Response patterns of pre-school-age children to the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test

This study was undertaken to describe the response patterns of 216 boys and girls between the ages of five-and-one-half and six-and-one-half years of age on grammatically matched receptive and expressive items of the NSST. The results showed no significant differences among the mean scores for three age levels or between the two sexes. However, the obtained means were substantially below those obtained on the NSST standardization sample. Item analysis suggested several inconsistencies between the ages of five-and-one-half and six-and-one-half years of age on gram-correct expressively but incorrect receptively.