Erratum to "Growth of Complex Syntax: Coordinate and Subordinate Clause Use in Elementary School-Aged Children"

This abstract reflects the changes in sample size from N = 196 children to N = 200 children and the resultant change in statistical analyses.

The analytic sample included 200 children with typical language development, who ranged in age from 5;0 (years;months) to 10;11 (female = 103; male = 97). Fifty-utterance conversational language samples were examined for use of coordinate and subordinate clauses.

Results of simple linear regression analyses indicated that the production of coordinate and subordinate clauses could be predicted from age. The proportion of utterances that included both a coordinate clause and a subordinate clause increased by 0.10% for every month increase in age (p = .028) and accounted for 17.2% of the data. The proportion of utterances that only included a coordinate clause did not significantly change with age (p = .38) and accounted for 32.6% of the data. The proportion of utterances that included only a subordinate clause decreased by 0.10% for every month increase in age (p = .026) and accounted for 48.9% of the data.

This study indicated that as children's age increased, they used more utterances that included both a coordinate and subordinate clause. Although use of utterances containing only a subordinate clause decreased, the proportion of those utterances accounted for nearly half of the data, across all ages of children. These results were obtained from 50-utterance language samples, further supporting use of language sampling to develop intervention goals and monitor progress in therapy.