Delay versus deviance in the language acquisition of language-impaired children.
To investigate the issue of delay versus deviance in the language acquisition of language-impaired (LI) children, the order of acquisition of a set of linguistic structures and the relationship obtaining between one structure and another were examined in comprehension and production over a 5-year period in a group of LI and language-matched normal children. The results demonstrated a marked similarity between groups, both in the point at which mastery of individual structures was achieved and in the overall patterns of acquisition demonstrated. These data suggest that LI children are constructing grammars based on the same rules and principles as those of linguistically normal control subjects, and that their linguistic impairments may be principally processing, not representational, in nature.
Curtiss
S
S
Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles 90024-1543.
Katz
W
W
Tallal
P
P
D002675:Child, Preschool; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D008037:Linguistics; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012660:Semantics; D016019:Survival Analysis