TY - JOUR
T1 - Specific language impairment in french-speaking children
T2 - Beyond grammatical morphology
AU - Thordardottir, Elin T.
AU - Namazi, Mahchid
PY - 2007/6/1
Y1 - 2007/6/1
N2 - Purpose: Studies on specific language impairment (SLI) in French have identified specific aspects of morphosyntax as particularly vulnerable. However, a cohesive picture of relative strengths and weaknesses characterizing SLI in French has not been established. In light of normative data showing low morphological error rates in the spontaneous language of French-speaking preschoolers, the relative prominence of such errors in SLI in young children was questioned. Method: Spontaneous language samples were collected from 12 French-speaking preschool-age children with SLI, as well as 12 children with normal language development matched on age and 12 children with normal language development matched on mean length of utterance. Language samples were analyzed for length of utterance; lexical diversity and composition; diversity of grammatical morphology and morphological errors, including verb finiteness; subject omission; and object clitics. Results: Children with SLI scored lower than age-matched children on all of these measures but similarly to the mean length of utterance-matched controls. Errors in grammatical morphology were very infrequent in all groups, with no significant group differences. Conclusion: The results indicate that the spontaneous language of French-speaking children with SLI in the preschool age range is characterized primarily by a generalized language impairment and that morphological deficits do not stand out as an area of particular vulnerability, in contrast with the pattern found in English for this age group.
AB - Purpose: Studies on specific language impairment (SLI) in French have identified specific aspects of morphosyntax as particularly vulnerable. However, a cohesive picture of relative strengths and weaknesses characterizing SLI in French has not been established. In light of normative data showing low morphological error rates in the spontaneous language of French-speaking preschoolers, the relative prominence of such errors in SLI in young children was questioned. Method: Spontaneous language samples were collected from 12 French-speaking preschool-age children with SLI, as well as 12 children with normal language development matched on age and 12 children with normal language development matched on mean length of utterance. Language samples were analyzed for length of utterance; lexical diversity and composition; diversity of grammatical morphology and morphological errors, including verb finiteness; subject omission; and object clitics. Results: Children with SLI scored lower than age-matched children on all of these measures but similarly to the mean length of utterance-matched controls. Errors in grammatical morphology were very infrequent in all groups, with no significant group differences. Conclusion: The results indicate that the spontaneous language of French-speaking children with SLI in the preschool age range is characterized primarily by a generalized language impairment and that morphological deficits do not stand out as an area of particular vulnerability, in contrast with the pattern found in English for this age group.
KW - Children
KW - Cross-linguistic
KW - French
KW - Specific language impairment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34547439297&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1044/1092-4388(2007/049)
DO - 10.1044/1092-4388(2007/049)
M3 - Article
C2 - 17538110
AN - SCOPUS:34547439297
SN - 1092-4388
VL - 50
SP - 698
EP - 715
JO - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
JF - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
IS - 3
ER -