Research evidence suggests children experiencing adversity are at risk of language disparities in early childhood. This puts these children at risk of poor language outcomes, perpetuating disadvantage in later development and academic life. This study aimed to investigate associations between Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) attendance,…

Background: Learners with reading and writing difficulties (RWD) are accommodated in Mauritian government schools without formal curriculum adjustment and teacher support. Little is known about their RWD. The aim was to describe the characteristics of Grade 4 learners with RWD. Aim: To describe the characteristics of Grade 4 learners with RWD.…

This study investigates the knowledge of binding in 21 English-speaking children with SLI, aged 6;08-16;05, compared to 21 children with WS, language- and age-matched, and 21 language-matched control children, aged 4-7;10. Our results demonstrate no difficulties in the interpretation of reflexive or personal pronouns in SLI, revealing an intact…

Studies of the role of phonological representations in learning to read have almost exclusively focused on speech perception. In the current study, we examined links between sensorimotor control of speech, reading, and reading-related abilities. We studied two languages, English and Dutch, which vary in the regularity of their spelling-to-sound…

This study taught the passive to two children with specific language impairment (aged 8;1 and 8;2). It employed usage-based principles including "constructional grounding"; using short structures as the basis for acquiring long structures, and "construction conspiracy"; encouraging analogies between partially overlapping…

Purpose: In this study, the authors examined the role of syllabic structure in nonword repetition performance in typically developing (TD) children and children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Eighteen children with SLI (5;7--6;7 [years;months]) and 18 TD children matched for chronological age were tested on their ability to…

This study examined whether there are processing differences between children with Down syndrome (DS; n = 22; 7 years 8 months to 13 years 10 months) and typically developing children (TD; n = 22; 6 years 6 months to 10 years 10 months), matched for receptive vocabulary. The TD children performed better on tests of nonverbal intelligence…

This study explores the ability of children with and without dyslexia to provide meaningful verbal self-reports of the strategies they used in a spelling recognition task. Sixty-six children aged 6 years 3 months-9 years 9 months were tested on a range of standardised measures and on an experimental spelling recognition task based on the work of…

Previous studies have highlighted a high level of language impairment (LI) and pragmatic language disorder (PLD) amongst children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). However, little is known regarding the impact of LI in the severity of PLD in this group. This study investigates the language and pragmatic language skills of…

The study focuses on language and cognitive abilities of siblings of the linguistically most affected children with autism (i.e. siblings of nonverbal children--SIBS-ANV). Twenty-eight SIBS-ANV (17 boys), ages 4-9 years, took part in the study. All children attended regular schools, and none had received a diagnosis of autism. Controls were 27…

Consequences of theory of mind (ToM) development for daily social lives of children are uncertain. Five to 13-year-olds (N = 195) with typical development, autism, or deafness (both native and late signers) took ToM tests and their teachers reported on their social skills for peer interaction (e.g., leadership, group entry). Groups differed in…

Background: Children with word-finding difficulties manifest a high frequency of word-finding characteristics in narrative, yet word-finding interventions have concentrated on single-word treatments and outcome measures. Aims: This study measured the effectiveness of a narrative-based intervention in improving single-word picture-naming and…