Inappropriate word extensions in the speech of young language-disordered children

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of inappropriate word extensions in the spontaneous speech of young language-disordered children, and how these extensions should be characterized. Inappropriate word extensions were identified and tested, first in a production task and then in a comprehension task for nine language-disordered children (age 2:8 to 3:4). Results indicated that the percentage of inappropriate word extensions seen in the speech of these children was comparable to that seen in normal children at the same level of linguistic development. As with normal children, these inappropriate word extensions reflected varying levels of lexical knowledge. The findings of this study are discussed in terms of their clinical applicability for lexical training with language-disordered children.