Bilingual Children with DLD: A Neurodevelopmental Perspective

项目摘要/摘要 在以英语为主的学校开始时，患有发展性语言障碍(DLD)的双语者通常 经历家庭语言使用的渐进式下降。然而，理论认为，双语者有两种语言 以增强儿童发展语言能力的方式进行互动(Hernandez，2018)。推进新技术 认知功能神经发育障碍的观点和临床治疗方法 不同语言的学习者，我们试图了解双语学习障碍儿童的语言发展。 我们的目标是揭示双语是如何影响DLD儿童的语言发展的。Wang等人。 (2021)在互动专业化认证(Johnson，2011)和双流(Dual Stream，Poeppel，2012)框架之间架起了桥梁 将语言发展概念化为相互竞争的神经认知系统之间的相互作用 语言子功能。为了考察双语对DLD的影响，我们通过链接提出了这一视角 它认为，双语体验影响外在的大脑行为和内在的神经相互作用 (Hernandez，2018)。因此，我们假设两种语言增加的互动性和竞争将是 DLD双语者的语言功能与皮质化程度呈正相关。 为了验证这一假设，我们重点研究了句法和语义能力在DLD中的不成比例影响。 我们使用行为和功能近红外光谱(FNIRS)神经成像测量、测试 7-9岁的西班牙语-英语双语者(N=400，60例DLD)，使用两种语言。判决和判刑 叙述性理解任务被用来揭示背侧和腹侧语言的皮质特异性 神经回路。目标1是确定双语对大脑皮层微调的特定语言效应 DLD中语言功能的专业化。目标2是揭示双语对全球系统的影响 DLD语言的皮质化专业化。为了实现这些目标，我们考察了儿童与 每种语言的句法和语义能力，双语体验的相对平衡，以及 它们与儿童正在形成的语言神经结构相互作用。这一有原则的方法将提供 (1)揭示支持双语者英语水平提高的机制 (2)从语言能力的神经认知证据中提出了语言学习障碍的理论 (3)通过说明语言之间关系的个体差异来告知干预 经验、熟练程度和大脑发展。这一证据将揭示语言的作用机制 经验和熟练程度与DLD相互作用，提供丰富的理论和临床上有意义的信息。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT At the onset of English-dominant schooling, bilinguals with developmental language disorders (DLD) generally experience a progressive decline in home language use. Yet, theories posit that a bilingual’s two languages interact in ways that enhance children’s developing language faculty (Hernandez, 2018). To advance new perspectives on neurodevelopmental disorders of cognitive function and inform clinical approaches for linguistically-diverse learners, we seek to understand language development in bilingual children with DLD. Our objective is to uncover how bilingualism impacts language development in children with DLD. Wang et al. (2021) bridge the Interactive Specialization (Johnson, 2011) and Dual Stream (Poeppel, 2012) frameworks to conceptualize language development as an interaction between neurocognitive systems competing for language subfunctions. To examine the effects of bilingualism on DLD, we advance this perspective by linking it to the view that bilingual experiences influence extrinsic brain-behavior and intrinsic neural interactions (Hernandez, 2018). We thus hypothesize that added interactivity and competition of two languages will be positively associated with cortical specialization for language function in bilinguals with DLD. To test this hypothesis, we focus on syntactic and semantic competences disproportionately affected in DLD. We use behavioral and functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging measures, testing Spanish-English bilinguals ages 7-9 (N=400, 60 with DLD), in two languages. Sentence judgment and narrative comprehension tasks are used to uncover cortical specificity along the dorsal and ventral language neurocircuits. Aim 1 is to determine language-specific effects of bilingualism on the finetuning of cortical specialization for language function in DLD. Aim 2 is to uncover the global-system effects of bilingualism on cortical specialization for language in DLD. To achieve these aims, we examine the relation between children’s syntactic and semantic competences in each language, the relative balance in dual language experiences, and their interaction with children’s emerging neural architecture for language. This principled approach will provide an empirical basis to (1) uncover mechanisms that support the advancement of English proficiency in bilinguals with DLD; (2) advance theories of DLD through neuro-cognitive evidence on language competences most affected in DLD; (3) inform intervention by illuminating individual differences in the relations between language experiences, proficiency, and brain development. This evidence will reveal mechanisms by which language experiences and proficiency interact with DLD, providing theoretically rich and clinically significant information.