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Related Experiment Video

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Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism

Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism

Published on: October 3, 2018

Written cohesion in children with and without language learning disabilities.

Anthony D Koutsoftas¹, Victoria Petersen¹

¹Department of Speech Language Pathology, School of Health and Medical Sciences, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, USA.

International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders

|December 31, 2016

Summary

Children with language learning disabilities (LLD) use less complex cohesion in writing than typically developing (TD) peers. Cohesion varies by genre and group, impacting written language intervention strategies.

Keywords:

cohesion expository language learning disabilities narrative school-aged children writing

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Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking IPL: Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

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Published on: December 14, 2012

Area of Science:

Linguistics
Developmental Psychology
Education

Background:

Cohesion is vital for discourse continuity, particularly in written language intervention for children with language learning disabilities (LLD).
Research indicates children with LLD struggle with cohesion in spoken and written language compared to typically developing (TD) peers.
Limited research exists on comparing cohesion across different written genres between these groups.

Purpose of the Study:

To describe and compare cohesion in narrative and expository writing samples from children with and without LLD.
To examine the relationship between cohesion measures and other writing/language indicators.

Main Methods:

Fifty intermediate-grade children produced narrative and expository writing samples.
Measures of written cohesion included frequency, adequacy, and complexity of referential and conjunctive ties.

Main Results:

Expository writing samples exhibited more complex cohesive ties than narrative samples.
TD children utilized more complex cohesive ties than children with LLD.
The association between cohesion and writing quality differed between narrative and expository genres.

Conclusions:

Cohesion is a discourse-level measure of written transcription, varying by genre and developmental group (LLD vs. TD).
Findings inform clinical assessment, intervention strategies, and future research directions for written language development.