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This study reports on the feasibility of using the Test of Complex Syntax- Electronic (TECS-E), as a self-directed app, to measure sentence comprehension in children aged 4 to 5 ½ years old; how testing apps might be adapted for effective independent use; and agreement levels between face-to-face supported computerized and independent computerized testing with this cohort. A pilot phase was completed with 4 to 4;06-year-old children, to determine the appropriate functional app features required to facilitate independent test completion. Following the integration of identified features, children completed the app independently or with adult support (4–4;05 (n = 22) 4;06–4;11 months (n = 55) and 5 to 5;05 (n = 113)) and test re-test reliability was examined. Independent test completion posed problems for children under 5 years but for those over 5, TECS-E is a reliable method to assess children's understanding of complex sentences, when used independently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typically-developing bilingual children often score lower than monolingual peers of the same age on standardized measures; however, research has shown that when assessed in more natural discourse contexts, bilinguals can perform similar to age-matched monolinguals in some language subdomains. This study investigated complex syntax production in simultaneous French–English bilingual children and monolingual age-matched peers, using structured and spontaneous measures. Surprisingly, the bilinguals scored higher than the monolinguals on the structured task. There was no difference between groups on the spontaneous measure; however, predictors of complex syntax production differed by language groups and by tasks. Contrary to other language subdomains showing bilingual English development as protracted relative to monolingual peers, these results point to a relative strength of complex syntax acquisition among simultaneous bilingual children. Differences in exposure relative to monolingual children may be less pronounced in syntax, in part because bilinguals can benefit from syntactic knowledge in their other language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehension of sentences with a center-embedded, object-gapped relative clause (ORC) is challenging for children as well as adults. Mismatching lexical and grammatical features of subject noun phrases (NPs) across the main clause and relative clause has been shown to facilitate comprehension. Adani et al. concluded that children's comprehension improved under conditions of NP number mismatch (e.g., singular main clause subject and plural relative clause subject) as compared with NP number match (e.g., both singular subjects). However, their stimuli provided number information on verb phrases (VPs) as well as NPs creating a confound for conclusions about facilitative effects of NP number mismatch. In this study, we isolated the contribution of NP number mismatch. Notably, 32 6-year-olds with typical language participated in a center-embedded, ORC sentence comprehension task with 4 types of stimuli: (a) NP number mismatch without VP number information (NP mismatch only), (b) NP number match without VP number information (NP match only), (c) NP number mismatch with VP number mismatch (NP + VP mismatch), and (d) NP number match with VP number match (NP + VP match). Children selected one of four pictures in an array to a verbally presented relative clause sentence; 56 sentences were presented. The within-subjects comparison for NP mismatch only and NP match only was not significant. However, the within-subjects comparison for NP mismatch only and NP + VP mismatch was significant. Children were more successful in NP + VP mismatch sentence comprehension ( r C = 0.70). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are characterised by impaired language abilities both in comprehension and production. Complex syntax is a specific domain which is often considered challenging for children with DLD. Research regarding complex syntax is mostly concerned with the production patterns of speakers and usually employs English-speaking populations. This scoping review aims to systematically map the abilities of non-English-speaking children with DLD to comprehend complex syntactic structures, comparing these results with the broader literature on English-speaking children with DLD. It also aims to consider the account (i.e. grammatical vs processing) by which these abilities can be explained. Four online databases were used to extract original research articles published between 2011 and 2021. Of the 264 studies initially identified, 20 studies were included in the review. The results demonstrated that children with DLD present with difficulties in comprehending object relative clauses, wh-questions, sentences with non-canonical word order, passives, and other types of complex syntax. All of these challenges are also evident in English-speaking children with DLD and can be mainly attributed either to the inability of children to assign thematic roles, their restricted working memory capacities, or a combination thereof. It is concluded that the comprehension of complex syntax might be a universal marker of DLD, which can be explained on the basis of either a grammatical or a processing account, or both. Common challenges in certain structures across languages can be used to design a comprehension assessment tool that can be applied in several languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this study was to compare the syntactic complexity of informational texts produced by fifth-grade students (a) with and without language impairment and (b) with and without native English-speaking proficiency on a curriculum-based reading and writing task. Expository writing samples produced by 114 children enrolled in the fifth grade were analyzed at the utterance level for five features of complex syntax, including the frequency of utterances containing complex syntax and specific clause types (conjoined, subordinate, relative, full complement). For each of the four groups, we report frequency counts, means, standard deviations, and ranges of performance across the five syntax measures. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed there were significant group differences on measures. Specifically, children with typical language development, regardless of English proficiency level, wrote more words, utterances, and different word roots than their peers with language impairment. When productivity (i.e., text length) in the writing samples was controlled, multivariate analysis of variance revealed there was a significant difference between groups in use of relative clauses, but not for the use of conjoined, subordinate, or full complement clauses. In particular, English proficient students with language impairment produced a greater proportion of utterances with relative clauses. A post hoc correlation analysis showed moderate, positive correlations among writing cohesion and variables of complex syntax. We consider multiple implications for clinical practice and further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have persistent language difficulties in complex syntax. To date, few studies have examined the effectiveness of syntactic training focusing on complex grammar, with no existing studies having been done in French. In English, the SHAPE CODING (SC) system, which combines shapes and colors to identify the nature and function of words and sentence types, has been shown to be effective with children and adolescents with DLD. Our study assesses the effectiveness of a French adaptation of the SC methodology on the mastery of three syntactically complex structures: object relatives, accusative clitics and passives.We developed a training protocol, inspired by the SC principles, comprised of 13 sessions of 30 minutes, and compared the ability of 18 children with DLD aged 7 to 11 to produce the target structures before and after syntactic training. Three lists of 12 trained sentences were directly trained whereas three untrained (matched) lists were used as a measure of generalization. An untrained structure was used as a control measure.Comparison of scores, as measured by dedicated baselines, shows that training results in improved performance for all target structures, whereas no progression is observed on control items (verbal inflexions), which are not trained. More specifically, results show an improvement on sentences directly trained during the protocol, but also on new sentences that contain the same target structures, reflecting the generalization of the production of these structures.Findings confirm the effectiveness of an explicit approach in grammar interventions and they provide new perspectives on language therapy dedicated to children with DLD. The implications of the results are also discussed at the individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND:Despite studies of how parent-child interactions relate to early child language development, few have examined the continued contribution of parenting to more complex language skills through the preschool years. The current study explored how positive and negative parenting behaviours relate to growth in complex syntax learning from child age 3 to age 4 years, for children with typical development or developmental delays (DDs). METHODS:Participants were children with or without DD (N = 60) participating in a longitudinal study of development. Parent-child interactions were transcribed and coded for parenting domains and child language. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify the contribution of parenting to complex syntax growth in children with typical development or DD. RESULTS:Analyses supported a final model, F(9,50) = 11.90, P

This study explored the use of sophisticated vocabulary, complex syntax, and decontextualized language (including book information, conceptual information, past/future experiences, and vocabulary information) in teachers' instructional interactions with children during the literacy block in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. The sample included 33 teachers and 421 children. We examined correlations among these language features and their unique contributions to children's vocabulary learning. Teachers who used more sophisticated vocabulary also engaged in more decontextualized talk about vocabulary and past/future experiences. Additionally, teachers' use of complex syntax was uniquely associated with talk about conceptual information. Both complex syntax and conceptual information talk predicted children's vocabulary learning; however, complex syntax emerged as the sole predictor when accounting for this relationship. This finding suggests that decontextualized talk about concepts, characterized by complex language structures, may facilitate vocabulary acquisition.

English syntax acquisition is crucial for developing literacy but may be challenging for many children learning English as an Additional Language (EAL). This study longitudinally investigates syntactic complexity and diversity of stories retold by children with EAL and their monolingual peers as well as the relationship between syntax and vocabulary. This is a secondary data analysis using data from the Surrey Communication and Language in Education study (SCALES). Sixty-one children with EAL were matched to their monolingual peers on sex, age and teacher-rated language proficiency. Children’s narratives were collected in Year 1 (age 5-6) and Year 3 (age 7-8) and coded for clause type. Dependent variables included Mean Length of Utterance in words (MLUw) and Clausal Density (CD) as measures of syntactic complexity and Complex Syntax Type-Token Ratio (CS-TTR) estimating syntactic diversity. Children with EAL presented syntactically complex and diverse narratives equivalent to monolingual peers in Year 1 and Year 3. Growth rate in syntactic complexity was associated with English vocabulary in Year 1. Among children with low vocabulary, children with EAL developed syntactic complexity at a faster rate than monolingual peers, while the opposite was true in the high-vocabulary group. Children with average vocabulary progressed at parallel rates. Children with EAL and their monolingual peers used broadly the same complex structures but with varying frequency. In this longitudinal study comparing children with EAL and monolinguals on complex clauses, the interaction between emerging bilingualism and vocabulary knowledge in the societal language predicted different patterns of growth in syntactic complexity. Children with EAL frequently use different syntactic structures to achieve similar syntactic complexity and diversity. These findings demonstrate that in early primary school, children with EAL have syntactic skills comparable to their monolingual peers.

Over-identification of language disorder among bilingual children with typical development (TD) is a risk factor in assessment. One strategy for improving assessment accuracy with bilingual children is to determine which linguistic sub-domains differentiate bilingual children with TD from bilingual children with developmental language disorder (DLD). To date, little research on sequential bilinguals with TD and DLD has focussed on complex (multi-clausal) sentences in naturalistic production, even though this is a noted domain of weakness for school-age monolinguals with DLD. Accordingly, we sought to determine if there were differences in the use of complex sentences in conversational and narrative tasks between school-age sequential bilinguals with TD and with DLD at the early stages of L2 acquisition. We administered a conversation and a narrative task to 63 English L2 children with TD and DLD, aged 5–7 years with 2 years of exposure to the L2. Children had diverse first language backgrounds. The L2-TD and L2-DLD groups were matched for age, length of L2 exposure and general L2 proficiency (receptive vocabulary size). Language samples from both tasks were coded and analyzed for the use of complex versus simple sentences, for the distribution of complex sentence types, for clausal density and mean length of utterance (MLU). Complex sentences included coordinated clauses, sentential complement clauses, adverbial clauses and relative clauses. Using regression modelling and PERMANOVA, we found that the L2-TD group produced more complex sentences than the L2-DLD group, with coordinated clauses, adverbial clauses and relative clauses differing the most between the groups. Furthermore, the two groups differed for mean clausal density, but not for MLU, indicating that clausal density and MLU did not estimate identical morphosyntactic abilities. Individual variation in complex sentence production for L2-TD was predicted by longer L2 exposure and task; by contrast, for L2-DLD, it was predicted by older age. This study indicates that complex sentence production is an area of weakness for bilingual children with DLD, as it is for monolinguals with DLD. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Preschoolers' earliest productions of sentential complement sentences have matrix clauses that are limited in form. Diessel proposed that matrix clauses in these early productions are propositionally empty fixed phrases that lack semantic and syntactic integration with the clausal complement. By 4 years of age, however, preschoolers produce sentential complement sentences with matrix clauses that are more varied. Diessel proposed that the matrix clauses in these later productions semantically and syntactically embed the complement clause. We refer to these matrix clauses as formulaic and true, respectively. Diessel's hypothesis about the development of sentential complement sentences was based on an analysis of spontaneous language. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Diessel's hypothesis with an experimental sentence imitation task wherein stimuli varied in the nature of the matrix clause. Thirty children with typical language development participated; 10 children in each age group (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) imitated 50 sentential complement sentences that included either a true or a formulaic matrix clause; the structure of the dependent clauses did not vary. Dependent variables were percent sentence imitation and percent matrix clause imitation. There was a significant main effect for matrix clause type on imitation of sentences and matrix clauses. There was also a significant main effect for age on imitation of sentences and matrix clauses. Significant matrix clause type-by-age interactions were such that percent sentence imitation and percent matrix clause imitation varied by age. Three- and 4-year-olds were less proficient than 5-year-olds on imitation of sentences with true matrix clauses and on imitations of true matrix clauses. Only 3- and 4-year-olds were less proficient imitating true matrix clauses than formulaic matrix clauses. Experimental findings support Diessel's hypothesis that there is a developmental progression in the nature of preschoolers' production of sentential complement sentences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the acquisition of verbs tend to focus on one-verb predicates of the prevalent English type. But in hundreds of languages around the world, multi-verb predicates like serial verb constructions are widely used. It could be reasoned that children should begin producing simple, single-verb predicates before they are able to produce multi-verb predicates. But alternatively, many multi-verb predicates are idiomatic and could, as chunks, lend themselves to holophrastic acquisition by small children. This article examines early productions of multi-verb predicates in the speech of three children (aged 1;1–2;4, 2;1–3;3, and 2;10–3;3) acquiring the Papuan language Nungon, comparing patterns there with productions in the child-directed speech of their parents, and with the children's productions of simple, one-verb predicates. The study's youngest child never produces multi-verb predicates in the study period, but the child studied for the widest age range produces them from age 2;4, when she has still not acquired productive use of all verbal inflections, and both older children show proportionally increasing trends in multi-verb predicate use. Semantically, the earliest multi-verb predicates can be analyzed as describing multidimensional unitary events, with this expanding to events that can be divided into multiple distinct components at later ages. Delays in production of certain other multi-verb predicate types that are robustly present in parental input at all ages cannot be linked to a single factor, but likely relate to a combination of increased phonological or morphological complexity and increased conceptual difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relationship between white matter microstructure and the development of morphosyntax in a spoken narrative in typically developing children (TD) and in children with high functioning autism (HFA). Autism is characterized by language and communication impairments, yet the relationship between morphosyntactic development in spontaneous discourse contexts and neural development is not well understood in either this population or typical development. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to assess multiple parameters of diffusivity as indicators of white matter tract integrity in language-related tracts in children between 6 and 13 years of age. Children were asked to spontaneously tell a story about at time when someone made them sad, mad, or angry. The story was evaluated for morphological accuracy and syntactic complexity. Analysis of the relationship between white matter microstructure and language performance in TD children showed that diffusivity correlated with morphosyntax production in the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), a fiber tract traditionally associated with language. At the anatomical level, the HFA group showed abnormal diffusivity in the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) relative to the TD group. Within the HFA group, children with greater white matter integrity in the right ILF displayed greater morphological accuracy during their spoken narrative. Overall, the current study shows an association between white matter structure in a traditional language pathway and narrative performance in TD children. In the autism group, associations were only found in the ILF, suggesting that during real world language use, children with HFA rely less on typical pathways and more on alternative ventral pathways that possibly mediate visual elements of language.

The clause chain is an under-investigated complex sentence type, found in hundreds of languages. In a clause chain, as many as 20 or more ‘medial’ clauses with under-specified verbal predicates combine with a single ‘final’ clause with fully-specified verbal predicate. Clause chains are of interest for three main reasons: (a) the special syntactic relationship between clauses, which is neither textbook subordination nor coordination; (b) the potential extreme length of a single chain; and (c) switch-reference marking in clause chains of some languages could require speakers to plan at least one clause ahead as they speak. Research on child production of complex sentences has largely overlooked clause chains. Longitudinal data for three children aged 1;1 to 3;3 acquiring the Papuan language Nungon show that Nungon-speaking children begin producing clause chains around the age of 2;4, with a marked increase in rate of use around age 2;11. Chain length is limited to two clauses until age 3;1. Different-subject marking in medial clauses is used by all three children early, but is first attested in one-clause, ‘root medial’ contexts, rather than in chains. Bayesian statistical models confirm the strong tendency for children to use root medials in expressions of desires and commands. Children’s production of three types of complex sentences—clause chains, subordinated final clauses, and coordinated final clauses—is shown to be subject to the same type of developmental constraint; but once development reaches an adequate level for increased complex sentence production, children acquiring Nungon produce many more clause chains than complex sentences involving subordinated or coordinated final clauses.

As a group, children with specific language impairment (SLI) have presented with lower levels of proficiency with infinitive clauses relative to comparison groups with typical language (TL). The presence of considerable individual variability within those affected by SLI, however, remains unexplained. Furthermore, the status of infinitive clause productions in children with language impairments that do not meet criteria for SLI, because of either low nonverbal abilities or other concomitant conditions, is unknown. Previous studies focused on children with SLI and have not included children who would fit into a broader developmental language disorder (DLD) designation. In this study, spontaneous language samples were collected on 30 children with DLD and 30 children with typical language skills, including those with low nonverbal abilities or other neurodevelopmental disorders (age range: 5;1–7;7). Samples were analyzed to examine potential predictors of children's infinitive clause use and their infinitive TO omission rates. Significant group differences were found for the number and accuracy of infinitive clauses produced. Consistent with previous reports examining children with SLI, considerable variability was found across cases of DLD. Maternal education and mean length of utterance (MLU) were significant predictors for children's infinitive clause use. Finite verb morphology composite scores and MLU were significant predictors of children's infinitive TO omission rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Complex syntax is affected by developmental language disorder (DLD) during the school years. Targeting areas of syntactic difficulty for children with DLD may yield useful assessment techniques. Aims: To determine whether wh‐movement can be measured in language samples from typically developing mono‐ and bilingual school‐aged children, and, if so, to provide preliminary evidence of validity by comparison with traditional measures of syntax in a cross‐sectional, known‐groups design. Methods & Procedures: Participants were 48 typically developing children recruited from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia in four groups: monolingual English and bilingual French–English children in early (7–8 years of age) and late (11–12 years of age) elementary school. Language samples were collected and analysed with mean use of wh‐movement, mean length of utterance and clausal density. These measures were compared for effects of age, bilingual development and elicitation task. Outcomes & Results: The results from all measures closely paralleled each other, providing preliminary evidence of validity. Wh‐movement‐based and traditional measures demonstrated similar age‐related and discourse genre effects. Neither demonstrated an effect of mono‐ versus bilingual development. Conclusions & Implications: The results confirm research interest in syntactic movement as an area of language assessment. Further research is required to understand its application to clinical populations. What this paper addsWhat is already known on the subjectComplex syntax is known to be an area of difficulty for children with DLD. Certain syntactic constructions appear to be particularly difficult for these children. Assessments targeting these areas of difficulty are emerging.What this paper adds to existing knowledgeThe paper compares traditional measures of syntax with measures based on wh‐movement. It shows similar results for both types of measures, suggesting construct and convergent validity. Results suggest that syntactic movement is an age‐appropriate area of assessment for elementary school‐aged children's language.What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?Language sample assessment measures based on wh‐movement appear promising. The impact of task effects of the discourse genre on assessing syntax must be carefully considered in research and clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A central question in language acquisition is how children master sentence types that they have seldom, if ever, heard. Here we report the findings of a pre-registered, randomised, single-blind intervention study designed to test the prediction that, for one such sentence type, complex questions (e.g., Is the crocodile who's hot eating?), children could combine schemas learned, on the basis of the input, for complex noun phrases (the [THING] who's [PROPERTY]) and simple questions (Is [THING] [ACTION]ing?) to yield a complex-question schema (Is [the [THING] who's [PROPERTY]] ACTIONing?). Children aged 4;2 to 6;8 (M = 5;6, SD = 7.7 months) were trained on simple questions (e.g., Is the bird cleaning?) and either (Experimental group, N = 61) complex noun phrases (e.g., the bird who's sad) or (Control group, N = 61) matched simple noun phrases (e.g., the sad bird). In general, the two groups did not differ on their ability to produce novel complex questions at test. However, the Experimental group did show (a) some evidence of generalising a particular complex NP schema (the [THING] who's [PROPERTY] as opposed to the [THING] that's [PROPERTY]) from training to test, (b) a lower rate of auxiliary-doubling errors (e.g., *Is the crocodile who's hot is eating?), and (c) a greater ability to produce complex questions on the first test trial. We end by suggesting some different methods – specifically artificial language learning and syntactic priming – that could potentially be used to better test the present account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to profile the cognitive–linguistic performance of a male child (P.I.) with 22q11 deletion syndrome (22q11DS). Specifically, receptive and expressive language performance and nonverbal IQ (NVIQ) are described at two different time points—when P.I. was 6 and 10 years of age, respectively. Using case-based methodology, P.I.’s NVIQ and performance on global and structured language tasks are compared to typically developing children of the same chronological age and school-aged children with specific language impairment (SLI). The results show no improvement in NVIQ or vocabulary, but his morphosyntactic abilities did improve over time. The findings are discussed in relation to two hypotheses, either that the profile of language impairment in children with 22q11DS is distinctive to the syndrome or that there is co-morbidity with SLI. This is particularly important for speech–language therapists who have a primary role in diagnosing communication deficits and providing treatment.

BackgroundThe current study aims at better characterizing the role of reading skills as a predictor of comprehension of relative clauses. Well-established cross-linguistic evidence shows that children are more accurate in the comprehension of subject-extracted relative clauses in comparison to the object-extracted counterpart. Children with reading difficulties are known to perform less accurately on object relatives at the group level compared to typically developing children. Given that children’s performance on reading tasks is shown to shape as a continuum, in the current study we attempted to use reading skills as a continuous variable to predict performance on relative clauses.MethodsWe examined the comprehension of relative clauses in a group of 30 English children (7–11 years) with varying levels of reading skills. Reading skills varied on a large spectrum, from poor readers to very skilled readers, as assessed by the YARC standardized test. The experimental task consisted of a picture-matching task. Children were presented with subject and object relative clauses and they were asked to choose one picture - out of four - that would best represent the sentence they heard. At the same time, we manipulated whether the subject and object nouns were either matching (both singular or both plural) or mismatching (one singular, the other plural) in number.ResultsOur analysis of accuracy shows that subject relatives were comprehended more accurately overall than object relatives, that responses to sentences with noun phrases mismatching in number were more accurate overall than the ones with matching noun phrases and that performance improved as a function of reading skills. Within the match subset, while the difference in accuracy between subject and object relatives is large in poor readers, the difference is reduced with better reading skills, almost disappearing in very skilled readers.DiscussionBeside replicating the well-established findings on the subject-object asymmetry, number facilitation in the comprehension of relative clauses, and a better overall performance by skilled readers, these results indicate that strong reading skills may determine a reduction of the processing difficulty associated with the hardest object relative clause condition (i.e., match), causing a reduction of the subject-object asymmetry.

Background: The current study aims at better characterizing the role of reading skills as a predictor of comprehension of relative clauses. Well-established cross-linguistic evidence shows that children are more accurate in the comprehension of subject-extracted relative clauses in comparison to the object-extracted counterpart. Children with reading difficulties are known to perform less accurately on object relatives at the group level compared to typically developing children. Given that children's performance on reading tasks is shown to shape as a continuum, in the current study we attempted to use reading skills as a continuous variable to predict performance on relative clauses. Methods: We examined the comprehension of relative clauses in a group of 30 English children (7–11 years) with varying levels of reading skills. Reading skills varied on a large spectrum, from poor readers to very skilled readers, as assessed by the YARC standardized test. The experimental task consisted of a picture-matching task. Children were presented with subject and object relative clauses and they were asked to choose one picture - out of four - that would best represent the sentence they heard. At the same time, we manipulated whether the subject and object nouns were either matching (both singular or both plural) or mismatching (one singular, the other plural) in number. Results: Our analysis of accuracy shows that subject relatives were comprehended more accurately overall than object relatives, that responses to sentences with noun phrases mismatching in number were more accurate overall than the ones with matching noun phrases and that performance improved as a function of reading skills. Within the match subset, while the difference in accuracy between subject and object relatives is large in poor readers, the difference is reduced with better reading skills, almost disappearing in very skilled readers. Discussion: Beside replicating the well-established findings on the subject-object asymmetry, number facilitation in the comprehension of relative clauses, and a better overall performance by skilled readers, these results indicate that strong reading skills may determine a reduction of the processing difficulty associated with the hardest object relative clause condition (i.e., match), causing a reduction of the subject-object asymmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the effect of two methods of assessment—multiple‐choice sentence–picture matching and an animated sentence‐verification task—on typically developing children's understanding of relative clauses. A sample of children between the ages of 3 years 6 months and 4 years 11 months took part in the study (N = 103). Results indicated that (a) participants performed better on the sentence‐verification than on the multiple‐choice task independently of age, (b) each testing method revealed a different hierarchy of constructions, and (c) the impact of testing method on participants' performance was greater for some constructions than others. Our results suggest that young children can understand complex sentences when they are presented in a manner that better reflects how people process language in natural discourse. These results have implications for the study of language comprehension in suggesting that results from multiple‐choice tasks may not generalize to other methods. Open Practices: This article has been awarded an Open Data badge. All data are publicly accessible via the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/27gwb. Learn more about the Open Practices badges from the Center for Open Science: https://osf.io/tvyxz/wiki. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing spoken and written language samples across different genres provides speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and educators with information about adolescents' production of complex syntax, an important socially and academically related language skill. However, researchers report that production of complex syntax is affected by genre and modality. Although the narrative and expository genres elicit a greater amount of complex syntax than conversational discourse, it is unknown whether differences in production of complex syntax exist between the persuasive and expository genres. The purpose of this study was to compare adolescents' production of complex syntax across spoken and written expository and persuasive genres. Spoken and written expository and persuasive language samples were elicited from 64 adolescents. Complex syntax was measured by calculating per cent of complex utterances and clausal density. Two repeated measures ANOVA revealed that complex syntax production was affected by genre and modality. Adolescents produced a higher percent of complex utterances and a higher clausal density in the persuasive genre than the expository genre. Adolescents produced a higher percent of complex utterances in the written modality than the spoken modality across genres; however, there was not a significant difference in adolescents' clausal density across modalities. There were significant interaction effects between genre and modality for percent of complex utterances and clausal density. The significant interaction effects suggest that differences in the production of complex syntax between the spoken and written modalities depended on the genre elicited. We discuss multiple implications and specific directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex sentences involving adverbial clauses appear in children’s speech at about three years of age yet children have difficulty comprehending these sentences well into the school years. To date, the reasons for these difficulties are unclear, largely because previous studies have tended to focus on only sub-types of adverbial clauses, or have tested only limited theoretical models. In this paper, we provide the most comprehensive experimental study to date. We tested four-year-olds, five-year-olds and adults on four different adverbial clauses ( before, after, because, if ) to evaluate four different theoretical models (semantic, syntactic, frequency-based and capacity-constrained). 71 children and 10 adults (as controls) completed a forced-choice, picture-selection comprehension test, providing accuracy and response time data. Children also completed a battery of tests to assess their linguistic and general cognitive abilities. We found that children’s comprehension was strongly influenced by semantic factors – the iconicity of the event-to-language mappings – and that their response times were influenced by the type of relation expressed by the connective (temporal vs. causal). Neither input frequency (frequency-based account), nor clause order (syntax account) or working memory (capacity-constrained account) provided a good fit to the data. Our findings thus contribute to the development of more sophisticated models of sentence processing. We conclude that such models must also take into account how children’s emerging linguistic understanding interacts with developments in other cognitive domains such as their ability to construct mental models and reason flexibly about them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metacognitive verbs (MCVs) such as believe, know and think allow a speaker to describe the thoughts, feelings and perspectives of the self and others. As such, these words reflect the speaker’s awareness of differing mental events and activities, or Theory of Mind (ToM). This study investigated the use of MCVs in adolescents with typical language development in relation to the production of complex sentences. It was of interest to determine the frequency with which adolescents used MCVs and to explore the links between MCVs and different types of subordinate clauses. Language samples that had been collected during previous research involving fables were examined. The results indicated that adolescents frequently used MCVs, particularly during a critical-thinking task, and that MCVs were associated with the production of complex sentences containing various types of subordinate clauses. This information may be useful to speech–language pathologists in their work with adolescents who have language impairments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this pilot study, we examine the suitability of materials for a vocabulary intervention designed to influence the amount of complex syntax teachers use in at-risk preschool classrooms. Six Head Start classrooms were assigned to one of two vocabulary interventions: a condition using cognitive verbs, which are biased toward complex syntax (e.g. pretend), or a control condition using action verbs, which are biased towards simple sentences (e.g. identify). Consistent with our hypotheses, teachers in the cognitive verb condition used higher rates of complex syntax than those in the action verb condition while our materials were in use. Teacher acceptability and use data indicate that verb characteristics affect frequency of use and perceived benefit of intervention materials. Implications for the development of interventions targeting complex syntax use in at-risk children are discussed, including factors likely to support fidelity of implementation in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the long-term effects of structural priming on children’s use of indirect speech clauses in a narrative context. Forty-two monolingual English-speaking 5-year-olds in two primary classrooms took part in a story-retelling task including reported speech. Testing took place in three individual sessions (pre-test, post-test 1, post-test 2) and the priming phase was conducted in 10 group priming sessions. During the priming phase the two classrooms were randomly allocated to one of two conditions where, over the course of two weeks, the children heard 10 different stories that included 30 tokens of either indirect or direct speech. In the pre-test session measures of receptive vocabulary (BPVS-3) and expressive grammar (Formulated Sentences sub-test, CELF-4-UK) were collected. There was a significant effect of input manipulation that was maintained for up to 10 weeks after the training. Expressive grammatical skills were positively correlated with the likelihood of using indirect speech one week after the end of the language intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper sets out to trace the appearance and evolution of academic language structures in a second language, in formal bilingual contexts. The setting of the study was a selection of secondary schools where a content and language integrated approach (CLIL immersion-type programmes) was set up. A corpus was formed of 244 historical narratives, from 4 schools, of subjects from 9th to 12th grade (age range 13–17 years). Analytical software tools such as Synlex (Lu, 2010) were used to consider the evolution of complex syntax and cohesion. The study concludes with observations pertaining to the growth of cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in content-driven learning settings, the non-linear development of the L2 system and the major metrics which undergo change over the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Few tools are available to examine the narrative speaking ability of adolescents. Hence, the authors designed a new narrative task and sought to determine whether it would elicit a higher level of syntactic complexity than a conversational task in adolescents with typical language development. Method: Forty adolescents (Mage = 14;0 [years;months]; 20 boys and 20 girls) were individually interviewed. Each adolescent participated in a standard conversational task followed by a narrative task that involved listening to fables and retelling the stories. It was predicted that the narrative task would elicit a higher level of syntactic complexity than the conversational task because fables, although superficially simple stories, express rather sophisticated meanings. Results: The narrative task elicited greater syntactic complexity than the conversational task as measured by mean length of C-unit and clausal density. Additionally, the 2 syntactic measures, mean length of C-unit and clausal density, were closely associated on both tasks. Conclusion: Fables can elicit a high level of syntactic complexity in adolescents with typical language development. Future studies are needed to build a normative database using fables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the use of narrative categories and mental state words in the fictional, personal, and hypothetical stories written by 150 children in the third, fourth, and fifth grades of primary school. There were three main results. First, children were better able to write fictional and hypothetical than personal stories, when considering the total number of narrative categories and the percentages of stories including at least one complete episode. Second, there was clear evidence of differentiation between the three tasks, both in terms of narrative categories and mental state language. Third, the use of mental state words correlated with the frequency of subordinate propositions and the number of narrative categories included in the stories. These findings support the hypothesis of a bidirectional interaction between lexical and syntactic development and suggest that narrative writing involves metalinguistic abilities directly related to the spontaneous use of psychological lexicon. Educational implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of complex syntax in the spoken discourse of young, middle-aged, and older adults was examined. The purpose of the study was to determine if syntactic complexity would show an age-related decline. Language samples were elicited from healthy adults in their 20 s, 40 s, and 60 s ( n = 20 per group) using a conversational (CON) task and a peer conflict resolution (PCT) task. Each sample was transcribed, segmented into utterances, and coded for main clauses and all types of finite and non-finite subordinate clauses. The results indicated that all groups produced greater syntactic complexity during the PCR task than the CON task as measured by mean length of utterance, clausal density, and the use of left-branching clauses. Additionally, the groups did not differ on any syntactic measures for either task. It is concluded that syntactic complexity in spoken discourse remains stable during the years that span early, middle, and later adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex syntax production emerges shortly after the emergence of two-word combinations in oral language and continues to develop through the school-age years. This article defines a framework for the analysis of complex syntax in the spontaneous language of preschool- and early school-age children. The purpose of this article is to provide practitioners with an overview of complex syntax that advances their ability to assess and intervene in the preschool- and early school-age years. Supplemental Digital Content provides (a) tables that provide additional detail and explanation on the complex syntax types (available at: http://links.lww.com/TLD/A15, http://links.lww.com/TLD/Al6) and (b) practice exercises in classifying complex syntax tokens (available at: http://links.lww.com/TLD/A17). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study was designed primarily to examine the use of abstract nouns and metacognitive verbs in the narrative writing of school-age children and adolescents. Method: Three groups of typically developing students ages 11, 14, and 17 years (n = 40 per group) were asked to write a story about something funny, sad, or scary that had happened to them and a friend. Each student's narrative essay was examined for the use of abstract nouns (e.g., accomplishment, loneliness, mystery) and metacognitive verbs (e.g., assume, discover, realize) and for the production of complex syntax as measured by mean length of T-unit (MLTU) and clausal density (CD). Results: Age-related growth in narrative writing was documented for both types of words. Additionally, the use of abstract nouns and metacognitive verbs was associated with the production of complex syntax, reflecting the lexicon-syntax interface. Conclusion: The narrative writing task employed in this study was effective in eliciting literate words and complex syntax in school-age children and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore the production of infinitival complements by children with specific language impairment (SLI) as compared with mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched children in an effort to clarify inconsistencies in the literature. Spontaneous language samples were analysed for infinitival complements (reduced infinitives and true infinitives). Participants included children with SLI ( n == 19; 5;2-7;10) and children with typical language ( n == 19; MLU; 3;0-5;9). There was no group difference in the number of infinitival complements and the number of different complement-taking verbs. However, the SLI group produced more true infinitives than the MLU group. The SLI group was less accurate than the MLU group on inclusion of obligatory infinitival to, with 80.21%% accuracy (SD == 29.42) and 99.81%% accuracy (SD == 0.85), respectively. As a group, children with SLI did not have problems with the clausal structure of infinitives. However, they had difficulty with the specific grammatical requirement of infinitival clauses, that is, the inclusion of the infinitival marker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that describes the nature of informational language and discusses applications for assessment and intervention for older school children and adolescents with language impairments. It lists grammatical strategies in informational texts that include complex nominal groups, clausal subordination and theme and information mechanisms. It also notes that grammatical instruction should involve both the modeling of forms within the context of expository discourse tasks.

Purpose: The author examined the influence of sentence type, clause order, and verb transitivity on the accuracy of children's past tense productions. All groups of children, but especially children with specific language impairment (SLI), were predicted to decrease accuracy as linguistic complexity increased. Method: The author elicited past tense productions in 2-clause sentences from 5- to 8-year-old children with SLI (n = 14) and their typically developing peers (n = 24). The target sentences varied in the type and obligatory nature of the second clause and the number of arguments. Results: On average, 85% of the responses across all groups and sentence types contained 2 clauses. Fewer 2-clause sentences were produced in the complement clause condition than in the other conditions. Sentence type and clause order, but not argument structure, influenced use of past tense. Children with SLI had a similar but less accurate profile as compared with the age-matched group. The younger mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched group reflected decreased accuracy with each additional source of linguistic complexity. Conclusions: Increased syntactic difficulty decreases use of morphology for all children, supporting the hypothesis that processing demands influence morphological accuracy. MLU-matched children, but not children with SLI, were more affected by changes in linguistic complexity. Further work on age-related changes in sentence production is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper concerns complex syntax in the sense of text-embedded clause-combining. We consider different perspectives on why languages employ complex syntax, taking the usage-based view that “discourse drives grammar”. Complex syntax is analyzed as shedding light on the nature of “contrastive rhetoric”, on the assumption that linguistic typology interacts with rhetorical strategies in the construction of discourse. An innovative methodology is delineated for evaluating syntactic complexity along a hierarchy of clause-combining relations, from isotactic single clauses to paratactic symmetric and asymmetric stringing by coordination and complementation, on to hypotactic layering by adverbials and relative clauses, and endotactic nesting or embedding of one clause inside another. Detailed criteria for each of these levels of clause-combining were applied to 64 narrative texts written by graduate-level university students, native speakers of four different languages (English, French, Hebrew, and Spanish) on the shared topic of interpersonal conflict. The discourse effects of linguistic typology are analyzed in terms of the linguistic means available to these different languages for combining clauses as well as discursive strategies preferred by speaker–writers in constructing narratives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: Syntactic development in adolescents was examined using a spoken discourse task and standardized testing. The primary goal was to determine whether adolescents with a history of language impairments would differ from those with a history of typical language development (TLD). This is a companion study to one that examined these same adolescents 2 years earlier (M. A. Nippold, T. C. Mansfield, J. L. Billow, & J. B. Tomblin, 2008). Method: The participants were 15-year-old adolescents with a history of specific language impairment (SLI; n = 102), nonspecific language impairment (NLI; n = 77), or TLD (n = 247). A sample of spoken discourse was elicited using a Peer Conflict Resolution (PCR) task and analyzed for mean length of T-unit, clausal density, and subordinate clause use. In addition, 2 subtests from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Third Edition (E. Semel, E. H. Wiig, & W. A. Secord, 1995), Concepts and Directions and Recalling Sentences, were administered. Results: On the PCR task, the TLD group outperformed the SLI and NLI groups on mean length of T-unit, clausal density, and nominal clause use, and the TLD group outperformed the NLI group on relative clause use. On the standardized testing, the TLD group outperformed the SLI and NLI groups, and the SLI group outperformed the NLI group. Correlation coefficients calculated between the nonstandardized and standardized measures of syntax were statistically significant and positive. Conclusions: Speech-language pathologists may wish to employ the PCR task to examine syntactic development in adolescents as a supplement to standardized testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examined language productivity and syntactic complexity in school-age children in relation to their knowledge of the topic of discussion--the game of chess. Method: Children (N = 32; mean age = 10;11 [years;months]) who played chess volunteered to be interviewed by an adult examiner who had little or no experience playing chess. Children's chess knowledge and experience was assessed, and each child was classified as a novice or an expert player. Each child participated in 3 speaking tasks:General Conversation, Chess Conversation, and Chess Explanation. Interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed into Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (J. F. Miller & R. Chapman, 2003), segmented into T-units, and coded for finite clauses. Each speaking task was analyzed for total T-units; mean length of T-unit; clausal density; and nominal, relative, and adverbial clause use. Results: Total T-units, mean length of T-unit, clausal density, and the use of each type of subordinate clause was substantially higher in the Chess Explanation task compared with the Chess Conversation task or the General Conversation task. Compared with the novices, the experts knew more about chess, had played longer, and were stronger players. Nevertheless, the novices and experts did not differ on any of the language factors for any of the speaking tasks. Conclusions: Language productivity and syntactic complexity in school-age children are strongly influenced by the speaking task. When children are presented with a motivating and challenging topic, they rise to the occasion to explain the finer details of it to a naBve adult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examined syntactic development in a large cohort of adolescents. At kindergarten, each participant had been identified as having specific language impairment (SLI), nonspecific language impairment (NLI), or typical language development (TLD). Method: The participants (n = 444) had a mean age of 13;11 (years;months; range = 12;10-15;5). Language samples were elicited in 2 genres, conversational and expository, and analyzed for mean length of T-unit and subordinate clause production. Results: Mean length of T-unit and the use of nominal, relative, and adverbial clauses were greater during the expository task than the conversational task for all groups. Thus, even the SLI and NLI groups produced longer sentences containing greater amounts of subordination when speaking in the expository genre than in the conversational genre. No group differences were revealed by the conversational task. However, on the expository task, the TLD group outperformed both the SLI and NLI groups on mean length of T-unit, and the TLD group outperformed the NLI group on relative clause use. Conclusions: Speech-language pathologists may wish to employ expository discourse tasks rather than conversational tasks to examine syntactic development in adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Crain and Nakayama (1987), when forming complex yes/no questions, children do not make errors such as Is the boy who smoking is crazy? because they have innate knowledge of structure dependence and so will not move the auxiliary from the relative clause. However, simple recurrent networks are also able to avoid such errors, on the basis of surface distributional properties of the input (Lewis & Elman, 2001; Reali & Christiansen, 2005). Two new elicited production studies revealed that (a) children occasionally produce structure-dependence errors and (b) the pattern of children's auxiliary-doubling errors (Is the boy who is smoking is crazy?) suggests a sensitivity to surface co-occurrence patterns in the input. This article concludes that current data do not provide any support for the claim that structure dependence is an innate constraint, and that it is possible that children form a structure-dependent grammar on the basis of exposure to input that exhibits this property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore whether 13 children with specific language impairment (SLI; ages 5;1-8;0 [years;months]) were as proficient as typically developing age- and vocabulary-matched children in the production of finite and nonfinite complement clauses. Preschool children with SLI have marked difficulties with verb-related morphology. However, very little is known about these children's language abilities beyond the preschool years. In Experiment 1, simple finite and nonfinite complement clauses (e.g., The count decided that Ernie should eat the cookies; Cookie Monster decided to eat the cookies) were elicited from the children through puppet show enactments. In Experiment 2, finite and nonfinite complement clauses that required an additional argument (e.g., Ernie told Elmo that Oscar picked up the box; Ernie told Elmo to pick up the box) were elicited from the children. All 3 groups of children were more accurate in their use of nonfinite complement clauses than finite complement clauses, but the children with SLI were less proficient than both comparison groups. The SLI group was more likely than the typically developing groups to omit finiteness markers, the nonfinite particle to, arguments in finite complement clauses, and the optional complementizer that. Utterance-length restrictions were ruled out as a factor in the observed differences. The authors conclude that current theories of SLI need to be extended or altered to account for these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]