The relation of utterance length to grammatical complexity in normal and language-disordered groups.
| Number | 1221 |
|---|---|
| Year | 1991 |
| Drawer | 23 |
| Entry Date | 08/29/2001 |
| Authors | Scarborough, H.S. , Rescorla, L., Tager-Flusberg, H., Fowler, A.E. & Sudhater, V. |
| Contact | |
| Publication | Applied Pscyholinguistics 12, 23-45. |
| url | http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL1221.pdf |
| Abstract | Mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes was examined as a predictor of the grammatical complexity of natural language corpora of normally developing preschoolers (N = 30) & of preschoolers & children with language delay (N = 20), fragile X syndrome (N = 19), Down's syndrome (N = 5), & autism (N = 6). The index of productive syntax (IPS) was used as a measure of syntactic & morphological proficiency. Despite differences in age & diagnosis, some patterns of results were similar across all language-disordered groups. MLU appears to overestimate grammatical complexity, but to different degrees for different groups. It is concluded that beyond the earliest stages of language development, MLU alone does not provide a reliable estimate of the child's production of specific syntactic & morphological forms as assessed by the IPS. |
| Notes |
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