The production of direct object clitics in pre-school- and primary school-aged children with specific language impairments.
Third-person direct object (DO) clitic pronoun production is examined through an elicited production method in pre-school- and primary school-aged groups of Italian children with specific language impairment (SLI) to establish whether there is an improvement from age 5 years to age 7 years and whether there are qualitative differences in the two groups' responses. It was found that 5- and 7-year-old Italian children with SLI produce fewer third-person DO clitics than same-age peers. The kind of responses they provide changes: at 5 years, children with SLI tend to omit clitics, while at 7 years, they use a full noun. Production of third-person DO clitics is a persistent challenge for children with SLI and is confirmed to be a good clinical marker both at 5 and 7 years of age.
a Departimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca , Milano , Italy.
Maria Teresa
MT
Guasti
b ENT, Primary Care Department, ASL Modena , Modena , Italy.
Silvia
S
Palma
c Dipartimento di Medicina Diagnostica, Clinica e di Sanità Pubblica, Università di Modena and Reggio Emilia , Modena , Italy.
Elisabetta
E
Genovese
d NPIA (Neuropsichiatria infantile), ASL Modena , Modena , Italy.
Paolo
P
Stagi
d NPIA (Neuropsichiatria infantile), ASL Modena , Modena , Italy.
Gabriella
G
Saladini
a Departimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca , Milano , Italy.
Fabrizio
F
Arosio
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D007802:Language; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D012574:Schools; D012660:Semantics
Clinical marker; Italian; clitic pronouns; specific language impairment