PGU, PSP, and PVT were all sensitive to language impairment. However, PGU was less likely than PSP and PVT to misclassify children with typical language. The resultant diagnostic accuracy makes PGU an appropriate measure to use to screen for language impairment.
These findings suggest that there is a relationship between language ability and speech disruptions. Higher disruption rates at phrase boundaries in children with SLI than in their age-matched peers reflect lexical and syntactic deficits in children with SLI.
This study investigated the development of tense markers (e.g., past tense -ed) in children with cochlear implants (CIs) over a 3-year span. Nine children who received CIs before 30 months of age participated in this study at three, four, and five years postimplantation. Nine typical 3-, 4-, and 5-year- olds served as control groups. All children participated in a story-retell task. Percent correct of tense marking in the task was computed. Within the groups, percent correct of tense marking changed significantly in children with CIs and in typical children who had more hearing experience. Across the groups, children with CIs were significantly less accurate in tense marking than typical children at four and five years postimplantation. In addition, the performance of tense marking in children with CIs was correlated with their speech perception skills at earlier time points. Errors of tense marking tended to be omission rather than commission errors in typical children as well as in children with CIs. The findings suggested that despite the perceptual and processing constraints, children who received CIs may learn tense marking albeit with a delayed pattern.
The level of grammatical accuracy in 3-year-olds was skewed toward the high end. Although tense marking errors were the most frequent error type, they accounted for only 1/3 of the errors produced by 3-year-olds. A more general measure of grammaticality that considers additional aspects of language might, therefore, be useful in assessing language at this age.
FVMC, Errors/CU, and PGCUs can all be used in combination with other tools to identify school-aged children with LI. However, FVMC and Errors/CU may be an appropriate diagnostic tool up to age 6. PGCUs, in contrast, may be a sensitive tool for identifying children with LI at least up to age 8 years.
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