One Of A Kind Grammar: The Role Of Sentence Diversity In Children's Grammatical Development

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of parent sentence diversity to children???s sentence diversity at a later age. Children???s sentence diversity was further explored to examine its contribution to children???s subsequent 3rd person tense and agreement marking. Method: Twenty parent-child dyads participated in the study. Spontaneous language samples were collected from parents when children were 21 months of age and from children at 30 months of age. These samples were coded for unique subject-verb combinations (USV), the sentence diversity measure. At 36 months of age, the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment was administered to measure children???s ability to accurately mark tense and agreement. Results: No relationship was found between parent sentence diversity and children???s sentence diversity. However, children???s 30-month sentence diversity was significantly related to their ability to mark tense and agreement at 36 months of age. Conclusion: Children???s sentence diversity is a foundation for their subsequent acquisition of tense and agreement. However, it is unclear exactly what properties of parent input support children???s early acquisition of diverse sentences