7 - Preschoolers (2-5) development morphosyntactic skills

Question 1

Table 8-2 (pg 310)

Answer 1

MEMORIZE

Question 2

Turnbull & Justice 2012

Answer 2

• in their envrionments, most children hear simple syntax
• grammatically good utterances with simple noun phrase and verb structures
  
  • eg: “The cat ate her food!”

Question 3

However… (Turnbull & Justice 2012):

Answer 3

Children who hear more complex syntax produce greater amounts of complex syntax at an earlier age

Question 4

Grammatical morphemes start to emerge around 18 months. According to Brown’s Morphemes (310), the order is:

Answer 4

1. -ing
2. In
3. On
4. regular plural -s

Question 5

To assess children’s morphosyntactic skills…

Answer 5

• calculate MLU (mean length of utterance)

* instead of counting words, we count morphemes (free and bound)

Question 6

Words vs. Morphemes

“We wanted to eat cookies.” – How many words and how many morphemes?

Answer 6

5 words

7 morphemes

Question 7

How many morphemes?

1. The three boys wanted five candies.
2. We played al day with my friend’s toys.
3. He’s going to cook eggs and bacon.

Answer 7

1. 9
2. 11
3. 10

Question 8

Basic Sentence Constituents

Answer 8

Phrase
Clause
Sentence
Noun Phrase
Verb Phrase

Question 9

Phrase

Answer 9

a group of words that is structurally related

“tall man” “pretty lady” “orange carrot” “fast horse”

Question 10

Clause

Answer 10

has subject and predicate
• black dog bark
• Daddy cook
• brother watch TV

Question 11

Sentence (usually around 3yo)

Answer 11

A clause that is structurally complete
• The black dog is barking
• Daddy is cooking

Question 12

Noun Phrase

Answer 12

Sentence role filled by people and objects

• The boy is blowing out his candles

Question 13

Verb Phrase

Answer 13

Actions or relationships that are central to the sentence

• The girl lifes the beach ball.

Question 14

Noun Phrase Elements

Answer 14

Determiners
Pronounds
Noun suffixes
Comparatives
Superlatives

Question 15

Determiners

Answer 15

Precede and modify nouns (around 3yo)
	• Demonstrative: this, that, these, those
	• Ordinals: first, second, third
	• Adjectives: blue, old, fuzzy, cold
	• Possessives: my, his, hers

Question 16

Pronouns

Answer 16

a group of forms that can replace nouns or entire noun phrases
• I, he, she, we, you, it
• Common errors: me/I, him/he, her/she, them/they (should clear up by 3-4y)

Question 17

Noun Suffixes

Answer 17

Comparatives, superlatives, derivationals;

• preschoolers begin to use these accurately between 3-5 years of age

Question 18

Comparatives

Answer 18

-er suffix; comparrison between 2 items
• Shorter, cleaner, shinier

(usually around 3, should be by 5)

Question 19

Superlatives

Answer 19

-est suffix; conveys comparison among more than 2 items

• tallest, brightest, blackest

Question 20

Derivational suffix -er

Answer 20

Changes a verb into a noun that names the person who engages in that action
• teacher, painter, singer, runner, farmer, plumber, thinker

Question 21

Verb Phrase Elements

Answer 21

Action verbs
Copula verbs
State verbs
process verbs

Question 22

Action verbs

Answer 22

activity that can be seen

• writing, swimming, dancing

Question 23

Copula verbs

Answer 23

to-be verbs that serve syntactically as the main verbs in sentences
• am, is, are, was, were

Question 24

State verbs

Answer 24

express static or unchanging condition
• That tree is old.
• The building stands next to the tree.

Question 25

Process verbs

Answer 25

internal activity or gradual changes in people or things (thinking, hearing, stressing, growing, digesting, loving, believing, dreaming)

• harder to learn because abstract; not visual

Question 26

By 5 years of age…

Answer 26

Children have mastered most verb forms

Question 27

Types of sentences

Answer 27

1. interrogative
2. declarative
3. passive
4. negative

Question 28

Interrogative

Answer 28

asks a question
• Yes/no? (earliest - develops around 18 months)
• wh-?s
• tag ?s (speaker wants confirmation)

Question 29

Declarative

Answer 29

makes a statement

Question 30

Passive

Answer 30

noun in subject phrase is passive and is acted on by noun in verb phrase
• The toy was played with by the h child.
• The notes were taken by the students.

*** really hard for LI kids

Question 31

Negative (around 18 months)

Answer 31

• Initially, children put negative first.
• Disappearance: “all gone kitty.”
• Rejection: “no comb hair”
• Denial: “no go poppy” (denying dirty diaper)

Question 32

Complex Sentences

Answer 32

Has independent and dependent clause:
• We will go to the party if its not raining.
(indep. clause) (dependent clause)

Question 33

Compound Sentence

Answer 33

2 independent clauses are linked together by a conjunction
• We ate cookies and they were good.
(indep clause) (conjunc) (independent clause)

Question 34

Coordinating conjuctions

Answer 34

FANBOYS
for-and-nor-but-or-yet-so

• connect words, phrases, clauses of equal rank
• Children develop “and” first

Question 35

Rescorla, 2008 ASHA Leader article

“Late Talkers Show Language Weakness into Adolescence”

Answer 35

20+ years ago…
• she got 2 groups of children (39 typically-developing (TD) children and 40 late talkers (LT)) all 24-31 months of age
• all middle-upper income families

• TD: 230 words, using phrases
• LT: 24 words, no phrases
  
  • all had normal receptive language
• follow ups:
  
  • At 9 and 13 years, LTs scored in normal range on language and reading tests
  • However, they had significantly weaker language than their TD peers
  • At 17 years, LTs had significantly lower scores on measures of vocabulary, grammar, and verbal memory

Thus…
Early intervention is good; the earlier the better