Acquisition of Turkish grammatical morphology by children with developmental disorders

Development and psychometric evaluation of an Azerbaijani-Turkish grammar comprehension test

Due to the lack of appropriate developmental language tests in the Azerbaijani-Turkish language, the present study aimed to develop the Azerbaijani-Turkish grammar comprehension test (ATGCT) for children aged 4-6 years and determine its validity and reliability. This study was conducted in three phases. First, the target grammatical structures were extracted during the item generation phase. Second, item reduction and content validity ratio (CVR) were calculated. The content validity index (CVI) was determined after designing the items. This test was administered to typically developing children (TD) (N = 30). Face validity was confirmed and modifications were applied. The second version of the test was performed on 170 TD and 60 children with developmental language disorder (DLD) aged 4-6 years were selected using the random cluster method. Third, item analysis was performed, and eight items were removed. The construct validity, reliability, and ROC analysis of the final form of the test were evaluated. The psychometric properties considered in the study included construct validity (group, gender, and age discriminative validity) and reliability (test-retest, inter-rater, and internal consistency). The final test version contained 56 items and confirmed face validity. The Scale Content Validity was .91, and the Item Content Validity was between .8 and 1. The test showed a content validity ratio of .96, indicating that it assesses appropriate content. The construct validity analysis revealed significant differences between the TD and DLD groups and among the four age groups. Test-retest and inter-rater reliability were significantly correlated. Furthermore, the high correlation between test items (ICC= .90) demonstrated that the ATGCT had excellent internal consistency. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis results indicated that the test had high sensitivity and specificity in all four age groups and effectively distinguished children with TD and those with DLD. In conclusion, based on the psychometric assessment of the test, it appears that the ATGCT has appropriate values for reliability and validity measures, and it can be used as the first suitable and quick test by researchers and clinicians.

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.

The effect of conjoint behavioral consultation on achieving communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder

This study, uniquely designed with tact and mand-modeling procedures presented through the Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC) method, aims to evaluate the effects on the communication skills of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the impact on disruptive behaviors (tantrums) at home. A pilot study with the families of three participants informed the adaptations for the main study, which was implemented with the families of nine participants. The research was conducted using an Embedded Mixed Methods Design, a distinctive approach that allowed for a comprehensive understanding of the outcomes. The primary research design was a single-subject research model with multiple probes across participants' designs, ensuring a thorough and individualized assessment. The study was carried out in both home and clinical settings, involving the participation of special education teachers and families. The findings indicate that the tact and mand-modeling procedures presented through the CBC method significantly improved the children's communication skills and led to substantial reductions in tantrum behaviors. All families indicated that the dependent variables held significant social importance. Significant enhancements were noted in the children's communication skills and social engagements after the intervention. The CBC intervention was determined to be feasible and feasible for families, with no additional expenses accrued. The long-term suitability and usefulness of the product in many environments increased its societal acceptance. This study revealed that the CBC approach had a favorable and reliable effect on academic and behavioral advancement.

Characterization of speech and language phenotype in the 8p23.1 syndrome

The 8p23.1 duplication syndrome is a rare genetic condition with an estimated prevalence rate of 1 out of 58,000. Although the syndrome was associated with speech and language delays, a comprehensive assessment of speech and language functions has not been undertaken in this population. To address this issue, the present study reports rigorous speech and language, in addition to oral-facial and developmental, assessment of a 50-month-old Turkish-speaking boy who was diagnosed with the 8p23.1 duplication syndrome. Standardized tests of development, articulation and phonology, receptive and expressive language and a language sample analysis were administered to characterize speech and language skills in the patient. The language sample was obtained in an ecologically valid, free play and conversation context. The language sample was then analyzed and compared to a database of age-matched typically-developing children (n = 33) in terms of intelligibility, morphosyntax, semantics/vocabulary, discourse, verbal facility and percentage of errors at word and utterance levels. The results revealed mild to severe problems in articulation and phonology, receptive and expressive language skills, and morphosyntax (mean length of utterance in morphemes). Future research with larger sample sizes and employing detailed speech and language assessment is needed to delineate the speech and language profile in individuals with the 8p23.1 duplication syndrome, which will guide targeted speech and language interventions.

LITMUS Turkish sentence repetition test: The best items, effect of scoring and diagnostic accuracy

PURPOSE

This study aimed to examine LITMUS Turkish Sentence Repetition Test's (LITMUS-TR) diagnostic accuracy, as well as the best scoring method and most distinguishing test items. We also sought to ascertain whether age has an impact on the sensitivity and specificity.

METHOD

Two hundred and fifty children with typical language development (TD) between the ages of 4 and 7, as well as 44 children with developmental language disorder (DLD), took part in the study. Data was collected using TODİL, LITMUS-TR, and the pediatric family interview form. LITMUS-TR was graded using four different methods.

RESULTS

The performance of children with DLD in each score type was lower and the number of errors higher than those with TD. All items have excellent or acceptable item difficulty and discrimination values for binary scoring and total number of errors. LITMUS-TR's most distinctive items were complex structures with dependencies, such as syntactic movement and embedding. LITMUS-TR had high diagnostic accuracy for the whole test (0.887) and each scoring method. A separate analysis of each age group showed sensitivity and specificity above 0.80.

CONCLUSIONS

When employed as a supportive objective measure, LITMUS-TR was proven to be an effective diagnostic tool for DLD, with age influencing the diagnostic accuracy outcomes.

Syllable- and word-based measures of stuttering in speech samples of Turkish-speaking school-aged children

Linguistic factors influence the likelihood of occurrence of stuttering instances on a certain word within an utterance. However, studies on the relationship between stuttering instances and linguistic factors of Turkish-speaking individuals are scarce. This study aimed to determine the syllable- and word-based measures of stuttering speech samples of Turkish-speaking school-aged children who stutter. Stuttering-like disfluencies (SLDs) and lexical categories were identified after transcription of 61 children's spontaneous speech samples (age range = 6-16). Syllable-, word- and utterance-level measures were employed. Syllable-based and word-based stuttering frequency findings were significantly different (p < .001); SLDs were more likely to occur at the utterance-initial (p < .001) and word-initial (p < .001) positions; content words were more likely to be stuttered and, there was a relation between the occurrence of SLDs and utterance length (p = .001). Since there is great variability between word-based and syllable-based measures, and SLDs tend to occur at word onsets, using word-based measures in Turkish would provide a measure of stuttering frequency that is comparable to the literature. Moreover, findings support that phrases requiring greater demands on utterance planning increase the possibility of occurrence of stuttering instances.

The Importance of Morphological Knowledge in the Reading Comprehension Difficulties in a Highly Agglutinative Language: Evidence from Poor Comprehenders

This study examined the importance of morphological knowledge in the reading comprehension difficulties of poor comprehenders reading in a highly agglutinative language, Turkish. Participants were 56 students recruited from the second and third grades. In the assessment process, we applied three experimental paradigms addressing the participants' morphological and morpho-syntactical knowledge at the lexical and the supralexical levels. Data were collected in individual sessions and analyzed by running a series of GLM ANOVAs and calculating the Spearman-Brown correlation coefficient. Findings suggest morphological knowledge is an important indicator of reading comprehension difficulties in Turkish, a highly agglutinative language. The acquisition of adequate reading comprehension seems to be modified by particularities of the morphological knowledge.

Verb morphology in Turkish-speaking children with and without DLD: the role of morphophonology

In this study, we examined the verb morphology system of Turkish-speaking preschoolers with developmental language disorder (DLD) and compared their use to that of two groups of typically developing (TD) children. We report data from a total of 80 monolingual children - 40 children with DLD, 20 TD age-matched children and 20 TD younger MLU-matched children. Language samples obtained from the children served as the source of the data. The results show that the children with DLD were less accurate in their use of verb suffixes than both the younger and the age-matched TD children. The most frequent error types included use of bare stems, omission of the suffix, and replacing one finite verb suffix with another. The distinction between witnessed past and reported past also posed a challenge. Multi-level model results showed that phonemic length and irregular morphophonology were the best predictors of the children's level of accuracy. These results indicate that even though Turkish is considered a "verb friendly" language, children with DLD do not succeed in closing the gap with their TD peers. The complex interplay of morphology and phonology in Turkish appears to be the major obstacle for children with DLD acquiring this agglutinative language.

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.

Phonetic complexity and stuttering in Turkish-speaking children who stutter

The relationship between stuttering and phonetic complexity for words spoken by Turkish children who stutter was investigated. The research questions were: (1) Do Turkish-speaking children stutter more on unbound content words than on unbound function words? (2) Do Turkish-speaking children stutter more on words with higher phonetic complexity scores? Twenty-one monolingual children aged 6-11 years who had a clinical diagnosis of stuttering participated. Speech samples were transcribed and lexical categories determined. Phonetic complexity was assessed by an adaptation of Index of Phonetic Complexity (IPC) for Turkish. Results revealed that the mean rank of unbound content words differed significantly from the mean rank of unbound function words and that stuttering frequency for unbound content words was significantly higher than for unbound function words.

Production of noun suffixes by Turkish-speaking children with developmental language disorder and their typically developing peers

BACKGROUND

Turkish has a rich system of noun suffixes, and although its complex suffixation system may seem daunting, it can actually present a learning opportunity for children. Despite its unique features, Turkish has not been studied extensively, especially in the case of children with language deficits, such as developmental language disorder (DLD). Most of the extant studies are focused on bilingual children, and the results are somewhat mixed.

AIMS

To focus on the noun morphology system of Turkish-speaking preschoolers with DLD and compare their use with that of two groups of typically developing (TD) children. Moreover, to investigate the nature of their noun suffix errors in detail.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

We report data from a total of 80 monolingual children, 40 children with DLD (age range = 4;0-7;10), 20 TD age-matched children (4;0-7;3) and 20 younger mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched children (2;0-4;3). The data for this study came from language samples obtained from children in individual clinical assessment sessions.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

The children with DLD made less use of noun suffixes than both the younger and the age-matched TD children. The use of the unmarked (nominative case) form in place of an overt suffix was the most likely error by all groups. Suffix-change alternations required beyond vowel harmony seemed to pose real problems for these children.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

These results suggest that even when a language appears to provide significant advantages for the learning of noun morphology, children with DLD do not succeed in closing the gap. Certain factors such as morphophonological changes beyond vowel harmony, multiple allomorphs for the same suffix type and accusative suffixes that are not uniformly applied in the adult input were found to be significant predictors of the DLD group's difficulty with noun suffixes. Because these same factors can serve as characteristics of other languages, a child's difficulties might seem to be language specific (e.g., a particular allomorph in the language), but may actually be based on a broader difficulty (e.g., dealing with multiple allomorphs for the same suffix). Accordingly, factors that transcend a single language should be considered during clinical assessment and therapy. What this paper adds? What is already known on this subject? The current literature on the use of noun suffixes by Turkish-speaking children with DLD is very limited. Although Turkish is often described as a learner-friendly language, the degree to which children with DLD enjoy these learning benefits is unknown. What does this paper add to existing knowledge? Turkish children with DLD are less accurate in noun suffixes than both age-matched and younger control groups. For this group, the central problem seems to be increased complexity in morphophonology rather than difficulty with suffixation more generally. What are some of the clinical applications of this study? For clinicians who work with Turkish-speaking children with DLD, priority should be given to morphophonology. These children would benefit from treatment that focuses on how to attach different allomorphs to different open-class words. Because factors such as morphophonological complexity operate in other languages, the findings have broader clinical implications. In particular, regardless of the target language, clinicians should consider the possibility that these broader factors, rather than language-specific details, are the basis for a child's difficulty.

Five overarching factors central to grammatical learning and treatment in children with developmental language disorder

BACKGROUND

During grammatical treatment of children with developmental language disorder (DLD), it is natural for therapists to focus on the grammatical details of the target language that give the children special difficulty. However, along with the language-specific features of the target (e.g., for English, add -s to verbs in present tense, third-person singular contexts), there are overarching factors that operate to render the children's learning task more, or less, challenging, depending on the particular target.

AIMS

To identify five such factors that can play a role in the grammatical learning of children with DLD. We use English as our example language and provide supporting evidence from a variety of other languages.

MAIN CONTRIBUTION

We show that the relative degree of English-speaking children's difficulty with particular grammatical details can be affected by the extent to which these details involve: (1) bare stems; (2) opportunities for grammatical case confusion; (3) prosodic challenges; (4) grammatical and lexical aspect; and (5) deviations from canonical word order.

CONCLUSIONS

During treatment, therapists will want to consider not only the English-specific features of grammatical targets but also how these more general factors can be taken into account to increase the children's success.

Development of verb inflections among Bangla-speaking children with language disorder

BACKGROUND

Children with language disorder across languages have problems with verb morphology. The nature of these problems varies according to the typology of the language. The language analyzed in this paper is the Standard Bangla spoken in Dhaka, Bangladesh, by more than 200 million people. It is an underexplored language with agglutinative features in its verb inflections. Some information on the acquisition of the language by typically developing children is available, but to date we have no information on the nature of ALD. As in many places in the developing world, the circumstances for research into language disorder are challenging, as there is no well-ordered infrastructure for the identification of these children and approaches to intervention are not evidence based. This study represents the first attempt to characterize the nature of morphosyntactic limitations in standard Bangla-speaking children with language disorder.

AIMS

To describe the performance of a group of children with language disorder on elicitation procedures for three Bangla verb inflections of increasing structural complexity-present simple, present progressive and past progressive-and to compare their abilities on these forms with those of a group of typically developing Bangla-speaking children.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Nine children with language disorder (mean age = 88.11 months) were recruited from a special school in Dhaka. Eight of the children also had a differentiating or co-occurring condition. They responded to three tasks: a semi-structured conversation to elicit present simple, and two picture-based tasks to elicit present progressive and past progressive. Their performance was compared with data available from a large group of younger typically developing children.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Group data indicated a comparable trajectory of performance by the children with language disorder with the typically developing children (present simple > present progressive > past progressive), but with significantly lower mean scores. Standard deviations suggested considerable individual variation and individual profiles were constructed for each child, revealing varying patterns of ability, some of which did not accord with the typical developmental trajectory and/or substitution patterns.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

This study identified verb morphology deficits in Bangla-speaking children with language disorder who had asociated conditions. Variation in performance among the children suggests that individual profiles will be most effective in guiding intervention.

Interpretation of Anaphoric Dependencies in Russian-speaking Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder

We examined anaphora resolution in children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) to clarify whether 1) DLD is best understood as missing knowledge of certain linguistic operations/elements or as unreliable performance and 2) if comprehension of sentences with anaphoric expressions as objects and exceptionally case marked (ECM) subjects supports a particular theoretical account of anaphora. Fifty-four native-Russian-speaking children (age M = 7;6, SD = 1;9) were tested on a picture selection task. Children with DLD (n=18) underperformed overall, but displayed similar patterns to the typically developing (TD) group with respect to the extra difficulty of the ECM relative to the transitive and ECM pronouns relative to all other conditions. However, whereas pronouns were more difficult than reflexives for the TD children, this effect was not significant for the DLD group, whose reduced accuracy on reflexives washed out the effect of pronouns in that group. These results are consistent with performance-level vulnerability in DLD, arguably related to weaknesses in lexical processing and with the Reflexivity framework of Binding phenomena.