title: Processing Binding Relations in Specific Language Impairment.
abstract: This sentence processing experiment examined the abilities of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical language development (TD) to establish relations between pronouns or reflexives and their antecedents in real time.
  
  
  
  Twenty-two children with SLI and 24 age-matched children with TD (7;3-10;11 [years;months]) participated in a cross-modal picture priming experiment to determine whether they selectively activated the correct referent at the pronoun or reflexive in sentences. Triplets of auditory sentences, identical except for the presence of a pronoun, a reflexive, or a noun phrase along with a picture probe were used.
  
  
  
  The children with TD were slightly more accurate in their animacy judgments of pictures, but the groups exhibited the same reaction time (RT) pattern. Both groups were slower for sentences with pronouns than with reflexives or noun phrases. The children with SLI had longer RTs than their peers with TD.
  
  
  
  Children with SLI activated only the appropriate antecedent at the pronoun or reflexive, reflecting intact core knowledge of binding as was true for their TD peers. The overall slower RT for children with SLI suggests that any deficit may be the result of processing deficits, perhaps attributable to interference effects.
authors: The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
authors: Richard G
authors: RG
authors: Schwartz
authors: Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of Delaware, Newark.
authors: Arild
authors: A
authors: Hestvik
authors: The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkSpeech-Language-Hearing Science, Lehman College, Bronx, NY.
authors: Liat
authors: L
authors: Seiger-Gardner
authors: Speech-Language-Hearing Science, Lehman College, Bronx, NY.
authors: Diana
authors: D
authors: Almodovar
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007600:Judgment; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012044:Regression Analysis; D060865:Repetition Priming; D014796:Visual Perception