IS01

NIH and NIDCD: What Language Researchers Need to KnowJudith A. Cooper; NIDCD/NIH

NIH and the research community are facing a myriad of changes and challenges. It is critical for those who hope for NIH funding to be current and knowledgeable, for the benefit of themselves and the individuals they mentor. Researchers in child language ARE being funded and NIH maintains an ongoing commitment to supporting that research. This presentation will address topics of importance to new as well as more senior researchers. Discussion will include critical updates about NIH, opportunities for beginning researchers, recent trends in language research, and where to go for help.

IS02

On-Line Analysis of Neural Activation Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Exploring Neural Activation Patterns During Cognitive, Linguistic and Communication Tasks

Ron Gillam; Utah State UniversityThis presentation will explore the usefulness of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) as an instrument that could yield data that contributes to our understanding of SLI. NIRS is a non-invasive neuroimaging technology that detects cortical increases and decreases in the concentration of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin at multiple measurement sites. NIRS has some advantages over some other neuroimaging techniques for assessing cognitive, linguistic, and communicative processing. For example, NIRS has better temporal resolution than fMRI and better spatial resolution than EEG, it can be used in natural experimental settings and NIRS measures are minimally susceptible to speech related motion. Children can sit in chairs at a desk and talk to examiners or other participants while being imaged. Pilot studies will be presented that compare the neural activation patterns of children with SLI and typically-developing controls as they perform a working memory task (n-back) and a complex sentence comprehension task. Data will also be presented from a study employing a technique called hyperscanning that enables us to image the brains of pairs of individuals simultaneously as they engage in cooperative or competitive communication tasks. Data from these studies suggest that NIRS has the potential to inform our understanding of the extent and variability of neural activation related to language and communication impairments in children with SLI. This work was funded by and internal grant from Utah State University and the Raymond and Eloise Lillywhite Endowment.

IS03

Language variation within the autism spectrum: where it comes from and why it matters

Courtenay Frazier Norbury; University of London

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterised by profound deficits in social interaction and social communication, in addition to a restricted range of interests and behaviours. Both core deficits should present great challenges for language acquisition, yet many children with ASD are able to acquire age-appropriate structural aspects of language and impressive vocabularies. Discovering how children with ASD learn language in the face of social-cognitive differences highlights additional risk factors that further impede language learning for many children with ASD. A multifactorial approach to understanding language variation will be considered, outlining protective factors that may promote language development in some individuals with ASD. In addition, I will argue that factors that likely increase risk for language impairment may be shared with other neurodevelopmental disorders and point to possible avenues for intervention.

IS04

Markers, models, and measurement error: Exploring the links between attention deficits and language impairments

Sean Redmond; University of UtahAttention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) applies to a behavioral profile of difficulties that include developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity and is one of the most commonly diagnosed pediatric conditions worldwide. In therapeutic settings, ADHD frequently co-occurs with other behavioral and neurodevelopmental disorders, including language impairment (LI). This has encouraged consideration of the possibility that ADHD and LI might be etiologically linked. In this talk, I will review the mixture of supports and challenges that characterizes the current evidence base on this issue. I will suggest that a large portion of the cross-signals can be resolved when the clinical metrics that have been used to assign LI and ADHD statuses are partitioned. Measures of verbal memory and morphosyntactic proficiency appear to be well-suited to the task of differentiating LI from ADHD whereas measures of vocabulary, verbal IQ, and pragmatic competence appear to be poorer options. Similarly, parental ratings of hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms have been better at segregating ADHD from LI than ratings of inattention, ratings from teachers, indices from continuous performance tests, or executive function measures. I will present new evidence from cases of co-occurring ADHD+LI which suggest that the presence of ADHD within the profiles of children with LI does not contribute to the severity of their language impairments. Different models of LI, ADHD, and Reading Disability linkages will be considered as well. I will conclude with the suggestion that moving forward, study samples of ADHD will provide a better comparison group for testing key assumptions of emerging models of language impairment (e.g. information processing deficits, implicit learning/procedural memory deficits) than groups of typical developing children. This research has been funded by grants from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R03DC008382; R01DC011023).

SOP1-1

Deficits in Word Form Encoding Characterize Developmental Learning DisabilityKarla McGregor; Univeristy of Iowa, University of Sydney

Even as young adults, people with developmental learning disability (LD) have difficulty learning new word forms. To determine the source of the problem, we examined word form encoding, retention, and integration over the course of one week. Thirty students with LD and 40 without were taught 12 novel words and referents via 12 passive exposures. Immediately after teaching, we measured encoding via form recognition and recall. One week later, we measured retention via repetition of the recall task and integration via a visual world competition paradigm. At immediate posttest, the LI group did not differ from peers on recognition of form but they were poorer at recall. The recall gap remained equivalent in size one week later; therefore, retention over time did not differ between groups. Responses to the visual world paradigm suggested good integration of word forms into the lexicon on the part of the LD group. We conclude that word form learning problems associated with LD are rooted in encoding deficits. NIH-NIDCD-5R01DC011742-02.

SOP1-2

Acquisition of Embedded Indirect Question forms in Typically Developing and Language Impaired African American Children

Valerie Johnson; Montclair State UniversityPeter de Villiers; Smith College

This study examines the acquisition of an aspect of AAE complex syntax in typically-developing and language-impaired children. Cross-sectional data come from 529 children (291 AAE-speakers) aged 4 to 9 participating in field-testing of the DELV-NR. The Communicative Role Taking subtest elicited two embedded question forms. Unlike MAE, AAE allows inversion of the embedded clause subject and auxiliary, although these forma are marked as indirect speech by changes in the pronoun. We coded elicited indirect questions for production of AAE or MAE forms. AUX-inverted embedded questions were overwhelmingly produced by AAE-speakers, not by MAE-speakers. They were only produced for indirect questions, not for indirect statements, in keeping with the grammar of AAE. TD AAE-speakers produced the AAE form for nearly 90% of their embedded questions by age 6, but production of these forms was significantly delayed in LI AAE-speaking children, not becoming frequent until age 8. Elicitation of these forms could therefore be a valuable part of any comprehensive language assessment of AA children’s AAE. Funding: NIDCD N01 DC8-2104

SOP1-3

Interference control in children with neurodevelopmental disorders: specific language impairment, autism, attention deficit disorder

Klara Marton; Graduate Center, City University of New York & Eotvos Lorand University

Zsuzsanna Suranyi; Karoli Gaspar UniversityTimea Egri; Faculty of Special Education, Eotvos Lorand University

This study focused on proactive interference in children with specific language impairment (SLI), high functioning autism, attention deficit disorder (ADHD), and typical development. Proactive interference is about resisting memory traces (Friedman & Miyake, 2004) that may hinder efficient information processing, such as suppressing irrelevant information from previous tasks.

Participants included 20 children with SLI; 20 children with autism, 19 children with ADHD, and 20 age-matched controls; all were 8-10 years of age with typical nonverbal IQ (>85). We used an experimental conflict paradigm, in which previous target items served as distractors in subsequent tasks. All children were negatively affected by the increase in interference, as shown in their decreased accuracy rate, but the change from the baseline was greater in the groups with neurodevelopmental disorders than in controls. Children with neurodevelopmental disorders showed poor resistance to proactive interference; they exhibited a weakness in differentiating between task-relevant items and irrelevant ones, and in suppressing irrelevant information. The 3 clinical groups (SLI, autism, ADHD) showed different performance profiles consistent with their diagnosis.

SOP2-1

Do maternal gesture-speech combinations provide a helping hand for language development in autism?

Nevena Dimitrova; Georgia State UniversitySeyda Özçaliskan; Georgia State UniversityLauren B. Adamson; Georgia State University

In this study we ask whether mothers of typically developing (TD) children and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) differ in their use of gesture in relation to speech and whether this has any effect on children’s language outcome. We coded the gesture-speech combinations produced by mothers of 23 TD children (Mage=18-months) and 23 children with ASD (Mage=30-months). We found no effect of group on the way maternal gestures related to speech. We also found that gesture-speech complexity mattered—but only for the TD group, with an association between more complex maternal gesture-speech combinations and children’s vocabulary one-year later. Our results suggest that mothers of children with ASD do not mirror their children, but instead show patterns similar to mothers of TD children in the way they relate gesture to speech. However, the facilitative effect of maternal complex gesture-speech combinations on language development for TD children may not occur as readily for children with ASD. Grant support: Swiss National Science Foundation (Dimitrova, PI), R01HD035612 (Adamson, PI) and NSF-BCS1251337 (Özçaliskan, PI).

SOP2-2

Lexical Processing in School-Age Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder

Eileen Haebig; University of Wisconsin - MadisonIshanti Gangopadhyay; University of Wisconsin - MadisonHeidi Sindberg; Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-MadisonSusan Ellis Weismer; University of Wisconsin - MadisonMargarita Kaushanskaya; University of Wisconsin - Madison

Social communication is a core deficit in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). While previous work has characterized language abilities in ASD, work specifically studying semantic knowledge is scarce and contains mixed results. This study sought to better characterize semantic knowledge in children with ASD. We assessed responses to a lexical decision task, with 20 high and 20 low semantic-network-size words and 40 nonwords. Mixed effect logistic regression and linear regression models revealed that semantic neighborhood size impacts accuracy and RT. Children with typical development and ASD had higher accuracy and faster RT for higher semantic-network-size words, controlling for receptive vocabulary and cognition. Linear regressions tested whether performance on separate assessments of cognition, receptive vocabulary, and syntax explained variance in lexical decisions. There were no unique predictors for real word accuracy or RT. However, nonword lexical decisions were predicted by receptive vocabulary knowledge in typically developing children; conversely, syntax and general cognitive skills uniquely predicted nonword judgments in children with ASD. Funding: R01DC011750-02, T32DC005359, T32HD04989908, F31DC013485-01, P30HD03352

SOP2-3

Filler Disfluencies in High Functioning Autism, Optimal Outcome, and Typical Development: A Marker of Pragmatic Language Skills

Christina Irvine; University of ConnecticutInge-Marie Eigsti; University of ConnecticutDeborah Fein; University of Connecticut

Spontaneous speech is marked by the presence of frequent disfluencies. Fillers like um and uh each serve distinct pragmatic functions. Prior evidence suggests that adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD) fail to produce listener-oriented fillers. The current study examines the production of pragmatic fillers in spontaneous speech among individuals who have achieved “optimal outcomes” (OO) from ASD.

Speech samples from 64 individuals ages 8-21 with OO, ASD, and typical development (TD) were analyzed for um and uh production. Participants with HFA produced um significantly less frequently. TD and OO groups did not differ. Um rate was also inversely correlated with ASD severity within the HFA group.

Participants with ASD produced listener-oriented fillers less frequently than peers, highlighting the unique social communicative function of these markers. Furthermore, individuals with OO show typical production of this pragmatic language function. This

strongly substantiates the broader normalization of language and social abilities in OO and the possibility of genuine recovery from ASD. Funding: National Institutes of Mental Health (R01MH076189)

PS1F01

Relationship between African American English Dialect Usage, Language Disorder Risk Status, and Written Fluency in African American Students in Urban Settings

Erin FitzPatrick; Georgia State UniversityNicole Patton-Terry; Georgia State UniversityJulie Washington; Georgia State UniversityDebra McKeown; Georgia State University

The purpose of this study is to investigate the written language fluency skills of school-aged African American children who speak African American English (AAE) and vary in their risk for language disorder. Students in grades 1-4 were given the Story Composition subtest of the Test of Written Language, 4th Edition (TOWL-4), and fluency was measured by word count. AAE use and risk for language disorder were measured with the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test (DELV-S). Preliminary analyses suggest that students who speak with some or strong variation from mainstream American English (MAE) and students with the most risk for a language disorder demonstrate poorer written language fluency. This research was funded by NICHD grant No. 1 R24 HD075454-01 (Washington, Patton Terry, & Seidenberg, PIs) and a doctoral fellowship to the first author from the Language and Literacy Initiative at Georgia State University.

PS1F02

Narrative Intervention for Children with Autism: Targeting Core SymptomsDaphne Hartzheim; Utah State UniversityRebecca Roylance; Utah State UniversitySarah Clement; Utah State UniversityEmily Chandler; Utah State UniversityDr. Sandra Laing Gillam; Utah State UniversityRon Gillam; Utah State University

The purpose of this study was to test whether a fully developed program designed to teach narrative language skills was effective in increasing narrative proficiency, and knowledge of mental state and causal language for 5 children with high functioning autism (ASD). Children between the ages of 8-12 participated in a multiple-baseline across participants, single subject design study. Children were asked to retell and create stories for a baseline period and weekly during the intervention period. Children begin intervention in a staggered fashion as they demonstrated stable baselines and/or stable improvement in oral narratives. Time spent in intervention ranged from 19-32, 45-minute individual sessions. Children demonstrated clear, observable gains in narrative

proficiency and knowledge of mental state and causal language. Individual variability was observed and is discussed.

PS1F03

High Frequency Audibility and its Effect on Language Outcomes in Children with Mild to Severe Hearing Loss

Keegan Koehlinger; Boys Town National Research HospitalAmanda Van Horne; University of IowaJacob Oleson; University of IowaMary Pat Moeller; Boys Town National Research Hospital

Children who are hard of hearing (HH) are believed to be at a greater risk for delayed morphological development in part due to reduced audibility of high frequency phonemes /s/ and /z/. This study examined the articulation skills (measured via the Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation-2, and word final /s, z/ production) and accuracy of use of s- related morphemes (plural, possessive, third person singular –s, and auxiliary and copula is) and their realized allomorphs of 51 HH 3 year olds (better ear pure tone average (BE-PTA) M= 49.89 db HL). Hearing measures included BE-PTA, unaided SII, and a measure of aided sensation level at 4 kHz (4 kHz SL). 4kHz SL scores (p<.0001) and GFTA raw scores (p=.0004) predicted morphological accuracy but influenced the use of allomorphs differently. Results suggest that both high frequency hearing and articulation skills play a role in the acquisition of morphology. Future work should include examination of the impact of audibility at even higher frequencies. Supported by NIDCD R01 DC009660.

PS1F04

Grammar patterns based on English input in Spanish-English bilingual childrenAlisa Baron; The University of Texas at AustinLisa Bedore; The University of Texas at AustinElizabeth Peña; The University of Texas at Austin

There is a growing need for definable norms for English-Spanish bilinguals to better assess and distinguish between typical and atypical communication in this population. The purpose of this study was to determine English and Spanish grammatical morpheme accuracy for English-Spanish bilingual children based on their amount of English input at school. Data was used from two existing datasets, teacher questionnaires, and the BESA (Bilingual English Spanish Assessment) (Pena, et al., 2013) morphosyntax items in children from Texas, Utah, and Pennsylvania). Using these data, we compared amount of English input in school with proportion of correct morpheme use. We present patterns of English and Spanish grammatical morpheme acquisition in bilingual children as related to English input in school. Results show that while amount of English input increases, there are similarities in peak performance within each language, but differences between languages. When identifying language impairment in bilinguals, these results will better inform clinicians of typical bilingual language acquisition by level of English input in the schools. Funded by: NIH R01 DC007439 and NIH N01 DC82100

PS1F05

Third Grade Predictors of Eighth Grade Reading Achievement and InterestCourtney Karasinski; Grand Valley State UniversityKirk Anderson; Grand Valley State University

This study investigated the relations among third grade reading achievement, self-perceived interest/competence in reading, and behavior problems with eighth grade reading achievement. Understanding these relations could benefit the development of educational policy and theory. Children participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Kindergarten Class (n=8775) were administered a reading assessment and completed the Self-Description Questionnaire, evaluating internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and interest/competence in reading, in third and eighth grades. Regression modeling revealed that, together, third grade interest/competence and behavior problems accounted for an additional 7% of the variance in eighth grade reading achievement beyond variance accounted for by SES. This suggests that motivation may play only a minor role in reading achievement. Third grade reading achievement accounted for an additional 25% of the variance in eighth grade reading achievement, supporting the notion of a “Matthew effect” in reading. Funding: Grand Valley State University Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence Grant-in-Aid

PS1F06

Two is better than one: Classification Accuracy of a Bilingual TestElizabeth Peña; University of Texas at AustinLisa Bedore; University of Texas at Austin

Diagnosis of language impairment (LI) in bilingual children is challenging. Developmental linguistic errors of children with LI and typically developing (TD) bilinguals overlap. Variability in the onset of L2 learning and patterns of input and output in each language lead to fluctuations in language performance. Bilinguals show mixed dominance by domain, performing better in one language for some tasks and in the other for other tasks. In this study, we evaluate the patterns of performance for bilingual Spanish-English speakers on the semantics and morphosyntax subtests of the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment. We compare classification accuracy for each domain when using one language alone and when used in combination. Cross-domain, cross-language solutions will also be explored and presented. Supported by NIH Contract N01-DC-8-2100

PS1F07

Collaborative Elements of Narrative Composition: A Descriptive Clinical Case Study

Mary Kubalanza; University of IL at Urbana-ChampaignCynthia Johnson; University of IL at Urbana-ChampaignJulie Hengst; University of IL at Urbana-Champaign

This case study comes from a larger single-case intervention study of emergent writing in children with language impairments. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to describe the collaborative nature of the writing process during intervention and to document characteristics of the child’s personal narratives. To examine collaboration, sessions were coded for the narrative mentoring strategies employed by the interventionist, as well as statements or behaviors that revealed a shift in the locus of control. The collaborative aspects of spoken and dictated storytelling appear to have allowed the child to contribute a greater number of story components when compared to independent writing. Moreover, the linguistic specificity of contributions was shifting from a reliance on pronominal referents to an increasing number of specific lexical nouns and verbs, and the nature of clinician prompting was becoming less directive during intervention.

PS1F08

Examining Dosage Through the Lens of FidelityMaura Curran; University of IowaAmanda Owen Van Horne; University of Iowa

In this systematic review & meta-analysis we examined the literature on the use of recasts as a therapy technique through the lenses of dosage and fidelity. It is known that dosage can affect treatment outcome, but the effect of fidelity on dosage and degree of change is not well documented. We first asked whether recast rate influenced the magnitude of the effects observed. Then we asked whether treatment fidelity affected dosage sufficiently that it might affect those outcomes. PsychInfo, PubMed and EBSCOhost were searched for articles related to expressive language intervention. Articles were included in the analyses if they contained enough data to allow for computation of effect size, focused on children with language impairment, and used recasting as a treatment technique. Results allow us to examine the association between fidelity, dosage and outcomes. Implications include recommendations for information reported in treatment studies and best practices in intervention. Funded by a ASHFoundation Grant awarded to Owen Van Horne.

PS1F09

Comparing Manual Spelling Practice to Visual Learning Strategy in Children with Hearing Loss

Natalie Carmen; University of ArizonaMary Alt; University of Arizona

This study tested the role of variability and the use of a visual learning strategy for teaching spelling to children with hearing loss. Children with hearing loss have greater

challenges forming phonological representations for words, and thus may rely relatively more on the Mental Orthographic Representation of a word. Research shows that input variability can aid word learning in certain situations. Thus, we wanted to see if a visual learning treatment that incorporated variability would benefit children with hearing loss. Seven school-aged children with hearing loss took part in the intervention. We used a within-subject design and found sets of matched words which the children did not spell correctly at pre-test. Each child was then trained using manual practice, a high variability visual training, and a low variability training condition. Post test data were analyzed for number of words correct as well as general improvement. More children benefitted from the visual strategy compared to the manual strategy. Evidence did not support a high variability advantage; both visual conditions were equivalent.

PS1F10

Comprehension Strategies in Monolingual and Sequential Bilingual ChildrenPui Fong Kan; University of Colorado at BoulderEliana Colunga; University of Colorado at BoulderRenee Miller; University of Colorado at Boulder

This study examined whether young children’s language experience affects the way they interpret the meaning of a sentence when competing semantic cues and syntactic cues are present. Seventy-two preschool children participated in this study. Thirty-six of them were Cantonese-English bilingual children (mean age=50.72 mo.; SD=7.3 mo) and 36 were age-matched monolingual English-speaking children. A sentence-processing task that contains 72 sentences with 3 different types of word order (NVN, NNV, VNN) was used to examine children’s sentence interpretation skills. Each sentence involves two contrasting semantic cues (i.e., strong vs. weak) was used to explore the children's semantic-cue processing skills. Each child was asked to identify the doer of each sentence. Results showed that children in both groups used both semantic and syntactic cues to interpret the meaning of the sentences. However, there were differences between monolingual and bilingual children, suggesting that children’s language experience might affect how children interpret the semantic and syntactic cues in sentences.

PS1F11

Phonological Neighborhood Density and Vocabulary Growth in Late TalkersStephanie Stokes; University of CanterburyThomas Klee; University of CanterburyJayne Newbury; University of CanterburyCatherine Moran; University of Canterbury

Late talkers’ (LTs) early lexicons are of significantly higher phonological neighborhood density (ND) than those of typically developing (TD) children. This study explores the premise that, for LTs, lower initial ND scores are related to gains in lexicon size across a three-month period.

Parents (N=38) of LTs completed two MBCDIs at three-month intervals and difference scores served as a measure of lexical change. Children’s individual mean ND scores were generated from ND scores of monosyllabic MBCDI words. The median of the log transformed scores was used to identify two LT groups, those of High and Low ND.

The two LT groups were significantly different on vocabulary change scores (F(1,36) = 4.54, p=.04, ??2=.11, mean difference=72.95) in favor of the Low ND group. In a hierarchical regression, with Age and ND as predictors, ND accounted for 32% of the variance in MBCDI change scores. Age was not significant.

ND scores at 24-30 months may be an index of eventual Late Bloomer status.

PS1F12

Is sequential learning in children related to primary caregiver’s SES? An event-related potential experiment.

Leyla Eghbalzad; Georgia State UniversityJoanne Deocampo; Georgia State UniversityMichelle Pinns; Georgia State UniversityJerome Daltrozzo; Georgia State UniversityChris Conway; Georgia State University

Sequential learning (SL) is a cognitive process that enables learning patterns of stimuli that unfold over time. Research suggests SL is an essential component of language development; however, neural evidence is scarce in children. Although research shows that demographic factors, such as primary caregiver’s (PC) education level, are related to language development, the relationship between these factors and SL has not been examined. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) in 19 children aged 7-12 while performing a visual SL task. Participants pressed a button upon seeing a target, which followed a predictor stimulus in the sequence with high (90%), low (20%), or no probability. ERPs at each predictor were obtained. Results revealed a late positivity (300-750ms) post-predictor onset (in the central posterior region) that increased with probability [F(1.395, 25.115) = 6.356, p = .011]. PC education was significantly positively correlated with the magnitude of learning as indexed by ERP [rs(17) = .474, p = .04], suggesting that SL can be shaped by social environmental factors. Funding source: National Institute of Health.

PS1F13

Mental State Talk during Social Role Play in Children with and without Specific Language Impairment

Melanie Jester; University of Koblenz-LandauTalking about mental states is vital for successful social role play. However, there is limited information on the use of mental state terms (MST) in children with SLI and how it relates to their social role play abilities. Upon satisfying inclusion criteria, 22 children

with SLI and 22 with typical development (TD), between 48-71 months of age, participated in a role play activity. Children with SLI engaged significantly less frequently in role play and differed significantly in their use of MST from children with TD. There was a significant association between MST and role play, independent of language abilities. Limitations in the ability to refer to their own and other people’s mental states may explain why children with SLI have problems sustaining social role play. Limited role play experience may further limit the opportunity for children with SLI to learn about mental states, which in turn may influence their social-cognitive development.

PS1F14

Lexical diversity in Farsi-speaking children with specific language impairmentZahra Soleymani; Tehran University of Medical SciencesShahin Nematzade; Institute for Cognitive Science StudiesLaya Gholami Tehrani; University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences Mehdi Rahgozar; University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation SciencesPhyllis Schneider; University of Alberta

Aim: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have less lexical diversity than children with normal development (ND) in English. This study assessed lexical diversity in Farsi-speaking children with SLI. Methods: Fifteen SLI and 48 ND children aged 5-6 told a set of stories. The stories were analyzed for number of total words (NTWs) and numbers of four word types (nouns, adverbs, adjectives, and verbs). To control for length of story, the count for each word type was divided by total number of words. Results: The results showed significant differences between SLI and ND children in NTWs (p<0.001), nouns (p= 0.018), adjectives (p=0.002), and adverbs (p<0.001). Verbs were not different between the two groups of children (p=0.836). Discussion: The structure of a sentence in Farsi is different from that of in English. Verb usage is a salient feature in Farsi. Children with SLI learn it easily. However, they have problems using word types such as adverbs and adjectives.

PS1F15

Predictive value of index-finger pointing for language developmentCarina Lüke; TU Dortmund UniversityAngela Grimminger; Bielefeld UniversityKatharina J. Rohlfing; Bielefeld UniversityUlf Liszkowski; University of HamburgUte Ritterfeld; TU Dortmund University

A meta-analysis by Colonnesi et al. (2010) indicates that the more children use pointing gestures early in their development the higher are their language competencies at a later age. In many studies analyzing this relation the hand shape of pointing is not reported

(e.g., Mundy et al., 2007). However differentiation may be useful for early identification of children at risk for language delays. Liszkowski & Tomasello (2011) demonstrate that the use of the index finger is crucial for the social-cognitive development. Within a longitudinal study including infants between 12 and 30 months we examine the predictive validity of index-finger pointing and its relationship to later verbal communication. Analyses of to date available data (n = 31) show that infants who at 12 months pointed at least once with the index finger—compared to infants only pointing with the whole hand—demonstrate significant greater productive vocabulary at 24 months, higher MLU and better performances in a standardized language measure for 2-year-olds.This project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

PS1F16

Examining the neighborhood density of vocabulary words used during language intervention sessions

Kelly Farquharson; The Ohio State UniversitySherine Tambyraja; The Ohio State UniversityMary Beth Schmitt; The Ohio State UniversityLaura Justice; The Ohio State University

This paper examines the neighborhood density values of vocabulary words used during business-as-usual language intervention sessions for children with language impairments in public schools. Language intervention sessions often focus on building the lexicon of children with language impairments through teaching new words. A popular theory of word learning suggests that there are three stages: triggering, configuration, and engagement. Neighborhood density contributes to how children learn words, albeit it provides different advantages at the different stages of word learning. There is empirical evidence supporting that the process of word learning is different for children with language impairments. That is, low neighborhood density may facilitate word learning for children who are typically developing may hinder word learning for children with language impairments. As a first step, in the current investigation, we examined neighborhood density for words that were commonly used in language intervention. Funding source: R324A090012 from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, to Laura M. Justice.

PS1F17

Reliability of Shirts & Shoes Test in Phase II DevelopmentElena Plante; The University of ArizonaBecky Vance; The University of Arizona

Deficits in processing morphosyntactic information are thought to be less common than expressive deficits during the preschool years, but are relatively common during the school years. Rather than representing the emergence of a new area of deficit, it is more likely that preschool tests of receptive language underestimate these deficits at this age. The Shirts and Shoes Test is being developed to measure receptive morphosyntactic skills

in preschool children. The test uses a limited set of highly familiar vocabulary items to test comprehension of syntactic forms including spatial and temporal terms, subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, as well as a variety of clause types. Two forms of the test were administered to children with typical language development and with specific language impairment. Here we present reliability data from Phase II of test development. Inter-rater reliability, measures of internal stability, test-retest reliability, and alternate form reliability are reported.

PS1F18

Relationship between procedural learning, English ability, and dual language exposure in bilingual children from diverse linguistic backgrounds

Ji Sook Park; Penn State University and University of TorontoElina Mainela-Arnold; University of TorontoCarol Miller; Penn State UniversityTeenu Sanjeevan; University of TorontoMariam Komeili; Univeristy of TorontoJanet van Hell; Penn State UniversityDaniel Weiss; Penn State UniversityDavid Rosenbaum; Penn State University

Aims: This study investigated 1) whether English language abilities are related to procedural learning and 2) whether dual language exposure would predict procedural learning in bilingual children. Methods: The sample included 15 bilingual children who completed the serial reaction time task (SRT). Reaction time differences between the SRT sequence phase and second random phase (RT) were calculated to quantify procedural learning ability. Children completed direct measures of English ability and parents estimated children’s dual language exposure. Results: Regression analyses indicated that procedural learning was associated with children’s English ability for following oral directions. However, dual language exposure did not predict procedural learning. Conclusion: The results provide preliminary evidence suggesting that differences in procedural memory explain individual differences in dual English language learning, but dual language exposure does not shape procedural memory. This motivates examining the SRT task as a diagnostic marker for language impairment in bilingual settings. Funding sources: University of Toronto Connaught Foundation, Penn State SSRI

PS1F19

Identifying Risk for Specific Language Impairment with Narrow and Global Measures of Grammar

Sofia Souto; Purdue UniversityLaurence Leonard; Purdue UniversityDeevy Patricia; Purdue University

In this study, we ask: (1) whether measures of the developmental level of the tense/agreement morphemes used by children have diagnostic value, as has been found for tense/agreement consistency; and (2) whether global measures of accuracy can be applied to children four and five years of age. The spontaneous speech samples of 112 four- and five-year-olds with specific language impairment or typical language were analyzed. Group differences were seen for the developmental level of the children’s tense/agreement morpheme use, but diagnostic accuracy did not reach acceptable levels, in contrast to a measure of tense/agreement consistency applied to the same data. A global measure of grammatical accuracy was also found to be useful. These findings suggest that an extended period of tense/agreement inconsistency may be more central to specific language impairment during the preschool years than the developmental level of the tense/agreement morphemes actually used.

PS1F20

Lexical aspect as a source of variability in -3s marking: Typical development and SLI

Gwyneth Rost; University of Massachusetts AmherstJill Hoover; University of Massachusetts AmherstMary Brennan; University of Massachusetts Amherst

This research tests Leonard, Deevy, and colleagues’ hypothesis (e.g. Leonard et al., 2007), that alignment of cues in lexical and morphological aspect account for variability in preschoolers’ finiteness marking by comparing lexical duration (stative, continuous, or habitual aspect) with third-person singular marking in the spontaneous utterances of preschoolers with versus without Specific Language Impairment (SLI). 714 utterances with -3s contexts were extracted from an existing database, and rated by 10 adults who were given a continuous scale from ‘verb indicates no duration (punctual events and achievements)’ to ‘verb indicates duration (states, activities without terminal endpoint, and accomplishments).’ Analysis across the entire dataset compared omission rates of the -3s grammatical marker with scores on verb duration for children with versus without SLI.

PS1F21

Addressing the rights of Roma children for a language assessment in their native language of Romani

Hristo Kyuchukov; Free University of BerlinJill de Villiers; Smith College

Language assessment for Romani-speaking children is addressed by a new test that shows promise for reflecting language skills in 3 to 6- year-old Roma children in Bulgaria. Roma are often tested only in the majority language of their country and all too often represented in special education, so it is vital to develop materials for testing Romani. 30 Roma children were tested by a native speaker on 9 subtests containing 80 items relevant to Romani grammar, with attention not only to the products of learning but also to

whether the children could learn new words from syntactic bootstrapping. The tests were of both elicited production and comprehension, and tapped some unique properties of Romani morphology and grammar. 7 of the 9 subtests reveal significant age growth, and show great promise for establishing norms for Roma children in their native language. By 5, children reached 80% mastery on most tests. The research was self-funded.

PS1F22

Processing-based assessment of language and its relation to theory of mind in preschoolers

Maggie Lamb; The Pennsylvania State UniversityCarol Miller; The Pennsylvania State UniversityCarol Kit Sum To; University of Hong KongGary Yu Hin Lam; University of South FloridaBoya Du; The Pennsylvania State University

This study examines associations among processing-based language, knowledge-based language, executive function (EF), and theory of mind (TOM) in 18 Mandarin-Cantonese bilingual preschoolers. The research question was whether the relationships among theory of mind, executive functioning, language processing and language knowledge are similar for English monolinguals, Mandarin monolinguals and Mandarin-Cantonese bilinguals. In the bilingual group, TOM was most strongly related to fast mapping (processing based) and Mandarin grammar (knowledge based). However, in the monolingual groups, TOM was more closely related to EF. Findings suggest that language experience may have a greater role in TOM development for bilinguals.Funding provided by NSF Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) grant to Penn State University (#0968369)

PS1F23

Validation of a Kindergarten Language Screening MeasureMonica DaSilva; Western UniversityJanis Oram Cardy; Western UniversityChristine Stager; Thames Valley District School BoardLisa Archibald; Western University

Elementary school children vary widely in their facility for learning language, literacy, and numeracy skills at school. This individual variation makes it difficult for teachers to meet the needs of all learners in the classroom. Previous reports of measures sensitive to language and academic outcomes hold promise for the development of a comprehensive screening battery that could identify a child’s learning strengths and weaknesses at an early point in their schooling. The purpose of the present study was to examine the validity of language screening measures included in a kindergarten screening battery. Children from 9 local schools completed a screening battery with measures of vocabulary, sentence recall, letter/number naming, rapid naming, number comparison, number line estimation, and addition/subtraction. Phonological awareness measures were

collected separately. A subsample of these children completed standardized tests of vocabulary and language as ‘gold standard’ language measures. Results compared standardized scores based on the kindergarten screening battery and published tests at both the group and individual level. Trends revealed a high level of agreement between the measures. Funding: NSERC 371201-2009

PS1F24

Exploring the role of conventionality for irony comprehension in children with and without language impairment

Debra Burnett; Kansas State UniversityThe role of conventionality of wording used in the comprehension of ironic remarks was explored in children with and without language impairment (LI) within the theoretical framework of the graded salience hypothesis. The ability of six children with LI to infer the speaker’s meaning was examined for conventional and novel/situation-specific ironic remarks and findings were compared to a sample of 30 children with normal language. Children listened to stimulus stories followed by either a conventional or novel/situation-specific ironic remark. They were then asked to infer the speaker’s intended meaning, which was in opposition to the stated meaning. Results showed that children with LI performed significantly lower than children with normal language for both conventional and novel/situation-specific remarks. While typically developing children demonstrated higher performance for conventional remarks, children with LI demonstrated no difference between the two types. Findings demonstrated that children with LI may not benefit from the increased meaning salience present in the use of conventionally ironic remarks. This work was supported by a Kansas State University USRG grant.

PS1F25

Nonword repetition performance of AAE-speaking preschoolers: Quantitative and qualitative effects of dialect density

Jodi Schmitz; Marquette UniversityMaura Moyle; Marquette UniversityJohn Heilmann; University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeDenise Finneran; University of South Carolina

Nonword repetition (NWR) is considered to be a less-biased assessment of language for children who speak African American English (AAE); however, additional research on the effects of dialect density on NWR performance is needed. The current study examines differences in NWR performance for children with varying degrees of AAE dialect density. Fifty AAE-speaking children were administered the Nonword Repetition Task (NRT). Language samples were collected and transcriptions were coded for the occurrence of AAE features. A dialect density measure (DDM) was then calculated for each transcript (i.e., AAE features/words). Children were divided into high- and low-dialect density groups based on the median DDM value of the sample. Results revealed that the high-DDM group produced significantly more errors on 1- and 4-syllable

nonwords than the low-DDM group. In addition, the high-DDM group produced significantly more errors on consonants, particularly in the initial and medial positions of nonwords. The findings suggest that degree of AAE dialect density is associated with quantitative and qualitative difference in NRT performance for preschool children.

PS1F26

Morphological Development in Bimodal Bilingual Children with Cochlear ImplantsCorina Goodwin; University of Connecticut

Parents of children with cochlear implants (CIs) are seldom encouraged to expose their children to a sign language, meaning these children often have no language experience before activation of their implant allows access to spoken language. While studies have found language deficits in monolingual CIs, few researchers have focused on bimodal-bilingual CIs exposed to sign language from birth and spoken language after implantation. In this study, we analyzed morphological production during video-recorded tasks, which elicited descriptions and narratives of bimodal-bilingual CIs (mean age 65.4) months and hearing bimodal-bilingual controls (mean age 75 months). Despite pre-implantation language exposure, bilingual CIs morphological production was less accurate. Furthermore, they were more prone to errors with acoustically less salient morphemes and more likely to omit morphemes. These results demonstrate the importance of perceptual salience and language-specific input for morphological development in CIs. Acknowledgements: Gallaudet Research Institute and the NIH (NIDCD) R01DC009263. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIDCD or the NIH.

PS1F27

Angolosaurus, Boomerang, and Cardiologist: Rare Vocabulary Use in School-aged Children

Jamie Mahurin Smith; Illinois State UniversityThis study evaluates genetic and environmental influences on rare vocabulary usage in the conversational samples of children in the Western Reserve Reading Project. Implications for intervention are reviewed. This project is funded in part by Environmental Influences on Early Reading: A Twin Study (Petrill, PI), NICHD #R01 HD038075

PS1F28

Effect of variability on preposition learning by preschoolers with impaired and normal language

Katrina Nicholas; University of ArizonaMary Alt; University of Arizona

Ella Hauwiller; University of ArizonaElena Plante; University of Arizona

We investigated the role of variability in teaching prepositions to young children, including those with specific language impairment (SLI). Prepositions are unique in that they provide semantic relations in addition to grammatical relations, with semantic prepositions ("on", "in") emerging before grammatical prepositions ("to", "of") in language development. Input variability has been shown to facilitate abstraction of patterns in forming linguistic representations for typically-developing and language-impaired children in certain situations. One way to strengthen semantic and grammatical representations that support learning of prepositions may be to increase the variability of the label-referent pairings of the nouns to which the prepositions relate. Sixteen English-speaking preschool participants (both typically-developing and language-impaired) participated in a treatment for prepositions "above" and "beside" that manipulated the variability of the objects and labels that were used in instruction. Results suggest that variability is helpful, but not in all situations and not for all learners. Nuances of the findings will be discussed. (No funding source.)

PS1F29

Self-repairs in children with Primary Language Impairment (PLI). What troubles sources are attended?

Wendy Lara; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoCecilia Rojas-Nieto; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Trouble-source (TS) which are object of speaker’s special attention during a speech self-repair (SR) constitute a window to explore language monitoring processes (Levelt, 1983) even in children with specific language impairment, which recently has been related to cognitive processing deficits (Leonard, 2009). From that point of view, this paper analyzes SR elicited to solve a TS by a group of 3 children with primary language impairment (PLI) and 3 children matched by age with typical language development (TLD), monolingual spanish speakers, ages between 5-7 years old. Comparisons of number of self-repairs and type of TS focused by both groups showed a lesser frequency of self-repairs in PLI children, and a significant different distribution of phonological and pragmatical TS, even though both groups had the highest number of TS self-repaired centered in syntactical organization. Contrary to expected, PLI children showed low attention to inflections of number, person and tense, morphological markers reported as problematic in this disorder.

PS1F30

Assessing successive bilinguals in two languages: A longitudinal look at English-speaking children in France

Maureen Scheidnes; Memorial University of NewfoundlandOne particular challenge in research on language impairment in bilingual children concerns the use and interpretation of standardized assessments. This study aims to

contribute to knowledge on assessing language performance in bilingual children through the longitudinal examination of standardized tests in both languages of 22 successive bilinguals (L1 English, L2 French) who did not have a diagnosis of language impairment. Each language was assessed twice at a 12-month interval. Results revealed that at least half of the children scored below norms in French assessments of morphosyntax and phonology at both testing times and several scored below norms in both French and English. Length of exposure to French appeared to play a role in performance, but its exact impact is unclear. Low scores in English were assumed to be a typical aspect of successive bilingualism in which the dominant language goes through a period of reorganization, as has been claimed in previous work. This project was funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR): Project ANR-08-BLAN-0328-01.

PS1F31

Morphosyntactic impairments in bilingual children with SLI (CwSLI): Do they differ from monolingual CwSLI? Evidence from Kannada

Shivani Tiwari; Manipal UniversityPrathibha Karanth; Com-DEALL TrustRajashekar B; Manipal University

Deficits of grammatical morphology constitute clinical markers in SLI assessment. Evidence from the recent past suggests that SLI markers vary cross-linguistically. Examination of morphosyntactic deficits in bilingual children with SLI (CwSLI) provides unique evidence in manifestation of SLI cross-linguistically. In this context, present study investigated morphosyntactic impairments in a group of sequential bilingual Kannada-English CwSLI and compared with typical developing bilingual age-matched children and monolingual Kannada-speaking CwSLI. Results of the study revealed that bilingual CwSLI performed significantly poorer in comparison to both bilingual controls and monolingual CwSLI on tasks testing morphosyntactic comprehension and MLU. Participants in bilingual CwSLI performed poorer than monolingual CwSLI, who in turn performed poorer than bilingual control participants. Participants from both bilingual SLI and control groups scored better in Kannada than in English. Based on our findings, we infer that bilingual CwSLI are significantly impaired on morphosyntax in comparison to both bilingual controls and monolingual CwSLI.

PS1F32

Timing and Coordination in Children with Specific Language ImpairmentJanet Vuolo; Purdue UniversityLisa Goffman; Purdue UniversityHoward Zelaznik; Purdue UniversityJanna Berlin; Purdue University

Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) also demonstrate movement deficits (Bishop, 2002; Hill, 2001; Leonard et al., 2007; Ullman & Pierpont, 2005). However, the specific nature and extent of these deficits has yet to be established. We

investigated timing abilities in 4- to 5-year old children with SLI (n=27) and children with typical language development (n=21) in a simple timing task (hand tapping) and a timing task that required the coordination of two effectors (hand clapping). In the tapping task children with SLI performed as well as their typically developing peers. In the clapping task, children with SLI were more variable in their timing performance. Thus, motor timing skills are not globally impaired in children with SLI. We infer that as with their language profiles, motor abilities of children with SLI show specific patterns of strengths and weaknesses. This research was funded by R01 DC004826.

PS1F33

Using the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) System to Study Language Socialization Practices

Hillary Ganek; University of TorontoAlice Eriks-Brophy; University of Toronto

Families from different cultural groups vary in their expectations of appropriate communication between a child and an adult. These expectations impact how children learn to communicate. This mixed methods pilot project describes Euro-Canadian parents’ ideas about language learning and the manner in which they influence caregiver-child communication. Quantitative data was gathered by the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) System and qualitative data was collected via questionnaires and interviews. Five typically developing English-speaking children from the Toronto area wore the LENA device for three days. Each day, the LENA System automatically collected an adult word count, child vocalization count, and conversational turn count, as well as the amount of background noise. Following the recordings, parents were interviewed and completed a Likert scale questionnaire regarding their beliefs about child language learning and development. The results of the qualitative data were used to further the understanding of the LENA results. Speech-language pathologists can use the findings from this study as a framework for developing appropriate therapeutic techniques for children with language delays and disorders.

PS1F34

The Impact of Accented Speech on Language Processing in Monolingual and Bilingual Children

Megan Gross; University of Wisconsin-MadisonMichelle Batko; University of Wisconsin-MadisonMargarita Kaushanskaya; University of Wisconsin-Madison

The ability to understand foreign-accented speech has become more important for social, educational, and vocational success as linguistic diversity in the United States increases. Research in adults suggests that accented speech is more difficult to comprehend, but this effect may be modulated by semantic context and listener-talker accent similarity. There is limited work in this area with school-age children. In the current study, 18 English-speaking monolinguals and 21 Spanish/English bilinguals, ages 5-6, judged the semantics

(“good” vs. “silly”) of meaningful and meaningless sentences spoken by a monolingual English speaker and a speaker with a perceptible Spanish-influenced accent. Their judgments were faster and more accurate for the unaccented sentences than for the accented sentences, but only in the meaningless condition. Furthermore, this effect of accent was stronger for monolingual children than for bilingual children. These findings suggest that a foreign accent interferes with language processing more when the semantic context is less predictable and that experience with other languages may reduce the impact of accent on children’s comprehension. [R03DC010465, Hilldale Fellowship]

PS2F01

Relationships Among Non-Mainstream American English, Vocabulary Size, and Lexical Processing in Preschool-Aged Children

Ruby-Louise Braxton; University of Wisconsin-MadisonJan Edwards; University of Wisconsin-Madison

Children who speak Nonmainstream American English (NMAE) are at risk of being misdiagnosed with a speech and/or language disorder more frequently than their peers who speak Mainstream American English (MAE). Previous literature examining dialect use in children has found conflicting results regarding the impact of dialect density on academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the use of NMAE is related to vocabulary development in preschool children who have yet to receive significant exposure to MAE. I examined the relationship among dialect density (as measured from a language sample), vocabulary size (as measured via standardized testing), and lexical processing efficiency (as determined via an online looking-while-listening task). The results of this study will contribute to understanding the discrepant findings in the literature with respect to dialect density and language development. [Supported by NIH grant 02932 to Jan Edwards]

PS2F02

Examining the relationship between complex language skills and behavior problems in low-income African American elementary schoolchildren

Page Carriveau Pattermann; Georgia State UniversityJulie Washington; Georgia State UniversityMegan Brown; Georgia State University

Research has established a connection between low language skills and problem behavior in children. The purpose of this study was to examine this relationship in an at-risk population of low-income African American children, who are overrepresented in the behavior disorders category and more likely to be referred for disciplinary action than their white peers. It was hypothesized that children with a higher number of disciplinary referrals would exhibit lower oral language scores. A negative, significant correlational relationship between language skills and behavior referrals/suspensions was found. It is important to understand the relationship between children’s language abilities and behavior and address these concerns early. It may be important, especially in high-risk

children, for clinicians to address both academic and behavioral risks that are a concern for future success. Funding for this project was provided by NICHD Grant 5R24HD075454.

PS2F03

Persistence of syntactic priming in typically developing 3- and 4-year-oldsMonika Pawlowska; University of North Dakota

Syntactic priming has been explored in young children using passive and dative constructions. I employed an earlier-emerging verb particle construction, with two variants: verb-object-particle (e.g. he took his shoes off) and verb-particle-object (e.g. he took off his shoes). I tested the hypothesis that typically developing 3- and 4-year-olds will exhibit a syntactic priming effect in production following receptive exposure to 10 sentence primes and that the priming effect will persist over 10 posttest trials as well as on the following day. Participants were twenty-two 3-year-olds (range 2;11-3;6) and nineteen 4-year-olds (range 4;0-4;11). Stimuli were videos of people performing actions compatible with a verb particle description. In both groups, there was a priming effect at posttest and the effect persisted over 10 posttest trials. In 4-year-olds there was a spike in production of the primed structure in the first half of the posttest trials. On day 2 priming persisted in 4- but not in 3-year-olds. Syntactic priming may be a sensitive measure of syntactic processing and learning in young children.

PS2F04

The Relationship between Implicit and Explicit Processing in Statistical Language Learning

Nicolette Noonan; Western UniversityLisa Archibald; Western University

A proposed mechanism for children’s rapid and effortless acquisition of language is that they are unconsciously tracking the statistically predictable regularities inherently present in language, otherwise known as statistical language learning. Although statistical language learning is thought of as an implicit process, the explicit process of working memory (WM) may affect language-learning abilities. Participants were exposed to an artificial language containing six trisyllabic nonwords that could only be segmented based on syllable-level transitional probabilities (Saffran, et al., 1997). While exposed to the language, participants were concurrently engaged in one of four WM tasks: (1) verbal WM, high-load; (2) verbal, low-load; (3) visuospatial WM, high-load; (4) visuospatial, low load. Compared to a control condition (no concurrent WM task), performance was reduced under two conditions: completing a verbal WM task (regardless of load), or completing a WM task imposing a high load (regardless of domain). The results suggest interference in implicit learning when controlled attentional processes are highly engaged, or when focused on material of the same domain.

PS2F05

Language intervention for preschool children: Impacts of Let's Know!LARRC; The Language and Reading Research Consortium

The Language and Reading Research Consortium, a core team of the Reading for Understanding initiative of the Institute of Education Sciences (a $120,000,000 endeavor), engaged in a three-year iterative process to develop a language-based curriculum for pre-k children, termed Let's Know! This presentation presents pilot findings of Let's Know! impacts on the language skills of preschool children, to include both proximal and distal indices of lower- and higher-level language skills.

PS2F06

The Use of Developmental Sentence Scoring with 3-Year-Olds: A Comparison of Language Samples Collected in Two Contexts

Emily Mucchetti; Montclair State UniversitySarita Eisenberg; Montclair State University

This investigation examined the influence of elicitation context on the results of Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS; Lee, 1974) and on subsequent clinical decision-making about young children's language performance. Participants included 10 3-year-old children judged to be typically-developing based on standardized test scores and parent report. The DSS analysis was applied to language samples from two tasks: play with a parent and picture description. A lower percentage of utterances met the inclusion criteria for play-based samples than for picture-based samples. Mean DSS score and sentence point score were higher for the play-based samples. All participants achieved DSS scores within normal limits for play-based samples. For picture-based samples, DSS scores fell above the 10th percentile for five participants but fell below the 10th percentile for five participants. These findings suggest that choice of elicitation task may hold particular importance for DSS and for young children; different tasks may yield different results and prompt different diagnostic decisions. Data collection for this study was supported by NIDCD 1R21DC009218 awarded to the second author.

PS2F07

The Effect of Gestured Input on Fast Mapping by Typically Developing ToddlersLori Foran; University of South AlabamaBrenda Beverly; University of South AlabamaJulie Estis; University of South Alabama

Forty-eight toddlers participated in a fast mapping study to test the effects of gestured input combined with spoken nonword labels to refer to novel objects. Twenty-four younger toddlers, 16 to 20 months, and 24 older toddlers, 24 to 28 months, were briefly trained in three repeated conditions: point gesture combined with spoken label, representational shape gesture combined with spoken label, and spoken-label-only

control. Older toddlers, female toddlers, and linguistically advanced toddlers fast mapped consistently across all conditions demonstrating a robust effect. Older boys and less advanced toddlers demonstrated better fast mapping when gestured input was combined with the nonwords compared with the spoken-label-only input. Gestured input also aided older girls during expressive naming of the novel objects. Although not required for word learning, gestured input appeared to strengthen semantic representations for toddlers who were not yet consistently fast mapping or who were required to produce a new label.

PS2F08

Auditory Temporal Integration in Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) Compared to Same Age Controls

Elaine Kwok; Western UniversityLisa Archibald; Western UniversityMarc Joanisse; Western UniversityJanis Oram Cardy; Western University

Some researchers have proposed that language impairment results from immature auditory temporal integration (ATI), which limits the perception of rapidly presented auditory information such as phonemes. To characterize ATI in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) at the neural level, we compared electroencephalographic data for 25 children with SLI aged 6-11 years to 25 typically developing children. Participants’ responses to 50ms tones presented alone or in pairs separated by silent gaps of 100, 200, 300 or 400ms were compared using mixed ANOVA. The TD and SLI groups did not significantly differ in strength and timing of brain responses to auditory stimuli (P1 and N2) across conditions. Both groups showed attenuated, but present, responses to the second tone even in the shortest gap condition. Although these results did not provide evidence for ATI impairments in SLI, further research using smaller gaps is required before conclusions can be drawn. Funding source: Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation of Canada.

PS2F09

Cross-syndromic comparison of verbosity and presupposition skills in Dutch-speaking children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and Williams syndrome

Ellen Van Den Heuvel; KU Leuven, Belgium, Dept. Neurosciences, Research Group Experimental Oto-Rhino-Laryngology / NYU, Dept. of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Small Talk Language Lab & Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 22q and You center (Visiting Research Scholar)

Eric Manders; KU Leuven, Belgium, Dept. Neurosciences, Research Group Experimental-Oto-Rhino-Laryngology/Thomas More University College, Belgium, Dept. of Speech and Language Therapy and Audiology

Ann Swillen; KU Leuven, Belgium, Research Group Human and Developmental Genetics/ UZ Leuven, Belgium, Center for Human Genetics

Inge Zink; KU Leuven, Belgium, Dept. Neurosciences, Research Group

Experimental-Oto-Rhino-Laryngology/UZ Leuven, Belgium, MUCLA, Dept. of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck SurgeryLanguage differences at the behavioral level across syndromes can help us to understand the influence of genetic architectures to language development. Detailed cross-syndrome pragmatic language research is lacking. This study provides a cross-sectional comparison of four groups (CA: 5-13y, MA: 4-11y) with the main focus on a group of children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (n=20) and a group with Williams syndrome (n=14). The two other groups consist of a MA matched control group (n=20) of children with intellectual disability (ID) with unknown etiology and another group containing children with ID and comorbid autism spectrum disorder of unknown etiology. The extent and characteristics of verbosity and the adequacy of information transfer are measured by means of the Action Picture Test of the Renfrew Language Scales Dutch Adaptation (RTNA, Jansonius et al., 2014) and a Dutch Adaptation of the Communicative Role Taking subtest of the DELV (Seymour et al., 2005). The results indicate inter-syndromic as well as within-syndrome variability and contribute to the debate about specific language profiles in children with ID. Founding source: Foundation Marguerite-Marie Delacroix.

PS2F10

Investigating the Flynn Effect in Children with Primary Language ImpairmentElizabeth Eagan; University of CTFrances Earle; University of CTTammie Spaulding; University of CT

The Flynn Effect refers to the tendency for scores on an intelligence test to improve as the time between the norming of the test and its administration increases. This investigation was designed to determine if the nonverbal IQ test scores of children with primary language impairment exhibit a Flynn Effect. Data were collected on studies published over a course of nearly 2 decades which administered nonverbal IQ tests to children with primary language impairment and their age-matched, typically developing peers. Results support the existence of the Flynn effect in children with primary language impairment. Implications will be discussed.

PS2F11

Does language demand on fluid reasoning tasks impact the predictive power for predicting performance on pre-literacy tasks?

Hope Lancaster; Vanderbilt UniversityStephen Camarata; Vanderbilt University

The purpose of this study was to examine how language and fluid reasoning predict pre-literacy performance in children with and without language impairment in kindergarten. The research questions were: (a) is there a difference in the strength of predicative power when considering the language demand for a measure of fluid reasoning, and (b) is the predictive pattern the same for children with typical language, specific language impairment (SLI), and nonspecific language impairment (NLI). Data were from the

EpiSLI database (PI: Tomblin). The groups examined were typical (n = 1429), SLI (n = 277), and NLI (n = 229). Hierarchal regression was used to analyze the data. There were main effects of fluid reasoning tasks for Word-Sound Deletion and Letter-Word Identification for all groups. Fluid reasoning is an important skill to consider in conjunction with language for children with language impairments. Children with SLI and NLI had different patterns of results and should be considered as separate groups. This study was supported by a Preparation of Leadership Personnel grant (H325D080075; PI: Schuele) US Department of Education.

PS2F12

Cross-Domain Therapy Effects in Children with Down SyndromeEmily Whistler; University of Nevada, RenoLori Bass; University of Nevada, Reno

The speech and language delays of children with Down syndrome (DS) are well documented, but little research exists examining therapy effectiveness in this population. Six school-age children with DS were recruited and randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions. Morphosyntactic treatment was implemented through structural priming embedded into commercially available storybooks and targeted either expressive use of Wh-questions or negated statements. Phonological treatment was implemented through a novel top-down, hybrid approach using both Maximal and Multiple Oppositions. It was hypothesized that both treatments would be effective in inducing change in the targeted domain and causing cross-domain effects in the untreated language domain. Results indicated treatment in both conditions caused change in the targeted language domain. However, cross-domain effects were seen for children who received morphosyntactic instruction, but not for children who received phonological instruction. The findings from this sample of children with DS suggest morphosyntactic treatment was more efficient in causing system-wide change than phonological treatment.

PS2F13

Role of morphological processing latency in reading fluency and comprehension of Spanish-speaking language minority learners

Jungjun Park; Baylor UniversityMichaela Ritter; Baylor University

This study examines morphological awareness performance in 27 low-SES Spanish-English speaking bilingual students (Grades 4 through 7). Given that 1) reading fluency is a strong predictor of reading comprehension and 2) bilingual students with poor comprehension are often slow, albeit accurate readers, the primary goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which respond time(RT), speed of morphological processing, contributes to both reading fluency and reading comprehension in bilinguals. First, partial correlation analyses indicated that RT scores on both morphological awareness tests showed significant correlations of high magnitude with the text reading fluency scores. RT scores were moderately correlated with text reading comprehension as well.

Hhierarchical regression analyses showed that morphological processing speed makes significant, unique contributions to both text reading fluency and reading comprehension which are at least equal to those made by morphological processing accuracy. These results underscore the important role of morphological processing speed in reading comprehension and suggest that interventions targeting the speed of morphological processing may improve reading comprehension skills for bilingual students.

PS2F14

The effect of exemplar variability on grammar learning among preschoolers with and without SLI

Leah Kapa; University of ArizonaElena Plante; University of ArizonaRebecca Vance; University of Arizona

Previous adult and infant research suggests that exposure to artificial grammars with high variability (i.e., more exemplars) is more conducive to learning grammatical regularities than low variability (i.e., fewer exemplars). This study sought to determine whether high variability input is advantageous for preschoolers with and without SLI. An aX,Yb artificial grammar was used in which the a and b elements were held constant while X and Y varied. Children were randomly assigned to either a low variability exposure condition (3 X and Y exemplars) or a high variability condition (24 X and Y exemplars). Following exposure, generalization of the grammar was tested using stimuli with novel X and Y elements that followed (e.g., aX) or violated (e.g., Xa) the grammar. Children in the SLI group who received high variability exposure successfully discriminated between correct and incorrect items, whereas typically developing children only discriminated after low variability exposure. These findings indicate that children with SLI and with typical language development may use different learning processes when extracting grammatical regularities from input.

PS2F15

Comparing the measurement structure of a language screener between Spanish-speaking children with and without language impairment

Elizabeth Runnion; Arizona State UniversityIleana Ratiu; Arizona State UniversityMaría Adelaida Restrepo; Arizona State UniversityShelley Gray; Arizona State UniversityGorin Joanna; Arizona State UniversityMarilyn Thompson; Arizona State University

Rationale: Language impairment (LI) may be related to deficits in processing or linguistic abilities. The purposes of this study were to determine the equivalence of measurement

models and to evaluate latent mean differences between children with LI and typical language (TL).Method: We assessed 306 Spanish-speaking children with TL and 102 with LI, ages 5.03-7.93 years, in Spanish on six measures. Results: Rapid automatic naming (RAN) time and RAN errors loaded on one factor (processing) and antonyms, morphology, non-word repetition, and sentence repetition loaded on a second factor (linguistic) in a CFA model specified a priori. The CFA, baseline, and metric invariance models had acceptable fit, but a few intercepts varied between groups. Children with LI had significantly different factor means compared to children with TL.Conclusions: The model was relatively invariant between children with TL and LI, with little evidence of measurement bias. Differences in factor means demonstrated that children with LI performed more poorly than children with TL, which suggests the measures differentiated children based on language ability. Funding: U.S. Department of Education, IES

PS2F16

The development of referent introduction in fictional storiesPhyllis Schneider; University of Alberta

Children’s ability to introduce referents in stories may vary according to whether the referent is animate as well as whether an animate referent is a main or secondary character. Stories told by children aged 4-9 from the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument were analysed for effects of age, language status (typical development or language impairment), referent animacy, and character prominence on referent introduction scores. Results: main effects were found for age, language status, animacy, and character prominence, with interactions between variables. Young children were more successful introducing inanimate than animate referents and main characters than secondary ones. Children with language impairments continued to have difficulty with animate and secondary referents until later ages than did children with typical development. Visual display of scores obtained at 4 levels of adequacy will be provided to illustrate the development over time in the ability of children to introduce referents, as well as the difference between the groups over time.

PS2F17

Electrophysiological Correlates of Speech Perception in Young Children: Associations among ERP, Nonword Repetition and Language

Vanessa Harwood; UCONNJonathan Preston; Haskins LaboratoriesJulia Irwin; Haskins LaboratoriesBernard Grela; UCONNNicole Landi; Haskins Laboratories

Event related potentials (ERPs) and nonword repetition have been used to predict language outcomes in young children. This investigation will assess the relationships among ERP markers of sensitivity to phonemic stimuli, nonword repetition, and language to explore the use of these measurements with young children. Thirty-six participants between the ages of 30 and 42 months of age will undergo a series of behavioral language assessments. ERPs will be recorded to examine sensitivity to phonological changes. The N1 component, will be explored as a measure of auditory sensitivity to changing linguistic stimuli. A nonword repetition task will also be administered as a compliment to the ERP recordings to determine the independent and combined contribution of phonological working memory in predicting language ability. Preliminary data suggests a correlation between ERP and behavioral language measures. A correlation also exists between nonword repetition and other behavioral assessments of language. Clinical implications and questions regarding the mechanisms of language disorders will be addressed. Funded by ASHFoundation’s 2012 Student Research Grant in Early Childhood Language Development.

PS2F18

The Role of Auditory and Visual Synchronous Cues in Word-Learning Performance of Children with and Without Cochlear Implants

Emily Lund; Texas Christian UniversityMelanie Schuele; Vanderbilt University

This study investigated how a task-level factor, temporal synchrony of auditory-visual information, affects word learning in children with cochlear implants versus children with normal hearing. Preschool children with cochlear implants (n = 10) and children with normal hearing matched for chronological age (n = 10) completed a word-learning task given synchronous and asynchronous auditory-visual cues. Results indicated that children with cochlear implants did not learn words efficiently in either condition, whereas children with normal hearing made use of synchronous but not asynchronous cues to learn words. Performance of children in the synchronous condition was correlated with duration of implant use. These findings represent a first step toward determining how environment-level factors influence the lexical outcomes of children with cochlear implants. This work was supported by a Preparation of Leadership Personnel grant (H325K080075; PI: Schuele), US Department of Education, and by the Vanderbilt CTSA grant TR 000445 from NCRR/NIH. Study data were managed using REDCap electronic data capture tools hosted at Vanderbilt University (1 UL1 RR024975 from NCRR/NIH).

PS2F19

What is the relationship between mazes, sentence complexity and narrative proficiency for children learning two languages?

Joel Hopper; Utah State UniversitySarah Clement; Utah State UniversitySandi Gillam; Utah State University

Ron Gillam; Utah State UniversityAquiles Iglesias; Temple University

This study investigated language growth over the course of 3 years for a subset of Spanish-English Bilingual children who were learning English as their second language. Children were asked to retell a story in English and in Spanish at 6 time points (before and after K, 1st & 2nd grades). Retells were transcribed and utterances were coded for mazing behaviors (eg., revisions, false starts) and syntactic complexity (simple or complex). Narrative proficiency was measured using the Narrative Scoring System (NSS). We examined the relationship between the presence of mazes, sentence complexity and narrative proficiency over time. Children produced more mazes in complex sentences in English at the beginning of K and 1st grade, and in both simple and complex sentences in Spanish at the end of 2nd grade. NSS scores were higher in Spanish across all time points beginning in 1st grade. The pattern of correlations between maze behavior and narrative proficiency was positive until the end of 2nd grade when a negative correlation was observed in Spanish.

PS2F20

Evaluating the Predictive Validity of the DELV-ST: An Examination with Preschoolers Who Varied in Their Language Use and Dialect

Jacqueline Towson; Georgia State UniversityNancy Marencin; Georgia State UniversityTianna Floyd; Georgia State UniversityNicole Patton-Terry; Georgia State UniversityJulie Washington; Georgia State University

The purpose of this research presentation is to examine the predictive validity of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation–Screening Test (DELV-ST) to differentially detect the potential of language disorders in preschool children who varied in their use of Non-Mainstream American English (NMAE). The existence of a Language Disorder was measured by the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals – Preschool Second Edition (CELF-P2), Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition (PPVT-4), as well as teacher report of children receiving special education services. The following research questions will be answered: 1) With what degree of accuracy does the Diagnostic Risk Status portion of the DELV-ST predict language disorder? 2) Does the predictive ability of the Diagnostic Risk Status significantly differ when administered to children who differ in their degree of language variation? 3) Is there a significant difference in DELV-ST Diagnostic Risk Status scores in children who vary in their use of NMAE? The work presented here was funded by a grant to the 4th author from the YMCA of Metro Atlanta.

PS2F21

Reliability of the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS) Standardization Version

Elena Plante; The University of ArizonaNickola Wolf Nelson; Western Michigan UniversityE. Brooks Applegate; Western Michigan UniversityMichele Anderson; Western Michigan University

A classic psychometric maxim holds that reliable tests are not necessarily valid, but unreliable tests never are. Accordingly, reliability is often one of the primary psychometric indicators of a test’s fitness for use. Typically, three forms of reliability are considered, each of which addresses independent aspects of test stability. We report reliability indices for intra-class stability (also called internal stability), inter-rater reliability, and test-retest reliability for the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS). The test battery includes 15 subtests that measure language and literacy skills at the sound/word and sentence/discourse levels. This data was obtained during the standardization phase of test development from a national sample of children ages 6 to 18 years of age.

PS2F22

Speech Perception and Receptive Language Of Children Who Use Cochlear Implants

Tonia Davis; Vanderbilt UniversityRene Gifford; Vanderbilt UniversityStephen Camarata; Vanderbilt University

Children with hearing loss have known deficits in language skills. It is often thought that improving hearing will directly lead to gains in language and literacy. As part of a pilot project, seven children who use cochlear implants (CI) had their cochlear implants optimized via spectral analysis to improve their speech perception. Seven children (ages 7-17, mean age 10;5) were tested on standard measures of speech perception and receptive language before and after CI optimization. Although children’s speech perception improved following optimization, performance on standard speech and language measures did not improve (p>.10 on all measures). These results suggest that future studies of speech and language intervention in children who use CI are warranted.

PS2F23

Does working memory contribute to learning a novel auditory category?Susannah Levi; New York University

To understand speech, listeners must parse the highly variable acoustic space into the appropriate, language-specific phonological categories and generalize these categories to novel stimuli. Given this high degree of variability in the speech signal, two important questions arise: how do children learn to categorize this highly variable input into stable auditory categories and what cognitive resources contribute to learning?

To explore the influence of working memory on learning a novel auditory category, children learned to categorize speech in terms of the talker’s voice. A logit mixed-effect

model revealed that the Phonological Loop had a significant positive effect on auditory category learning, but the Episodic Buffer had a significant negative effect. These findings have implications for children with language impairments who are considered to have poorly developed phonological categories and also poorer Phonological Loop and Central Executive skills than children with typical language development which could inhibit the learning of phonological categories. Supported by: NIDCD 1 R03 DC009851-01A2

PS2F24

An Evaluation of Compensatory Linguistic Strategies in Boys with Fragile X Syndrome

Eileen Haebig; University of Wisconsin-MadisonAudra Sterling; University of Wisconsin-MadisonErin Schwartz; University of Wisconsin-MadisonSusen Schroeder; Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The fragile X syndrome (FXS) phenotype is associated with cognitive and language delays. Boys with FXS struggle with grammatical skills throughout development. We examined performance on four grammatical forms known to be problematic for children with language impairments in 33 school-age boys with FXS. We tested knowledge of the third-person singular, past tense, and BE/DO verbs using the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (Rice & Wexler, 2001). A notable number of the child responses were considered unscorable because non-target forms were provided. Therefore we completed an in-depth analysis on these responses. As grammatical complexity increased, boys with FXS provided an increasing number of unscorable responses, including non-target verb forms such as present progressive, modals. However, the majority of these responses were grammatically incorrect. Given that unscorable responses increased in frequency as the target verb form became more complex, it is possible that the boys produced the non-target responses in order to compensate for limited knowledge of the target verb form.Funding Sources: R03 DC011616, F31 DC013485, start-up funds from UW-Madison

PS2F25

Spanish Accusative Clitics: Latino Dual Language Learners in an English Environment

Megan Figueroa; University of ArizonaSpanish-speaking (SS) dual language learners (DLLs) have shown differential developmental profiles of the native language (L1). The current study examined whether or not the Spanish acquisition profile, specifically accusative clitics, in predominantly SS, Latino children continues to develop in an English-language contact situation. This study examined (1) accuracy rates of clitic production, total substitutions, and total omissions across 5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds; (2) accuracy rates of clitic production, total substitutions, and total omissions across low and high English proficiency groups; and (3) whether or

not there was a trend to use the default clitic lo in inappropriate contexts. Seventy-four SS children aged 5;1 to 7;11 participated in a clitic elicitation task. Results indicated non-significant effects of age and proficiency level on the accuracy of clitic production. These results suggest dual language learners are in an environment that does not foster the maintenance of the L1, at least in the accuracy of accusative clitic pronouns.

PS2F26

Learning to Spell in Greek: The Case of Initial Consonant ClustersRouzana Komesidou; University of Kansas Katie Alcock; Lancaster University, UK

Background/Purpose: Research on spelling development indicates that children have often difficulties with the spelling of consonant clusters; difficulties that seem to be present regardless of the degree of regularity in a language. The purpose of this study was to further address the question of orthographic regularity in spelling development by examining how children learning to spell in Greek apprehend consonant clusters. Method: Greek-Cypriot children from Grades 1, 2, and 3, participated in a spelling task, in which they were asked to spell words with initial consonant clusters.Results: In-cluster analysis revealed only few errors on consonant clusters, mainly omissions. Out-of-cluster analysis revealed high proportions of vowel substitutions. Conclusion: Children in this study showed better phoneme segmentation skills for consonant clusters than children in previous studies, suggesting a possible effect of the orthographic regularity in Greek. However, similarly to other languages, learning to spell in Greek depends on phonological, orthographic, lexical, and grammatical knowledge, and this is more relevant for vowel spellings.

PS2F27

Lexical Access for Production in Children with Cochlear ImplantsRichard G. Schwartz; The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkSusan Steinman; New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount SinaiElizabeth Ying; New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount SinaiZara Waldman; The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkGeorgia Drakopoulou; The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkDerek M. Houston; Indiana University Medical Center

Two experiments were conducted to examine lexical access for production in children with cochlear implants (CIs) and their normal hearing (NH) peers. Children named an object picture while a related (phonological—onset or rhyme; semantic—coordinate or associate) or unrelated interfering auditory word appeared preceding (-150 ms), simultaneous with (0 ms), or after the picture (+150 ms or +300 ms) for the Picture-Word Interference task (PWI). In the Picture-Picture Interference task (PPI), the picture to be named was a blue line drawing and the interfering stimulus was a superimposed orange drawing. Twenty-seven children with CIs (9.68 years) and 58 NH children (9.88)

participated in the PWI task; 24 children with CIs (9.96) and 61 NH peers (9.79) participated in the PPI task. Preliminary analyses indicated substantially different patterns of inhibition and facilitation between groups for each task, with much stronger effects for children with CIs on PPW task and a strong lingering semantic and rhyme effects for the children with CIs. Supported by a grant from the NIDCDC 5R01DC011041

PS2F28

Integrating Novel Words into the Preschooler’s Lexicon: Evidence from Taxonomic & Thematic Connections

Anna Ehrhorn; Bowling Green State UniversityTim Brackenbury; Bowling Green State University

Numerous studies have demonstrated that young children can learn novel words without direct teaching. However, very few have examined the integration of such words into children’s lexicons (e.g., Markman & Hutchinson, 1994). The present study assessed preschooler’s abilities to acquire novel words from stories, and connect them to familiar words that were related taxonomically and thematically. Testing was conducted immediately after hearing the stories and one week later with no further exposure. The children correctly identified the novel words, taxonomic associates, and thematic associates at greater than chance levels. Taxonomic associates were correctly identified significantly more often than novel words, which were significantly above thematic associates. Performances related to the time of testing and the interaction between time and association type were not significantly different. These results suggest that children are accessing their current lexical knowledge when acquiring novel words and that the integration of newly learned words continues after the exposing event. The authors had no funding sources for the development of the study.

PS2F29

Word Learning Deficits in Children with Dyslexia: More than PhonologyMary Alt; University of ArizonaShelley Gray; Arizona State UniversityTiffany Hogan; MGH Institute of Health ProfessionsSam Green; Arizona State UniversityNelson Cowan; University of Missouri

This study, which is part of a larger project, was designed to examine the word learning abilities of second-grade children with dyslexia. Twenty-eight children with dyslexia and 100 typically-developing (TD) peers played 6 different computer word learning games. Using a touch screen, children were asked to match a sea monster to a novel word referent over four different learning blocks. Each game tested word learning under different manipulations: phonological similarity, word length, use of orthography, visual similarity, locational position, and verb learning. Despite predictions that this group would only show differences in manipulations related to phonology and orthography,

children with dyslexia actually showed evidence of visual processing deficits for location when compared to typically-developing peers. In addition to the main effects for group for location, other weaknesses emerged in interactions between group and manipulation for the word length condition. This suggests that children with dyslexia have more difficulty correctly mapping longer names to novel items than for shorter items. Implications for theories of dyslexia will be discussed. Funding: 1R01DC010784-01A1 from NIH-NIDCD

PS2F30

Strengths and Weaknesses of Phonological and Semantic Processing and Word Representations in Preschoolers with Specific Language Impairment

Shelley Gray; Arizona State UniversityHui-Chun Yang; Arizona State UniversityNora Schlesinger; Arizona State UniversityJuliet Weinhold; Arizona State University

Priming experiments offer a productive method of assessing children’s phonological and semantic representations, but one confound of past experiments is that children’s target word knowledge may vary from their peers at the outset of the experiment. To address this confound 127 preschoolers (42 SLI, 42 age- and gender-matches, 43 vocabulary matches) completed seven tasks using the same 10 words: (1) picture naming, (2) initial phoneme identification, (3) real word rhyming identification, (4) nonword rhyming identification, (4) word association, (5) cued shadowing (priming), and (6) primed picture naming. Relative to their peers with TD, the SLI group demonstrated difficulty in phonological awareness and the ability to link stored words to other words in their lexicon and/or to generate related words. The SLI groups’ lexical representations did not appear to be as differentiated as either their younger or age-matched peers with TD. Together results provide a more complete picture of the phonological and semantic strengths and weaknesses of children with SLI than previous experiments. This research was funded by NIH-NIDCD grant 3R01DC007417-04S1.

PS2F31

Dialect Change and Early Reading Outcomes in African American ChildrenTempii Champion; Long Island UniversityPeter de Villiers; Smith College

This study relates longitudinal changes in African American children’s dialect to their reading comprehension scores at the end of first grade. We hypothesize that children who become bi-dialectal from preschool through early elementary grades have greater success in reading development. The data come from a longitudinal study of 200 AA children from low-income communities followed from the beginning of preschool to the end of first grade. Higher AAE scores on the DELV-ST at the beginning of preschool were positive predictors of better reading outcomes at first grade; but by the end of first grade, higher AAE scores were negatively correlated with reading achievement. Children who

shifted from high AAE at preschool to low AAE at first grade had significantly better reading outcomes than children who were high AAE at both preschool and first grade. The results are discussed in the context of the reading achievement gap between AA and white children at elementary school and what factors might contribute to bi-dialectal development and dialect flexibility. Funding: NICHD P01 HD048497

PS2F32

Influences on Nonword Repetition Performance in Young ChildrenDana Arthur; University of ConnecticutBernard Grela; University of Connecticut

This project examines the cognitive and linguistic skills that underpin nonword repetition performance in young children with and without language impairments. Language impaired and typically developing kindergarten children completed a battery of tests measuring their phonological short term memory, articulation, vocabulary, and literacy skills. Results indicate that NWR tasks are not solely underpinned by phonological memory, but instead draw upon several disparate factors. Further, these factors and their relationship to NWR may vary with the language skills of the individual child. Implications for the utility of NWR in evaluation of SLI are discussed.

PS2F33

Morphosyntactic Development of Bangla-speaking Preschool Children: Verb morphology

Asifa Sultana; University of CanterburyStephanie Stokes; University of CanterburyThomas Klee; University of CanterburyPaul Fletcher; University College Cork

This study examined developmental trends of Bangla-speaking children with regard to morphosyntax. Seventy typically-developing monolingual Bangla-speaking children between 23 and 51 months of age were recruited through daycare centres and preschools in Dhaka. Data were based on children’s responses to experimental tasks designed to elicit the present simple, present progressive and past progressive verb constructions in Bangla.

Repeated measures ANOVA examined error patterns and production accuracy. Three developmental groups emerged from cluster analyses. Knowledge of verb morphology was reflected in both accuracy rates and error patterns. Children at the most advanced developmental level produced error forms that were structurally more complex, and closer to the target forms in terms of features, than the least advanced developmental group.

The patterns identified in this study with typically-developing Bangla-speaking children may serve as a foundation for guiding the development of an assessment tool for children with language difficulties.

PS2F34

Describing mismatches in reading comprehension performance in school-age children predicted by the Simple View of Reading model

Jessica Kersting; Western Michigan UniversityMichele Anderson; Western Michigan UniversityNickola Nelson; Western Michigan University

The simple view of reading (SVR) explains reading comprehension as the product of reading decoding and listening comprehension. We explored whether additional constructs contribute uniquely to reading comprehension. Research questions:1. How well does the simple view of reading model account for reading comprehension scores on the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS) in school-age children?2. When the model does not fit (i.e., when mismatches occur of the following types), can we identify other cognitive-linguistic skills that contribute to reading comprehension performance across different ages?a. Children with poor reading comprehension skills who would be predicted by the SVR model to have normal reading comprehension skillsb. Children with normal reading comprehension who would be predicted by the SVR model to have poor reading comprehension skillsFindings are discussed related to identification of children and service delivery. This project was funded with an internal faculty grant from Western Michigan University and Grant R324A100354 from the IES

PS3F01

A Case Study in Linguistic Interference: Overt Subject Realization by Spanish-English Bilinguals in Spanish

Catherine Nussbaum; The Ohio State UniversityJohn Grinstead; The Ohio State University

Hulk & M ller (2000) propose that constructions are likely to undergo interference in bilinguals if they occur at the discourse-syntax interface and if they superficially overlap between the two languages. In the current case study we address this question for overt subjects in the Spanish of Spanish-English bilinguals. Bilingual and monolingual children at this early stage of development (MLUw Stage 1: 1.5-2.0 and MLUw Stage 2: 2.0-3.0) did not differ in their overall rate of overt subject use in Spanish, but did differ in the types of overt subjects they used: bilinguals using significantly more personal pronouns (p=.027 ) and monolinguals using significantly more lexical NPs (p=.034). Bilingual children appeared to use the English strategy of using overt pronominals instead of the Spanish option, which allows either overt or null pronominals. Further, as bilinguals’

Spanish develops, they use more overt subjects that serve no clear pragmatic purpose, when compared to monolinguals (p=.002), suggesting transfer on the pragmatic level. Our results support the conclusions of Hulk & Mller.

PS3F02

Language Impairments vs. Bilingual Effects in Spanish-Speaking ChildrenAnny Castilla-Earls; SUNY FredoniaMaría Adelaida Restrepo; Arizona State UniversityAna Teresa Perez-Leroux; University of TorontoShelley Gray; Arizona State University

This study compared the production of grammatical structures between 4 groups of children: children with primary language impairments (PLI) who were Spanish-dominant (S) with intermediate English proficiency, children with PLI who were balanced bilingual (Bi), and two groups of typically developing (TD) children that matched the children with PLI on age (+ or – 4 months), mother’s education level, and English language proficiency. An elicitation task evaluating the productive use of object clitic pronouns, articles, prepositions, subjunctive and derivational morphemes was administered to all children. Our results indicated a clear difference between TD and PLI children. We did not find evidence of differences between S and Bi children, although an almost two-year difference in age existed between these two groups.

PS3F03

Using letter knowledge measures with children at-risk for emergent literacy delaysJohn Heilmann; University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeMaura Moyle; Marquette UniversityJodi Schmitz; Marquette University

A disproportionately high number of children from disadvantaged backgrounds have significant difficulty with emergent literacy skills, which can lead to poor long-term academic outcomes. There is a clear need for the early identification of children experiencing emergent literacy deficits. Measures of letter knowledge provide a clinically feasible and psychometrically robust method of screening for early deficits. The current project tested the properties of a letter knowledge assessment on 245 children enrolled in Head Start. While letter knowledge was highly effective for documenting many children’s baseline emergent literacy skills and growth over time, additional measures (e.g., receptive vocabulary) were needed to fully describe other children’s profiles and predict growth in letter knowledge. This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Early Reading First program.

PS3F04

An exploratory analysis of social (pragmatic) communication symptoms in young school age children

Andrea Ash; University of UtahSean Redmond; University of Utah

The extent to which symptoms of social (pragmatic) communication difficulties may be differentiated from other language and socioemotional disorders was considered using a community-sourced sample of 2nd-3rd graders with and without language impairments. Participants were administered standardized language, reading, and nonlinguistic cognitive measures. Parents provided standardized ratings of their children’s social (pragmatic) communication proficiencies. Factor analysis indicated that social (pragmatic) symptoms shared a factor structure with other socioemotional behavioral constructs (e.g., ADHD, Conduct Problems). This overlap may make it difficult for clinicians and researchers to disambiguate social (pragmatic) communication difficulties from other childhood socioemotional behavioral issues. This project was supported by a grant from the NIDCD (R01DC011023).

PS3F05

Relations between story comprehension and story retell in first and third gradeYi-Syuan Liu; University of Kansas

Rationale: Retell is a common measure to assess children’s comprehension. This study investigated how different aspects of retell relate to comprehension in order to find the components of retell that share with comprehension. Methods: 114 first graders and 111 third graders listened to a story, retold the story back, and answered comprehension questions of the story. Retells of first grade and third grade students were compared in terms of (1) semantics/vocabulary, (2) syntactic complexity, and (3) recall of story units. Results: Correlation analysis showed that story comprehension was moderately correlated with the three aspects of retells in both grade. In a multiple regression analysis, only measures of semantics and recall of story units significantly predicted story comprehension. However, they only explained a small amount of variance of comprehension.Conclusion: The moderate correlation between story comprehension and underlying skills of retell indicates that retell has not been proved as a valid measure of comprehension. A possible answer could be the different task demands between retell and comprehension. Funding source: NCER R305F100002

PS3F06

Lexical Characteristics as Predictors of Later Expressive Vocabulary SizeSara Kover; University of Wisconsin-MadisonSusan Ellis Weismer; University of Wisconsin-Madison

Rationale. Recent research has highlighted a concurrent relationship between the lexical characteristics of words in a child’s expressive lexicon (i.e., neighborhood density, word

frequency, and word length) and the size of that lexicon (Stokes, 2010; Stokes et al., 2012). The purpose of the present study was to examine these lexical characteristics in relation to change in vocabulary size over time. Method. Parents of typically developing (n=40) and late-talking (n=10) toddlers completed the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories at 24 and 30 months of age. Average neighborhood density, word frequency, and word length were calculated for each child’s productive lexicon at 24 months. Results. When examined individually, each lexical characteristic at 24 months was related to vocabulary size at 30 months, even after controlling for 24-month vocabulary size. Conclusions. Characteristics of the words produced by toddlers may provide insight into mechanisms of vocabulary acquisition. These findings highlight the relationship between distributional properties of language input and vocabulary development between two and three years of age.Funding Sources: NIH T32DC05359, R01DC03731, and P30HD03352

PS3F08

Using Structural Equation Modeling in Child Language ResearchHope Lancaster; Vanderbilt UniversityStephen Camarata; Vanderbilt University

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a powerful statistical tool based on regression that can help researchers examine relationships within data that might not be detected when using other statistical tools. However, to be able to use SEM successfully there are number of requirements required for analyses (e.g., appropriate sample size). The purposes of this presentation are to: (a) discuss the pros and cons of SEM in child language research, and (b) provide examples of SEM with child language data. The data for the examples are drawn from the EpiSLI database (PI: Tomblin). Examples include: examining relationships between manifest variables, latent constructs, nested models, and correlated residuals. This study was supported by a Preparation of Leadership Personnel grant (H325D080075; PI: Schuele) US Department of Education.

PS3F09

Attentional Shifting in Preschool Children with Primary Language ImpairmentTammie Spaulding; University of Connectictut

Attentional shifting, the disengagement of attention from the current focus of interest and the moving of attentional focus to something new, is important for successful language acquisition. This investigation assessed attentional shifting in children with primary language impairment (PLI), a population characterized by poor language skills. Preschool children with PLI and their typical peers completed intra-dimensional and extra-dimensional shifting tasks under varying degrees of cognitive load. The results indicate that while children with PLI performed similar to their peers when load was low they performed significantly poorer than their peers when load increased. The results

support limited capacity theory to characterize the difficulties encountered by children with PLI.

PS3F10

Bilingual Children With and Without Language Impairment: Are There Only Two Groups?

Maria Kapantzoglou; Portland State UniversityMaría Adelaida Restrepo; Arizona State UniversityShelley Gray; Arizona State UniversityMarilyn Thompson; Arizona State UniversityJoanna Gorin; Educational Testing Service

There are two main challenges when estimating the diagnostic accuracy of new language-ability measures: (a) using an a priori diagnosis of children (with and without primary language impairment) as a reference may introduce error given there is no gold standard for the a priori classification; and (b) classifying children into two groups may underestimate the number of language ability groups, or, alternatively, a single group may characterize the continuum of language performance. Latent profile analysis (model-based reasoning) was applied in this study to examine the number and nature of distinct language ability groups in an unclassified sample of 431 predominately Spanish-speaking children. Groups were identified based on (a) language sample analysis (semantic and grammatical skills based), (b) English language skills, and (c) non-verbal cognitive abilities. Results indicated that an a priori classification of children into two groups could lead to misclassification, depending on the measures used. Funded by IES #R324A080024.

PS3F11

Expressive language difficulties in children with ADHD but no Language Impairment: Where should we be looking?

Alison McInnes; University of AlbertaAims: Performance of children with ADHD but no co-occurring Language Impairment (n=12) was compared with that of typically achieving school-age children aged 9-12 years (n=17) on 1) verbal and non-verbal working memory abilities and 2) expository passage comprehension and re-telling abilities, as part of a larger scale study of language and executive functions in ADHD. Methods: Following assessments of basic language and cognitive abilities, participants completed an expository passage comprehension task followed by a verbal re-tell. Expository re-tell samples were coded using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT). Working memory was assessed using verbal and visual-spatial tasks, a sentence span task, and a non-verbal updating task.Results: There were no differences between groups on age, non-verbal cognitive, vocabulary, or passage comprehension scores. The typically-achieving group

outperformed the ADHD group on working memory tasks, and on syntactic and fluency measures of the re-tell samples. These preliminary data suggest that expressive language in children with ADHD should be assessed in discourse level language. Funding from J.P Das Centre, University of Alberta.

PS3F12

Attention orienting or consolidation? Optimizing the use of an auditory stimulation phase for treatment of morpheme errors

Christina Meyers; The University of ArizonaElena Plante; The University of ArizonaKatrina Nicholas; The University of ArizonaNatalie Dailey; The University of ArizonaJessica Aguilar; The University of ArizonaTrianna Ogilvie; The University of ArizonaBecky Vance; The University of Arizona

Clinical treatments have sometimes included a period of auditory stimulation prior to another treatment technique. The auditory stimulation is intended to orient the child to the target of remediation in the subsequent treatment phase. However, it is possible that a period of auditory stimulation that follows treatment could serve a role in consolidating the learning that preceded it. We tested the relative effects of the timing of auditory stimulation on treatment outcomes for preschool children with specific language impairment. Half of the children received a brief period of auditory stimulation that preceded conversational recast treatment and the other half received auditory stimulation following conversational recast. The number of and diversity of auditory stimulation events and conversational recasts were held constant across treatments. Children who received auditory stimulation following the recast treatment showed greater treatment gains compared with children whose period of auditory stimulation preceded recast treatment. This outcome is consistent with the idea that auditory stimulation can serve a role in consolidating learning that accrues during a previous treatment phase.

PS3F13

An evaluation of the temporal relationship between speech and communicative manual gesture in children with specific language impairment

Teenu Sanjeevan; University of TorontoElina Mainela-Arnold; University of TorontoJulia L. Evans; University of California San Diego, University of Texas – Dallas

Rationale: The purpose of this study was to understand the effects of motor and lexical impairment on communicative gesturing in children with specific language impairment (SLI). This was studied by examining (1) the temporal coordination of speech and gesture and gesture duration in children with and without SLI and (2) the effects of word frequency on these measures.

Methods: Ten children with SLI and 12 typically developing children produced a narrative. Gesture-speech pairs were identified and coded for synchrony between gesture and speech onset (gesture-speech coordination, GSC) and gesture duration (GD). Results: No significant group differences were found for GSC or GD. Both measures were significantly affected by word frequency, but not significantly different between the two groups.Conclusions: Children with SLI produce communicative gestures that are temporally well synchronized with their speech, suggesting that gestures are not affected by motor and lexical deficits. This finding contributes to literature hypothesizing that manual communicative gesturing is an area of strength in SLI.Funding: Spencer Foundation

PS3F14

Perception of audiovisually congruent and incongruent speech by children with a history of specific language impairment: An event-related potentials study

Natalya Kaganovich; Purdue UniversityJennifer Schumaker; Purdue University

We examined the ability of children with a history of specific language impairment (H-SLI), typically developing (TD) children, and adults to integrate auditory and visual modalities when presented with congruent and incongruent audiovisual speech. In experiment one, participants reported what they heard when presented with the McGurk syllable (the sound [pa] dubbed onto the articulation of [ka]). In experiment two, participants watched a talker articulate syllables in audiovisual (AV), auditory only (A), and visual only (V) conditions while their EEG brain responses were collected. Only H-SLI children heard more [pa] than [ka] syllables when presented with the McGurk stimulus, suggesting excessive reliance on auditory information when listening to audiovisually incongruent speech. However, the N1 amplitude reduction to AV as compared to A+V syllables – an indication of successful audiovisual integration – was present in all groups to audiovisually congruent speech. We conclude that despite reduced susceptibility to the McGurk illusion, the H-SLI children show normal early stages of audiovisual integration of congruent speech. This work was supported by the NIDCD grant R03DC013151.

PS3F15

Linguistic and Lexical Context Influence Late-Talking and Typically Developing Children’s Use of to

Jessica Hall; University of Iowa, DeLTA CenterAmanda Owen Van Horne; University of Iowa, DeLTA Center

In the usage-based (UB) approach, the co-occurrence of words influences children’s use of syntactic forms (Tomasello, 2003). Under this approach, children unconsciously track how often words occur next to each other, in addition to other information about context and function. Young children omit to more often in nonfinite contexts than in

prepositional contexts (e.g., Bloom, Tackeff, & Lahey, 1984), possibly because they learn nonfinite to as part of the preceding verb, leading to two separately stored representations of the verb (i.e. want x and want to) (Kirjavainen, Theakston, Lieven, & Tomasello, 2009). Hsu, Tomblin, and Christiansen (2008) and Evans, Saffran, and Robes-Torres (2009) demonstrated that both adolescents and adults with specific language impairment (SLI) are worse than TD peers at extracting statistical regularities from input. Thus they may be less sensitive to co-occurrences and less able to segment words as strings. Differing error patterns in the production of to relative to the input they receive could be interpreted as evidence of differences in extracting or storing statistical information.

PS3F16

Narrative Development in English-Cantonese Bilingual ChildrenEmily Van Meter; University of Colorado at BoulderPui Fong Kan; University of Colorado at Boulder

The purpose of the study examined the relationship between narrative skills and vocabulary development in bilingual children who learned Cantonese (L1) as home language from birth and English (L2) as a second language. Seventy-nine Cantonese-English bilingual preschool children participated in this study. Children’s narrative skills were examined through a story retell task in English. English narratives were transcribed and coded for total scores, which were compared to vocabulary measures, MLU measures, and number of different and total words used in the narrative. Children’s vocabulary skills were examined using picture naming and picture identification tasks in Cantonese and in English. Results showed that there were strong relationships between children’s total narrative scores and their vocabulary skills in L2. In addition, their picture identification scores in L1 were moderately related to topic maintenance and conclusion of the narratives in L2. The within- and between-language relationships are in line with previous studies regarding the role of home language in L2 learning. Funded by the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Fund at the University of Colorado.

PS3F17

Fine motor skills and communication development in early stages of developmentAlberto Filgueiras; University of Western OntarioLisa Archibald; University of Western Ontario

According to the theory of embodied cognition, all aspects of cognition are shaped by aspects of the body. Consistent with this view, early fine motor development should be uniquely related to later communication development. Sex differences in this relationship may also emerge based on the consistency of previous reports of sex differences in fine motor skills. The present study evaluated the relationship between the fine motor and communication composite scores of 2,170 children between the ages of 12 and 60 months drawn from a database of the Brazilian version of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. Results revealed significant positive correlations between early stages of fine motor skills and later communication development but not between early communication and later

fine motor skills. Significantly stronger correlations were found for girls than boys up to 36 months. The findings are consistent with the view that early fine motor experiences may impact later communication development.

PS3F18

Object clitics in French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children with and without SLI

Aude Laloi; University ofAmsterdamAnne Baker; University ofAmsterdamJan de Jong; University of Amsterdam

Failure to produce object clitic pronouns is commonly seen as a marker of SLI in French. It is also common in children learning French as their second language. It is not clear if this marker can be used with bilingual children to diagnose SLI nor how accurate this measure is in general. On an elicitation task used with four groups of children (monolingual TD, monolingual SLI, bilingual TD and bilingual SLI) both bilingualism and SLI negatively affected production rates, but SLI had a stronger effect. Bilingualism did not however make the effect of SLI stronger. This marker can reasonably rule out a diagnosis of SLI but is not so good at ruling in SLI. Extra tests are therefore necessary for the diagnosis of SLI in French in both monolingual and bilingual populations. Amsterdam center of language and communication

PS3F19

The Influence of Semantic Richness on Word Learning in Children with SLI, Autism, and Typical Language Development

Allison Gladfelter; Purdue UniversityLisa Goffman; Purdue University

Children with SLI (Kan and Windsor, 2010) and autism (Bedford et al., 2013) struggle on word learning tasks. In typical language learners, the addition of rich semantic information facilitates learning (McGregor et al., 2007, Rabovsky et al., 2012); however, it is unknown how children with SLI or autism will respond to richer, more complex semantic cues. The goal of this study was to track how rich semantic cues influence articulatory, phonological, lexical, and semantic aspects of word learning in school-aged children with SLI, autism, and typical language. Novel words were taught with varying degrees of semantic information (no cues, sparse cues, or rich cues) across three sessions. Measures of learning included: referent identification, confrontation naming, defining, and change in phonetic accuracy and articulatory stability of the child’s speech productions. Results indicate that, even in the face of increased complexity, all groups of children benefited from rich semantic cues. These findings inform how children with autism and SLI should be taught words during intervention. Supported by NIH/NIDCD R01DC04826.

PS3F20

Etiological and longitudinal relationships between oral language, reading fluency, and reading comprehension in 12-16 year-old UK twins

Maria Grazia Tosto; University of YorkMarianna E. Hayiou-Thomas; University of YorkPhilip S. Dale; University of New MexicoRobert Plomin; Kings College London

This study employed behavioural genetic methodology to explore the etiology of the development of reading and oral language in adolescence, and specifically, to examine the nature of the association between oral language and the separable skills of reading fluency and reading comprehension. At ages 12 and 16, twins from the representative UK sample Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) were assessed in reading fluency, reading comprehension and oral language using web-based test-batteries. Multivariate longitudinal genetic analyses were conducted using standard twin model-fitting. The results revealed that the genetic factors influencing reading and language across the two ages are largely the same and contribute to stability of these skills. The contemporaneous and longitudinal covariation between reading and language was mainly driven by genetic influences. Further there was almost complete genetic overlap between reading comprehension and oral language (80% of genetic influences in common at both ages). This overlap was ~50% between reading fluency and oral language suggesting a different etiological link between fluency and comprehension with oral language.Funders: MRC, Waterloo Foundation.

PS3F21

Verbal Strategies and Nonverbal Cues in School-Age Children with and without SLI

Naomi Eichorn; The Graduate Center of the City University of New YorkKlara Marton; The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Barczi

Gusztav College of Special Education of Eotvos Lorand UniversityLuca Campanelli; The Graduate Center of the City University of New YorkJessica Scheuer; The Graduate Center of the City University of New York

The benefits of verbal and nonverbal strategies are well documented for a variety of cognitive tasks and age groups; however, few studies consider their usefulness for children with specific language impairment (SLI). The present study examined whether school-age children with and without SLI benefit from a verbal strategy (induced labeling) and auditory cues (tones) during a categorization task. Participants included 22 children with SLI, 22 age-matched controls, and 22 language-matched controls. Participants completed three variations of a computer-based categorization task: one baseline, one requiring labeling, and one with pure tones on random trial blocks. Labeling did not affect performance for control children and negatively affected accuracy and reaction time for children with SLI. Auditory cues resulted in faster reaction time and

post-error slowing across groups. Overall, findings indicate that strategy effects in children vary based on language ability and strategy domain, and that clinical use of strategies must be guided by careful consideration of these factors.

PS3F22

Spoken and Written Language Profiles of Children and Adolescents Who Are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing

Nickola Nelson; Western Michigan UniversityMichele Anderson; Western Michigan UniversityTeresa Crumpton; Western Michigan UniversityE. Brooks Applegate; Western Michigan University

Literacy learning, listening comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition continue to present particular challenges to children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (D/HH), despite recent advances in early identification, cochlear implantation, and amplification technology. We report results for a sample of 30+ school-age (6;0-18;11) children and adolescents with varying degrees of bilateral sensori-neural hearing loss in the mild to profound range who are learning language orally and who took part in a national standardization trial for the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS). Subtest profiles for the students in the D/HH group are compared with those for students with normal language and with language-learning disabilities, shedding light on different types of language/literacy learning challenges. Profile data and regression analyses suggest different relationships between phonological language skills (including nonword repetition and phonemic awareness) and vocabulary awareness (semantic categorization) with reading fluency and reading comprehension for the three groups. Implications are considered for researchers and clinicians. Funded by Institute of Education Sciences, Grant R324A100354.

PS3F23

Word learning in the semantic neighborhood: Do college students learn related words more readily than unrelated words?

Ericka Lynch; University of Massachusetts AmherstGwyneth Rost; University of Massachusetts Amherst

The purpose of the present study was to determine if words are learned more easily in dense semantic neighborhoods, with several overlapping semantic features, or in sparse semantic neighborhoods, with very few overlapping semantic features. Undergraduate students learned a total of 14 nonwords paired with 14 unfamiliar objects in either the dense or sparse condition through a series of videos. Participants underwent three video-presented trainings in which they were taught the words. Each training was followed by complete expressive and receptive testing. Participants returned to the lab one to two days after the learning visit to complete the expressive and receptive post-tests following a period of no training. Statistical analysis used training condition (dense vs. sparse

semantic neighborhood) as a between-subjects variable and time (across 4 tests) as a within-subjects variable for expressive and receptive tasks separately.

PS3F24

Differentiating school-aged children with and without language impairment using grammaticality measures from a narrative task

Ling-Yu Guo; University at Buffalo - SUNYPhyllis Schneider; University of Alberta

This study examined the diagnostic accuracy of two grammaticality measures in identifying school-aged children with language impairment (LI). Participants were 60 six-year-olds and 66 eight-year-olds with and without LI. A narrative sample was collected from each child. Two measures were computed: percent grammatical utterances (PGU) and number of errors per C-unit.

Eight-year-olds produced higher PGU and made fewer errors per C-unit than six-year-olds in typical (TL) children and in children with LI. At each age level, the TL group produced higher PGU and made fewer errors per C-unit than the LI group. PGU and number of errors per C-unit showed identical levels of sensitivity and similar levels of specificity across age groups. The sensitivity and specificity were all at the acceptable or preferred levels. Because PGU only required the judgment the grammaticality of an utterance without counting the errors, it seems that PGU might be more efficient and reliable in identifying school-aged children with LI than number of errors per C-unit.

PS3F25

The Relationship Between Peer-Play Interactions and Early Language and Literacy Development

Crystal Payne; Georgia State UniversityGary Bingham; Georgia State UniversityNicole Patton Terry; Georgia State University

Previous studies have indicated that children who experience language and literacy difficulties may also experience challenging social behaviors. Additional research is needed to examine the relationship between language and literacy development and the social emotional development of young children, especially those in high-risk urban early education contexts designed to better support the growth and development of these skills. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate young children’s home-based peer-play interactions and their early literacy and language skills. The results inform research on children's development of these skills, as well as intervention approaches designed to better support this population. The work presented here was funded by a grant to the 3rd author from the YMCA of Metro Atlanta.

PS3F26

Phonological Overlap Between Contrastive Words and its Effect on Phonological Representations

Megan Brown; Georgia State UniversityMelissa Krasselt; Georgia State University

The presence of both African American English (AAE) and Mainstream American English (MAE) creates systematic differences in word phonology to create contrastive forms of the same word (e.g., des and desk, Green, 2002). How do phonological representations and their connections to meaning, handle the variation introduced by navigating between two dialects? A form priming experiment was designed to help establish whether individuals link similar sounding, dialect-marked words within the same phonological representation and how that relationship is affected by one's dialect experience. A mixed effects analysis determined that participants slowed down by an average of 41 millisecond when hearing the stimuli switch from AAE to MAE, but not in other priming conditions. Self-reported AAE use was not found to influence this relationship. This suggests directionality to the difficulty of moving between the dialects. The unreliability of self-reported dialect use is also a concern for future research that can be addressed with multiple measures of dialect use.

PS3F27

The Role of Social Communication in Adjustment to SchoolKristen Izaryk; Western UniversityElizabeth Skarakis-Doyle; Western UniversityMarilyn Kertoy; Western UniversityClarissa Lau; Western University

School readiness and successful adjustment to kindergarten are key issues for parents, professionals, and policy makers. Thus, increasing attention has been given to the skills children have developed prior to entering full-day kindergarten, including age appropriate linguistic skills. Less emphasis has been directed to the social and emotional development necessary to flourish in the school setting despite the fact that social communication or the use of language for social interaction may be a good predictor of that adjustment. This study explored the relationships of pre-academic skills, social skills, and social communication to adjustment to kindergarten in preschool children varying in their core linguistic skills. Preliminary results provide evidence for the role of social communication in school adjustment, validating the need for increased attention to its development prior to school entry. This study was funded by Western University’s Internal Social Science and Humanities Research Council Award.

PS3F28

Pragmatic Features in Original Narratives Written by African American StudentsJessica Kersting; Western Michigan UniversityMichele Anderson; Western Michigan UniversityBrandi Newkirk-Turner; Jackson State UniversityNickola Nelson; Western Michigan University

We explored pragmatic language features of African American students’ writing samples of original narratives. Although the literature contains many studies related to African American English (AAE) in regards to syntax and morphology, much less is known about pragmatic constructs. African American English has a rich oral tradition. Pragmatic features of African American oral traditions may be used in the written stories of African American students.Research questions: 1. Are there differences in pragmatic features of original written narratives of students who are African American and Euro American? 2. If differences are found, is there evidence of developmental change in the pragmatic features use in writing samples completed by African American fourth graders, sixth graders, and ninth graders?Findings will be discussed related to identification of written pragmatic features in the writing of African American students compared to Euro American students, with implications for teachers and SLPs who work within the school setting.

PS3F29

The influence of linguistic typology on application of word formation rules in young Mandarin-English and Spanish-English bilingual children

Aislynn Fulton; The University of Texas at AustinBoji P.W. Lam; The University of Texas at AustinLi Sheng; The University of Texas at Austin

A recurring question in bilingual language development is how features in first language influence the development of second language. Given the predominance of compounding in Mandarin and derivation in Spanish, studying how Mandarin-English (ME) and Spanish-English (SE) bilingual children use English compounding and derivational word formation rules would shed light on this question. Fifty ME, twenty-nine SE, and eighteen English-speaking monolingual (EM) children between 4- and 7- years of age produced words for real and novel objects using three word formation rules, namely noun-noun compounding, and –er and –y derivational endings. In compounding tasks, ME outperformed SE and performed comparably to EM. In derivation tasks, ME outperformed SE in -er ending while –y ending elicited a different pattern, which reflected the combined effects of age and L1 background. These findings extend previous studies and suggest that when studying the development of morphological awareness in younger children, due to the different developmental time-frame for various word formation rules, adopting a finer-grained approach may be more informative than the traditional compounding-derivation dichotomy.This research was supported by the Spencer Foundation.

PS3F30

Decoding Skills in Children with Language Impairment: Contributions of Phonological Processing and Classroom Experiences

Sherine Tambyraja; The Ohio State UniversityKelly Farquharson; The Ohio State UniversityLaura Justice; The Ohio State UniversityJessica Logan; The Ohio State University

Children with language impairment (LI) often demonstrate difficulties with word recognition (decoding). Research suggests that child-level (i.e., phonological processing) and environmental-level (i.e., classroom quality) factors both contribute to decoding skills in typically developing children. The present study explored whether these same factors predict decoding abilities in children with LI. Kindergarten and first-grade children with LI (n = 249) were assessed on measures of phonological processing and decoding in the fall and spring. Live classroom observations were conducted in the winter to assess classroom quality (emotional support and instructional support). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that only phonological awareness significantly predicted spring decoding outcomes when controlling for children’s age and previous decoding ability. Classroom emotional support was also a significant predictor of decoding. This study provides further evidence that phonological awareness is an important skill to assess in children with LI and that high-quality classroom environments can positively impact children’s decoding outcomes. Funding source: R324A090012 from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, to Laura M. Justice

PS3F31

The Eventivity Constraint and Root Infinitive Verbs in Child Spanish SLIJohn Grinstead; The Ohio State UniversityPaij Lintz; The Ohio State UniversityJuliana De la Mora; Universidad Autónoma de QuerétaroMyriam Cantú-Sánchez; Universitat AutònomaBlanca Flores-Avalos; Centro Nacional de Rehabilitación

Evidence that Spanish child language passes through a root infinitive stage, and that child Spanish-speakers with SLI pass through an extended version of this stage, comes from elicited production, grammaticality judgment, comprehension and spontaneous production measures. A semantic characteristic of nonfinite verbs in many child languages is the Eventivity Constraint of Hyams & Hoekstra, which holds that nonfinite verbs occur as telic and atelic predicates (Eventive), while finite verbs will occur as stative. If this generalization, based on child French and Dutch, also holds of child Spanish, it would be additional evidence that Spanish has a root nonfinite stage. We examine the finiteness marking and lexical semantics of spontaneous utterances produced by 19 monolingual Spanish-speaking children with SLI and 19 typically-developing age controls. We find that nonfinite verbs are asymmetrically atelic and telic (Eventive), that an independent measure of tense marking (a judgment task) correlates with stative

predicate production (predicted to be finite by Eventivity) and that children with SLI produce significantly more Eventive predicates than do TD children.

PS3F32

Effects of automaticity in SGD use on lexical representations.Elena Dukhovny; CSU East Bay

Phonological representations of words in typically developing children are shaped by both spoken input and spoken output, and have been demonstrated via phonological similarity effects in list recall tasks. Output via Speech Generating Devices (SGDs) involves use of motor sequences that are determined by the visuo-spatial characteristics of a particular device, rather than the phonological structure of a word. This mismatch between input and output modalities suggests the possibility that, with training in SGD-based production, lexical representations for SGD-based language may be organized in part according to non-phonological, visuo-spatial characteristics of words. There is pilot evidence to suggest that SGD use by trained neurotypical participants utilizes both phonological and SGD-specific encoding for list recall. The current study administers short-term recall tasks to neurotypical adults to demonstrate that, with training, typical speakers show a trend towards device-specific modality effects in short-term device-based recall. The study has clinical implications for SGD selection and training for children who require SGDs to support language acquisition. Funded by Faculty Support Grant, CSU East Bay.

PS3F33

Conceptual Scoring of Expressive Vocabulary Measures in Bilingual Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment

Jissel B. Anaya; University of Texas at AustinElizabeth Peña; University of Texas at AustinLisa Bedore; University of Texas at Austin

This study examined the effects of conceptual scoring on vocabulary performance of bilingual children with and without language impairment and the classification accuracy of an expressive vocabulary test across four scoring methods, single language and conceptual scoring, for bilingual (English-Spanish) children with and without language impairment. Participants included Spanish-English bilingual children ages 5 to 11. Children completed the English and bilingual versions of the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test. Four different scores were derived representing monolingual scores in English and Spanish, and three conceptual scores. Within-test conceptual scores credited children’s other language responses during the test; and across-test conceptual scores compiled a conceptual score across Spanish and English administrations of the test. Discriminant analysis compare single language and conceptual scores. Results indicate best classification with across-test conceptual scores. These results suggest that bilingual

children are not always able to readily access their second language in confrontation naming tasks. Priming or inhibition may play a role in test performance.

PS3F34

The diagnostic accuracy of a French parent questionnaire for identifying young children with language impairment

Marianne Paul; McGill University; CRIR-IRDElin Thordardottir; McGill University; CRIR-IRD

Parent report tests are used widely for assessing young children’s language skills, particularly those targeting vocabulary. However, studies have shown that vocabulary size may not be an accurate predictor of later language disorder in Late Talkers. This study examines the diagnostic accuracy of the MilBec, a French adaptation of a parent questionnaire targeting language milestones. It also compares the MilBec with the IDE-language, a much longer parent report having an expressive and a comprehension scales. Two groups of monolingual French children between 32 and 71 months participated: 13 clinically-referred children with language impairment and 13 controls with typical development matched on age. The groups differed significantly on all language measures. The effect size is largest for the IDE-expressive scale, followed by the MilBec’s. The sensitivity and specificity were good for both the MilBec and the IDE-expressive scale. The role of background variables will be discussed. The MilBec is a short parent report screener that appears to be a promising clinical tool.

PS4S01

What do naming errors tell us about lexical abilities of bilingual and monolingual children?

Ellen Anderson; University of Wisconsin - MadisonMegan Gross; University of Wisconsin - MadisonMargarita Kaushanskaya; University of Wisconsin - Madison

Although bilingual language abilities have been studied extensively in prior research, it is often difficult to interpret the causes behind the different levels of performance in bilingual vs. monolingual children. The current study examined the error patterns on a picture-naming task of 38 English-speaking monolinguals and 68 Spanish-English bilingual children (44 naturalistic and 24 school-based bilinguals), ages 5-7. The total number of errors as well as the distribution of error types in English categorized as semantic, lexical, non-word responses, and no responses or late responses were examined. Naturalistic bilinguals made more errors than school-based bilinguals and monolinguals. Both naturalistic and school-based bilinguals made a greater proportion of no-response errors than monolinguals. In addition, naturalistic bilinguals made a smaller proportion of semantic errors than monolinguals. These results suggest that errors made by monolingual children during lexical retrieval may be rooted in mis-activations within the semantic system, while errors made by bilingual children may be rooted in lack of

semantic/lexical knowledge; lack of confidence; and/or slowed retrieval when responding in English. [R03DC010465]

PS4S02

The Key Word Working Memory task: An experimental measure of verbal working memory for two year olds

Jayne Newbury; University of CanterburyThomas Klee; University of CanterburyStephanie Stokes; University of CanterburyCatherine Moran; University of Canterbury

Verbal working memory (VWM) has been associated with language in clinical and typical populations. It seems to play a role in language skills where conscious effort is required to comprehend or formulate new or complex language. It may therefore play a role in early language acquisition. There are no data on associations between VWM and language for two year olds, due to the incompatibility between classic VWM tasks and this stage of development. The Key Word Working Memory (KWM) task, introduced here, uses a nonverbal response mode to allow participation from children with emergent language. The KWM task and nonword repetition, language and visual cognition measures were administered to 78 children aged 24-30 months. The KWM task significantly correlated with vocabulary, visual cognition and nonword repetition. The KWM task predicted 4% unique variance in vocabulary. These results suggest that the KWM task successfully measures VWM in this population and that VWM plays a role in early language acquisition (Funded by the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand).

PS4S03

Effect of Raters’ Clinical Experience in Measuring Treatment Fidelity in Research Investigating Efficacy of Autism Intervention

Marsha S. Longerbeam; James Madison UniversityVicki Reed; James Madison UniversityAshley Scott; James Madison University

Demonstrating fidelity in administering treatments of interest in research investigating their efficacy is an essential element of valid studies. However, if fidelity measurements differ based on raters’ SLP experience but not on other experimental design features, such as rater training, the validity of the research can be undermined. In the current pilot study, fidelity measurements of two raters, one with limited clinical SLP experience and one with several years of experience, were compared to those of the first author, a researcher with considerable clinical experience in the area of autism. Both raters received similar fidelity training to criterion. Rating agreements between the first author and the experienced rater were high (85% or higher), but agreements between the inexperienced rater and first author were substantially lower, with as many as 67% of fidelity ratings differing by more than 10%. These results suggested that amount of

clinical SLP experience is an important criterion for selecting fidelity raters, and researchers cannot depend solely on rater training to ensure valid fidelity measurements.

PS4S04

Predictive Value of Language Processes and Products for Identifying Language Difficulties

Jill de Villiers; Smith CollegeAmy Pace; Temple UniversityPaula Yust; Temple UniversityAndrea Takahesu Tabori; Smith CollegeKathy Hirsh-Pasek; Temple UniversityRoberta M. Golinkoff; University of DelawareAquiles Iglesias; Temple UniversityMary Wilson; Laureate Learning Systems

We evaluated whether language products (language children have already acquired) or language processes (strategies children use to acquire new language) were more predictive of poor language performance. Based on data from 306 3- to 5-year olds who completed a new computerized language assessment of three indices (vocabulary process, vocabulary product and grammar product), we classified 51 children as low scorers if their performance on any of the three indices was 1.45 SDs below the mean. By correlating performance on the three indices, we determined that vocabulary process was the only significant predictor of low scores (<1 SD) on the other two indices. Results suggest language product measures may reflect differences in children’s linguistic environments, whereas language process measures may more accurately reflect a child’s capacity to learn language. Findings have implications for developing more sensitive measures of poor language performance. This project is supported by IES grant R305A110284.

PS4S05

The acquisition of movements and meanings in gestures in children with specific language impairment

Lisa Goffman; Purdue UniversityMitchell Barna; Purdue UniversityFuwen Cai; Purdue UniversityDaniel Miller; Purdue University

The motor deficit in children with SLI may extend to their manual system, and thus to the production of gesture. In this study, we asked whether the semantic, phonological, and motor implementation components associated with the acquisition of a gesture are impaired in children with SLI. Twenty-eight children with SLI and 21 age-matched peers (4- to 5-years) participated. Children acquired four novel gestures, two paired with a visual referent and two without a referent. Kinematic, transcription, and learning measures were obtained. Children with SLI learned gestures as effectively as their typical

peers. However, hand movements were more poorly coordinated for children with SLI, and weaknesses were observed in their production of target path, shape, location, and orientation components of gestures. Children with SLI show deficits in the implementation of movements and the acquisition of phonological form, yet semantic aspects of gesture acquisition appear intact. The phonological and motor deficits that characterize SLI transcend to the acquisition of manual gestures. This research was supported by NIH/NIDCD R01DC04826.

PS4S06

Evaluating an Implicit Measure of Phonological Awareness in Preschool ChildrenMichelle E. Erskine; University of Wisconsin-MadisonJan R. Edwards; University of Wisconsin-MadisonMary E. Beckman; The Ohio State university

Although there is large body of research showing that phonological awareness is strongly predictive of later literacy achievement, it is difficult to assess phonological awareness skills in children younger than 5 years of age. This is because many of the paradigms available to measure these skills explicitly require some form of literacy training. However, Read (1971) posited that younger children have internal phonological knowledge that may not be accurately captured by explicit assessments. Some researchers (e.g., Edward, Beckman & Munson, 2005) have proposed that the frequency effect (the difference in accuracy between high-and-low phonotactic probability sequences) can be considered a reliable implicit measure of emerging phonological awareness in children as young as 3 years old. They argue that children’s ability to accurately repeat low-phonotactic probability sequences in nonwords accurately reflects their emerging ability to segment words into phonemes. The focus of this study was to evaluate this hypothesis. We compared whether the frequency effect at age 3 predicted phonological awareness, as assessed by explicit measures, at age 4. [Supported by NIH grant 02932 to Jan Edward]

PS4S07

Oral Language/Construction Integration Model Poster PresentationMelissa Skoczylas; University of AlbertaPhyllis Schneider; University of Alberta

Rationale: The purpose was to provide a theoretical grounding for research on literacy skills among children with language impairment. A clear representation of the relationships among oral language skills and reading comprehension processes was required. Methods: Existing reading models focus on cognitive skills. For application to children with language impairments, The Oral Language/Construction-Integration model synthesizes current thinking regarding reading comprehension and oral language. This synthesis required a literature review contributing evidence for both the components of the model and their linkages.

Results: A diagram of the components and linkages representing key oral language and reading comprehension processes was developed. Additional constructs such as reader-external factors were included. An additional diagram representing overriding cognitive skills was included.Conclusion: The Oral Language/Construction Integration Model extends the literature on oral language and reading by providing a highly specified account of the current evidence linking these 2 constructs. Such a conceptualization can provide testable hypotheses for planning future research.

PS4S08

The Relationship Between Linguistic Inhibitory Control Skills and Broad Executive Function Skills in Bilingual School-Age Children

Milijana Buac; University of Wisconsin-MadisonMargarita Kaushanskaya; University of Wisconsin-Madison

Executive functions (EF) are cognitive processes that aid in monitoring goal-directed behavior. Current theories suggest that language skills are used to manage EF skills. The present study examined the relationship between linguistic inhibitory control skills and a broad measure of EF skills in typically developing bilingual children (n = 25; MAge = 8.66). To measure linguistic inhibitory control, children were administered a grammaticality judgment (GJ) task that included conditions where grammatical and semantic information were congruent and conditions where the two dimensions were incongruent. Broad EF skills were measured using a standardized parent questionnaire, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). Results show that congruent sentences did not correlate with the broad measure of EF skills while performance on the incongruent sentences correlated with the standardized EF parent questionnaire. Present findings are in line with current EF theories and suggest that better ability to inhibit irrelevant linguistic information is associated with improved performance on an ecologically valid measure of EF skills. [Funded by NIH grant 1R03 DC010465-01]

PS4S09

Bilingualism and Social Communication in Chinese Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Rachel Reetzke; University of Texas at Austin, University of CambridgeNapoleon Katsos; University of CambridgeXiaobing Zou; The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen UniversityLi Sheng; University of Texas at Austin

There is common, albeit empirically unsupported belief that exposure to more than one language can be detrimental for the language development of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study is among the first to evaluate the effects of

bilingualism on language development of Chinese children with ASD. In this project we aimed to specifically examine the effect of bilingual exposure on social-communicative competence.Families of 54 monolingual (n=31) or bilingual (n=23) Chinese-speaking children completed a questionnaire package in their dominant language to assess: core language and pragmatics (Children’s Communication Checklist -2; Bishop, 2006), social-communicative competence (Social Responsiveness Scale; Constantino & Gruber 2005), and the diverse linguistic environment of their children (Language Environment Inventory; Hambly & Fombonne, 2011). In line with previous research in Indo-European languages, the current study with Chinese languages showed that bilingual exposure did not have a negative effect on language development in children with ASD. Bilingualism in children with ASD may even have a positive effect on social-communicative competence. Funding: U.S. Student Fulbright Research Grant

PS4S10

How Does Background Noise Influence Children’s Ability to Learn Words?Min Kyung Han; University of KansasHolly Storkel; University of Kansas

Neighborhood density, the number of similar-sounding words, influences children’s word learning in a quiet listening condition. However, studies on the effect of neighborhood density do not reflect real-world listening environments. The current study aimed to examine how background noise influences the effect of neighborhood density on word learning by children. Seventy-seven typically developing preschoolers learned nonwords, which varied in neighborhood density, in a story format at one of three signal-to-noise ratios (SNR): +15 dB, +6 dB, and 0 dB SNR. Learning was measured in a picture naming task and a referent identification task. Results revealed no significant effect of SNR or neighborhood density. This differs from past studies without background noise and suggests that noise may alter the effect of neighborhood density. However, there was a significant interaction between SNR and task, with a significant difference only in the naming task, indicating that the task that requires more detailed lexical representation may be more sensitive to detrimental effects of noise. [Supported by KU Doctoral Student Research Fund & DC08095]

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Influence of Misarticulation on Preschoolers' Word RecognitionBreanna Krueger; University of KansasHolly Storkel; University of Kansas

Children are sensitive to speech variability in dialect and accent. Misarticulated speech is a form of variability that children encounter with peers, yet it has not been established if children’s understanding of speech is affected by this type of variability. The purpose of the present study is to investigate children’s ability to identify and process words

containing misarticulations. Preschoolers heard words that were canonical productions (e.g., leaf), productions with common substitutes frequently produced by young children (e.g weaf), and productions with uncommon substitutes rarely produced by children. (e.g. yeaf). Children were asked to choose between real or novel pictures after each token. Children selected more real object pictures when they heard a canonical production than a misarticulated production. Reaction time was negatively impacted in misarticulation conditions. Furthermore, children selected more real objects when they heard a common than an uncommon substitution. These findings suggest that children’s word recognition is facilitated by their experience with word production. However, this recognition affects processing, which may impact speech comprehension.

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Does exemplar selection influence acquisition and generalization of past tense –ed?Amanda Owen Van Horne; University of IowaMaura Curran; University of Iowa

Grounded in Li & Shirai’s (2001) model of the role of frequency and telicity on acquisition of tense morphemes, this study investigates whether selecting prototypical or non-prototypical targets for teaching past tense leads to more rapid progress and greater generalization. Drawing on archival data, past tense verbs were ranked according to their prototypicality and these verbs were used to develop intervention and testing materials. Six children with SLI completed the intervention protocol. Results suggest that progress is similar regardless of exemplar type. There is a nonsignificant trend toward greater generalization for those children trained using nonprotoypical exemplars. This work was supported by a grant from the ASHFoundation to Owen Van Horne.

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Verb diversity matters: Parent input and toddler’s verb lexicon sizeNing Hsu; University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignPamela Hadley; University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignMatthew Rispoli; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The contribution of parent input to children’s verb lexicon growth was explored in low average, typically developing toddlers. Children’s verb lexicon size was measured by parent report using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) and from children’s verb production in spontaneous language samples. Parent input measures and child factors at 21 months of age were examined as potential predictors of children’s verb production in spontaneous language samples at 27 months of age. Regression analysis showed that verb diversity in parent input accounted for 27% of the variance in children’s verb production six months later, after controlling for children’s gender, vocabulary size, and talkativity. Importantly, parents’ verb input diversity, rather

than input quantity, was the primary input factor contributing to children’s 27-month verb lexicon size. NSF BCS-0822513

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Investigating the Effects of Auditory-verbal and Visuospatial Working Memory on Decoding Skills in Young Readers

Katie Squires; Central Michigan UniversityRon Gillam; Utah State University

Rationale: Many studies have looked at the influences of working memory (WM) on reading. However, little is known about the differential contributions of auditory-verbal (AV) and visuospatial (VS) WM on word attack and word identification ability.Methods: Thirty-two second-grade students who were identified as poor decoders completed measures that assessed simple and complex AV and VS WM.Results: Bivariate correlations revealed that complex AV WM was moderately and significantly correlated to word attack. However, the complex VS WM measures were not correlated to word identification or word attack. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis determined the complex AV WM measure was the strongest individual predictor of word attack scores and the complex VS WM measure was negatively associated with word attack scores. Conclusions: This study has implications for training instruction in reading. It was not the individual contributions of AV or VS WM that best predicted reading ability in second grade decoders, but rather, a combination of factors. Training WM in isolation of other skills does not increase reading ability.

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Prototypical Tense-Aspect Alignment and the Tense Deficit in the Spontaneous Speech of Spanish-Speaking Children With SLI

John Grinstead; The Ohio State UniversityPaij Lintz; The Ohio State UniversityJuliana De la Mora; Universidad Autónoma de QuerétaroMyriam Cantú-Sánchez; Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaBlanca Flores-Avalos; Centro Nacional de Rehabilitación

The Aspect-First Hypothesis observes that children and adults tend to associate tense and grammatical aspect marking with the lexical semantics of their predicates in systematic ways. Telic predicates, those with inherent endpoints, tend to associate with perfective grammatical aspect and past tense, while atelic predicates, those without inherent endpoints, tend to associate with imperfective grammatical aspect and present tense. Children with SLI in controlled expressive and receptive experiments follow these “prototypical” pairings less than age matches in child German, Spanish and English. However, spontaneous production data has not been examined before to determine whether children with SLI appear different from age controls with respect to following

prototypical pairings of tense and aspect. In the present study, we compare the distributions of tense-aspect pairings in the spontaneous production of 19 monolingual Spanish-speaking children with SLI and 19 age controls and show that both groups of children follow the Aspect-First prototypical pairings and that the children with SLI are not significantly different from age controls in their distributions of tense-aspect pairings.

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Grammatical Metalinguistic Skills of Emerging Bilingual ChildrenElizabeth Yares; Minneapolis Public SchoolsDarcy McLinden; University of MinnesotaLizbeth Finestack; University of Minnesota

This study aimed to determine if 5-to 7-year-old emerging bilingual children and their monolingual peers perform differently on language-learning tasks requiring different levels of metalinguistic skills. Participants included 28 emerging bilingual children and 21 monolingual English-speaking children. All participants were taught two novel grammatical morphemes. One marking was taught via deductive instruction and the other via inductive instruction. Deductive instruction provided greater metalinguistic support than inductive instruction. The emerging bilingual participants did not show an advantage over the monolingual participants when learning either marking with either instruction. Both groups demonstrated a statistically significant learning advantage favoring deductive instruction over inductive instruction when learning the gender marking. These results indicate that bilingual children do not demonstrate more advanced metalinguistic awareness than monolingual children based on grammatical language-learning tasks. Study supported by: NIH R03DC011365.

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No difference in auditory temporal integration between children with language impairment and typical development

Rachael Smyth; The University of Western OntarioLisa Archibald; The University of Western OntarioDavid Purcell; The University of Western OntarioJanis Oram Cardy; The University of Western Ontario

Research has suggested that impairments in language development may in part stem from impairments in auditory temporal integration (ATI). In a sample of 6-13 year olds, we measured language and intelligence using standardized tests. Using a simple computerized task requiring a decision about the speed of two chirps between birds, we estimated the ATI threshold of 15 children with language impairment and 21 with typical development. A staircase procedure was used to adjust the threshold based on the child’s accuracy in responding and a final threshold of ATI was established. The results did not show any significant differences in the ATI thresholds between the children with language impairment and those with typical development. These results challenge the theory that impaired auditory temporal processing contributes to impaired language

development. This work was supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

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Gender Differences in Phonemic Awareness Skills of African American 3rd, 4th & 5th Graders

Tawanna Gary; Georgia State UniversityJulie Washington; Georgia State University

The purpose of this study was to examine gender based differences in phonemic awareness skills in a sample of 69 African American children who speak African American English (AAE), using a univariate 2 way ANOVA design. Phonemic awareness skills were measured in the fall and spring of the academic year for 24 low and 45 middle SES African American children who were typically developing. Participants were enrolled in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classrooms in a major metropolitan city in the mid-west region of the United States. Results revealed gender differences in performance on measures of phonemic awareness. Additionally, performance on literacy measures were significantly influenced by SES, demonstrating that low SES students performed more poorly than their middle SES peers. This study was funded by US Dept. of Education, Early Reading First Program.

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Comparing semantic development in young monolinguals and bilinguals: Evidence from repeated word associations

Boji P.W. Lam; The University of Texas at AustinAislynn Fulton; The University of Texas at AustinLi Sheng; The University of Texas at Austin

To understand how language experience influences semantic development in bilingual population is of important clinical significance. However, its effect on the development of semantic depth remains less understood. The current study examines the syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift, which indicates increasing sophistication of semantic organization, in Mandarin-English (ME) and Spanish-English (SE) bilingual children between 4- and 7- years of age. Forty-nine ME and twenty-four SE produced 3 associations to 15 target items in both languages they speak. Twenty-two English monolingual children were recruited as control. A semantic-depth score was derived after the responses were coded as syntagmatic (dog-bark), paradigmatic (dog-cat), and others. Despite divided linguistic input, in English both bilingual groups displayed a comparable semantic developmental trajectory to the monolinguals. Nouns and adjectives elicited more paradigmatic response than verbs in all groups. These patterns suggest the universality of semantic development that goes beyond linguistic typology. Data analysis of participants’ performance in their first language is ongoing and result should contribute to the development of normative data of semantic development in bilingual population.

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Listening to parents: associations between parent concern and language measures in children with and without early language delay

Thomas Klee; University of CanterburyJayne Newbury; University of CanterburyCatherine Moran; University of CanterburyStephanie Stokes; University of Canterbury

Rationale. Children with signs of early language delay often come to the attention of professionals as a result of parents who express concern. The problem faced by professionals is whether to recommend clinical assessment on the basis of their concern. This study examines the association between parents’ concern for toddlers’ speech, language and communication development and standardized measures of children’s language development.Methods. Data from 168 children, 24- to 31-months of age, were examined for associations between parents’ responses to four questions about concerns for their child’s speech-language-communication development and dichotomized standardized test results. The sample included 51 children with early expressive language delay and 117 typically developing children.Results and conclusion. Parents’ expression of concern showed significant associations with dichotomized test outcomes in the case of each of the four questions, with the strength of the association depending on how the question was worded and which test it was compared to. The relevance of these findings with respect to case identification will be discussed. [Funding: RNZ Marsden Fund]

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Executive functioning and dialect density in African-American English-speaking children

Courtney Karasinski; Grand Valley State UniversityMonique Mills; The Ohio State UniversitySusan Ellis Weismer; University of Wisconsin-Madison, Waisman Center

Executive functions (EFs; shifting attention, updating working memory, and inhibiting dominant responses) have been found to influence code-switching in bilingual individuals. Few studies have explored the relation between EFs and code-switching in bidialectal individuals. The current study investigated the relation between EFs and dialect density in African American English (AAE) speakers.

The responses on the formulated sentences subtest of the CELF-4 of 30 African American children aged 8;1 through 11;11 were transcribed and coded for morphosyntactic features of AAE, and dialect density (DDM) was computed. EF was assessed using the Dimensional Change Card Sort, n-back, local-global, and flanker computerized experimental tasks.

DDM was not significantly correlated with EF measures, suggesting EFs do not underlie code-switching in bidialectal speakers.

Tasks were administered by a speaker of MAE, which likely prompted code-switching. However, it is possible that the DDM computed simply reflects baseline use of AAE. Future investigations using larger samples, multiple tasks, and examiners of multiple linguistic backgrounds are needed to further the understanding of the cognitive mechanisms for code-switching. NICHHDC P30 HD03352 and NIDCD T32DC005359

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The Effects of Visual Stimuli on the Spoken Narrative Performance of School-age African American Children

Monique Mills; The Ohio State UniversityRationale: Clinicians and researchers are interested in how the elicitation context influences children’s narrative performance. Studies of school-age children indicate that narrative macrostructure and microstructure are better-formed without a visual stimulus than with a visual stimulus. However, little is known about the impact of visual stimuli on narrative dialect use.Methods: 54 African American English-speaking children, grades 2-5, produced narratives elicited from the TNL under three visual conditions: no visual, picture sequence, and single picture. Narratives were examined for visual stimulus- and grade-related differences in macrostructure (EE rate), microstructure (NDW rate, C-density), and dialect density (DDM). Results: EE rate and C-density were higher in the no visual condition than in either the picture sequence or the single picture conditions. NDW rate was higher in the no-visual and picture sequence conditions than the single picture condition. DDM was higher in the single picture than in the picture sequence. A grade advantage existed for the microstructure variables.Conclusions: Results of the study provide information about narrative expectations for school-age AAE speakers.

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Time management: Tense, aspect, and temporal markings in children’s narrativeRebecca Kowalenko; The University of British ColumbiaPaola Colozzo; The University of British Columbia

Relating events in narratives is critical to the development of storytelling ability, yet the developmental research regarding this feature of discourse is sparse. In the current study, 63 typically-developing English-speaking Canadian children aged 5-8 years (kindergarten to grade 2) produced stories from two wordless picture books.Most children showed both consistency and an emerging flexibility in their use of tense and aspect markings to convey temporal relationships in their stories. Few differences emerged between the grades, but the results point to some interesting individual

differences. The majority of children were able to maintain an anchor tense while also switching tense for some basic stylistic purposes (i.e., dialogue). They also added further temporal complexity to their stories by including switches in aspect and using lexical items, nonfinite progressive clauses with temporal/aspectual qualities, and aspectual verbs.Hence, even young school-aged children can draw on a diversity of linguistic devices to relate events in narratives.

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Implicit Learning and Reading: Evidence using the Artificial Grammar Learning Paradigm in Children with and without Reading Disability

Elpis Pavlidou; The University of EdinburghThe study explores implicit learning in children using the artificial grammar learning paradigm (AGL) based on the proposal that general non-linguistic learning abilities could mediate fundamental reading mechanisms. Children (6-9 years old) were assigned in two groups: good (N=16) and poor readers (N=16). The AGL experiment pitted abstract learning against stimulus-specific learning: we examined sensitivity to grammatical sequences of shapes to test whether children would preferentially learn the specific features of the items or the rules that generated these items. Analysis (2 (good, poor readers) x 2 (grammatical, non grammatical items) x 2 (high associative strength, low associative strength items) repeated measures ANOVA) indicated that good readers show implicit learning of both abstract (as measured by grammaticality decisions) as well as stimulus specific learning (as measured by associative strength of the testing items to the training items) whereas poor readers do not. These findings are discussed in relation to current theories of implicit learning, reading and developmental dyslexia. The European Commission via the Marie Curie Individuals Scheme funds this research.

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Language sample analysis for language or working memory impairment: Using the right measuring stick

Laura Pauls; Western UniversityLisa Archibald; Western University

Language sampling is thought to provide an ecologically valid depiction of a child’s communication ability. Children with specific language impairment (SLI) tend to show poorer narrative and expository language samples relative to peers, but specific results are inconsistent across studies. It is possible that the variable findings are influenced by underlying but unspecified differences in group characteristics. For example, language formulation may place demands on working memory in addition to linguistic knowledge. The present study examined the influence of linguistic knowledge and working memory impairments on expressive language. Sixteen children with impairment in language and/or working memory completed narrative and expository language samples. Language samples were analyzed for productivity (total words, total T-units, number of different

words), grammaticality (MLU-words, grammatical errors, grammatical complexity), and efficiency of language formulation (pause time, mazing). Performance on these measures is compared across impairment groups. Trends of preliminary results show group differences in measures of grammaticality, but not in productivity or efficiency. This research was supported by an Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation Early Researcher Award (ER 10-07-125).

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Linguistic and Cognitive Factors Differentiating Arabic-speaking Children with and without Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

Areej Balilah; Western UniversityLisa Archibald; Western University

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) To provide normative data related to language and cognitive development in a large epidemiological sample of 6-9 year old monolingual Arabic children, and (2) To examine those linguistic and cognitive characteristics that may differentiate Arabic-speaking children with and without SLI. In this study, an unselected sample of 400 monolingual Arabic-speaking children ages 6 to 9 years completed measures of vocabulary, grammar, reading, nonverbal intelligence, working memory, and speech intelligibility. The epidemiological trends in language and cognitive development show many parallels to those reported for other linguistic and cultural groups. Furthermore, as reported for several languages, Arabic-speaking children with SLI have immediate memory deficits for phonological information, and working memory impairments. Understanding of both cognitive processing abilities and the morphological richness of Arabic need to be taken into account in order to explain the linguistic findings for children with SLI. The findings have important implications for the identification of SLI in Arabic-speaking children.

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The influence of home language input and lexical processing efficiency on vocabulary size in 3-year-olds

Tristan Mahr; University of Wisconsin-MadisonFranzo Law; University of Wisconsin-MadisonJan Edwards; University of Wisconsin-Madison

Children learn language from their environment. The amount of language input in the environment and children’s ability to process language efficiently each predict later language development. How these effects interact to explain the mechanisms behind language acquisition is an ongoing area of research. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether lexical processing mediates the effect of home-language input on expressive vocabulary in 3-year-olds. We examined the relationship among vocabulary size, language input (as measured by an adult-word count in the home), and lexical processing efficiency (as determined via eye-gaze patterns during a looking-while-

listening task) in children 34–39 months in age. Preliminary results indicated that the effect of language input on vocabulary was indirect, mediated by lexical processing efficiency. [Supported by NIDCD R01 02932]

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Using associations between theory of mind and language to assess children with atypical development

Shelley Lanzkowsky; Goryeb Children's Hospital, Child Development CenterUnderstanding relationships between language and theory of mind can identify play-based tests useful in language assessment. Children with developmental disorders present with uncoupling of language age from chronological age which allows the study of relationships between language and theory of mind. All children in this study were assigned a Fluharty-2 receptive language age and offered Sally-Anne (SA) and visual perspective (VP) tests, the latter in a dollhouse format. Correlation between language age and the ability to pass a specific test identifies associations useful in clinical assessment. All children with receptive language age of three years or more passed the VP test. No receptive language age was found to predict passage of SA at 100%, which trended up with both language and chronological age. All children who passed SA passed VP, indicating that passing the VP test is a prerequisite for passing SA. Understanding the developmental trajectory of theory of mind and language allows for the development of testing tools that are well tolerated and enhance clinical assessment.

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Child-related factors that influence responsiveness in mothers of preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorders: A mixed-methods study

Siva priya Santhanam; Bowling Green State UniversityLynne Hewitt; Bowling Green State University

Responsive parenting has been shown to be beneficial for the development of children on the autism spectrum. However, little is known regarding factors related to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that influence parental responsiveness. As a preliminary attempt to understand this direction of influence, the study adopted a mixed-methods design. Mother-child interactions were recorded in a free play context to code for maternal responsiveness, and three child-related variables, namely children’s intentional communication, joint engagement, and temperament. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain mothers’ perspectives regarding the impact of a child with autism on their daily dyadic interactions. Converging results from the quantitative and qualitative phases revealed an association between children’s coordinated joint engagement and maternal responsiveness. Mothers reported children’s limited communication ability, restricted activities of interest, need for topic control, and poor compliance as reasons for the perceived negative impact on their interactions. A unique finding from this study was the perceived positive impact of raising a child with autism. Funding source: The Organization for Autism Research.

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Speech Practice Effects on Bilingual children’s Word Learning SkillsPui Fong Kan; University of Colorado at BoulderNeeraja Sadagopan; University of Colorado at Boulder

This study examined the effects of speech practice on word learning in preschool children who speak Cantonese (L1) as a home language from birth and learn English (L2) as a second language. Twenty-six Cantonese-English bilingual preschool children participated in this study. Each participant was exposed to 8 one-syllable novel words in two conditions—speech training (4 novel words) and no training (4 novel words) for Cantonese and for English during a 2 week-period. Results showed that children learned more words in the speech training condition than in the control condition. Interestingly, children learned more words in the speech practice condition in Cantonese (L1) than did they in English (L2). These findings suggest that language experience and proficiency plays a role in children’s word learning processes.

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Control of Attention in Visual, Auditory, and Dual Modality Tasks: Effects on Language Processing

Kristen Victorino; William Paterson UniversityChildren with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have exhibited slower processing and inefficient selective attention during a dual-modality lexical decision task (Victorino & Schwartz, in preparation). The current study investigated control of attention in children with typical language development during an experimental task presented in single modalities (auditory only, visual only) as well as in dual-modality (auditory and visual) formats. These results provide a basis for comparison for future studies examining deficits in clinical populations. Results showed fastest and most accurate processing in the visual modality. Reaction time was slower, and accuracy was reduced on certain dual-modality experimental conditions, suggesting that the increased cognitive load associated with processing the distractors adversely affected performance. This project was funded, in part, by a Summer Research Grant from the William Paterson University Center for Research.

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Vocabulary Growth through Reading: Which Tools Do Children Use?Margaret Hill; University of MissouriStacy Wagovich; University of Missouri

The majority of vocabulary growth during the school-age years stems from incidental exposure to unfamiliar words during reading. Clearly language and reading skills play an important role in children’s word learning through reading. The purpose of this study

is to examine the underlying skills that children exploit to accomplish word learning, and to explore which skills contribute to word knowledge growth when context is and is not present to assist in acquiring meaning. Thirty children, ages 10;7 to 16;5, with a wide range of language and reading skills, read stories containing unfamiliar words three times over the course of a week. Multiple-choice posttests assessed knowledge of these words and an equal number of unfamiliar words for which no contextual information was provided. Results showed that the pattern of skills children used differed according to whether the words were presented in stories (context) versus in isolation (no context).This research was funded by an NIDCD R-03 grant awarded to the second author.

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Proportion of restricted utterances during narrative generation: diagnostic utility – a replication study

John Thorne; University of WashingtonSara Jerger; University of Washington

Narratives generated by 32 children (aged 8 to 9 years), 16 with language impairment (LI) identified during an interdisciplinary neurodevelopmental assessment and 16 with typical development (TD), were coded to determine the proportion of restricted utterances (following procedures from Hoffman, 2009). Then a comparison between group performance and an exploration of diagnostic accuracy using this measure was conducted. Results largely replicate findings from Hoffman (2009) with group comparison between TD and LI groups indicating significant differences (t-test for independent samples, p < 0.05) in proportion of restricted utterances. As in Hoffman’s study, this difference allowed for moderate diagnostic sensitivity when identifying language impairment using a diagnostic cut-off score of greater than or equal to 14% (derived from Hoffman’s research). Results failed, however, to replicate similar diagnostic specificity. Results support further development of this simple narrative analysis tool for identifying underlying language impairment in school-aged clinical populations.

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The acquisition of relative clauses in Dutch children and adolescents with Specific Language Impairments and their typically developing peers

Iris Duinmeijer; University of AmsterdamJan de Jong; University of AmsterdamAnne Baker; University of AmsterdamFred Weerman; University of Amsterdam

Relative clauses are acquired late in language development and show a gradual development. Object relative clauses, which typically have a non-canonical word order and involve movement of the object to sentence-initial position, are reported to be acquired later than subject relatives. It has been found cross-linguistically that object

relatives are problematic for children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Because Dutch relative clauses are structurally ambiguous, the acquisition of object relatives might even pose a larger challenge for children with SLI. In this study, the comprehension and production of Dutch relative clauses is investigated in younger and older subjects with SLI (6-10y and 12-16y) and their age-matched typically developing peers (N=30 per group). Preliminary results show persistent problems with the interpretation of object relatives in the SLI groups, but also shows individual variation in the acquisition of object relatives in the TD groups. The results will be compared to cross-linguistic findings and theoretical explanations for the subject/object asymmetry in relative clause acquisition and the (persistent) problems with object structures in SLI will be discussed.