title: Three measures of language production for Cantonese-speaking school-age children in a story-retelling task.
abstract: Little is known about language development in school-age children in Asian countries. This research reports on 3 measures of language development in 100 Cantonese-speaking children age 5 to 9 years. Word scores, structure scores, and the mean length of communication units (MLCU) were derived from a story-retelling task. The structure score was significantly different for all, except the 8- and 9-year-old groups. The word score and MLCU were significantly different in groups separated by 2 or more years of age. All 3 measures were strongly and significantly correlated with age. The structure score and word score accounted for 64% and 5% of the variance in age, respectively. The order of development of the 6 grammatical structures (e.g., subordinate clauses) included in this study is also reported.
authors.affiliation: Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Hong Kong, China. amywong@hkusua.hku.hk
authors.forename: Anita M Y
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Cecilia W S
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Au
authors.forename: Stephanie F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Stokes
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D013068:Speech Production Measurement