title: Analogical reasoning in children with specific language impairment.
abstract: Usage-based theory considers analogical reasoning as a cognitive process required in language development. We hypothesized that difficulties with analogical reasoning could hinder the abstraction of construction schemas, thus slowing down morphosyntactic development for children with specific language impairment (SLI). We also hypothesized, in accordance with usage-based theory, that the same analogy mechanism is shared by linguistic and non-linguistic processes. The current study investigated the performance of 15 children with SLI in comparison with age-matched peers on a non-linguistic analogical reasoning task. Our experimental setting targeted two prerequisites of analogical reasoning: structural alignment and the discovery of relational similarity in comparison with perceptual similarity. The results obtained are compatible with our hypotheses according to which children with SLI would encounter problems building more abstract construction schemas, related to difficulties with analogical reasoning. The study also shows that children with SLI have specific cognitive difficulties regardless of their linguistic development.
authors.affiliation: University of Liège, Department of Psychology: Cognition and Behaviour, Liège, Belgium. Sandrine.Leroy@ulg.ac.be
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leroy
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Parisse
authors.forename: Christelle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maillart
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001245:Association Learning; D002648:Child; D003210:Concept Formation; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012660:Semantics