Expressive morphosyntax abilities in SLI: Proposal of a new evaluation task
Sara Lovotti, Elena Gandolfi, Danilo Diotti, Paola Viterbori
Expressive morphosyntax deficits have been recognised as markers of Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The number of standardised tasks available to assess morphosyntax abilities in preschool age is still limited. Even though the wrong production of verbs and free morphemes is considered as a marker of specific expressive morphosyntactic impairment, no tasks assessing these skills have been developed for the Italian language. The principal aim of this study is the development of a battery to assess different aspects of expressive morphosyntax: articles, object clitics, verbs and prepositions. A sample of children with SLI was compared with a sample of younger typically developing children on the morphosyntax battery. The results indicate that the battery could be useful in the diagnostic process.
Keywords
SLI, Assessment, Morphosyntax, Prepositions.