A processability theory perspective on morphosyntax in school-age children with developmental language disorder

This study examines the production of morphosyntax in Swedish-speaking children diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Data from a Sentence Repetition Task was used to investigate if there is an implicational order according to Processability Theory (PT) in grammatical structures produced by school-age children with DLD. PT is a cognitive theory of language development that assumes five implicational stages of morphosyntactic development. The analysis was based on a selection of sentences representing the different PT stages. The participants (<i>n</i> = 49; 6;5-11;5 years of age) were recruited from school language units for children with DLD. The results confirm an implicational order: the participants produced structures from a higher stage only if they also produced structures from lower stages. It is suggested that the developmental hierarchy can be used in the intervention of children with DLD by focusing on the next stage. Also, only 26.5% of the participants achieved PT stage 4, and one child (2%) reached the highest PT stage 5. This is discussed in relation to what is known regarding PT stages in typically developing children, as well as associations with language, memory, and non-verbal measures.