title: Pronoun assessment: a free speech technique.
abstract: A study of the free speech pronoun usage of 15 normal and 15 language-delayed children showed that it is possible to distinguish between children at five different levels of language development by considering linguistically relevant pronoun properties. The discriminating measure considered the frequency of pronoun types as a percentage of the child's total utterances. It is suggested that eliciting child utterances in a free play situation with the principal caregiver provides a good language sample and has potential as a diagnostic method.
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008722:Methods; D013060:Speech; D014481:United States