Assessing the emergence of grammar in toddlers at risk for specific language impairment
1Department of Communicative Disorders, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, USA. phadley@niu.edu
Seminars in Speech and Language
|August 31, 2006
Abstract:
The purpose of this article is to identify areas of grammatical development that can be incorporated into risk-factor assessment models for toddlers between the ages of 2 and 3. A simple framework is presented for conceptualizing three early grammatical accomplishments: the acquisition of an initial verb lexicon, production of early sentence types, and the onset of tense marking. Strategies for using parent-report instruments and structure-specific language sampling to assess these areas in a time-efficient manner are provided.
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