Abstract(s)
We studied spontaneous speech noun-phrase production in eight French-speaking
children with SLI (aged 5;0 to 5;11 months) and controls matched on age (4;10 to 5;11
months) or MLU (aged 3;2 to 4;1 months). Results showed that children with SLI prefer
simple DP structures to complex ones while producing more substitution and omission
errors than controls. The three groups also showed distinct error patterns. Children with
SLI appeared to have difficulty with phonological processes involved in liaison, elision,
and contraction, whereas control children tended to make more lexical errors. These data
support models of reduced morphosyntactic and syntactic abilities in this population, and
suggest that morphophonological processes should also be integrated into descriptive
models of SLI.