Additional research should be pursued to replicate and extend these findings. Along with the potential clinical value of the findings, the results suggest that difficulties with non-final weak syllables--a problem that would adversely affect all three measures--may be an important part of the SLI profile in Italian.

Purpose Retrieval practice has been found to be a powerful strategy to enhance long-term retention of new information; however, the utility of retrieval practice when teaching young children new words is largely unknown, and even less is known for young children with language impairments. The current study examined the effect of 2 different retrieval schedules on word learning at both the behavioral and neural levels. Method Participants included 16 typically developing children ( M TD = 61.58 months) and 16 children with developmental language disorder ( M DLD = 59.60 months). Children participated in novel word learning sessions in which the spacing of retrieval practice was manipulated: Some words were retrieved only after other words had been presented (i.e., repeated retrieval that required contextual reinstatement [RRCR]); others were taught using an immediate retrieval schedule. In Experiment 1, children's recall of the novel word labels and their meanings was tested after a 5-min delay and a 1-week delay. In Experiment 2, event-related brain potentials were obtained from a match–mismatch task utilizing the novel word stimuli. Results Experiment 1 findings revealed that children were able to label referents and to retain the novel words more successfully if the words were taught in the RRCR learning condition. Experiment 2 findings revealed that mismatching picture–word pairings elicited a robust N400 event-related brain potential only for words that were taught in the RRCR condition. In addition, children were more accurate in identifying picture–word matches and mismatches for words taught in the RRCR condition, relative to the immediate retrieval condition. Conclusions Retrieval practice that requires contextual reinstatement through spacing results in enhanced word learning and long-term retention of words. Both typically developing children and children with developmental language disorder benefit from this type of retrieval procedure. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7927112

Current theories of specific language impairment (SLI) in children fall into 2 general classes: those that attribute SLI to processing limitations and those that attribute the disorder to deficits in grammatical knowledge. In this study, the authors examined children's comprehension of subject and object Wh-questions because they offer the means of determining the relative contribution to performance of knowledge and of processing. Comprehension of subject and object Wh-questions presumably requires knowledge of grammatical movement. However, through manipulation of the length of the questions, it is also possible to vary the processing demands of the questions. If a simple deficit in knowledge of movement is involved, children should show poorer comprehension on object questions than on subject questions, regardless of sentence length. However, if processing limitations are involved, length should affect comprehension of object questions but not subject questions. Children with SLI and typically developing (TD) children matched on receptive vocabulary test scores participated in a comprehension task consisting of short and long subject and object Wh-questions. The two groups performed similarly on short questions, each showing high accuracy in both subject and object conditions. However, the children with SLI showed poorer performance on long object questions compared to long subject questions. They were also less accurate on long object questions than were children in the TD group. We argue that demands on linguistic processing abilities play an important role in the difficulties experienced by children with SLI.

Recent studies of children with specific language impairment (SLI) have identified language measures that seem quite accurate in distinguishing preschool-age children with SLI from their normally developing peers. However, the studies have focussed exclusively on English, and it is clear from the literature that the SLI profile varies between languages. This paper reports on three studies designed to assess the utility of particular language measures for Italian. In the first two studies, it was found that a composite measure based on the use of definite singular articles and third-person plural inflections showed good sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing Italian-speaking children with SLI from their typically developing peers. The third study showed that the same composite can be applied successfully to individual cases of SLI. Some of the additional steps needed to evaluate this composite measure are discussed.

Purpose: Using two different scoring methods, we examined the diagnostic accuracy of both real-word and nonword repetition in identifying Italian-speaking children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Method: A total of 34 children aged 3;11 to 5;8 participated – 17 children with SLI and 17 typically developing children matched for age (TD-A children). Children completed real-word and nonword repetition tasks. The capacity of real-word and nonword repetition tasks to discriminate children with SLI from TD-A was examined through binary logistic regression and response operating characteristics curves. Results: Both real-word and nonword repetition showed good (or excellent) sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing children with SLI from their typically developing peers. Conclusions: Nonword repetition appears to be a useful diagnostic indicator for Italian, as in other languages. In addition, real-word repetition also holds promise. The contributions of each type of measure are discussed.

Purpose Scholars have long noted that retention improves significantly when learners frequently test themselves on the new material rather than engage in continuous study with no intermittent testing. In this study, we apply the notion of repeated testing or retrieval to the process of word learning in preschool-age children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Novel words and their meanings were taught to 10 children with DLD and 10 typically developing (TD) children matched on age (DLD, M = 63.4 months; TD, M = 63.2 months). Recall was assessed immediately after the 2nd learning session and then again 1 week later. Results Both groups showed better retention when they had attempted to retrieve the words during the learning period than when they had simply listened to and studied the words paired with their referents. Relative to their TD peers, the children with DLD seemed to be weaker in their encoding, but these children's retention over a 1-week period was indistinguishable from that of their age mates. Conclusion Word learning activities that include opportunities for repeated retrieval appear to significantly benefit retention relative to more traditional word learning activities. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7927046

A group of preschool-aged children with specific language impairment (SLI), a group of typically developing children matched for age (TD-A), and a group of younger typically developing children matched for mean length of utterance (TD-MLU) were presented with novel verbs in context that required them to inflect with past tense -ed. The novel verbs differed in their phonotactic probabilities. The children with SLI were less likely than the other two groups to produce the novel verbs with -ed. Furthermore, they were less likely to use -ed with novel verbs of low phonotactic probability than those of high probability; this difference was not seen in the other two groups of children. It appears that the phonotactic composition of verbs is one factor that can contribute to the variability of past tense use by children with SLI.

We tested four predictions based on the assumption that optional infinitives can be attributed to properties of the input whereby children inappropriately extract nonfinite subject-verb sequences (e.g. the girl run) from larger input utterances (e.g. Does the girl run? Let’s watch the girl run). Thirty children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 30 typically developing children heard novel and familiar verbs that appeared exclusively either in utterances containing nonfinite subject-verb sequences or in simple sentences with the verb inflected for third person singular –s. Subsequent testing showed strong input effects, especially for the SLI group. The results provide support for input-based factors as significant contributors not only to the optional infinitive period in typical development, but also to the especially protracted optional infinitive period seen in SLI.