RAPID NAMING IN CHILDREN WITH SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT AND IN CHILDREN WITH TYPICAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Conclusions: As it is a global trend to work on preventing disorders and obstructions, and phonological skills in this age are a timely indicator of the development of reading and writing skills, the examined children with SLI are at risk for the occurrence of obstructions and disorders in the area of reading and writing abilities. The efficiency of access to phonological representation is associated with a visual symbol, and makes a very important component of basic cognitive skills that will later be included in the process of efficient reading (4). [...]the ability of rapid naming is seen as a reflection of the quality of visual-verbal associations (5); however, there is still controversy about observing this ability either as a separate entity or as part of phonological skills. According to the Wagner-Torgensen model, rapid naming is associated with the phonological processing abilities, i.e. measuring the ability of rapid naming reveals the state of phonological decoding ability, while Wolf (10) observes the rapid naming skills outside the phonological processing abilities and concludes that the complex process of naming includes coordination of attention, perception, notion, memory, lexis and articulation.

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)

Abstract

Aimed at the detailed insight into the phonological ability of Serbian-speaking children of preschool age, with and without language impairment, the ability of rapid naming was examined.

Method: Operationalization of the set goal was carried out by using the Test for evaluating reading and writing pre-skills. In describing and analyzing the obtained data, methods of descriptive and inferential statistics were used.

The sample included 120 subjects of both gender, 40 children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI), age from 5,11 to 7 years, and 80 children with typical language development (TLD), age between 5,11 and 7 years, with no statistically significant differences in relation to age and gender of the participants.

Results: Summing up the overall results and achievements of children with SLI and children with TLD, we concluded that there are statistically significant differences in the rapid naming between children with specific language impairment and children with typical language development.

Conclusions: As it is a global trend to work on preventing disorders and obstructions, and phonological skills in this age are a timely indicator of the development of reading and writing skills, the examined children with SLI are at risk for the occurrence of obstructions and disorders in the area of reading and writing abilities.

Keywords: rapid naming, phonological skills, specific language impairment, typical language development

Introduction

The interest of scientists to explore the rapid naming skills comes from the research of reading disorders in people with aphasia, mid- last century (1). It has then been found that the rapidity of naming is associated with the processes of reading, and is now used as an early indicator of predicting reading performance. However, although it has been over forty years (2) since the defining of the entity of rapid (automatized) naming, the relation between rapid naming and reading skills has not yet been clarified.

Rapid naming/speed of access to phonological codes is defined as efficient finding of phonological information (codes) in long-term memory (3). The efficiency of access to phonological representation is associated with a visual symbol, and makes a very important component of basic cognitive skills that will later be included in the process of efficient reading (4). Therefore, the ability of rapid naming is seen as a reflection of the quality of visual-verbal associations (5); however, there is still controversy about observing this ability either as a separate entity or as part of phonological skills.

The ability of rapid naming indicates the speed of phonological processing and access to the lexicon. This process begins with the visual recognition before it accesses the lexicon of the language system. The actual naming process involves a series of stages, from the identification of pictures to the semantic representation of the selected word, then to the phonological level where phonemes are selected, to eventually approaching production (6). Although there is no consensus over the neuro-cognitive processes involved in the ability of rapid naming, basic cognitive processes can be divided into several main stages: perceptual analysis/encoding, recognition, semantic markup and verbal response. The first stage includes simple visual encoding of information, which requires quick analysis of the perceptual characteristics of the object. Object recognition implies quickly matching the visual details of the object with the stored representations of the object, derived from previous experience. The third stage, semantic markup, involves the invocation of semantic association with higher levels of visual representation of the object. Finding semantic representations also includes the linking with phonological linguistic representations (naming). The final step includes the oral production of phonological representations (pronunciation of the name of the object) (7).

Tasks for the rapid naming skills assessment include the evaluation of rapid naming of isolated or serially ordered given stimuli, which could be letters, numbers, objects, images, or colors. Serial tasks are most commonly used, and are referred to as rapid automatized naming (RAN). The task of the child or person is to name the objects, correctly and accurately, as quickly as possible. Accuracy rate has proven to be high, even in children (8,9).

The entity of rapid naming skills is viewed differently in literature. According to the Wagner-Torgensen model, rapid naming is associated with the phonological processing abilities, i.e. measuring the ability of rapid naming reveals the state of phonological decoding ability, while Wolf (10) observes the rapid naming skills outside the phonological processing abilities and concludes that the complex process of naming includes coordination of attention, perception, notion, memory, lexis and articulation.

It is generally accepted that the phonological awareness and rapid naming are good predictors of reading and writing in children with typical development of speech and language skills (11,12,13). Rapid naming is important for the development of reading fluency (holistic word recognition) and reading comprehension, and, of course, is correlated with the speed of reading (14). Also, fine rapid naming skills proved to be a good predictor of the later knowledge of graphemes (15).

Children who meet the criteria for SLI do not constitute a homogeneous group (16). In other words, there is a significant delay and interference in the development of individual elements of language structure (17). SLI is manifested in phonological, morphological, grammatical-syntactic and semantic-lexical deficits (18). Phonological deficits are displayed by addition, inversion, haplology, unsystematic substitutions, and omission of formed and distorted sounds (19). It should be noted that phonological deficit in children with SLI may be expressed to the extent that substantially impairs the ability of language production, i.e. the intelligibility of speech (20). At the same time, because of the phonological deficits, it can sometimes be perceived that a child has difficulty in mastering other aspects of linguistic structure, such as morphology, for example. We compare rapid naming abilities between children with SLI and children with TLD, at the age from 5,11 to 7 years, in order to clarify the nature of phonological deficits in children with SLI.

Methods

Looking at rapid naming as one of the components (in part) of the phonological ability, the subject selected for this paper was indeed the evaluation of rapid naming in children with SLI. The aim of this study was to examine rapid naming skills in children with SLI. We wanted to contribute to the overview of phonological skills and phonological deficits in SLI children in comparison to children with TLD.

Research instrument

Testing was conducted by using subtests of rapid naming from the Test for evaluating reading and writing pre-skills - PredCiP (Pre-R&W)(21).

The test for evaluating reading and writing pre-skills (PredCiP test) is a screening test used to assess a child's linguistic readiness for acquiring the initial academic skills. The test consists of tasks for assessment of phonology, phonologic memory, pragmatics and visual perception. For the purposes of this study, we used the particular segment of the test that covers evaluation of naming rapidity. The task of evaluating rapid naming skills includes 20 images of simple objects and creatures, often present in spoken vocabulary of preschool children. The task was to name the visually presented material as quickly as possible. The exact time that a child needed to name all the images equates to the final result. Moreover, each unnamed (skipped) image, and image incorrectly named (lexical replacement), were given 5 additional seconds, summing up to the total time that the child needed to complete the assignment.

Sample

There were 40 children with SLI (8 female and 32 male), aged between 71 and 84 months (5,11-7 years of age) with a mean age of 77.9 months (SD 4.47 months). They were recruited through the Institute for Psychophysiological Disorders and Speech Pathology "Prof. Dr. Cvetko Brajovic" in Belgrade, Serbia. The diagnosis of SLI was given to the children by a qualified speech and language therapist. The exclusionary criteria were: no psychological or neurological problems, no autism, no attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and no hearing loss. SLI children included in the study had IQ between 85 and 110 on the Revised Weschler's Intelligence Scale for Children (RWISC), which has been normed on the Serbian population (22).

There was a control group of 80 TLD. There were 40 girls and 40 boys with an age range of 71 and 84 months and a mean age of 75.9 months (SD = 4.47 months). The control children were recruited through a preschools "Pametnica" and "Baby Palace" in Belgrade. The TD children were also matched to the SLI group on gender and full-scale IQ; their IQ was between 90 and 110. The children in the control group had no speech or language problems and there has never been any concern about their language, motor or cognitive development. Furthermore, the research confirmed the statistical relevance of minor impact in relation to the age of participants (t =2.34, df = 118, p = 0.021, p2 = 0.04). The difference in the average age of the two groups equals two months (95% CI: 0.31-3.74). Intendedly, in our research we tried to include children with TLD that are younger than the examined children with SLI, wanting to show the significance of language delay in children with SLI. In relation to gender we determined the statistical relevance with minor impact of difference (x2 = 8.79, df = 1, p = 0.003, $ = - 0.29). A larger number of boys in the group of subjects with SLI is a result of random sampling, but also proves higher occurrence of language disorders in boys. The differences in the occurrence of language disorders in relation to gender have been confirmed in numerous studies. Higher occurrence of specific language impairment in males compared to females has been found in a ratio of 1.3:1 to 3:1 (23, 24, 25). All the participants (SLI and TD) were monolingual native speakers of Serbian. Consent was obtained from the parents as well as from the children themselves prior to their participation in the study.

The research was conducted in Belgrade from March 10, 2014 to June 28, 2015.

Data Analysis

First, descriptive statistics was calculated, within which absolute frequency, mean, median, standard deviation and interquartile range were used. In order to test the uniformity of the group in relation to age, t-test for independent samples was used, whereas x2 test was used for the uniformity of groups in relation to gender. Moreover, prior to all further statistical analysis, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was performed in order to test the normality of data distribution. Since the data was not normally distributed, nonparametric statistical techniques were performed. Mann-Whitney U-test was applied in order to examine differences between groups. The effect size was expressed by r coefficient. For all statistical analysis, a level was set at 0.05. Analysis and data processing were performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for Windows (SPSS version 21.0).

Comparison of descriptive indicators of results achieved by participants at rapid naming tasks are given in Table 1. According to the displayed values, participants with TLD quickly name the presented task successfully, in 22 seconds on average. In contrast, in participants with SLI, the average naming rapidity was 31 seconds, with greater dispersion of results.

Comparison of the results achieved by participants with SLI and participants with TLD in rapid naming tasks quick appointment is presented in Table 2. Results show that there are statistically significant differences of median score at the level of p <0.0005 in rapid naming skills (SLI, Mdn = 30.00; TLD, Mdn = 20.00; p = 0.000). It was found that the actual size of the present variations can be described as difference of major impact (r = 0.620). The actual form of the distribution of results at rapid naming tasks in the group of participants with SLI and TLD is shown in Figure 1 and in Figure 2.

As can be seen in Figure 1, the results of participants with SLI are arranged asymmetrically to positive values, and provide a clear picture of the measured parameters with an index of asymmetry Sk = 1.37. Figure 1 also shows that the distribution of the results in the group of participants with SLI inclines toward poor, with the dominant value of Mo = 25 (the most common achievement; Table 1). In the group of participants with TLD (Figure 2) results are arranged close to symmetry (Sk = 94), with preferred naming rapidity for the shortest possible time, which in this case is given in seconds, with the dominant value of Mo = 20 (Table 1).

The next section will feature the distribution of both groups of participants, categorized according to the results achieved on the Test for evaluation of reading and writing preskills. Furthermore, we will also determine and present differences in distributions of achievements, in relation to the absence or presence of specific language disorder.

Review of the distribution of the results (Table 3) indicates that a large percentage of participants with SLI has borderline or poor achievement in the task of rapid naming (27.50%, i.e. 30.00%), while in the group of participants with TLD the majority of participants show fine accomplishment (92.50%). Statistical significance in the distribution of participants by category of achievement is confirmed by the Chi-square test (p = 0.000), with major impact of the given difference (V = 0.580; Table 3).

Discussion

The results of our study indicate statistically significant differences (p <0.0005) in the tasks of rapid naming in children with specific language disorders and children with TLD. So we could say that children with SLI showed slower accomplishment of the rapid naming tasks if compared to the children with TLD. Average naming rapidity of children with SLI was 31 seconds, and their effectiveness in carrying out the operation falls into the category of borderline achievement (29 - 34), while the children with TLD were faster, with an average naming rapidity of 22 seconds, falling into the fine accomplishment category (<28 sec). Different accomplishment in children with SLI of the rapid naming tasks (42.50% SLI had fine accomplishment of the rapid naming tasks) adequately describe the heterogeneity found in children with SLI (16).

Significantly slower achievements in rapid naming tasks of children with SLI in comparison to children with TLD were noted in several earlier studies (26-28). Discrepancy over the position on what the task of rapid naming actually evaluates is present in today's discussions as well. From defining rapid naming as part of phonological task (29) to seeing rapid naming as the product of coordination among several skills including attention, perception, memory, linguistic and speaking skills, which is why children with this disorder show extreme sensitivity toward having difficulties in reading and writing later on (9,13). Given the lack of homogeneity, through further research the authors should found that the ability of rapid naming could be a clinical marker for prediction of basic arithmetic skills in children with SLI, and that finer rapid naming skills could compensate for problems in addition and subtraction. This conclusion is based on a fact that children with SLI who performed better on tests of rapid naming also showed better results on tests of basic arithmetic skills (28).

Strong interrelation between phonological indicators - rhyme, phonemic awareness, grapheme recognition and sentence repetition, and naming rapidity has been confirmed in defining rapid naming or lexical evocation as the ability to access phonological codes stored in long-term memory (7). Proficiency of lexical access and evocation depends on the efficient and accurate encoding and decoding of phonological information in working memory (30), and therefore the phonological deficit is considered to be the basic element of lexical disorders in children with SLI (31-33). Children with SLI have difficulties in repeating nonwords and evocating a list of real words, which indicates inaccurate phonological representations, limited phonological capacity, or rapid loss of phonological clues in phonological memory (31,32).

It is believed that phonological awareness deficit and phonological memory capacity are not sufficient prerequisites for the occurrence of dyslexia in children with SLI, but the rate of rapid naming at preschool age is strongly correlated with reading and writing. Slow naming reflects the type of problem that is partly different from phonological awareness, but is also linked, considering the similar basis - non-specific or immature phonological representations (34). Having in mind that rapid naming is considered an important indicator of reading skills development (29,34), its evaluation in the age before starting school is considered extremely important.

Conclusion

As our results show, children with SLI perform rapid naming tasks significantly slower than children with TLD, and we may say that rapid naming skills develop significantly slower in children with SLI in relation to children with TLD. Bearing in mind the empirical data that classify phonological deficit into significant signs (symptoms) of a SLI (26), our results support the hypothesis that children with SLI indeed do not constitute a homogenous group, having in mind the diverse performance of rapid naming tasks (16). Given that in literature, rapid naming deficit is associated with reading deficit, we believe that assessment of these skills in preschool children may have a preventive character. The treatment program for children with SLI should include a high number of assignments that are designed toward developing rapid naming skills. At the same time, a program of pedagogical work with children with TLD, which would involve rapid naming tasks, could facilitate the initial steps in the acquisition of reading skills.

Conflict of interests

Authors declares no conflict of interests.

Pe$epeHU,uu / References

1. Geschwind N, Fusillo M. Color-naming defects in association with alexia. Archives of Neurology. 1966 Aug 1;15(2): 137-146.

2. Denckla MB. Color-naming defects in dyslexic boys. Cortex. 1972 Jun 1;8(2):164-176.

3. Whitehurst GJ, Lonigan CJ. Emergent literacy: Development from prereaders to readers. Handbook of early literacy research. 2001;1:11-29.

4. Wagner RK, Torgesen JK, Rashotte CA. CTOPP: Comprehensive test of phonological processing. Proed; 1999.

5. Willburger E, Fussenegger B, Moll K, Wood G, Landerl K. Naming speed in dyslexia and dyscalculia. Learning and individual differences. 2008 Jun 30;18(2):224-236.

6. Walker MM, Barrow I, Rastatter MP. The effect of dimension and vocabulary age on rapid picture naming in children. Journal of communication disorders. 2002 Feb 28;35(1): 1-10.

7. Decker SL, Roberts AM, Englund JA. Cognitive predictors of rapid picture naming. Learning and Individual Differences. 2013 Jun 30;25:141-149.

8. Allor JH. The relationships of phonemic awareness and rapid naming to reading development. Learning Disability Quarterly. 2002 Feb 1;25(1):47-57.

9. Pauly H, Linkersdörfer J, Lindberg S, Woerner W, Hasselhorn M, Lonnemann J. Domain-specific Rapid Automatized Naming deficits in children at risk for learning disabilities. Journal of Neurolinguistics. 2011 Sep 30;24(5):602-610.

10. Wolf M, editor. Dyslexia, fluency, and the brain. York Press; 2001.

11. Scarborough HS. Early identification of children at risk for reading disabilities: Phonological awareness and some other promising predictors. Specific reading disability: A view of the spectrum. 1998:75-119.

12. Verhagen W, Aarnoutse C, Van Leeuwe J. Phonological awareness and naming speed in the prediction of Dutch children's word recognition. Scientific Studies of Reading. 2008 Oct 22;12(4):301-324.

13. Wolf M, Bowers PG, Biddle K. Naming-speed processes, timing, and reading A conceptual review. Journal of learning disabilities. 2000 Jul 1;33(4):387-407.

14. Vandewalle E, Boets B, Ghesquière P, Zink I. Who is at risk for dyslexia? Phonological processing in five-to seven-year-old Dutch-speaking children with SLI. Scientific Studies of Reading. 2010 Jan 14;14(1):58-84.

15. Torppa M, Poikkeus AM, Laakso ML, Eklund K, Lyytinen H. Predicting delayed letter knowledge development and its relation to grade 1 reading achievement among children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Developmental psychology. 2006 Nov;42(6):1128.

16. Bishop DV. Specific language impairment: Diagnostic dilemmas. Classification of developmental language disorders: Theoretical issues and clinical implications. 2004:309-326.

17. Milosevic N, Vukovic M. Leksicko-semanticke sposobnosti kod dece sa specificnim jezickim poremecajima, Specijalna edukacija i rehabilitacija. 2011; 10 (3-3): 435-445.

18. Leonard LB. Children with specific language impairment. MIT press; 2014 Jun 13.

19. Milosevic N, Vukovic M. ArticulationOPhonological Deficits in Children with Specific Developmental Language Imapirment. In: Nedovic G, Rapaic D, Marinkovic D. Special education and Rehabilitation, Science and/or practice. Sombor: Society of Special Educators and Rehabilitators; 2010: 437-454.

20. Milosevic N, Milicevic M, Causevac D. Phonological skills in children with specific language impairment. In: Cicevska Jovanova et al. Modern aspects of the special education and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. Ohrid: Skopje: Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Special Education and Rehabilitaron; 2013: 123-137.

21. Kuvac Kraljevic J, LenceN M. Test za procjenjivanje predvjestina citanja i pisanja (PredCiP test). JastrebarsNo: NaNlada Slap. 2012.

22. Biro M. Weschler Intelligence Scale for children (Revised). Beograd: Drustvo Psihologa Srbije. 1997.

23. Shriberg LD, Kwiatkowski J. Developmental phonological disorders IA clinical profile. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 1994 Oct 1;37(5):1100-1126.

24. Tomblin JB, Records NL, Buckwalter P, Zhang X, Smith E, O'Brien M. Prevalence of specific language impairment in kindergarten children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 1997 Dec 1;40(6):1245-1460.

25. Shriberg LD, Tomblin JB, McSweeny JL. Prevalence of speech delay in 6-year-old children and comorbidity with language impairment. Journal of speech, language, and hearing research. 1999 Dec 1;42(6):1461-1481.

26. Miller CA, Kail R, Leonard LB, Tomblin JB. Speed of processing in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 2001 Apr 1;44(2):416-433.

27. Katz WF, Curtiss S, Tallal P. Rapid automatized naming and gesture by normal and language-impaired children. Brain and Language. 1992 Nov 1;43(4):623-641.

28. Kleemans T, Segers E, Verhoeven L. Naming speed as a clinical marker in predicting basic calculation skills in children with specific language impairment. Research in developmental disabilities. 2012 Jun 30;33(3):882-889.

29. Torgesen JK, Wagner RK, Rashotte CA, Burgess S, Hecht S. Contributions of phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming ability to the growth of word-reading skills in second-to fifth-grade children. Scientific studies of reading. 1997 Apr 1;1(2):161-185.

30. Rubin H, Liberman IY. Exploring the oral and written language errors made by language disabled children. Annals of dyslexia. 1983 Jan 1;33(1):111-120.

31. Gathercole SE, Baddeley AD. Phonological memory deficits in language disordered children: Is there a causal connection?. Journal of memory and language. 1990 Jun 1;29(3): 336-360.

32. Montgomery JW. Sentence Comprehension in Children With Specific Language ImpairmentThe Role of Phonological Working Memory. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 1995 Feb 1;38(1):187-199.

33. German DJ, Newman RS. The impact of lexical factors on children's word-finding errors. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 2004 Jun 1;47(3):624-636.

34. Cronin VS. RAN and double-deficit theory. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 2013 Mar 1;46(2):182-190.

Neda MILOSHEVIC1

Mile VUKOVIC2

1 Center for speech pathology "Logomedica", Belgrade, Serbia

2 University of Belgrade - Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, Belgrade, Serbia

Recived: 11.11.2016

Accepted: 04.01.2017

Orginal article

Corresponding address:

Neda MILOSEVIC

Center for speech pathology "Logomedica" Maksima Gorkog Str. No 117-119 11000 Belgrade, Republic Serbia

E-mail: [email protected]