Logometro®: The psychometric properties of a norm-referenced digital battery for language assessment of Greek-speaking 4-7 years old children.

In educational and clinical settings, few norm-referenced tests have been utilized until now usually focusing on a single or a few language subcomponents, along with very few language rating scales for parents and educators. The need for a comprehensive language assessment tool for preschool and early school years children which could form the basis for valid and reliable screening and diagnostic decisions, led to the development of a new norm-referenced digital tool called Logometro®. The aim of the present study is to describe Logometro® as well as its psychometric characteristics. Logometro® evaluates an array of oral language skills across the different language domains such as phonological awareness, listening comprehension, vocabulary knowledge (receptive and expressive), narrative speech, morphological awareness, pragmatics, as well emergent literacy skills (letter sound knowledge and invented writing) in Greek-speaking 4-7 years old children. More specifically, Logometro® has been designed in order to: (a) map individual language development paths as well as difficulties, (b) provide a descriptive profile of children's oral language and emergent literacy skills, and (c) assist in the identification of children who are at risk for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) or Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). The sample consisted of 926 children aged from 4 to 7 years, which were recruited from diverse geographical provinces and represented a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds in Greece. Eight hundred participants were typically developing children (N boys = 384 and N girls = 416), 126 children (N SLI = 44 and N SLD = 82) represented children with Special Educational Needs, and 126 children were typically developing peers matched for gender and age with the clinical groups. The administration lasted 90 min, depending on the participant's age and competence. Validity (construct, criterion, convergent, discriminant, and predictive) as well as internal consistency and test-retest reliability were assessed. Results indicated that Logometro® is characterized by good psychometric properties and can constitute a norm-referenced battery of oral language and emergent literacy skills. It could be used to inform the professionals as well as the researchers about a child's language strengths and weaknesses and form the basis on which they can design an appropriate individualized intervention if needed.

Examining the relationship between oral language skills and executive functions: Evidence from Greek-speaking 4-5-year-old children with and without Developmental Language Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have been found to demonstrate low performance in Executive Functions (EFs). However, the evidence-based data is so far scarce, especially for 4-5-year-old children. Most of the existing research involves English-speaking populations, while very few studies have been carried out with non-English-speaking populations. Nevertheless, it is documented that possible differences in the language-cognition relations may exist due to the specific characteristics of each language, and studies across different languages could contribute to the above. AIMS: The present study aimed to systematically investigate the profile of oral language and EF skills (verbal and nonverbal) and the way these skills are related with each other in 4-5-year-old Greek-speaking children with and without DLD. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Fifty-three 4-5-year-old children (age range: 51- 57 months) with DLD, and 62 Typically Developing (TD) peers (age range: 51- 57 months) were assessed on a standardized psychometric battery for oral language skills (phonological and morphological awareness, oral language comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, narrative speech and pragmatics) and on a series of verbal (v) and nonverbal (nv) tasks tapping EFs skills (updating-accuracy, inhibition -accuracy and reaction time-, and cognitive flexibility). OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Children with DLD demonstrated statistically significant lower performance across all oral language measures in comparison to their TD peers. Additionally, they performed significantly lower in the updating (nv) task, as well as in cognitive flexibility (v & nv) in comparison to the TD group. Further regression analyses demonstrated that updating (nv), inhibition (nv) and cognitive flexibility (v) predicted oral language comprehension in children with DLD while updating (v & nv), inhibition-reaction time (nv) and cognitive flexibility (v & nv) predicted phonological and morphological awareness, oral language comprehension, narrative speech as well as total language score in TD children. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: These results provide important information about the profile of oral language and EF skills in children with DLD compared to their TD peers as well as on the relationship of these skills in both groups. The findings also suggest that improving EFs skills may be a possible way for improving oral language skills in young children with DLD. Our findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical as well as practical implications regarding the diagnostic and intervention procedures for children with DLD.

Children's vocabulary and friendships: A comparative study between children with and without Specific Learning Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Language skills are important in the formation and maintenance of friendships. Children with specific learning disorder (SLD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience difficulties with their relationships and have language-related problems. This study aims to examine how expressive and receptive vocabulary may relate to friendships of children with and without SLD or ADHD. Participants were 64 children with SLD, 64 children with ADHD, and 64 typically developing (TD) children, aged 8-12 years (Mage  = 9.77 years, SD = 1.22), attending Grades 3 to 6 in inclusive primary schools of Attica, Greece. The Greek versions of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the expressive vocabulary subscale of the WISC-III were administered along with the sociometric nominations of friends and the self-reports of best friendship duration. Results showed that children with SLD and ADHD reported best friendships of shorter duration and had significantly poorer receptive and expressive vocabulary. Children with ADHD had significantly fewer close and best friends than children with SLD, who in turn had significantly fewer close and best friends than the TD children. Children's vocabulary in all three groups was positively correlated with the duration of their best friendships and was found to moderately predict children's close friendships.

Executive Function, Working Memory, and Verbal Fluency in Relation to Non-Verbal Intelligence in Greek-Speaking School-Age Children with Developmental Language Disorder.

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is often associated with impairments in working memory (WM), executive functions (EF), and verbal fluency. Moreover, increasing evidence shows poorer performance of children with DLD on non-verbal intelligence tests relative to their typically developing (TD) peers. Yet, the degree and generality of relevant difficulties remain unclear. The present study aimed at investigating WM capacity, key EFs and verbal fluency in relation to non-verbal intelligence in Greek-speaking school-age children with DLD, compared to TD peers (8-9 years). To our knowledge, the present study is the first to attempt a systematic relevant assessment with Greek-speaking school-age children, complementing previous studies mostly involving English-speaking participants. The results showed that children with DLD scored lower than TD peers on the non-verbal intelligence measure. Groups did not differ in the inhibition measures obtained (tapping resistance to either distractor or proactive interference), but children with DLD were outperformed by TD peers in the WM capacity, updating, monitoring (mixing cost), and verbal fluency (phonological and semantic) measures. The effects showed limited (in the case of backward digit recall) or no dependence on non-verbal intelligence. Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications as well as in relation to future lines of research.

Oral Language and Story Retelling During Preschool and Primary School Years: Developmental Patterns and Interrelationships.

Oral language and narrative skills constitute very critical factors for children's academic performance and social competence. The aim of the present study was to investigate the developmental patterns of story retelling, as well as the relationship between oral language and story retelling in preschool and primary school children. Two hundred and thirty-seven Greek-speaking children (4-5, 5-6 and 6-7 years old) participated in the study. Vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, morphological awareness skills and pragmatics were examined through a standardized psychometric test. Story retelling was measured by inviting the children to listen to a story and then retell it. Children's narratives were evaluated according to microstructure (use of conjunctions and lexical cohesion) and macrostructure (story grammar and temporal sequencing) criteria. The results showed that children performed better as they got older across all the oral language and story retelling tasks. Structural equation modeling revealed that vocabulary skills stand out as a stable predictor across all the three age groups. A new finding was also demonstrated, highlighting that morphological awareness, phonological awareness skills and pragmatics work together with vocabulary skills in diverse patterns at different points of a child's development, in order to support his/her ability to retell a story.