Brain&lesions& - UCSD Cognitive Science5/23/11 1 Language&impairment,&brain&injury,& and&comparisons&across&groups& Brain&lesions& • Studies&of&children&who&had&prenatalor&perinatal

5/23/11

1

Language impairment, brain injury, and comparisons across groups

Brain lesions

•  Studies of children who had prenatal or perinatal brain injury –  Before language produc@on started –  Not necessarily before geBng language input

•  Range of lesion loca*ons and sizes •  Big ques@ons: does L or R hemisphere damage maFer for language ability?

•  Is impairment related to lesion size?

5/23/11

2

Brain lesions

•  Methodological problems: –  Small N –  Huge variability in

•  Timing of lesion •  Underlying cause (Stroke? Seizures?)

–  Sensi@vity of tests •  Extreme views of language specializa@on: –  Equipoten@ality –  Determinism –  Compromise: emergen@sm

Brain lesions

•  Early work: Bates and colleagues •  Large set of kids with similar e@ology •  By about age 6, most had recovered to low-‐normal levels

•  No rela,onship to hemisphere damaged •  Lesion size x performance: –  U-‐func@on: @ny and large did beFer, medium did worse (consistent with animal lit-‐-‐”fresh start” H)

–  Later, U-‐func@on did not hold

5/23/11

3

Brain lesions long-‐term

•  The happy story: •  Temporary impairment •  Then recover to normal by about 6 •  BUT •  Studies aYer this age show overall below-‐normal IQ (verbal and performance)

•  Ar@fact of more impaired kids con@nuing to see doctors?


•  AYer ini@al recovery of func@on, is there a decline in IQ later in development for kids with unilateral focal lesions?

•  Levine et al. examined 15 kids who were IQ-‐tested pre-‐ age 7 and post-‐ age 7 –  Unusual-‐-‐a longitudinal study

•  12 of 15 showed an IQ decline •  Equivalent declines in verbal and performance

5/23/11

4


•  *Side note: what does a decline in IQ mean?

•  IQ tests have age-‐based norms –  A 2-‐y-‐o who performs like a UCSD undergrad has a higher IQ than that undergrad*

•  Not gaining skills as rapidly •  (S@ll improving, but not as fast as normal)


•  Rela@onship to lesion size? –  Smaller is worse

•  Rela@onship to earlier IQ? –  Higher IQ early on meant bigger decline

•  Why does this happen? –  Not enough processing power to keep up –  Ar@fact-‐-‐IQ tests start demanding abstract reasoning (maybe a deficit all along)

5/23/11

5

SLI vs FL vs WS

•  Reilly et al. used narra,ves – Look at this picture book and explain story – Tests both formal language (e.g., syntax) and cogni@ve abili@es (understanding the story)

•  Do SLI kids look like – FL (“focal lesion”) kids? – WS (Williams syndrome) kids?

5/23/11

6

SLI vs FL vs WS

•  Study 1: SLI vs. early lesions •  Measures: –  Story length –  Complexity of sentences –  Rate of morphological errors

•  Assessment –  Count total # of proposi@ons –  Count errors, divide by prop. count –  Assess diversity of syntac@c construc@ons

SLI vs FL vs WS

•  SLI, FL below typical at age 4-‐6

•  Lesion group approached normal at 10-‐12

5/23/11

7

SLI vs FL vs WS



SLI vs FL vs WS



5/23/11

8

SLI vs FL vs WS



•  Implica@on: SLI worse than missing part of brain!!

SLI vs FL vs WS

•  Study 2: SLI vs. Williams (WS)

5/23/11

9

SLI vs FL vs WS

•  Study 2: SLI vs. Williams (WS) •  Measures: – Story length – Morphological errors – Narra@ve coherence (major points, theme)

SLI vs FL vs WS

•  Study 2: SLI vs. Williams (WS) •  SLI: more errors at 4-‐6 than WS

•  Comparable on complex syntax

5/23/11

10

SLI vs FL vs WS

•  Study 2: SLI vs. Williams (WS) •  But WS has harder @me maintaining structure of narra@ve (boy looks for frog)

TD: They looked in the beehive and in the hole but could not find the frog.

SLI: The dog is trying for the bees and the boy’s looking for the frog.

WS: And then all of a sudden the dog finds some bees flying.

SLI vs FL vs WS

•  Study 2: SLI vs. Williams (WS) •  WS use more social evalua@on devices

•  Voices, sfx, exclama@ons-‐-‐audience aFen@on

TD: They looked in the beehive and in the hole but could not find the frog.

SLI: The dog is trying for the bees and the boy’s looking for the frog.

WS: And then all of a sudden the dog finds some bees flying.

5/23/11

11

SLI vs FL vs WS

•  Overall picture for SLI •  Gramma@cal competence really poor – Worse than focal brain injury

•  Narra@ve skills not so bad

5/23/11

12

Language development in later childhood

Things that happen

•  Last few sounds in produc@on •  Long @me before some syntac@c construc@ons understood

•  Peer interac@ons •  Developing narra@ve skills •  Developing literacy

5/23/11

13

Peer interac@ons

•  Trial-‐by-‐fire of communica@ve competence

•  In-‐group language-‐-‐ adolescent register –  “like”, “y’know” Various

‘slang’ terms –  Either get abandoned or

absorbed into general use

•  Playing with language (humor, sound play)

www.xkcd.com

Fun with language

•  Ely & McCabe (1994): about 25% of kindergartners’ speech involved language play

•  Playing with sound •  Riddles: – Word games capitalizing on ambiguity (phonological, morphological, seman@c, lexical)

–  Knock knock. Who’s there? LeFuce. LeFuce who? LeFuce in!

–  Solving riddles correlates with reading ability

5/23/11

14

Fun with language

•  Verbal humor •  Part of socializa@on into community •  Develops with age –  Young: scatalogical – Mid-‐childhood: more complex, e.g. puns/jokes –  Adolescence: as sarcas@c and ironic as adults

•  Varies from culture to culture –  Teasing –  AA: ‘your mama’ statements (ritualized verbal game)

Gendered speech

•  Starts differen@a@ng around age 2, 3 •  The only biological components: – Voice deepening* – Higher incidence of dyslexia

•  Everything else socially condi@oned

5/23/11

15

Gendered speech

•  Adults: – Males have larger vocal cords=low PITCH •  US: males: 120 Hz; females: 200 Hz •  This discrepancy differs by culture

– Males have longer vocal tracts=low FORMANTS (resonances that make vowels)

Gendered speech

•  Children: –  Un@l ~13 years, no difference in PITCH –  As early as 4, differences in FORMANTS

–  Adult listeners can ID child gender above chance at 4 years •  Appear to be using formants

•  Why are formants different? –  Differences in vocal tract size? –  Selec@ve imita@on of gendered speech paFerns?

See Perry, Ohde, & Ashmead 2001

5/23/11

16

Gendered speech/language

•  UnwiBngly enforced by teachers, parents –  Behavior X okay for boy, not girl (or vice versa)

•  Iden@fy with same-‐gender peers –  Girls seek affilia@on, boys seek power and autonomy –  [In suburbia] –  AA city girls show more balanced paFern-‐-‐compete (allegedly ‘male’)

as well as cooperate

•  In narra@ves, girls more likely to quote others –  A lot of aFen@on to language; more literacy later –  Gender variability in aBtudes toward literacy (reading is ‘girly’)

Extended discourse

•  Early on, lots of language is about immediate context

•  In school years, more need to have decontextualized language (the “tell” part of “show and tell”)

•  Key development in literacy skills (wriFen lg is decontextualized)

5/23/11

17

Extended discourse

•  Two modes of thought: •  Paradigma@c – Logical – Classroom wri@ng

•  Narra@ve – Storytelling – Focus on human inten@ons

Narra@ves

•  Story (usually about past events) •  At least two clauses about single event •  Changes with age –  Narra@ve length –  Changes in structure

•  Age 4: “leapfrog” narra@ves (no train of thought) •  Between 4 and 8: chronological narra@ves

–  And then…and then… •  Age 8+: more classic narra,ve (“high point analysis”)

–  Build up to high point/climax –  Also, lots of evalua@on (how narrator feels about events)

5/23/11

18

Narra@ves across cultures

•  Amount of evalua@on in AA communi@es –  Increases 3x from childhood to adulthood –  EA adolescents did what young AA kids did

•  Japanese children may employ haiku-‐like structures •  Other variables: –  Focus of story: self, others –  PaFern of communica@on: direct, subtle

Narra@ves across cultures

•  Topic-‐focused narra,ves: EA kids use – Single person/event – Beginning, middle, end

•  Topic-‐associa,ng narra,ves: one form AA kids use – Kids who use this in classroom are discouraged by teachers (“S@ck with the topic!”)

– Feel angry, that teacher wasn’t interested

5/23/11

19

Extended discourse

•  Explana@ons –  Parents can convey info about how the world works

•  Descrip@ons •  In the classroom: teachers try to elicit extended discourse – Must be clear about reference (he, she, it) –  Take into account listeners’ knowledge

Extended discourse

•  Do kids take listeners’ knowledge into account? •  Cameron & Wang, 1999: •  “Referen@al communica@on” experiment •  4-‐ and 8-‐year-‐olds •  Tell adult a story from picture book

–  In person or on phone •  On phone, kids told longer stories, more correc,ons (for

listener comprehension) than in person •  Increase in ability across school age

5/23/11

20

Metalinguis@c awareness

•  Conscious awareness of language structure •  Influenced by –  Cogni@ve development –  Exposure to literacy

•  Types (metametameta) –  Phonological awareness – Metaseman@c awareness – Metasyntac@c awareness – Metapragma@c awareness


•  Phonological awareness –  Understand that words are made up of smaller units

•  Syllables •  Phonemes

–  Ages 3-‐8 •  Age 5: cat and hat rhyme; age 8: giant and jail are spelled differently

–  Seen in verbal play (pig La@n, rhyming) –  Achievements

•  Separate out first sound •  Compare word sounds •  Segment out word elements

5/23/11

21


•  Phonological awareness •  Achievements vary with language being learned, literacy, wri@ng system

big doll -‐-‐> dog bill

bed farm

lone fish

“I’d like to spank the theakers…”

Phonological awareness (cont’d)

•  Dog-‐bed >> bog-‐ded easier than dog-‐bed >> beg-‐dod •  Figuring out d|og in English (onset-‐rime structure) is an achievement

•  Figuring out d|o|g (3 phonemes) is an even tougher achievement – May be less linguis@cally “natural” for English speakers than onset-‐rime

“I’d like to spank the theakers…”

5/23/11

22

Metaseman@c awareness

•  Develops by about age 10 •  Know what “word” means

•  Can provide defini@ons – Part of SOP in classrooms

Metasyntac@c awareness

•  Know correct syntax •  Know subj/obj/verb categories •  Does anyone really have it? •  Kids can correct errors, but usually focus on seman@cs over

syntax –  “The baby eated the typewriter” (Bialystok 86)

•  At age 5, can oYen name subject –  But subj & verb are really rare outside schooling

•  May require explicit instruc@on •  Adults: “The answer is obvious to you and I”

5/23/11

23

Metapragma@c awareness

•  Knowledge about language and social context –  Referen,al inadequacy*

•  Was that sufficient to pick out which referent? •  5 and under: blame listener •  By age 8: assign fault (correctly) to speaker

– Was that understandable? (comprehensibility) – What (explicitly) are social/politeness rules for given situa@on? •  Get it by late childhood/early adolescence •  Adolescents some@mes violate deliberately

Literacy

(mainly in North America)

5/23/11

24

Importance of literacy

•  Print is everywhere •  Much of vocab comes from reading – misled, awry, infrared

•  New knowledge (esp. in school) comes more and more from reading

Literacy achievements

•  Emergent literacy: can’t yet read but recognize form and func@on of text

•  Can ‘read’ logos, brands (Coke, Carl’s Jr.) •  L-‐R reading, spaces separate words •  What family members use reading for –  Fun! :-‐) –  Bills. :-‐| –  = different aKtudes toward literacy

5/23/11

25

Preparing for literacy

•  At home: engage in reading ac@vi@es – Alphabet games

– Reading books together – *Implies (to kid) that there is value in being literate, talking about the not-‐here-‐and-‐now •  Do beFer in school

– *Reading also affords opportunity to talk about things that aren’t in here-‐and-‐now


•  Different ways of reading books •  Reese & Cox (1999) – Describers (describe, encourage labeling) – Comprehenders (emph. meaning, inference)

– Performers (read straight through)

•  Biggest gains in reading: describer style •  But for kids with big vocabs already: performer style

5/23/11

26


•  Reading books across cultures •  Melzi & Caspe (2005) –  Read wordless picture book to kid –  Peru: storytelling style

•  Mom as narrator, kid doesn’t par@cipate

–  USA: storybuilding style •  Interact, create story with kid

•  Caspe (2007) –  Among immigrant moms in NYC, most did storytelling-‐-‐which produced beFer outcomes


•  SES variability – Lower-‐income kids get less book-‐reading @me

– Also don’t do as well in literacy at school – Not true across the board

5/23/11

27


•  SES variability vs. posi,ve influences •  Wri*ng beFer if good rela@ons w/parents •  Reading beFer if school provides structured prac@ce (e.g.

workbooks) –  Reading not affected by home variables in this study –  More recent work: parents should support literacy ac@vi@es, use

advanced words, engage in extended discourse

•  Really cool result (Tabors, Dickinson, Snow): –  Above average home literacy, bad preschool: :-‐( –  Below average home literacy, good preschool: :-‐) –  (So get your kid into a good preschool!)

(And finally,) literacy

Necessary skills to read: •  Detect visual features of leFers •  Know grapheme-‐phoneme correspondence rules

•  Recognize words •  Know seman,cs

•  Comprehension, interpreta,on

5/23/11

28

Literacy

•  Recognizing leLers •  Very different versions of same leFer – e e e e e – Q q

•  Very similar versions of different leFers – E F – Q O

Graphemes to phonemes

•  Okay, you’ve recognized the leFers. Now let’s convert them to sounds!

•  Tough though thought •  Defiance fiance •  Garage outrage •  Now know •  Get gel •  (You get the point.)

5/23/11

29


•  Why is English so hard? •  A couple of possibili@es: •  Orthographic depth –  Shallow orthography (see “o”, say “oh”) –  Deep orthography (see “o”, say…? Context, random)

•  Syllable structure –  Simple (CV’s, mainly; diego, balalaika) –  Complex (CCCVCCC’s possible: brisk, schloss)

•  (Note: not value judgments!)


•  Seymour, Aro, & Erskine (2003)

•  Mul@-‐country study of reading development in Europe

•  12 languages + English •  Roughly evenly divided by –  Syllabic complexity

–  Orthographic depth •  One sound w/mul@ple spellings: English, French

•  One spelling, mul@ple sounds: English, Danish

5/23/11

30


From Seymour et al. 2003


From Seymour et al. 2003

5/23/11

31

Noah Webster: A genius before his @me

•  Argued for spelling reforms •  First (and authorita@ve) American dic@onary •  Some good ideas…

hFp://www.merriam-‐webster.com/info/spelling-‐reform.htm

Documents

Brain&lesions& - UCSD Cognitive Science5/23/11 1 Language&impairment,&brain&injury,& and&comparisons&across&groups& Brain&lesions& • Studies&of&children&who&had&prenatalor&perinatal