Effects of Word Position and Stress on Onset Cluster Production: Evidence from Typical Development, Specific Language Impairment, and Dyslexia

Abstract

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia have phonological deficits that are claimed to cause their language and literacy impairments and to be responsible for the overlap between the two disorders. Little is known, however, about the phonological grammar of children with SLI and dyslexia, and indeed whether they show differences in phonological development. We designed a nonword repetition task to investigate the impact of word position and stress on the production accuracy of onset clusters. We compared the performance of children with SLI and dyslexia, SLI only, and dyslexia only (mean age eleven), and three groups of typically developing children (aged five, seven, and nine). Analysis of cluster production accuracy revealed that all three clinical groups made significantly more errors on word-medial clusters compared to word-initial clusters. Unstressed clusters were more difficult than stressed clusters for the two dyslexic groups but not the SLI-only group. None of the groups of typically developing children showed an effect of word position or stress on cluster accuracy. All groups, however, created new clusters significantly more frequently in initial than medial positions. These results indicate a difference in phonological grammar in children with SLI and dyslexia that could potentially shed light on the relationship between the two disorders. Furthermore, they indicate that structural position and stress are developmentally independent elements in phonological representations.*

Methods for Identifying Specific Language Impairment in Bilingual Populations in Germany

“…Recent results indicate that SRTs incorporating structures involving these operations can be successfully applied in bilingual settings for identifying SLI, see Marinis and Armon-Lotem (2015), Tuller et al (2015), and Fleckstein et al (2016). As to non-word repetition and phonological complexity, recent studies show that syllables containing branching onsets or a coda are particularly difficult for children with SLI, but are mastered by typical bilinguals (Marshall and van der Lely, 2009;Ferré et al, 2012;dos Santos and Ferré, 2016;Grimm and Hübner, in press). NWRTs can be constructed to incorporate quasi-universal non-words or non-words conforming to phonotactic and/or morphophonological constraints of a specific language.…”

What Machine Learning Can Tell Us About the Role of Language Dominance in the Diagnostic Accuracy of German LITMUS Non-word and Sentence Repetition Tasks

“…Each of these skills can be deficient in language-impaired children (Coady and Evans, 2008; Marshall, 2014). Recent studies have shown that children with SLI are not only sensitive to the amount of phonological material, i.e., number of syllables in the non-words, but also to phonological complexity such as the presence of consonant clusters, which comprise a particular source of difficulty for children with (phonological) SLI in many languages (Barlow, 2001; Gallon et al, 2007; Marshall and van der Lely, 2009; Ferré et al, 2012; Tamburelli and Jones, 2013; Leonhard, 2014).…”

Word production errors in children with developmental language impairments

“…The studies by Marshall & van der Lely [55] and Williams et al [15] not only considered errors on the target cluster, but also considered errors where a cluster had been created elsewhere in the nonword. For example, a nonword such as 'flebitist' ('fl1bItIst) was on occasion repeated as 'feblitist' ('f1blItIst; with a medial rather than an initial cluster), and a nonword such as 'feblitist' ('f1blItIst) was on occasion repeated as 'flebitist' ('fl1bItIst; with an initial rather than a medial cluster).…”