title: Conversations with children who are language impaired: asking questions.
abstract: Samples of conversational language were elicited with a standardized interview protocol from 24 children, aged 2:6 to 7:8, half with specific language impairment (SLI), half with normally developing language (LN), matched for language level. Samples were analyzed to determine whether there were associations between adult questioning and children's use of ellipsis. For the SLI children, but not the LN children, increased proportions of questions were significantly correlated to increased proportions of ellipsis. This finding has implications for the use of MLU measures in clinical and research practice.
authors.affiliation: School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Curtiss
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tallal
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D007807:Language Tests; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male