Patterns of cross-linguistic treatment generalisation in acquired dysgraphia: A window into the organisation of the bilingual spelling system.
Lead Research Organisation:
Bangor University
Department Name: Sch of Psychology
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
D.Roberts
(2013)
How Strong is the Relationship between General Phonological Processes and Pseudo-word Reading?
in Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences
Daniel R
(2014)
"That thing in New York": Impaired naming vs. preserved recognition of unique entities following an anterior temporal lobe lesion
in Frontiers in Psychology
Emma H
(2014)
Is translation semantically mediated? Evidence from Welsh-English bilingual aphasia
in Frontiers in Psychology
Emma H
(2015)
The cognate advantage in bilingual aphasia: Now you see it, now you don't.
in Frontiers in Psychology
Emma H
(2016)
Cross-language generalisation of treatment effects following errorless treatment in Welsh-English bilingual anomia
in Frontiers in Psychology
Gary O
(2015)
Preserved cumulative semantic interference despite amnesia
in Frontiers in Psychology
Hughes E
(2012)
Cross-linguistic Generalisation of Treatment in Welsh-English Bilingual Anomia
in Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences
Jennifer Roberts (Author)
(2011)
Treating the phonological spelling route in bilingual acquired dysgraphia
Jennifer Roberts (Author)
(2011)
Cross-linguistic treatment generalisation of phoneme-grapheme mappings in bilingual acquired dysgraphia
| Description | The general goal of this project was to contribute to a better understanding of the organization of the bilingual spelling system. The methodological approach involved a combination of behavioral testing with neurologically healthy and with brain-damaged participants with acquired spelling disorders. It also included a set of treatment studies designed to better understand the conditions (deficit type, treatment technique) under which treating one-language would also benefit the untreated language. This project had a number of specific goals. Several of them have been fully reached or even exceeded. Some have not yet been fully reached due to difficulties beyond our control with data collection (see above section). 1. Goal 1 (exceeded) was to create a rigorous and theoretically motivated Welsh-English bilingual dysgraphia assessment battery. This objective has been reached. In addition, we realized early on in the project that it was difficult to assess spelling in isolation. We have thus developed new tests to assess spoken word production and reading. We are in the process of creating a website to make these assessments more widely available (they are currently available on request to other researchers and speech and language therapists). 2. Goal 2 (exceeded) was to collect some initial normative data from 40 control (older) participants. This has been achieved for all newly developed tests. In addition, we tested an extra set of 60 bilinguals and monolinguals of different ages to broaden the usability of the materials to different research questions. This had led to publishable data. The main findings are that performance is much more variable than expected, but that language skills are highly resistant to the effects of aging. Overall, bilingual participants performed slightly less well than monolingual participants and often did better in English than in Welsh, despite most being native Welsh speakers. There is clear evidence that the two languages of bilingual speakers influence each other, which had never been demonstrated for spelling abilities. 3. Goal 3 (reached) was to examine the relative impact of brain damage on each language in bilingual Welsh-English bilingual participants with brain damage. This had led to a very rich set of data that we have started to disseminate. Most noteworthy, we have observed that the patterns of deficits are qualitatively highly similar in the two languages affected, although the severity of the deficits varies for reasons that are not yet entirely clear and that vary between participants. This will form the basis of follow-up studies. 4. Goal 4 (partly reached and still in progress). We have developed new treatment materials and carried out a number of treatment studies, though not as many as initially planned yet (see above section for explanation). The data analysed so far support our predictions that treating one language CAN lead to improvement to the untreated language but NOT in all conditions. In particular, treatment to processing components thought to be shared across languages (e.g., graphemic buffer) leads to better generalization that treatment of more language specific components (e.g., orthographic lexicon). In summary, despite some unexpected challenges with data collection the project has generated a large amount of new resources and data that bring new light to the cognitive processes involved in bilingual language production and which should inform the clinical treatment of bilingual brain-damaged patients. We have started disseminating the results in conferences and through some preliminary publications, mostly targeting academic users at this stage. We will broaden the dissemination audience in the next few months as part of our planned impact activities. |
| Exploitation Route | The new testing materials (and norming data) and treatment materials will be of use to speech and language therapists for use with clinical populations. They could also be adapted for language assessment in Welsh and English within the education sector. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Healthcare |
| Description | The research supported by this award is in the process of contributing to non-academic impact in the area of the provision of speech and language therapy services for bilingual populations. In particular, the award has led to the development of much needed scientifically based tools for assessing language disorder in Welsh-English populations which are currently available for use by SLTs. Note that the impact activities are still on-going and any impact is not yet demonstrable. However, we are working actively on maximising impact in collaboration with our NHS partners in the SLT services. A specific new funded project is directly aimed at maximising impact of the current award by creating a web-based resource for the assessment of language disorders in English and Welsh-speaking adults with neurological deficits. This new resource will adapt and expand a range of well-controlled theoretically motivated language tests developed in part in the context of this award. A secure user-friendly web platform will be created to allow clinicians to use the tests on-line or offline and control data will be provided to help determine the degree of impairment of individual patients. The NHS partners will be involved from the outset in designing, piloting and disseminating the new resource. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Bangor University ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) ESRC Impact Project Grant scheme |
| Amount | £30,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2016 |
| End | 06/2017 |
| Description | British Academy small grants scheme |
| Amount | £9,833 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | SG133023 |
| Organisation | The British Academy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2014 |
| End | 08/2015 |
| Description | ESRC Wales DTC Bilingualism +3 studentship |
| Amount | £46,477 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | ESRC Wales DTC Bilingualism 1+3 studentship |
| Amount | £46,477 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2013 |
| End | 10/2017 |
| Title | A new battery for the assessment of language deficits in Welsh-English adults, the Bangor Bilingual Aphasia Battery (BAAB). |
| Description | We have developed a whole set of language tasks assessing spoken and written language in Welsh, with comparable assessments also developed in English. Such materials were not available in Welsh when we started the project. |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The tools will be made available to other researchers and to clinicians. Work to this effect is ongoing and will be updated when our final report is due. These new tools allow for a much more precise and reliable assessment of language deficits in bilingual people with brain damage. We have also collected preliminary normative data. |
| Description | Daniel Roberts |
| Organisation | University of Stirling |
| Department | Psychology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration includes my expertise, intellectual input or the training of staff and students. It also includes access to data, research participants, equipment and facilities. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner, Dr Daniel Roberts, provides expertise, intellectual input, access to data and to research participants. |
| Impact | Roberts, D., Cristino, F., Payne, J., Kendrick, L., & Tainturier, M.J. (2016). Inducing pure alexia in healthy adults. International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Granada, Spain, May 5-8. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | SLT services |
| Organisation | Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board |
| Department | Palliative Care Department |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Hospitals |
| PI Contribution | We are developing and norming well-controlled theoretically motivated language tests for Welsh-English bilingual adults with language disorders to be used in clinical practice. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The NHS partners will be involved from the outset in designing, piloting and disseminating these new resources. |
| Impact | None yet |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Presentation to Y Gymdeithas Feddygol Cynhadledd Flynyddol (Bilingualism and Medicine Symposium, in Welsh). Llandudno, Oct 12th 2014. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked discussion and interest in future collaborations Too soon to tell. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |