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Autism & Developmental Language... 2024This study was conducted in a clinical setting with the aim of replicating previously used procedures for teaching receptive vocabulary. Researchers increased the number...
BACKGROUND AND AIMS
This study was conducted in a clinical setting with the aim of replicating previously used procedures for teaching receptive vocabulary. Researchers increased the number of vocabulary words and maintained use of match-to-sample (MtS), prompting, and reinforcement procedures. Researchers were also interested in the efficacy of the intervention from caregivers' perspectives.
METHODS
Using a concurrent multiple baseline design, two autistic preschoolers with receptive language impairment were taught to identify 30 common objects. MtS, prompting, and reinforcement procedures were individualized to support each child. Maintenance checks and generalization probes were completed after a predetermined number of intervention sessions (i.e. three or four clinic sessions). A social validity questionnaire was completed by parents following the final maintenance check.
RESULTS
Receptive object identification improved significantly for both participants. Despite exposure to vocabulary targets for only three or four sessions, they generalized the vocabulary targets to non-identical pictures and maintained words at maintenance checks. Participants were most successful when researchers individualized prompting and reinforcement.
CONCLUSION
MtS, prompting, and reinforcement were effective procedures for improving object identification, even with a limited number of intervention sessions. To support varying learner profiles, modifying prompting and reinforcement procedures was necessary. Caregivers of both participants reported positive improvements in areas such as communication, attention, and behaviors.
IMPLICATIONS
This replicated study provides support for MtS, prompting, and reinforcement as means of teaching receptive vocabulary to autistic preschoolers in a clinical setting. The materials used were simple and cost-effective. Overall, this study outlines and supports a flexible and effective evidence-based practice to teach receptive language to autistic children.
PubMed: 38808302
DOI: 10.1177/23969415241258699 -
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Aug 2023Metaphor, as widely known, is a figure of speech where a word or phrase is used to describe an object, action, or event to which it cannot be applied exactly. Metaphors...
Metaphor, as widely known, is a figure of speech where a word or phrase is used to describe an object, action, or event to which it cannot be applied exactly. Metaphors are often used figuratively to enable clarity or emphasize the similarities between the two things in a frame. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between cognitive functions and generating metaphor and their associations in older bilingual and monolingual participants. We conducted the experiment with fifty-six (Bilingual and Monolingual) participants in the age group ranging from 50 to 65 years. We administered the novel and conventional metaphor generation task based on vision words in perceptual domain in Telugu. Followed by a battery of cognitive function tests: Flanker task to study the attention, Semantic Fluency task, Corsi task to check working memory, LexTALE to measure the vocabulary, and a language questionnaire. These tasks are used to investigate the association and correlation between the old age bilingual and monolingual in generating vision metaphors. The current study's findings demonstrate that bilinguals have a considerable advantage in cognitive function and their ability to generate novel metaphors are better when compared to monolinguals.
Topics: Humans; Aged; Middle Aged; Multilingualism; Metaphor; Language; Vocabulary; Cognition
PubMed: 36715812
DOI: 10.1007/s10936-022-09929-w -
Children (Basel, Switzerland) Dec 2023Previous research has highlighted an interplay between postural abilities and linguistic skills during infancy. However, this relationship could undergo further radical...
Previous research has highlighted an interplay between postural abilities and linguistic skills during infancy. However, this relationship could undergo further radical transformations in other periods of development. This current study explored a plausible network of relationships among postural abilities and vocabulary skills in a substantial cohort (N = 222) of preschoolers aged between 2 and 5 years-a developmental phase critical for refining both language and motor competencies. Here, postural stability was measured in terms of balance duration and accuracy, alongside an assessment of comprehension and expressive vocabulary skills. Employing a diverse set of techniques, i.e., data and missing data visualization and multilevel regression analysis, task complexity and age emerged as crucial factors explaining our data. In addition, network analysis indicates that language production plays a central role within postural and language interdomain networks. The resulting discussion focuses on the useful implications of this study for the assessment of typical preschool development, which would benefit from tailored methodological inspections guided by developmental theories that are framed in inter-domain approaches.
PubMed: 38136093
DOI: 10.3390/children10121891 -
The Journal of the Acoustical Society... Feb 2024The problem of characterizing voice quality has long caused debate and frustration. The richness of the available descriptive vocabulary is overwhelming, but the density...
The problem of characterizing voice quality has long caused debate and frustration. The richness of the available descriptive vocabulary is overwhelming, but the density and complexity of the information voices convey lead some to conclude that language can never adequately specify what we hear. Others argue that terminology lacks an empirical basis, so that language-based scales are inadequate a priori. Efforts to provide meaningful instrumental characterizations have also had limited success. Such measures may capture sound patterns but cannot at present explain what characteristics, intentions, or identity listeners attribute to the speaker based on those patterns. However, some terms continually reappear across studies. These terms align with acoustic dimensions accounting for variance across speakers and languages and correlate with size and arousal across species. This suggests that labels for quality rest on a bedrock of biology: We have evolved to perceive voices in terms of size/arousal, and these factors structure both voice acoustics and descriptive language. Such linkages could help integrate studies of signals and their meaning, producing a truly interdisciplinary approach to the study of voice.
Topics: Speech Perception; Speech Acoustics; Voice Quality; Sound; Hearing
PubMed: 38345424
DOI: 10.1121/10.0024609 -
Neuropsychology Review Dec 2023Although attention and early associative learning in preverbal children is predominantly driven by rapid eye-movements in response to moving visual stimuli and... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Although attention and early associative learning in preverbal children is predominantly driven by rapid eye-movements in response to moving visual stimuli and sounds/words (e.g., associating the word "bottle" with the object), the literature examining the role of visual attention and memory in ongoing vocabulary development across childhood is limited. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis examined the association between visual memory and vocabulary development, including moderators such as age and task selection, in neurotypical children aged 2-to-12 years, from the brain-based perspective of cognitive neuroscience. Visual memory tasks were classified according to the visual characteristics of the stimuli and the neural networks known to preferentially process such information, including consideration of the distinction between the ventral visual stream (processing more static visuo-perceptual details, such as form or colour) and the more dynamic dorsal visual stream (processing spatial temporal action-driven information). Final classifications included spatio-temporal span tasks, visuo-perceptual or spatial concurrent array tasks, and executive judgment tasks. Visuo-perceptual concurrent array tasks, reliant on ventral stream processing, were moderately associated with vocabulary, while tasks measuring spatio-temporal spans, associated with dorsal stream processing, and executive judgment tasks (central executive), showed only weak correlations with vocabulary. These findings have important implications for health professionals and researchers interested in language, as they advocate for the development of more targeted language learning interventions that include specific and relevant aspects of visual processing and memory, such as ventral stream visuo-perceptual details (i.e., shape or colour).
Topics: Child; Humans; Vocabulary; Memory; Visual Perception; Brain; Language
PubMed: 36136174
DOI: 10.1007/s11065-022-09561-4 -
Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics Jun 20245p deletion syndrome is a rare genetic condition associated with severe speech and language problems. In general, research on speech and language skills is scarce, but...
5p deletion syndrome is a rare genetic condition associated with severe speech and language problems. In general, research on speech and language skills is scarce, but there is more knowledge on phonetic and phonological skills than on lexical and grammatical skills. And till now no studies have addressed the relationship between grammar and vocabulary. Therefore, in this study, we address aspects of this relation based on longitudinal parent-reported data (MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories) from two children with this syndrome aged 2;0-7;3, and 1;11-7;1, respectively. We examine the development of the vocabulary size in each child, seen in relation to the development of grammar (inflections, combinations of words, complexity, and productivity), and see to what extent they can be compared to typically developing children. Results show that they follow a similar pattern to typically developing children but are delayed and have slightly different individual profiles.
PubMed: 38829679
DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2024.2359461 -
Brain Sciences Jul 2023Explaining individual differences in vocabulary in autism is critical, as understanding and using words to communicate are key predictors of long-term outcomes for...
Explaining individual differences in vocabulary in autism is critical, as understanding and using words to communicate are key predictors of long-term outcomes for autistic individuals. Differences in audiovisual speech processing may explain variability in vocabulary in autism. The efficiency of audiovisual speech processing can be indexed via amplitude suppression, wherein the amplitude of the event-related potential (ERP) is reduced at the P2 component in response to audiovisual speech compared to auditory-only speech. This study used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure P2 amplitudes in response to auditory-only and audiovisual speech and norm-referenced, standardized assessments to measure vocabulary in 25 autistic and 25 nonautistic children to determine whether amplitude suppression (a) differs or (b) explains variability in vocabulary in autistic and nonautistic children. A series of regression analyses evaluated associations between amplitude suppression and vocabulary scores. Both groups demonstrated P2 amplitude suppression, on average, in response to audiovisual speech relative to auditory-only speech. Between-group differences in mean amplitude suppression were nonsignificant. Individual differences in amplitude suppression were positively associated with expressive vocabulary through receptive vocabulary, as evidenced by a significant indirect effect observed across groups. The results suggest that efficiency of audiovisual speech processing may explain variance in vocabulary in autism.
PubMed: 37508976
DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13071043 -
Journal of Communication Disorders 2023Late talkers represent a heterogeneous population. We aimed to describe communication profiles of low-risk preterm and full-term late talkers according to their...
INTRODUCTION
Late talkers represent a heterogeneous population. We aimed to describe communication profiles of low-risk preterm and full-term late talkers according to their receptive and expressive vocabulary size, considering communicative, linguistic, cognitive, and motor skills, as well as biological and environmental risk factors.
METHODS
Sixty-eight late talkers (33 born low-risk preterm and 35 full-term) were identified through a language screening at 30 months. Parents filled out the Italian Short Forms of the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories and the Socio Conversational Skills Rating Scales. Children were assessed with the Picture Naming Game test and the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development.
RESULTS
A two-step cluster analysis identified three distinct profiles among late talkers according to their receptive and expressive vocabulary size. Severe late talkers (25%) showed less frequent use of pointing, limited verbal imitation, receptive vocabulary size, lexical and sentence production, responsiveness and assertiveness, and lower cognitive scores than mild late talkers (40%). Moderate late talkers (35%) showed less frequent verbal imitation, limited lexical and sentence production and lower cognitive scores than mild late talkers. Male gender was significantly more represented in the severe late profile, whereas other biological and environmental factors did not differ among the three profiles.
CONCLUSIONS
Findings highlighted the relevance of assessing communicative, lexical, grammar, pragmatic, and cognitive skills to describe late talkers' profiles. A deeper investigation of phonological skills might also contribute to a further understanding of interindividual variability in this population.
Topics: Infant, Newborn; Infant; Humans; Male; Communication; Vocabulary; Linguistics; Parents; Italy; Language Development Disorders; Language Development
PubMed: 37257297
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106336 -
Journal of Psychiatric Practice Sep 2023Involuntary celibates ("incels") refers to a group consisting mostly of heterosexual men that exists predominantly in online spaces. These men are united by a belief...
Involuntary celibates ("incels") refers to a group consisting mostly of heterosexual men that exists predominantly in online spaces. These men are united by a belief that they are victimized by a postfeminist society, leading to an inability to engage in sexual intimacy with women. Recent acts of mass violence have been linked to self-identified incels, leading to an increased need for awareness of incel worldviews, argot, and demographics among psychiatrists. Limited research exists to describe this heterogenous group, with existing data suggesting higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation within the demographic. This column reviews the incel worldview, existing literature, how to identify an individual with incel beliefs based on vocabulary and internet usage, and treatment modalities.
Topics: Male; Humans; Female; Mental Health; Sexual Behavior; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Suicidal Ideation
PubMed: 37678369
DOI: 10.1097/PRA.0000000000000738 -
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services... Oct 2023Children's vocabulary and syntactic skills vary upon school entry in depth and breadth, persistently influencing academic performance, including reading. Enhancing early... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
PURPOSE
Children's vocabulary and syntactic skills vary upon school entry in depth and breadth, persistently influencing academic performance, including reading. Enhancing early communicative abilities through multisensory, playful, and conversational experiences is essential and will benefit children's school readiness. This study investigated whether a language-to-action link created during language stimulation, which combines multisensory input, play, and conversation using clay, improves preschoolers' communicative abilities in terms of vocabulary, syntactic, and pragmatic language abilities more than traditional toy-based language stimulation.
METHOD
Language skills were examined in a pre- to posttest design in which 43 typically developing participants, ages 3-5 years, were randomly assigned to clay-based ( = 24) or traditional play-based ( = 19) language stimulation for 8 weeks.
RESULTS
Receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge for items introduced in the language stimulation program, mean length of utterance (MLU), and conversational initiations improved for participants in the clay condition, whereas significant language skill growth was not observed for participants in the traditional play-based stimulation condition with toys.
CONCLUSIONS
A language-to-action link is created when children engage with open-ended materials, such as clay, as they craft target objects hands on and step by step, affording additional opportunities for language input and output. Results preliminarily suggest that using open-ended materials may enhance children's communicative abilities in receptive and expressive vocabulary, syntax/MLU, and pragmatics (i.e., conversational initiations) more than prefabricated toy objects during language stimulation.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24093780.
Topics: Child; Humans; Clay; Vocabulary; Schools; Communication; Cognition; Language Tests; Language Development
PubMed: 37713582
DOI: 10.1044/2023_LSHSS-22-00196