Individual variation in bilingual vocabulary in preschoolers with developmental language disorder.

BACKGROUND: It is unclear how speech production, selective attention, and phonological working memory are related to first- (L1) and second-language (L2) vocabularies in bilingual preschoolers with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). AIMS: To study individual variation in vocabularies in DLD bilingual preschoolers by (1) comparing them to typically developing (TD) bilingual, and TD and DLD monolingual peers; (2) differentially predicting L2 vocabulary; and (3) identifying and characterizing bilinguals' L1/L2 vocabulary profiles. METHODS: We measured the selective attention, working memory, and L1 Turkish/Polish (where applicable) and L1/L2 Dutch speech and vocabulary abilities of 31 DLD bilingual, 37 TD bilingual, and 61 DLD and 54 TD Dutch monolingual three-to-five year-olds. RESULTS: DLD bilinguals scored lower than TD bilinguals and TD/DLD monolinguals on all measures, except L2 vocabulary, where all bilinguals underperformed all monolinguals. Selective attention predicted Dutch vocabulary across groups. Three bilingual vocabulary profiles emerged: DLD bilinguals were less likely to be L1 dominant, TD/DLD bilinguals with better attention more often had a Balanced high L1/L2 profile, while those with poorer selective attention and L1 speech tended to be L2 dominant. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the roles of L1 speech and selective attention, rather than L2 speech and working memory, in understanding bilingual vocabulary variation among DLD preschoolers.

Improving social emotional functioning in adolescents with Developmental Language Disorders: A mini review and recommendations.

Adolescents with Developmental Language Disorders (DLD) have more difficulties in social emotional functioning than their typically developing peers (TD), such as shyness and anxiety in social situations, fewer peer relations, greater risk of victimization, social isolation and depression. In addition, they are more likely to report higher levels of hyperactivity and conduct problems. These problems derive from a complex interplay between difficulties in language, social communication, underlying cognitive deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM), Executive Functioning (EF) and self-directed speech (SDS). The aim of this mini review is to provide an overview of studies examining the effectiveness of interventions targeting the factors underlying social emotional functioning of school-aged children and adolescents with DLD. We found that studies dedicated to social emotional functioning in school-aged children and adolescents with DLD were relatively scarce. Based on this overview, we give suggestions to improve social emotional functioning in adolescents with DLD. We propose that intervention programs should target the social, linguistic and cognitive functions underlying social emotional functioning and create opportunities to practice these skills in daily, real-life situations with peers.

Beyond the Senses: How Self-Directed Speech and Word Meaning Structure Impact Executive Functioning and Theory of Mind in Individuals With Hearing and Language Problems.

Many individuals with developmental language disorder (DLD) and individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) have social-emotional problems, such as social difficulties, and show signs of aggression, depression, and anxiety. These problems can be partly associated with their executive functions (EFs) and theory of mind (ToM). The difficulties of both groups in EF and ToM may in turn be related to self-directed speech (i.e., overt or covert speech that is directed at the self). Self-directed speech is thought to allow for the construction of non-sensory representations (i.e., representations that do not coincide with direct observation). Such non-sensory representations allow individuals to overcome the limits set upon them by the senses. This ability is constrained by the development of word meaning structure (i.e., the way words are understood). We argue that the greater ability to construct non-sensory representations may result in more enhanced forms of EF and ToM. We conclude that difficulties in EF, ToM, and social-emotional functioning in those with hearing and language problems may be accounted for in terms of word meaning impairments. We propose that word meaning structure and self-directed speech should be considered in assigning EF and ToM treatments to individuals with DLD and those who are D/HH.

Contributions of emotional state and attention to the processing of syntactic agreement errors: evidence from P600.

The classic account of language is that language processing occurs in isolation from other cognitive systems, like perception, motor action, and emotion. The central theme of this paper is the relationship between a participant's emotional state and language comprehension. Does emotional context affect how we process neutral words? Recent studies showed that processing of word meaning - traditionally conceived as an automatic process - is affected by emotional state. The influence of emotional state on syntactic processing is less clear. One study reported a mood-related P600 modulation, while another study did not observe an effect of mood on syntactic processing. The goals of this study were: First, to clarify whether and if so how mood affects syntactic processing. Second, to shed light on the underlying mechanisms by separating possible effects of mood from those of attention on syntactic processing. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read syntactically correct or incorrect sentences. Mood (happy vs. sad) was manipulated by presenting film clips. Attention was manipulated by directing attention to syntactic features vs. physical features. The mood induction was effective. Interactions between mood, attention and syntactic correctness were obtained, showing that mood and attention modulated P600. The mood manipulation led to a reduction in P600 for sad as compared to happy mood when attention was directed at syntactic features. The attention manipulation led to a reduction in P600 when attention was directed at physical features compared to syntactic features for happy mood. From this we draw two conclusions: First, emotional state does affect syntactic processing. We propose mood-related differences in the reliance on heuristics as the underlying mechanism. Second, attention can contribute to emotion-related ERP effects in syntactic language processing. Therefore, future studies on the relation between language and emotion will have to control for effects of attention.

Immediate integration of novel meanings: N400 support for an embodied view of language comprehension.

A substantial part of language understanding depends on our previous experiences, but part of it consists of the creation of new meanings. Such new meanings cannot be retrieved from memory but still have to be constructed. The goals of this article were: first, to explore the nature of new meaning creation, and second, to test abstract symbol theories against embodied theories of meaning. We presented context-setting sentences followed by a test sentence to which ERPs were recorded that described a novel sensible or novel senseless situation (e.g., "The boys searched for branches/bushes [sensible/senseless] with which they went drumming..."). Novel sensible contexts that were not associatively nor semantically related were matched to novel senseless contexts in terms of familiarity and semantic similarity by Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). Abstract symbol theories like LSA cannot explain facilitation for novel sensible situations, whereas the embodied theory of Glenberg and Robertson [Glenberg, A.M., Robertson, D.A., 2000. Symbol grounding and meaning: A comparison of high-dimensional and embodied theories of meaning. Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 379-401.] in which meaning is grounded in perception and action can account for facilitation. Experiment 1 revealed an N400 effect in a sensibility judgment task. Experiment 2 demonstrated that this effect generalizes to a situation in which participants read for comprehension. Our findings support the following conclusions: First, participants can establish new meanings not stored in memory. Second, this is the first ERP study that shows that N400 is sensitive to new meanings and that these are created immediately - that is, in the same time frame as associative and semantic relations. Third, our N400 effects support embodied theories of meaning and challenge abstract symbol theories that can only discover meaningfulness by consulting stored symbolic knowledge.