Project description
New lessons in language disorders
Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) struggle to form and understand complex sentences. However, the cognitive reasons behind these difficulties remain unclear. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SYN-CROSS project explores why children with DLD have trouble with syntax, focusing on how they learn sentence structures. It will compare how Italian and Polish-speaking children with DLD process relative clauses (complex sentence parts that differ in each language). The findings will shed light on the cognitive roots of DLD and help inform more targeted, effective linguistic support.
Objective
The project aims to advance theoretical and practical knowledge in psycholinguistics and developmental neuroscience, focusing on symptoms of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Specifically, I will investigate underlying cognitive factors of syntactic difficulties manifested by children with DLD. I will test the project's hypotheses regarding the inflexibility of statistical learning of syntactic structures in DLD. To this end, I will examine the production and comprehension of relative clauses (RCs) in Italian- and Polish-speaking children with DLD. The RC is a subordinate clause that exhibits different syntactic structures in Italian and Polish. Therefore, the cross-linguistic study will provide a quantitative analysis of local linguistic elements that signify thematic role assignments in RCs and distinguish between Italian (IT) and Polish (PL). Additionally, I will analyze the global RC sentence structure, including length, complexity, and the distance related to syntactic movement. This linguistic analysis will further allow testing of the hypothesis that basic cognitive components and their interactions contribute to the errors typical for children with DLD. Specifically, based on linguistic analysis, I will test neuropsychological hypotheses that the following cognitive elements contribute to DLD deficits: i) executive control, triggered by the probabilistic properties of word/morpheme flow within the sentence; ii) performance in encoding rare linguistic elements, as reflected in inflectional suffixes; iii) working memory load, related to sentence length and syntactic movement. The achievement of the project's aims will impact the international research community by providing new insights into the cognitive aspects of language skills, particularly the development of specific grammatical-syntactic constructions. Finally, the results of the project will be relevant to clinicians in designing targeted, more effective therapeutic programs for children with DLD.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology cognitive neuroscience
- social sciences psychology psycholinguistics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
27100 Pavia
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.