Training understanding of reversible sentences: a study comparing language-impaired children with age-matched and grammar-matched controls
Training understanding of reversible sentences: a study comparing language-impaired children with age-matched and grammar-matched controls
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训练对可逆句子的理解：一项将语言障碍儿童与年龄匹配和语法匹配的对照组进行比较的研究
作者：
H. J. Hsu;D. Bishop
介绍。许多患有特定语言障碍 (SLI) 的儿童都存在语言理解问题，而人们对如何补救这些问题知之甚少。我们在这里重点关注解释诸如“球在杯子上方”之类的句子时的错误，其中空间配置取决于词序。我们询问是否可以通过计算机化训练来提高对如此短的可逆句子的理解，以及患有 SLI 的儿童的学习是否与年龄较小、发育正常的儿童相似。方法。我们训练了 28 名 6 至 11 岁的 SLI 儿童，28 名 4 至 7 岁的典型发育儿童，他们在接受性语法测试的原始分数上与 SLI 组相匹配，还有 20 名典型发展的儿童，他们在实际年龄上与 SLI 组相匹配。另外 20 名患有 SLI 的儿童接受了测试前和测试后评估，但没有接受培训。训练组的参与者接受了为期四天的训练，使用电脑游戏，采用无错误的学习程序，在此期间，他们必须选择与口头句子相对应的图片，例如“杯子在鼓的上方”或“鸟在帽子的下方”。一半受过训练的孩子听到使用上面/下面的句子，另一半听到使用之前/之后的句子（带有空间解释）。四场会议总共呈现了 96 个句子。一半的句子是独特的，而其余的则由四个句子中的每一个重复 12 次组成，随着训练的进行，这些句子变得越来越熟悉。结果。年龄匹配的对照儿童在第一次训练中表现接近上限（正确率≥90%），被排除在分析之外。大约一半接受过 SLI 训练的孩子也表现得很好。对 15 名 SLI 和 16 名语法匹配的儿童进行了训练效果检查，这些儿童在初始训练课程中的正确率低于 90%。总体而言，孩子们的成绩随着训练而提高。即使在考虑了训练 1 的表现后，记忆广度也是改善的一个重要预测因素。与语法匹配的对照组不同，患有 SLI 的儿童在重复句子方面表现出比独特句子更高的准确性。培训并没有提高儿童在接受性语法标准化测试中的表现。讨论。总体而言，这些结果表明，一部分患有 SLI 的儿童在具有三个关键词和简单句法结构的可逆句子上的表现远低于上限。对于这些孩子来说，较弱的言语短期记忆似乎会损害对口语句子的理解。与规则学习受益于可变输入的一般发现相反，如果反复接触给定句子框架中使用的相同名词，这些孩子似乎会做得最好。如果先进行此类特定于项目的学习，则推广到使用相同句法框架的其他句子可能会更有效。
Introduction. Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) have problems with language comprehension, and little is known about how to remediate these. We focused here on errors in interpreting sentences such as “the ball is above the cup”, where the spatial configuration depends on word order. We asked whether comprehension of such short reversible sentences could be improved by computerized training, and whether learning by children with SLI resembled that of younger, typically-developing children. Methods. We trained 28 children with SLI aged 6–11 years, 28 typically-developing children aged from 4 to 7 years who were matched to the SLI group for raw scores on a test of receptive grammar, and 20 typically-developing children who were matched to the SLI group on chronological age. A further 20 children with SLI were given pre- and post-test assessments, but did not undergo training. Those in the trained groups were given training on four days using a computer game adopting an errorless learning procedure, during which they had to select pictures to correspond to spoken sentences such as “the cup is above the drum” or “the bird is below the hat”. Half the trained children heard sentences using above/below and the other half heard sentences using before/after (with a spatial interpretation). A total of 96 sentences was presented over four sessions. Half the sentences were unique, whereas the remainder consisted of 12 repetitions of each of four sentences that became increasingly familiar as training proceeded. Results. Age-matched control children performed near ceiling (≥ 90% correct) in the first session and were excluded from the analysis. Around half the trained SLI children also performed this well. Training effects were examined in 15 SLI and 16 grammar-matched children who scored less than 90% correct on the initial training session. Overall, children’s scores improved with training. Memory span was a significant predictor of improvement, even after taking into account performance on training session 1. Unlike the grammar-matched controls, children with SLI showed greater accuracy with repeated sentences compared with unique sentences. Training did not improve children’s performance on a standardized test of receptive grammar. Discussion. Overall, these results indicate that a subset of children with SLI perform well below ceiling on reversible sentences with three key words and simple syntactic structure. For these children, weak verbal short-term memory appears to impair comprehension of spoken sentences. In contrast to the general finding that rule-learning benefits from variable input, these children seem to do best if given repeated exposure to the same nouns used with a given sentence frame. Generalisation to other sentences using the same syntactic frame may be more effective if preceded by such item-specific learning.