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We investigated Dutch word stress acquisition in 3-year-old children at risk of dyslexia (children with at least one parent or older sibling with reading difficulties) and normally developing children, in order to shed light on language acquisition delays in children at risk of dyslexia, as well as to investigate further phonological deficits in dyslexia. The children had to repeat non-words with stress patterns varying in regularity. Both the at-risk and control children performed better on imitation of regular stress targets and worse on irregular and prohibited stress patterns. However, the at-risk children showed more difficulty imitating irregular and prohibited patterns, and had lower percentages phonemes correct than the control group. The results can be interpreted as a delay in word stress acquisition in the at-risk group. The findings thus point towards a phonological deficit early in language development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While numerous studies have recently shown that variation in input quantity predicts children's rate of acquisition across a range of language skills, comparatively little is known about the impact of variation in input quality on (bilingual) children's language development. This study investigated the relation between specific quality-oriented properties of bilingual children's input and measures of children's language development across a number of skills while at the same time taking family constellation into account. Participants were bilingual preschoolers (n = 50) acquiring Dutch alongside another language. Preschoolers' receptive and productive vocabulary and morphosyntax in Dutch were assessed. Parental questionnaires were used to derive estimates of input quality. Family constellation was first operationalized as presence of a native-speaker parent and subsequently in terms of patterns of parental language use. Results showed that proportion of native input and having a native-speaker parent were never significant predictors of children's language skills, whereas the degree of non-nativeness in the input, family constellation in terms of parental language use, and language richness were. This study shows that what matters is not how much exposure bilingual children have to native rather than non-native speakers, but how proficient any non-native speakers are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from a case study presented in Chiat (1989), Marshall and Chiat (2003) compare two different approaches to account for the realization of intervocalic consonants in child phonology: “coda capture theory” and the “foot domain account”. They argue in favour of the latter account. In this note, we present a reappraisal of this argument using the same data. We conclude that acceptance of the foot domain account, in the specific way developed by the authors, is unmotivated for both theoretical and empirical reasons. We maintain that syllable-based coda capture is (still) the better approach to account for the relevant facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how gifted children with dyslexia might be able to mask literacy problems and the role of possible compensatory mechanisms. The sample consisted of 121 Dutch primary school children that were divided over four groups (typically developing [TD] children, children with dyslexia, gifted children, gifted children with dyslexia). The test battery included measures of literacy (reading/spelling) and cognitive abilities related to literacy and language (phonological awareness [PA], rapid automatized naming [RAN], verbal short-term memory [VSTM], working memory [WM], grammar, and vocabulary). It was hypothesized that gifted children with dyslexia would outperform children with dyslexia on literacy tests. In addition, a core-deficit model including dyslexia-related weaknesses and a compensational model involving giftedness-related strengths were tested using Bayesian statistics to explain their reading/spelling performance. Gifted children with dyslexia performed on all literacy tests in between children with dyslexia and TD children. Their cognitive profile showed signs of weaknesses in PA and RAN and strengths in VSTM, WM, and language skills. Findings indicate that phonology is a risk factor for gifted children with dyslexia, but this is moderated by other skills such as WM, grammar, and vocabulary, providing opportunities for compensation of a cognitive deficit and masking of literacy difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]