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PloS One 2017In spite of decades of theorizing, the origins of Zipf's law remain elusive. I propose that a Zipfian distribution straightforwardly follows from the interaction of...
In spite of decades of theorizing, the origins of Zipf's law remain elusive. I propose that a Zipfian distribution straightforwardly follows from the interaction of syntax (word classes differing in class size) and semantics (words having to be sufficiently specific to be distinctive and sufficiently general to be reusable). These factors are independently motivated and well-established ingredients of a natural-language system. Using a computational model, it is shown that neither of these ingredients suffices to produce a Zipfian distribution on its own and that the results deviate from the Zipfian ideal only in the same way as natural language itself does.
Topics: Humans; Language; Linguistics; Models, Theoretical; Semantics; Vocabulary
PubMed: 28792963
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181987 -
Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics Jun 2022The purpose of the current research was to compare the lexical-grammatical skills of two-year-old children with and without repaired cleft palate (CP), accounting for...
The purpose of the current research was to compare the lexical-grammatical skills of two-year-old children with and without repaired cleft palate (CP), accounting for the effect of variables such as vocabulary size at 18 months of age, maternal education level, and gender. Participants included 52 children with CP and 25 typically developing (TD) children. The CDI-WS was employed to measure vocabulary and grammatical skills. Significant differences were observed between the CP and TD groups with respect to the number of words, word forms (irregular nouns and verbs), word endings (overuse of plural (-s) and past tense (-ed) markers), the mean number of morphemes in their three longest utterances (M3L), and sentence complexity. In addition, compared to TD children, significantly smaller proportions of children with CP were observed to use words to talk about past and future events or use words to talk about an absent object. The difference between the CP and TD groups in terms of the size of vocabulary at 24 months of age remained statistically significant in the multivariable model. Among all predictors, the size of vocabulary at 18 months of age was identified as the most robust precursor of lexical and grammatical skills at 24 months of age. Gender was identified as a predictor of the M3L measure as an index for syntactic ability.
Topics: Child, Preschool; Cleft Palate; Humans; Language; Vocabulary
PubMed: 34263689
DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2021.1941263 -
Developmental Psychology Aug 2022Parent language input is a well-established predictor of child language development. Multisensory attention skills (MASks; intersensory matching, shifting and sustaining...
Parent language input is a well-established predictor of child language development. Multisensory attention skills (MASks; intersensory matching, shifting and sustaining attention to audiovisual speech) are also known to be foundations for language development. However, due to a lack of appropriate measures, individual differences in these skills have received little research focus. A newly established measure, the Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol (MAAP), allows researchers to examine predictive relations between early MASks and later outcomes. We hypothesized that, along with parent language input, multisensory attention to social events (faces and voices) in infancy would predict later language outcomes. We collected data from 97 children (predominantly White and Hispanic, 48 males) participating in an ongoing longitudinal study assessing 12-, 18-, and 24-month MASks (MAAP) and parent language input (quality, quantity), and 18- and 24-month language outcomes (child speech production, vocabulary size). Results revealed 12-month intersensory matching (but not maintaining or shifting attention) of faces and voices in the presence of a distractor was a strong predictor of language. It predicted a variety of 18- and 24-month child language outcomes (expressive vocabulary, child speech production), even when holding traditional predictors constant: parent language input and SES (maternal education: 52% bachelor's degree or higher). Further, at each age, parent language input predicted just one outcome, expressive vocabulary, and SES predicted child speech production. These novel findings reveal infant intersensory matching of faces and voices in the presence of a distractor can predict which children might benefit most from parent language input and show better language outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Child; Child Language; Child, Preschool; Humans; Infant; Language; Language Development; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Vocabulary
PubMed: 35446074
DOI: 10.1037/dev0001375 -
Journal of Communication Disorders 2023There is an emerging view that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is marked by problems with language difficulties, an idea reinforced by the fact that ADHD... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE
There is an emerging view that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is marked by problems with language difficulties, an idea reinforced by the fact that ADHD is highly comorbid with developmental language disorder (DLD). This scoping review provides an overview of literature on language abilities in children with DLD and ADHD while highlighting similarities and differences.
METHOD
A comprehensive search was performed to examine the literature on language abilities in the two disorders, yielding a total of 18 articles that met the inclusion criteria for the present review. Qualitative summaries are provided based on the language domain assessed.
RESULTS
The current literature suggests children and adolescents with ADHD have better morphosyntax/grammar, general/core language abilities, receptive, and expressive abilities than those with DLD. Further, that performance is comparable on assessments of semantic and figurative language but varies by sample on assessments of phonological processing, syntax, narrative language, and vocabulary.
CONCLUSION
Evidence presented points to children and adolescents with DLD as having greater language difficulties compared to those with ADHD, but with some important caveats. Despite limitations related to the paucity of studies and inconsistencies in how the two types of disorders are identified, our review provides a necessary and vital step in better understanding the language profiles of these two highly prevalent childhood disorders. These findings are useful in optimizing language outcomes and treatment efficacy for children and adolescents with ADHD and DLD.
Topics: Humans; Child; Adolescent; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; Cognition; Linguistics; Vocabulary; Language Development Disorders
PubMed: 37797400
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106381 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Apr 2020Purpose This study examined vocabulary profiles in young cochlear implant (CI) recipients and in children with normal hearing (NH) matched on receptive vocabulary size...
Purpose This study examined vocabulary profiles in young cochlear implant (CI) recipients and in children with normal hearing (NH) matched on receptive vocabulary size to improve our understanding of young CI recipients' acquisition of word categories (e.g., common nouns or closed-class words). Method We compared receptive and expressive vocabulary profiles between young CI recipients ( = 48; mean age at activation = 15.61 months, = 4.20) and children with NH ( = 48). The two groups were matched on receptive vocabulary size as measured by the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (Fenson et al., 2006): Words and Gestures form. The CI group had, on average, 8.98 months of hearing experience. The mean chronological age at completing the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories was 23.99 months ( = 5.14) for the CI group and 13.72 months ( = 1.50) for the NH group. Results The CI group had a larger expressive vocabulary size than the receptive vocabulary size-matched NH group. The larger expressive vocabulary size was associated with the group difference in social words but not with common nouns. The analyses for predicate words and closed-class words included only children who produced the target categories. The CI group had a larger proportion of predicate words than the NH group, but no difference was found in closed-class words in expressive vocabulary. Conclusions Differences found in expressive vocabulary profiles may be affected by spoken vocabulary size and their age. A further examination is warranted using language samples to understand the effect of language input on children's vocabulary profiles.
Topics: Child; Cochlear Implantation; Cochlear Implants; Deafness; Humans; Language Development; Language Tests; Vocabulary
PubMed: 32302250
DOI: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-19-00315 -
The Keio Journal of Medicine 2015Few medical journals specifically instruct authors to use the active voice and avoid the passive voice, but advice to that effect is common in the large number of... (Review)
Review
Few medical journals specifically instruct authors to use the active voice and avoid the passive voice, but advice to that effect is common in the large number of stylebooks and blogs aimed at medical and scientific writers. Such advice typically revolves around arguments that the passive voice is less clear, less direct, and less concise than the active voice, that it conceals the identity of the person(s) performing the action(s) described, that it obscures meaning, that it is pompous, and that the high rate of passive-voice usage in scientific writing is a result of conformity to an established and old-fashioned style of writing. Some of these arguments are valid with respect to specific examples of passive-voice misuse by some medical (and other) writers, but as arguments for avoiding passive-voice use in general, they are seriously flawed. In addition, many of the examples that stylebook writers give of inappropriate use are actually much more appropriate in certain contexts than the active-voice alternatives they provide. In this review, I examine the advice offered by anti-passive writers, along with some of their examples of "inappropriate" use, and argue that the key factor in voice selection is sentence word order as determined by the natural tendency in English for the topic of discourse ("old" information) to take subject position and for "new" information to come later. Authors who submit to this natural tendency will not have to worry much about voice selection, because it will usually be automatic.
Topics: Humans; Medical Writing; Publishing; Vocabulary
PubMed: 25754358
DOI: 10.2302/kjm.2014-0009-RE -
Cognition Mar 2021Short-term verbal memory is improved when words can be chunked into larger units. Miller (1956) suggested that the capacity of verbal short-term memory is determined by... (Review)
Review
Short-term verbal memory is improved when words can be chunked into larger units. Miller (1956) suggested that the capacity of verbal short-term memory is determined by the number of chunks that can be stored in memory, rather than by the number of items or the amount of information. But how does the improvement due to chunking come about, and is memory really determined by the number of chunks? One possibility is that chunking is a form of data compression. It allows more information to be stored in the available capacity. An alternative is that chunking operates primarily by redintegration. Chunks exist only in long-term memory, and enable the corresponding items in short-term memory to be reconstructed more reliably from a degraded trace. We review the data favoring each of these views and discuss the implications of treating chunking as data compression. Contrary to Miller, we suggest that memory capacity is primarily determined both by the amount of information that can be stored but also by the underlying representational vocabulary of the memory system. Given the limitations on the representations that can be stored in verbal short-term memory, chunking can sometimes allow the information capacity of short-term memory to be exploited more efficiently. (202 words).
Topics: Data Compression; Humans; Memory, Long-Term; Memory, Short-Term; Mental Recall; Vocabulary
PubMed: 33360054
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104534 -
Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology 2023Reading is a highly refined skill that encompasses two main components: decoding graphic symbols and understanding the written message. These aspects generally develop...
INTRODUCTION
Reading is a highly refined skill that encompasses two main components: decoding graphic symbols and understanding the written message. These aspects generally develop together, but reading comprehension is a much more complex process, sustained not only by the identification of written words and vocabulary but also by language systems, such as syntax and general knowledge. Although there is a well-established technique for performing the phoniatric assessment, there is no common use of tests that assess reading comprehension or the association of this information with other assessment data.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is, in the context of the phoniatric consultation, to evaluate the reading and retelling in children with relevant reading difficulties and to correlate the decoding and comprehension problems with the alterations observed in auditory and visual perceptual tests, pointing out the evidence that best contributed to the differential diagnosis of these subjects.
METHODS
Starting from a population of 301 children enrolled in the 4th and 5th grades of elementary school, 13 children with evident reading and writing difficulties were evaluated regarding the reading and retelling tasks and separated into groups according to the problem of decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Reading performance was correlated with the performance in visual and auditory perceptual tests and based on the similarity analysis, the tests considered to be the most relevant in the diagnosis process of these children were identified.
RESULT
The results suggest that the tasks: naming of figures, repetition of numbers in reverse order, figure copying, syllabic synthesis, phonemic synthesis, rhyme, and phonemic manipulation altogether contribute to diagnosis and multidisciplinary intervention aspects.
CONCLUSION
Some tasks are more relevant to the diagnostic process of children with complaints of learning difficulties in reading.
Topics: Child; Humans; Reading; Comprehension; Students; Vocabulary; Dyslexia
PubMed: 34462203
DOI: 10.1016/j.bjorl.2021.05.014 -
The Journal of Pediatrics Jan 2020To assess the extent to which associations between shared reading at age 1 years and child vocabulary at age 3 years differ based on the presence of sensitizing alleles...
OBJECTIVE
To assess the extent to which associations between shared reading at age 1 years and child vocabulary at age 3 years differ based on the presence of sensitizing alleles in the dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmitter systems.
STUDY DESIGN
We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a national urban birth cohort using mother reports in conjunction with child assessments and salivary genetic data. Child vocabulary was assessed using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The primary exposure was mother-reported shared reading. We used data on gene variants that may affect the function of the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems. We examined associations between shared reading and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test score using multiple linear regression. We then included interaction terms between shared reading and the presence of sensitizing alleles for each polymorphism to assess potential moderator effects adjusting for multiple comparisons.
RESULTS
Of the 1772 children included (56% black, 52% male), 31% of their mothers reported reading with their child daily. Daily shared reading was strongly associated with child Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test scores in unadjusted (B = 7.9; 95% CI, 4.3-11.4) and adjusted models (B = 5.3; 95% CI, 2.0-8.6). The association differed based on the presence of sensitizing alleles in the dopamine receptor 2 and serotonin transporter genes.
CONCLUSIONS
Among urban children, shared reading at age 1 years was associated with greater vocabulary at age 3 years. Although children with sensitizing alleles on the dopamine receptor 2 and serotonin transporter genes were at greater risk when not read to, they fared as well as children without these alleles when shared reading occurred.
Topics: Child Rearing; Child, Preschool; Cohort Studies; Female; Gene-Environment Interaction; Humans; Infant; Language Development; Language Tests; Male; Reading; Vocabulary
PubMed: 31402141
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2019.07.008 -
The British Journal of Educational... Mar 2021Decoding and vocabulary are two essential abilities to reading comprehension. Investigating the roles of decoding and vocabulary in Chinese reading development can not...
BACKGROUNDS
Decoding and vocabulary are two essential abilities to reading comprehension. Investigating the roles of decoding and vocabulary in Chinese reading development can not only provide empirical evidence to enrich the current reading theories but also have implications for educational practice.
AIMS
To examine the developing importance of decoding and vocabulary to reading comprehension and the reciprocal relationship between decoding and vocabulary across the reading development.
SAMPLE
A total of 186 Chinese children were followed from grade 1 to grade 3 (aged 6.5 to 8.5 years).
METHODS
Participants' decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension abilities were measured once a year for three years. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to obtain the unique contributions of decoding and vocabulary to reading comprehension in the different grades. A cross-lagged structural equation model was used to explore the reciprocal relationship between decoding and vocabulary over the three years.
RESULTS
Decoding and vocabulary explained nearly 40% of the variance to reading comprehension across grades, and the unique contribution of decoding decreased over the grades (from 29% to 8%) while that of vocabulary increased (from 3% to 9%). Moreover, vocabulary always predicted decoding from grade 1, but decoding predicted later vocabulary only started in grade 2.
CONCLUSIONS
Decoding skills are important to reading comprehension in the early learn-to-read grades. However, vocabulary becomes more critical for reading comprehension in later grades. Larger oral vocabularies promote the development of decoding skills, and vice versa.
Topics: Child; China; Comprehension; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Reading; Vocabulary
PubMed: 32656775
DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12365