Changes in English Past Tense Use by Bilingual School-Age Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder. 2018

Peggy F Jacobson, and Yan H Yu
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, St. John's University, Queens, NY.

The purpose of this study is to examine changes in English past tense accuracy and errors among Spanish-English bilingual children with typical development (TD) and developmental language disorder (DLD). Thirty-three children were tested before and after 1 year to examine changes in clinically relevant English past tense errors using an elicited production task. A mixed-model linear regression using age as a continuous variable revealed a robust effect for age. A 4-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted with age (young, old) and language ability group (TD, DLD) as between-subjects variables, time (Time 1, Time 2) and verb type (regular, irregular, and novel verbs) as within-subject variables, and percent accuracy as the dependent variable. Subsequently, a 4-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to measure the overall distribution of verb errors across 2 time points. Overall, children produced regular and novel verb past tense forms with higher accuracy than irregular past tense verbs in an elicitation task. Children with TD were more accurate than children with DLD. Younger children made more improvement than older children from Time 1 to Time 2, especially in the regular and novel verb conditions. Bare stem and overregularization were the most common errors across all groups. Errors consisting of stem + ing were more common in children with DLD than those with TD in the novel verb condition. Contrary to an earlier report (Jacobson & Schwartz, 2005), the relative greater difficulty with regular and novel verbs was replaced by greater difficulty for irregular past tense, a pattern consistent with monolingual impairment. Age was a contributing factor, particularly for younger children with DLD who produced more stem + ing errors in the novel verb condition. For all children, and particularly for those with DLD, an extended period for irregular past tense learning was evident. The results support a usage-based theory of language acquisition and impairment.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007802 Language A verbal or nonverbal means of communicating ideas or feelings. Dialect,Dialects,Languages
D007805 Language Development Disorders Conditions characterized by language abilities (comprehension and expression of speech and writing) that are below the expected level for a given age, generally in the absence of an intellectual impairment. These conditions may be associated with DEAFNESS; BRAIN DISEASES; MENTAL DISORDERS; or environmental factors. Language Delay,Speech Delay,Auditory Processing Disorder, Central,Central Auditory Processing Disorder,Developmental Disorder, Speech or Language,Developmental Language Disorders,Language Disorders, Developmental,Semantic-Pragmatic Disorder,Speech or Language, Developmental Disorder,Delay, Speech,Delays, Speech,Development Disorder, Language,Developmental Language Disorder,Disorder, Language Development,Disorders, Language Development,Language Delays,Language Development Disorder,Language Disorder, Developmental,Semantic Pragmatic Disorder,Semantic-Pragmatic Disorders,Speech Delays
D008297 Male Males
D002648 Child A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL. Children
D004739 England A part of Great Britain within the United Kingdom.
D005260 Female Females
D006630 Hispanic or Latino A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/1997/10/30/97-28653/revisions-to-the-standards-for-the-classification-of-federal-data-on-race-and-ethnicity). In the United States it is used for classification of federal government data on race and ethnicity. Race and ethnicity terms are self-identified social construct and may include terms outdated and offensive in MeSH to assist users who are interested in retrieving comprehensive search results for studies such as in longitudinal studies. Cuban Americans,Hispanic Americans,Latin Americans, US,Latinas,Latinos,Latinx,Puerto Ricans,Spanish Americans,Hispanics,American, Hispanic,American, US Latin,Cuban American,Hispanic American,Hispanic or Latinos,Latin American, US,Latina,Latino,Puerto Rican,Spanish American,US Latin American,US Latin Americans
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000367 Age Factors Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time. Age Reporting,Age Factor,Factor, Age,Factors, Age
D000704 Analysis of Variance A statistical technique that isolates and assesses the contributions of categorical independent variables to variation in the mean of a continuous dependent variable. ANOVA,Analysis, Variance,Variance Analysis,Analyses, Variance,Variance Analyses

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