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Examining the relationship between language and fluency in children with developmental language disorders

Hall, Nancy E.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1056121958

Abstract Details

1992, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Communication Sciences.
The present investigation addressed the hypothesis that a subset of children with developmental language disorders exhibits significantly more disfluencies than other language disordered children and normally developing children of the same age. Spontaneous language samples of 60 children with developmental language disorders were analyzed for the frequency, type, and linguistic loci of disfluencies. The subjects in the present study were between the ages of three years, and five years, 11 months, exhibited normal hearing, no evidence of neurological impairment, autism, or emotional disturbance, a nonverbal IQ within normal limits, a one standard deviation discrepancy between nonverbal IQ and a standardized language score, and a mean length of utterance of at least two morphemes. Comparisons on the frequency of disfluencies across the subjects revealed that the language disordered subjects could be divided on the basis of fluency characteristics. A subset of 10 subjects (High Disfluency (HD) group) exhibited significantly more disfluencies than the other subjects (Normal Disfluency (ND) group). Comparisons between the HD and ND groups on demographic variables and standardized language tests revealed the HD group was significantly older, and demonstrated significantly higher scores on the vocabulary measures, including the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised, and the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test. These results suggest that the HD subjects demonstrated dyssynchronies in the development of different aspects of language and, because they were older than, yet comparable to the ND subjects in some language skills (e.g. morphology and syntax), exhibited more significant language deficits. Thus, a relationship between dyssynchrony in language development, severity of language disorder, and increased disfluencies was observed. Analyses examining the linguistic loci of the disfluencies of the HD subjects revealed associations between disfluencies and clause boundaries, pronouns, nouns, complex sentences, and morpho-syntactic errors. Individual variation was evident across the HD subjects, and a single pattern with respect to the linguistic loci of disfluencies was not observed. These findings supported the hypothesis proposed in this study, as the language disordered subjects evidenced more disfluencies than expected for chronological age and stage of language development. The subjects with significantly different fluency characteristics also presented significant variation in age and language capabilities.
Dorothy Aram (Advisor)
302 p.
Health Sciences, Speech Pathology
relationship between language fluency children developmental disorders

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hall, N. E. (1992). Examining the relationship between language and fluency in children with developmental language disorders [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1056121958

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hall, Nancy. Examining the relationship between language and fluency in children with developmental language disorders. 1992. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1056121958.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hall, Nancy. "Examining the relationship between language and fluency in children with developmental language disorders." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1992. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1056121958

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1056121958
703
© 1992, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12