MJERE JEZIČNOG RAZVOJA KAO POKAZATELJI POSEBNIH JEZIČNIH TEŠKOĆA
MEASUREMENTS OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AS MARKERS OF SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT (SLI)

Summary/Abstract: In research and clinical practice language development can be described by two basic methods: scores on psychometric test and calculating basic measures of language development. The other method should have a high applicability where there is low possibility of psychometric testing, like in Croatia where only few standardised tests are available. The aim of this research was to compare basic measures of language development in three groups of participants. First group consists of participants with special language impairment (SLI). Participants in second group have typically developing language and are matched with SLI group by chronological age. Third group is also typically developing, but with lower chronological age. Same pictorial material was used to elicitate narration in all three groups of participants. Language samples were taken, transcribed, coded and used for calculating basic measures of language development (mean length of utterance in words, type-token ratio, lemma-token ratio and others). Results showed that basic measures of language development differentiate among groups ofparticipants: measures on the level of utterances and discourse showed statistically significant difference between SLI group and chronologically matched group with typical language development, but did not showed such difference between SLI group and younger group with typical language development. Measures of lexical development show similar tendencies.However, with lexical measures, other factors, such as elicitation material and the type of sampling should be taken into account. Overall, results suggest that basic measures of language development can describe language status. More frequent usage of such measures in clinic and research should enhance the amount of data and enable more precise and reliable application of this type of language profiling.

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