title: Assessing the emergence of grammar in toddlers at risk for specific language impairment.
abstract: The purpose of this article is to identify areas of grammatical development that can be incorporated into risk-factor assessment models for toddlers between the ages of 2 and 3. A simple framework is presented for conceptualizing three early grammatical accomplishments: the acquisition of an initial verb lexicon, production of early sentence types, and the onset of tense marking. Strategies for using parent-report instruments and structure-specific language sampling to assess these areas in a time-efficient manner are provided.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communicative Disorders, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, USA. phadley@niu.edu
authors.forename: Pamela A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Hadley
mesh_terms: D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008037:Linguistics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013997:Time Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning