3/22/2015

ASSESSING
MORPHO-SYNTACTIC
DEVELOPMENT

Adapted by Nicky Fanning and Catherine Linnett-Young

for 2015
Material originally prepared by Chris Brebner
SPTH2901

Essential readings

Kaderavek, J. (2011)
Language Disorders in Children: Fundamental Concepts of Assessment and
Intervention. Pearson. Chapter 2 Assessment of language disorders.

Paul, R. & Norbury, C. (2011)

Language Disorders from Infancy through Adolescence. 4 th edition. Chapter 8
Assessment of developing language. Missouri: Elsevier Mosby. (Chapter from
2nd edition available on e reserve).

Recommended readings

http://www4.uwm.edu/chs/faculty_staff/upload/Heilmann-
Perspectives-2010.pdf

Owens R.E. (2004)

Language Disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention.
4th edition. Pearson. Chapter 7 Analysing a language sample at utterance
level, p.p. 172-211 (Chapters 5-7 in 5th edition).

LANGUAGE FORM

syntax
morphology
phonology

Today we are focusing on assessment of syntax and

morphology

1
 3/22/2015

FORMAL ASSESSMENTS

There are formal tests and subtests of formal tests which assess
syntax and morphology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmMDB545eAs
(from 4:39 minutes for a demonstration of the word structure
subtest of the CELF- P2)

However we need more than just formal test results

Language sampling
need to be able to analyse what a child is saying
not all the information about the childs language ability may be
available from a sample even if it is representative of the childs everyday
language.
understand normal development to diagnose abnormal development
Example of language sampling-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqxrWdFhHds

WHAT IS A MORPHEME?
A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit
in a language. In other words, it is the smallest
meaningful unit of a language.

Examples of morphemes?

DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE OF MORPHEMES

(BROWN 1973)
KNOWN AS BROWNS MORPHEMES

Present progressive -ing

Prepositions in / on
Plural -s
Irregular past tense
Possessive
Copula uncontractible
Articles
Regular past tense
3rd person singular regular present tense -s
3rd person singular irregular present tense has
Auxiliary uncontractible
Copula contractible
Auxiliary contractible

2
 3/22/2015

DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE OF MORPHEMES

(BROWN 1973)
Morpheme Age range
(months)

Present progressive -ing 19-28

Prepositions in / on 27-30
Plural -s 24-33
Irregular past tense 25-46
Possessive s 26-40
Copula uncontractible 27-39
Articles 28-46
Regular past tense 26-48
3rd person singular regular present tense -s 26-46
3rd person singular irregular present tense has 28-50
Auxiliary uncontractible 29-48
Copula contractible 29-49
Auxiliary contractible 30-50

INFORMATION GAINED
FROM A LANGUAGE SAMPLE

Form: syntax and morphology

Qualitative (the forms used and not used)

Quantitative ( Mean Length of Utterance MLU)

QUANTITATIVE MEASURES OF
FORM
Mean length of utterance (MLU)
words
morphemes
Mean syntactic length
C-units
T-units
Density of sentence forms (noun phrase, verb
phrase, embedding and conjoining)

3
 3/22/2015

MLU

Good measure of language complexity with young

children (up to 4.0)
Useful measure to consider with other assessment
information

BUT

Not all language disorders are characterised by

deficits in MLU

PRACTICAL EXERCISE
Look at the handouts and the language sample
provided

In small groups (minimum 6 people please!)

calculate MLU in morphemes and in words

EXTRA PRACTICE

Another MLU calculation exercise will be available on

FLO

Calculate MLU in words and morphemes

Answers will also be there so you can check

4
 3/22/2015

What is language impairment?

What is SLI?
What is language disorder?

DIAGNOSIS - PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

Verbal - non-verbal gap

Verbal IQ significantly lower

language disorder

Both low
intellectual disability

SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT

Non-verbal IQ within normal range

Verbal IQ minimum of 6-12 months less

5
 3/22/2015

MEAN SYNTACTIC LENGTH

Mean length in words of all utterances of 2+ words

eliminates 1 word answers

research suggests correlates better with age than MLU

(Klee & Fitzgerald, 1985)

INTRA-CLAUSAL AND CLAUSAL ANALYSIS

In particular, we look at:

noun phrase
verb phrase
sentence types
embedding and conjunction

NOUN PHRASES

Children with language impairment use simpler

noun phrases
Pronouns a particular area of difficulty

Assess for elements of the noun phrase

Increase in length and complexity in later

childhood and adolescence

6
 3/22/2015

ELEMENTS OF
THE NOUN PHRASE

Compulsory the Noun (or pronoun)

Optional elements -
+ Determiner
+ Adjective
+ Post-noun modifier

ELEMENTS OF THE VERB PHRASE

Compulsory the lexical verb

Compulsory the auxiliary node (even if empty)

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have

difficulties with verb morphology, particularly the
auxiliary components

ELEMENTS OF THE VERB PHRASE

Verb morphology difficult for children with SLI
We assess verb phrase construction (particularly with 3;6
- 6;0 year old children)

Look for:
- level of development
- range of semantic concepts
- types of errors
- variety of usage (i.e. types of pronouns, verb
tenses, positive and negative statements,
sentence types)

7
 3/22/2015

VERB PHRASE CONTINUED

Increase in verb complexity in late childhood

Increase in use of adverbs and adverb phrases

There is less complexity in the syntax of children

with SLI

IRREGULAR PAST TENSE VERBS

Particularly difficult for children with SLI

Developmental sequence of acquisition:

Some discrepancy in the research about whether irregular
forms are acquired later than regular forms
Different learning is involved (exceptions)

MODAL AUXILIARIES & AUXILIARY

VERBS

Difficult for children with SLI

Auxiliary verbs (e.g. is X-ing, are Xi-ng, was Xi-ng, were X-ing
have X-ed, etc.)

Modal auxiliary verbs (e.g. can, will, should, might)

8
 3/22/2015

EMBEDDING AND CONJUNCTION

Expresses the relationship between phrases and
clauses
We assess the number and the type of embedding and
conjunction types used
We will be revisiting these concepts in Term 3 when
we look at assessing childrens narratives

RENFREW ACTION PICTURE

TEST

Practical exercise

In small groups (minimum 6 people) look at the

transcription and score it for grammar using the scoring
guide provided

CASE STUDY RICHARD

5Y;7M IN RECEPTION YEAR AT SCHOOL

active, alert boy

difficult to establish rapport
distrustful of structured activities
unwilling to participate in formal assessment
strong preference for undirected, solitary play
responded quite well to limit setting, choices and
negotiation to complete some tasks

9
 3/22/2015

attention to task was good for doing activities

and visual tasks
attention adequate for simple tasks within his
language level
rapid decrease in attention to task and
compliance with increase in language complexity
very poor tolerance of harder language based
activities with poor task persistence

CELF PRESCHOOL 2 RESULTS

Receptive language Percentile
subtests rank
Sentence structure 5
Concepts & Following 5
Directions
Basic concepts 16
Expressive language
subtests
Word Structure 3
Recalling Sentences 2
Expressive vocabulary 50

EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE

Look at language sample we used to calculate

MLU

Look at the language he used and didnt use.

10
 3/22/2015

GOAL SETTING
List his language strengths &
weaknesses

Determine 3 goals for therapy

This is where you would session plan

for each goal including:
aim
method
rationale

EXAMPLE OF MORPHO-SYNTACTIC
THERAPY ACTIVITY

Working on plural s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQIU8-
N23WY

11