What risk factors for Developmental Language Disorder can tell us about the neurobiological mechanisms of language development.

Language is a complex multidimensional cognitive system that is connected to many neurocognitive capacities. The development of language is therefore strongly intertwined with the development of these capacities and their neurobiological substrates. Consequently, language problems, for example those of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), are explained by a variety of etiological pathways and each of these pathways will be associated with specific risk factors.

Understanding variation in prospective poor decoders: A person-centred approach from kindergarten to Grade 2.

In the present study, we aimed to clarify variation in prospective poor decoders by studying the development of their word decoding skills during the first 1½ years of formal reading education and their unique pre-reading profiles before the onset of formal reading education. Using structural equation modelling and a factorial mixed model analysis of variance (ANOVA), we found autoregression and growth in the word decoding efficiency of prospective poor decoders (n = 90) and matched prospective adequate decoders (n = 90) in first and second grade. However, the gap between the two groups widened over time.

The Language Environment at Home of Children With (a Suspicion of) a Developmental Language Disorder and Relations With Standardized Language Measures.

Purpose: This study compares the home language environments of children with (a suspicion of) developmental language disorder (DLD) with that of children with typical development (TD). It does so by adopting new technology that automatically provides metrics about children's language environment (Language ENvironment Analysis [LENA]). In addition, relationships between LENA metrics and standardized language tests are explored in the DLD group.

Robustness of the cognitive gains in 7-month-old bilingual infants: A close multi-center replication of Kovács and Mehler (2009).

We present an exact replication of Experiment 2 from Kovács and Mehler's 2009 study, which showed that 7-month-old infants who are raised bilingually exhibit a cognitive advantage. In the experiment, a sound cue, following an AAB or ABB pattern, predicted the appearance of a visual stimulus on the screen. The stimulus appeared on one side of the screen for nine trials and then switched to the other side.

Determinants of early lexical acquisition: Effects of word- and child-level factors on Dutch children's acquisition of words.

Previous research on the effects of word-level factors on lexical acquisition has shown that frequency and concreteness are most important. Here, we investigate CDI data from 1,030 Dutch children, collected with the short form of the Dutch CDI, to address (i) how word-level factors predict lexical acquisition, once child-level factors are controlled, (ii) whether effects of these word-level factors vary with word class and age, and (iii) whether any interactions with age are due to differences in receptive vocabulary. Mixed-effects regressions yielded effects of frequency and concreteness, but not of word class and phonological factors (e.

Robustness of the rule-learning effect in 7-month-old infants: A close, multicenter replication of Marcus et al. (1999).

We conducted a close replication of the seminal work by Marcus and colleagues from 1999, which showed that after a brief auditory exposure phase, 7-month-old infants were able to learn and generalize a rule to novel syllables not previously present in the exposure phase. This work became the foundation for the theoretical framework by which we assume that infants are able to learn abstract representations and generalize linguistic rules. While some extensions on the original work have shown evidence of rule learning, the outcomes are mixed, and an exact replication of Marcus et al.

Cognitive flexibility in children with Developmental Language Disorder: Drawing of nonexistent objects.

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adapt thoughts and behaviors to new environments. Previous studies investigating cognitive flexibility in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) present contradictory findings. In the current study, cognitive flexibility was assessed in 5- and 6-year-old preschoolers with DLD (n = 23) and peers with typical development (TD; n = 50) using a nonexistent object drawing (NEOD) task.

Reading outcomes in children with developmental language disorder: A person-centered approach.

Background And Aims: Many children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) develop reading difficulties. The purpose of this study is to better understand variation in the reading outcomes of children with DLD using a person-centered approach.

Method: 87 monolingual Dutch children diagnosed with DLD performed at ages 5 or 6 years nine tests of nonverbal IQ, oral language proficiency, phonological memory (PM) and executive functioning (EF).

Effects of developmental language disorder and bilingualism on children's executive functioning: A longitudinal study.

Background: Children's executive functioning (EF) is often negatively associated with a developmental language disorder (DLD) and positively related to bilingualism. However, both regarding children with DLD and bilingual children, findings are mixed and few studies have investigated the combination of DLD and bilingualism in relation to EF.

Aims: This study investigated the effects of DLD and bilingualism on children's EF development.

The Influence of Situational Cues on Children's Creativity in an Alternative Uses Task and the Moderating Effect of Selective Attention.

Taking a perception-action perspective, we investigated how the presence of different real objects in children's immediate situation affected their creativity and whether this effect was moderated by their selective attention. Seventy children between ages 9 and 12 years old participated. Verbal responses on a visual Alternative Uses Task with a low stimulus and high stimulus condition were coded on fluency, flexibility, and originality.

Do Children With Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) Have Difficulties With Interference Control, Visuospatial Working Memory, and Selective Attention? Developmental Patterns and the Role of Severity and Persistence of DLD.

Purpose Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have weaknesses in executive functioning (EF), specifically in tasks testing interference control and working memory. It is unknown how EF develops in children with DLD, if EF abilities are related to DLD severity and persistence, and if EF weaknesses expand to selective attention. This study aimed to address these gaps.

No Bilingual Benefits Despite Relations Between Language Switching and Task Switching.

Previous research has shown that bilingual children outperform monolinguals on tasks testing cognitive control. Bilinguals' enhanced cognitive control is thought to be caused by the necessity to exert more language control in bilingual compared to monolingual settings. Surprisingly, between-group research of cognitive effects of bilingualism is hardly ever combined with within-group research that investigates relationships between language control and cognitive control.

Effects of parental input quality in child heritage language acquisition.

This study investigates the role of parental input quality on the acquisition of Greek as a heritage language in Western Canada. Focusing on subject use, we tested four groups of Greek speakers: monolingual children, heritage children, and the parents of each one of those groups. Participants completed an elicited production task designed to elicit subject placement in wide focus and embedded interrogative contexts, where postverbal subjects are preferred/required in the monolingual variety.

Language activities in a minority-majority language context: book-reading at home is more important for Frisian than for Dutch.

Previous research has shown that in a minority-majority language context, the quantity of language input at home is more important for the development of the minority language than for the development of the majority language. In the current study, we examined whether the same holds true for the frequency of specific language activities at home. In a group of five- and six-year-old Frisian-Dutch bilingual children (n = 120), we investigated to what extent vocabulary and morphology knowledge were predicted by reading activities, watching TV, and story-telling activities in both languages.

Verbal Working Memory Is Related to the Acquisition of Cross-Linguistic Phonological Regularities.

Closely related languages share cross-linguistic phonological regularities, such as Frisian [ͻ:t] and Dutch [ʱut], as in the cognate pairs [kͻ:t] - [kʱut] 'cold' and [wͻ:t] - [wʱut] 'forest'. Within Bybee's (1995, 2001, 2008, 2010) network model, these regularities are, just like grammatical rules within a language, generalizations that emerge from schemas of phonologically and semantically related words. Previous research has shown that verbal working memory is related to the acquisition of grammar, but not vocabulary.

The Minimal and Short-Lived Effects of Minority Language Exposure on the Executive Functions of Frisian-Dutch Bilingual Children.

Various studies have shown that bilingual children need a certain degree of proficiency in both languages before their bilingual experiences enhance their executive functioning (EF). In the current study, we investigated if degree of bilingualism in Frisian-Dutch children influenced EF and if this effect was sustained over a 3-year period. To this end, longitudinal data were analyzed from 120 Frisian-Dutch bilingual children who were 5- or 6-years-old at the first time of testing.

Language Proficiency and Sustained Attention in Monolingual and Bilingual Children with and without Language Impairment.

The language profiles of children with language impairment (LI) and bilingual children can show partial, and possibly temporary, overlap. The current study examined the persistence of this overlap over time. Furthermore, we aimed to better understand why the language profiles of these two groups show resemblance, testing the hypothesis that the language difficulties of children with LI reflect a weakened ability to maintain attention to the stream of linguistic information.

Grammatical Morphology in Monolingual and Bilingual Children With and Without Language Impairment: The Case of Dutch Plurals and Past Participles.

Purpose: Grammatical morphology is often a locus of difficulty for both children with language impairment (LI) and bilingual children. In contrast to previous research that mainly focused on verbal tense and agreement markings, the present study investigated whether plural and past participle formation can disentangle the effects of LI and bilingualism and, in addition, can point to weaknesses of LI that hold across monolingual and bilingual contexts.

Method: Monolingual and bilingual children with and without LI (n = 33 per group) were tested at 2 waves with a word formation task that elicited Dutch noun plurals and past participles.

Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Children in Different Sociolinguistic Contexts.

Many studies have shown that bilingual children outperform monolinguals on tasks testing executive functioning, but other studies have not revealed any effect of bilingualism. In this study we compared three groups of bilingual children in the Netherlands, aged 6-7 years, with a monolingual control group. We were specifically interested in testing whether the bilingual cognitive advantage is modulated by the sociolinguistic context of language use.

Assessment of bilingual children: What if testing both languages is not possible?

Unlabelled: Language delays of bilingual children can arise from language impairment (LI) but also from insufficient exposure to the target language. A reliable diagnosis of LI in bilingual children is therefore ideally based on the evaluation of both languages, as LI affects each language that is learned. However, due to the multitude of language combinations that are encountered in clinical practice, this is often not feasible.

Narrative abilities of monolingual and bilingual children with and without language impairment: implications for clinical practice.

Background: Understanding and expressing a narrative's macro-structure is relatively independent of experience in a specific language. A narrative task is therefore assumed to be a less biased method of language assessment for bilingual children than many other norm-referenced tests and may thus be particularly valuable to identify language impairment (LI) in a bilingual context.

Aims: The present study aimed to investigate the effects of LI and bilingualism on macrostructural narrative skills.

Why do children with language impairment have difficulties with narrative macrostructure?

Background: Research has produced conflicting findings about the effects of language impairment (LI) on narrative macrostructure outcomes.

Aims: The present study investigated if children with LI perform weaker than typically developing (TD) controls on narrative macrostructure in different tasks, whether this changes over time and if between-group differences stem from linguistic or cognitive factors.

Methods And Procedures: A group of monolingual Dutch children with LI (n=84) and a TD control group (n=45) were tested with a story comprehension and a story generation task.

The Influence of Texting Language on Grammar and Executive Functions in Primary School Children.

When sending text messages on their mobile phone to friends, children often use a special type of register, which is called textese. This register allows the omission of words and the use of textisms: instances of non-standard written language such as 4ever (forever). Previous studies have shown that textese has a positive effect on children's literacy abilities.

The sooner the better? An investigation into the role of age of onset and its relation with transfer and exposure in bilingual Frisian-Dutch children.

In this study, age of onset (AoO) was investigated in five- and six-year-old bilingual Frisian-Dutch children. AoO to Dutch ranged between zero and four and had a positive effect on Dutch receptive vocabulary size, but hardly influenced the children's accurate use of Dutch inflection. The influence of AoO on vocabulary was more prominent than the influence of exposure.