"HEGA": the Basque version of the PaBiQ parental questionnaire, for clinicians and educators working in the Basque multilingual environment.

In this paper, we investigate the relevance of using a parental questionnaire (HEGA) to gather information on children's language experience in Basque and early language development in order to better interpret language performance in that language. Both this questionnaire and use of language assessment in Basque are needed in the Basque Country, where multilingualism is well attested. The questionnaire was developed after the PaBiQ with additional questions meant to reflect the Basque context, notably its schooling linguistic model. The HEGA was administered to the parents of 186 bilingual children of the Northern Basque Country (age 4;2-9;1) whose language skills in Basque were assessed via a new test battery targeting different linguistic domains (HIGA). Several significant correlations were found between exposure to, and use of Basque and performance in lexical and morphosyntactic production and comprehension. Mixed-effect regression analyses revealed that language experience in Basque, and particularly the fact of being schooled entirely in Basque, were strong predictors of lexical and morphosyntactic outcomes. In contrast, phonological performance, as measured by nonword repetition, appeared to be less impacted by language experience in Basque. Finally, two children were identified as being at risk of language impairment, due to low language performance in Basque despite extended language experience. These results have important implications for clinicians and educators, in particular for detecting language difficulties in Basque-speaking bilingual children. They also show the need for assessing language abilities in Basque for children growing up in a solid Basque-speaking environment.

Language in autism: domains, profiles and co-occurring conditions.

This article reviews the current knowledge state on pragmatic and structural language abilities in autism and their potential relation to extralinguistic abilities and autistic traits. The focus is on questions regarding autism language profiles with varying degrees of (selective) impairment and with respect to potential comorbidity of autism and language impairment: Is language impairment in autism the co-occurrence of two distinct conditions (comorbidity), a consequence of autism itself (no comorbidity), or one possible combination from a series of neurodevelopmental properties (dimensional approach)? As for language profiles in autism, three main groups are identified, namely, (i) verbal autistic individuals without structural language impairment, (ii) verbal autistic individuals with structural language impairment, and (iii) minimally verbal autistic individuals. However, this tripartite distinction hides enormous linguistic heterogeneity. Regarding the nature of language impairment in autism, there is currently no model of how language difficulties may interact with autism characteristics and with various extralinguistic cognitive abilities. Building such a model requires carefully designed explorations that address specific aspects of language and extralinguistic cognition. This should lead to a fundamental increase in our understanding of language impairment in autism, thereby paving the way for a substantial contribution to the question of how to best characterize neurodevelopmental disorders.

Coconuts and curtain cakes: The production of wh-questions in ASD.

Background and aims: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been found to exhibit difficulties in wh-question production. It is unclear whether these difficulties are pragmatic or syntactic in nature. The current study used a question elicitation task to assess the production of subject and object wh-questions of children with ASD in two different languages (Hebrew and French) wherein the syntactic structure of wh-questions is different, a fact that may contribute to better understanding of the underlying deficits affecting wh-question production. Crucially, beyond the general correct/error rate we also performed an in-depth analysis of error types, comparing syntactic to pragmatic errors and comparing the distribution of errors in the ASD group to that of children with typical development (TD) and children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Results: Correct production rates were found to be similar for the ASD and DLD groups, but error analysis revealed important differences between the ASD groups in the two languages and the DLD group. The Hebrew- and French ASD groups were found to produce pragmatic errors, which were not found in children with DLD. The pragmatic errors were similar in the two ASD groups. Syntactic errors were affected by the structure of each language. Conclusions: Our results have shown that although the two ASD groups come from different countries and speak different languages, the correct production rates and more importantly, the error types were very similar in the two ASD groups, and very different compared to TD children and children with DLD.Implications: Our results highlight the importance of creating research tasks that test different linguistic functions independently and strengthen the need for conducting fine-grained error analysis to differentiate between groups and gain insights into the deficits underlying each of them.

Identifying Language and Cognitive Profiles in Children With ASD via a Cluster Analysis Exploration: Implications for the New ICD-11.

The new version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) mentions the existence of four different profiles in the verbal part of the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), describing them as combinations of either spared or impaired functional language and intellectual abilities. The aim of the present study was to put ASD heterogeneity to the forefront by exploring whether clear profiles related to language and intellectual abilities emerge when investigation is extended to the entire spectrum, focusing on verbal children. Our study proposed a systematic investigation of both language (specifically, structural language abilities) and intellectual abilities (specifically, nonverbal cognitive abilities) in 51 6- to 12-year-old verbal children with ASD based on explicitly motivated measures. For structural language abilities, sentence repetition and nonword repetition tasks were selected; for nonverbal cognitive abilities, we chose Raven's Progressive Matrices, as well as Matrix Reasoning and Block Design from the Wechsler Scales. An integrative approach based on cluster analyses revealed five distinct profiles. Among these five profiles, all four logically possible combinations of structural language and nonverbal abilities mentioned in the ICD-11 were detected. Three profiles emerged among children with normal language abilities and two emerged among language-impaired children. Crucially, the existence of discrepant profiles of abilities suggests that children with ASD can display impaired language in presence of spared nonverbal intelligence or spared language in the presence of impaired nonverbal intelligence, reinforcing the hypothesis of the existence of a separate language module in the brain. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1155-1167. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: The present work put Autism Spectrum Disorder heterogeneity to the forefront by exploring whether clear profiles related to language and cognitive abilities emerge when investigation is extended to the entire spectrum (focusing on verbal children). The use of explicitly motivated measures of both language and cognitive abilities and of an unsupervised machine learning approach, the cluster analysis, (a) confirmed the existence of all four logically possible profiles evoked in the new ICD-11, (b) evoked the existence of (at least) a fifth profile of language/cognitive abilities, and (c) reinforced the hypothesis of a language module in the brain.

Direct heterobenzylic fluorination, difluorination and trifluoromethylthiolation with dibenzenesulfonamide derivatives.

Functionalization of heterocyclic scaffolds with mono- or difluoroalkyl groups provides unique opportunities to modulate drug pKa, influence potency and membrane permeability, and attenuate metabolism. While advances in the addition of fluoroalkyl radicals to heterocycles have been made, direct C(sp3)-H heterobenzylic fluorination is comparatively unexplored. Here we demonstrate both mono- and difluorination of a range of alkyl heterocycles using a convenient process that relies on transient sulfonylation by the electrophilic fluorinating agent N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide. We also report heterobenzylic trifluoromethylthiolation and 18F-fluorination, providing a suite of reactions for late-stage C(sp3)-H functionalization of drug leads and radiotracer discovery.

Identifying language impairment in bilingual children in France and in Germany.

BACKGROUND: The detection of specific language impairment (SLI) in children growing up bilingually presents particular challenges for clinicians. Non-word repetition (NWR) and sentence repetition (SR) tasks have proven to be the most accurate diagnostic tools for monolingual populations, raising the question of the extent of their usefulness in different bilingual populations. AIMS: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of NWR and SR tasks that incorporate phonological/syntactic complexity as discussed in recent linguistic theory. The tasks were developed as part of the Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) toolkit, in two different national settings, France and Germany, and investigated children with three different home languages: Arabic, Portuguese and Turkish. METHODS & PROCEDURES: NWR and SR tasks developed in parallel were administered to 151 bilingual children, aged 5;6-8;11, in France and in Germany, to 64 children in speech-language therapy (SLT) and to 87 children not in SLT, whose first language (L1) was Arabic, Portuguese or Turkish. Children were also administered standardized language tests in each of their languages to determine likely clinical status (typical development (TD) or SLI), and parents responded to a questionnaire including questions about early and current language use (bilingualism factors) and early language development (risk factors for SLI). Monolingual controls included 47 TD children and 29 children with SLI. Results were subjected to inter-group comparisons, to diagnostic accuracy calculation, and to correlation and multiple regression analyses. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: In accordance with previous studies, NWR and SR identified SLI in the monolingual children, yielding good to excellent diagnostic accuracy. Diagnostic accuracy in bilingual children was fair to good, generally distinguishing children likely to have SLI from children likely to have TD. Accuracy was necessarily linked to the determination of clinical status, which was based on standardized assessment in each of the child's languages. Positive early development, a composite risk factor for SLI, and not variables related to language exposure and use, generally emerged as the strongest predictor of performance on the two tasks, constituting additional, independent support for the efficacy of NWR and SR in identifying impairment in bilingual children. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: NWR and SR tasks informed by linguistic theory are appropriate for use as part of the diagnostic process for identifying language impairment in bilingual children for whom the language of assessment is different from the home language, in diverse sociolinguistic contexts.

A strategic plan to identify key neurophysiological mechanisms and brain circuits in autism.

Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) cover a large variety of clinical profiles which share two main dimensions: social and communication impairment and repetitive behaviors or restricted interests, which are present during childhood. There is now no doubt that genetic factors are a major component in the etiology of autism but precise physiopathological pathways are still being investigated. Furthermore, developmental trajectories combined with compensatory mechanisms will lead to various clinical and neurophysiological profiles which together constitute this Autism Spectrum Disorder. To better understand the pathophysiology of autism, comprehension of key neurophysiological mechanisms and brain circuits underlying the different bioclinical profiles is thus crucial. To achieve this goal we propose a strategy which investigates different levels of information processing from sensory perception to complex cognitive processing, taking into account the complexity of the stimulus and whether it is social or non-social in nature. In order to identify different developmental trajectories and to take into account compensatory mechanisms, we further propose that such protocols should be carried out in individuals from childhood to adulthood representing a wide variety of clinical forms.

Efficacy of scalp hair decontamination following exposure to vapours of sulphur mustard simulants 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulphide and methyl salicylate.

Chemical warfare agents are an actual threat and victims' decontamination is a main concern when mass exposure occurs. Skin decontamination with current protocols has been widely documented, as well as surface decontamination. However, considering hair ability to trap chemicals in vapour phase, we investigated hair decontamination after exposure to sulphur mustard simulants methyl salicylate and 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulphide. Four decontamination protocols were tested on hair, combining showering and emergency decontamination (use of Fuller's earth or Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion RSDL®). Both simulants were recovered from hair after treatment, but contents were significantly reduced (42-85% content allowance). Showering alone was the least efficient protocol. Concerning 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulphide, protocols did not display significant differences in decontamination efficacy. For MeS, use of emergency decontaminants significantly increased showering efficacy (10-20% rise), underlining their usefulness before thorough decontamination. Our results highlighted the need to extensively decontaminate hair after chemical exposure. Residual amounts after decontamination are challenging, as their release from hair could lead to health issues.