SPUR Project

2009 Winner (11 of 13)

Examining Encoding and Articulation Problems in Language Impairment
Supervisors: Dr Gary Jones, Dr Marco Tamburelli

Language impairment affects around 18% of the population (Jessup et al., 2008) and yet its underlying aetiology continues to be poorly understood. One highly influential method of distinguishing between language-impaired and typically-developing children is the nonword repetition test, where made-up words (e.g. fleeber) are presented to the child who is asked to repeat them aloud. The use of nonwords ensures that the child has never previously encountered the particular sequence of sounds, and this test proves to be very adept in identifying language-impairment (e.g. Munson et al., 2005). However, research to date has failed to identify whether the nonword repetition difficulty seen in language-impaired children is due to difficulties in being able to encode the nonword or whether their language problems are due to problems in articulating the nonword: i.e. whether it is a difficulty of reception or of production. This research project examined both the encoding of a nonword and the articulation of it. A comparison of the performance across these two tests sought to establish the extent to which language-impairment is defined by problems in encoding versus problems in articulation. The student and project team had regular reading groups throughout the project in order to acquaint the student with reading on child language and language impairment. Student tasks included development of an experimental methodology, administering nonword tests and standardised language tests to children, transcribing test responses, analysing data, reporting on and disseminating results. The student was given opportunities to undertake research talks and co-author a conference paper and journal article.