The overall purpose of this project is to improve the early identification of toddlers at-risk for Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The primary challenge for research in this area is the accurate differentiation of late-talking children who will demonstrate language normalization (i.e., late bloomers) from those children who will continue to show profiles consistent with a diagnosis of SLI. Although several variables have been identified as important factors in profiling """"""""risk"""""""" for SLI (cf. Olswang, Rodriguez, and Timler, 1998), an early grammatical indicator of SLI during the toddler years has yet to be a primary focus of investigation. This is rather surprising given that a primary clinical marker of SLI in the preschool years is the non- mastery of grammatical tense marking (Rice and Wexler, 1996). Previously, Hadley and her colleagues have identified an early grammatical indicator worthy of further exploration (Hadley, 1998; Hadley, Reed, and Hernandez, 1998). Specifically, a plateau in grammatical development for verb-phrase structures co- occuring with typical or even accelerated patterns of noun phrase growth appears to differentiate these two groups of toddlers. The current project has two specific aims: (a) to replicate the asynchronous pattern of grammatical development in a new sample of toddlers at-risk for SLI, and (b) to determine if differential patterns of syntactic growth are systematically related to language outcomes status.
| Hadley, Pamela A (2006) Assessing the emergence of grammar in toddlers at risk for specific language impairment. Semin Speech Lang 27:173-86 |
| Hadley, Pamela A; Holt, Janet K (2006) Individual differences in the onset of tense marking: a growth-curve analysis. J Speech Lang Hear Res 49:984-1000 |
