Narrative skill and syntactic complexity in school-age children with and without late language emergence.

BACKGROUND: Children who do not produce single words by the expected age have been described as 'late talkers' or as demonstrating 'late language emergence' (LLE). Although their short-term growth in vocabulary is often strong, longer-term consequences of LLE remain in dispute. It has been argued that the majority of school-age children who had LLE move into the average range for narrative production, though studies have not examined narrative comprehension. It has also been argued that school-age children with LLE score in the average range on standardized tests of syntax, though studies have not examined performance in conversational contexts. AIMS: This article compared school-age children with and without histories of LLE for performance on standardized narrative comprehension and production tasks, as well as the use of complex sentences and relative clauses in narration and conversation. Both complex syntax and relative clause use are reduced in children with specific language impairment (SLI), so these structures may be useful as indicators of linguistic weakness. METHODS & PROCEDURES: The participants were twenty-two 8-year-old children, divided into two groups. Eleven children who had been diagnosed with LLE at 30 months were compared with a control group of 11 children with typical development (TD). All participants completed a standardized test of narrative comprehension and production and a 10-min conversational sample. Both narrative and conversational samples were analysed for the number of complex sentences and relative clauses. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Overall results indicated that children with a history of LLE did not have comprehension or production scores that were significantly different from the TD group on the standardized narrative test; nor did groups differ for production of complex sentences or relative clauses in narrative samples. However, a significant difference was found for the production of complex sentences in conversational samples, with the children diagnosed with LLE producing fewer complex sentences than the TD group. There was no difference between groups for relative clause use in conversation or in narratives. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: These data suggest that children with a history of LLE may exhibit age-appropriate performance on a standardized narrative test, but still lack the syntactic complexity of their TD peers in conversation. Assessments for school-age children with a history of language delay should include analysis of syntactic complexity in conversation to identify continuing weakness. Future research should examine use of other specific types of complex structures (e.g. infinitival and clausal complements) in this population, as well the feasibility of increasing complex sentence production through intervention. In addition, future studies should examine whether this decreased production of complex syntax in conversation is noted by naive listeners.

Systematic review of the literature on the treatment of children with late language emergence.

BACKGROUND: Research has indicated that 24-36-month-olds with late language emergence ('late talkers') are at risk for later language-learning difficulties. Previous reviews have examined the efficacy of treatment for children with language delay/disorders; however, no systematic review has examined the effects of language treatment specifically for children with late language emergence. AIMS: This systematic review reports the effects of intervention studies conducted between 1985 and 2008 of 24-36-month-olds with late language emergence. MAIN CONTRIBUTION: Eleven studies that included a total of 275 participants were located, synthesized, and appraised for quality. Studies varied significantly with respect to methodological quality, with seven of the eleven receiving moderately strong quality scores. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Treatment for children with late language emergence improved performance on formal measures of language, mean length of utterance, and target word use as indicated by medium to large effect sizes in these good-quality studies. Treatment descriptions and clinical implications are provided. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: There is evidence to suggest that focused stimulation and modelling of single words can lead to improvements in the language of children with late language emergence. Subsequent treatment studies should examine the application of these effective treatments to larger, population-based samples. Future treatment studies would also benefit from specific examination of children's receptive language level and inclusion of children with late language emergence who vary in socio-economic status and/or ethnicity.

Articulatory behaviors of nonnative speakers: role of l2 proficiency and accent modification.

To sound native-like, nonnative speakers need to approximate the articulatory patterns of native speakers. When nonnative speakers deviate from native speakers' production patterns, it gives rise to a nonnative accent. This study examines how proficiency in a second language (L2) is related to processing skills in L2, as measured by the accuracy of consonant production. 10 monolingual speakers of American English, 10 Bengali-English bilinguals with high proficiency in English, and 10 Bengali-English bilinguals with low proficiency in English participated. The participants spoke 16 nonwords of four different syllable lengths. Productions were phonetically transcribed. Results suggested that nonnative speakers' L2 proficiency differentially interacted with overall phonemic accuracy, usage of appropriate place, manner and voicing features, position of consonants within target words, and syllable length. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of customized strategies for modification of nonnative accents.