Locus of nonword repetition impairments in Mandarin-speaking children with developmental language disorder.

Current theories of nonword repetition (NWR) impairments for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are developed predominantly using data from Indo-European languages. Seldom have relevant theories been attested to the morph-syllabic language Mandarin Chinese. The present research aimed to explore the locus of NWR impairments for Mandarin children with DLD. 80 Mandarin-speaking children with typical development (TD) and 80 children with DLD were compared on nonword repetition accuracy and error types. It was a three-factor design with language groups (children with DLD vs. TD children) as the between-subjects factor, and components (onset, rhyme, and tone) and syllable numbers (one to four syllables) as the within-subjects factors. The analysis showed that both groups had less accuracy on the two phonological segments (onset and rhyme) relative to tone and showed more errors in multi-syllable nonwords. Children with DLD exhibited more noticeable errors in onsets and rhymes, although they did not display similar issues with tones compared to TD children. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that children with DLD had pronounced errors in onsets, especially in repeating multi-syllable nonwords. Error type analysis revealed that children with DLD displayed more multiple than single errors in nonword repetition. The results support the "segment-to-frame association" theory, suggesting that Mandarin children with DLD are constrained in the concurrent mapping process between onsets, rhymes, and tones.

Characterizing macro- and micro-structures of narrative skills for Mandarin-speaking school-age children with specific language impairment.

INTRODUCTION: Little is known about the narrative skills of Mandarin-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). This study was aimed to capture the features of narratives for school-age Mandarin-speaking children with SLI. METHODS: Oral narrative samples by 55 Mandarin-speaking children with SLI [higher grades, recruited from Grade 4-5, n = 26, Mage = 11.00 years, SD = 0.56; lower grades, recruited from Grade 1-3, n = 29, Mage = 8.05 years, SD = 0.89] were compared with typically developing (TD) children on macro- and micro-structures of narratives. RESULTS: The results revealed that across grades, for macrostructure, children with SLI lagged behind TD children in narrative pattern scores. For microstructure, children with SLI were constrained in the total number of words, the total number of different words, and the mean length of utterance. They also used fewer serial verb constructions, clausal objects, and temporality conjunctions. They were less adequate in the three referential functions of introduction, maintenance, and switch. Furthermore, the results showed that older children demonstrated higher narrative pattern scores, longer MLU, and higher proportions of conjunctions and referential forms of switch. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that both macro- and micro-structure measures in narratives are sensitive to linguistic difficulties for children with SLI and that some of these measures are sensitive to grade growth. The findings shed light on the assessment and developmental changes of school-age Mandarin-speaking children with SLI and TD children.