Overt Subject Pronoun Use in Switch-Reference Contexts in Child Spanish Developmental Language Disorder: A...

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) exhibit distinct patterns in subject expression compared to typically developing (TD) peers.
• Previous research indicates DLD children produce fewer overt subjects and TD children acquire subject expression constraints during adolescence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze probabilistic constraints on subject expression in Spanish-speaking children with and without DLD.
• To investigate differences in overt subject pronoun production related to switch reference contexts.
• To contribute to the grammatical profile of children with DLD and identify diagnostic markers.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of spontaneous speech data from 38 Mexican Spanish-speaking children (19 DLD, 19 TD).
• Collection and coding of finite verb instances for factors including tense-mood-aspect, switch reference, and person/number.
• Discriminant function analysis to assess diagnostic utility of overt pronoun use in switch reference contexts.

Main Results:

• Children with DLD produced fewer overt subject pronouns in switch reference contexts than TD children.
• A significant interaction between group (DLD vs. TD) and switch reference was observed.
• Overt pronoun use in switch reference contexts demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis.

Conclusions:

• Significant differences exist in overt subject rates and switch reference sensitivity between TD children and those with DLD.
• Switch reference serves as a potential diagnostic factor for identifying language disorders in Spanish-speaking children.
• Findings enhance understanding of morphosyntactic profiles in DLD and diagnostic tool development.