Chofu City Child Development Center, Chofu, Tokyo, Japan.
Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2021 Jun 4;64(6):1929-1943. doi: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-19-00054. Epub 2021 May 6.
Purpose This study investigated the auditory comprehension of Japanese sentences including relative clauses (RCs) by 52 Japanese-speaking children with typical development (TD) and 16 children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method A picture-pointing task measured RC and main clause (MC) comprehension for object and subject relatives in sentences with varying lengths. The accuracy of RC only, MC only, and combined comprehension (RC and MC) was analyzed with linear mixed-effects (logistic) models to examine accuracy and the effects of the deep gap-filler distance (structural complexity), the surface linear distance, and sentence length for the two participant groups. Six language tests and two working memory tests were administered to determine language and working memory status. A factor analysis grouped them into two factors that were examined as predictors of comprehension performance. Results Initial models indicated that children with SLI performed more poorly than their peers with TD. Working memory abilities predicted the comprehension of subject and object relative sentences, but language abilities other than a general measure of sentence comprehension were only limited predictors. In a series of pairwise comparisons, children with SLI did not exhibit comprehension facilitation for RC sentences with lower structural complexity, nor did they exhibit comprehension facilitation when the linear distance between the gap and the filler was shorter, perhaps because of their overall lower performance. Children with TD made more errors on sentences with higher structural complexity but did not exhibit any linear distance effects. Neither group exhibited effects of noun phrase or sentence length. Conclusions Japanese-speaking children with TD exhibited negative comprehension effects of increased deep structure complexity, but not of linear surface distance or sentence noun phrase length. The children with SLI face challenges in comprehending both subject and object relative sentences compared to their typically developing peers. Their poorer working memory abilities are the primary factor that constrains their performance.
目的 本研究调查了 52 名日本语母语的发展性语言障碍儿童（TD）和 16 名语言障碍儿童（SLI）对包含关系从句（RC）的日语句子的听觉理解。
方法 采用图片指向任务，测量了对象和主语关系从句以及主从句（MC）在不同长度的句子中的理解。采用线性混合效应（逻辑）模型分析 RC 仅、MC 仅和综合理解（RC 和 MC）的准确性，以检查准确性和深层间隔填充距离（结构复杂性）、表面线性距离和两个参与者组的句子长度的影响。进行了六项语言测试和两项工作记忆测试，以确定语言和工作记忆状况。因子分析将它们分为两个因子，作为理解表现的预测因子进行检查。
结果 初始模型表明，SLI 儿童的表现不如他们的 TD 同龄人。工作记忆能力预测了主语和宾语关系从句的理解，但语言能力除了一般的句子理解能力外，只是有限的预测因素。在一系列的两两比较中，SLI 儿童在结构复杂性较低的 RC 句子中没有表现出理解促进作用，在间隔和填充之间的线性距离较短的情况下也没有表现出理解促进作用，这可能是由于他们的整体表现较低。TD 儿童在结构复杂性较高的句子中犯了更多的错误，但没有表现出任何线性距离效应。两个组都没有表现出名词短语或句子长度的影响。
结论 与 TD 同龄人相比，日本语母语的 TD 儿童表现出对增加的深层结构复杂性的负向理解效应，但对线性表面距离或句子名词短语长度没有影响。SLI 儿童在理解主语和宾语关系从句方面都面临挑战，与他们的 TD 同龄人相比表现较差。他们较差的工作记忆能力是限制他们表现的主要因素。
