The omission of subject arguments in children with specific language impairment

Ten children with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared to two groups of normally developing children for the production of grammatical subjects in sentences of varying length and argument structure complexity. The normal controls consisted of a group of younger children matched for mean length of utterance (MLU) and a group matched for chronological age. The participants were asked to produce sentences of varied argument structure complexity using a story completion task. The results indicated that both the children with SLI and the MLU controls omitted more subject arguments in the ditransitive sentences than in sentences with intransitive and ditransitive verbs. In addition, more children with SLI omitted subject arguments as linguistic complexity increased. This effect was not found for the normal age control children who never omitted subjects, regardless of increases in argument structure complexity. These results support the notion that grammatical errors in both children with SLI and their younger, normal counterparts may be due to problems with processing complex linguistic information rather than with limitations in linguistic knowledge.     

The impact of lexical frequency on sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment

Children with SLI generally exhibit poor sentence comprehension skills. We examined the specific impact of grammatical complexity and lexical frequency on comprehension performance, yielding contrasting results. The present study sheds new light on sentence comprehension in children with SLI by investigating a linguistic factor which has attracted little research interest: the impact of the lexical frequency of known words on sentence comprehension. We also examined the impact of grammatical complexity and sentence length by independently varying these two factors. Fifteen children with SLI, 15 age- and IQ-matched controls, and 15 controls matched on lexical and grammatical skills, performed sentence comprehension tasks in which three linguistic factors were manipulated: lexical frequency (sentences containing words of either low or high lexical frequency), grammatical complexity (sentence containing either a subject relative clause or an object relative clause) and sentence length (either short or long sentences). Results indicated that children with SLI performed more poorly overall compared to age- and IQ-matched children and to lexical and morphosyntactic age-matched children. However, their performance was not more affected by either sentence length or clause type than that of control children. Only lexical frequency affected sentence comprehension to a greater extent in children with SLI relative to the control groups, revealing that SLI children's sentence comprehension abilities are particularly affected by the presence of low-frequency but familiar words.     

Grammaticality and complexity of sentences in monolingual Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment

This study examined grammaticality and complexity of sentences in monolingual Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). A group of SLI children (n = 13), mean age 6, was compared to a control group (CCG) matched by age (n = 11), and a younger control group (LCG) with similar linguistic development (n = 13). Grammaticality and complexity of sentences were analysed including identification and counting of: a) simple and complex sentences, b) grammatical and ungrammatical sentences, and c) types of grammatical errors. SLI children were found to be more ungrammatical than CCG in both simple and complex sentences. Considering the number of errors in all sentences produced, SLI children commit more errors than both control groups. Complexity of sentences did not show statistical differences among groups. Future research should explore in further detail the types of errors made by monolingual Spanish-speaking SLI children.     

Book review

The present investigation addresses mazes in Swedish pre-school children with specific language impairment (SLI). Spontaneous speech samples from 10 Swedish children were collected and analysed with respect to amount of mazes and their distributional patterns. The subjects consisted of five children with SLI and five MLU (mean length of utterance) matched controls with normal grammatical development but with a phonological impairment. Mazes were classified as pauses, repetitions and revisions. The children with SLI were found to have significantly more mazes, in particular repetitions and pauses, than the controls. The repetitions were significantly more often of part-word length in the children with SLI compared to the control group. Finally the repetitions of the children with SLI tended to affect lexical and function words equally, whereas they affected mainly function words in the controls. The results imply that an analysis of mazes could supplement traditional language testing of children with SLI, and increase our understanding of their speech processing.     

The use of subject–verb agreement and verb argument structure in monolingual and bilingual children with specific language impairment

This study investigates the use of subject–verb agreement and verb argument structure in the spoken Dutch of monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) and bilingual Frisian–Dutch children with SLI. Both SLI groups appeared to be less efficient in their use of subject–verb agreement and verb argument structure than the control group (consisting of monolingual typically developing Dutch children matched on mean length of utterance in morphemes) in that they showed significantly more agreement errors as well as a relation between verb agreement structure complexity and omission, a relation that the typically developing children failed to show. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the monolingual and the bilingual SLI group. These findings indicate that subject–verb agreement and verb argument structure are both affected in SLI, but not more severely in bilinguals than in monolinguals.     

Verb argument structure weakness in specific language impairment in relation to age and utterance length

In spite of the complexity of verb argument structure, argument structure errors are infrequent in the speech of children with specific language impairment (SLI). The study examined the spontaneous argument structure use of school-age children with SLI and with normal language (NL) ( n =100). The groups did not differ substantially in frequency of argument structure errors, particularly when pragmatic context was considered. However, children with SLI used significantly fewer argument types, argument structure types and verb alternations than agematched children with NL. Further, significant differences between children with SLI and mean length of utterance-matched controls were found involving the use of three-place argument structures. The results show that children with SLI demonstrate mostly correct, but less sophisticated, verb argument structure use than NL peers, and that the difference is not merely attributable to production limitations such as utterance length. The possibility of incomplete argument structure representation is suggested.     

Verb argument structure weakness in specific language impairment in relation to age and utterance length

In spite of the complexity of verb argument structure, argument structure errors are infrequent in the speech of children with specific language impairment (SLI). The study examined the spontaneous argument structure use of school-age children with SLI and with normal language (NL) (n = 100). The groups did not differ substantially in frequency of argument structure errors, particularly when pragmatic context was considered. However, children with SLI used significantly fewer argument types, argument structure types and verb alternations than age-matched children with NL. Further, significant differences between children with SLI and mean length of utterance-matched controls were found involving the use of three-place argument structures. The results show that children with SLI demonstrate mostly correct, but less sophisticated, verb argument structure use than NL peers, and that the difference is not merely attributable to production limitations such as utterance length. The possibility of incomplete argument structure representation is suggested.     

Discourse—sentence interaction in the speech of language-disordered and normal children

The effects of linguistic complexity were examined on children's story discourse. Four groups of 15 subjects each were used: (a) language-disordered; (b) chronologically age matched with normal language abilities; (c) language-age matched; and (d) language-age matched with articulatory errors. The experimental task was sentence production in a story context. Phonological complexity (syllable length of words) was varied. Errors simplified phonological, syntactic and story structures. Older normals exhibited the fewest phonological errors and the greatest mean-length complexity for the sentences produced. The language-disordered children made more phonological errors than the younger normals, although they did not differ from the younger normals in the mean-length sentence complexity. No differences occurred in the number of phonological errors or mean-length sentence complexity between the language-age-matched groups, ones with and without articulatory errors. All four groups exhibited similar story structure. The consistent effects of phonological complexity during story production lends support for a limited processing capacity explanation of children's language disorders.     

Production of infinitival complements by children with specific language impairment

The purpose of this study was to explore the production of infinitival complements by children with specific language impairment (SLI) as compared with mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched children in an effort to clarify inconsistencies in the literature. Spontaneous language samples were analysed for infinitival complements (reduced infinitives and true infinitives). Participants included children with SLI (n?=?19; 5;2-7;10) and children with typical language (n?=?19; MLU; 3;0-5;9). There was no group difference in the number of infinitival complements and the number of different complement-taking verbs. However, the SLI group produced more true infinitives than the MLU group. The SLI group was less accurate than the MLU group on inclusion of obligatory infinitival to, with 80.21% accuracy (SD = 29.42) and 99.81% accuracy (SD = 0.85), respectively. As a group, children with SLI did not have problems with the clausal structure of infinitives. However, they had difficulty with the specific grammatical requirement of infinitival clauses, that is, the inclusion of the infinitival marker.     

Relative clauses: evidence of continued linguistic vulnerability in children with specific language impairment

It is hypothesized that children with specific language impairment (SLI) will have difficulties in the acquisition of complex syntactic structures. The studies reported provide evidence of linguistic vulnerability at the level of formulation of complex syntactic structures, specifically relative clauses, in three children with SLI participating in a longitudinal familial case study. In language samples, the proband omitted obligatory relative markers in subject relative clauses and made errors in selecting relative markers in object relative clauses. Two other children in the family, identified as SLI, evidenced omissions of obligatory subject relative markers in language sample data and elicited data. Of the five children in the family with a negative clinical history, omission of subject relative markers in language sample and elicited data was observed in only one child. The findings are consistent with Leonard's functional category deficits account of the grammatical limitations of children with SLI.     

The use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure in monolingual and bilingual children with specific language impairment

This study investigates the use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure in the spoken Dutch of monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) and bilingual Frisian-Dutch children with SLI. Both SLI groups appeared to be less efficient in their use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure than the control group (consisting of monolingual typically developing Dutch children matched on mean length of utterance in morphemes) in that they showed significantly more agreement errors as well as a relation between verb agreement structure complexity and omission, a relation that the typically developing children failed to show. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the monolingual and the bilingual SLI group. These findings indicate that subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure are both affected in SLI, but not more severely in bilinguals than in monolinguals.     

Linguistic and pragmatic aspects of narration in Finnish typically developing children and children with specific language impairment

This study investigates narratives of Finnish children with specific language impairment (SLI) from linguistic and pragmatic perspectives, in order to get a comprehensive overview of these children’s narrative abilities. Nineteen children with SLI (mean age 6;1 years) and 19 typically developing age-matched children participated in the study. Their picture-elicited narrations were analysed for linguistic productivity and complexity, grammatical and referential accuracy, event content, the use of mental state expressions and narrative comprehension. Children with SLI showed difficulties in every aspect of narration in comparison to their peers. Only one measure of productivity, the number of communication units, did not reach statistical significance. Not only was linguistic structure fragile but also pragmatic aspects of storytelling (referencing, event content, mental state expressions and inferencing) were demanding for children with SLI. Results suggest that pragmatic aspects of narration should be taken into account more often when assessing narrative abilities of children with SLI.     

Phonology and syntax in French children with SLI: a longitudinal study

Maillart and Parisse found out that French children with specific language impairment (SLI) presented strong difficulties in phonology when compared with normally-developing children matched by MLU (NLD). Some of the youngest children from this study were followed to provide developmental information about their language deficit. Children were tested again in the same way as before (free spontaneous production) and matched by MLU against other NLD children. The previous phonological analysis was extended to include syntax as well as phonology. Percentage of words correct was computed for both phonology and syntax. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed with children's age as covariate. Results showed a significant difference between SLI and NLD children for phonology but not for syntax. There was a trend that showed that the difference between SLI and NLD children tended to increase with age. The same analysis was performed separately for 9 frequent syntactic categories for phonology and for syntax. A significant difference was found for prepositions, nouns, subject pronouns, and verbs in phonology. Effects were found for determiners and prepositions in syntax. As well as confirming the importance of phonological difficulties in SLI, our results call for a developmental theory of phonological and syntactic deficits in SLI, where differences between SLI and NLD grow with age and where there is a timing difference between phonology (earlier) and syntax (later).     

Phonology and syntax in French children with SLI: A longitudinal study

Maillart and Parisse found out that French children with specific language impairment (SLI) presented strong difficulties in phonology when compared with normally‐developing children matched by MLU (NLD). Some of the youngest children from this study were followed to provide developmental information about their language deficit. Children were tested again in the same way as before (free spontaneous production) and matched by MLU against other NLD children. The previous phonological analysis was extended to include syntax as well as phonology. Percentage of words correct was computed for both phonology and syntax. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed with children's age as covariate. Results showed a significant difference between SLI and NLD children for phonology but not for syntax. There was a trend that showed that the difference between SLI and NLD children tended to increase with age. The same analysis was performed separately for 9 frequent syntactic categories for phonology and for syntax. A significant difference was found for prepositions, nouns, subject pronouns, and verbs in phonology. Effects were found for determiners and prepositions in syntax. As well as confirming the importance of phonological difficulties in SLI, our results call for a developmental theory of phonological and syntactic deficits in SLI, where differences between SLI and NLD grow with age and where there is a timing difference between phonology (earlier) and syntax (later).     

Phonotactic probability and past tense use by children with specific language impairment and their typically developing peers

A group of preschool‐aged children with specific language impairment (SLI), a group of typically developing children matched for age (TD‐A), and a group of younger typically developing children matched for mean length of utterance (TD‐MLU) were presented with novel verbs in contexts that required them to inflect with past tense –ed. The novel verbs differed in their phonotactic probabilities. The children with SLI were less likely than the other two groups to produce the novel verbs with –ed. Furthermore, they were less likely to use –ed with novel verbs of low phonotactic probability than those of high probability; this difference was not seen in the other two groups of children. It appears that the phonotactic composition of verbs is one factor that can contribute to the variability of past tense use by children with SLI.     

The production of novel root compounds in children with specific language impairment

This study examined ten children with specific language impairment (SLI), 16 normally developing children, and ten adults for the production of novel root compounds. The participants were asked to invent names for pictures of 24 pairs of contrasting, novel objects. For half of the pictures, the context supported a grammatical novel root compound, 16 contexts supported only an ungrammatical compound, and eight contexts supported a marginally grammatical compound. All participants used novel root compounds in grammatical contexts and relatively few compounds in ungrammatical contexts. The children with SLI used the information presented in the experimental probes less frequently than the normal controls. In addition, the children with SLI made more word-order errors in their production of novel compounds. However, they were as likely as their normal counterparts to resist the use of regular plural markers within compounds. The results of this study support a difficulty associated with processing linguistic information on the part of the children with SLI.     

The production of novel root compounds in children with specific language impairment

This study examined ten children with specific language impairment (SLI), 16 normally developing children, and ten adults for the production of novel root compounds. The participants were asked to invent names for pictures of 24 pairs of contrasting, novel objects. For half of the pictures, the context supported a grammatical novel root compound, 16 contexts supported only an ungrammatical compound, and eight contexts supported a marginally grammatical compound. All participants used novel root compounds in grammatical contexts and relatively few compounds in ungrammatical contexts. The children with SLI used the information presented in the experimental probes less frequently than the normal controls. In addition, the children with SLI made more word‐order errors in their production of novel compounds. However, they were as likely as their normal counterparts to resist the use of regular plural markers within compounds. The results of this study support a difficulty associated with processing linguistic information on the part of the children with SLI.     

Normal and language-impaired children's use of reference: syntactic versus pragmatic processing

The present study investigates children's syntactic and pragmatic processing when specifying referents presented in short video clips. Within Relevance theory, the assumption of 'optimal relevance' implies that utterances are intended to involve the least processing effort on the part of the listener. In the present context, lexically specified NPs are assumed to be more in line with optimal relevance than pronouns. Subjects were 48 normally developing children aged 3;4-8;10 and 30 SLI children aged 5;1-8;9, divided into a low and a normal MLU group. Children's responses were coded according to levels of pragmatic processing and syntactic positions. Normally developing children's referent specifications were found to be increasingly relevant with increasing age. Differences between SLI and normal children were only found for the low MLU group with SLI who used fewer pronouns than the younger children, thereby showing that syntactic limitations alone cannot account for children's specification of referents.     

Children with specific language impairment: The effect of argument-structure complexity on auditory sentence comprehension

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) demonstrate consistent comprehension problems. The present study investigated whether these problems are driven primarily by structural complexity or length. A picture-sentence matching task was presented to 30 children: (1) 10 children with SLI, (2) 10 comprehension-matched children with typical language development (TLD) and (3) 10 children with TLD matched for chronological age. Argument-structure complexity was manipulated independently of length, which was also independently varied. Results showed that argument-structure complexity had a greater influence on comprehension in children with SLI than in the comparison groups, with transitive sentences eliciting more errors than intransitive ones. This effect was not dependent on sentence length, which did not appear to affect the comprehension level. The results support the view that comprehension problems in children with SLI are principally related to the structural complexity of the sentence rather than the amount of material to be processed.     

Verbal inflection, articles and object clitics in Italian specific language impairment

Morphosyntactic skills in spontaneous and elicited production of a 7-year-old boy with specific language impairment (SLI) were examined and compared to those of younger, mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched, typically-developing children. This study focused on inflectional phrase structures as well as complex constructions in order to investigate hypotheses which suggest verbal inflection is a key deficit underlying SLI. It analysed the most affected morphemes in Italian: articles and direct and indirect object clitics. A deficit was found in verbal inflection as well as in articles and object clitics. The difficulties with verbal inflection found were expected given the child's MLU. Problems with articles and clitics were unexpected for MLU, presenting a challenge for hypotheses that focus on verbal inflection.