UNASSIGNED: Findings from language sample analyses can provide efficient and effective indicators of cognitive impairment in older adults.
UNASSIGNED: This study used newly automated core lexicon analyses of Cookie Theft picture descriptions to assess differences in typical use across three groups.
UNASSIGNED: Participants included adults without diagnosed cognitive impairments (Control), adults diagnosed with Alzheimer\'s disease (ProbableAD), and adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Cookie Theft picture descriptions were transcribed and analyzed using CLAN.
UNASSIGNED: Results showed that the ProbableAD group used significantly fewer core lexicon words overall than the MCI and Control groups. For core lexicon content words (nouns, verbs), however, both the MCI and ProbableAD groups produced significantly fewer words than the Control group. The groups did not differ in their use of core lexicon function words. The ProbableAD group was also slower to produce most of the core lexicon words than the MCI and Control groups. The MCI group was slower than the Control group for only two of the core lexicon content words. All groups mentioned a core lexicon word in the top left quadrant of the picture early in the description. The ProbableAD group was then significantly slower than the other groups to mention a core lexicon word in the other quadrants.
UNASSIGNED: This standard and simple-to-administer task reveals group differences in overall core lexicon scores and the amount of time until the speaker produces the key items. Clinicians and researchers can use these tools for both early assessment and measurement of change over time.

UNASSIGNED: Nonword repetition (NWR) has been described as a clinical marker of developmental language disorder (DLD), as NWR tasks consistently discriminate between DLD and typical development (TD) cross-linguistically, with Cantonese as the only reported exception. This study reexamines whether NWR is able to generate TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children by reporting on a novel set of NWR stimuli that take into account factors known to affect NWR performance and group differentiation, including lexicality, sublexicality, length, and syllable complexity.
UNASSIGNED: Sixteen Cantonese-speaking children with DLD and 16 age-matched children with TD repeated two sets of high-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are morphemic in Cantonese but meaningless when combined, and one set of low-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are nonmorphemic. Low-lexicality nonwords were further classified on sublexicality in terms of consonant-vowel (CV) combination attestedness (whether or not CV combinations in nonword syllables occur in real Cantonese words).
UNASSIGNED: Children with DLD scored significantly below their peers with TD. Effect sizes showed that high-lexicality nonwords and nonword syllables with attested CV combinations offered the greatest TD/DLD group differentiation. Nonword length and syllable complexity did not affect TD/DLD group differentiation.
UNASSIGNED: NWR can capture TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children. Lexicality and sublexicality effects must be considered in designing NWR stimuli for TD/DLD group differentiation. Future studies should replicate the present study on a larger sample size and a younger population as well as examine the diagnostic accuracy of this NWR test.
UNASSIGNED: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25529371.

BACKGROUND: Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) impacts various aspects of children\'s language abilities, including the processing of inflectional morphology. Prior research suggests that children with DLD exhibit deficits in processing speed and sensitivity to grammatical inflections, yet the relationship between these deficits remains unclear.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between processing speed and sensitivity to inflectional morphology in children with DLD, focusing on their real-time processing abilities in response to regular past tense, third person singular, and regular plural inflections at different rates of sentence articulation.
METHODS: Eighteen children with DLD and 18 age-matched controls underwent word monitoring tasks that assessed sensitivity to grammaticality of inflections in sentences presented at normal and slow rates of articulation.
RESULTS: At a normal rate of articulation, children with DLD demonstrated slower response times and reduced sensitivity to grammaticality across all inflections compared to controls. When the articulation rate was slowed, children with DLD showed improved sensitivity, particularly to regular plural and third person singular inflections, although deficits in processing the regular past tense persisted.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest a significant relationship between processing speed and inflectional morphology sensitivity in children with DLD. Slower articulation rates improved grammatical sensitivity for certain inflections, highlighting the potential of tailored interventions that consider processing speed limitations. Persistent difficulties with the regular past tense inflection indicate the need for targeted support for children with DLD in this area.
CONCLUSIONS: What is already known on this subject Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have a wide range of language difficulties, but deficits in inflectional morphology are regarded as a \'hallmark\' of the disorder. Children with DLD are also very likely to show deficits in speed of processing, although it is not known if a \'slowness to process\' can causally explain the language difficulties these children experience. What this study adds to existing knowledge When grammatical sensitivity was measured using an online real-time task, children with DLD showed widespread inflectional deficits when sentences were spoken at a normal conversational rate. When sentence articulation rate was slowed down, children with DLD were faster, more accurate and more sensitive to the grammaticality of constructions. However, deficits in the regular past tense remained persistent, even in this slow-rate condition. What are the clinical implications of this work? This study has implications for clinical and educational practices that work with children with DLD to improve their language skills. The findings of this study show that when children with DLD are given more time to process incoming information, their grammatical skills significantly improve. This study also shows that deficits in the regular past tense are persistent, and children are likely need extensive and intensive support with this particular grammatical feature.

There are few evidence-based treatments for language deficits in primary progressive aphasia (PPA). PPA treatments are often adopted from the poststroke aphasia literature. The poststroke aphasia literature has shown promising results using Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST), a behavioral therapy that focuses on improving naming by producing verbs and their arguments in phrases and sentences. Emerging research in poststroke aphasia and PPA has shown promising results pairing behavioral language therapy with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).
This study used a double-blind, within-subjects, sham-controlled crossover design to study the effect of anodal tDCS applied to left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) plus VNeST versus VNeST plus sham stimulation in two individuals with nonfluent variant PPA and one individual with logopenic variant PPA. Participants received two phases of treatment, each with 15 1-hr sessions of VNeST. One phase paired VNeST with tDCS stimulation, and one with sham. For each phase, language testing was conducted at baseline, and at 1 week and 8 weeks posttreatment conclusion. For each participant, treatment efficacy was evaluated for each treatment phase by comparing the mean change in accuracy between baseline and the follow-up time points for naming trained verbs (primary outcome measure), untrained verbs, and nouns on the Object and Action Naming Battery. Mean change from baseline was also directly compared between tDCS and sham phases at each time point.
Results revealed a different pattern of outcomes for each of the participants. A tDCS advantage was not found for trained verbs for any participant. Two participants with nonfluent variant PPA had a tDCS advantage for generalization to naming of untrained verbs, which was apparent at 1 week and 8 weeks posttreatment. One participant with nonfluent variant also showed evidence of generalization to sentence production in the tDCS phase.
VNeST plus anodal tDCS stimulation of left IFG shows promising results for improving naming in PPA.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the use of phonological productive processes in a group of full-term children and small for gestational age and compare it with children appropriate for gestational age.
METHODS: Observational, analytical, case-control and non-paired study, nested in a cohort with the outcome of phonological disorder. We assessed 36 children according to the predetermined sample calculation, 24 (66.7%) without phonological disorders and 12 (33.3%) with phonological disorders. Of these, 24 (66.7%) children were classified as small for gestational age (SGA) and 12 (33%) as appropriate for gestational age (AGA). Phonological aspects of oral language were assessed by the ABFW children\'s language test (2004). The results were subjected to descriptive analysis and, in order to assess the existence of an association among categorical variables, we used Fisher\'s exact test for association.
RESULTS: The SGA group revealed a significantly higher number of phonological processes that change the syllable structure when compared to the AGA group. We noted that the phonological processes present and unexpected for age in the SGA population were: fricative plosivation, liquid simplification, palatal posteriorization and frontalization, plosive and fricative deafening, in addition to simplifying the consonant cluster and simplifying the final consonant, which were the most frequent in both groups.
CONCLUSIONS: Although no association was found between phonological disorders and SGA children, we have noted a greater use of productive phonological processes in this group.
OBJECTIVE: Caracterizar o uso de processos fonológicos produtivos no grupo de crianças nascidas a termo e pequenas para a idade gestacional e compará-lo com crianças adequadas para a idade gestacional.
UNASSIGNED: Estudo observacional, analítico, do tipo caso-controle, não pareado, aninhado a uma coorte com o desfecho alteração fonológica. Foram avaliadas 36 crianças de acordo com o cálculo amostral pré-estabelecido, sendo 24(66,7%) sem alterações fonológicas e 12(33,3) com alteração fonológica. Dessas, 24(66,7%) crianças foram classificadas como pequeno para a idade gestacional (PIG) e 12(33%), como adequada para a idade gestacional (AIG). Os aspectos fonológicos da linguagem oral foram avaliados pelo teste de linguagem infantil ABFW (2004). Os resultados foram submetidos à análise descritiva e a fim de avaliar a existência de associação entre as variáveis categóricas, foi utilizado o teste exato de Fisher de associação.
RESULTS: O grupo PIG apresentou significativamente maior número de processos fonológicos que alteram a estrutura da sílaba quando comparado ao grupo AIG. Observou-se que os processos fonológicos presentes e não esperados para idade na população PIG foram: plosivação de fricativa, simplificação de líquidas, posteriorização e frontalização de palatal, ensurdecimento de plosivas e fricativas, além da simplificação do encontro consonantal e simplificação de consoante final, que foram os de maior ocorrência em ambos os grupos.
UNASSIGNED: Embora não tenha sido encontrada associação entre alterações fonológicas e crianças PIG, observou-se maior uso de processos fonológicos produtivos neste grupo.

BACKGROUND: Specific language impairment (SLI) is difficult to identify because it is a subtle linguistic difficulty, and there are a few measures available to differentiate between typical and atypical language development in bilinguals. Sentence repetition (SR) has strong theoretical foundations and research evidence as a valid tool for the identification of SLI in bilinguals.
OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the value of SR using peer group comparisons to identify Sepedi-English bilingual children at the risk of SLI.
METHODS: One hundred and two Grade 3 learners in three different contexts of education were assessed on equivalent English and Sepedi SR measures.
RESULTS: Eleven participants who scored between 1 and 2 standard deviations (SD) below the peer group means on both the English and Sepedi SR tests were identified with possible SLI. Learners in the English language of learning and teaching (LoLT) - Sepedi additional language (SAL) context obtained similar scores in both languages, a higher score in English than the English LoLT group and a higher score in Sepedi than the Sepedi LoLT - EAL group. The English LoLT group obtained a significantly higher score in English than in Sepedi and a significantly lower score than the other two groups in Sepedi. The Sepedi LoLT group obtained a significantly higher score in Sepedi than in English, their additional language, in which they obtained a significantly lower score than the other two groups.
CONCLUSIONS: Sentence repetition tasks are valid screening tools to identify bilingual children with SLI by comparing them to peer groups. The SR tests were sensitive to language practices in different educational contexts. It was observed that a bilingual approach that uses both English and the home language as academic languages leads to better language outcomes.

Studies of group differences have established that the phonological profiles of people with reading difficulties contain both strengths and weaknesses. The current study extends this work by exploring individual differences in phonological ability using a multiple case study approach. A heterogeneous sample of 56 children (M age = 9 years) with reading difficulties completed a battery of tasks measuring literacy, phonological processing, expressive vocabulary and general ability. The phonological tasks included measures of phonological awareness (PA), phonological memory (PM), and rapid naming (RAN). A majority-although not all-of the children had phonological processing impairments. However, there was also substantial variability in the nature of children\'s phonological difficulties. While multiple impairments encompassing two or more phonological domains were most common, impairments that were specific to PA, PM or RAN also occurred frequently. Even within the domain of PA, where children completed three well-matched tasks, individual children were rarely impaired across all three measures and a number of different profiles were observed. Additional, group-level analyses indicated that PA was a significant predictor of decoding while RAN was a significant predictor of automatic word recognition and comprehension. Findings are discussed with reference to conceptual models of phonological processing and implications for assessment.

Despite initial underreporting of language dysfunctions in corticobasal syndrome (CBS), aphasia is now recognized as a frequent feature of this disease. Aphasia in CBS seems clinically overlying to a non-fluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia (nfaPPA), which is also a clinical phenotype associated with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) pathology. However, the clinical features of aphasia in CBS still remain poorly delineated, resulting in misjudgements in the differential diagnosis from a PPA presentation of the disease.
To investigate the language disorders of this syndrome, also through a systematic examination of recoding skills (reading, written spelling and repetition) and articulatory disturbances, which have been rarely examined in previous studies.
We present a clinical and neuropsychological descriptive study of the language impairments in a case series of 12 aphasic patients with a clinical diagnosis of CBS. Language assessment was conducted by means of the Esame NeuroPsicologico dell\'Afasia, a comprehensive Italian battery for language functions, the Token Test, and the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale.
The language profile of the patients showed a severe expressive language disorder, characterized by non-fluent speech, apraxia of speech (AoS) with predominant stuttering-like dysfluencies, spatial/apraxic agraphia, lack of word-finding and defective sentence repetition. Severe limb apraxia, visual-spatial deficit and alien hand syndrome were also present. Neuroimaging showed bilateral left asymmetric atrophies and hypometabolism in the frontal premotor, parietal posterior and temporal areas.
These findings suggest that aphasia in CBS might present as a \'mixed PPA\', instead of an nfaPPA as previously stated, showing a combination of features of the nfa and logopenic variants of the PPA, associated with AoS, stuttering and agraphia, which might be additional important cognitive markers for the clinical diagnosis of CBS and discriminating features of an nfaPPA presentation of a CBD. These results might also suggest specific intervention areas in the rehabilitation of patients with CBS. What this paper adds What is already known on the subject Language disorders in CBS patients usually present clinically overlying to an nfaPPA, which is also a clinical phenotype associated with CBD pathology, according to recent diagnostic criteria. However, the clinical features of aphasia in CBS still remain poorly delineated, and this raises difficulties and misjudgements for clinicians in the differential diagnosis from a PPA presentation of the disease. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This study shows that the language profile of our CBS patients was characterized by severe expressive language disorders, with non-fluent speech, apraxia of speech (AoS) with predominant stuttering-like dysfluencies, spatial/apraxic agraphia, lack of word-finding, and defective sentence repetition. These findings suggest that aphasia in CBS might present as a \'mixed PPA\', rather than an nfaPPA as previously stated, showing a combination of features of the nfa and logopenic variants of the PPA associated with AoS, stuttering and agraphia. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? These results suggest that AoS, stuttering and agraphia might be important additional cognitive markers for the clinical diagnosis of CBS, and discriminating features of an nfaPPA presentation of a CBD. The language disorders exhibited in the present study might also support speech and language therapists in targeting specific intervention areas in the rehabilitation of patients with CBS.

Purpose This study evaluated the efficacy of an explicit, combined metalinguistic training and grammar facilitation intervention aimed at improving regular past tense marking for nine children aged 5;10-6;8 (years;months) with developmental language disorder. Method This study used an ABA across-participant multiple-baseline single-case experimental design. Participants were seen one-on-one twice a week for 20- to 30-min sessions for 10 weeks and received explicit grammar intervention combining metalinguistic training using the SHAPE CODING system with grammar facilitation techniques (a systematic cueing hierarchy). In each session, 50 trials to produce the target form were completed, resulting in a total of 1,000 trials over 20 individual therapy sessions. Repeated measures of morphosyntax were collected using probes, including trained past tense verbs, untrained past tense verbs, third-person singular verbs as an extension probe, and possessive \'s as a control probe. Probing contexts included expressive morphosyntax and grammaticality judgment. Outcome measures also included pre-poststandard measures of expressive and receptive grammar. Results Analyses of repeated measures demonstrated significant improvement in past tense production on trained verbs (eight of nine children) and untrained verbs (seven of nine children), indicating efficacy of the treatment. These gains were maintained for 5 weeks. The majority of children made significant improvement on standardized measures of expressive grammar (eight of nine children). Only five of nine children improved on grammaticality judgment or receptive measures. Conclusion Results continue to support the efficacy of explicit grammar interventions to improve past tense marking in early school-aged children. Future research should aim to evaluate the efficacy of similar interventions with group comparison studies and determine whether explicit grammar interventions can improve other aspects of grammatical difficulty for early school-aged children with developmental language disorder. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.11958771.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to present findings on language, behavior, and neurodevelopment in a girl diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome, evaluated when she was three and eight years old.
METHODS: The following evaluation instruments were used: Observation of Communication Behavior, Early Language Milestone (ELM) Scale, and Denver Developmental Screening Test, 2nd edition (DDST-II).
RESULTS: In this case report, presence of AS phenotype signals such as wide mouth and wide-spaced teeth, tongue thrusting, strabismus, up slanting palpebral fissures, and sialorrhea are verified. Expressive and receptive deficits were verified in the language assessment, with the absence of orality and loss of comprehension with very similar performances in both evaluations. The ELM and DDST-II tests indicated severe impairment of all abilities evaluated at both three and eight years of age. Performance was quite similar in both evaluations in all areas of child development. Little progress was observed over time despite the great therapeutic and educational investment.
CONCLUSIONS: The presence of a complex scenario such as AS demands high complexity clinical needs, a situation that is worsened due to scarcity of therapeutic resources that could minimize the harmful impacts of AS and culminate in increased quality of life for the AS population and their families.
UNASSIGNED: O objetivo deste estudo é apresentar achados de linguagem, comportamento e neurodesenvolvimento de uma menina com diagnóstico da Síndrome de Angelman, avaliada aos três e aos oito anos.
UNASSIGNED: Os instrumentos de avaliação foram Observação do Comportamento Comunicativo, Early Language Milestone Scale (ELM) e Teste de Screening de Desenvolvimento DENVER-II (TSDD-II).
UNASSIGNED: No caso apresentado, verifica-se a presença dos sinais fenotípicos da SA, tais como boca larga, dentes espaçados, língua protuberante, estrabismo, fissuras palpebrais ascendentes e sialorreia. Na avaliação de linguagem, foram verificados déficits expressivos e receptivos, com ausência de oralidade e prejuízos na compreensão. O TSDD-II e a ELMS indicaram grave comprometimento de todas as habilidades avaliadas aos três e aos oito anos. O desempenho encontrado, nas duas avaliações, foi muito semelhante em todas as áreas do desenvolvimento infantil. Ao longo dos anos, verificou-se pouca evolução, apesar do grande investimento terapêutico e educacional.
UNASSIGNED: A presença de um quadro complexo como a SA demanda necessidades clínicas de alta complexidade, situação agravada frente à escassez de recursos terapêuticos que possam minimizar os impactos deletérios da síndrome, culminando em comprometimento da qualidade de vida da população com a SA, bem como de suas famílias.