Effects of Fast ForWord on Language Processing

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管他们在非语言智力测试中表现正常，但患有特殊语言障碍（SLI）的儿童在语义、语法和/或叙事语言技能的发展方面存在重大问题。直到最近，针对这些领域的干预措施被认为是有效的，这一原则是基于更有效的学习取决于改变孩子听到的语言或直接教授新技能。相比之下，快进语言（FFW-L）旨在通过从根本上重组儿童的中枢听觉神经系统来提高学习者处理听觉和听觉语言信号的能力。所提出的调查的广泛目标反映了研究者对开发和测试干预措施或干预措施序列的兴趣，这些干预措施不仅改变了特殊语言障碍儿童的语言表现，而且从根本上改变了他们从所接触的输入中学习新语言的能力。该项目的具体目标是(a)检查FFW-L对儿童对传统基于叙述的语言干预（NBLI）的反应的影响；(b)比较FFW-L与强度较低的常规NBLI的神经生理效应；(c)比较FFW-L和NBLI（单独和联合）对基于更自然的语言活动的测量的影响。这些目标将通过检查已完成和未完成FFW-L的儿童的nbli前和nbli后分数来实现。如果FFW-L对语言学习潜力有预期的效果，那么在NBLI之前接受过FFW-L的儿童应该比没有参加过FFW-L的儿童表现出学习优势。整套语言测量将由全脑脑磁图（MEG）结合高密度脑电图（EEC）进行补充。这些技术将提供干预前后大脑对简单和复杂听觉刺激反应的详细时空概况。调查的结果将包括：(a)更好地了解FFW-L对语言学习能力的影响；(b)对特殊语言障碍的神经生物学和大脑对语言干预的反应有更全面的认识；(c)在全动力临床试验中计划和实施涉及FFW-L和其他常规干预措施的干预措施序列测试所需的证据。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although they perform normally on tests of nonverbal intelligence, children with specific language impairment (SLI) have significant problems in the development of semantic, grammatical, and/or narrative language skills. Until recently, interventions addressing these areas that are known to be efficacious have been based on the principle that more efficient learning depends on changing the language the child hears or by teaching new skills directly. In contrast, Fast ForWord Language (FFW-L) is designed to improve the learner's ability to process auditory and auditory-verbal signals by fundamentally reorganizing the child's central auditory nervous system. The broad objectives underlying the proposed investigation reflect the investigators' interest in developing and testing interventions, or sequences of interventions, that not only change the language performance of children with SLI, but fundamentally change their ability to learn new language from the input to which they are exposed. The specific aims of the project are (a) to examine the effects of FFW-L on children's responses to a conventional Narrative Based Language Intervention (NBLI); (b) to compare the neurophysiologic effects of FFW-L with those of the less intensive, conventional NBLI; and (c) to compare the effects of FFW-L and those of NBLI (alone and in combination) on measures based on more naturalistic language activities. These aims will be accomplished by examining the pre-NBLI and post-NBLI scores for children who have completed and those who have not completed FFW-L. If FFW-L has the desired effects on language learning potential, children who receive it prior to NBLI should demonstrate learning advantages over children who have not participated in FFW-L. A battery of language measures will be supplemented by whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) combined with high-density electroencephalography (EEC). These techniques will provide a detailed spatio-temporal profile of the brain's response to simple and complex auditory stimuli before and after intervention. The outcomes of the investigation will include (a) a better understanding of the effects of FFW-L on language learning abilities; (b) more comprehensive knowledge of the neurobiology of SLI and the brain's response to language intervention; and (c) the evidence necessary to plan and implement tests of sequences of interventions involving FFW-L and other conventional interventions in fully-powered clinical trials.