Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T23:39:26.841Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beyond morphosyntax in developing bilinguals and “specific” language impairment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2010

Kathryn Kohnert  and
Kerry Danahy Ebert
Kathryn Kohnert
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Kerry Danahy Ebert
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the Keynote Article, “The Interface Between Bilingual Development and Specific Language Impairment,” Johanne Paradis considers issues and evidence at the intersection of children learning two languages and primary or specific language impairment (SLI). The review focuses on morphosyntactic evidence and the fit of this evidence with maturational (domain-specific) and limited processing capacity (LPC; domain-general) theories of language impairment. We agree with Paradis that studies that systematically and simultaneously investigate the behavioral profile of dual-language learners and children with language impairment are of significant theoretical and practical value. In our commentary we aim to broaden the behavioral profile to be considered in these populations, beyond the level of morphosyntax. In line with this aim we use the term primary language impairment (PLI) for the same population referred to as SLI by Paradis.

Type
Commentaries
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 303 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bishop, D. V. M. (1992). The underlying nature of specific language impairment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 3–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ebert, K., & Kohnert, K. (2009). Nonlinguistic cognitive treatment for primary language impairment. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 23, 647–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, J., & Lahey, M. (1996). Auditory lexical decisions of children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 39, 1263–1273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis Weismer, S., & Evans, J. (2002). The role of processing limitations in early identification of specific language impairment. Topics in Language Disorders, 22, 15–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis Weismer, S., Tomblin, J. B., Zhang, X., Buchwalter, P., Chynoweth, J. G., & Jones, M. (2000). Nonword repetition performance in school-age children with and without language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 865–878.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., Morgan, M., & Hart, C. H. (1999). Withdrawn and sociable behavior of children with language impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 30, 183–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gillam, R. B., Loeb, D. F., Hoffman, L. M., Bohman, T., Champlin, C. A., Thibodeau, L., et al. (2008). The efficacy of Fast ForWord Language intervention in school-age children with language impairment: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51, 97–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayiou-Thomas, M. E., Bishop, D. V. M., & Plunkett, K. (2004). Simulating SLI: General cognitive processing stressors can produce a specific linguistic profile. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 1347–1362.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, E. L. (2001). Non-specific nature of specific language impairment: A review of the literature with regard to concomitant motor impairments. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 36, 149–171.Google ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K. (2008). Language disorders in bilingual children and adults. San Diego, CA: Plural.Google Scholar
Kohnert, K., & Derr, A. (2004). Language intervention with bilingual children. In Goldstein, B. (Ed.), Bilingual language development and disorders in Spanish–English speakers (pp. 315–343). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.Google Scholar
Kohnert, K., & Medina, A. (2009). Bilingual children and communication disorders: A 30 year research retrospective. Seminars in Speech and Language, 30, 219–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K., & Windsor, J. (2004). The search for common ground part II: Nonlinguistic performance by linguistically diverse learners. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 891–903.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K., Windsor, J., & Ebert, K. (2009). Primary or “specific” language impairment and children learning a second language. Brain and Language, 109, 101–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K., Windsor, J., & Miller, R. (2004). Crossing borders: Recognition of Spanish words by English speaking children with and without language impairment. Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 543–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohnert, K., Windsor, J., & Pham, G. (2009). Separating differences from disorders using processing-dependent measures. Paper presented at the Symposium for Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Kohnert, K., Windsor, J., & Yim, D. (2006). Do language-based processing tasks separate children with primary language impairment from typical bilinguals? Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 21, 19–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahey, M., & Edwards, J. (1996). Why do children with specific language impairment name pictures more slowly than their peers? Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 30, 1081–1097.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonard, L. (1998). Children with specific language impairment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Leonard, L., Ellis Weismer, S., Miller, C. A., Francis, D. J., Tomblin, J. B., & Kail, R. V. (2007). Speed of processing, working memory, and language impairment in children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 408–428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mackie, C., & Dockrell, J. E. (2004). The nature of written language deficits in children with SLI. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 1469–1483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McDonald, J. L. (2006). Alternatives to the critical period hypothesis: Processing-based explanations for poor grammaticality judgment performance by late second language learners. Journal of Memory and Language, 55, 381–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, C., Leonard, L., Kail, R., Zhang, X., Tomblin, B., & Francis, D. (2006). Response time in 14-year-olds with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49, 712–728.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Montgomery, J. W. (2000). Verbal working memory and sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 293–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Orgassa, A., & Weerman, F. (2008). Dutch gender in specific language impairment and second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 24, 333–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paradis, J. (2010). The interface between bilingual development and specific language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31, 227–XXX.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rescorla, L. (2005). Age 13 language and reading outcomes in late-talking toddlers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 459–472.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scott, C., & Windsor, J. (2000). General language performance measures in spoken and written narrative and expository discourse of school-age children with language learning disabilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 324–339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steenge, J. (2006). Bilingual children with specific language impairment: Additionally disadvantaged? Doctoral dissertation, Research Centre on Atypical Communication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Thordardottir, E. (2008). Language-specific effects of task demands on the manifestation of specific language impairment: A comparison of English and Icelandic. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51, 922–937.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tomblin, B., Zhang, X., Buckwalter, P., & O'Brien, M. (2003). The stability of primary language disorder: Four years after kindergarten diagnosis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 1283–1296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ullman, M., & Pierpont, E. (2005). Specific language impairment is not specific to language: The procedural deficit hypothesis. Cortex, 41, 399–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viding, E., Price, T. S., Spinath, F. M., Bishop, D. V. M., Dale, P. S., & Plomin, R. (2003). Genetic and environmental mediation of the relationship between language and nonverbal impairment in 4-year-old twins. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 1271–1282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Windsor, J., & Kohnert, K. (2004). The search for common ground: Part I. Lexical performance by linguistically diverse learners. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 877–890.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Windsor, J., & Kohnert, K. (2009). Processing speed, attention, and perception: Implications for child language disorders. In Schwartz, R. G. (Ed.), The handbook of child language disorders (pp. 445–461). New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Windsor, J., Kohnert, K., Loxtercamp, A., & Kan, P. F. (2008). Performance on nonlinguistic visual tasks by children with language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 237–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windsor, J., Milbrath, R., Carney, E., & Rakowski, S. (2001). General slowing in language impairment: Methodological considerations in testing the hypothesis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44, 446–461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed