Laurence B. Leonard

About

Professor Laurence B. Leonard is a Rachel E. Stark Distinguished Professor at Purdue University in the College of Liberal Arts. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, obtained in 1973. His primary interests include normal and disordered child language, with a focus on language development and language disorders in children. Professor Leonard has taught courses and seminars in normal and disordered language development and has served as a thesis and dissertation advisor to graduate students working in these areas. His research has included the early phonological, lexical, and morphosyntactic development of children with specific language impairment (SLI). He also studies SLI across different languages and conducts research on the effectiveness of language treatment procedures. His publications include articles, chapters in edited volumes, and a book, reflecting his contributions to the field of child language development and disorders.

Research topics

• Linguistics
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Nursing
• Family medicine
• Cognitive psychology
• Neuroscience
• Statistics
• Immunology

Selected publications

• Simulating the Acquisition of Verb Inflection in Typically Developing Children and Children With Developmental Language Disorder in English and Spanish

  Cognitive Science · 2021-03-01 · 39 citations

  articleOpen access

  Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have significant deficits in language ability that cannot be attributed to neurological damage, hearing impairment, or intellectual disability. The symptoms displayed by children with DLD differ across languages. In English, DLD is often marked by severe difficulties acquiring verb inflection. Such difficulties are less apparent in languages with rich verb morphology like Spanish and Italian. Here we show how these differential profiles can be…

  PublisherDOI

• Retrieval Practice and Word Learning in Children With Specific Language Impairment and Their Typically Developing Peers

  Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research · 2020 · 37 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Purpose In this article, we review the role of retrieval practice on the word learning and retention of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method Following a brief review of earlier findings on word learning in children with SLI and the assumptions behind retrieval practice, four experiments are described that compared novel words learned in a repeated spaced retrieval condition and those learned in either a repeated study condition or a repeated immediate retrieval condition. Pre…

  DOI

• A 200-Year History of the Study of Childhood Language Disorders of Unknown Origin: Changes in Terminology

  Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups · 2020 · 36 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Purpose The current “specific language impairment” and “developmental language disorder” discussion might lead to important changes in how we refer to children with language disorders of unknown origin. The field has seen other changes in terminology. This article reviews many of these changes. Method A literature review of previous clinical labels was conducted, and possible reasons for the changes in labels were identified. Results References to children with significant yet unexplained defici…

  DOI

• Moving towards accurate and early prediction of language delay with network science and machine learning approaches

  Scientific Reports · 2021-04-14 · 33 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Due to wide variability of typical language development, it has been historically difficult to distinguish typical and delayed trajectories of early language growth. Improving our understanding of factors that signal language disorder and delay has the potential to improve the lives of the millions with developmental language disorder (DLD). We develop predictive models of low language (LL) outcomes by analyzing parental report measures of early language skill using machine learning and network…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A multi-study examination of the role of repeated spaced retrieval in the word learning of children with developmental language disorder

  Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders · 2021-05-15 · 23 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Many children with developmental language disorders (DLD) have well-documented weaknesses in vocabulary. In recent years, investigators have explored the nature of these weaknesses through the use of novel word learning paradigms. These studies have begun to uncover specific areas of difficulty and have provided hints about possible intervention strategies that might help these children learn words more accurately and efficiently. Among the studies of this type are those that incorpo…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01DC004544

  NIH · $2.5M · 2006

• Communicative Disorders

  NIH · $6.1M · 1991–2027

• NIH Grant R01NS022395

  NIH · $174k · 1988

Frequent coauthors

• Patricia Deevy

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  76 shared

• S Ervin-Tripp

  74 shared

• Michael Garman

  74 shared

• L Bloom

  Wilfrid Laurier University

  74 shared

• Melissa Bowerman

  74 shared

• Martin D. S. Braine

  Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

  74 shared

• Elaine Clark

  74 shared

• Colin Garvey

  Stanford University

  73 shared

Awards & honors

• Rachel E. Stark Distinguished Professor

Similar researchers at Purdue University

• Alexander Francish-39
• Cheryl Cookyh-24
• James A. McCannh-20