The early acquisition of verb meaning in German by normally developing and language impaired children

The research reported here focuses on the early acquisition of event structure in German. Based on longitudinal studies from 5 normally developing (ND) and 6 language-impaired (LI) children, a model of "event structural bootstrapping" is presented that spells out how ND children log into the verb lexicon. They project a target-consistent event tree, depicting the head-of-event of transitions. Young LI children, failing to employ this bootstrapping strategy, resort to radically underspecified event representations. The results from a truth-value judgment experiment with 16 ND and 16 LI children showed that ND children perform correctly on transitional verbs, while LI children perform at chance level on the same tasks. These findings are accounted for by the model of event structural bootstrapping to the extent that LI children lack an explicit representation of the head-of-event.     

LF-interpretability and language development: a study of verbal and nominal features in Greek normally developing and SLI children

This paper includes (i) a comparison of the developmental pattern of certain morphosyntactic features in normally developing (ND) Greek children with similar data from a group of children with specific language impairment and (ii) a new analysis of the differences found. The analysis is based on a minimalist notion of LF interpretability. Depending on the feature-specification of lexical items (i.e., [+/- interpretable] at LF), a different route of development follows. In addition, phonological salience of both interpretable and noninterpretable features is argued to play an important role in an account of crosslinguistic differences in both normal and exceptional development.     

Hemispheric asymmetry in lexical decisions: the effects of grammatical class and imageability

It has been suggested that neural systems for lexical processing of nouns and verbs are anatomically distinct. The aim of the present study was to investigate if brain asymmetry for the processing of these two grammatical classes is also different. Neurologically intact adults performed a lateralized lexical decision task with grammatically unambiguous words of high, medium, and low degrees of imagery. For error scores a right visual field (RVF) advantage and an overall effect of imageability were obtained. For latency scores grammatical class and imageability modified visual field differences: in the noun class a RVF advantage was obtained only for low imagery nouns, while for the verbs the RVF advantage was present for both medium and low imagery verbs. These results suggest that the participation of right hemisphere neural systems in the processing of verbs is more limited than in the processing of nouns.     

Extension of Luria's Psycholinguistic Studies in Poland

One of Luria's basic interests was the organization of human cognitive processes, and thinking in particular. He believed that language and thought are closely related, and hence the manner in which we speak reflects the way we think. To verify this assumption, he and his collaborators performed a number of interesting psycholinguistic experiments with subjects of various ages and cultural backgrounds. The tasks used made the evaluation of both receptive and expressive language possible. The Narrative Ability Test described here stems from Luria's observations to a considerable degree. The test was administered to preschool children (N = 106), schoolchildren (N = 143), adolescents (N = 89), adults (N = 126), and older persons (N = 175). Findings of the 20-year studies with normal and deviant populations indicate close relationships among thought, language, and self-control. It was found that difficulty in developing narratives corresponds with a disability to process complex information. Correlations between narrative skills and age, sex, and social background were also noted.     

The development and predictive relations of play and language across the second year.

The play and language development of 171 toddlers was examined at 14 and 18 months by observing their activities on the Symbolic Play Test and by assessing their language skills using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (MCDI) and the Reynell Developmental Language Scales. Additionally, data from the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and the MCDI were obtained at 24 months, in order to investigate how play and language measures taken at 14 and 18 months predict children's development at the age of 2 years. The results showed that the vocabulary production and symbolic play of the 14-month-old toddlers made a unique contribution to their language and cognitive skills at the age of 2 years, while at 18 months only language variables made a similar contribution. Other-directed pretense discriminated between the children's subsequent language and cognitive skills best, whereas nonsymbolic play had no independent predictive contribution. Significant gender differences were found in the use of nonsymbolic and symbolic play acts already at 14 months. Gender did not, however, contribute to the prediction of the children's subsequent skills, whereas maternal education significantly added to the prediction of the 2-year-olds' maximum sentence length and that of their cognitive development.     

Mothers’ attuned responses to infant affect expressivity promote earlier achievement of language milestones

To investigate infants’ affective expressivity and maternal attuned responsiveness to infant expressivity in relation to early language achievement, 77 dyads were visited in their homes at 9 and 13 months, and mothers were interviewed about their children’s language between 9 and 21 months. Maternal responses that were attuned to infant affect, by selectively matching either the gradient features or the valence of infants’ affective expressions, were more predictive of children’s language achievement than maternal nonmatching responses; and maternal matching responses at 9 months were more predictive of children’s language achievements than maternal responses at 13 months. Moreover, maternal matching responses at 9 months predicted second-year language achievements over and above infant affect expressivity at 9 and 13 months, and over and above maternal matching responses at 13 months. Infants’ affective expressivity per se was not predictive.     

Mental verb input for promoting children's theory of mind: A training study

An experimental study investigated the effect of the type of mental verb input (i.e., input with think, know, and remember) on preschoolers’ theory of mind development. Preschoolers (n = 72) heard 128 mental verb utterances presented in video format across four sessions over two weeks. The training conditions differed only in the way the mental verbs were presented: the form (statement or question), the referent (first person or other person), and the interaction style (overheard or interactive). Children who overheard the characters discussing the mental states of someone else, either in statement or question form, significantly improved in their false belief understanding. These experimental findings demonstrate mental verb utterances about other people, even when not directed to the child, scaffold children's attention to differing perspectives, thus more efficiently promoting some aspects of their ToM development.     

The Development of Internal State Language during the Third Year of Life: A Longitudinal Parent Report Study

Children's talk about the mind has been scarcely studied in non‐English speakers. For this reason, this longitudinal study documents age‐related changes in German‐speaking children's internal state language. At 24, 30 and 36 months, children were administered general language tests and their internal state vocabulary levels were obtained via parental report. The developmental transition from a vocabulary rich in physiological, perceptual and desire terms to a vocabulary rich in a wider range of mental concepts confirmed previous research with French‐speaking and English‐speaking children and research in children's internal state comprehension. Further, children's category scores proved to be developmentally stable. Finally, with increasing age, children's category scores became more specifically related to each other, independent of general language skills. The results are discussed in regard to the universality of children's talk about the mind. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mothers' and Fathers' Internal State Language with Their Young Children: An Examination of Gender Differences During an Emotions Task

The current study examined gender differences in mothers' and fathers' internal state language (ISL), children's use of ISL, and whether ISL was related to parents' ratings of the children's social skills. Fifty‐seven (28 boys, 29 girls) toddler/preschool children (M age = 32.5 months, SD = 5.38 months) were observed separately with their mothers and fathers in their homes while they discussed pictures of children's facial expressions of emotions. Parents completed a questionnaire concerning their child's social–emotional behaviours (i.e. BASC‐2). Parents used more ISL with sons compared with daughters, and sons used more ISL with mothers than with fathers. No overall differences were found between mothers' and fathers' ISL. Children's social skills as rated by mothers were predicted by mothers' ISL comments, whereas children's social skills as rated by fathers were predicted by children's age and fathers' ISL clarifications. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The gap that makes us desperate: Paths from language to mental health

Although past research provided some clues about the relation of language use with mental health, the mediatory functions of personality variables in this relationship have been ignored. This research examined the mediatory role of self‐concept clarity in the relationship between language use perceived by individuals and mental health indicators including anxiety, depression, and alexithymia. Based on the theoretical framework suggested by ?im?ek (2010), two studies sought to test two alternative structural equation models in data from university students in the first study (n = 250) and data from other groups in the second study (n = 331). The first model assumed that the relationship of language use with anxiety, depression, and alexithymia was mediated by self‐concept clarity. The second model tested the mediatory role of both anxiety and self‐concept clarity in this relationship. The results of the first study showed that the second model fitted better to the data than the first. Consistent with the first study, the results of the second study confirmed that the second model produced better goodness of fit statistics than the first model.