subject pronouns, irregular past tense verbs, and yes/no interrogative formation. Ordinal logistic regression revealed that phonological awareness was related to irregular past tense verb use. Children with SSD may present with subclinical morphosyntax difficulties. Speech-language pathologists should consider incorporating morphosyntax assessment into test batteries for children with SSD.

Exploring grammatical development in children aged 2;6 to 7: a novel approach using elicited production

The assessment of children's grammatical skills is a crucial component of diagnosing language disorders. Elicited production is a commonly used method for obtaining data on a child's productive language abilities. We introduce a new instrument developed as part of the third edition of a standardised test battery for German. This instrument utilises elicited production, wherein participants describe coloured pictures depicting everyday situations, in order to generate four test scores: mean length of utterances, completeness of utterances, and two grammar scores comprising relevant target structures. The construction of the grammar scores was inspired by the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn), modified for German and computerised. The detailed results provide a comprehensive profile of a child's syntactic and morphological strengths and weaknesses. Analysis of data collected from 348 monolingual German children who formed part of the norming sample, aged between 2;6 and 6;11 years of age, revealed age-related changes in these scores. Additionally, the age range was determined for both grammatical milestones and 'red flags', which may indicate potential problems in language development. In conclusion, the newly developed, time-efficient instrument allows for a detailed assessment of grammatical skills, identification of potential intervention targets, and facilitates various research objectives.

The role of age and timing in bilingual assessment: non-word repetition, subject-verb agreement and case marking in L1 and eL2 children with and without SLI

Diagnostics in bilingual children is challenging, due to an overlap of production patterns in typically developing (TD) bilingual children and monolingual children with specific language impairment (SLI). To screen bilingual children effectively, the Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) tools were developed in an international project. The present study tests three of these tools for their suitability and diagnostic accuracy for early second language learners (eL2) of German, aged six to eight years. The study focuses on the timing in first language (L1) TD acquisition, investigating early and late acquisition phenomena of the morphosyntactic domain (subject-verb agreement [SVA], and case marking), combined with a non-word repetition (NWR) task targeting phonological complexity. The study aims at evaluating these three LITMUS-tools regarding their diagnostic accuracy, compared to a standardised assessment tool (LiSe-DaZ).To this end, forty-two children were tested using the LITMUS-tools, namely, contrastive case marking (CCM), supplemented by an elicitation task for the prepositional case, SVA and NWR. Four groups of children participated: eL2 children with SLI (mean age 7;6, mean age of onset 3;1), eL2 children with TD (mean age 7;10, mean age of onset 2;11), L1 TD children (mean age 7;3) and L1 SLI children (mean age 7;2). Results show NWR and SVA as suitable markers and the LITMUS-tools as suitable screenings. Conversely, CCM does not disentangle SLI from TD in the investigated bilingual population by this age.

Verb morphology in German-speaking children with developmental language disorder and phonological impairment

The verb inflections of matched groups of German-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and phonological impairment (PI) were evaluated, and performance compared with age-matched and language-matched typically developing (TD) children (66 participants in total). An elicitation task for second- and third-person singular present tense inflections was used and spontaneous language samples were also analysed for present tense inflections. Errors resulting from the children's speech difficulties were excluded from the analysis. Evidence was found in the elicited data for delayed development in the DLD children, but no differences were found between this group and the TD group matched on language development. Both clinical groups made errors consistent with bare stem- and prosodic factors described in the literature. The children with PI, although scoring within normal limits on standardised tests of language, displayed difficulties with tense inflections that went beyond limitations imposed by their speech. This suggests there may be underlying difficulties in both phonological and grammatical domains for both clinical groups, and potential interaction between these domains. It is recommended that clinicians take account of this possibility when assessing and identifying children with DLD and with PI, and that they avoid reliance on standardised language tests or assessment of grammatical morphology alone when assessing for DLD.

Phonology, morphology and speech processing development in Greek-speaking children

Α psycholinguistic framework for speech processing was adopted to investigate the development of phonological and morphological skills in children learning Greek. It was investigated whether morphological items pose specific challenges in terms of speech processing. Two groups of typically developing children aged 3.0-3.5 years (N = 16) and 4.6-5.0 years (N = 22), respectively, were assessed longitudinally at three assessment points 6 months apart. A range of phonologically based and morphologically based experimental speech processing tasks was administered to address the research question, along with language comprehension and production assessments to ensure that the children were developmentally typical. Stimuli of minimal phonological difference and minimal morphological difference, respectively, were used. Phonologically based experimental stimuli were used to assess performance differences across properties such as voicing, manner and place of articulation, in addition to variation in phonotactic structure. Morphologically based experimental stimuli were used to assess the impact of characteristics such as verb tense and possessive pronouns. Stimuli were incorporated into tasks of real word and nonword auditory discrimination and repetition, to assess input and output processing. Items were matched across tasks so that comparisons could be made. On most of the matched tasks, there was no significant difference in performance accuracy between morphological and phonological conditions. Moreover, a significant relationship was found between domains. It is suggested that morphological items, compared to phonological items, do not pose specific challenges in terms of speech processing. The clinical implications of these findings for assessment and intervention are discussed.