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The linguistic constraint on contraction in children with SLI
Kelly Rombough1, Rosalind Thornton2
1ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Australian Hearing Hub, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.
Journal of Communication Disorders
|June 26, 2018
Summary
Children with specific language impairment (SLI) correctly use verb BE contractions, similar to their typically developing peers. This suggests SLI does not affect their underlying grammatical knowledge in this area.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Language Acquisition
Background:
- Specific Language Impairment (SLI) affects language development in children.
- Understanding grammatical constraints in SLI is crucial for diagnosis and intervention.
- Verb BE contraction is a complex linguistic phenomenon with specific rules.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if children with SLI adhere to contraction rules with the verb BE.
- To examine SLI children's performance in ellipsis, yes/no questions, and embedded questions regarding verb BE contraction.
- To compare SLI children's grammatical knowledge with typically developing peers.
Main Methods:
- Elicited production methodology was employed.
- A total of 51 children participated: 17 with SLI, 17 language-matched controls, and 17 age-matched controls.
- Participants' ages ranged from 3;6 to 5;6 years.
Main Results:
- Children with SLI demonstrated no significant difference in verb BE contraction compared to control groups.
- Both SLI and control groups correctly contracted BE when permissible.
- Both groups appropriately avoided contraction in contexts where it is prohibited.
Conclusions:
- Children with SLI appear to possess the same underlying grammatical knowledge regarding verb BE contraction as typically developing children.
- Findings suggest that specific language impairment does not impede the acquisition of this particular grammatical constraint.
- This study contributes to understanding the linguistic capabilities of children with SLI.
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