CISLL Publications
Alternative Tense and Agreement Morpheme Measures for Assessing Grammatical Deficits During the Preschool Period
Author ORCID Identifier
Allison Gladfelter: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2573-2035
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Abstract
Purpose
Hadley and Short (2005) developed a set of measures designed to assess the emerging diversity and productivity of tense and agreement (T/A) morpheme use by two-year-olds. We extend two of these measures to the preschool years to evaluate their utility in distinguishing children with specific language impairment (SLI) from their typically developing (TD) peers.
Method
Spontaneous speech samples from 55 children (25 children with SLI, 30 TD children) at two different age levels (4;0–4;6, 5;0–5;6) were analyzed, using a traditional T/A morphology composite that assessed accuracy, and the Hadley and Short measures of Tense Marker Total (assessing diversity of T/A morpheme use) and Productivity Score (assessing productivity of major T/A categories).
Results
All three measures showed acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity. In addition, similar differences in levels of productivity across T/A categories were seen in the TD and SLI groups.
Conclusions
The Tense Marker Total and Productivity Score measures seem to have considerable utility for preschool-aged children, by providing information about specific T/A morphemes and major T/A categories that are not distinguished using the traditional composite measure. The findings are discussed within the framework of the Gradual Morphosyntactic Learning account.
First Page
542
Last Page
552
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2012/12-0100)
Publication Date
4-1-2013
Department
Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literature| School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders
Special Interest Group
Diversity and Language Processing, Learning Within the Disciplines and Across the Lifespan
Recommended Citation
Gladfelter, Allison and Leonard, Laurence B., "Alternative Tense and Agreement Morpheme Measures for Assessing Grammatical Deficits During the Preschool Period" (2013). CISLL Publications. 8.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/ctrcisll-publications/8
Sponsorship
Research Grant R01 DC00458 from the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health
