The Role of Cognitive Abilities in the Development of Definitions by Children with and Without Developmental Language Di
- PDF / 722,685 Bytes
- 17 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 48 Downloads / 148 Views
The Role of Cognitive Abilities in the Development of Definitions by Children with and Without Developmental Language Disorder Ifigeneia Dosi1 · Zoe Gavriilidou1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This study (a) examines the role of cognitive abilities, age and vocabulary in the development of definitions and (b) compares the development of definitions (in content and form) in children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Definitions have been extensively studied in (non-)impaired populations. So far, no studies have tested the impact of cognitive abilities on the development of definitions. To address this gap, ten children with DLD and ten non-impaired peers were tested through a definition task and two cognitive tasks. The results exhibited that the control group produced more accurate definitions, albeit only in content, than the impaired group. Regressions showed that, in the impaired group, the younger the participants the better the scores. For the non-impaired group, age and verbal working memory found to predict the performance on definitions. Thus, we deduce that (a) the development of definitions is driven by different mechanisms in (non-)impaired children and (b) the role of early intervention seems to be important for atypical populations. Keywords Definitions · Cognitive abilities · Early intervention · Developmental language disorder
Introduction The development of definitions has been studied thoroughly over the past decades in typically developing children (Anglin 1977; Benelli et al. 1988, 2006; Gavriilidou 2015; Marinellie 2009; Marinellie and Johnson 2004; Nippold et al. 1999; Snow 1990; Snow et al. 1989) and children with language impairments (Marinellie 2010b; Marinellie and Johnson 1998, 2002), since they are often indicators of lexical knowledge (i.e. vocabulary) and access, metalinguistic abilities and literacy development (Gutierrez-Cleflen and DeCurtis 1999; Harley 2008; Kikas 1993; Snow et al. 1989). In other words, speakers have access to their mental lexicon and carefully select the required information (characteristics, * Ifigeneia Dosi [email protected] 1
Department of Greek Philology, Democritus University of Thrace, Campus, 69100 Komotini, Greece
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
meaning, categories), in order to give a fluent and consistent outcome (Snow 1990). According to Gutierrez-Glellen and DeCurtis (1999), definitions, and particularly formal definitions, are required for children’s vocabulary growth. In Developmental Language Disorder (DLD; earlier known as Specific Language Impairment) word definitions, metalinguistic and cognitive abilities are more disadvantaged, due to a general linguistic and cognitive impairment in this group (Gutierrez-Cleflen and DeCurtis 1999; Marinellie and Johnson 2002). To date, no studies have tested the impact of cognitive abilities such as simple and complex working memory (i.e., verbal working memory and updating) in the development of
Data Loading...
