Search

Language is a fundamental skill that influences various aspects of cognitive development and social interaction. Children with intellectual disability (ID) often experience severe language learning difficulties (Facon, Facon-Bollengier, & Grubar, [...], Purpose: The study aims to describe receptive language skills in children with intellectual disability (ID) and to contribute to the debate on deviant versus delayed language development. This is the 1st study of receptive skills in children with ID who speak a Slavic language, providing insight into how language development is affected by disability and also language typology. Method: Twenty-eight Slovak-speaking children participated in the study (14 children with ID and 14 typically developing [TD] children matched on nonverbal reasoning abilities). The children were assessed by receptive language tasks targeting words, sentences, and stories, and the groups were compared quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: The groups showed similar language profiles, with a better understanding of words, followed by sentences, with the poorest comprehension for stories. Nouns were comprehended better than verbs; sentence constructions also showed a qualitatively similar picture, although some dissimilarities emerged. Verb comprehension was strongly related to sentence comprehension in both groups and related to story comprehension in the TD group only. Conclusion: The findings appear to support the view that receptive language skills follow the same developmental route in children with ID as seen in younger TD children, suggesting that language development is a robust process and does not seem to be differentially affected by ID even when delayed.

Background: Non-word repetition (NWR) tasks have been found to correlate with language skills and to discriminate between groups of typically developing (TD) children and children with speci?c language impairment (SLI) across languages. Aims: The main aim was to develop an easily-administered NWR screening test that could discriminate between Slovak-speaking TD children and children with SLI. The second aim was to establish if the novel scoring methods for NWR tasks were equally effective at differentiating between the TD versus SLI groups. As Slovak vowels are not reduced in unstressed syllables, it was also sought to establish whether scoring vowels (in addition to the consonants usually assessed in English language tests) would be informative. Methods & Procedures: The paper evaluated the performance of a new NWR task for Slovak-speaking children. Study 1 compared the performance of 60 TD children in three age groups: 3-year-olds ("N" = 20), 4-year-olds ("N" = 20) and 5-year-olds ("N" = 20). Five types of scoring methods were examined: whole-item, number of syllables, syllable structure, consonants, and vowels. Study 2 compared performance on the NWR task administered in Study 1 across three groups of child participants: an SLI group ("N" = 16), a TD age-matched group ("N" = 16), and a TD language-matched group ("N" = 14). Outcomes & Results: Study 1 found an age effect in the TD sample for three out of ?ve of the scoring methods tested (number of syllables, syllable structure, and consonants). Study 2 showed that all ?ve of the scoring methods discriminated between: (1) the group of children with SLI and the TD language-matched (TDLM) sample and (2) the group of children with SLI and the TD age-matched (TDAM) group. Conclusions & Implications: The novel NWR tool reliably differentiated between children with SLI and TD children. Scoring cut-off points which demonstrated high rates of success at verifying true-positives (93.75%) and true-negatives (100%) are provided. The most informative scoring methods for Slavic languages (whole-item scoring and vowels correct) are identi?ed and discussed. (Contains 8 tables and 2 figures.)

Successful assessments of children's psycholinguistic processing and learning skills minimize the influence of prior experience and/or environmental factors on the resulting scores. Nonword repetition (NWR) tasks are seen as being [...], Purpose: A range of nonword repetition (NWR) tasks are used in research and clinical applications, but compliance rates among young children remain low. Live presentation is usually used to improve compliance rates, but this lacks the consistency of recorded stimuli. In this study, the authors examined whether a novel delivery of NWR stimuli based on recorded material could provide improved compliance rates in young children, thereby reducing research bias. Method: The novel NWR task with 26 recorded items was administered to 391 typically developing children ages 2-6 years. The children were presented with a story that they could influence by repeating 'magic' words. The task was administered via computer with animation. Results: From the 384 children who completed the task, the authors found a noncompliance rate related to age. In line with previous research, no effect of demographic factors was found, but there was a significant main effect of age, syllable length, and phonological complexity on repetition accuracy. Test-retest and interrater scoring showed high levels of reliability. Conclusion: The task described in this study offers an objective delivery of recorded stimuli that engages young children and provides high compliance rates. The task is inexpensive, requires minimal training, and can be adapted to other languages. Key Words: children, assessment, screening, phonology