Main description:

This book presents diverse, original research studies on typical and atypical child language acquisition in monolingual, bilingual and bi-dialectal settings, with a focus on development, assessment and research methodology. Languages investigated in the studies include underrepresented languages, such as Farsi, Greek, Icelandic, isiXhosa, Maltese, Mandarin and Slovene, without excluding representative work in major languages like English and Spanish. The language areas of focus are phonology, lexicon, morphology and syntax and the book incorporates studies in under-researched language impairment, such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome and language impairment in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome. The book has practical significance in that it proposes tools and assessment practices that are of universal crosslinguistic relevance while also dealing with language-specific complications. The studies presented enhance existing knowledge and stimulate answers on what the acquisition of disparate languages in different contexts can teach us about language/communication development in the presence or absence of disorder.

Contents:

Elena Babatsouli, David Ingram and Nicole Muller: Introduction

Section A: Typical Language Acquisition

Chapter 1: Michelle Pascoe, Olebeng Mahura, Jane Le Roux, Emily Danvers, Aimee de Jager, Natania Esterhuizen Chane Naidoo, Juliette Reynders, Savannah Senior, Amy van derMerwe: Speech Development in 3-Year-Old Children Acquiring IsiXhosa and English in South Africa

Chapter 2: Anna V. Sosa: The Impact of Parent Communication Patterns on Infant Volubility During Play with Books

Section B: Methods in Language Analysis and Assessment

Chapter 3: Elena Babatsouli, David Ingram and Dimitrios Sotiropouloson: The Weight of Phones in Computing Phonological Word Proximity

Chapter 4: Barbara May Bernhardt and Joseph Paul Stemberger: Investigating Typical and Protracted Phonological Development across Languages

Chapter 5: Helen Grech, Barbara Dodd and Sue Franklin: Bilingual Speech Assessment for Maltese Children

Chapter 6: Loukia Taxitari, Maria Kambanaros, Georgios Floros and Kleanthes K. Grohmann: Early Language Development in a Bilectal Context: The Cypriot Adaptation of the MacArthur Bates CDI

Section C: Language Acquisition in the Presence of a Disorder

Chapter 7: Georgia Andreou and Matina Tasioudi: Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome: Does It Really Affect Language Acquisition During Early Childhood?

Chapter 8: Maria Kambanaros, Loukia Taxitari, Eleni Theodorou, Marina Varnava and Kleanthes K. Grohmann: Language Impairment in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome: A Case Study from Cyprus

Chapter 9: M Isabel Navarro-Ruiz and Lucrecia Rallo Fabra: The Emergence and Development of Self-Repair: A Longitudinal Case Study of Specific Language Impairment from 3 to 6;10 Years.

Chapter 10: Froogh Shooshtaryzadeh: Local Assimilation in Children Acquiring Farsi: A Case Study of Typical Vs. Atypical Phonological Development