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ERIC Number: EJ1040478
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Jun
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
Decreased Sensitivity to Long-Distance Dependencies in Children with a History of Specific Language Impairment: Electrophysiological Evidence
Purdy, J. D.; Leonard, Laurence B.; Weber-Fox, Christine; Kaganovich, Natalya
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v57 n3 p1040-1059 Jun 2014
Purpose: One possible source of tense and agreement limitations in children with specific language impairment (SLI) is a weakness in appreciating structural dependencies that occur in many sentences in the input. This possibility was tested in the present study. Method: Children with a history of SLI (H-SLI; n = 12; M = 9;7 [years;months]) and typically developing same-age peers (TD; n = 12; M = 9;7) listened to and made grammaticality judgments about grammatical and ungrammatical sentences involving either a local agreement error (e.g., "Every night they talks on the phone") or a long-distance finiteness error (e.g., "He makes the quiet boy talks a little louder"). Electrophysiological (ERP) and behavioral (accuracy) measures were obtained. Results: Local agreement errors elicited the expected anterior negativity and P600 components in both groups of children. However, relative to the TD group, the P600 effect for the long-distance finiteness errors was delayed, reduced in amplitude, and shorter in duration for the H-SLI group. The children's grammaticality judgments were consistent with the ERP findings. Conclusion: Children with H-SLI seem to be relatively insensitive to the finiteness constraints that matrix verbs place on subject-verb clauses that appear later in the sentence.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. Tel: 800-638-8255; Fax: 301-571-0457; e-mail: subscribe@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.asha.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: T32 DC00030; R01 DC009574; R03 DC012151