Response latency and verbal complexity: stochastic models of individual differences in children with specific...

Within-subject statistical modeling techniques were employed to investigate individual differences in the extent to which two possible indicators of processing time predicted changes in utterance complexity during spontaneous discourse for 10 children ages 7;1 to 10;1 with specific language impairments (SLI) who differed in receptive language abilities. The two indicators of processing time that were modeled were response latency and the use of a specific discourse marker (Verbal Pause) that provided children with additional time to respond. Longer response latencies were not a strong predictor of increased utterance length for any of the children. However, results indicated that children with better receptive skills used substantially more verbal pauses than children with both expressive and receptive deficits and that the use of these pauses was a strong predictor of increased utterance length for children with better comprehension skills.