Structural Differences of the Semantic Network in Adolescents with Intellectual DisabilityShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: Big data and cognitive computing, E-ISSN 2504-2289, Vol. 5, no 2, article id 25Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The semantic network structure is a core aspect of the mental lexicon and is, therefore, a key to understanding language development processes. This study investigated the structure of the semantic network of adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) and children with typical development (TD) using network analysis. The semantic networks of the participants (nID = 66; nTD = 49) were estimated from the semantic verbal fluency task with the pathfinder method. The groups were matched on the number of produced words. The average shortest path length (ASPL), the clustering coefficient (CC), and the network’s modularity (Q) of the two groups were compared. A significantly smaller ASPL and Q and a significantly higher CC were found for the adolescents with ID in comparison with the children with TD. Reasons for this might be differences in the language environment and differences in cognitive skills. The quality and quantity of the language input might differ for adolescents with ID due to differences in school curricula and because persons with ID tend to engage in different out-of-school activities compared to TD peers. Future studies should investigate the influence of different language environments on the language development of persons with ID
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI, 2021. Vol. 5, no 2, article id 25
Keywords [en]
semantic network analysis; intellectual disability; adolescents
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-176563DOI: 10.3390/bdcc5020025ISI: 000667168400001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85108177600OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-176563DiVA, id: diva2:1566875
Note
Funding agencies: European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013) under Grant Agreement FP7-607139 (iCARE) and by the Swedish Research Council (2013-01363 and 2016-04217)
2021-06-152021-06-152025-02-20