Statistical Word Learning in Children with Language Disorders

语言障碍儿童的统计词汇学习

• 批准号: 8594469
• 负责人: Eileen Katherine Haebig
• 金额: $ 2.94万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8594469
• 关键词: Acoustics; Address; Bees; Behavioral; Characteristics; Child; Communication; Conflict (Psychology); Cues; Data; Development; Educational process of instructing; Exhibits; Exposure to; Eye; Frequencies; Goals; Hearing; Heterogeneity; Impairment; Intervention; Investigation; Knowledge; Label; Language; Language Development; Language Disorders; Language Therapy; Learning; Linguistics; Link; Literature; Machine Learning; Maps; Measures; Methods; Nature; Participant; Pattern; Performance; Phase; Population; Probability; Process; Quality of life; Reading; Research; Speech; Statistical Methods; Stream; Testing; Time; Vocabulary; Work; autism spectrum disorder; classical conditioning; gaze; innovation; movie; novel; public health relevance; skills; social; sound; specific language impairment; theories

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulties learning words, which negatively impacts academic performance, functional independence, and quality of life. Despite the importance of vocabulary development, relatively little is known about the learning mechanisms that underlie these deficits. Furthermore, the overlap of language characteristics in children with ASD and SLI is not well understood. An understanding of language-learning mechanisms in children with ASD and SLI has important theoretical implications upon which effective language therapies rely. Although statistical learning (i.e., sensitivity to linguistic regularities) is accpted as a robust language-learning mechanism in multiple domains of language in typical development, very little is known about statistical learning in children with ASD and SLI. This study will address this gap in knowledge by examining the impact of statistical learning in word learning. Specifically, this study will assess how children link knowledge of native language sound patterns to meaning. The contribution of statistical learning in word learning in children with atypical language development will be assessed through three studies. Specific Aim 1 will investigate prerequisite skills in word learning. Study 1a will assess the use of statistical learnng through a segmenting task (i.e., segmenting sound units from a continuous speech stream with the use of implicit transitional probability cues) without word learning. Study 1b will test associative word learning of novel labels paired with novel objects without segmentation. Because children with ASD and SLI have difficulties learning words and have difficulties consolidating linguistic information in word learning, it is important to test component skills in word learning. Once prerequisite skills have been assessed, Study 2, addressing specific aim 2, will assess whether children with ASD and SLI are able to map meaning onto newly segmented words. A significant relationship between prerequisite skills and specific aim 2 is anticipated; however, comparison among the different groups will allow for identification of potentially different abilities in word learning skills in the two populations with atypical language development. Both implicit and explicit teaching and testing methods will be used to capture subtle real-time learning information while placing minimal behavioral demands on the children. Within- and between- group analyses will assess learning in children with ASD, SLI, and typical development. New statistical methods for analyzing eye-gaze data will be employed to address potential analytical difficulties given the heterogeneity and possible lack of within-subject stability in children with ASD and SLI. Additionally, because of known social deficits in children with ASD, the studies will use non-social tasks. Findings from this study will contribute important information to our theoretical understanding of language acquisition in children with atypical language development.

描述(申请人提供)：许多患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)和特定语言障碍(SLI)的儿童在学习单词方面存在困难，这对学习成绩、功能独立性和生活质量产生了负面影响。尽管词汇发展很重要，但人们对这些缺陷背后的学习机制知之甚少。此外，儿童语言特征的重叠 ASD和SLI还没有被很好地理解。了解自闭症和系统性红斑狼疮儿童的语言学习机制具有重要的理论意义，有效的语言治疗依赖于此。尽管统计学习(即对语言规则的敏感性)在典型发育的多个语言领域被认为是一种强大的语言学习机制，但对自闭症和系统性红斑狼疮儿童的统计学习知之甚少。这项研究将通过考察统计学习对单词学习的影响来解决这一知识差距。具体地说，这项研究将评估儿童如何将母语发音模式的知识与意义联系起来。统计学习在非典型语言发展儿童的单词学习中的贡献将通过三项研究来评估。具体目标1将调查单词学习的必备技能。研究1a将评估在不学习单词的情况下，通过分段任务(即，使用隐含的转移概率线索从连续的语音流中分割声音单元)的统计学习的使用。研究1b将测试没有分割的新标签与新对象配对的联想单词学习。由于患有自闭症和系统性红斑狼疮的儿童在词汇学习中存在词汇学习困难和巩固语言信息方面的困难，因此测试词汇学习中的成分技能是很重要的。一旦评估了先决条件技能，研究2将针对具体目标2，评估患有自闭症和系统性红斑狼疮的儿童是否能够将含义映射到新分割的单词上。预计前提技能和具体目标2之间存在显著关系；然而，不同群体之间的比较将有助于确定两个语言发展不典型的人群在单词学习技能方面的潜在差异。内隐和外显的教学和测试方法将被用来捕捉微妙的实时学习信息，同时对孩子们的行为要求最低。组内和组间分析将评估患有自闭症、系统性红斑狼疮和典型发育的儿童的学习情况。将采用新的统计方法分析眼睛凝视数据，以解决潜在的分析困难，因为自闭症和系统性红斑狼疮儿童的异质性和可能缺乏受试者内部的稳定性。此外，由于自闭症儿童已知的社交缺陷，这些研究将使用非社交任务。这项研究的发现将对 为我们从理论上理解非典型语言发育儿童的语言习得提供了信息。