Child Language Lab
The Child Language Lab focuses on studying how children learn language and the problems some children have with developing language skills properly.
About the Child Language Lab
Research conducted at the Child Language Labs is directed at increasing our understanding of language development and developmental language disorders with particular emphasis on the challenges experienced by children with specific language impairment (SLI). Much of the work focuses on issues of assessment and differential diagnosis but another central concern has been untangling the relationships between language disorders, attention deficits and socioemotional difficulties.
Lab Members
Our Projects
Current and past lab projects include: Co-occurrence of Language and Attention Difficulties in Children, Psycholinguistic and Socioemotional Profiling of SLI and ADHD, Contributions of Behavioral and Verbal Liabilities to Social Risk, and The Development of Grammatical Competence in Children with Communication Disorders.
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Funding
National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders
Grant
NIDSD R01 DC017153Accounts for why language impairments and attention deficits occur at elevated rates have been largely speculative and limited to data from case control studies, leaving the nature and direction of associations unknown. The purpose of this project, which began in 2018 and ended in 2024, was to address these gaps by conducting parallel longitudinal investigations of language growth and behavioral symptom progression in children with developmental language disorder (DLD), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), concomitant ADHD+DLD, and typical development (TD). Group differences in vocabulary, verbal memory, and syntactic growth were
examined over a 5-year period (covering the 7-12 years age span). Changes in individuals' behavioral symptom progressions were charted across all 4 groups as well.- Sean M. Redmond, Andrea C. Ash, Haojia Li and Yue Zhang (6 May 2024): Links Among Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms and Psycholinguistic Abilities Are Different for Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder
- Sean M. Redmond, Andrea C. Ash & Yue Zhang (31 Oct 2023): A preliminary study of the effects of stimulant medications on estimates of psycholinguistic abilities for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics
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Funding
National Institute of Deafness of other Communication Disorders
Grant
NIDCD R01 DC011023Research suggests an association might exist between children's attention difficulties and their language impairments. In a series of studies, we have been examining this relationship in more detail. We have also been looking into the nature of shared weaknesses between children with attention deficits and children with language impairments in the areas of reading, memory, and social difficulties. Kindergarten to 3rd grade students have been the focus of this research. One of our major projects involved a large scale verbal screening study designed to identity students at risk for language impairments. One product of this project was a locally normed screening protocol that can be used by school personnel in Utah to identity children at risk for language impairments.
- Redmond, S.M. (2020). Clinical intersections among idiopathic language disorder, social (pragmatic) communication disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63. 3263-3276.
- Redmond (2016a). Markers, models, and measurement error: Exploring the links between attention deficits and language impairments. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59 (10), 62-71.
- Redmond (2016b). Language impairment in the ADHD context. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59(1), 133-142.
- Redmond and Ash (2014). A cross etiology comparison of the socioemotional behavioral profiles associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and specific language impairment. Clinical Linguistics and Phoetics, 28(5), 346-365.
- Redmond, Ash, Christopulos, and Pfaff (2019). Diagnostic Accurarcy of sentence recall and past tense measures for identifying children's language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 62(6), 1-17.
- Redmond, Ash and Hogan (2015). Consequences of co-occuring attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on children's language impairments. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 46(2), 68-80
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Funding
National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders
Grant
NIDCD R03 DC0083282In this line of research, we have been investigating the amount of overlap between the behavioral phenotypes associated with SLI and ADHD. A central focus of this work has been a critical consideration of the extent to which conventional assessment tools can adequately differentiate symptoms of SLI from symptoms of ADHD.
- Redmond, S.M. (2002). The Use of rating scales with children who have language impairments: A tutorial. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 11, 124-138.
- Redmond, S.M. (2004). Conversational profiles of children with ADHD, SLI and typical development. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 18, 107-125.
- Redmond, S.M. (2005). Differentiating SLI from ADHD using children's sentence recall and production of past tense morphology. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 19, 109-127.
- Redmond, Hanning, and Wilder (2019). Redmond (2002)revisited: Have standardized behavioral rating scales gotten better at accommodating for overlapping symptons with language impairment? Seminars in Speech and Language.
- Redmond, S.M. & Rice, M.L. (1998). The socioemotional behaviors of children with SLI: Social adaptation or social deviance. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 41, 688-700.
- Redmond, S.M. & Rice, M.L. (2002). Stability of behavioral ratings of children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 45, 190-201.
- Redmond, S.M., Thompson, H.L., & Goldstein, S. (2011). Psycholinguistic profiling differentiates Specific Language Impairment from typical development and from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 54, 99-117.
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The consequences of language impairments and behavioral difficulties on children’s social well-being represents a primary focus of the work conducted in the lab.
- Redmond, S.M. (2003). Social development and language impairment. In R.D. Kent (Ed.), The MIT Encyclopedia of Communication Disorders (pp. 402-405). Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
- Redmond, S.M. (2011). Peer victimization among students with Specific Language Impairment, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and typical development. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 42, 520-535.
- Redmond, S.M. & Timler, G. (2007). Addressing the social concomitants of developmental language impairments. In A. Kamhi, J. Masterson , & K. Apel (eds.), Clinical Decision Making in Developmental Language Disorders (pp. 185-202). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
- Redmond, S.M., & Hosp, J.L. (2008). Absenteeism rates in students receiving services for CD, LD, and ED: A macroscopic view of the consequences of disability. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 39, 97-103.
- Shimko, Redmond, Ludlow, & Ash (2019). Exploring gender as a potential source of bias in adult judgments of children with specific language impairment and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders.
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Children with communication disorders often present with long-standing delays in the acquisition of morphological and syntactic competence. In these studies, the explanatory adequacy of different accounts for these difficulties is considered.
- Wilder, A, & Redmond, S.M. (2021). Spontaneous productions of infinitive clauses by English-speaking children with and without specific language impairment. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 35 (1), 43-54.
- Redmond, S.M. (2003). Children's productions of the affix -ed in past tense and past participle contexts. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 1095-1109.
- Redmond, S.M. & Johnston, S.S. (2001). Evaluating the morphological competence of children with severe speech and physical impairments. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44, 1362-1375.
- Redmond, S.M. & Rice, M.L. (2001). The detection of irregular verb violations by children with and without specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 44, 655-669.
Child Language Lab Resources
Redmond Sentence Recall Task
Test of Early Grammatical Impairment
Dollaghan and Campbell Nonword Repetition Task
Infographics and Handouts
Contact Us
Behavioral Health Sciences Building
390 South 1530 East, Suite 1201
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
