Search Results (7)

Background/Objectives: Cluttering in childhood and adolescence is characterised by unstable speech timing, excessive coarticulation, irregular rate and reduced intelligibility, yet the developmental mechanisms underpinning these behaviours remain partially understood. This review synthesises empirical and conceptual evidence to examine cluttering through the lenses of speech motor development, neurocognitive mechanisms, task demands and allied-health practice. Four research questions guided the review, focusing on motor characteristics, developmental and neurocognitive mechanisms, task dependence and clinical implications. Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines, a comprehensive search across seven databases identified studies examining cluttering in children and adolescents. Screening and full-text review were conducted in Covidence by two reviewers, with disagreements resolved by the first author. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted into a structured evidence table, and findings were synthesised. Results: Across studies, cluttering emerged as a developmental motor–cognitive integration disorder. Speech motor systems, linguistic formulation and executive control showed difficulty aligning under real-world communicative demands, leading to timing instability, articulatory blurring and reduced intelligibility. Symptoms were strongly influenced by task complexity, with spontaneous and extended discourse eliciting the most pronounced breakdowns. Conclusions: Cluttering reflects a developmental vulnerability in coordinating speech motor, linguistic and executive processes. Understanding cluttering in this way challenges narrow rate-based definitions and supports more nuanced approaches to assessment and intervention. Significant evidence gaps remain, particularly in longitudinal, mechanistic, multilingual and ecologically valid research. This developmental motor–cognitive framework strengthens the conceptual foundations of cluttering and clarifies its relevance to children’s motor development. Full article

Background: Physical activity (PA) provides significant health benefits, yet inactivity remains high in Spain, especially among adolescents and increasingly in children. Identifying barriers to PA is essential, but available tools are mainly designed for adolescents. This study aimed to adapt the “Brief Scale of Perceived Barriers to Physical Activity” for Spanish schoolchildren aged 6–12 and examine its validity and reliability. Methods: The “Brief Scale of Perceived Barriers to Physical Activity for Children” was linguistically and culturally adapted. Comprehension was assessed through cognitive interviews, and reliability was examined via a test–retest procedure with 137 Spanish schoolchildren. Several analyses were conducted, including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the factor structure, along with reliability metrics: Cronbach’s alpha (α) for internal consistency and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for test–retest reliability. Results: CFA confirmed a four-factor structure (self-concept, motivation–interest, social support, and task incompatibility) in a sample of 137 with excellent fit indices (χ²/df = 1.394, RMSEA = 0.054, CFI = 0.976, TLI = 0.966). Internal consistency ranged from good to excellent (α = 0.831–0.979). Temporal stability was substantial to near perfect (ICC = 0.708–0.979). Measurement error was low for all items and the total score (SEM% = 6.1–37.2; MDC% = 17.0–103.0), demonstrating accuracy. Conclusions: The “Brief Scale of Perceived Barriers to Physical Activity for Children” was proven to be a reliable and valid tool for assessing perceived barriers to PA in Spanish children. It offers developmentally appropriate insights that can guide strategies to enhance supportive environments and promote long-term active behaviours. As part of the social domain, it contributes to the Spanish Physical Literacy Assessment for Children (SPLA-C) model, the first physical literacy (PL) assessment instrument developed in Spain. Full article

This paper aims to analyze adults’ responses to children’s argumentative contributions within children–adult dialogic interactions. More precisely, we focus on the phenomenon of children opening subdiscussions within argumentative interactions with peers and adults. This phenomenon occurs when a child problematizes and calls into question some proposition in the ongoing discussion, hence the opening of a subdiscussion is an initiative that comes as unexpected from the perspective of the adult. In this contribution, we examine what happens after a child opens a subdiscussion and how the adult’s reaction to such initiatives can shape the development of dialogue. This means that we observe adult behaviour in dialogic interactions with children, given the complexity of the adult’s role in such interactions. Drawing on the dialogical approach to argumentation, we present and discuss some excerpts of children–adult subdiscussions at a kindergarten. The data analysis uses concepts and tools from a linguistics-based approach to argumentation, i.e., the pragma-dialectical theory, and it highlights conversational dynamics of children–adult argumentative discourse. The study’s contribution is twofold: (1) it presents the important and delicate role of the adult in dialogic children–adult interactions; (2) it shows how the development of children’s arguments is intrinsically linked to the flexibility of the discussion space organized by the adult. Full article

Pedestrian behaviour and safety are essential components of urban sustainability. They are influenced by a complex interplay between various factors from different perspectives, particularly in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. This study presents a comprehensive overview of the factors influencing pedestrian behaviour and safety with a focus on CALD communities. By synthesizing the existing literature, the study identifies six key groups of influencing factors: social–psychological, cultural, risk perceptions, environmental, technological distractions, and demographic differences. It discovers that well-designed interventions, such as tailored education campaigns and programs, may effectively influence pedestrian behaviour. These interventions emphasize the importance of targeted messaging to address specific risks (e.g., using mobile phones while crossing the road) and engage vulnerable groups, including children, seniors, and CALD communities. The study reveals that CALD communities face higher risks of pedestrian injuries and fatalities due to language barriers, unfamiliarity with local road rules, and different practices and approaches to road safety due to cultural differences. This study underlines the importance of developing and promoting tailored road safety education programs to address the unique challenges faced by CALD communities to help promote safer pedestrian environments for all. Full article

This paper presents a variationist analysis of patterns of speech accommodation by 40 Arabic-speaking children and adolescents (aged 3–17) experiencing dialect contact in a Bedouin speech community near Damascus, Syria. It examines participants’ use of the phonological variables (θ), (ð), and (q), and the morphophonological feminine suffix (-a) in recorded sociolinguistic interviews and play sessions with two female fieldworkers, a local and an urban speaker, in order to investigate accommodation patterns across different interlocutors. Accommodation patterns were influenced by age, gender, and the linguistic variable under examination. Convergence to the urban interviewer was most evident in the realization of (q), whereas little convergence, and indeed variation, occurred in the realization of (-a), and more convergence occurred in the speech of girls and speakers younger than 15. Divergence and maintenance emerged in the speech of 15–17-year-old male speakers. These patterns are analysed in light of Accommodation Communication Theory and issues of identity and linguistic prestige in Arabic. Accommodative behaviour in the speech of participants exhibits their awareness of the social value of the phonological variables under investigation and demonstrates a high level of sociolinguistic awareness and competence. Full article

New-borns are capable of recognising and producing sounds as they become phonologically competent. Following this, infants develop a system for connecting these sounds, which helps them become increasingly lexically competent over time. Their knowledge of these words grows as they develop, using words to form phrases, turning them into sentences, and ultimately becoming syntactically competent. By making sense of these linguistic elements, these three competencies are enhanced, and this is how infants become semantically competent. As infants continue to develop linguistic and non-linguistic communication behaviours, this miraculous language development becomes even more complex, enabling them to perfect their linguistic abilities while being pragmatically competent. In this study, a scientometric approach was used to examine past, present, and future trends in pragmatic language development (PLD). A total of 6455 documents were analysed from the Scopus, WOS, and Lens databases between 1950 and 2022. The analysis involved the visualisation and tabulation of eight bibliometric and eight scientometric indicators using CiteSpace 5.8.R3 and VOSviewer 1.6.18 software for data analysis. In this study, we highlight the major patterns and topics directing the research on PLD between 1950 and 2022. The themes and topics included (1) analysing PLD as a social behaviour through the lens of executive functions; (2) studying PLD as a social behaviour based on social understanding; (3) examining PLD as a social behaviour associated with autism spectrum disorder; (4) developing an understanding of PLD in academic settings through the examination of executive functions; (5) identifying pragmatic competence versus communicative competence as a social behaviour; (6) analysing pragmatic language skills in aphasic patients via epistemic stances (i.e., attitudes towards knowledge in interaction); (7) investigating PLD as a behavioural problem in the context of a foreign language; (8) assessing PLD as a behavioural problem in individuals with autism spectrum disorder; (9) assessing PLD in persons with traumatic brain injury and closed head injury as a behavioural problem; (10) identifying the role of the right hemisphere in executive functions as a cognitive substrate; (11) assessing the impact of pragmatic failure in speech acts on pragmatic competence; and (12) investigating the patterns of PLD among learning-disabled children. Full article

Here, we studied the beginnings of language development, jointly assessing two groups of precursors, sociodemographic and pre-linguistic, that have previously been studied separately. Thus, the general objective of this study was to explore which factors best explained the acquisition of initial expressive vocabulary. The sample consisted of 504 participants from Catalan-speaking homes with ages ranging between 10 and 18 months. The data were obtained through the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MCB-CDIs). Vocabulary development shows a lexical spurt at 17 months. Regression analyses show that pre-linguistic factors have more explanatory power of than sociodemographic ones. Within the sociodemographic variables, age, birth order and birth weight explain part of the vocabulary variance. With respect to pre-linguistic variables, imitation, late gestures and phrase comprehension are predictors of the initial vocabulary acquisition. Specifically, imitation and late gestures were the pre-linguistic behaviours that made it possible to distinguish between children with higher and lower levels of vocabulary. We discussed these findings in relation to their relevance for language acquisition and for the early assessment of linguistic competence. Full article