The Younger the Better? Variability in Language Development of Young German-speaking Children

The influence of age at implantation and experiential factors on language development in young children with cochlear implants was examined. There were two samples, one cross-sectional with 41 children, and one longitudinal with 26 children. Age at implantation in both samples ranged from 6 to 47 months, with children evenly distributed in the age groups: 6-12, 13-24, 25-42 months at implantation. Linguistic progress was assessed by parental questionnaire, and for the longitudinal sample additionally, by one-hourly spontaneous speech samples. Data were collected 12, 18, 24 and 30 months after implantation. Measures of vocabulary and grammar were taken, including number of word types, MLU, inflectional morphology and sentence complexity. In both samples there was extensive variability in linguistic progress. Children’s linguistic progress was significantly related to social class, measured by parental education, but not age at implantation. Maternal dialogue variables were analyzed in the longitudinal sample and found to be related to children’s linguistic progress. Thus, experiential factors account for the extensive variability in children’s linguistic growth rather than age at implantation. The data support an epigenetic rather than a maturational concept of ‘sensitive phase’.

The Acquisition of Verb-argument Structure in German-speaking Children

Valian (1991) proposes that children’s use of verb-argument structure is based on abstract knowledge of verb categories and limited by shortcomings of performance. Theakston, Lieven, Pine & Rowland (2001) provide evidence that children’s transitive and intransitive verb use is learnt gradually and influenced by verb use in the input. The present study examines the acquisition of verb-argument structure in Germanspeaking children aged 1;6 to 2;10 and is based on longitudinal spontaneous speech data of a sample of six children, four girls and two boys, and their mothers (Szagun, 2004). Children’s verb use was analysed at two MLU levels (MLU1: M = 1.89, MLU2: M = 2.86). On average, 171 child verb utterances (SD = 68) per child at level 1 and 333 child verb utterances (SD = 147) per child at level 2 were used. The influence of adult speech was analysed on the basis of 25 verb types. The present results suggest that children’s acquisition of verb-argument structure develops gradually and is sensitive to adult use of verbs.

Revista de logopedia, foniatría y audiología

Resumen en españolSe presenta un estudio que examina el efecto del lenguaje de los padres en el proceso lingüístico de niños con implante coclear. En el estudio participaron 21 niños junto con sus madres, se recogieron datos cada 4 meses durante 27 meses. Se analizó el lenguaje espontáneo en una situación de juego libre con la madre, estudiando la gramática de los niños, el uso de nombres plurales, formas verbales y el uso del género y número en los artículos. Se observa que el uso de un lenguaje enriquecedor por parte de la madra conduce a un mejor crecimiento del lenguaje del niño.CataluñaConsejería de Educación. Dirección General de Política Educativa; Calle Delgado Valencia, 6; 06800 Mérida (Badajoz); Tel. +34924006714; Fax +34924006716; [email protected]