title: Grammatical morphology and the lexicon in children with specific language impairment.
abstract: We examined the use of grammatical morphology by preschool-age English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) as a function of their lexical diversity. Relative to a group of normally developing (ND) preschoolers, these children's use of finite-verb morphology logged behind expectations based on the number of different verbs they used. Noun-related morphology fell below expectations based on overall lexical diversity. Differences between the ND children and children with SLI were also seen for the slope of the increases in finite-verb morphology as a function of lexical diversity, with shallower slopes in the SLI data. The findings of this study add to existing evidence suggesting that a measure of finite grammatical-morphology use has promise as a clinical marker of SLI in English.
authors.affiliation: Audiology and Speech Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. xdxl@purdue.edu
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Leonard
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gerber
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male