Plural acquisition in children with specific language impairment
1Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.
Journal of Speech and Hearing Research
|December 1, 1993
Summary
Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show a developed plural system by age five. However, their pluralization skills are influenced by word frequency, unlike typically developing peers.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Developmental Psychology
- Speech-Language Pathology
Background:
- Specific Language Impairment (SLI) affects language development in children.
- Understanding the nuances of grammatical morpheme acquisition in SLI is crucial.
- Previous research indicates challenges in morphosyntactic skills for children with SLI.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the pluralization abilities of children with SLI.
- To compare the performance of children with SLI to age-matched and language-matched typically developing peers.
- To explore the impact of input frequency on pluralization skills in children with SLI.
Main Methods:
- Administered a plural elicitation task and a nominal compounding task.
- Included a group of children with SLI, an age-equivalent (CA) group, and a language-equivalent (MLU) group.
- Analyzed differences in performance across tasks between the groups.
Main Results:
- Significant differences were found between the CA and SLI groups.
- No significant differences were observed between the MLU and SLI groups.
- Children with SLI showed pluralization skills influenced by input frequency, unlike typically developing children.
Conclusions:
- By age five, children with SLI possess a productive and differentiated plural system.
- Input frequency significantly impacts pluralization skills in children with SLI.
- Explanations for the frequency effect include delayed rule independence, linguistic vulnerability, or a faulty lexicon.
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