Carol A Miller1, Patricia Deevy. 1. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802-3100, USA. cam47@psu.edu
Abstract
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To determine if structural priming can be demonstrated in young children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). RESEARCH DESIGN: A mixed-model design was used to compare children with SLI to two groups of typically developing (TD) children, and to compare priming conditions. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Eighteen children with SLI and 36 TD children (18 matched on age and 18 matched on MLU) participated. Children were asked to describe drawings compatible with both a transitive or an intransitive sentence structure, after being primed with one of the structures. RESULTS: All groups of children were more likely to produce transitive sentences when they had just heard and repeated a transitive prime. Children with SLI did not differ from the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: Children with SLI show similar priming effects to TD children. Priming has promise as a method for investigating production factors in typical and atypical language development.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To determine if structural priming can be demonstrated in young children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). RESEARCH DESIGN: A mixed-model design was used to compare children with SLI to two groups of typically developing (TD) children, and to compare priming conditions. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Eighteen children with SLI and 36 TD children (18 matched on age and 18 matched on MLU) participated. Children were asked to describe drawings compatible with both a transitive or an intransitive sentence structure, after being primed with one of the structures. RESULTS: All groups of children were more likely to produce transitive sentences when they had just heard and repeated a transitive prime. Children with SLI did not differ from the other groups. CONCLUSIONS:Children with SLI show similar priming effects to TD children. Priming has promise as a method for investigating production factors in typical and atypical language development.