Purpose: Although commonly defined as a speech disorder, stuttering interacts with the language production system in important ways. Our purpose is to summarize research findings on linguistic variables that influence stuttering assessment and treatment. Method and Results: Numerous topics are summarized. First, we review research that has…

People with aphasia may produce speech errors or pauses during speaking turns. A communication partner may choose to guess the person's intended meaning, or may allow the person time to repair their turns (i.e., edited turns). The aim of this study was to understand the topic-related effects that occur when speakers without aphasia allow their…

Purpose: On the basis of Baddeley's working memory model (1986), we examined working memory functioning in children with learning disorders with and without specific language impairment (SLI). We pursued the question whether children with learning disorders exhibit similar working memory deficits as children with additional SLI. Method: In…

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) consistently show poor nonword repetition (NWR) performance. However, the reason for these difficulties remains a matter of intensive debate. Nonword repetition is a complex psycholinguistic task that heavily relies upon phonological segmentation and phonological knowledge, and even lexical…

In the 1950s, the assessment and management of children with language impairments emphasized their auditory and visual processing deficits and relied heavily on classifications of adult language disorders. Many compelling theoretical insights were offered, but research in language acquisition was in its infancy. It was not until the 1960s and…

Williams syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder caused by deletion of approximately 25 genes on chromosome 7q11.23. Children with the syndrome evidence large individual differences in both broad language and reading abilities. Nevertheless, as a group, children with this syndrome show a consistent pattern characterized by relative…

A review of the concepts of short-term memory and working memory in contemporary cognitive psychology is applied to current research in language processing and language impairments. Unresolved theoretical issues are identified, including the role of speech production in short-term memory, the role of knowledge retrieval in short-term recall, the…

Outlines the stages of prosodic development that children follow from the beginning of word acquisition through the end of the second year of life. How these stages can be used to provide a model for treatment when working with children who display delayed phonological development is addressed. (Author/CR)

This discussion of speech and language development in individuals with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) reviews NLD assets, deficits, and dynamics; the white matter model; manifestations of NLD in neurological dysfunction; psycholinguistic dimensions of NLD in terms of language content, form, and use; developmental considerations in NLD; and…

Nondisabled only children (N=10) were observed and videotaped at home with their mothers in scripted, free-play, and novel contexts to probe uses of temporally displaced (TD) communication and maternal contributions to its development. Scaffolded maternal speech was found important to TD speech development and context-sensitivity underscored as a…