L3 Communication Difficulties

Question 1

What is the definition of a language disorder in DSM?

Answer 1

Persistent difficulties in the acquisition and use of language due to deficits in comprehension or production that include:
- Reduced vocabulary
- Limited sentence structure
- Impairments in discourse

Question 2

What are the epidemiological characteristics of language disorder?

Answer 2

Apparent by the age of 4
Lifelong difficulties
7.6% of primary school children (higher in low SES)
Even gender balance
Runs in families

Question 3

What is social pragmatic communication disorder?

Answer 3

Problems with pragmatics - the social use of language and communication
Bears relation to pragmatic language impairment but this was never put in the DSM

Question 4

What are the features of Social Communication Disorder (SCD) in the DSM?

Answer 4

Persistent difficulties in social use of nonverbal communication
Greeting and sharing information in an appropriate manner
Impaired ability to adapt conversation to the context
Difficulty following rules for story telling or having conversation
Onset in early developmental period

Question 5

What are the epidemiological characteristics of SCD?

Answer 5

Cannot be diagnosed before 5
Estimated 7-11% 8th graders
More common in males 2.5:1
No studies on heritability

Question 6

What is speech sound disorder (SSD)?

Answer 6

Phonological disorder
Speech sound production is not consistent with expected chronological age

Question 7

What is the definition of SSD in the DSM?

Answer 7

Persistent difficulty with speech sound production preventing verbal communication
Limitations in effective comms and social participation
Onset during early developmental period

Question 8

What are the epidemiological characteristics of SSD?

Answer 8

6-18% prevalence in 8 year olds
Less than 3% at high school
More common in males

Question 9

What is Childhood Onset Fluency Disorder (COFD)?

Answer 9

Stuttering and stammering
Speech production

Question 10

What is the definition of COFD in DSM?

Answer 10

Disturbance in normal fluency and timing
Persistent over time
Repeat sounds, broken words, silence blocking
Disturbance causes anxiety and limitations
Onset during the early developmental period

Question 11

What are the epidemiological characteristics of COFD?

Answer 11

Emerges in childhood (no cases after 9)
Recent prevalence estimates 5-8% in preschool
More common in males 1.5:1
Recovery rate 80%

Question 12

What are the two types of explanation for a language disorder?

Answer 12

Linguistic - focus on underlying issues with learning grammatical morphology
Processing - focus on cognitive processes

Question 13

What are the two types of linguistic accounts?

Answer 13

Tend to focus on morphology - smallest structural units of language that convey meaning
Words or parts of words - meaning changes depending on how they are combined

Question 14

What are agreement relations?

Answer 14

When a word changes in language depending on the other words it relates to
e.g. subject and verbs (they walks, she walks)
e.g. number in agreement in noun phrases (two birds, that birds)

Question 15

What did Rice and Oetting 1993 find about deficits of agreement?

Answer 15

Analysed data from Kansas language transcript database
Compared children with LD and language matched TD children
LD children showed poorer agreement (difficulty adding s for third person)

Question 16

What is Extended Optional Infinitive (EOI) by Rice 1995?

Answer 16

Developmental stage where marking of tense is not obligatory
This stage is extended in those with LD

Question 17

What is the evidence for Extended Optional Infinitive?

Answer 17

Rice and Wexler 1996
Children with LD matched groups
Language analysed based on spontaneous speech samples
Transcribed and coded for different morphemes in relation to tense
LD isn’t just a delay in all language - specific
Findings not replicated in Italian speaking sample

Question 18

What are perceptual deficits?

Answer 18

Issues with speech perception - phonemic discrimination (LD score lower on these tasks)
Impairment in processing rapid sequential information
Similar deficits can be seen on children with ADHD but no language difficulty

Question 19

What are phonological deficits?

Answer 19

Gathercole and Baddeley 1990 researched this
Poor repetition of non words
Many morphological rules have phonological components
Perceptual salience of morphemes impacts LD performance
Obvious morphemes are easier to process

Question 20

What is the procedural deficit hypothesis (PDH)?

Answer 20

People with LD have problems with procedural memory - responsible for learning new skills and control old ones (cerebellum)
Language acquisition
Frontal/basal ganglia circuitry
Declarative memory is spared and may allow compensation
Linguistics are a procedural memory

Question 21

What are the 4 accounts for stammering?

Answer 21

Emotional/psychological perspectives
Sensorimotor explanations
Language processing
Neurological explanations

Question 22

What are the psychological aspects of COFD?

Answer 22

Historically considered a neurotic disorder
Trait anxiety is higher in adults who stammer
Social anxiety disorder is common in those who stammer

Question 23

Does temperament differ between children with vs without COFD?

Answer 23

Those with COFD were poorer at emotional regulation
Ntourou et al 2013
They engaged in more behaviours

Question 24

What is the diathesis stressor model?

Answer 24

Temperamental characteristics predispose some individuals to developing stammering
Stressors have to be present for stammering to occur

Question 25

What is the sensorimotor explanation for stuttering?

Answer 25

Smith and Zelaznik 2004
Failure to form stable motor programmes for speech
Speech coordination processes becomes less variable with age
Walsh - boys who stammered had higher variability in articulatory movements (gender differences)

Question 26

Are language difficulties more common in COFD?

Answer 26

Studies examine co-occurrence of them
Arndt and Healey 467 children who stammer 139 had LD (30%)

Question 27

Are language abilities poorer in COFD?

Answer 27

Anderson and Conture 2000
Imbalance among components of speech language systems
Not clear how the pattern would give rise to the implications of stuttering
Small number of studies on this

Question 28

Are phonological abilities poorer in COFD?

Answer 28

Children who stutter performed worse in 2,3,4,5 syllable words
Anderson 2006 - non word repetition

Question 29

What are the ERP’s of phonological abilities?

Answer 29

Weber - fox 2008 - rhyming judgement task
Judge as quickly as possible if they rhyme
Children with COFD were not as good at this task
There is evidence for processing
Differences in peak latency for the two hemispheres (depending on the group)

Question 30

How is white matter affected in children with a stutter?

Answer 30

There is less in children with COFD

Question 31

What is the multifactorial dynamic pathways model?

Answer 31

Stammering arises due to ongoing interactions between motor and emotional factors