scholarly journals Morphology in Spanish-speaking children with Williams syndrome

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 728-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTONIO BENÍTEZ-BURRACO ◽  
ELENA GARAYZÁBAL ◽  
FERNANDO CUETOS
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Irregular Verbs ◽  
And Gender

abstractAims. Morphological skills in Williams syndrome (WS) are a controversial issue, particularly cross-linguistically. Methods. We assessed pluralization patterns of nouns, inflection of verbs in the past, and gender assignment, inflection, and agreement within the noun phrase in a sample of Spanish-speaking children with WS compared to typically developing (TD) children matched on mental age (VA-TD) and on chronological age (CA-TD) age. Results. Children with WS attribute grammatical gender correctly in a production task, but they have problems with inferring the referent’s sex from the gender of the noun in a comprehension task. Additionally, they correctly pluralize nouns and properly inflect regular verbs, but they have problems with irregular verbs. Our findings suggest that they have mastered the productive rules, but they perform like younger children regarding irregular items.

Prosodic abilities in Spanish and English children with Williams syndrome: A cross-linguistic study

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
PASTORA MARTÍNEZ-CASTILLA ◽  
VESNA STOJANOVIK ◽  
JANE SETTER ◽  
MARÍA SOTILLO
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Spanish Version ◽  
Speech Communication ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Linguistic Study ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
The Cross

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to compare the prosodic profiles of English- and Spanish-speaking children with Williams syndrome (WS), examining cross-linguistic differences. Two groups of children with WS, English and Spanish, of similar chronological and nonverbal mental age, were compared on performance in expressive and receptive prosodic tasks from the Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech–Communication Battery in its English or Spanish version. Differences between the English and Spanish WS groups were found regarding the understanding of affect through prosodic means, using prosody to make words more prominent, and imitating different prosodic patterns. Such differences between the two WS groups on function prosody tasks mirrored the cross-linguistic differences already reported in typically developing children.

Receptive number morphosyntax in children with Down syndrome

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 679-704
Author(s):  
ROBERTO A. ABREU-MENDOZA ◽  
TANIA JASSO ◽  
ELIA E. SOTO-ALBA ◽  
NATALIA ARIAS-TREJO
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Numerical Comparison ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Mental Age

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the comprehension of plural morphosyntactic markers and its relationship with numerical comparison abilities in children with Down syndrome (DS). It evaluated 16 Spanish-speaking children with DS (mean verbal mental age = 3;6) and 16 typically developing children with similar receptive vocabulary (mean chronological age = 3;5). Children participated in two preferential looking tasks assessing their abilities to map singular and plural markers to their visual referents and to distinguish one object from more than one. Results showed that both groups of children correctly mapped plural markers to their referents but failed to map singular ones. Furthermore, results also indicated that both groups also looked at collections of more than one object with four objects but not at those with two. The eye movement patterns of children who looked at collections of more than one object suggest a counting-like strategy. These results indicate that comprehension of plural markers of children with DS is similar to that of their typically developing peers; however, it is not related to their numerical abilities.

Siblings' Mediated Learning Strategies in Families With and Without Children With Intellectual Disabilities

2014 ◽  
Vol 119 (6) ◽  
pp. 565-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Tzuriel ◽  
Dikla Hanuka-Levy
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Mediated Learning ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Older Siblings ◽  
Verbal Responsiveness

Dyads of siblings in which the younger sibling had an intellectual disability (ID, n  =  25) were videotaped interacting. The ID group was compared with typically developing sibling dyads matched on mental age (n  =  25) and chronological age (n  =  25). We observed the mediation strategies, activation, and antimediation behaviors of older siblings and younger siblings' responsiveness to mediation. Mediation strategies were analyzed by the Observation of Mediation Interaction scale. The ID group scored highest on mediation strategies and lowest on activation and antimediation behaviors. Younger siblings' responsiveness to mediation was highest among the ID group. Mediation for Intentionality and Reciprocity and Meaning were positively associated with the verbal responsiveness of the younger siblings. Activation and antimediation behaviors were negatively associated with the verbal responsiveness.

Asynchrony in the cognitive and lexical development of young children with Williams syndrome

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
THIERRY NAZZI ◽  
ALISON GOPNIK ◽  
ANNETTE KARMILOFF-SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Chance Level ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Lexical Development ◽  
Object Selection ◽  
Object Categories

The present study investigates whether five-to-six-year-old children with Williams syndrome (N=8) can form new object categories based on naming information alone, and compares them with five groups of typically developing children aged 2;0 to 6;0 (N=34 children). Children were presented with triads of dissimilar objects; all objects in a triad were labelled, two of them with the same pseudoname. Name-based categorization was evaluated through object selection. Performance was above chance level for all groups. Performance reached a ceiling at about 4;0 for the typically developing children. For the children with Williams Syndrome, performance remained below chronological age level. The present results are discussed in light of previous findings of a failure to perform name-based categorization in younger children with Williams syndrome and the persistent asynchrony between cognitive and lexical development in this disorder.

Attention allocation to facial expressions of emotion among persons with Williams and Down syndromes

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 1189-1197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen J. Goldman ◽  
Cory Shulman ◽  
Yair Bar-Haim ◽  
Rany Abend ◽  
Jacob A. Burack
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Attention Capture ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Social Approach ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Williams Syndrome Group ◽  
Facial Expressions Of Emotion

AbstractIndividuals with Williams syndrome and those with Down syndrome are both characterized by heightened social interest, although the manifestation is not always similar. Using a dot-probe task, we examined one possible source of difference: allocation of attention to facial expressions of emotion. Thirteen individuals with Williams syndrome (mean age = 19.2 years, range = 10–28.6), 20 with Down syndrome (mean age = 18.8 years, range = 12.1–26.3), and 19 typically developing children participated. The groups were matched for mental age (mean = 5.8 years). None of the groups displayed a bias to angry faces. The participants with Williams syndrome showed a selective bias toward happy faces, whereas the participants with Down syndrome behaved similarly to the typically developing participants with no such bias. Homogeneity in the direction of bias was markedly highest in the Williams syndrome group whose bias appeared to result from enhanced attention capture. They appeared to rapidly and selectively allocate attention toward positive facial expressions. The complexity of social approach behavior and the need to explore other aspects of cognition that may be implicated in this behavior in both syndromes is discussed.

Narrative as a Social Engagement Tool: The Excessive Use of Evaluation in Narratives from Children with Williams Syndrome

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Losh ◽  
Ursula Bellugi ◽  
Judy Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Genetic Disorder ◽  
Narrative Development ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Matched Comparison

Williams syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by a unique physiological and behavioral profile, involving excessive sociability and relatively spared linguistic abilities in spite of mild to moderate mental retardation. The present study examines the narrative development of children with Williams syndrome and, for the first time, compares their performance to typically developing chronological-age matched children to examine the development of both structural linguistic abilities as well as the use of evaluation to elaborate and enrich narrative. Thirty children with Williams syndrome (5- through 10-years-old) and 30 typically developing age- and gender-matched comparison children were asked to tell a story from a wordless picture book. Results indicated that as a group, children with Williams syndrome committed significantly more morphological errors and used less complex syntax than comparison children, not surprising considering their language delay and impaired cognitive abilities. Significantly, children with Williams syndrome greatly exceeded comparison children in their elaboration and use of evaluative devices and showed particular preference for types of evaluation which serve as social engagement devices, reflecting their profile of excessive sociability. (Williams syndrome, Narrative, Evaluation)

scholarly journals Susceptibility to Ingroup Influence in Adolescents With Intellectual Disability: A Minimal Group Experiment on Social Judgment Making

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Egger
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Social Judgment ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Minimal Group ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Practical Implications

Adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) experience challenges and uncertainty when making judgments about other people’s intentions. In an attempt to achieve certainty, they might exhibit judgment tendencies that differ from those of typically developing adolescents. This study investigated social judgment making in adolescents with ID (n = 34, Mage = 14.89 years, SD = 1.41 years) compared with chronological age-matched adolescents without ID (n = 34, Mage = 14.68 years, SD = 1.15 years) and mental age (MA)-matched children (n = 34, Mage = 7.93 years, SD = 0.64 years). Participants used a computer-based task to judge the hostility of persons (fictitious characters). Adolescents with ID were found to make more polarizing judgments (i.e., either positive or negative, as opposed to moderate judgments) and were more likely to be guided by the opinions of a fictitious peer ingroup (minimal group) compared with adolescents without ID. No such differences were found between adolescents with ID and MA-matched children. The results are discussed in terms of scientific and practical implications.

Rhythmic Abilities of Adolescents and Adults with Williams Syndrome

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pastora Martínez-Castilla ◽  
María Sotillo ◽  
Ruth Campos
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Cognitive Profile ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Reproduction Task ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
Rhythmic Performance

although rhythmic abilities have often been described as strengths within the cognitive profile of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), the literature in this respect is limited and has offered inconsistent results. In this study, 20 adolescents and adults with WS and a control group of 40 typically developing individuals matched for chronological age were presented with a rhythmic patterns discrimination task and a rhythmic patterns reproduction task. Individuals with WS performed significantly lower than their control peers in both tasks. In addition, rhythmic impairments in WS were explained by the cognitive deficits that are characteristic of the syndrome. These results suggest that rhythmic performance in individuals with WS is affected by their cognitive deficits and that rhythmic skills in WS are not independent of general cognition.

Gender Assignment and Agreement in L2 Spanish: The Effects of Morphological Marking, Animacy, and Gender

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irma V. Alarcón
Keyword(s):  
Production Task ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Correct Assignment ◽  
Meaningful Context ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
L2 Spanish ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis study investigates the relationship between second language (L2) Spanish gender assignment and agreement and specific noun categories by distinguishing the effects of noun morphology (overt, non-overt, or deceptive), noun class (semantic or non-semantic), and gender (masculine or feminine). Specifically, assuming the correct acquisition of gender assignment, how do noun morphology, class and gender affect correct gender agreement when using the same type of noun? One hundred and seven English-speaking learners of Spanish at three proficiency levels completed an assignment and agreement written production task, in which they were first asked the gender of a noun (assignment), and then to provide an agreeing adjective in a meaningful context (agreement). Results showed that the probability of producing correct agreement given correct assignment was significantly higher with semantic than with non-semantic nouns, with overt rather than non-overt and/or deceptive nouns, and with masculine rather than feminine nouns. The discussion provides insights concerning how animacy (semantic gender) overrides morphology when establishing correct gender agreement in L2 Spanish.

Extending the positive bias in Williams syndrome: The influence of biographical information on attention allocation

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-256
Author(s):  
Kelsie A. Boulton ◽  
Melanie A. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Attention Bias ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
Positive Bias ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Biographical Information ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Probe Task

AbstractThere is evidence that individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) show an attention bias toward positive social-perceptual (happy) faces. Research has not yet considered whether this attention bias extends beyond social-perceptual stimuli to perceptually neutral stimuli that are paired with positive (trustworthy) biographical information. Fourteen participants with WS (mean age = 21 years, 1 month) learned to associate perceptually neutral faces with trustworthy (positive), neutral, or untrustworthy (negative) biographical information, before completing a dot-probe task where the same biographical faces were presented. The performance of the WS group was compared to two typically developing control groups, individually matched to the WS individuals on chronological age and mental age, respectively. No between-group bias toward untrustworthy characters was observed. The WS group displayed a selective attention bias toward trustworthy characters compared to both control groups (who did not show such a bias). Results support previous findings that indicate WS individuals show a preference for positive social-perceptual stimuli (happy faces) at the neurological, physiological, and attentional levels. The current findings extend this work to include a “top-down” positive bias. The implications of a positive bias that extends beyond social-perceptual stimuli (or “bottom-up” processes) in this syndrome are discussed.

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