Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Universal Screening for Prevention of Reading, Writing, and Math Disabilities in Spanish
Published on: July 18, 2020
Pro-nominal reference skills of second and fourth grade children with language impairment
Lizbeth H Finestack1, Marc E Fey, Hugh W Catts
1Department of Hearing and Speech, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., Kansas City, Kansas 66160-7605, USA. lfinestack@kumc.edu
Unlabelled:
Pro-nominal referencing was evaluated in a sample of 569 children comprising four diagnostic subgroups: typical language (TL), specific language impairment (SLI), nonspecific language impairment (NLI), and typical language with low nonverbal IQ (LNIQ). Participants generated oral narratives in second grade and again in fourth grade. The narratives of the females in the TL group included a significantly higher rate of pro-nominal references than the narratives of both the males in the TL group and the females in the NLI group. A higher percentage of complete pro-nominal references was found in the TL group compared to the SLI group. These findings suggest that pro-nominal referencing measures are not sensitive enough to differentiate school-aged children with typical language development from those with language impairment.
Learning Outcomes:
The reader will: (1) become familiar with narrative language measures and (2) learn how groups of children with varying language and cognitive profiles perform on measures of referential cohesion.
Related Concept Videos
Language Development
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
Learning Disabilities
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a...
Language and Cognition
Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development
Intellectual Disability

