%0 Journal Article %J Brain %D In Press %T Developmental dyslexia and specific language impairment: towards a multidimensional model %A Ramus, F. %A Marshall, C R %A Rosen, S. %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %B Brain %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Brain & Language %D Submitted %T Electrical brain responses to non-speech and speech in SLI or Dyslexia reveal deficits in dynamic memory trace formation %A Tuomainen, O. %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %B Brain & Language %G eng %0 Journal Article %D Submitted %T Insight into the neurobiological basis of grammar from grammatical impairments in development and degeneration. %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %A Bachourd-Lévi, A-C. %G eng %0 Journal Article %D Submitted %T Broca's region active in early symbolic-combinatorial processing %A Hanna, J. %A Mejias, S. %A Pulvermuller, F. %A Shtyrov, Y %A Schelstraete, M.A %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %G eng %0 Conference Proceedings %B The proceeding of the 36 Boston University conference on language development (BUCLD) %D 2012 %T The Acquisition of quantification across languages: some predictions %A Katsos, N. %A the cost A33 Consortium %A van der Lely %B The proceeding of the 36 Boston University conference on language development (BUCLD) %I Cascadilla Press %C Somerville, MA %G eng %0 Conference Proceedings %B Linguaggio e cervello – Semantica/Language and the brain-Semantics. Atti dei XLII Congresso Internazionale di Studi della Societa di Linguaitica Italian %D 2012 %T Comprensione di relative nei bambini con e senza disturbi specifici del linguaggio: il ruolo del tratto di Numero %A Adani, F. %A Guasti, M. T. %A Forgiarini, M. %A van der Lely %B Linguaggio e cervello – Semantica/Language and the brain-Semantics. Atti dei XLII Congresso Internazionale di Studi della Societa di Linguaitica Italian %I Piza, SNS 2008, Bulzioni, Roma %P Vol 2, 1.B.1.pp 1-12 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders %D 2012 %T Investigating the Role of phonology and short-term memory in Specific Language Impairment using a non-word repetition Task %A Ebbels, S. %A Dockrell, J. %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %B International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders %V 47 %P 257-273 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Language and Cognitive Processes %D 2012 %T Production of change of state, change of location and alternating verbs: a comparison of children with specific language impairment and typically developing children %A Ebbels, S. %A Dockrell, J. %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %B Language and Cognitive Processes %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Bilingualism %D 2012 %T Bilingual children with SLI: the nature of the problem %A Armon-Lote, S. %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %A et al %B Bilingualism %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Morphology Special Issue "The Acquisition of Inflectional Morphology" %D 2012 %T Phonological effects on inflection: further studies of typical development and Grammatical-SLI. %A Marshall, C R %A van der Lely, H. K. %B Morphology Special Issue "The Acquisition of Inflectional Morphology" %V 22 %P 121-141 %G eng %N 1 %0 Journal Article %J PLoS One %D 2011 %T An investigation to validate the grammar and phonology screening (GAPS) test to identify children with specific language impairment %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Payne, E. %A McClelland, A. %X

BACKGROUND: The extraordinarily high incidence of grammatical language impairments in developmental disorders suggests that this uniquely human cognitive function is "fragile". Yet our understanding of the neurobiology of grammatical impairments is limited. Furthermore, there is no "gold-standard" to identify grammatical impairments and routine screening is not undertaken. An accurate screening test to identify grammatical abilities would serve the research, health and education communities, further our understanding of developmental disorders, and identify children who need remediation, many of whom are currently un-diagnosed. A potential realistic screening tool that could be widely administered is the Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test--a 10 minute test that can be administered by professionals and non-professionals alike. Here we provide a further step in evaluating the validity and accuracy (sensitivity and specificity) of the GAPS test in identifying children who have Specific Language Impairment (SLI). METHODS AND FINDINGS: We tested three groups of children; two groups aged 3;6-6:6, a typically developing (n = 30) group, and a group diagnosed with SLI: (n = 11) (Young (Y)-SLI), and a further group aged 6;9-8;11 with SLI (Older (O)-SLI) (n = 10) who were above the test age norms. We employed a battery of language assessments including the GAPS test to assess the children's language abilities. For Y-SLI children, analyses revealed a sensitivity and specificity at the 5(th) and 10(th) percentile of 1.00 and 0.98, respectively, and for O-SLI children at the 10(th) and 15(th) percentile .83 and .90, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The findings reveal that the GAPS is highly accurate in identifying impaired vs. non-impaired children up to 6;8 years, and has moderate-to-high accuracy up to 9 years. The results indicate that GAPS is a realistic tool for the early identification of grammatical abilities and impairment in young children. A larger investigation is warranted in children with SLI and other developmental disorders.

%B PLoS One %7 2011/08/11 %V 6 %P e22432 %@ 1932-6203 (Electronic)1932-6203 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=21829461 %M 21829461 %2 3145645 %0 Conference Paper %B The handbook of psycholinguistics and cognitive processes: Perspectives in communication disorders %D 2011 %T Grammatical-specific language impairment: A window onto domain specificity %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Marshall, C R %E Gouendouzi, J %E Loncke, F. %E Williams, M. J. %X

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%B The handbook of psycholinguistics and cognitive processes: Perspectives in communication disorders %I Psychology Press %C New York %V Chapter 20 %P 401-418 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Lingua %D 2011 %T Who did Buzz see someone? Grammaticality judgement of wh-questions in typically developing children and children with Grammatical-SLI %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Jones, M. %A Marshall, C R %X

This paper tests claims that children with Grammatical(G)-SLI are impaired in hierarchical structural dependencies at the clause level and in whatever underlies such dependencies with respect to movement, chain formation and feature checking; that is, their impairment lies in the syntactic computational system itself (the Computational Grammatical Complexity hypothesis proposed by van der Lely in previous work). We use a grammaticality judgement task to test whether G-SLI children's errors in wh-questions are due to the hypothesised impairment in syntactic dependencies at the clause level or lie in more general processes outside the syntactic system, such as working memory capacity. We compare the performance of 14 G-SLI children (aged 10-17 years) with that of 36 younger language-matched controls (aged 5-8 years). We presented matrix wh-subject and object questions balanced for wh-words (who/what/which) that were grammatical, ungrammatical, or semantically inappropriate. Ungrammatical questions contained wh-trace or T-to-C dependency violations that G-SLI children had previously produced in elicitation tasks. G-SLI children, like their language controls, correctly accepted grammatical questions, but rejected semantically inappropriate ones. However, they were significantly impaired in rejecting wh-trace and T-to-C dependency violations. The findings provide further support for the CGC hypothesis that G-SLI children have a core deficit in the computational system itself that affects syntactic dependencies at the clause level.

%B Lingua %7 2011/02/15 %V 121 %P 408-422 %8 Feb %@ 0024-3841 (Electronic)0024-3841 (Linking) %G Eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=21318176 %M 21318176 %2 3030106 %0 Journal Article %J Cerebral Cortex %D 2011 %T Optical Brain Imaging Reveals General Auditory and Language-Specific Processing in Early Infant Development %A Minagawa-Kawai, Y. %A van der Lely, H. %A Ramus, F. %A Sato, Y. %A Mazuka, R. %A Dupoux, E. %X

This study uses near-infrared spectroscopy in young infants in order to elucidate the nature of functional cerebral processing for speech. Previous imaging studies of infants' speech perception revealed left-lateralized responses to native language. However, it is unclear if these activations were due to language per se rather than to some low-level acoustic correlate of spoken language. Here we compare native (L1) and non-native (L2) languages with 3 different nonspeech conditions including emotional voices, monkey calls, and phase scrambled sounds that provide more stringent controls. Hemodynamic responses to these stimuli were measured in the temporal areas of Japanese 4 month-olds. The results show clear left-lateralized responses to speech, prominently to L1, as opposed to various activation patterns in the nonspeech conditions. Furthermore, implementing a new analysis method designed for infants, we discovered a slower hemodynamic time course in awake infants. Our results are largely explained by signal-driven auditory processing. However, stronger activations to L1 than to L2 indicate a language-specific neural factor that modulates these responses. This study is the first to discover a significantly higher sensitivity to L1 in 4 month-olds and reveals a neural precursor of the functional specialization for the higher cognitive network.

%B Cerebral Cortex %V 21 %P 254-261 %8 Feb %@ 1047-3211 %G English %U ://000286217100002 %M ISI:000286217100002 %0 Journal Article %J Cogn Neuropsychol %D 2011 %T Do children with dyslexia and/or specific language impairment compensate for place assimilation? Insight into phonological grammar and representations %A Marshall, C R %A Ramus, F. %A van der Lely, H. %X

English speakers have to recognize, for example, that te[m] in te[m] pens is a form of ten, despite place assimilation of the nasal consonant. Children with dyslexia and specific language impairment (SLI) are commonly proposed to have a phonological deficit, and we investigate whether that deficit extends to place assimilation, as a way of probing phonological representations and phonological grammar. Children with SLI plus dyslexia, SLI only, and dyslexia only listened to sentences containing a target word in different assimilatory contexts-viable, unviable, and no change-and pressed a button to report hearing the target. The dyslexia-only group did not differ from age-matched controls, but the SLI groups showed more limited ability to accurately identify words within sentences. Once this factor was taken into account, the groups did not differ in their ability to compensate for assimilation. The results add to a growing body of evidence that phonological representations are not necessarily impaired in dyslexia. SLI children's results suggest that they too are sensitive to this aspect of phonological grammar, but are more liberal in their acceptance of alternative phonological forms of words. Furthermore, these children's ability to reject alternative phonological forms seems to be primarily limited by their vocabulary size and phonological awareness abilities.

%B Cogn Neuropsychol %7 2011/07/01 %V 27 %P 563-86 %8 Oct %@ 1464-0627 (Electronic)0264-3294 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=21714754 %M 21714754 %0 Journal Article %J British Journal of Developmental Psychology %D 2010 %T Production and comprehension of pronouns by Greek children with specific language impairment %A Stavrakaki, S. %A van der Lely, H. %X

This study contributes to the characterization of the deficit in specific language impairment (SLI) by investigating whether deficits in the production and comprehension of pronouns in Greek children with SLI are best accounted for by domain-general or domain-specific models of the language faculty. The Greek pronominal system distinguishes between acoustically salient and non-salient forms, which are both interpreted on semantic/thematic grounds, and non-salient forms (object clitics) interpreted on syntactic grounds either in spec-head agreement or syntactic dependencies incurring feature checking through movement/chain formation. The results revealed a significant effect of the syntactic configuration on the production and comprehension of object clitics. Children with SLI were significantly impaired in the production and comprehension of those clitics that enter into operations necessitated by complex syntactic dependencies involving feature checking through movement/chain formation. Thus, the data support the computational grammatical complexity hypothesis and indicate that the deficits associated with object clitics in Greek-speaking children with SLI result from domain-specific impairment with syntactic dependencies incurring feature checking at the clause level involving movement/chain formation.

%B British Journal of Developmental Psychology %V 28 %P 189-216 %8 Mar %@ 0261-510X %G English %U ://000275120200010 %M ISI:000275120200010 %0 Journal Article %J Goninger Arbeiten zur germanistischen Linguistik %D 2010 %T Understanding who and which questions in five to nine-year-old Dutch children: the role of number %A Metz, M %A van Hout, A. %A van der Lely, H. %X

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%B Goninger Arbeiten zur germanistischen Linguistik %V 51 %P 27-41 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Lingua %D 2010 %T Grammatical feature dissimilarities make relative clauses easier: A comprehension study with Italian children %A Adani, F. %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Forgiarini, M. %A Guasti, M. T. %X

The Relativized Minimality approach to A'-dependencies (Friedmann et al., 2009) predicts that headed object relative clauses (RCs) and which-questions are the most difficult, due to the presence of a lexical restriction on both the subject and the object DP which creates intervention. We investigated comprehension of center-embedded headed object RCs with Italian children, where Number and Gender feature values on subject and object DPs are manipulated. We found that, Number conditions are always more accurate than Gender ones, showing that intervention is sensitive to DP-internal structure. We propose a finer definition of the lexical restriction where external and syntactically active features (such as Number) reduce intervention whereas internal and (possibly) lexicalized features (such as Gender) do so to a lesser extent. Our results are also compatible with a memory interference approach in which the human parser is sensitive to highly specific properties of the linguistic input, such as the cue-based model (Van Dyke, 2007).

%B Lingua %7 2010/12/15 %V 120 %P 2148-2166 %8 Sep %@ 0024-3841 (Electronic)0024-3841 (Linking) %G Eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=21151323 %M 21151323 %2 2956846 %0 Journal Article %J J Learn Disabil %D 2010 %T Assessing component language deficits in the early detection of reading difficulty risk %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Marshall, C R %X

This article focuses on some of the linguistic components that underlie letter-sound decoding skills and reading comprehension: specifically phonology, morphology, and syntax. Many children who have reading difficulties had language deficits that were detectable before they began reading. Early identification of language difficulties will therefore help identify children at risk of reading failure. Using a developmental psycholinguistic framework, the authors provide a model of how syntax, morphology, and phonology break down in children with language impairments. The article reports on a screening test of these language abilities for preschool or young school-aged children that identifies those at risk for literacy problems and in need of further assessment.

%B J Learn Disabil %7 2010/05/19 %V 43 %P 357-68 %8 Jul-Aug %@ 1538-4780 (Electronic)0022-2194 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=20479460 %M 20479460 %0 Journal Article %J Psihologija %D 2010 %T Phonological Complexity and Prosodic Structure in Assesment of Serbian Phonological Development %A Savic, M. %A Andelkovic, D. %A Budevac, N. %A van der Lely, H. %X

In this research we investigate the relevance of phonological parameters in acquisition of Serbian language. Implementation of British Test of Phonological Screeing (TOPhS, van der Lely and Harris, 1999) has revealed that phonological complexity (syllabic and metrical structure) influences accuracy in non-word repetition task and could be used in assessment of phonological development of typically developing children, as well as of children with Grammatical Specific Language Impairment (G-SLI) (van der Lely and Harris, 1999; Gallon, Harris & van der Lely, 2007).Having in mind phonological properties of Serbian language (Zec, 2000, 2007), we hypothesized that several parameters can be used in assessment of phonological development in Serbian: a. onset (consonants cluster at the beginning of syllable; b. rime (consonant at the end of syllable). c. word of three syllables, and d. placement of stressed syllable in a word. Combination of these parameters gave us a list of 96 pseudo words of different levels of complexity.Participants were 14 adults and 30 children from kindergarten divided into three age groups (3, 4 and 5 years). Task for the participants was to loudly repeat every pseudo-word, and their reproduction was recorded. Transcription of their answers and coding of errors allowed us to analyze impact of different parameters on accuracy of phonological reproduction in children of different ages.The results indicate that the ability for reproduction of Serbian phonological properties develops in early preschool period. The most difficult is cluster of consonants at the beginning of syllable, and consonant at the end of syllable. These two parameters are even more difficult for reproduction in three-syllable words or in words that have more then one parameter marked. Placement of stress in a word is acquired even before 3 years. In other words, the results have shown that investigated features could be good indicators in assessment of early phonological development of typically developing children. Delay in their acquisition could reveal possible developmental difficulties.

%B Psihologija %V 43 %P 167-185 %@ 0048-5705 %G Unspecified %U ://000280145500004 %M ISI:000280145500004 %0 Book Section %B The child: An encyclopedic companion. %D 2009 %T Language disorders and delay %A van der Lely, H. K. %E Shweder, R. A. %X

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%B The child: An encyclopedic companion. %I Chicago: University of Chicago Press %C Chicargo %P 549-552 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J J Speech Lang Hear Res %D 2009 %T Backward and simultaneous masking in children with grammatical specific language impairment: no simple link between auditory and language abilities %A Rosen, S. %A Adlard, A. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

PURPOSE: We investigated claims that specific language impairment (SLI) typically arises from nonspeech auditory deficits by measuring tone-in-noise thresholds in a relatively homogeneous SLI subgroup exhibiting a primary deficit restricted to grammar (Grammatical[G]-SLI). METHOD: Fourteen children (mostly teenagers) with G-SLI were compared to age-, vocabulary-, and grammar-matched control children on their abilities to detect a brief tone in quiet and in the presence of a masking noise. The tone occurred either simultaneously with the noise or just preceding it (backward masking). Maskers with and without a spectral notch allowed estimates of frequency selectivity. RESULTS: Group thresholds for the G-SLI children were never worse than those obtained for younger controls but were higher in both backward and simultaneous masking than in age-matched controls. However, more than half of the G-SLI group (8/14) were within age-appropriate limits for all thresholds. Frequency selectivity in the G-SLI group was normal. Within control and G-SLI groups, no threshold correlated with measures of vocabulary, grammar, or phonology. Nor did the language deficit in the G-SLI children vary with the presence or absence of auditory deficits. CONCLUSION: The auditory processing deficits sometimes found in children with SLI appear unlikely to cause or maintain the language impairment.

%B J Speech Lang Hear Res %V 52 %P 396-411 %8 Apr %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=19252132 %M 19252132 %0 Journal Article %J Language %D 2009 %T Effects of word position and stress on onset cluster production: Evidence from typical development, SLI and dyslexia %A Marshall, C R %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia have phonological deficits that are claimed to cause their language and literacy impairments and to be responsible for the overlap between the two disorders. Little is known, however, about the phonological grammar of children with SLI and dyslexia, and indeed whether they show differences in phonological development. We designed a nonword repetition task to investigate the impact of word position and stress oil the production accuracy of onset clusters. We compared the performance of children with SLI and dyslexia, SLI only, and dyslexia only (mean age eleven), and three groups of typically developing children (aged five, seven, and nine). Analysis of cluster production accuracy revealed that all three clinical groups made significantly more errors on word-medial clusters compared to word-initial clusters. Unstressed clusters were more difficult than stressed clusters for the two dyslexic groups but not the SLI-only group. None of the groups of typically developing children showed an effect of word position or stress on cluster accuracy. All groups, however, created new clusters significantly more frequently in initial than medial positions. These results indicate a difference in phonological grammar in children with SLI and dyslexia that could potentially shed light on the relationship between the two disorders. Furthermore, they indicate that structural position and stress are developmentally independent elements in phonological representations.

%B Language %V 85 %P 39-57 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Int J Lang Commun Disord %D 2009 %T The link between prosody and language skills in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and/or dyslexia %A Marshall, C R %A Harcourt-Brown, S. %A Ramus, F. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

BACKGROUND: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia are known to have impairments in various aspects of phonology, which have been claimed to cause their language and literacy impairments. However, 'phonology' encompasses a wide range of skills, and little is known about whether these phonological impairments extend to prosody. AIMS: To investigate certain prosodic abilities of children with SLI and/or dyslexia, to determine whether such children have prosodic impairments, whether they have the same pattern of impairments, and whether prosodic impairments are related to language and literacy deficits. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Six subtests of the Profiling Elements of Prosodic Systems - Child version (PEPS-C) were used to investigate discrimination/comprehension and imitation/production of prosodic forms that were either independent of language or that had one of two linguistic functions: chunking (prosodic boundaries) and focus (contrastive stress). The performance of three groups of 10-14-year-old children with SLI plus dyslexia, SLI, and dyslexia were compared with an age-matched control group and two younger control groups matched for various aspects of language and reading. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The majority of children with SLI and/or dyslexia performed well on the tasks that tested auditory discrimination and imitation of prosodic forms. However, their ability to use prosody to disambiguate certain linguistic structures was impaired relative to age-matched controls, although these differences disappeared in comparison with language-matched controls. No, or only very weak, links were found between prosody and language and literacy skills in children with SLI and/or dyslexia. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Children with SLI and/or dyslexia aged 10-14 years show an impaired ability to disambiguate linguistic structures for which prosody is required. However, they are able on the whole to discriminate and imitate the actual prosodic structures themselves, without reference to linguistic meaning. While the interaction between prosody and other components of language such as syntax and pragmatics is problematic for children with SLI and/or dyslexia, prosody itself does not appear to be a core impairment.

%B Int J Lang Commun Disord %V 44 %P 466-88 %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=19107654 %M 19107654 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Neurolinguistics %D 2008 %T Recognition of gated verbs by children with Grammatical-SLI: Effects of inflection and frequency %A Marshall, C R %A van der Lely H. K. %X

A common feature of language disorders, particularly in English, is an impairment in inflectional morphology. One view claims that this deficit is caused by impaired speech processing and resulting impoverished phonological representations. We investigated the accuracy of spoken word recognition in Specific Language Impairment (SLI) using a successive forward gating paradigm, with target verbs manipulated for frequency and past tense inflection. Children with Grammatical-SLI were compared to age and language controls. We scored responses according to (1) proportion of gates to the first correct response, (2) proportion of gates to the first of three consistently correct responses. G-SLI children generally performed at the same level its age and vocabulary controls, although worse than age controls on uninflected verbs with respect to the second criterion, indicating that they activated the correct word at the same point, but took longer to reach a consistent response. Low frequency and inflection of the target word did not disadvantage G-SLI children to a greater extent than any of their controls. These results do not support the hypothesis that G-SLI children's morphological impairment is caused by poor acoustic-phonetic processing. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

%B Journal of Neurolinguistics %V 21 %P 433-451 %G eng %0 Conference Proceedings %B 33rd Boston University conference on Language Development %D 2008 %T Abstract rule learning in typically developing and G-SLI adolescents: An ERP study %A Kushnerenko, E. %A Endress, A. %A Nevins, A. %A Tuomainen, O. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B 33rd Boston University conference on Language Development %C Boston %8 October 31st- No %G eng %0 Journal Article %J J Commun Disord %D 2008 %T The count-mass distinction in typically developing and grammatically specifically language impaired children: new evidence on the role of syntax and semantics %A Froud, K. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

By the age of three, typically developing children can draw conceptual distinctions between "kinds of individual" and "kinds of stuff" on the basis of syntactic structures. They differ from adults only in the extent to which syntactic knowledge can be over-ridden by semantic properties of the referent. However, the relative roles of syntax and semantics in determining the nature of the count-mass distinction in language acquisition are still not well-understood. This paper contributes to this debate by studying novel noun acquisition in a subgroup of children, aged 8-15 years, with specific language impairment, whose core deficits are limited to within the grammatical system (G-SLI), We conducted two experiments: a production task and a word extension task. Such children might be expected to rely to a greater extent than their age-matched peers on semantic properties of referents in order to assign noun interpretations, since by hypothesis they have greater difficulty in accessing and utilizing syntactic category distinctions than typically developing children. In the production task, the Children with G-SLI demonstrated rigid over-application of a pluralization rule which masked even basic knowledge of semantic information about individuated objects versus non-individuated substances. Age-matched control children only performed in this way when all syntactic and conceptual/perceptual cues were neutralized. In the word extension task, which required a non-verbal response, the Children with G-SLI showed evidence of only very limited abilities to use syntactic or semantic information for word-learning. Thus, developmental deficits in the grammatical system can be seen to impact on lexical acquisition as well as syntactic development. LEARNING OUTCOMES: As a result of this activity, the reader will be able to: (1) describe how syntactic (grammatical) impairment affects the ability to use syntactic cues for lexical acquisition, resulting in difficulties representing the structure of even simple phrases; (2) discuss the interaction between language components throughout development, and the cumulative impact of impairment in one or more aspect of language, which results in secondary impairments in other parts of the system; (3) consider the effects of an impairment in the ability to use syntactic cues for narrowing down word meanings, and how this can result in a much bigger problem affecting the subtle semantics of words and word classes.

%B J Commun Disord %V 41 %P 274-303 %8 May-Jun %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=18206904 %M 18206904 %0 Journal Article %J PLoS One %D 2008 %T Electrical brain responses in language-impaired children reveal grammar-specific deficits %A Fonteneau, E %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

BACKGROUND: Scientific and public fascination with human language have included intensive scrutiny of language disorders as a new window onto the biological foundations of language and its evolutionary origins. Specific language impairment (SLI), which affects over 7% of children, is one such disorder. SLI has received robust scientific attention, in part because of its recent linkage to a specific gene and loci on chromosomes and in part because of the prevailing question regarding the scope of its language impairment: Does the disorder impact the general ability to segment and process language or a specific ability to compute grammar? Here we provide novel electrophysiological data showing a domain-specific deficit within the grammar of language that has been hitherto undetectable through behavioural data alone. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We presented participants with Grammatical(G)-SLI, age-matched controls, and younger child and adult controls, with questions containing syntactic violations and sentences containing semantic violations. Electrophysiological brain responses revealed a selective impairment to only neural circuitry that is specific to grammatical processing in G-SLI. Furthermore, the participants with G-SLI appeared to be partially compensating for their syntactic deficit by using neural circuitry associated with semantic processing and all non-grammar-specific and low-level auditory neural responses were normal. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that grammatical neural circuitry underlying language is a developmentally unique system in the functional architecture of the brain, and this complex higher cognitive system can be selectively impaired. The findings advance fundamental understanding about how cognitive systems develop and all human language is represented and processed in the brain.

%B PLoS One %7 2008/03/19 %V 3 %P e1832 %@ 1932-6203 (Electronic)1932-6203 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=18347740 %M 18347740 %2 2268250 %0 Journal Article %J J Autism Dev Disord %D 2008 %T Narrative discourse in adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome %A Colle, L. %A Baron-Cohen, S. %A Wheelwright, S. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

We report a study comparing the narrative abilities of 12 adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger Syndrome (AS) versus 12 matched controls. The study focuses on the use of referential expressions (temporal expressions and anaphoric pronouns) during a story-telling task. The aim was to assess pragmatics skills in people with HFA/AS in whom linguistic impairments are more subtle than in classic autism. We predicted no significant differences in general narrative abilities between the two groups, but specific pragmatic deficits in people with AS. We predicted they use fewer personal pronouns, temporal expressions and referential expressions, which require theory of mind abilities. Results confirmed both predictions. These findings provide initial evidence of how social impairments can produce mild linguistic impairments.

%B J Autism Dev Disord %7 2007/03/09 %V 38 %P 28-40 %8 Jan %@ 0162-3257 (Print)0162-3257 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=17345168 %M 17345168 %0 Journal Article %J Int J Lang Commun Disord %D 2007 %T On-line processing of wh-questions in children with G-SLI and typically developing children %A Marinis, T. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

BACKGROUND: The computational grammatical complexity (CGC) hypothesis claims that children with G(rammatical)-specific language impairment (SLI) have a domain-specific deficit in the computational system affecting syntactic dependencies involving 'movement'. One type of such syntactic dependencies is filler-gap dependencies. In contrast, the Generalized Slowing Hypothesis claims that SLI children have a domain-general deficit affecting processing speed and capacity. AIMS: To test contrasting accounts of SLI we investigate processing of syntactic (filler-gap) dependencies in wh-questions. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Fourteen 10;2-17;2 G-SLI children, 14 age-matched and 17 vocabulary-matched controls were studied using the cross-modal picture-priming paradigm. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: G-SLI children's processing speed was significantly slower than the age controls, but not younger vocabulary controls. The G-SLI children and vocabulary controls did not differ on memory span. However, the typically developing and G-SLI children showed a qualitatively different processing pattern. The age and vocabulary controls showed priming at the gap, indicating that they process wh-questions through syntactic filler-gap dependencies. In contrast, G-SLI children showed priming only at the verb. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that G-SLI children fail to establish reliably a syntactic filler-gap dependency and instead interpret wh-questions via lexical-thematic information. These data challenge the Generalized Slowing Hypothesis account, but support the CGC hypothesis, according to which G-SLI children have a particular deficit in the computational system affecting syntactic dependencies involving 'movement'. As effective remediation often depends on aetiological insight, the discovery of the nature of the syntactic deficit, along side a possible compensatory use of semantics to facilitate sentence processing, can be used to direct therapy. However, the therapeutic strategy to be used, and whether such similar strengths and weaknesses within the language system are found in other SLI subgroups are empirical issues that warrant further research.

%B Int J Lang Commun Disord %7 2007/08/31 %V 42 %P 557-82 %8 Sep-Oct %@ 1368-2822 (Print)1368-2822 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=17729146 %M 17729146 %0 Journal Article %J Revista da Associação Brasileira de Lingüística %D 2007 %T Prosodic complexity and processing complexity: evidence from language impairment. %A Harris, J. %A Gallon, N. %A van der Lely, H. %X

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%B Revista da Associação Brasileira de Lingüística %V 6 %P 1-19 %G eng %0 Generic %D 2007 %T The Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %A Gardner, H. %A Froud, K. %A McClelland, A. %G eng %U http://www.dldcn.com %0 Generic %D 2007 %T Processing acoustic cues for voicing in English A MMN study %A Tuomainen, O. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences %I Universitaet des Saarlandes %C Saarbrucken, Germany, %P 813-816 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics %D 2007 %T Derivational morphology in children with grammatical-specific language impairment %A Marshall, C R %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %X

Although it is well-established that children with Specific Language Impairment characteristically optionally inflect forms that require tense and agreement marking, their abilities with regards to derivational suffixation are less well understood. In this paper we provide evidence from children with Grammatical-Specific Language Impairment (G-SLI) that derivational suffixes, unlike tense and agreement suffixes, are not omitted in elicitation tasks. We investigate two types of derivation comparative/superlative formation and adjective-from-noun formation - and reveal that G-SLI children supply these suffixes at high rates, equivalent to their language matched peers. Moreover, increasing the phonological or morphological complexity of the stimulus does not trigger suffix omission, although it results in non-target forms that are not characteristic of typically developing children. We discuss what these results reveal about the nature of the deficit in G-SLI within the context of three hypotheses of SLI: the Extended Optional Infinitive, Implicit Rule and Computational Grammatical Complexity Hypotheses.

%B Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics %V 21 %P 71-91 %8 Feb %@ 0269-9206 %G English %U ://000244070200001 %M ISI:000244070200001 %0 Journal Article %J Advances in Speech Language Pathology %D 2007 %T The impact of phonological complexity on past tense inflection in children with Grammatical-SLI %A Marshall, C R %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Advances in Speech Language Pathology %V 9 %P 191-203 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Lingua %D 2007 %T Passive verb morphology: The effect of phonotactics on passive comprehension in typically developing and Grammatical-SLI children %A Marshall, C %A Marinis, T. %A van der Lely, H. %X

In this study we explore the impact of a morphological deficit on syntactic comprehension. A self-paced listening task was designed to investigate passive sentence processing in typically developing (TD) children and children with Grammatical-Specific Language Impairment (G-SLI). Participants had to judge whether the sentence they heard matched a picture they were shown. Working within the framework of the Computational Grammatical Complexity Hypothesis, which stresses how different components of the grammar interact, we tested whether children were able to use phonotactic cues to parse reversible passive sentences of the form the X was verbed by Y We predicted that TD children would be able to use phonotactics to parse a form like touched or hugged as a participle, and hence interpret passive sentences correctly. This cue is predicted not be used by G-SLI children, because they have difficulty building complex morphological representations. We demonstrate that indeed TD, but not G-SLI, children are able to use phonotactics cues in parsing passive sentences. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

%B Lingua %V 117 %P 1434-1447 %8 Aug %@ 0024-3841 %G English %U ://000248200400004 %M ISI:000248200400004 %0 Journal Article %J Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics %D 2007 %T Non-word repetition: An investigation of phonological complexity in children with Grammatical SLI %A Gallon, N. %A Harris, J. %A van der Lely, H. %X

We investigate whether children with Grammatical Specific Language Impairment ( G- SLI) are also phonologically impaired and, if so, what the nature of that impairment is. We focus on the prosodic complexity of words, based on their syllabic and metrical ( stress) structure, and investigate this using a novel non- word repetition procedure, the Test of Phonological Structure ( TOPhS). Participants with G- SLI ( aged 12 - 20 years) were compared to language- matched, typically developing children ( aged 4 8 years). The results reveal that, in contrast to the controls, the accuracy with which the G- SLI group repeated non- words decreased as prosodic complexity increased, even in non- words with only one- and two- syllables. The study indicates that, in G- SLI, complexity deficits in morphology and syntax can extend to prosodic phonology. The study highlights the importance of taking into account prosodic complexity in phonological assessment and the design of non- word repetition procedures.

%B Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics %V 21 %P 435-455 %@ 0269-9206 %G English %U ://000247374600003 %M ISI:000247374600003 %0 Journal Article %J J Sp, Hear and Lang Res %D 2007 %T Intervention for verb argument structure in children with persistent SLI: A randomized control trial %A Ebbels, S. %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Dockrell, J. %X

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%B J Sp, Hear and Lang Res %V 50 %P 1330-1349. %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Applied Psycholinguistics %D 2006 %T Exploring the impact of higher-level linguistic representations on non-word repetition performance. , %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Gallon, N. %X

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%B Applied Psycholinguistics %V 27 %P 591-594 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Applied Psycholinguistics %D 2006 %T Exploring the impact of higher-level linguistic representations on non-word repetition performance %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Gallon, N. %X

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%B Applied Psycholinguistics %V 27 %G eng %& 591-594 %0 Journal Article %J Cognition %D 2006 %T A challenge to current models of past tense inflection: The impact of phonotactics %A Marshall, C R %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Cognition %V 100 %P 302-320 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Int J Lang Commun Disord %D 2006 %T Development of the Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test to assess key markers of specific language and literacy difficulties in young children %A Gardner, H. %A Froud, K. %A McClelland, A. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

BACKGROUND: Despite a large body of evidence regarding reliable indicators of language deficits in young children, there has not been a standardized, quick screen for language impairment. The Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test was therefore designed as a short, reliable assessment of young children's language abilities. AIMS: GAPS was designed to provide a quick screening test to assess whether pre- and early school entry children have the necessary grammar and pre-reading phonological skills needed for education and social development. This paper reports the theoretical background to the test, the pilot study and reliability, and the standardization. METHODS: This 10-min test comprises 11 test sentences and eight test nonsense words for direct imitation and is designed to highlight significant markers of language impairment and reading difficulties. To standardize the GAPS, 668 children aged 3.4-6.6 were tested across the UK, taking into account population distribution and socio-economic status. The test was carried out by a range of health and education professionals as well as by students and carers using only simple, written instructions. RESULTS: GAPS is effective in detecting a range of children in need of further in-depth assessment or monitoring for language difficulties. The results concur with those from much larger epidemiological studies using lengthy testing procedures. CONCLUSIONS: The GAPS test (1) provides a successful screening tool; (2) is designed to be administered by professionals and non-professionals alike; and (3) facilitates identification of language impairment or at-risk factors of reading impairment in the early educational years. Thus, the test affords a first step in a process of assessment and targeted intervention to enable children to reach their potential.

%B Int J Lang Commun Disord %7 2006/10/20 %V 41 %P 513-40 %8 Sep-Oct %@ 1368-2822 (Print)1368-2822 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=17050469 %M 17050469 %0 Journal Article %J Frequences %D 2005 %T Grammatical-SLI and the Computational Grammatical Complexity hypothesis. , %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Frequences %V 17 %P 13-20 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Trends Cogn Sci %D 2005 %T Domain-specific cognitive systems: insight from Grammatical-SLI %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

Specific language-impairment (SLI) is a disorder of language acquisition in children who otherwise appear to be normally developing. Controversy surrounds whether SLI results from impairment to a "domain-specific" system devoted to language itself or from some more "domain-general" system. I compare these two views of SLI, and focus on three components of grammar that are good candidates for domain-specificity: syntax, morphology and phonology. I argue that the disorder is heterogeneous, and that deficits of different subgroups potentially stem from different underlying causes. Interestingly, although poor sensory or non-verbal abilities often co-occur with SLI, there is no evidence that these impairments cause the grammatical deficits found in SLI. Moreover, evidence suggests that impairment in at least one subgroup is specific to grammar.

%B Trends Cogn Sci %7 2005/01/26 %V 9 %P 53-9 %8 Feb %@ 1364-6613 (Print)1364-6613 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=15668097 %M 15668097 %0 Journal Article %J Cognition %D 2004 %T Grammatical language impairment and the specificity of cognitive domains: relations between auditory and language abilities %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Rosen, S. %A Adlard, A. %X

Grammatical-specific language impairment (G-SLI) in children, arguably, provides evidence for the existence of a specialised grammatical sub-system in the brain, necessary for normal language development. Some researchers challenge this, claiming that domain-general, low-level auditory deficits, particular to rapid processing, cause phonological deficits and thereby SLI. We investigate this possibility by testing the auditory discrimination abilities of G-SLI children for speech and non-speech sounds, at varying presentation rates, and controlling for the effects of age and language on performance. For non-speech formant transitions, 69% of the G-SLI children showed normal auditory processing, whereas for the same acoustic information in speech, only 31% did so. For rapidly presented tones, 46% of the G-SLI children performed normally. Auditory performance with speech and non-speech sounds differentiated the G-SLI children from their age-matched controls, whereas speed of processing did not. The G-SLI children evinced no relationship between their auditory and phonological/grammatical abilities. We found no consistent evidence that a deficit in processing rapid acoustic information causes or maintains G-SLI. The findings, from at least those G-SLI children who do not exhibit any auditory deficits, provide further evidence supporting the existence of a primary domain-specific deficit underlying G-SLI.

%B Cognition %7 2004/12/08 %V 94 %P 167-83 %8 Dec %@ 0010-0277 (Print)0010-0277 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=15582625 %M 15582625 %0 Book Section %B The genetics of language %D 2004 %T Evidence for and implications of a domain-specific grammatical deficit %A van der Lely, H. K. %E Jenkins, L %Y Rooryck, J %Y Pica, P. %X

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%B The genetics of language %S Linguistic Variations %I Elsevier, Oxford. %P 117-144. %G eng %6 Chapter 6, %0 Conference Proceedings %B Society for Neuroscience %D 2004 %T Event-related potentials of semantic and filler-gap violations %A Fonteneau, E %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Society for Neuroscience %C San Diego %G eng %0 Conference Proceedings %B Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLAP) %D 2004 %T Non-local dependencies in sentence processing in adults: An ERP investigation. " Conference. %A Fonteneau, E %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLAP) %C Aix en Provence, France %8 16-18th Septembe %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Language %D 2003 %T Wh-movement in children with grammatical SLI: A test of the RDDR hypothesis %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Battell, J. %X

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%B Language %V 79 %P 153-181 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Towards a definition of specific language impairment %D 2003 %T Do heterogeneous SLI deficits need heterogeneous theories? SLI subgroups, G-SLI and the RDDR hypothesis. %A van der Lely, H. K. %E Levy, Y %E Schaeffer, J %X

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%B Towards a definition of specific language impairment %I Lawrence Erlbaum %P 109-134 %G eng %0 Book Section %B The University of Cambridge First Postgraduate Conference in Language Research %D 2003 %T The nature of phonological representations in children with Grammatical-Specific Language Impairment (G-SLI) %A Marshall, C %A Harris, J. %A van der Lely, H. K. %E Hall, D %E Markopoulos, T %E Salamoura, A %E Skoufaki, S. %X

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%B The University of Cambridge First Postgraduate Conference in Language Research %I Cambridge: Cambridge Institute of Language Research %C Cambridge University %P 511-517 %G eng %0 Conference Proceedings %B Child Language Seminar July 10-11, 2003 %D 2003 %T Argument structure performance on an elicited production task: Comparison of SLI and normally developing children %A Ebbels, S.H. %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Dockrell, J.E. %X

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%B Child Language Seminar July 10-11, 2003 %C University of Newcastle, UK %G eng %0 Conference Proceedings %B Boston University Conference on Language Development %D 2003 %T Phonologcial and morphosyntactic abilities in SLI: Is there a causal relationship? %A Ebbels, S. %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Dockrell, J. %X

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%B Boston University Conference on Language Development %C Boston, USA %8 October 31-Novem %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Computational Intelligence, %D 2002 %T SLI and deficits in the computational syntactic system: Control and cross-domain mental computations: Evidence from language breakdown %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Computational Intelligence, %V 18 %P 39-42 %G eng %0 Book Section %B UCL Working Papers in Linguistics %D 2002 %T Investigating the impact of prosodic complexity on the speech of children with Specific Language Impairment. %A Marshall, C R %A Ebbels, S. %A Harris, J. %A van der Lely, H. K. %E Vermeulen, R %E Neeleman, A %X

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%B UCL Working Papers in Linguistics %V 14 %P 43-68 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Language and Cognitive Processes %D 2001 %T Past tense morphology in specifically language impaired children and normally developing children %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Ullman, M. T. %X

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%B Language and Cognitive Processes %V 16 %P 113-336 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders %D 2001 %T Meta-syntactic therapy using visual coding for children with severe persistent SLI %A Ebbels, S. %A van der Lely, H. %X

The results of a pilot study into meta-syntactic therapy using visual coding for four children (age 11-13 years) with severe receptive and expressive specific language impairment (SLI) are presented. The coding system uses shapes, colours and a system of arrows to teach grammatical rules. A time-series design established baseline pre-therapy measures of comprehension and production of both passives and 'wh' questions. All participants made progress with passives and this was significant in three cases of the four. Comprehension and production of 'wh' questions also improved in all participants, although this did not always reach statistical significance. The results indicate that meta-syntactic therapy of grammatical rules, capitalising on visual strengths, can improve both comprehension and production in secondary age children with severe persistent SLI.

%B International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders %V 36 %P 345-350 %8 Apr %@ 1368-2822 %G English %U ://000168604000062 %M ISI:000168604000062 %0 Journal Article %J Cognition %D 2000 %T Lexical word formation in children with grammatical SLI: a grammar-specific versus an input-processing deficit? %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Christian, V. %X

An ongoing controversy is whether an input-processing deficit or a grammar-specific deficit causes specific language impairment (SLI) in children. Previous studies have focussed on SLI childrens' omission of inflectional morphemes or impaired performance on language tasks, but such data can be accounted for by either theory. To distinguish between these theories we study compound formation in a subgroup of SLI children with 'grammatical (G)-SLI'. An input-processing account (e.g. Leonard, L. (1998). Children with specific language impairment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), in which perception and production of inflections requires extra processing resources, would predict that G-SLI children will omit the regular plural -s in compounds (e.g. rat-eater). A grammar-specific deficit account (e.g. Ullman, M. & Gopnik, M. (1994) The production of inflectional morphology in hereditary specific language impairment. The McGill Working Papers in Linguistics, 10, 81-118; van der Lely, H. K. J. & Ullman, M. (1996). The computation and representation of past-tense morphology in normally developing and specifically language impaired children. In A. Stringfellow, D. Cahana-Amitay, E. Hughes & A. Zukowski, Proceedings of the 20th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 816-827). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press), in which G-SLI children are impaired in regular inflectional morphology, would predict that G-SLI children will produce regular plural -s forms inside compounds (e.g. *rats-eater). We compared the responses of 16 G-SLI subjects (aged 10 years 4 months to 18 years) with those of 36 normally developing control children (24 matched on language ability and 12 matched on age and cognitive ability). All the groups produced irregular plural nouns in compounds (mice-eater). The normally developing children and teenagers rarely, if ever. produced regular plural nouns inside compounds (*rats-eater), whereas the G-SLI subjects did so often. This pattern of results conflicts with the predictions ofthe input-processing deficit account. The findings support the grammar-specific deficit hypothesis. The data rovide further evidence that specialized grammatical abilities may be differentially impaired within the language system.

%B Cognition %V 75 %P 33-63 %8 Apr 14 %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=10815777 %M 10815777 %0 Book %D 2000 %T Verb Agreement and Tense Test (VATT) %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%G eng %U http://www.dldcn.com %0 Journal Article %J British Journal of Audiology %D 2000 %T Backward masking in children with and without language disorders %A Rosen, S. %A van der Lely, H. %A Adlard, A. %A Manganari, E. %X

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%B British Journal of Audiology %V 34 %P 124-124 %8 Apr %@ 0300-5364 %G English %U ://000086768600070 %M ISI:000086768600070 %0 Conference Proceedings %B The 25th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development %D 2000 %T The representation of negative particles in children with SLI %A Davies, L %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B The 25th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development %C Boston, Mass:USA %8 3-5 November, 20 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Applied Psycholinguistics %D 2000 %T Grammatical SLI: A distinct subtype of developmental language disorder %A Bishop %A Bright, P., %A James, C. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Applied Psycholinguistics %V 21 (2) %P 159-181 %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B paper was presented at the 24th Boston University Conference on Language Development %D 1999 %T Linguistic Determinism and False Belief: Insight from Children with Grammatical-Specific Language Impairment %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Hennessy, E. %A Battell, J. %X

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%B paper was presented at the 24th Boston University Conference on Language Development %C Boston University %G eng %0 Book %D 1999 %T The Test of Phonological Structure (TOPhS) %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Harris, J. %X

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%C London %G eng %U http://www.dldcn.com %0 Journal Article %J Trends Cogn Sci %D 1999 %T Learning from Grammatical SLIResponse to J.B. Tomblin and J. Pandich (1999) %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Trends Cogn Sci %7 1999/08/04 %V 3 %P 286-288 %8 Aug %@ 1879-307X (Electronic)1364-6613 (Linking) %G Eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=10431179 %M 10431179 %0 Journal Article %J Language Acquisition %D 1998 %T Introduction to specific language impairment in children %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Wexler, K %X

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%B Language Acquisition %V 7 %P 83-8 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Curr Biol %D 1998 %T Evidence for a grammar-specific deficit in children %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Rosen, S. %A McClelland, A. %X

BACKGROUND: Specific language impairment (SLI) is a disorder in which language acquisition is impaired in an otherwise normally developing child. SLI affects around 7% of children. The existence of a purely grammatical form of SLI has become extremely controversial because it points to the existence and innateness of a putative grammatical subsystem in the brain. Some researchers dispute the existence of a purely grammatical form of SLI. They hypothesise that SLI in children is caused by deficits in auditory and/or general cognitive processing, or social factors. There are also claims that the cognitive abilities of people with SLI have not yet been sufficiently characterised to substantiate the existence of SLI in a pure grammatical form. RESULTS: We present a case study of a boy, known as AZ, with SLI. To investigate the claim for a primary grammatical impairment, we distinguish between grammatical abilities, non-grammatical language abilities and non-verbal cognitive abilities. We investigated AZ's abilities in each of these areas. AZ performed normally on auditory and cognitive tasks, yet exhibited severe grammatical impairments. This is evidence for a developmental grammatical deficit that cannot be explained as a by-product of retardation or auditory difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: The case of AZ provides evidence supporting the existence of a genetically determined, specialised mechanism that is necessary for the normal development of human language.

%B Curr Biol %7 1998/11/21 %V 8 %P 1253-8 %8 Nov 19 %@ 0960-9822 (Print)0960-9822 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=9822577 %M 9822577 %0 Journal Article %J Language Acquisition %D 1998 %T SLI in children: Movement, economy and deficits in the computational syntactic system %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Language Acquisition %V 72 %P 161-192 %G eng %0 Conference Proceedings %B 23rd Boston University Conference on Language Development. %D 1998 %T On-line lexical processing in specifically language impaired and normally developing children. %A Jones, M J %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B 23rd Boston University Conference on Language Development. %C Boston, Mass., USA. %8 November 6th-8th %G eng %0 Conference Proceedings %B GALA '97 %D 1997 %T Modularity and Innateness: Insight from a Grammatical-specific language impairment. In . (eds.). Proceedings of the Conference on Language Acquisition. %A van der Lely, H. K. %E Sorace, A. %E Heycock, C. %E Shillcock, R. %X

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%B GALA '97 %I University of Edinburgh press %C Edinburgh, Scotland %P 56-89 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J J Child Lang %D 1997 %T Narrative discourse in Grammatical specific language impaired children: a modular language deficit? %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

This paper provides a further investigation into the linguistic abilities of a subgroup of 12 Grammatical specific language impaired (SLI) children (aged 10;2 to 13;11). The study investigates the use of referential expressions (e.g. pronouns) in a narrative discourse, and provides insight into the underlying nature of Grammatical SLI, thereby contributing to the modularity debate. Previous investigations indicate that Grammatical SLI children have a deficit with dependent structural relationships, i.e. a Representational Deficit for Dependent Relationships (RDDR). Grammatical SLI children's RDDR appears to be a modular language deficit. To test this claim, linguistic representations of dependent structural relationships which are not part of the modular language system are investigated using a narrative discourse based on the picture book Frog where are you? The SLI children's pattern of referential expressions was compared with 36 language ability controls (aged 6;4 to 9;8). The findings indicated that the Grammatical SLI children have relatively mature linguistic development in the use of referential expressions to produce a cohesive, structured narrative discourse. The view of the organisation of the mind in which a modular language system can be differentially impaired from aspects of language which rely on the central system can most easily account for the data. Thus, the data support the hypothesized modular nature of Grammatical SLI children's underlying linguistic deficit. The implications of the findings for language acquisition are discussed.

%B J Child Lang %7 1997/02/01 %V 24 %P 221-56 %8 Feb %@ 0305-0009 (Print)0305-0009 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=9154015 %M 9154015 %0 Journal Article %J Speech, Hearing & Language %D 1997 %T Speech and non-speech auditory abilities in two children with disordered language %A Rosen, S. %A van der Lely, H. %A Dry, S. %X

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%B Speech, Hearing & Language %V 10 %P 185-198 %G eng %0 Book %D 1997 %T A-STOP Advanced-Syntactic test of Pronominal reference (A-STOP) %A van der Lely, H. K. J. %I www.dldcn.com %C London %G eng %U http://www.dldcn.com %0 Journal Article %J Cognition %D 1997 %T Binding theory and grammatical specific language impairment in children %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Stollwerck, L. %X

This study investigates the intrasentential assignment of reference to pronouns (him, her) and anaphors (himself, herself) as characterized by Binding Theory in a subgroup of "Grammatical specifically language-impaired" (SLI) children. The study aims to (1) provide further insight into the underlying nature of Grammatical SLI in children and (2) elucidate the relationship between different sources of knowledge, that is, syntactic knowledge versus knowledge of lexical properties and pragmatic inference in the assignment of intrasentential coreference. In two experiments, using a picture-sentence pair judgement task, the children's knowledge of the lexical properties versus syntactic knowledge (Binding Principles A and B) in the assignment of reflexives and pronouns was investigated. The responses of 12 Grammatical SLI children (aged 9:3 to 12:10) and three language ability (LA) control groups of 12 children (aged 5:9 to 9:1) were compared. The results indicated that the SLI children and the LA controls may use a combination of conceptual-lexical and pragmatic knowledge (e.g., semantic gender, reflexive marking of the predicate, and assignment of theta roles) to help assign reference to anaphors and pronouns. The LA controls also showed appropriate use of the syntactic knowledge. In contrast, the SLI children performed at chance when syntactic information was crucially required to rule out inappropriate coreference. The data are consistent with an impairment with the (innate) syntactic knowledge characterized by Binding Theory which underlies reference assignment to anaphors and pronouns. We conclude that the SLI children's syntactic representation is underspecified with respect to coindexation between constituents and the syntactic properties of pronouns. Support is provided for the proposal that Grammatical SLI children have a modular language deficit with syntactic dependent structural relationships between constituents, that is, a Representational Deficit with Dependent Relationships (RDDR). Further consideration of the linguistic characteristics of this deficit is made in relation to the hypothesized syntactic representations of young normally developing children.

%B Cognition %7 1997/03/01 %V 62 %P 245-90 %8 Mar %@ 0010-0277 (Print)0010-0277 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=9187060 %M 9187060 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Neurolinguistics %D 1997 %T Language and cognitive development in a Grammatical SLI boy: Modularity and innateness %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Journal of Neurolinguistics %V 10 %P 75-107 %G eng %0 Conference Proceedings %B The 20 annual Boston University conference on language development %D 1996 %T The computation and representation of past-tense morphology in normally developing and specifically language impaired children %A van der Lely, H. K. %A M Ullman %E Stringfellow, A. %E Cahana-Amitay, Hughes, D. E. %E Zukowski, A %X

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%B The 20 annual Boston University conference on language development %I Somerville,Cascadilla Press %C Boston, MA %V 2 %P 792-803 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Brain Lang %D 1996 %T A grammatical specific language impairment in children: an autosomal dominant inheritance? %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Stollwerck, L. %X

The aim of this study is to provide further characterization of a subgroup of so-called "Grammatical specific language-impaired (SLI)" children. The Grammatical SLI children have a persistent and disproportionate impairment in grammatical comprehension and expression of language. Previous research has indicated that their language impairment may be characterized by a domain-specific and modular language deficit. This study provides an initial investigation as to whether there is a genetic basis underlying their disorder as has been found for other forms of SLI and for SLI in general. The incidence of familial aggregation of language impairment was investigated in 12 Grammatical SLI children (aged 9:3 to 12:10). A familial language impairment (LI) history was classified as positive if one or more of the probands' relatives had a history of a speech/language or reading/writing problem which required speech therapy or any other form of remedial help. Case history information provided an initial indication that the Grammatical SLI children had a significantly higher incidence of a positive familial LI history than could be expected by chance. A questionnaire provided evidence of a positive LI history in the first-degree relatives of the SLI probands and 49 normally developing control probands. The SLI probands had a clearly and significantly higher incidence of a positive familial LI history than the control probands (77.8 vs. 28.5%, respectively). The results are consistent with a genetic basis underlying Grammatical SLI. The pattern of impairment in the SLI probands' relatives is consistent with an autosomal dominant genetic inheritance. In contrast to the control probands, the SLI probands' impaired relatives did not show a male gender bias. Thus, the gene does not appear to be sex-linked. The data indicate that further research is warranted to investigate the nature of the LI in the relatives of the Grammatical SLI probands and the genetic characteristics of this subgroup. The implications for the biological, domain-specific, and modular bases to language are discussed.

%B Brain Lang %7 1996/03/01 %V 52 %P 484-504 %8 Mar %@ 0093-934X (Print)0093-934X (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=8653392 %M 8653392 %0 Journal Article %J Lingua %D 1996 %T Specifically language impaired and normally developing children: Verbal passive vs adjectival passive sentence interpretation %A van der Lely, H. K. %X n/a %B Lingua %V 98 %P 243-272 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Proceeding of the 20th Annual Boston University conference on Language Development %D 1996 %T Empirical evidence for the modularity of language from Grammatical-SLI children %A van der Lely, H. K. %E Stringfellow, A. %E Cahana-Amitay, D. %E Hughes, E. %E Zukowski, A %X

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%B Proceeding of the 20th Annual Boston University conference on Language Development %I Cascadilla Press %C Boston %V 2 %P 792-803 %G eng %0 Book %D 1996 %T The Test of Active and Passive Sentences (TAPS) %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%I www.dldcn.com %C London %G eng %U http://www.dldcn.com %0 Book Section %B The Groningen Assembly on Language Acquisition %D 1996 %T Grammatical specific language impaired children: Evidence for modularity %A van der Lely, H. K. %E C. Koster & F. Wijnen %X

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%B The Groningen Assembly on Language Acquisition %I University of Groningen Press %C Groningen, Netherlands %P 283-292 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Cogn Neuropsychiatry %D 1996 %T Are children with autism deaf to gricean maxims? %A Surian, L. %A Baron-Cohen, S. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

Department of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK High-functioning children with autism show a severe deficit in the development of pragmatics whereas their knowledge of syntax and morphology is relatively intact. In this study we investigated further their selective communication impairment by comparing them with children with specific language impairment (SLI) and normally developing children. We used a pragmatic task that involved the detection of utterances that violate conversational maxims (avoid redundancy, be informative, truthful, relevant, and polite). Most children with autism performed at chance on this task, whereas all children with SLI and all normal controls performed above chance. In addition, the success of children with autism on the pragmatics task was related to their ability to attribute false beliefs. These results are consistent with the idea that communication deficits in autism result from a selective impairment in representing propositional attitudes. Their implications for domain-specific views of cognitive development are discussed.

%B Cogn Neuropsychiatry %7 1996/02/01 %V 1 %P 55-72 %8 Feb 1 %@ 1354-6805 (Print)1354-6805 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16571474 %M 16571474 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Speech and Hearing Research %D 1995 %T Specific language impairment in children is not due to a short term memory deficit: Response to Gathercole & Baddeley. %A Howard, D %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Journal of Speech and Hearing Research %V 38 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Cognition %D 1994 %T Canonical linking rules: forward versus reverse linking in normally developing and specifically language-impaired children %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

Canonical linking rules for mapping thematic roles with syntactic functions were studied. Three experiments were undertaken to investigate the nature of productive forward linking (from semantics to syntax) and productive reverse linking (from syntax to semantics). I proposed that reverse linking, in contrast to forward linking, requires more detailed specification of the syntactic structure; that is, a syntactic representation which specifies each particular syntactic frame and all the argument positions within that frame. Six specifically language-impaired children (aged 6;1 to 9;6) were matched on language abilities to 17 younger, normally developing children (language age 3;1 to 6;6). In Experiment 1--forward linking--the children were shown the meaning of a novel verb and had to describe the event using the novel verb. Experiment 2--a comprehension task--required acting out sentences containing the newly learned verbs. In Experiment 3--reverse linking--the children were told a sentence with a novel verb and had to act out its meaning, assigning thematic roles on the basis of the syntactic frame. Group and individual analysis generally revealed no significant differences between the specifically language-impaired children and the language age control children in Experiments 1 and 2, but a significant difference was found for Experiment 3. The normally developing children showed a good use of productive forward and reverse linking. The specifically language-impaired children demonstrated good productive forward linking but were significantly worse at reverse linking. An interpretation of the data, showing differences in the syntactic representation required for forward versus reverse linking, can account for the findings. I propose that a deficit in the area of "government" or "locality" which underlies c-selection and specifies the syntactic relationship between constituents can account for the data from this study and the data from previous investigations of specifically language-impaired children.

%B Cognition %7 1994/01/01 %V 51 %P 29-72 %8 Jan %@ 0010-0277 (Print)0010-0277 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=8149716 %M 8149716 %0 Journal Article %J Mind and Language %D 1993 %T Book review: Richard F. Cromer: Language and thought in normal and handicapped Children. Oxford: Blackwells, 1991 %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Mind and Language %V 8 %P 450 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J J Speech Hear Res %D 1993 %T Children with specific language impairment: linguistic impairment or short-term memory deficit? %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Howard, D %X

This study is concerned with characteristics of short-term memory (STM) in children with specific language impairment (SLI). The linguistic requirements of the test procedure, the characteristics of the test materials, and the development of linguistic representations were considered. Two experimental tasks were used: a verbal-repetition and a picture-pointing procedure. The tasks used auditory presentation and were designed to explore different underlying processes during immediate recall. The linguistic characteristics of the test materials were designed to explore the influence of semantic, lexical, and phonological factors on STM. Six SLI children (aged 6:1 to 9:6) (years:months) were individually matched on comprehension and expression of language to 17 younger children (age 3:4 to 6:5). Both groups were differentially influenced by the materials as a function of the test procedure. In general, both group and individual analyses found no significant difference between the performance of the SLI children and language-age (LA) controls. The implications of the results in relation to previous findings from investigations of STM and the underlying cause of SLI in children are discussed.

%B J Speech Hear Res %7 1993/12/01 %V 36 %P 1193-207 %8 Dec %@ 0022-4685 (Print)0022-4685 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=8114487 %M 8114487 %0 Journal Article %J European Journal of Disorders of Communication %D 1993 %T Specific language impairment in children: Research findings and their therapeutic implications. %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B European Journal of Disorders of Communication %V 28 %P 247-261 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J College of Speech and Language Therapy Bulletin %D 1992 %T Theory meets Therapy %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B College of Speech and Language Therapy Bulletin %V 487 %P 9-12 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J J Speech Hear Disord %D 1990 %T Comprehension of reversible sentences in specifically language-impaired children %A van der Lely, H. K. %A M. Harris %X

This study investigated comprehension of reversible sentences in specifically language-impaired (SLI) children. Two experiments, using different paradigms, were undertaken. In Experiment 1, 14 SLI children (aged 4:10-7:10) were compared with children matched on chronological age and language age (LA). Subjects acted out 36 semantically reversible sentences that varied in thematic content (transitives, locatives, and datives) and in the order of thematic roles (canonical and noncanonical). The SLI children performed at a significantly lower level than both control groups. In Experiment 2, the same sentences were presented using a picture-pointing task. A single word vocabulary test preceded the test sentences to assess semantic knowledge of the predicates. Sixteen SLI children were compared with language age controls. No significant differences were found between the performance of the two groups on the vocabulary test, and in general, the results of Experiment 2 supported those of Experiment 1. Analysis of individual children's error patterns identified qualitative differences between the SLI children and the LA controls. The majority of SLI children had a very high proportion of word order errors. The proportion of word order errors of the SLI children, unlike those of the LA controls, was unrelated to language age. These findings are considered in relation to the processes involved in sentence comprehension.

%B J Speech Hear Disord %7 1990/02/01 %V 55 %P 101-17 %8 Feb %@ 0022-4677 (Print)0022-4677 (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=2299827 %M 2299827 %0 Thesis %B Psychology %D 1990 %T Sentence comprehension processes in specifically language impaired children %A van der Lely, H. K. %X

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%B Psychology %I Birkbeck College %C London %G eng %0 Journal Article %J First Language %D 1989 %T Book Review. Clinical Phonology. (2nd Edition) Pam Grunwell %A van der Lely, H. K. %A Wells, W. %X

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%B First Language %V 9, %P 245-247 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Br J Disord Commun %D 1986 %T Sentence comprehension strategies in specifically language impaired children %A van der Lely, H. %A Dewart, H. %X

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%B Br J Disord Commun %7 1986/12/01 %V 21 %P 291-306 %8 Dec %@ 0007-098X (Print)0007-098X (Linking) %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=3651316 %M 3651316