| 1. |
- Andersson, Ketty, et al.
(författare)
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Impact of language background and school factors on core language skills
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bilingual children are at a disadvantage when compared to monolingual norms in language assessment. Monolingual assessment fails to acknowledge the asymmetrically distributed linguistic competence of bilingual children, for example, different levels of mastery of family and school related concepts in the first and second languages, respectively. Consequently, monolingual assessment results in an overidentification of language impairment in bilingual populations. However, other factors, in many communities associated with bilingualism, may also yield low results in language assessments. We investigated the Swedish CELF-4 Core subscales for receptive language and grammatical production of over 220 7-8-year-old children, all students in the classrooms of teachers participating in an ongoing practice-embedded intervention aimed at modifying mainstream primary school teachers’ verbal and nonverbal instructional communication. The student sample is representative of a southern Swedish urban and suburban population, with approximately 50 percent of students reported by parents to use at least one other language on a daily basis, in addition to the Swedish used in school, although with great differences in proportions, with participating schools ranging between 0 and 95 percent bilingual students. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the contribution of bilingualism, parental education level, school district and enrolment in extra-curricular activities on CELF-4 Core scores. In isolation, bilingualism predicted 38 percent of the variance in the CELF-4 Core scores, p < 0,01. With parental education level, school district and enrolment in extra-curricular activities entered the total variance explained by the model increased to 54 percent. However, the unique contribution of bilingualism was reduced to 9 percent. The results highlight the need to look beyond bilingualism in language assessment and educational management of bilingual children and adolescents, and to consider other explanations to academic struggle. Furthermore, alternative interventions must be considered and applied proportionately to their respective impact on the individual’s development. Evidence-based, high-quality language instruction in school must be complemented by community-based interventions aimed at increasing the parental education level and at providing counsel to parents and families on factors associated with academic advancement, e.g. extra-curricular activities. Measures must also be taken to reduce the gap between schools in order to avoid the double dose of disadvantage often experienced by bilingual children and adolescents and their families in areas of socioeconomic stress.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Ketty, et al.
(författare)
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The contribution of bilingualism, parental education, and school characteristics to performance on the clinical evaluation of language fundamentals : Fourth edition, Swedish
- 2019
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Assessment of bilingual children in only one language fails to acknowledge their distributed linguistic competence and has been shown to overidentify language disorder in bilingual populations. However, other factors, sometimes associated with bilingualism, may also contribute to low results in language assessments. Our aim was to examine the impact of these factors on language abilities. We used the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Fourth Edition, Swedish (CELF-4) to investigate core language abilities of 224 7- to 8-year-old children. Results showed 30 and 80% of monolinguals and bilinguals, respectively, performing more than 1 SD below the normative sample mean, calling into question the clinical utility of the test. However, participant and school characteristics provided a deeper understanding of the skewed results. In isolation, bilingualism predicted 38% of the variance in the CELF-4 Core scores. With level of parental education entered the variance explained by the model increased to 52%, but the unique contribution of bilingualism was reduced to 20%. Finally, with information added on school characteristics and enrollment in the school's recreation center the model explained an additional two percent, with the unique contribution of bilingualism further reduced to 9%. The results indicate an increased risk for low results on the CELF-4 Core when children present with multiple risk factors. This highlights the need to look beyond bilingualism in language assessment of bilingual children and adolescents and to consider other explanations to academic struggle. Available interventions must be considered and applied proportionately to their respective impact on the individual's development.
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| 3. |
- Asker-Árnason, Lena, et al.
(författare)
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Reading Comprehension and Working Memory Capacity in Children with Hearing Loss and Cochlear Implants or Hearing Aids
- 2015
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Ingår i: Volta Review. - 0042-8639 .- 2162-5158. ; Volume 115(1):Spring/Summer 2015, s. 36-65
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reading comprehension and three aspects of working memory—general, visuospatial and phonological—was assessed in 41 children with hearing loss: 23 with cochlear implants and 18 with hearing aids. Performance on these tests was compared between the two groups of children with hearing loss and also related to that of 55 children with typical hearing. All children were between 6 and 14 years of age. The children with hearing aids performed significantly more poorly on the reading comprehension test than the children with typical hearing but this difference was not significant between the children with cochlear implants and the children with typical hearing. In the group of children with cochlear implants, the results from the reading test and the results from all three working memory tests correlated significantly, whereas in the group of children with hearing aids there was no correlation between the reading test and the visual working memory test. The reading test results from the children with typical hearing correlated significantly with the results from the phonological working memory test but not with the other working memory tests. The authors concluded that the children with cochlear implants might have developed orthographic decoding earlier than the children with hearing aids due to their more profound hearing loss.
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| 4. |
- Borgström, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Brain measures of toddlers’ shape recognition predict language and cognitive skills at 6–7 years
- 2019
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 10:AUG
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While a number of studies have found that an improvement in object shape recognition is associated with language growth in infants and toddlers, no published studies have investigated the longitudinal relation between early shape recognition, and language abilities in later childhood. An electrophysiological measure of semantic processing (the N400) was used to assess shape recognition and general object recognition in a naming context in 20-month-olds. The measures of shape recognition strongly predicted language and cognitive abilities at 6–7 years even after controlling for toddler vocabulary size. The electrophysiological measures of general object recognition were not related to future language or cognitive abilities. These results suggest that early shape recognition abilities may play a role in language acquisition and influence even long-term language outcomes.
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| 5. |
- Borgström, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Toddlers’ shape recognition predicts language and working memory at 6-7 years
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- An electrophysiological measure of semantic processing (the N400) was used to assess shape recognition in toddlers. This measure strongly predicted working memory at 6-7 years. Moreover, a behavioral measure of shape recognition at 24 months was related to concurrent vocabulary and vocabulary skills at 6-7 years.
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| 6. |
- Brännström, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Children's Subjective Ratings and Opinions of Typical and Dysphonic Voice After Performing a Language Comprehension Task in Background Noise.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Voice. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-4588 .- 0892-1997. ; 29:5, s. 624-630
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective Previous studies suggest that dysphonic voices are perceived more negatively than typical voices, and it is possible that vocal perception influences academic achievement and comprehension. This study assessed children's subjective ratings and opinions of a typical and dysphonic voice after performing a language comprehension task in background noise. It also explored if subjective ratings were related to performance in the comprehension task. Study Design Ninety-three 8-year-old children participated and were randomly allocated to two groups. Methods A digital version of the Test for Reception of Grammar, version 2 (TROG-2) was used. In TROG-2, the child listens to a sentence and then, out of four possible pictures, selects the picture that corresponds to the sentence content. Each sentence assesses a specific grammatical construction. Test instructions were recorded using one speaker with two different voice qualities (typical voice and provoked dysphonic voice). One group of children performed TROG-2 with the typical voice and the other with the dysphonic voice, both presented in a multitalker babble noise using earphones. All children rated their subjective perception of the voice. Results The dysphonic voice received poorer ratings than the typical voice. Children making more positive ratings of the voice performed better on earlier blocks in TROG-2, but only in the typical voice group. Conclusions Children perceived the dysphonic voice more negatively even when listening to the same speaker. Performance is related to the perception of the voice, but only when the perceptual load of the task-relevant stimuli is sufficiently low.
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| 7. |
- Brännström, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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How Children Perceive the Acoustic Environment of Their School
- 2017
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Ingår i: Noise and Health. - 1463-1741. ; 19:87, s. 84-94
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: Children's own ratings and opinions on their schools sound environments add important information on noise sources. They can also provide information on how to further improve and optimize children's learning situation in their classrooms. This study reports on the Swedish translation and application of an evidence-based questionnaire that measures how children perceive the acoustic environment of their school. Study Design: The Swedish version was made using a back-To-back translation. Responses on the questionnaire along with demographic data were collected for 149 children aged 9-13 years of age. Results: The Swedish translation of the questionnaire can be reduced from 93 to 27 items. The 27 items were distributed over five separate factors measuring different underlying constructs with high internal consistency and high inter-item correlations. The responses demonstrated that the dining hall/canteen and the corridors are the school spaces with the poorest listening conditions. The highest annoyance was reported for tests and reading; next, student-generated sounds occur more frequently within the classroom than any sudden unexpected sounds, and finally, road traffic noise and teachers in adjoining classrooms are the most frequently occurring sounds from outside the classroom. Several demographic characteristics could be used to predict the outcome on these factors. Conclusion: The findings suggest that crowded spaces are most challenging; the children themselves generate most of the noise inside the classroom, but it is also common to hear road traffic noise and teachers in adjoining classrooms. The extent of annoyance that noise causes depends on the task but seems most detrimental in tasks, wherein the demands of verbal processing are higher. Finally, children with special support seem to report that they are more susceptible to noise than the typical child.
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| 8. |
- Brännström, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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The influence of voice quality on sentence processing and recall performance in school-age children with normal hearing
- 2018
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Ingår i: Speech, Language and Hearing. - 2050-571X. ; 21:1, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous findings suggest that working memory capacity (WMC) is influenced by a dysphonic voice quality. The present study examines the influence of voice quality on sentence processing and word recall in a working memory task. Fifty-seven children (8:1–9:1 years old) with normal hearing participated. Working memory capacity (WMC) was assessed using a competing language processing task (CLPT) which consists of a sentence processing segment (judgements of semantic acceptability in sentences) and a final word recall segment. All children completed two versions of the CLPT; once listening to a typical voice and once listening to a vocally loading induced dysphonic voice. The two voices were recorded from the same female speaker. In addition, the children’s executive functioning was assessed using Elithorn’s mazes. The dysphonic voice quality significantly decreases scores on the sentence processing segment but not on the recall segment. Children with better executive functioning (i.e., response inhibition, organizing, processing, and planning) were less disturbed by the dysphonic voice in the recall segment. Children’s judgements of semantic acceptability in sentences in a working memory task are affected by a dysphonic voice quality, but not the recall segment (the measure of WMC). However, children with lower executive functioning may be more disturbed by the dysphonic voice. These findings suggest that listening to a dysphonic voice seems to require more cognitive resources than listening to a typical voice, but only when the task is sufficiently easy to allow for allocation of cognitive resources to process the degraded signal content. Abbreviations: CLPT: Competing language processing task; ISTS: International speech test signal; RMS: root-mean-square; SLP: speech and language pathologists; WMC: Working memory capacity
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| 9. |
- Brännström, K. Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Immediate passage comprehension and encoding of information into long-term memory in children with normal hearing : The effect of voice quality and multitalker babble noise
- 2018
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Ingår i: American Journal of Audiology. - 1059-0889. ; 27:2, s. 231-237
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: This study examines how voice quality and multitalker babble noise affect immediate passage comprehension and the efficiency of information encoding into long-term memory in children with normal hearing. Method: Eighteen children (mean age = 9 years) with normal hearing participated. Immediate passage comprehension performance and delayed performance (after 5 to 8 days) were assessed for 4 listening conditions: a typical voice in quiet, a typical voice in noise, a dysphonic voice in quiet, and a dysphonic voice in noise. Results: Multitalker babble noise had a significant effect on immediate and delayed performance. This effect was more pronounced for delayed performance. No significant main effect of voice quality was seen on immediate or delayed performance. Conclusions: Multitalker babble noise impairs immediate passage comprehension and encoding of information into long-term memory for later recall in children with normal hearing. In learning situations where competing speech signals are present, background noise may reduce the prerequisites for optimal learning.
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| 10. |
- Brännström, K. Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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The influence of voice quality and multi-talker babble noise on sentence processing and recall performance in school children using cochlear implant and/or hearing aids
- 2019
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Ingår i: Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1401-5439 .- 1651-2022. ; 44:2, s. 87-94
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: This study examines the influence of voice quality and multi-talker babble noise on processing and storage performance in a working memory task performed by children using cochlear implants (CI) and/or hearing aids (HA). Methods: Twenty-three children with a hearing impairment using CI and/or HA participated. Age range was between 6 and 13 years. The Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT) was assessed in three listening conditions; a typical voice presented in quiet, a dysphonic voice in quiet, and a typical voice in multi-talker babble noise (signal-to-noise ratio +10 dB). Being a dual task, the CLPT consists of a sentence processing component and a recall component. The recall component constitutes the measure of working memory capacity (WMC). Higher-level executive function was assessed using Elithorn?s mazes. Results: The results showed that the dysphonic voice did not affect performance in the processing component or performance in the recall component. Multi-talker babble noise decreased performance in the recall component but not in the processing component. Higher-level executive function was not significantly related to performance in any component. Conclusions: The findings indicate that multi-talker babble noise, but not a dysphonic voice quality, seems to put strain on WMC in children using CI and/or HA. AbbreviationsCLPT competing language processing taskISTS international speech test signalSLP speech and language pathologistsWMC working memory capacity.
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