1. Language delay, SLI and interventions
Aylin Küntay
Language and Communicative Disorders
Meeting 12

2. Persistent vs. transient lang problems
If 2-year-olds are below the 15th percentile on at least 2 of the below 3 measures
Vocabulary
Grammar
Use of abstract language
But a substantial proportion showed spontaneous improvement
Also, some children who will fall into the “difficulty” group at 4 were not classified as delayed at age 2
Twins

3. Heritable vs. nonheritable environments
Early language delay tended to persist when parents expressed concern
2-year-old language delay appears largely environmental, when their parents do not go on to seek professional help

4. Autism vs. SLI Some common characteristics
Failure in nonword repetition
Pragmatic language difficulties
SLI inherits a genetic risk factor, which affects a certain brain system and leads to structural language impairments
ASD is the result of inheritance of 3 separable genetic risk factor
Abnormal language use
Impairment of social interaction
Restricted behavioral repertoire
The resulting phenotype in ASD has the potential to limit linguistic development, including phonological short term memory

5. Weismer Most SLI come from late talkers
Should we do early intervention?
Effective interventions?
Who will benefit?
Debate concerning clinical management
Wait-and-see
Watch-and-see (close monitoring)

6. Intervention Parental training Modeling
Modeling plus evoked production
Effects on grammatical measures (SALT type)
Socialization skills
Parental stress

7. Predicting who needs treatment
Has to do with identifying transient vs. persistent language difficulties
Difficulties in processing and acquisition of novel words
Limited processing capacity (Leonard)

8. Intervention on the basis of limited processing capacity perspective
Rate of speech
Vocal stress
Use of visual cues accompanying spoken language
Factors that will increase the attentional resources for language processing

9. Novel word learning task
Sam, the space man, will teach you some new words such as blick, gorp about some unusual objects
Production probes
What’s this?
Comprehension probes
Put Sam by the blick

10. Novel word learning task
Rate manipulations improved the production of novel words
Use of gestures also helped

11. Wait times Manipulate wait time after questions
Benefited mostly in narrative tasks, which are cognitively taxing
Increases accuracy and fluency

12. Script-based intervention
3 script routines and 3 non-script activites that targeted comprehension of 2 constructions
Agent-action-object and action-object-location
Beter outcome with script-based training

13. Conclusions Do not tax cognitive resources, reduce processing load
Use “in phonology” words as the first items to teach
For narratives, use familiar mental models and scripts with easier vocabulary and less complex constructions
Monitor speaking rate and wait times; use emphatic stress on new words