Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY.
Division of Speech & Language Pathology, Binghamton University, NY.
Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2024 Jul;55(3):714-723. doi: 10.1044/2024_LSHSS-23-00102. Epub 2024 Mar 1.
Production of complex syntax is a hallmark of later language development; however, most of the research examining age-related changes has focused on adolescents or analyzed narrative language samples. Research documenting age-related changes in the production of complex syntax in elementary school-aged children in conversational language samples is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine age-related changes in the production of coordinate and subordinate clauses in children between 5 and 10 years of age obtained from 50-utterance conversational language samples.
The analytic sample included 196 children with typical language development, who ranged in age from 5;0 to 10;11 (years;months; girls = 103; boys = 96; three cases were excluded). Fifty-utterance conversational language samples were examined for use of coordinate and subordinate clauses.
Results of regression analyses indicated that the production of coordinate and subordinate clauses could be predicted from age. The proportion of utterances that included subordinate clauses increased 0.20% for every month increase in age ( < .001). Coordinate clauses also continued to grow, although at a slower rate (0.10% increase for every month increase in age, < .001). Finally, the proportion of simple utterances (i.e., utterances without coordinate or subordinate clauses) decreased with age (0.40% decrease for every month increase in age, < .001).
This study indicated that as children's age increased, they used fewer, simple, one-clause sentences and more utterances that included subordinate clauses, with or without coordinate clauses. These results were obtained from 50-utterance language samples, further supporting use of language sampling to develop intervention goals and monitor progress in therapy.
复杂句法的产生是语言后期发展的一个标志；然而，大多数研究都是针对青少年进行的，或者分析的是叙事语言样本。关于在对话语言样本中研究年龄相关变化对儿童复杂句法产生影响的研究是有限的。因此，本文的目的是研究从 50 个句子的对话语言样本中获取的 5 至 10 岁儿童在并列和从属从句产生方面的年龄相关变化。
分析样本包括 196 名具有典型语言发展的儿童，年龄从 5 岁 0 个月到 10 岁 11 个月（年；月；女孩=103；男孩=96；有 3 个案例被排除在外）。检查了 50 个句子的对话语言样本中并列和从属从句的使用情况。
回归分析结果表明，从句的使用可以从年龄上预测。从属从句的比例随着年龄的增加而增加，每个月增加 0.20%（<0.001）。并列从句也在继续增长，尽管速度较慢（年龄每增加一个月，增加 0.10%，<0.001）。最后，简单句的比例（即没有并列或从属从句的句子）随着年龄的增长而下降（年龄每增加一个月，下降 0.40%，<0.001）。
本研究表明，随着儿童年龄的增长，他们使用的简单的单句越来越少，而包含从句的句子越来越多，包括有并列从句和没有并列从句的句子。这些结果是从 50 个句子的语言样本中获得的，进一步支持使用语言样本来制定干预目标和监测治疗进展。
