Grammar and Syntax for School Aged Children - In-Depth Notes

Cognitive-Linguistic Competence

  • Grammar and syntax depend on children's ability to think complex thoughts.
  • These thoughts are represented semantically in the words spoken by children.
  • Both cognition and language are innate properties of the brain and mind.
  • Evidence of developmentally appropriate cognitive and linguistic behaviors can be observed in children's performance.

Understanding Cognition

  • Key aspects of cognition include:
    • Perception
    • Awareness
    • Attention
    • Memory
    • Comprehension
    • Reasoning
    • Organization
    • Problem-solving
    • Judgment
    • Planning
    • Self-regulation
    • Imagination
    • Intuition

Cognitive Connectionism

  • Language arises from various cognitive processes:
    • Attention
    • Perception
    • Memory
    • Information processing
    • Pattern recognition
  • Syntax evolves from neural patterns that are enhanced during complex thinking.
  • Successful cognitive development stages support the acquisition of co-occurring words in children.

Cognitive Development Stages

Concrete Operations (Ages 7 to 11)
  • Children develop logical thinking.
  • Syntax matures to include most adult-like constructions.
Formal Operations (Ages 11 to 15)
  • Abstract thinking flourishes, allowing for hypothetical reasoning.
  • Children can combine multiple linguistic prepositions in their syntax.

Message Functions and Syntactic Properties

  • Message functions label intent and reflect cognitive, linguistic, and social competencies.
  • Research has explored the developmental sequence of speech acts.
  • Halliday describes language development as learning how to mean through interactions, where experiential meaning provokes language.

Grammatical and Syntactic Elements of Mature English

  • Expectations for language performance are set by educational agencies.
  • Evidence of syntactic performance in school-aged children comes from linguistics, psychology, education, and speech-language pathology.

Deficits in Grammar and Syntax

  • Common deficits in grammar by younger children persist in older school-age learners, including:
    • Simpler sentence structures
    • Lapses in grammatical forms
    • Difficulty with mature and accurate spoken language
  • Judging older children's grammar against a defined adult standard is complex due to variability in adult language across populations.

Syntax Delay versus Syntax Disorder

  • Syntax Delay: A typical pattern of progress occurs more slowly.
  • Syntax Disorder: An atypical trajectory with irregular features and potential lack of grammatical system development.

Syntax Delay

  • Common grammar errors persist beyond expected resolution age.
  • Example errors include omission of bound morphemes.

Syntax Disorder

  • Characterized by disruptions in language acquisition and grammatical development.
  • May lead to utterances missing grammatical structure, limiting communication.

Commonalities Between Syntax Delay and Disorder

  • Both may show periodic plateaus in development.
  • Their functioning can differ from cognitive and social abilities.

Linguistic Considerations for Measurement of Syntactic Abilities

  • Evidence of command over generative grammar is reflected in the integration of clauses.
  • Assessment should focus on the quality and complexity of syntactic constructions.

Elicitation of Language Samples

  • Use conversational probes on higher-level topics with open-ended responses.
  • Consider different communicative genres: conversation, event narration, exposition.
  • Research shows longer average sentence lengths in narrative compared to conversational discourse.

Subordination Index & C Units

  • The Subordination Index (SI) measures the use of clauses in a language sample.
  • SI is the total clauses divided by communication units (C-units).
  • A mature speaker should have more C-units, indicating a mixture of independent and dependent clauses.

Standardized Assessments vs. Language Sampling

  • Language sampling provides ecological validity and reflects natural speech.
  • Standardized tests can identify specific weaknesses but may not capture the full extent of spontaneous language use.

Items Testing Receptive and Expressive Syntax

  • Receptive syntax tests focus on understanding in context, while expressive syntax assesses responses according to expected structures.

Therapy with SPICE

  • Analyze sentences for target forms including:
    • Word structure (morphology)
    • Use of prefixes and suffixes
    • Nominalization and adjective formation
    • Clause structure expansions including complex verb phrases and modifications
  • Effective therapy addresses expanding syntactic structures through various elements of sentence construction.

Questions and References

  • For further inquiries, refer to Gordon-Pershey (2022) on Oral and Written Language Skills, First Edition.
  • Published by Plural Publishing.