Are There Really Syntactic Complexity Effects in Sentence Production? A Reply to Scontras et al. (2015)

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 513-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryellen C. MacDonald ◽  
Jessica L. Montag ◽  
Silvia P. Gennari
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Production ◽  
Syntactic Complexity

scholarly journals Syntactic Complexity Effects in Sentence Production

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 559-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Scontras ◽  
William Badecker ◽  
Lisa Shank ◽  
Eunice Lim ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Production ◽  
Syntactic Complexity

scholarly journals Syntactic Complexity Effects in Sentence Production: A Reply to MacDonald, Montag, and Gennari (2016)

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 2280-2287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Scontras ◽  
William Badecker ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Production ◽  
Syntactic Complexity

scholarly journals A Lag in Speech Motor Coordination During Sentence Production Is Associated With Stuttering Persistence in Young Children

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Usler ◽  
Anne Smith ◽  
Christine Weber
Keyword(s):  
Motor Development ◽  
Motor Coordination ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
School Age ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Kinematic Measure ◽  
Speech Motor

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine if indices of speech motor coordination during the production of sentences varying in sentence length and syntactic complexity were associated with stuttering persistence versus recovery in 5- to 7-year-old children. Methods We compared children with persistent stuttering (CWS-Per) with children who had recovered (CWS-Rec), and children who do not stutter (CWNS). A kinematic measure of articulatory coordination, lip aperture variability (LAVar), and overall movement duration were computed for perceptually fluent sentence productions varying in length and syntactic complexity. Results CWS-Per exhibited higher LAVar across sentence types compared to CWS-Rec and CWNS. For the participants who successfully completed the experimental paradigm, the demands of increasing sentence length and syntactic complexity did not appear to disproportionately affect the speech motor coordination of CWS-Per compared to their recovered and fluent peers. However, a subset of CWS-Per failed to produce the required number of accurate utterances. Conclusions These findings support our hypothesis that the speech motor coordination of school-age CWS-Per, on average, is less refined and less mature compared to CWS-Rec and CWNS. Childhood recovery from stuttering is characterized, in part, by overcoming an earlier occurring maturational lag in speech motor development.

Effects of gesture restriction on quality of narrative production

Gesture ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 416-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore Jenkins ◽  
Marie Coppola ◽  
Carl Coelho
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Information ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Cognitive Effects ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Hand Gestures ◽  
Narrative Production ◽  
Free Gesture

Abstract Hand gestures have been found to provide both semantic information and cognitive facilitative effects in language tasks. These benefits, however, have typically been linked to micro-levels of word and sentence production, and little attention has been paid to the macro-levels of narrative production and organization. In this study, we examined the length, content, syntactic complexity, and organization of narratives of ten typically developing adults under two conditions: (i) Free Gesture, in which participants were allowed to gesture freely while retelling a story, and (ii) Restricted Gesture, where the participants were prevented from moving their hands freely. Results indicated that although narrative length and content did not vary significantly between conditions, narratives produced in the Free Gesture condition were significantly more grammatically complex and better organized than those produced in the Restricted Gesture condition. The findings are discussed with respect to the potential facilitative cognitive effects of gesture for discourse planning.

Eliciting Verbs From Children With Specific Language Impairment

1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Frome Loeb ◽  
Clifton Pye ◽  
Sean Redmond ◽  
Lori Zobel Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Lexical Skills

The focus of assessment and intervention is often aimed at increasing the lexical skills of young children with language impairment. Frequently, the use of nouns is the center of the lexical assessment. As a result, the production of verbs is not fully evaluated or integrated into treatment in a way that accounts for their semantic and syntactic complexity. This paper presents a probe for eliciting verbs from children, describes its effectiveness, and discusses the utility of and problems associated with developing such a probe.

Cognitive Load Affects Speech Motor Performance Differently in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Speech Motor

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.

Treatment for Progressive Impairments of Language

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Henry
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Treatment ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Functional Communication ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Communication Techniques ◽  
Primary Object ◽  
Behavioral Treatments ◽  
Treatment Research

Abstract Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a relatively new diagnostic entity, for which few behavioral treatments have been investigated. Recent work has helped to clarify the nature of distinct PPA variants, including a nonfluent variant (NFV-PPA), a logopenic variant (LV-PPA), and a semantic variant (SV-PPA). This paper reviews treatment research to date in each subtype of PPA, including restitutive, augmentative, and functional approaches. The evidence suggests that restitutive behavioral treatment can result in improved or stabilized language performance within treated domains. Specifically, sentence production and lexical retrieval have been addressed in NFV-PPA, whereas lexical retrieval has been the primary object of treatment in LV and SV-PPA. Use of augmentative communication techniques, as well as implementation of functional communication approaches, also may result in improved communication skills in individuals with PPA. The ideal treatment approach may be one that combines restitutive, augmentative, and functional approaches to treatment, in order to maximize residual cognitive-linguistic skills in patients. Additional research is warranted to determine which modes of treatment are most beneficial in each type of PPA at various stages of severity.

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