GRAMMATICAL MORPHOLOGY IN SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT

许多患有特殊语言障碍（SLI）的儿童在使用语法语素方面表现出特别严重的限制。有问题的语素包括动词的词形变化，如-s（如“她走路去上班”）和虚词，如助动词（如“克里斯正在打电话”）。这个问题可能是长期存在的，通常会延续到上学时期。这个项目的目的是探索这些语法语素限制的可能基础。为了实现这一目标，将采用实验治疗范式。每种对特殊语言障碍儿童语法语素限制的解释都对通常研究的语法语素提供了合理的解释。然而，这些说法在更大范围的语法语素上的预测存在差异。通过监测儿童对不同语法语素组的产生和理解，并在一组语素上对儿童进行强化治疗，在未经治疗的语素组上看到的收获模式应该揭示了语素之间关系的本质。因为没有两种说法对所有的语素做出相同的预测，所以得到的数据模式应该支持一些说法，反对另一些说法。所采用的治疗设计也应提供临床性质的重要益处。大量的特殊语言障碍儿童参与和广泛的语法语素研究应该提供关于治疗效果和这种治疗可能预期的推广模式的重要信息。

Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) show an especially serious limitation in the use of grammatical morphemes. The problematic morphemes include verb inflections such as -s (as in "She walks to work"), and function words such as auxiliary verbs (as in "Chris is talking on the phone"). The problem can be longstanding, often carrying into the school years. The purpose of this project is to explore the possible bases of these grammatical morpheme limitations. To accomplish this goal, an experimental treatment paradigm will be employed. Each of the alternative explanations of grammatical morpheme limitations in children with SLI provides a reasonable account of the grammatical morphemes commonly studied. However, these accounts differ in their predictions across a wider range of grammatical morphemes. By monitoring the children's production and comprehension of different sets of grammatical morphemes and providing the children with intensive treatment on one set, the pattern of gains seen on the untreated sets should reveal the nature of the relationship among the morphemes. Because no two accounts make the same predictions for all morphemes, the resulting pattern of data should lend support to some accounts and argue against others. The treatment design to be employed should also provide important benefits of a clinical nature. The large number of children with SLI participating and the wide range of grammatical morphemes to be studied should provide important information about both the efficacy of treatment and the generalization patterns that might be expected from this treatment.