Subject–verb agreement and verbal short-term memory: A perspective from Greek children with specific language impairment. Issue 3 (June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lalioti, Marina; Stavrakaki, Stavroula; Manouilidou, Christina; Talli, Ioanna
• Is Part Of: First language. Volume 36:Issue 3(2016:Aug.)
• Page Start: 279
• Page End: 294
• Publication Date: 2016-06
• Subjects: Grammatical sensitivity -- limitations in verbal short-term memory -- specific language impairment -- subject–verb agreement -- verbal short-term memory; Language acquisition -- Periodicals; 401.9305
• DOI: 10.1177/0142723716648844
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0142-7237

Abstract

This study investigated the performance of school age Greek-speaking children with SLI on verbal short-term memory (VSTM) and Subject–Verb (S-V) agreement in comparison to chronological age controls and younger typically developing children. VSTM abilities were assessed by means of a non-word repetition task (NRT) and an elicited production task, an off-line grammaticality judgment (GJ) task, and an on-line self-paced listening task were employed to examine S-V agreement abilities. The study found significant between-group differences in the NRT and the off-line GJ task. No significant between-group differences were found for the S-V agreement production task and for reaction times of the on-line task. The authors argue that the children with SLI showed increased grammatical sensitivity in S-V agreement and relate their lower performance on the off-line GJ task to the task's metalinguistic demands. The findings suggest that deficits in VSTM constitute a robust marker for SLI and claim that S-V agreement can be acquired by SLI individuals with apparent limitations in VSTM.