Number morpheme acquisition in children within normal language development.
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.
Befi-Lopes
Debora Maria
DM
Departamento de Fisioterapia, Fonoaudiologia e Terapia Ocupacional da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo.
Rodrigues
Amalia
A
Puglisi
Marina Leite
ML
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008037:Linguistics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*