Kueser Justin B, Leonard Laurence B
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2020 Apr 27;63(4):1165-1180. doi: 10.1044/2019_JSLHR-19-00155. Epub 2020 Mar 24.
Purpose Studies have shown that children with typical development (TD) respond to frequency and predictability when repeating nonidiomatic multiword sequences (e.g., ). We extended these findings by explicitly examining the interaction between frequency and predictability in a repetition task for children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and children with TD. Method We created 48 four-word phrases, manipulating two factors: the frequency of occurrence of the entire four-word phrase (e.g., vs. ) and the predictability of the fourth word in the phrase given the preceding three words (e.g., vs. ). These phrases were presented in a repetition task to 17 children with DLD ( = 58.89 months), 19 same-age children with TD ( = 59.79 months), and 17 younger children with TD matched to the DLD group on nonword repetition and mean length of utterance ( = 38.94 months). Children's repetitions were judged for the presence or absence of word and morphological errors. Only the first three words of the sequence were scored (e.g., ). Results We found a main effect of sequence frequency, with high-frequency sequences being repeated more accurately than low-frequency sequences, modulated by a significant interaction with predictability, where the effect of sequence frequency was larger for sequences with high-predictability contexts than for sequences with low-predictability contexts. We also found a significant effect of group, with children with DLD demonstrating poorer overall performance, particularly when compared to the same-age group with TD. Conclusions Frequency and predictability are strong predictors of language production in children with TD. These factors also have effects for children with DLD, raising important clinical questions about the design of facilitative contexts for the teaching of difficult linguistic forms.
目的 研究表明，发育正常（TD）的儿童在重复非习语性多词序列（例如 ）时会对频率和可预测性做出反应。我们通过明确考察发育性语言障碍（DLD）儿童和TD儿童在重复任务中频率与可预测性之间的相互作用，扩展了这些研究结果。方法 我们创建了48个四字短语，操纵两个因素：整个四字短语的出现频率（例如 与 ）以及给定前三个单词时短语中第四个单词的可预测性（例如 与 ）。这些短语在重复任务中呈现给17名DLD儿童（年龄 = 58.89个月）、19名同龄TD儿童（年龄 = 59.79个月）以及17名在非词重复和平均语句长度方面与DLD组匹配的低龄TD儿童（年龄 = 38.94个月）。判断儿童重复时是否存在单词和形态错误。只对序列的前三个单词进行评分（例如 ）。结果 我们发现序列频率的主效应，高频序列比低频序列重复得更准确，且受与可预测性的显著交互作用调节，其中高可预测性语境下的序列频率效应比低可预测性语境下的序列频率效应更大。我们还发现了组间的显著效应，DLD儿童表现出较差的总体表现，尤其是与同龄TD组相比时。结论 频率和可预测性是TD儿童语言产出的有力预测指标。这些因素对DLD儿童也有影响，这就引发了关于为困难语言形式教学设计促进性语境的重要临床问题。
