2. • Syndrome that involves a delay or deficit in the
development of a large range of grammatical skills
(Beckman, Munson, Edwards 2004)
• Not attributed to neurological, sensory or
intelligence disabilities (Leonard 1989)
SynSLI PragSLI LexSLI PhoSLI

3. • Syndrome that involves a delay or deficit in the
development of a large range of grammatical skills
(Beckman, Munson, Edwards 2004)
• Not attributed to neurological, sensory or
intelligence disabilities (Leonard 1989)
SynSLI PragSLI LexSLI PhoSLI

4. • Syndrome that involves a delay or deficit in the
development of a large range of grammatical skills
(Beckman, Munson, Edwards 2004)
• Not attributed to neurological, sensory or
intelligence disabilities (Leonard 1989)
SynSLI PragSLI LexSLI PhoSLI

5. • Difficulties with the following processes:
Phoneme deletions
Consonant cluster reduction
Final consonant deletion
Initial consonant deletion
Unstressed syllable reduction
Fronting (velar and palatal)

6. • More fine grained phonological distinctions are
developed over time.
• Larger vocabulary sizes = More phonological distinctions
Stronger Connections to Long Term Memory

7. • Under investigated in the literature
• Edwards and Lahey (1998)
• Differences in auditory discrimination
• Forming or holding phonological representations
in working memory
• Motor planning and execution

8. • Under investigated in the literature
• Edwards and Lahey (1998)
• Differences in auditory discrimination
• Forming or holding phonological representations
in working memory
• Motor planning and execution

9. • Under investigated in the literature
• Edwards and Lahey (1998)
• Differences in auditory discrimination
• Forming or holding phonological representations
in working memory
• Motor planning and execution

10. • Under investigated in the literature
• Edwards and Lahey (1998)
• Differences in auditory discrimination
• Forming or holding phonological representations
in working memory
• Motor planning and execution

11. • Under investigated in the literature
• Edwards and Lahey (1998)
• Differences in auditory discrimination
• Forming or holding phonological representations
in working memory
• Motor planning and execution

12. • Their systems are similar to those in younger children
“Children with SLI would be able to form accurate
phonological representations but would have to work
harder to form these representations, resulting in an
overload of their systems.”
(Maillart, Schelstraete and Hupet 2004)

13. • Their systems are similar to those in younger children
“Children with SLI would be able to form accurate
phonological representations but would have to work
harder to form these representations, resulting in an
overload of their systems.”
(Maillart, Schelstraete and Hupet 2004)

16. • Participants
• 11 sequential bilingual children with SLI (8:10)
• 11 age-matched bilingual children without SLI (9:1)
• Nonword repetition task (20 words)
• Analyzed:
1.) Number of correct words
2.) Accuracy of the stress pattern
3.) Frequency and types of errors

17. • Results:
• SLI children had significantly more incorrect
repetitions of non-words.
• Vowels were rarely produced incorrectly by
either group (SLI or TD)
• Error Types:
• SLI children had more consonant
omissions and substitutions than TDC

19. • Participants

20. • Spontaneous language producion data
• Results:
• Despite MLU level, children with SLI were more
likely to omit syllables from the target words
• Initial syllables
• French omission results similar to Italian/Spanish
• Not similar to English (higher rates)

22. Do Spanish-English bilingual children with SLI manage
phonological short-term memory overload better than
Spanish monolingual children with SLI?
• Dependent Variable: Accuracy of Responses
• Independent Variables:
• Bilingual vs. Monolingual
• No Distraction Task vs. Distraction Task

23. Do Spanish-English bilingual children with SLI manage
phonological short-term memory overload better that
Spanish monolingual children with SLI?
YES.
Bilinguals have been shown to have a better
working memory than monolinguals

24. • 2 groups of children:
• 20 Spanish-English Bilinguals with PhoSLI
• 20 Spanish Monolinguals with PhoSLI
• Between 4;0 and 8;0 years of chronological age
• Similar Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)
• Ensures that any differences found are purely
phonological in nature.

25. • Preliminary Tests
• Parent/Teacher questionnaire
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R95)
• Hearing Screening at five frequencies

26. • Nonce Words Repetition Test
- Following the phonotactic rules of Spanish
- Varying degrees of syllabic complexity
• Two trials:
1.) 10 bilingual/10 monolingual:
Repetition will be done without distraction.
2.) 10 bilingual/10 monolingual:
A distraction forcing a delay in response time.

27. • Nonce Words Repetition Test
The child listens to a nonword, temporarily stores
the novel phonological representation, and then is
asked to produce it.
PHONOLOGICAL LOOP

28. • Stimuli:
• Auditory via headphones and a computer
• All stimuli recorded by the same native Spanish speaker
• 8 phonologically simple nonce Spanish words
• 8 phonologically complex nonce Spanish words
• 5 real Spanish word distractors
• Given in a randomized order
• Order will be counter balanced for each group

29. Nonce Words Repetition Test
8 Phonologically Simple 8 Phonologically Complex
(Disyllabic CVCV containing (Mutlisyllabic CV(C)CV(C)(CV)
only occlusives) with fricatives, liquids and nasals)
Cuto Tike Fripón Espudoro
Gope Papu Plosa Conscenbrál
Pipe Doki Lortón Guirenflónis
Tota Gitu Zollér Portagolín

30. • No distraction trial
• Instructions:
• The children are told that they are going to play a game.
• Meet Plinko, he is a monkey and he is a little silly. He is
trying to learn a large list words and needs your help to
remember them! Some are normal words and some are
pretty strange. As soon as you hear the word, say it back
as exactly as you can! Okay?

31. • Distraction Trial
• After hearing each nonce word, the child will need to
hug a toy monkey before repeating the word.
• Instructions:
• The children are told that they are going to play a game.
• Meet Plinko, he is a monkey and he is a little silly. He is
trying to learn a large list words and needs your help to
remember them! Some are normal words and some are pretty
strange. He needs a lot of encouragement. As
soon as you hear the word, can you give him a
big hug and then say it back as exactly as you
can! Okay?

32. Nonce Words Repetition Test:
1.) Phonological short-term storage
- Auditory sequence is kept as phonological code
2.) Subvocal rehearsal
- Holds onto this code to avoid its decay

33. Nonce Words Repetition Test:
1.) Phonological short-term storage
- Auditory sequence is kept as phonological code
2.) Subvocal rehearsal
- Holds onto this code to avoid its decay

34. 2 X 2 X 2
Monolingual Simple Words Distraction
Bilingual Complex Words No Distraction

35. Do Spanish-English bilingual children with SLI commit
similar phonological errors as Spanish monolingual
children with SLI?
• Dependent Variable: Frequency of Error Types
• Independent Variables:
• Bilingual vs. Monolingual
• No Distraction Task vs. Distraction Task