The University of Texas at Dallas.
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, IL.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2023 Mar 7;66(3):1051-1067. doi: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00434. Epub 2023 Feb 16.
Sign language, like spoken language, incorporates phonological and articulatory (or motor) processing components. Thus, the learning of novel signs, like novel spoken word forms, may be problematic for children with developmental language disorder (DLD). In the present work, we hypothesize that phonological and articulatory deficits in novel sign repetition and learning would differentiate preschool-age children with DLD from their typical peers.
Children with DLD ( = 34; aged 4-5 years) and their age-matched typical peers ( = 21) participated. Children were exposed to four novel signs, all iconic, but only two linked to a visual referent. Children imitatively produced these novel signs multiple times. We obtained measures of phonological accuracy and articulatory motion stability as well as of learning of the associated visual referent.
Children with DLD showed an increased number of phonological feature (i.e., handshape, path, and orientation of the hands) errors when compared with their typical peers. While articulatory variability did not overall differentiate children with DLD from typical peers, children with DLD showed instability in one novel sign that obligated bimanual oppositional movement. Semantic aspects of novel sign learning were unaffected in children with DLD.
Deficits that have been documented in phonological organization of spoken words in children with DLD are also evident in the manual domain. Analyses of hand motion variability suggest that children with DLD do not show a generalized motor deficit, but one that is restricted to the implementation of coordinated and sequential hand motion.
与口语一样，手语也包含语音和发音（或运动）处理成分。因此，对于患有语言发育障碍（DLD）的儿童来说，学习新的手语，就像学习新的口语形式一样，可能会有问题。在本工作中，我们假设在新的手语重复和学习中存在语音和发音缺陷，这将区分患有 DLD 的学龄前儿童和他们的典型同龄人。
研究纳入了 34 名患有 DLD（年龄 4-5 岁）的儿童和 21 名年龄匹配的典型同龄人。儿童们接触了四个新的手语，都是具象的，但只有两个与视觉参考相关联。儿童们多次模仿这些新的手语。我们获得了语音准确性和发音运动稳定性的测量值，以及与视觉参考相关联的学习测量值。
与典型同龄人相比，患有 DLD 的儿童在表现出更多的语音特征（即手形、路径和手部的方向）错误。虽然发音变异性总体上没有区分 DLD 儿童和典型同龄人，但 DLD 儿童在一个需要双手对立运动的新手语中表现出不稳定性。新手语学习的语义方面在 DLD 儿童中不受影响。
在 DLD 儿童口语语音组织中记录的缺陷也在手语领域中显现出来。对手部运动变异性的分析表明，DLD 儿童没有表现出普遍的运动缺陷，而是表现出受限的协调和顺序手部运动执行缺陷。
