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Previous research has established that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have difficulties producing inflectional morphology, in particular, finiteness marking. However, other categories of inflectional morphology, such as possessive 's nominal inflection remain relatively unexplored. Analyses of the characteristics for marking inflection, such as allomorphic categories, may increase our understanding of patterns within disordered grammar to inform the design of interventions and target selection. Data from n = 30 early school-aged children (M = 75 months, SD = 3.38, range = 69–81 months) with DLD were analysed to develop a profile of inflectional morphology skills. Morphological categories included expressive regular past tense, third person singular, and possessive 's. Skills were profiled using an elicitation task. The relationships between expressive morphosyntax, and phonological short-term memory and working memory were also explored. Children demonstrated low accuracy in performance across all inflectional categories, including possessive 's. There were no significant differences between productions of different morphemes, but syllabic allomorphs ([əd]; [əz]) were produced with significantly lower accuracy than segmental allomorphs ([d], [t]; [z], [s]) across all morphological categories. All correlations between expressive morphosyntax and measures of memory were non-significant. Children with DLD show broad deficits in the ability to mark for inflection, including possessive 's; this has implications for theories explaining DLD. Findings may contribute to the design of urgently needed interventions for this clinical population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Squirrel Story Narrative Comprehension Assessment (NCA) was used to investigate the literal and inferential comprehension skills of young typically developing (TD) children aged between 4 and 6 years and to compare the performance of 5-year-old TD children and those with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method: A total of 132 typically developing children across three age groups between 4 to 6 years (4;0–4;11, 5;0–5;11, 6;0–6;11, years;months), and 94 children with DLD aged 5 years, were assessed using the NCA. Result: There was a significant increase in both literal and inferential scores for TD children from 4 to 6 years. The TD children aged 4;0 to 4;11 scored significantly lower than the two older age groups for both literal and inferential comprehension, while there was no significant difference between the 5;0 to 5;11 and 6;0 to 6;11 TD groups. The 5;0 to 5;11 TD group scored significantly higher than the age-matched DLD group for literal and inferential comprehension. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the Squirrel Story NCA is a clinically useful task which is sensitive to developmental improvement in literal and inferential comprehension in young typically developing children and confirm previous research findings of poor narrative comprehension in children with DLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Children with DLD experience significant difficulties only when learning longer novel words. • Phonological short-term memory deficits impact word learning in children with DLD. • Nonword repetition has predictive value in understanding word learning potential. To investigate factors that influence word learning in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The participants were 23 children with DLD and 26 typically developing (TD) children, aged five. Participants completed a fast mapping task (assessed using a production measure), as well as tests of nonword repetition and receptive vocabulary. We explored the effect of word length on nonword repetition and fast mapping abilities while controlling for receptive vocabulary skills. The results indicate that children with DLD demonstrate significant difficulties accurately repeating nonwords of all lengths relative to their TD peers. Children with DLD also exhibited significant difficulties with fast mapping, especially when learning longer novel words. Our findings indicate that children with DLD demonstrate an impaired capacity to encode phonological information; however, this differentially impacts their nonword repetition and fast mapping abilities. TD children may more effectively take advantage of receptive vocabulary to support performance on these tasks. Readers will understand how phonological short-term memory and receptive vocabulary contribute to fast mapping in children with DLD and in TD children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]