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Specific language impairment at adolescence: Avoiding complexity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2011

LAURICE TULLER ,
CÉLIA HENRY ,
EVA SIZARET  and
MARIE-ANNE BARTHEZ
LAURICE TULLER*
Affiliation:
Université François Rabelais de Tours
CÉLIA HENRY
Affiliation:
Institut de Rééducation de la Communication, de la Vue et de l'Ouïe (IRECOV), Tours
EVA SIZARET
Affiliation:
Regional University Hospital Center (CHRU), Tours
MARIE-ANNE BARTHEZ
Affiliation:
Regional University Hospital Center (CHRU), Tours
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Laurice Tuller, Université François Rabelais de Tours, Laboratoire Imagerie et Cerveau, Inserm U930, CHRU Bretonneau, 2 Boulevard Tonnellé, 37044 Tours Cedex, France. E-mail: tuller@univ-tours.fr
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Abstract

This study explores complex language in adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI) with the aim of finding out how aspects of language characteristic of typical syntactic development after childhood fare and, in particular, whether there is evidence that individuals with SLI avoid using structures whose syntactic derivation involves greater computational complexity. An analysis of spontaneous language samples of 18 French-speaking adolescents with SLI, compared to groups of typically developing speakers, showed that whereas complexity increases with age in the latter, behaviors of avoidance are clear in the former, in the form of low frequencies of complex structures, but also frequency of failed attempts and alternative strategies. Whereas increasing complexity is the hallmark of syntactic development after childhood, avoidance of complexity appears to characterize SLI after childhood.

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Type
Articles
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Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 161 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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