2019 ASHA Research Symposium: Pamela A. Hadley, Sentence Diversity at the Boundary

Purpose: This review article summarizes programmatic research on sentence diversity in toddlers developing language typically and explores developmental patterns of sentence diversity in toddlers at risk for specific language impairment.Method: The first half of this review article presents a sentence-focused approach to language assessment and intervention and reviews findings from empirical studies of sentence diversity. In the second half, subject and verb diversity in three simple sentence types are explored in an archival database of toddlers with varying levels of grammatical outcomes at 36 months of age: low average, mild/moderate delay, and severe delay.Results: Descriptive findings from the archival database replicated previous developmental patterns. All toddlers with low-average language abilities produced diverse simple sentences by 30 months of age and exhibited greater sentence diversity with first-person I-subjects before third-person subjects. Third-person subject diversity emerged in a developmental sequence, increasing in one-argument copula contexts and one-argument subject–verb sentences before two-argument subject–verb–object sentences. This developmental pattern held across all three outcome groups. Third-person subjects were least diverse for children with severe grammatical delays and were absent in all sentence contexts for two children with severe delays at 36 months.Conclusions: Sentence diversity increases gradually and expands in predictable patterns. Understanding these developmental patterns may help identify and treat children who display unexpected difficulty combining different subjects and verbs in flexible ways.Supplemental Material S1. Verbs by subject type.Supplemental Material S2. Third-person subjects by sentence type.Also included: Presentation video from the Research Symposium at the 2019 Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association held in Orlando, FL. Hadley, P. A. (2020). Exploring sentence diversity at the boundary of typical and impaired language abilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63(10), 3236–3251. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00031Publisher Note: This article is part of the Forum: Advances in Specific Language Impairment Research & Intervention.

目的：本文综述了针对典型语言发展儿童以及存在特定语言障碍风险儿童的句子多样性的编程研究，并探讨了句子多样性的发育模式。方法：本文的前半部分介绍了以句子为中心的语言评估与干预方法，并对句子多样性实证研究的发现进行了回顾。后半部分，通过一个包含不同语法成果水平（低平均、轻度/中度延迟和重度延迟）的3岁幼儿的存档数据库，探讨了三种简单句子类型的主语和谓语多样性。结果：存档数据库中的描述性发现复制了先前的发展模式。所有语言能力低平均的幼儿在30个月大时产生了多样化的简单句子，并在使用第一人称主语“我”之前表现出比使用第三人称主语更高的句子多样性。第三人称主语的多样性以特定的发育顺序出现，在一元谓语和一元主谓句的语境中先于二元主谓宾句中。这一发育模式在所有三个结果组中都得到了维持。对于语法延迟严重的儿童，第三人称主语的多样性最低，而在36个月时，有两名严重延迟的儿童在所有句子语境中均没有第三人称主语。结论：句子多样性逐渐增加，并呈现出可预测的扩展模式。理解这些发育模式可能有助于识别和治疗那些在灵活地结合不同主语和谓语时表现出意外困难的儿童。补充材料S1：按主语类型划分的动词。补充材料S2：按句子类型划分的第三人称主语。此外，还包括：在美国言语语言听力协会2019年年度大会在奥兰多举行的研讨会上提供的演示视频。Hadley, P. A. (2020). 探索典型与受损语言能力边界处的句子多样性。言语语言听力研究杂志，63(10)，3236–3251. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00031。出版者注：本文是“特定语言障碍研究与发展”论坛的一部分。