Effects of a physical education intervention on attention and inhibitory control in Ecuadorian children with intellectual disabilities.

Background: Studies on physical activity interventions indicated a facilitative effect on cognitive performance in persons with intellectual disabilities; however, research is scarce, especially in low/middle-income countries. Aim: We explored the effects of a 6-week enriched physical education program on inhibitory control and attention functions in Ecuadorian children with intellectual disabilities. Methods: Thirty children with mild intellectual disabilities (10-14 years old) were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. Before and after the intervention, attention and inhibitory control were measured using computer-based nonverbal tasks. Results: The findings showed significantly more accurate and faster responses in the vigilance task in the intervention group than in the controls. There were no significant intervention-related changes in inhibitory control; however, there were more prominent accuracy tendencies toward improvement in the intervention group. Conclusions: Results provide evidence of the potential of physical activity programs to enhance attention in this population, which could serve as a mediator for inhibitory control.

Complex working memory in adults with and without stuttering disorders: Performance patterns and predictive relationships.

PURPOSE: Available studies of working memory (WM) in speakers who stutter tend to rely on parent report, focus on phonological WM, or measure WM in combination with other processes. The present research aimed to: (1) compare complex WM in adults who stutter (AWS) and adults who do not stutter (AWNS); (2) characterize group performance patterns; and (2) determine whether WM predicts stuttering severity. METHODS: Eighteen AWS and 20 AWNS completed parallel verbal and spatial span tasks in which to-be-remembered items were interleaved with a distracting task across varying set sizes. Dependent variables included the number of correctly recalled items, accuracy on distraction tasks, and detailed analyses of item-level responses. We further examined whether span scores predicted subjective and objective measures of stuttering severity. RESULTS: Relative to AWNS, AWS showed poorer recall, specifically on short set sizes in the spatial task. Groups performed similarly on distraction tasks and showed comparable error patterns. Predictive relationships differed by span task and severity measure. Lower verbal span scores predicted greater stuttering impact and more overt stuttering behaviors; lower spatial span scores predicted lower impact and was unrelated to overt behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that AWS differ subtly from AWNS in WM performance. Group differences became more apparent under certain task conditions but could not be attributed to specific underlying processes. Data further indicated a complex relationship between WM and stuttering severity. Overall, results corroborate previous studies linking stuttering to domain-general weaknesses, but highlight the need for additional research to clarify the nature of this relationship.

Are prosodic effects on sentence comprehension dependent on age?

PURPOSE: to investigate prosodic boundary effects on the comprehension of attachment ambiguities in Brazilian Portuguese and to test two hypotheses relying on the notion of boundary strength: the absolute boundary hypothesis (ABH) and the relative boundary hypothesis (RBH). Manipulations of prosodic structure influence how listeners interpret syntactically ambiguous sentences. However, the role of prosody in spoken language comprehension of sentences has received limited attention in languages other than English, particularly from a developmental perspective. METHODS: Twenty-three adults and 15 children participated in a computerized sentence comprehension task involving syntactically ambiguous sentences. Each sentence was recorded in eight different prosodic forms with acoustic manipulations of F0, duration and pause varying the boundary size to reflect predictions of the ABH and RBH. RESULTS: Children and adults differed in how prosody influenced their syntactic processing and children were significantly slower than adults. Results indicated that interpretation of sentences varied according to their prosodic forms. CONCLUSION: Neither the ABH or the RBH explained how children and adults who speak Brazilian Portuguese use prosodic boundaries to disambiguate sentences. There is evidence that the way prosodic boundaries influence disambiguation varies cross-linguistically.

The effect of sentence length on question comprehension in children with cochlear implants.

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated the comprehension of subject and object who and which questions in children with cochlear implants (CI). METHODS: Growth Curve Analysis (GCA) was used to compare eye gaze fixations and gaze patterns to the appropriate subject or object nouns within a four-picture array between 16 children with CI and 31 children with typical hearing (aged 7;0-12;0) on wh-questions with and without added adjectives to increase length. Offline accuracy was also compared. RESULTS: Findings indicated children with typical hearing exhibited more fixations to the target noun across all conditions, supporting higher comprehension accuracy. Both groups of children demonstrated more fixations to the target noun in object questions and questions without added length. Patterns of eye movement were significantly different between groups, suggesting different patterns of eye gaze across the array before fixation on the target noun. Children with CI exhibited fewer fixations, slower speed to fixation, and differences in gaze patterns that may imply the presence of processing limitations. Error analyses also suggested that children with CI frequently fixated on a picture similar to the target noun. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate children with CI comprehend questions more slowly than their hearing peers, which may be related to limitations in working memory.

Are prosodic effects on sentence comprehension dependent on age? / Os efeitos prosódicos na compreensão de frases variam de acordo com a idade?

ABSTRACT Purpose to investigate prosodic boundary effects on the comprehension of attachment ambiguities in Brazilian Portuguese and to test two hypotheses relying on the notion of boundary strength: the absolute boundary hypothesis (ABH) and the relative boundary hypothesis (RBH). Manipulations of prosodic structure influence how listeners interpret syntactically ambiguous sentences. However, the role of prosody in spoken language comprehension of sentences has received limited attention in languages other than English, particularly from a developmental perspective. Methods Twenty-three adults and 15 children participated in a computerized sentence comprehension task involving syntactically ambiguous sentences. Each sentence was recorded in eight different prosodic forms with acoustic manipulations of F0, duration and pause varying the boundary size to reflect predictions of the ABH and RBH. Results Children and adults differed in how prosody influenced their syntactic processing and children were significantly slower than adults. Results indicated that interpretation of sentences varied according to their prosodic forms. Conclusion Neither the ABH or the RBH explained how children and adults who speak Brazilian Portuguese use prosodic boundaries to disambiguate sentences. There is evidence that the way prosodic boundaries influence disambiguation varies cross-linguistically.

RESUMO Objetivo investigar os efeitos de fronteiras prosódicas na compreensão de ambiguidades sintáticas no português brasileiro além de testar duas hipóteses baseadas na noção de intensidade de fronteira: a hipótese de fronteira absoluta (ABH) e a hipótese de fronteira relativa (RBH). Manipulações da estrutura prosódica influenciam como os ouvintes interpretam frases sintaticamente ambíguas. No entanto, o papel da prosódia na compreensão da linguagem oral tem recebido atenção limitada em línguas além do inglês, particularmente do ponto de vista do desenvolvimento. Método Vinte e três adultos e 15 crianças participaram de uma tarefa computadorizada de compreensão de frases envolvendo frases sintaticamente ambíguas. Cada frase foi gravada em oito formas prosódicas diferentes com manipulações acústicas de F0, duração, e pausa, variando o tamanho da fronteira prosódica de modo a transparecer as previsões da ABH e RBH. Resultados Crianças e adultos diferiram em como a prosódia influenciou o processamento sintático; as crianças foram significativamente mais lentas que os adultos. Os resultados indicaram que a interpretação das frases variou de acordo com suas formas prosódicas. Conclusão Nenhuma das hipóteses (ABH ou RBH) explica como crianças e adultos falantes do Português brasileiro utilizam as fronteiras prosódicas para desambiguar frases. Há evidências de que a maneira com a qual os limites prosódicos influenciam a desambiguação de frases varia entre os idiomas.

The relationship between proceduralization and cognitive control.

In this paper we discuss the relationship between the proceduralization process and cognitive control. Our discussion is based on theoretical models and clinical practices, with a focus on child language impairment. We argue that the same skill may require more or less cognitive control depending on the differences in contextual conditions.

Effects of different attention tasks on concurrent speech in adults who stutter and fluent controls.

PURPOSE: Motor theories indicate that focusing attention on well-practiced movements interferes with skilled performance; however, specific forms of attention (alerting vs. orienting vs. executive control) associated with this effect are not well understood. The present study explored this question in relation to stuttering, and examined whether dual task conditions that engaged sustained attention or working memory (WM) affected speech fluency in different ways. We also considered whether fluency changes were associated with changes in speech rate and language. METHODS: Nineteen adults who stutter (AWS) and 20 controls produced spontaneous speech under a baseline condition and two dual task conditions: one involving a sustained attention task, the other involving WM demands. RESULTS: Both groups produced fewer stutter-like disfluencies under dual task relative to baseline conditions and this reduction did not differ between the two dual tasks (attention vs. WM). Speech rate and language variables, which were potentially influenced by attention conditions, were not affected by dual tasks in the same way as disfluencies, and appeared to be unassociated with fluency results. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that atypical disfluencies decrease when attention is divided, even when secondary task demands are minimal, as they were in the sustained attention task. For simple secondary tasks, fluency changes do not appear to be a byproduct of slowed rate and are not accompanied by observable changes in language. These results demonstrate that simple manipulations of attention can induce measurable effects on aspects of speech production, and may be a useful tool for facilitating fluency in clinical intervention.

Cognitive Control along the Language Spectrum: From the Typical Bilingual Child to Language Impairment.

Cognitive control refers to the ability to perform goal-directed behaviors in the presence of other compelling actions or in the face of habitual practices. Cognitive control functions play a critical role in children's language processing and literacy development. In recent years, many clinicians have expanded their assessment and treatment to target specific cognitive skills. Our goal is to provide a review of recent findings on cognitive control functions in children with different language status (i.e., monolingual and bilingual children with and without language impairment). While children with language impairment show performance deficits in specific cognitive functions (e.g., working memory updating and interference control), typically developing bilingual children often outperform their monolingual peers in cognitive control tasks. However, the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive control has been controversial. Several factors that influence these variations are discussed. Given the findings on the joint impact of bilingualism and language impairment on cognitive control functions, we identify conditions in which bilingualism attenuates the negative effects of the language deficit and conditions in which language impairment has a stronger effect than bilingualism. Critical issues of bilingual assessment, suggestions, and future directions are discussed.

Prosodic Boundary Effects on Syntactic Disambiguation in Children With Cochlear Implants.

Purpose: This study investigated prosodic boundary effects on the comprehension of attachment ambiguities in children with cochlear implants (CIs) and normal hearing (NH) and tested the absolute boundary hypothesis and the relative boundary hypothesis. Processing speed was also investigated. Method: Fifteen children with NH and 13 children with CIs (ages 8-12 years) who are monolingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese participated in a computerized comprehension task with sentences containing prepositional phrase attachment ambiguity and manipulations of prosodic boundaries. Results: Children with NH and children with CIs differed in how they used prosodic forms to disambiguate sentences. Children in both groups provided responses consistent with half of the predictions of the relative boundary hypothesis. The absolute boundary hypothesis did not characterize the syntactic disambiguation of children with CIs. Processing speed was similar in both groups. Conclusions: Children with CIs do not use prosodic information to disambiguate sentences or to facilitate comprehension of unambiguous sentences similarly to children with NH. The results suggest that cross-linguistic differences may interact with syntactic disambiguation. Prosodic contrasts that affect sentence comprehension need to be addressed directly in intervention with children with CIs.

Is interference control in children with specific language impairment similar to that of children with autistic spectrum disorder?

AIMS: The purpose of the study was to examine resistance to proactive interference, which is strongly associated with working memory (WM) performance and language processing, in children with specific language impairment (SLI), with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and with typical development (TD). METHODS: Sixty children (eight to ten years; matched in age and nonverbal IQ) participated in the study. Resistance to proactive interference was measured using a verbal conflict paradigm. RESULTS: Children with SLI and ASD show a deficit in resistance to proactive interference compared to their TD peers, but the source of the problem appears to be different for the two clinical groups. The interference problem exhibited by the children with SLI is related to a more complex deficit involving different cognitive-linguistic functions, whereas the children with ASD show a specific problem in cognitive flexibility. IMPLICATIONS: The theoretical implications are that poor resistance to interference may be caused by weaknesses in different WM functions, such as a deficit in updating or responses based on familiarity rather than recollection. The clinical implications are that children with SLI and ASD show distinct patterns of performance; therefore they need different types of intervention to strengthen their resistance to proactive interference.

Cognitive flexibility in preschool children with and without stuttering disorders.

PURPOSE: Multifactorial explanations of developmental stuttering suggest that difficulties in self-regulation and weak attentional flexibility contribute to persisting stuttering. We tested this prediction by examining whether preschool-age children who stutter (CWS) shift their attention less flexibly than children who do not stutter (CWNS) during a modified version of the Dimension Card Change Sort (DCCS), a reliable measure of attention switching for young children. METHODS: Sixteen CWS (12 males) and 30 children CWNS (11 males) participated in the study. Groups were matched on age (CWS: M=49.63, SD=10.34, range=38-80months; CWNS: M=50.63, SD=9.82, range=37-74months), cognitive ability, and language skills. All children completed a computer-based variation of the DCCS, in which they matched on-screen bivalent stimuli to response buttons based on rules that switched mid-task. RESULTS: Results showed increased slowing for CWS compared to controls during the postswitch phase, as well as contrasting patterns of speed-accuracy tradeoff for CWS and CWNS as they moved from the preswitch to postswitch phase of the task. CONCLUSIONS: Group differences in performance suggest that early stuttering may be associated with difficulty shifting attention efficiently and greater concern about errors. Findings are consistent with a growing literature indicating links between weak attentional control and persisting developmental stuttering.

Positive effects of a computerised working memory and executive function training on sentence comprehension in aphasia.

Aphasia, the language disorder following brain damage, is frequently accompanied by deficits of working memory (WM) and executive functions (EFs). Recent studies suggest that WM, together with certain EFs, can play a role in sentence comprehension in individuals with aphasia (IWA), and that WM can be enhanced with intensive practice. Our aim was to investigate whether a combined WM and EF training improves the understanding of spoken sentences in IWA. We used a pre-post-test case control design. Three individuals with chronic aphasia practised an adaptive training task (a modified n-back task) three to four times a week for a month. Their performance was assessed before and after the training on outcome measures related to WM and spoken sentence comprehension. One participant showed significant improvement on the training task, another showed a tendency for improvement, and both of them improved significantly in spoken sentence comprehension. The third participant did not improve on the training task, however, she showed improvement on one measure of spoken sentence comprehension. Compared to controls, two individuals improved at least in one condition of the WM outcome measures. Thus, our results suggest that a combined WM and EF training can be beneficial for IWA.

Does Working Memory Enhance or Interfere With Speech Fluency in Adults Who Do and Do Not Stutter? Evidence From a Dual-Task Paradigm.

PURPOSE: The present study examined whether engaging working memory in a secondary task benefits speech fluency. Effects of dual-task conditions on speech fluency, rate, and errors were examined with respect to predictions derived from three related theoretical accounts of disfluencies. METHOD: Nineteen adults who stutter and twenty adults who do not stutter participated in the study. All participants completed 2 baseline tasks: a continuous-speaking task and a working-memory (WM) task involving manipulations of domain, load, and interstimulus interval. In the dual-task portion of the experiment, participants simultaneously performed the speaking task with each unique combination of WM conditions. RESULTS: All speakers showed similar fluency benefits and decrements in WM accuracy as a result of dual-task conditions. Fluency effects were specific to atypical forms of disfluency and were comparable across WM-task manipulations. Changes in fluency were accompanied by reductions in speaking rate but not by corresponding changes in overt errors. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that WM contributes to disfluencies regardless of stuttering status and that engaging WM resources while speaking enhances fluency. Further research is needed to verify the cognitive mechanism involved in this effect and to determine how these findings can best inform clinical intervention.

The effect of plausibility on sentence comprehension among older adults and its relation to cognitive functions.

UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Older adults show age-related decline in complex-sentence comprehension. This has been attributed to a decrease in cognitive abilities that may support language processing, such as working memory (e.g., Caplan, DeDe, Waters, & Michaud, 2011,Psychology and Aging, 26, 439-450). The authors examined whether older adults have difficulty comprehending semantically implausible sentences and whether specific executive functions contribute to their comprehension performance. METHODS: Forty-two younger adults (aged 18-35) and 42 older adults (aged 55-75) were tested on two experimental tasks: a multiple negative comprehension task and an information processing battery. RESULTS: Both groups, older and younger adults, showed poorer performance for implausible sentences than for plausible sentences; however, no interaction was found between plausibility and age group. A regression analysis revealed that inhibition efficiency, as measured by a task that required resistance to proactive interference, predicted comprehension of implausible sentences in older adults only. Consistent with the compensation hypothesis, the older adults with better inhibition skills showed better comprehension than those with poor inhibition skills. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that semantic implausibility, along with syntactic complexity, increases linguistic and cognitive processing loads on auditory sentence comprehension. Moreover, the contribution of inhibitory control to the processing of semantic plausibility, particularly among older adults, suggests that the relationship between cognitive ability and language comprehension is strongly influenced by age.

Verbal strategies and nonverbal cues in school-age children with and without specific language impairment (SLI).

BACKGROUND: Considerable evidence suggests that performance across a variety of cognitive tasks is effectively supported by the use of verbal and nonverbal strategies. Studies exploring the usefulness of such strategies in children with specific language impairment (SLI) are scarce and report inconsistent findings. AIMS: To examine the effects of induced labelling and auditory cues on the performance of children with and without SLI during a categorization task. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Sixty-six school-age children (22 with SLI, 22 age-matched controls, 22 language-matched controls) completed three versions of a computer-based categorization task: one baseline, one requiring overt labelling and one with auditory cues (tones) on randomized trial blocks. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Labelling had no effect on performance for typically developing children but resulted in lower accuracy and longer reaction time in children with SLI. The presence of tones had no effect on accuracy but resulted in faster reaction time and post-error slowing across groups. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Verbal strategy use was ineffective for typically developing children and negatively affected children with SLI. All children showed faster performance and increased performance monitoring as a result of tones. Overall, effects of strategy use in children appear to vary based on task demands, strategy domain, age and language ability. Results suggest that children with SLI may benefit from auditory cues in their clinical intervention but that further research is needed to determine when and how verbal strategies might similarly support performance in this population.

Information processing and proactive interference in children with and without specific language impairment.

PURPOSE: Increasing evidence suggests that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have a deficit in inhibition control, but research isolating specific abilities is scarce. The goal of this study was to examine whether children with SLI differ from their peers in resistance to proactive interference under different conditions. METHOD: An information processing battery with manipulations in interference was administered to 66 children (SLI, age matched peers, and language-matched controls). In Experiment 1, previously relevant targets were used as distractors to create conflict. Experiment 2 used item repetitions to examine how practice strengthens word representations and how the strength of a response impacts performance on the following item. RESULTS: Children with SLI performed similarly to their peers in the baseline condition but were more susceptible to proactive interference than the controls in both experimental conditions. Children with SLI demonstrated difficulty suppressing irrelevant information, made significantly more interference errors than their peers, and showed a slower rate of implicit learning. CONCLUSION: Children with SLI show weaker resistance to proactive interference than their peers, and this deficit impacts their information processing abilities. The coordination of activation and inhibition is less efficient in these children, but future research is needed to further examine the interaction between these two processes.

Everyday functions and needs of individuals with disability: a reliability and validity study based on the principles of the ICF.

INTRODUCTION: The goal of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire to measure everyday functions of individuals with disability based on the principles of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). METHODS: Participants consisted of 1116 individuals. The final sample was representative for the following criteria: disability, gender, age, and residence. The questionnaire consisted of 4 sections. In addition to general and demographic questions, we developed 258 statements about everyday functioning based on the items from the ICF. RESULTS: The Cronbach alphas showed adequate internal reliability for the different scales: range of Cronbach alphas on the main sample: .624 to .904; range of Cronbach alphas on the test-retest sample: .627 to .921. Correlations with validating scales were typically high. Individuals with disability showed lower mean scores in each area compared to controls but the profiles of the different groups with disability varied across areas. The data also showed that physical status by itself does not determine everyday functioning. Several participants across groups showed that despite severe physical disability, one may exhibit high values of everyday functioning and well-being. CONCLUSION: Our questionnaire is a valid and reliable method to measure everyday functioning in individuals with different disabilities. The various versions of the questionnaire (computerized, paper-pencil, easy to understand) ensure that everyone's functioning and well-being can be assessed.

Influence of phonotactic probability/neighbourhood density on lexical learning in late talkers.

BACKGROUND: Toddlers who are late talkers demonstrate delays in phonological and lexical skills. However, the influence of phonological factors on lexical acquisition in toddlers who are late talkers has not been examined directly. AIMS: To examine the influence of phonotactic probability/neighbourhood density on word learning in toddlers who were late talkers using comprehension, production and word recognition tasks. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Two-year-olds who were late talkers (n = 12) and typically developing toddlers (n = 12) were exposed to 12 novel pseudo-words for unfamiliar objects in ten training sessions. Pseudo-words contained high or low phonotactic probability English sound sequences. The toddlers' comprehension, speech production and detection of mispronunciation of the newly learned words were examined using a preferential looking paradigm. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Late talkers showed poorer performance than toddlers with typical language development in all three tasks: comprehension, production and detection of mispronunciations. The toddlers with typical language development showed better speech production and more sensitivity to mispronunciations for high than low phonotactic probability/neighbourhood density sequences. Phonotactic probability/neighbourhood density did not influence the late talkers' speech production or sensitivity to mispronunciations; they performed similarly for pseudo-words with high and low phonotactic probability/neighbourhood density sound sequences. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The results indicate that some late talkers do not recognize statistical properties of their language, which may contribute to their slower lexical learning.

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION PROFILES IN CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT.

We present findings from a study that focused on specific executive functions (EF) in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). We analyzed performance patterns and EF profiles (spatial working memory, inhibition control, and sustained attention) in school-age SLI children and two control groups: age-matched and language matched. Our main research goal was to identify those EFs that show a weakness in children with SLI. Our specific aims were to: (1) examine whether the EF problems in children with SLI are domain-general; (2) examine whether deficits in EF in children with SLI can be explained by the general slowness hypothesis or by an overall delay in development; (3) compare EF profiles to examine whether children with SLI show a distinct pattern of performance from their peers. Our findings showed different EF profiles for the groups. We observed differences in performance patterns related to age (e.g., reaction time in response inhibition) and differences related to language status (e.g., sensitivity to interference). The findings show interesting associations in EFs that play a crucial role in language processing.

Grammatical sensitivity and working memory in children with language impairment.

Children with primary language impairment (LI) show a deficit in processing different grammatical structures, verb inflections, and syntactically complex sentences among other things (Clahsen-Hansen 1997; Leonard et al. 1997). Cross-linguistic research has shown that the pattern of performance is language-specific. We examined grammatical sensitivity to word order and agreement violations in 50 Hungarian-speaking children with and without LI. The findings suggest a strong association between sensitivity to grammatical violations and working memory capacity. Variations in working memory performance predicted grammatical sensitivity. Hungarian participants with LI exhibited a weakness in detecting both agreement and word order violations.