title: Factors accounting for the ability of children with SLI to learn agreement morphemes in intervention.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, 500 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2038, USA. pawlowsm@purdue.edu
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pawłowska
authors.forename: Laurence B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Leonard
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Camarata
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Mary N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Camarata
mesh_terms: 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