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DISAMBIGUATION BY CHILDREN WITH SLI: THE EFFECTS OF WORD AND CONTEXT FACTORS. Christina H. Fikes , M.S. Julie M. Estis, Ph.D. Brenda L. Beverly, Ph.D. University of South Alabama. Disambiguation. Disambiguation Effect: Ambiguity task with a familiar object and an unfamiliar object
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DISAMBIGUATION BY CHILDREN WITH SLI: THE EFFECTS OF WORD AND CONTEXT FACTORS Christina H. Fikes, M.S. Julie M. Estis, Ph.D. Brenda L. Beverly, Ph.D. University of South Alabama
Disambiguation • Disambiguation Effect: • Ambiguity task with a familiar object and an unfamiliar object • Children choose the unfamiliar object when presented with an unfamiliar name • Children as young as 15 months disambiguate(Markman, Wasow, & Hansen, 2003) • Phonetic similarity disrupts disambiguation (Merriman & Schuster, 1991) • Preschoolers disambiguate even when the adult gestures toward the familiar object (Jaswal & Hansen, 2006)
Purpose of Investigation To investigate how children with SLI resolve ambiguity in a disambiguation task given three word conditions: • a phonetically distinct (PD) word, • a phonetically similar (PS) word, • and an oppositional gesture (OG) combined with a PD word
Experimental Procedures • 36 object pairs : one familiar object and one unfamiliar object • 30 experimental trials (10 PD, 10 PS, 10 OG) • 6 real word foils • The OG trial: pointing to the familiar object (e.g., the bowl) while simultaneously asking for an object with a PD word (e.g., “Get the clird”)
Participants • 15 Children: 10 Boys and 5 Girls • 3 Groups: SLI, TD Chronological Age (CA) peers, and TD Language Age (LA) peers
Mean percentage of selections of unfamiliar objects in PD, PS, and OG word conditions
Children with SLI show reduced disambiguation • 5 and 6 year olds with SLI selected unfamiliar objects more than chance but significantly less often than same-age typically developing children • Could explain fast mapping deficits
Disambiguation influenced byword characteristics • SLI: select familiar objects with PS words • TD: show varied responses • May be explained by • differences in lexical and phonological activation • limited processing capacity
Social pragmatic cues interact with linguist information • 7/10 TD children selected unfamiliar objects, overriding the gesture to the familiar object • SLI made random selections • Multiple factors in the event may be processed more flexibly by TD children
Contact Information Christina H. Fikes, M.S. challer15@yahoo.com Julie M. Estis, Ph.D., CCC-SLP jestis@usouthal.edu Brenda L. Beverly. Ph.D., CCC-SLP bbeverly@usouthal.edu