Patterns in German /ʃC/-cluster acquisition.

This study reports on the developmental patterns of /ʃC/ clusters in 145 normally developing monolingual German-speaking children between 2;00 and 2;11. All children completed a picture naming task to allow a systematic qualitative analysis of the production patterns. Children's reductions of target /ʃC/clusters are examined and are evaluated with respect to two models, 'factorial typology' and 'headedness', to account for them. The results reveal expected patterns of C2 retention for '/ʃ/+[-continuant]' (e.g. '/ʃ/+stop' and '/ʃ/+nasal') targets, and a rather indeterminate pattern for /ʃl/ and /ʃʁ/. The results for /ʃv/, a clear-cut preference of C2 retention, were rather unexpected, as the C2 is a [+continuant]. The explanation offered for the retention of /v/ is related to a place constraint. The study also examines the data from children who reached an advanced stage of cluster formation with differential targets. More specifically, in several children, one target, /ʃv/, is found to have stayed behind in the reduction phase while all others have advanced to the 'cluster stage'. Neither the type nor the token frequencies seem satisfactory in accounting for the specific behaviour of /ʃv/. The explanation offered for the uniqueness of this target may be its non-abidence to the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) because of its flat sonority and the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) [continuant], because of the unchanging 'continuance' which is demanded by the OCP. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Phonological awareness in German-speaking preschool children with cochlear implants - 3 case examples.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to explore PA skills German-speaking preschool children with cochlea implants (CIs) and how these skills may be related to their speech and language skills. METHODS: Three monolingual German-speaking pre-school children aged 5;04-6;01 with bilateral CIs were tested. Their cognitive, speech and language skills were assessed. Six subtests of a standardized PA test battery were administered (i.e. rhyme identification, rhyme production; phoneme identification- input and -output; phoneme blending-input and -output). RESULTS: All three children showed distinctive PA profiles. One boy, who had no spoken language deficits, struggled to complete the rhyme tasks but performed well on three phoneme tasks. However, he showed a discrepancy between expressive and receptive phoneme blending skills, scoring poorly on the expressive subtest. The second boy, who displayed grammar comprehension and expressive vocabulary difficulties, showed a mixed profile, with a below average performance on rhyme production. The girl who had significant speech and language deficits scored below average on all six PA subtests. CONCLUSIONS: PA profiles in children with CI vary considerably and PA testing should include a range of different PA tasks. The assumed link between spoken language deficits and PA difficulties shown in children with normal hearing could be confirmed.

Early literacy and comprehension skills in children learning English as an additional language and monolingual children with language weaknesses.

Many children learning English as an additional language (EAL) show reading comprehension difficulties despite adequate decoding. However, the relationship between early language and reading comprehension in this group is not fully understood. The language and literacy skills of 80 children learning English from diverse language backgrounds and 80 monolingual English-speaking peers with language weaknesses were assessed at school entry (mean age = 4 years, 7 months) and after 2 years of schooling in the UK (mean age = 6 years, 3 months). The EAL group showed weaker language skills and stronger word reading than the monolingual group but no difference in reading comprehension. Individual differences in reading comprehension were predicted by variations in decoding and language comprehension in both groups to a similar degree.

The acquisition of initial consonant clusters in German-speaking 2-year-olds.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to explore cluster acquisition in typically developing German-speaking 2-year-olds. METHOD: Data from four cross-sectional studies (n = 145, aged 2;00-2;11) and one eight-month longitudinal study were analysed (n = 6, aged 2;01-2;04). Two different percentages of consonant clusters correct were calculated to allow a more detailed analysis. RESULT: Findings showed that the majority of children produced clusters, although they could not be considered to be fully acquired. Correct production significantly correlated with age. Only /gl/ and /kl/ were shown to be phonetically and phonemically acquired (75% criterion) in the older age group. Three-element clusters were acquired at the same time as 2-element clusters and /∫/-clusters were acquired to the same or larger extent as non-/∫/ clusters when fronting/backing of /∫/ was accepted. Younger children produced more reductions than simplifications but this effect was less strong for the /∫/-clusters. Developmental realisation patterns varied depending on cluster type. Inter- and intra-individual developmental patterns could be observed which changed depending on the time of testing. CONCLUSION: Findings on cluster acquisition in 2-year-old German-speaking children revealed language-specific differences but also similarities in comparison with results from other languages. All but two children produced clusters. However, individual variation between children was high.

Phonological awareness development in children with and without spoken language difficulties: A 12-month longitudinal study of German-speaking pre-school children.

PURPOSE: There is strong empirical evidence that English-speaking children with spoken language difficulties (SLD) often have phonological awareness (PA) deficits. The aim of this study was to explore longitudinally if this is also true of pre-school children speaking German, a language that makes extensive use of derivational morphemes which may impact on the acquisition of different PA levels. METHOD: Thirty 4-year-old children with SLD were assessed on 11 PA subtests at three points over a 12-month period and compared with 97 four-year-old typically developing (TD) children. RESULT: The TD-group had a mean percentage correct of over 50% for the majority of tasks (including phoneme tasks) and their PA skills developed significantly over time. In contrast, the SLD-group improved their PA performance over time on syllable and rhyme, but not on phoneme level tasks. Group comparisons revealed that children with SLD had weaker PA skills, particularly on phoneme level tasks. CONCLUSION: The study contributes a longitudinal perspective on PA development before school entry. In line with their English-speaking peers, German-speaking children with SLD showed poorer PA skills than TD peers, indicating that the relationship between SLD and PA is similar across these two related but different languages.

Onset and phoneme awareness and its relationship to letter knowledge in German-speaking preschool children.

OBJECTIVES: The aim was to explore whether word-initial onset awareness is acquired before phoneme awareness and whether onset complexity influences performance on identification tasks. In addition, the relationship between onset and phoneme awareness and letter knowledge was investigated. METHOD: In this study, 22 monolingual German-speaking preschool children aged 5;00-5;11 were tested. Onset, phoneme identification, and letter knowledge tasks were administered. The children were presented with pictures of word pairs. Both words in each pair shared a single-consonant onset, a two-consonant onset cluster or the first consonant of a consonant cluster. The children were asked to pronounce the shared sound(s). Additionally, they were asked to name all 26 upper-case letters. RESULTS: Onset awareness tasks were significantly easier to complete than phoneme awareness tasks. However, no influence of onset complexity on onset awareness performance was found. Moreover, letter knowledge correlated with all phonological awareness tasks. CONCLUSIONS: The results corroborate that phoneme awareness develops already at preschool age irrespective of explicit literacy tuition. Nevertheless, letter knowledge is closely related and should be linked to onset/phoneme awareness tasks.

Socio-economic status and language acquisition: children's performance on the new Reynell Developmental Language Scales.

BACKGROUND: Several studies in recent years have indicated a link between socio-economic status (SES) of families and children's language development, including studies that have measured children's language through formal standardized test procedures. High numbers of children with low performance have been found in lower socio-economic groups in some studies. This has proved a cause for concern for both clinicians and educationalists. AIMS: To investigate the relationship between maternal education and postcode-related indicators of SES, and children's performance on the New Reynell Developmental Scales (NRDLS). METHODS & PROCEDURES: Participants were 1266 children aged between 2;00 and 7;06 years who were recruited for the standardization of a new assessment procedure (NRDLS). Children were divided into four groups reflecting years of maternal education, and five groups reflecting SES Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) quintiles for the location of participating schools and nurseries. Groups were compared using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with age as a covariate, in order to identify which might be affected by the two SES variables. Where relationships were found between SES and performance on the scales, individual children's standard scores were looked at to determine numbers potentially at risk for language delay. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: An effect of years of maternal education on performance was found such that children whose mothers had minimum years performed less well than other children in the study, this effect being stronger for younger children. Children attending schools or nurseries in IMD quintile 1 areas performed less well in language production. Higher than expected numbers with language delay were found for younger children whose mothers had minimum years of education, and for children in quintile 1 schools and nurseries; however, numbers were not as high as noted in some other studies. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Characteristics of the participant sample and measures used for language and SES may explain these results and are important considerations when interpreting results of studies or developing policies for intervention. The usefulness of commonly used categories of language delay is questioned.

Development of a test battery for assessing phonological awareness in German-speaking children.

The development of phonological awareness (PA), the ability to reflect on the sound structure of words independent of their meaning, has been extensively explored in English-speaking children. However, this is not the case for other languages. The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive PA test battery for German-speaking preschool children, considering psycholinguistic, linguistic, and cognitive aspects and to carry out analyses of its psychometric properties. Cross-sectional data from a sample of 55 children (CA 4;0-6;11 years) were collected. Preliminary findings confirm validity and reliability of the test battery, and support previous findings that PA develops from larger to smaller linguistic units. Phoneme-level tasks were consistently associated with letter knowledge. The new instrument is a promising tool for basic research (e.g. cross-linguistic comparisons of PA development) as well as for clinical and educational practice (e.g. planning speech and language therapy or literacy-oriented intervention).