Academic literature on the topic 'Mean Length of Utterance (MLUw)'

ABSTRACTOne of the most widely used indices of language development is a measure of utterance length in morphemes (MLUm). This study examines the applicability of MLUm to the acquisition of Irish. MLUm was calculated for data from Cian, aged 1;11–3;0. Even when an attempt was made to ‘assume the maximum’ by counting all possible morphemes, the correlation between a morpheme MLU (MLUm) and a word count MLU (MLUw) was very high (0·99). This points to MLUw being as effective a measure of Irish development as MLUm, as well as being easier to apply and more reliable. MLUw was calculated for the two younger children in the study (Eibhlís 1;4–2;1 and Eoin 1;10–2;6). An examination of the relationship between the three children's MLUw values and their grammatical complexity as measured on ILARSP (the Irish adaptation of LARSP) indicates that MLUw is a useful preliminary index for early development in Irish. However, further data are necessary to check whether MLUw loses its predictive relationship with grammatical complexity after a certain point. The study emphasizes the caution necessary in applying MLU to languages whose acquisition has not hitherto been studied, and underlines the role of MLU as a preliminary measure, which must not be overinterpreted.

Using MLU to study early language development in English The study examines the parameter of Mean Length of Utterance (MLU), measured both in morphemes (MLUm) and words (MLUw), in early language development in the case of two English children matched for age. The MLU scores of a normally developing child were compared to the MLU results of a language-impaired child in a longitudinal study. Moreover, the reliability of the MLU index measured in words was also tested in both children. The MLU analysis was based on the CHILDES database and CLAN programme, where the transcripts of spontaneous speech samples are used to calculate basic language parameters at different age-points. The findings of this study indicate that despite the expected delay, the language-impaired child followed a similar route of language development as the control child. However, significant differences between MLUw and MLUm confirmed that the parameters performed two different linguistic analyses.

The lexical diversity of children with specific language impairment (SLI) (ages 3 years 7 months to 7 years 3 months) was compared to that of normally developing same-age peers and younger normally developing children matched according to mean length of utterance in words (MLUw). Lexical diversity was calculated from spontaneous speech samples using D, a measure that uses repeated calculations of type-token ratio (TTR) to estimate how TTR changes as the speech samples increase in size. When D computations were based on 250-word samples, developmental differences were apparent. For both children with SLI and typically developing children, older subgroups showed higher D scores than younger subgroups, and subgroups with higher MLUws showed higher D scores than subgroups with lower MLUws. Children with SLI did not differ from same-age peers. At lower MLUw levels, children with SLI showed higher D scores than younger typically developing children matched for MLUw. The developmental sensitivity of D notwithstanding, comparisons using 100-utterance samples, in which the number of lexical tokens varied as a function of the children's MLUws, and comparisons between 250- and 500-word samples revealed the possible influence of sample size on this measure. However, analysis of the effect sizes using smaller and larger samples revealed that D is not affected by sample size to the degree seen for more traditional measures of lexical diversity.

This study explored the differences in mean length of utterance (MLU) and mean length of the five longest utterances (MLU5) between 5–6-year-old Mandarin-speaking children, and between typically developing children and children with developmental language disorders (DLD). Eighty-nine typically developing children and 35 children with a DLD participated in this study. The researchers collected, transcribed, and analysed language samples from these children. MLU and MLU5 were analysed and compared between the groups. The results showed that MLU and MLU5 were significantly higher for 6-year-olds than 5-year-olds. Also, both MLU measures were significantly lower for children with DLD than for typically developing children. The findings demonstrate that MLU and MLU5 can be used to evaluate language ability and to identify children with DLD among Mandarin-speaking children aged 5 and 6 years.

Purpose The purpose of this analysis was to understand how grammatical morpheme production in Spanish for typically developing Spanish–English bilingual children relates to mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) and the extent to which different bilingual profiles influence order of grammatical morpheme acquisition. Method Participants included 228 Spanish–English bilingual children ages 4;0–7;6 (years;months). Grammatical morpheme accuracy was evaluated using an experimental version of the Bilingual English–Spanish Assessment (Peña, Gutiérrez-Clellen, Iglesias, Goldstein, & Bedore, 2014). MLUw data were calculated from children's narrative samples. Production accuracy of plural nouns, singular and plural definite articles, preterite tense, imperfect aspect, direct object clitics, prepositions, subjunctive, and conjunctions was calculated and analyzed as a function of MLUw in Spanish. Level of accuracy on these forms was compared for Spanish-dominant and English-dominant groups. Results Accuracy was significantly associated with MLUw. The relative difficulty of Spanish grammatical morphemes is highly similar across different bilingual profiles. Conclusions There are common elements of Spanish that are easy (imperfect, plural nouns, singular articles, conjunctions), medium (plural articles, preterite), or hard (prepositions, direct object clitics, subjunctive), regardless of whether a child is a Spanish-dominant or English-dominant bilingual.

While research undertaken worldwide indicates that mean length of utterance (MLU) is a valuable index in investigations of child language development, to date there have been no studies exploring MLU in pre-primary Cypriot Greek (CYG)-speaking children. The participants in this study were 36 monolingual CYG-speaking children at ages 36, 40, 44 and 48 months, with a typical course of language development. The findings demonstrated that MLU counted in words (MLU-w) of typically developing CYG-speaking children had a positive correlation with age (from 36 to 48 months) and a non-significant difference in MLU-w by gender at each age point, and that typically developing CYG-speaking children, for the age range studied, tended to produce more multiword utterance types. An outcome of this study is an MLU-w database which could be used, with some caution, in the language assessment of a similar population or as the basis for future studies. Areas for further research are identified.

ABSTRACTIn order to separate competence and performance factors in acquisition of knowledge of syntactic subjects, we audiotaped and analysed the spontaneous speech of 20 Portuguese-speaking two-year-olds in natural conversation with Portuguese-speaking adults. We separated the children into three groups based on Mean Length of Utterance in Words: 1·5–1·99; 2·0–2·99; 3·0–4·99. Our cross-sectional data demonstrated that Portuguese-speaking children increased their use of subjects from 28% in the lowest-MLUW group to 57% in the highest-MLUW group. The children in the highest-MLUW group almost perfectly matched the adult speakers in the study on every measure. The increase in children's use of subjects was primarily due to an increase in the use of pronominal subjects. A comparison between Portuguese- and English-speaking children suggests that adult competence about the status of subjects is present at the onset of combinatorial speech, as shown by differential production of subjects. Each group also experiences performance limitations, as shown by the increase in subject use as development proceeds.

Purpose This study examined whether the language sample elicitation technique (i.e., storytelling and story-retelling tasks with pictorial support) affects lexical diversity (D), grammaticality (grammatical errors per communication unit [GE/CU]), sentence length (mean length of utterance in words [MLUw]), and sentence complexity (subordination index [SI]), which are commonly used indices for diagnosing primary language impairment in Spanish–English-speaking children in the United States. Method Twenty bilingual Spanish–English-speaking children with typical language development and 20 with primary language impairment participated in the study. Four analyses of variance were conducted to evaluate the effect of language elicitation technique and group on D, GE/CU, MLUw, and SI. Also, 2 discriminant analyses were conducted to assess which indices were more effective for story retelling and storytelling and their classification accuracy across elicitation techniques. Results D, MLUw, and SI were influenced by the type of elicitation technique, but GE/CU was not. The classification accuracy of language sample analysis was greater in story retelling than in storytelling, with GE/CU and D being useful indicators of language abilities in story retelling and GE/CU and SI in storytelling. Conclusion Two indices in language sample analysis may be sufficient for diagnosis in 4- to 5-year-old bilingual Spanish–English-speaking children.

Purpose Spoken language skills of 3- and 6-year-old children who are hard of hearing (HH) were compared with those of children with normal hearing (NH). Method Language skills were measured via mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) and percent correct use of finite verb morphology in obligatory contexts based on spontaneous conversational samples gathered from 185 children (145 HH, 40 NH). Aided speech intelligibility index (SII), better-ear pure-tone average (BE-PTA), maternal education, and age of amplification were used to predict outcomes within the HH group. Results On average, the HH group had MLUws that were 0.25–0.5 words shorter than the NH group at both ages, and they produced fewer obligatory verb morphemes. After age, aided SII and age of amplification predicted MLUw. Aided SII and BE-PTA were not interchangeable in this analysis. Age followed by either BE-PTA or aided SII best predicted verb morphology use. Conclusions Children who are HH lag behind their peers with NH in grammatical aspects of language. Although some children appear to catch up, more than half of the children who are HH fell below the 25th percentile. Continued monitoring of language outcomes is warranted considering that children who are HH are at increased risk for language learning difficulties.

Mean length of utterance (MLU) is widely used in child language sample analysis as a way to quantify language development. The current study examines the split-half reliability of MLU and two alternative measures: MLU2 and median length of utterance (MdLU). The effects of utterance segmentation into phonological units (P-units) or communication units (C-units) on reliability were also studied. Sixty conversational child language samples were used which included ten children with language impairment. All measures were found to have high levels of split-half reliability, with MLU and MLU2 having higher levels of reliability than MdLU. There was no significant difference between MLU and MLU2. The differences in reliability when segmented into P-units or C-units were inconsistent. Overall, MLU and MLU2 are adequately reliable measures for clinical use.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Desenvolvimento e Perturbações da Linguagem na Criança
A Extensão Média do Enunciado (EME) é um índice que resulta do rácio entre o número de morfemas (EME-m) ou número de palavras (EME-p) e o número de enunciados produzidos pela criança. Este índice tem vindo a ser estudado e utilizado em diferentes países e línguas, e, apesar de muitos estudos o apontarem como um bom indicador de desenvolvimento gramatical e linguístico, outros são controversos, principalmente quando aplicados a línguas com morfologia flexional mais rica, como o caso do português. Dada a escassez de dados para o português europeu, confinados a duas faixas etárias, e atendendo às evidências de que a EME-m e a EME-p apresentam uma boa correlação, neste estudo procurou-se analisar a EME-p, dos três aos sete anos. Os principais objetivos da presente dissertação são verificar se a EME-p será um bom indicador de desenvolvimento gramatical e linguístico, através da sua correlação com a idade e analisando diferenças entre faixas etárias, entre contextos de discurso (narrativo e espontâneo) e o nível de escolaridade (pré-escolar e escolar). Participaram no estudo cinquenta crianças, monolingues do português europeu e com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem, a frequentar centros educativos do Concelho de Santa Comba Dão. Foram gravadas, em dois momentos, amostras de discurso, espontâneo e narrativo, perfazendo, pelo menos, cem enunciados, que, posteriormente, foram transcritos através do Software Computerized Language Analysis (CLAN), que também realizou, de forma automática, o cálculo da EME-p. Os resultados indicam uma associação forte entre a idade e a EME-p, apesar de não existirem diferenças entre todas as faixas etárias, e uma correlação positiva entre a EME-p e o desenvolvimento da linguagem de crianças monolingues do português europeu. O valor da EME-p em discurso narrativo é estatisticamente superior ao seu valor em discurso espontâneo e o grupo em idade pré-escolar apresentou menor desempenho do que o grupo escolar. Em suma, considera-se que a EME-p pode fornecer informação pertinente sobre o desenvolvimento expressivo morfossintático da criança, contudo não poderão ser considerados valores padrão nem se poderá utilizar este índice como critério de diagnóstico.
The Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) is an index that results from the ratio between the number of morphemes (MLUm) or number of words (MLUw) and the number of utterances produced by the child. This index has been studied and used in different countries and languages and although many studies tell us that it is a good grammatical and linguistic development indicator, others are controversial, especially when applied to languages with richer inflectional morphology, such as Portuguese. Given the lack of data for European Portuguese confined to two age groups, and given the evidence that MLUm and MLUw have a good correlation, in this study we tried to analyze the MLUw in a group from three to seven years old. The main objectives of this dissertation are to check if the MLUw is a good indicator of grammatical and linguistic development, verifying its correlation with age and analyzing differences between age groups, discourse contexts (narrative and spontaneous) and the level of education (pre -school and school-age). In this study participated fifty children. They all were monolingual speakers of European Portuguese with typical language development, attending educational centers of the municipality of Santa Comba Dão. Speech samples were recorded in two different moments, in spontaneous speech and narrative context, making at least an hundred utterances which were later transcribed through Computerized Language Analysis Program (CLAN) which also calculated automatically the MLUw. The results indicate a strong association between age and the MLUw, although there are no significant differences between all age groups, and a positive correlation between MLUw and the development of European Portuguese children. The value of the MLUw in narrative discourse is statistically higher than in spontaneous speech and the group of pre-school age showed lower performance than the school-age group. In short, it is considered that the MLUw can provide relevant information on child development of morphosyntactic expressive competence, but cannot be considered as normative data or for diagnostic criterion.

Factors influencing language development and use are many. Teacher influences such as teacher:child ratio and teaching experience can affect the types of language children produce. Classroom influences including activities , size of the room, and length of the day also play a role in the development of language. All of these areas need to be considered in order to provide the best possible language environment for the preschool child. In this study, the researchers examined the mean length of utterance (MLU) values of preschool children while participating at three areas in a preschool classroom : art, dramatic play, and snack. Gender differences in MLU were also studied. Sixteen children (8 females, 8 males), ranging in age from 50 to 66 months, participated in the study . The children were currently attending the Child Development Laboratory at Utah State University. For the collection of data , the children wore a tape recorder with a microphone until a 5-minute sample from each of the areas was obtained . These audio recordings were then transcribed and calculated into MLU values. Findings from the analysis of variance tests (3[activity : art , dramatic p l ay, snack] X 2 [gender: male , female]) demonstrated that the children had larger MLU values at snack than at art or dramatic play. Snack time has not always been recognized as an activity area for young children to display typical language use. Overall , and at the three individual areas , there were no gender differences found in MLU. Results of this study may be used in planning how to arrange and organize an environment in which the children are comfortable and have opportunities to converse with both adults and other children.

A variety of tools have been developed to assist in the quantification and analysis of naturalistic language samples. In recent years, computer technology has been employed in language sample analysis. This study compares a new automated index, Scoring Sentences Developmentally (SSD), to two existing measures. Eighty samples from three corpora were manually analyzed using DSS and MLU and the processed by the automated software. Results show all three indices to be highly correlated, with correlations ranging from .62 to .98. The high correlations among scores support further investigation of the psychometric characteristics of the SSD software to determine its clinical validity and reliability. Results of this study suggest that SSD has the potential to compliment other analysis procedures in assessing the language development of young children.

Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) is a standardized language sample analysis procedure that uses complete sentences to evaluate and score a child’s use of standard American-English grammatical rules. Automated DSS software can potentially increase efficiency and decrease the time needed for DSS analysis. This study examines the accuracy of one automated DSS software program, DSSA Version 2.0, compared to manual DSS scoring on previously collected language samples from 30 children between the ages of 2;5 and 7;11 (years;months). The overall accuracy of DSSA 2.0 was 86%. Additionally, the present study sought to determine the relationship between DSS, DSSA Version 2.0, the mean length of utterance (MLU), and age. MLU is a measure of linguistic ability in children, and is a widely used indicator of language impairment. This study found that MLU and DSS are both strongly correlated with age and these correlations are statistically significant, r = .605, p < .001 and r = .723, p < .001, respectively. In addition, MLU and DSSA were also strongly correlated with age and these correlations were statistically significant, r = .605, p < .001 and r = .669, p < .001, respectively. The correlation between MLU and DSS was high and statistically significant r = .873, p < .001, indicating that the correlation between MLU and DSS is not simply an artifact of both measures being correlated with age. Furthermore, the correlation between MLU and DSSA was high, r = .794, suggesting that the correlation between MLU and DSSA is not simply an artifact of both variables being correlated with age. Lastly, the relationship between DSS and age while controlling for MLU was moderate, but still statistically significant r = .501, p = .006. Therefore, DSS appears to add information beyond MLU.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo principal analisar os vários subsistemas da linguagem oral em crianças com surdez pré-lingual, severa a profunda, utilizadoras de Implante Coclear (IC), dispositivo que possibilita a aquisição e o desenvolvimento da linguagem oral através da via auditiva. Dados sobre esta matéria em crianças a adquirir o Português Europeu são escassos e, muitas vezes, circunscritos, apenas, a certos aspetos da linguagem. Para além do estudo empírico feito com crianças surdas com IC e seus pares normoouvintes, procurámos enquadrar o trabalho fazendo uma revisão da literatura sobre: a) anatomia e fisiologia da audição, avaliação audiológica, tipos de surdez, próteses auditivas e implantes cocleares; b) aquisição e desenvolvimento dos vários subsistemas da linguagem oral e formas de avaliação; e c) aquisição e desenvolvimento da linguagem oral em crianças surdas utilizadoras de IC. Neste estudo foi analisada a linguagem oral de 19 crianças surdas com IC, entre os três e os nove anos de idade cronológica e os dois e os sete anos de idade auditiva (isto é, tempo decorrido desde a ativação do processador do IC), e de 38 crianças normo-ouvintes, emparelhadas por idade auditiva e por idade cronológica, constituindo, assim, dois grupos de comparação com 19 crianças cada. De forma a estudar-se os diferentes subsistemas da linguagem foi necessário utilizar vários instrumentos como medidas de linguagem: o Teste Fonético-Fonológico ALPE (TFF-ALPE), que avalia o desenvolvimento fonológico através da nomeação de imagens; o Teste de Avaliação da Linguagem na Criança (TALC), que avalia componentes de compreensão (semântica e morfossintaxe) e expressão (semântico, morfossintaxe e pragmática), e foi ainda analisada a linguagem espontânea através da Extensão Média do Enunciado em palavras (EME-p). Foi também avaliado o impacto da idade auditiva e do modo de comunicação preferencial (comunicação oral ou comunicação total) nos resultados linguísticos alcançados pelas crianças surdas utilizadoras de IC. No geral, verificou-se nas crianças surdas com IC uma tendência para a estabilização tardia do inventário consonântico e a presença de processos fonológicos, a nível da sílaba e do segmento, que tendem a persistir ao longo do tempo. Os resultados revelaram também que as crianças da amostra com mais tempo de uso de IC, particularmente a partir dos 5;0 anos de idade auditiva, apresentavam um inventário consonântico mais completo e um decréscimo no uso de processos fonológicos. Paralelamente, os resultados obtidos no desenvolvimento semântico e no desenvolvimento da pragmática (TALC) foram adequados à sua idade auditiva. Por outro lado, verificou-se um fraco desenvolvimento na morfossintaxe (TALC), e valores na EME-p substancialmente inferiores, mesmo considerando a idade auditiva. O modo de comunicação preferencial não teve impacto no desenvolvimento da linguagem oral. A EME-p correlacionou-se positiva e significativamente com o TALC (compreensão e expressão), mostrando que esta medida de linguagem espontânea é também um indicador válido do desenvolvimento da linguagem para esta população infantil. Podemos concluir que o desenvolvimento da linguagem oral de crianças surdas com IC não é uniforme entre os vários subsistemas de linguagem avaliados, verificando-se níveis de proficiência idênticos aos de crianças com desenvolvimento típico (considerando a idade auditiva) na semântica e na pragmática, mas acompanhados de um sistema fonológico imaturo e de um desenvolvimento morfossintático inferior ao dos seus pares normo-ouvintes emparelhados por idade auditiva. Em adição, a EME p, enquanto medida global do desenvolvimento da linguagem, também revelou valores substancialmente inferiores, mesmo tendo em conta o tempo de audição robusta (i.e., tempo de uso de IC) destas crianças.
The main goal of the present work is to analyze the several oral language subsystems in children with prelingual severe-to-profound hearing loss who use cochlear implant (CI). The CI is a device that enables the acquisition and development of language through the auditory pathway. Data regarding children with CI, acquiring European Portuguese is limited and several times restricted to certain language matters. On top of the empiric study performed to deaf children with CI and their respective normally-hearing peers, we envisaged introducing the work by showing a literature revision regarding: a) anatomy and physiology of hearing, audiology evaluation, types of deafness, hearing aids and cochlear implants; b) acquisition and development of the several oral language subsystems and respective forms of assessment; and c) acquisition and development of oral language in deaf children with CI. In this study, we analyzed the language of 19 deaf children with CI with three to nine years of chronological age and two to seven years of hearing age (meaning the time elapsed since the activation of the CI processor). Additionally, we constitute two comparison groups, with 19 normal hearing children each (with a total of 38) paired by hearing age and chronological age, with the group of deaf children with cochlear implants. Moreover, we implement several instruments as language measures, to study the different language subsystems, namely: Teste Fonético-Fonológico ALPE (TFFALPE), that assesses phonological development through the naming of pictures; Teste de Avaliação da Linguagem na Criança (TALC), which encompass receptive language (semantics and morphosyntax) and expressive language (semantics, morphosyntax and pragmatics). Furthermore, it was also analyzed spontaneous speech samples through Mean Length of Utterance in words (MLU-w) and also, the impact of the hearing age and preferred communication mode (oral communication or total communication) on the linguistic results achieved by deaf children CI users. In general, deaf children with CI exhibit a tendency towards a late stabilization of the consonant inventory and the presence of phonologic processes, at the syllable and segment level, tend to persist over time. The results also revealed that the children in the sample with more extended use of CI, particularly from 5 years of hearing age on, had a more extensive consonant inventory and a decrease in the use of phonological processes when compared to deaf children with less time of implant experience. Moreover, the obtained results in the semantics and pragmatics (TALC) were adequate to their hearing age. On the other hand, there was a weak development in the morphosyntax (TALC), and the values in the EME-p were substantially lower, even considering the hearing age. The preferred communication method did not affect the development of oral language. The EME-p was positively and significantly correlated with TALC (comprehension and expression), illustrating that the measurement of spontaneous language through this index is also a valid indicator of language development in this population. In conclusion, language development in deaf children with CI was not uniform regarding the several language subsystems assessed. Moreover, we identify proficiency levels in deaf children with cochlear implants similar to their normal hearing peers (considering their hearing age) in the semantics and pragmatics; on the other hand, an immature phonological system and a morphosyntactic weak development were also attested in the group of deaf children, based on their hearing age. In addition, the EME-p, a global measure of language development, also revealed substantially lower values, even taking into account the length of children's robust auditory experience (i.e. hearing age).

The purpose of this analysis was to define norms for grammatical morpheme development in Spanish for Spanish-English bilingual children ages 4;0-7;6. This study uses secondary data analysis based on two existing datasets. Participants included 334 Spanish-English bilingual children that were recruited from school districts in Texas, Utah, and Pennsylvania. Grammatical morpheme accuracy was determined by performance on the BESA (Bilingual English Spanish Assessment) (Peña, Gutiérrez-Clellen et al., in preparation). Mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) data was collected from language samples. The average percent accuracy of grammatical morphemes was calculated and analyzed as a function of MLUw in Spanish. Results show that the percentage of accurately produced morphemes has a general upward trend as MLUw increases. Clinical and research implications are discussed.
text

碩士
朝陽科技大學
幼兒保育系碩士班
94
This research was aimed to investigate the differences of mean utterance length and grammatical classes analysis between preschool children with Viefnames mothers and local native children. 63 research participants were selected from kindergartens within Taichung and Chunghua County. There children were divided into groups of four-year-old, five-year-old and six-year-old. By the approach of “read book and tell the story” these children were given a wordless picture book to read. The stories these children told were to be their language samples for carrying out measurement of language production: mean length of utterance and grammatical classes analysis. In mean length of utterance measuring with syllables (MLUs), children with Vietnamese mothers in four-year-old, five-year-old and six-year-old group were measured to be 5.00, 6.16 and 7.55, where children with native mothers in four-year-old, five-year-old and six-year-old groups were measured to be 7.00, 8.92 and 8.34. In mean length of utterance measuring with words (MLUw), children with Vietnamese mothers in four-year-old, five-year-old and six-year-old group were measured to be 3.00, 3.72 and 4.87, where children with native mothers in four-year-old, five-year-old and six-year-old group were measured to be 4.46, 5.21, and 4.94. The results of analysis indicated statistical native children was significant suspension to that children with Vietnamese mother and six-year-old group better then four-years-old group. In aspect of grammatical classes analysis, that children with Vietnamese mother were Noun and Verb statistical more then others, native children were Verb statistical more then others.

Typically developing Spanish-English bilingual children's production of twelve grammatical morphemes was analyzed for accuracy and described as a function of their English mastery, as indexed by mean length of utterance (MLU). Results revealed positive trends in morpheme accuracy as MLU increased. Despite a large degree of between subject variability, the data demonstrated general patterns that were consistent with previous literature, namely that the rate and trajectory of morpheme acquisition differs from monolingual norms, and that particular morphemes are predictably more and less challenging for bilingual children to produce accurately. MLU "cut-points" were suggested based on functional breaks in accuracy for several morphemes.
text

Diversos estudos têm demonstrado que o nascimento pré-termo pode levar a alterações no desenvolvimento neurológico e a consequentes compromissos, nomeadamente do processamento e desenvolvimento linguístico. O presente estudo visa investigar se as crianças de nascimento muito prematuro a prematuro ligeiro (28 a 36 semanas) apresentam valores de Extensão Média do Enunciado em palavras (EME-p) mais baixos do que os considerados de referência aos 4 e 5 anos. Pretende-se também verificar no grupo de crianças prematuras se o número de semanas gestacionais e o peso à nascença influenciam os valores da EME-p e se existem diferenças condicionadas pelo género. Participaram no estudo 19 crianças prematuras (9 rapazes e 10 raparigas) matriculadas em jardins-de-infância da área da Grande Lisboa. O discurso destas crianças foi gravado durante 30 minutos e posteriormente transcrito para o software ELAN 4.1.2 para ser devidamente analisado. Verificou-se que os valores da EME-p de crianças prematuras são inferiores aos valores de referência aos 4 e 5 anos. Tanto o tempo de gestação como o peso à nascença se correlacionam de forma positiva e significativa com a EME-p. Não foram verificadas diferenças condicionadas pelo género nem pela escolaridade dos pais.
Several studies have shown that preterm birth can lead to abnormal neurological development that often leads to a compromise of processing and language development. Some studies also show that factors such as birth weight, parents' education and gender can significantly influence the language development of preterm infants. This work aims to verify whether children from very preterm birth to late preterm birth (28-36 weeks) present values of Mean Length of Utterance in words (MLU-w) lower than those considered in reference to the 4 and 5 years. We also intend to verify the group of premature children is the number of gestational weeks and birth weight influence the values of MLU-w and if there are differences conditioned by gender. Participated in this study 19 premature infants (9 boys and 10 girls) enrolled in kindergartens of the Greater Lisbon area. The speech of these children was recorded for 30 minutes and subsequently transcribed for ELAN 4.1.2 software to be properly analyzed. It was found that the values of MLU-w of preterm infants are lower than the reference values at 4 and 5 years. Both gestational age as birth weight correlated positively and significantly with the MLU-w. No differences conditioned by gender or by parental education were found.