ABSTRACT
The usage-based theory considers that the morphosyntactic productions of children with SLI are particularly dependent on input frequency. When producing complex syntax, the language of these children is, therefore, predicted to have a lower variability and to contain fewer infrequent morphosyntactic markers than that of younger children matched on morphosyntactic abilities. Using a spontaneous language task, the current study compared the complexity of the morphological and structural productions of 20 children with SLI and 20 language-matched peers (matched on both morphosyntactic comprehension and mean length of utterance). As expected, results showed that although basic structures were produced in the same way in both groups, several complex forms (i.e. tenses such as Imperfect, Future or Conditional and Conjunctions) were less frequent in the productions of children with SLI. Finally, we attempted to highlight complex linguistic forms that could be good clinical markers for these children.
Subject(s)
Language Development Disorders/diagnosis , Language Therapy/methods , Language , Linguistics , Speech Production Measurement , Belgium , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Language Development Disorders/therapy , Male , Phonetics , SemanticsABSTRACT
PURPOSE: In this study, the authors assessed the hypothesis of a limitation in attentional allocation capacity as underlying poor sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment (SLI). METHOD: Fifteen children with SLI, 15 age-matched controls, and 15 grammar-matched controls participated in the study. Sixty sentences were presented in isolation, and 60 sentences were presented with a concurrent choice reaction time task in which colored stimuli randomly appeared at the center of the computer screen. RESULTS: Sentence comprehension was affected by the dual-task condition to a greater extent in children with SLI relative to age controls but not relative to grammatical controls. CONCLUSION: This study does not support limitations in attentional allocation capacity as representing a core deficit in SLI. Rather, the data show that these children show attentional allocation capacity comparable to that of younger children having similar language level, suggesting that SLI is characterized by a slowed development of both attentional and language domains.
