Factors accounting for the ability of children with SLI to learn agreement morphemes in intervention.
The aim of this study was to uncover factors accounting for the ability of children with specific language impairment (SLI) to learn agreement morphemes in intervention. Twenty-five children with SLI who participated in a six-month intervention program focused on teaching third person singular -s or auxiliary is/are/was showed a wide range of use of the target morpheme after intervention. Regression analyses showed that age and two factors expected to be related to agreement--the use of noun plural -s and subject/verb constructions prior to intervention--significantly predicted progress in the acquisition of agreement morphemes. In contrast, the pretreatment use of morphemes hypothesized to be unrelated to agreement was not a significant predictor of progress. The results indicate that the ability of children with SLI to learn agreement morphemes relies on their prior ability to use noun plural and subject/verb constructions.
Pawłowska
Monika
M
Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, 500 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2038, USA. pawlowsm@purdue.edu
Leonard
Laurence B
LB
Camarata
Stephen M
SM
Brown
Barbara
B
Camarata
Mary N
MN
D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception; D013070:Speech Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D014706:Verbal Learning