title: Profiling relative clause constructions in children with specific language impairment.
abstract: This study highlights the importance of error analysis in providing a comprehensive profile of an individual's grammatical ability with regard to relative clause (RC) constructions. The aim was to identify error patterns in the production of RCs by English-speaking, school-aged children with specific language impairment (SLI) and to relate them to their level of competence with these structures. Children with SLI (mean age = 6;10, n = 32) and two control groups - a typically developing group matched for age (mean age = 6;11, n = 32) and a younger typically developing group (mean age = 4;9, n = 20), repeated sentences containing RCs that represented a range of syntactic roles. Data are presented on three distinct error patterns - the provision of simple sentences, obligatory relativizer omission and RC conversions. Each is related to the level of competence on RCs that each child has achieved.
authors: Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University College Cork , Cork , Ireland.
authors: Pauline
authors: P
authors: Frizelle
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Fletcher
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary