Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:25:11.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Once more with feeling: Affect and language in atypical populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Judy Reilly ,
Edward S. Klima  and
Ursula Bellugi
Judy Reilly
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
Edward S. Klima
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
Ursula Bellugi*
Affiliation:
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla
*
Address reprint requests to: Ursula Bellugi, Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Studies, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, P.O. Box 85800, San Diego, CA 92816-5800.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The study of clearly identifiable patterns of atypical development can inform normal development in significant ways. Delayed or deviant development puts in high relief not only the sequence of development but also the individual components. This article presents the results of studies that compare adolescents with Williams syndrome, a rare metabolic neurodevelopmental disorder resulting in mental retardation, with cognitively matched adolescents with Down syndrome. We investigate the interaction between affect and language through storytelling. In contrast to the adolescents with Down syndrome, the Williams syndrome subjects tell coherent and complex narratives that make extensive use of affective prosody. Furthermore, stories from the Williams but not the Down subjects are infused with lexically encoded narrative evaluative devices that enrich the referential content of the stories. This contrast in expressivity between two matched atypical groups provides an unusual perspective on the underlying structure of the social cognitive domain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , October 1990 , pp. 367 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bamberg, M. G. W. (1987). The acquisition of narratives: Learning to use language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamberg, M. G. W. (in press). Narrative as perspective taking: The role of emotionals, negations, and voice in the construction of the story realm. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M. G. W., & Damrad, R. (in press). On the ability to provide evaluative comments: Further explorations of children's narrative competencies. Journal of Child Language.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M. G. W., & Reilly, J. S. (1990, 07). The expression of affect in narratives. Paper presented at the First International Conference for the Study of Child Language,Budapest, Hungary.Google Scholar
Beeghly, M., & Cicchetti, D. (1987). An organizational approach to symbolic development in children with Down syndrome. New Directions for Child Development, 36, 5–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beeghly, M., Weiss-Perry, B., & Cicchetti, D. (1990). Beyond sensorimotor functioning: Early communicative and play development of children with Down syndrome. In Cicchetti, D. & Beeghly, M. (Eds.), Children with Down syndrome: A developmental perspective (pp. 329–368). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellugi, U., Bihrle, A., Doherty, S., Neville, H., & Damasio, A. (1989). Neural correlates underlying dissociations of higher cortical functioning. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the International Neuropsychology Society, Vancouver, BC, Canada.Google Scholar
Bellugi, U., Bihrle, A., Neville, H., Jernigan, T., & Doherty, S. (in press). Brain organization underlying dissociations of language and cognition. In Gunnar, M. & Nelson, C. (Eds.), Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology, Vol. 24. Developmental behavioral neuroscience. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bellugi, U., & Culler, F. (1987, 04). Gene coding and behavioral expression in Williams Syndrome children. Paper presented at the Colloquium on Genetics and Dysmorphology, University of California Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Bellugi, U., Marks, S., Bihrle, A., Jernigan, T., & Culler, F. (1987, 11). Neuropsychological and neurobiological account of a metabolic disorder. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, New Orleans, LA.Google Scholar
Bellugi, U., Marks, S., Bihrle, A. M., & Sabo, H. (1988). Dissociation between language and cognitive functions in Williams Syndrome. In Bishop, D. & Mogford, K. (Eds.), Language development in exceptional circumstances (pp. 177–189). London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Bellugi, U., Poizner, H., & Klima, E. S. (1989). Language, modality and the brain. Trends in Neurosciences, 10, 380–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellugi, U., Sabo, H., & Vaid, J. (1988). Spatial deficits in children with Williams Syndrome. In Stiles-Davis, J., Kritchevsky, M., & Bellugi, U. (Eds.), Spatial cognition: Brain bases and development (pp. 273–298). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Berman, R. (1988). On the ability to relate events in narrative. Discourse Processes, 11, 469–497.Google Scholar
Berman, R., & Slobin, D. I. (1987). Five ways of learning how to talk about events: A crosslinguistic study of children's narratives (Tech. Rep. No. 46). Berkeley: University of California, Institute of Cognitive Studies.Google Scholar
Bihrle, A. M. (1990). Visuospatial processing in Williams and Down syndromes. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California and San Diego State University, CA.Google Scholar
Bihrle, A. M., Bellugi, U., Delis, D., & Marks, S. (1989). Seeing either the forest or the trees: Dissociation in visuospatial processing. Brain and Cognition, 11, 37–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Black, J. A., Bonham-Carter, R. E. (1963). Association between aortic stenosis and facies of severe infantile hypercalcemia. Lancet, 11, 745–749.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Beeghly, M. (1990). Children with Down syndrome: A developmental perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicchetti, D., Beeghly, M., & Weiss-Perry, B. (in press). Symbolic development in children with Down syndrome and in children with autism: An organizational, developmental psychopathology perspective. In Slade, A. & Wolf, D. (Eds.), Modes of meaning. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Schneider-Rosen, K. (1984). Theoretical and empirical considerations in the investigation of the relationship between affect and cognition in atypical populations of infants: Contributions to the formulation of an integrative theory of development. In Izard, C., Kagan, J., & Zajonc, R. (Eds.), Emotions, cognition, and behavior (pp. 366–406). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Sroufe, L. A. (1976). The relationship between affective and cognitive development in Down's syndrome infants. Child Development, 47, 920–929.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Culler, F. L., Jones, K. L., & Deftos, L. J. (1985). Impaired calcitonin secretion in patients with Williams syndrome. Journal of Pediatrics, 107, 720–723.Google Scholar
Fowler, A. E. (1988). Determinants or rate of language growth in children with Down syndrome. In Nadel, L. (Ed.), The psychobiology of Down syndrome (pp. 217–245). Cambridge, MA: Brad-ford Books/MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, A. E. (1990). Language abilities in children with Down syndrome: Evidence for a specific syntactic delay. In Cicchetti, D. & Beeghly, M. (Eds.), Children with Down syndrome: A developmental perspective (pp. 302–328). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gazzaniga, M. S. (1988). Mind matters. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Gibson, D. (1978). Down's syndrome: The psychology of mongolism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gleitman, L. R. (1984). Biological predispositions to learn language. In Marler, P. & Terrace, H. S. (Eds.), The biology of learning (pp. 553–584). New York: Dahlem Konferenzen.Google Scholar
Jernigan, T., & Bellugi, U. (1990). Anomalous brain morphology on magnetic resonance images in Williams syndrome and Down syndrome. Archives of Neurology, 47, 529–533.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, K. L., & Smith, D. W. (1975). The Williams elfin facies syndrome: A new perspective. Journal of Pediatrics, 86, 718–723.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact. Nervous Child, 2, 217–250.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1984). Intensity. In Schifflin, D. (Ed.), Meaning, form and use in context: Linguistic applications. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Roundtable on Language and Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In Helm, J. (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Loveland, K. (1987). Behavior of young children with Down syndrome before the mirror: Finding things reflected. Child Development, 58, 928–936.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loveland, K., McEvoy, R., Tunali, B., & Kelley, M. (1990). Narrative story-telling in autism and Down syndrome. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Mandler, J., & Johnson, N. (1977). Rememberance of things passed: Story structure and recall. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 111, 151.Google Scholar
Marchman, V. M. (1989). Episodic structure in the linguistic encoding of events in narrative: A study of language acquisition and performance. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Mayer, M. (1969). Frog, where are you? New York: Dial Press.Google Scholar
Miller, J. F. (1987). Language and communication characteristics of children with Down syndrome. In Pueschel, S. M., Tingley, C., Rynders, J. E., Crocker, A. C., & Crutcher, D. M. (Eds.), New perspectives on Down syndrome (pp. 233–262). Baltimore, Brookes.Google Scholar
Morris, C., Demsey, S. A., Leonard, C. O., Dilts, C., & Blackburn, B. L. (1988). Natural history of Williams syndrome: Physical characteristics. Journal of Pediatrics, 113(2), 318–326.Google Scholar
Nadel, L. (Ed.). (1988). The psychobiology of Down syndrome. Cambridge, MA: A Bradford Book/MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J. (1963). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Preus, M. (1984). The Williams syndrome: Objective definition and diagnosis. Journal of Clinical Genetics, 25(5), 422–428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reilly, J. S. (1990). Do good storytellers always tell good stories? Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Reilly, J. S., & Hauser, N. (1989). How to tell a good story. Abstracts, Society for Research in Child Development, 7.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (in press). The development from child speaker to native speaker. In Stigler, J. W., Herdt, G., & Schweder, R. A. (Eds.), Cultural psychology: The Chicago symposia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, D. W. (1982). Recognizable patterns of human malformation (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.Google ScholarPubMed
Stein, N. L., & Glenn, C. G. (1979). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children. In Freedle, R. (Ed.), New directions in discourse comprehension, (Vol. 2). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Stein, N. L., & Policastro, M. (1984). The concept of a story: A comparison between children's and teachers' viewpoints. In Mandl, H., Stein, N. L., & Trabasso, T. (Eds.), Learning and comprehension of text. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1988). On the nature of a language acquisition disorder: The example of autism. In Kessel, F. (Ed.), The development of language and language researchers (Essays presented to Roger Brown) (pp. 249–267). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1989, 04). An analysis of discourse ability and internal state lexicons in a longitudinal study of autistic children. Symposium presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Kansas City, MO.Google Scholar
Tomc, S. A., Williamson, N. K., & Pauli, R. M. (1990). Temperament in Williams syndrome. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 35(3), 345–352.Google Scholar
Udwin, O. (1990). A survey of adults with Williams syndrome and idiopathic infantile hypercalcaemia. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 32, 129–141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
von Arnim, G., & Engel, P. (1964). Mental retardation related to hypercalcemia. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 6, 366–377.Google Scholar
Williams, J. C. P., Barrat-Boyes, B. G., & Lowe, J. B. (1961). Supravalvular aortic stenosis. Circulation, 24, 1311–1318.Google Scholar
Wolf, D., & Hicks, D. (in press). The voices within narratives: The development of intertextuality in young children's stories. Discourse Processes.Google Scholar