Abstract

DOTTI, Horacio Miguel et al. An assessment of the comprehension of highly costly syntactic structures by school age children. Rev Arg Cs Comp. [online]. 2018, vol.10, n.2, pp.37-57. ISSN 1852-4206.

An evaluation of Spanish-speaking schoolchildren’s ability to comprehend highly-costly sentences is provided, which aimed to identify children at risk of Specific Language Impairment/Developmental Language Disorder. The investigation was guided by linguistic/psycholinguistic hypotheses concerning sentence processing cost. A battery of tests was used, which included passive sentences, relative clauses, WH/WH+N questions in different conditions. Reversible passives, and object relative and WH Questions were predicted to be more demanding. 390 children (6-12 years of age) from 2 elementary schools were tested. The schools were distinguished as a function of social/economical factors. The results are compatible with the predictions. Social-economical factors are shown to influence children’s overall performance. Children whose scores were 2SD below the mean of correct responses of the age group (8.7%) were considered to be at risk of syntactic impairment.

Keywords : processing cost; syntactic comprehension; schoolchildren; specific language impairment.

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