title: Number morpheme acquisition in children within normal language development.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  studies about Brazilian Portuguese number morpheme acquisition and its productive usage have indicated controversial results.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  to verify the comprehension and production of singular and plural markers in children within normal language development.
  
  
  METHODS
  participants were 64 children ranging in age from 3:0 to 6:11 years. In the comprehension test, children were encouraged to point to the correctly inflected noun picture, among three foils. In the production test, they had to name each picture with the correctly inflected article and noun.
  
  
  RESULTS
  there was an increase of correct answers with age. The production of the plural form received the lower scores, but presented a significant enhancement from 3:0 to 5:0 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  this ability improved with development and was considered productive after 5:0.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisioterapia, Fonoaudiologia e Terapia Ocupacional da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo.
authors.forename: Debora Maria
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Befi-Lopes
authors.forename: Amalia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: Marina Leite
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Puglisi
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008037:Linguistics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*