Effect of implicit and explicit "rule" presentation on bound-morpheme generalization in specific language impairment.
This study addressed whether generalization of a trained bound morpheme to untrained vocabulary stems differs between children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with normal language (NL) under two controlled instructional conditions. Twenty-five children with NL and 25 children with SLI matched for age served as subjects. Contrasts between affixed and unaffixed words highlighted the affixation "rule" in the "implicit-rule" condition. The "rule" was verbalized by the trainer in the "explicit-rule" condition. Bimodal generalization results occurred in both subject groups, indicating that generalization was not incremental. Chi-square analyses suggested that the SLI group generalized the bound morpheme less often than the NL group under the explicit-rule training condition. The findings add to those that indicate children with SLI have a unique language-learning style, and suggest that the explicit presentation of metalinguistic information during training may be detrimental to bound-morpheme generalization by preschool-age children with SLI.
Swisher
L
L
Child Language Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.
Restrepo
M A
MA
Plante
E
E
Lowell
S
S
D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007804:Language Development; D007806:Language Disorders; D014706:Verbal Learning