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Syntactic comprehension in children with expressive language impairment
1Centre of Audiology, University of Manchester.
The British Journal of Disorders of Communication
|August 1, 1990
Summary
Children with expressive language impairment show subtle syntactic comprehension deficits, unlike those with developmental dyspraxia. This impacts language development and requires further investigation into comprehension strategies.
Area of Science:
- Child language acquisition
- Developmental psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Expressive language impairment (ELI) can affect children's communication abilities.
- Developmental dyspraxia impacts speech sound production.
- Syntactic comprehension is crucial for language development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate syntactic comprehension in children with ELI and developmental dyspraxia.
- To compare comprehension abilities between these groups and controls.
- To identify specific deficits in syntactic decoding for children with ELI.
Main Methods:
- Assessed 4-6 year old children with ELI and developmental dyspraxia on syntactic comprehension tasks.
- Profiled expressive language for experimental groups.
- Included a control group for comparison.
Main Results:
- Children with ELI demonstrated subtle deficits in syntactic comprehension compared to controls.
- These deficits were detectable through syntactic decoding tasks.
- Children with developmental dyspraxia performed similarly to controls.
Conclusions:
- Apparent expressive syntax deficits in children may be linked to underlying comprehension difficulties.
- Syntactic decoding tasks can reveal subtle language impairments.
- Developmental dyspraxia does not appear to significantly affect syntactic comprehension in this age group.