The interplay between phonology and syntax in French-speaking children with SLI

in International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders (2008), 43

Background. This study investigated the relationship between phonological and syntactic disorders of French-speaking children with SLI in production. Aims. This article compares three theories (pure ... [more ▼]

Background. This study investigated the relationship between phonological and syntactic disorders of French-speaking children with SLI in production. Aims. This article compares three theories (pure phonological theory, surface theory and mapping theory) of language developmental disorders, all of which view phonological difficulties as the main reason for the children’s problems. Methods and procedures. The linguistic parameters (salience, phonological complexity, syntactic complexity, lexical/functional, semantic/syntactic) (that are fundamental) to these theories were identified. The validity of these parameters was then tested against the phonological and syntactic results obtained by children with SLI and control children. Nine syntactic categories were tested. Outcomes and results. Phonological complexity was the only parameter whose importance was confirmed, and this was only for phonological results. Syntactic complexity did not correlate significantly with children’s difficulties, and the importance of phonological salience was not confirmed for French-speaking children. Mixed results were obtained for the other parameters, including negative correlations, which may call for different explanations. Conclusions. No theory fully explained the observed outcomes. Pure phonological theory was the most parsimonious, but could not explain all the results. [less ▲]

Le bilan du langage oral chez l’enfant

in Noel, Marie-Pascale (Ed.) Le bilan neuropsychologique de l’enfant (2007)

Phonological deficits in French speaking children with SLI

in International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders (2006), 41(3), 253274

Background: This study investigated the phonological disorders of Frenchspeaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) in production. Aims: The main goal was to confirm whether children with ... [more ▼]

Background: This study investigated the phonological disorders of Frenchspeaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) in production. Aims: The main goal was to confirm whether children with SLI have limitations in phonological ability as compared with normally developing children matched by mean length of utterance (MLU) and phonemic inventory size. A number of researchers have obtained findings pointing in this direction, but the conclusions have never been tested on French-speaking children. The second goal was to find out whether characteristic features of the French language are reflected in the nature of the children’s phonological disorder. Methods & Procedures: The spontaneous language of 16 children with SLI and 16 control children matched on MLU and phonemic inventory size (normal language development group) were analysed using different measures bearing on utterances, words, syllables and phonemes. In both SLI and NLD groups, the children were distributed into two different subgroups based on their MLU, with controlled phonemic inventory size. Outcomes & Results: The results supported a specific limitation in the phonological abilities of French children with SLI, as has already been demonstrated for English, Hebrew, Italian and Spanish-Catalan. However, two unexpected results were also obtained. First, a significant difference between children with SLI and control children could only be found for older children (MLU.3), not for younger children with MLU,3. This was true for all measures. Conclusions: This finding highlights the importance of having a developmental perspective and needs to be confirmed through a longitudinal study. Second, deficits were much more significant at the phoneme level than at the syllable level. This may be explained by the fact that the pronunciation of syllables in French is very homogenous, making them easier to segment. [less ▲]

Interférences entre phonologie et syntaxe en pathologie développementale du langage

in Langage et l'Homme (Le) : Recherches Pluridisciplinaires sur le Langage (2006), 41

We compare three theories (pure phonological theory, surface theory, and mapping theory) about language developmental disorders considering that phonological difficulties are the main reason for the ... [more ▼]

We compare three theories (pure phonological theory, surface theory, and mapping theory) about language developmental disorders considering that phonological difficulties are the main reason for the children’s disorders. First, we identified the linguistic parameters (salience, phonological complexity, syntactic complexity, lexical/functional, semantic/syntactic) that are fundamental to these theories. Then we tested the validity of these parameters by testing them against results obtained by SLI children and control children. Nine syntactic categories were tested (determiner, noun, verb, etc.) No theory could fully explain the results obtained. Some linguistic parameters (eg. phonological complexity) are very interesting but fail to explain all results. Some other parameters (eg. salience) turned out to be inadequate to explain the results of French-speaking children. [less ▲]

Evaluation et rééducation de l’organisation sémantique chez l’enfant : étude d’un cas clinique

in Glossa (2005), 94

Les déficits phonologiques des enfants francophones ayant des troubles spécifiques de développement du langage

in Glossa (2004), 89

This study investigated the phonological expressive disorders of Frenchspeaking children with SLI. The main goal of this paper was to confirm whether children with SLI have limitations in phonological ... [more ▼]

This study investigated the phonological expressive disorders of Frenchspeaking children with SLI. The main goal of this paper was to confirm whether children with SLI have limitations in phonological ability even when they are compared with normally-developing children matched by MLU and phonemic inventory size. This was demonstrated by Bortoloni and Leonard (2000), Orsolini et coll. (2001), and Aguilar-Mediavilla et coll. (2002), which obtained the most detailed results in this direction, but it was never tested in French language. The second goal of the paper is to find out whether the characteristics of the French language are reflected in the nature of the children’s phonological disorder. In order to test this, the spontaneous language of 16 children with SLI and of 16 control children matched on MLU and phonemic inventory size (NLD group) was analysed using different measures bearing on utterances, words, syllables, or phonemes. In both SLI and NLD groups, the children were distributed in two different subgroups, on the basis of their MLU and phonemic inventory size. The results supported a specific limitation in the phonological abilities of French children with SLI, as was already demonstrated for English, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish-Catalan. However, two unexpected results were also obtained. Firstly, a significant difference between children with SLI and control children could only be found for older children (MLU above 3), not for younger children with MLU below 3. This was true for all measures. This finding stresses out the importance of having a development perspective and has to be confirmed with longitudinal design. Secondly, deficits were much more important at the phoneme level than at the syllable level. This can be explained by the fact that the French language has a very homogenous pronunciation of syllables, which makes them easier to segment. [less ▲]

Les troubles phonologiques : cadre théorique, diagnostic et traitement

in Schelstraete, Marie-Anne; Noel, Marie-Pascale (Eds.) Les troubles du langage et du calcul chez l’enfant. (2004)

Développement morphosyntaxique des enfants ayant des troubles de développement du langage : des données francophones.

in Enfance : Psychologie, Pédagogie, Neuropsychiatrie, Sociologie (2004), 56

Children’s morphosyntactic disorders have been studied extensively over the past few years, but mostly in English-speaking children. Recent data on French-speaking children are presented in the current ... [more ▼]

Children’s morphosyntactic disorders have been studied extensively over the past few years, but mostly in English-speaking children. Recent data on French-speaking children are presented in the current article. There are three key-periods in morphological development : (1) language emergence ; (2) beginning of morphosyntax ; (3) later development. Different morphosyntactic features correspond to each of these periods in the language production of SLI children. The difference between language delay and language disorder is difficult to tease apart in young children. However, as children grow older, it becomes possible to identify characteristics that are specific to children with language disorders and others that are specific to French-speaking SLI children. [less ▲]

Les troubles pragmatiques chez les enfants présentant des difficultés langagières. Présentation d’une grille d’évaluation : la Children’s Communication Checklist (Bishop, 1998).

in Cahiers de la SBLU (2003), 13

Les troubles morpho-syntaxiques développementaux en langage oral : quel cadre théorique adopter?

in Langage et l'Homme (Le) : Recherches Pluridisciplinaires sur le Langage (2002), 37(2), 85-102

This article contrasts two theoretical frames actually used to account for morphosyntactic disorders in children with specific language impairment. The first one stems from a traditional formal linguistic ... [more ▼]

This article contrasts two theoretical frames actually used to account for morphosyntactic disorders in children with specific language impairment. The first one stems from a traditional formal linguistic account developped in the context of Chomsky’s works while the second approach, the emergent account, is more functional. Following the linguistic account, it has been assumed that children are born with an innate set of representational constraints, the Universal Grammar, on which grammars are possible for a given language. In contrast, for the emergentist view, it is not necessary to postulate an autonomous device that evolved for grammar rather language in general, and grammar in particular, would emerge from cognitive and communicative abilities and linguistic environment. Both theoretical frames are briefly presented and discussed as well as their implications for the pathology study in children. [less ▲]