Structural priming in children with and without specific language impairment.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if structural priming can be demonstrated in young children with and without specific language impairment (SLI).


METHODS
A mixed-model design was used to compare children with SLI to two groups of typically developing (TD) children, and to compare priming conditions.


METHODS
Eighteen children with SLI and 36 TD children (18 matched on age and 18 matched on MLU) participated. Children were asked to describe drawings compatible with both a transitive or an intransitive sentence structure, after being primed with one of the structures.


RESULTS
All groups of children were more likely to produce transitive sentences when they had just heard and repeated a transitive prime. Children with SLI did not differ from the other groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Children with SLI show similar priming effects to TD children. Priming has promise as a method for investigating production factors in typical and atypical language development.
Miller
Carol A
CA
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802-3100, USA. cam47@psu.edu
Deevy
Patricia
P
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014705:Verbal Behavior