Tense Marking in the Kindergarten Population: Testing the Bimodal Distribution Hypothesis.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore whether evidence for a bimodal distribution of tense marking, previously documented in clinically referred samples, exists in a population-based sample of kindergarten children from a rural county in Tennessee. Method: A measure of tense marking, the...

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Publicado en:Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 64; no. 2; pp. 593 - 613
Autores principales: Weiler, Brian, Schuele, C. Melanie
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Feb2021
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Feb2021
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      pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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        10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00335
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        atl: Tense Marking in the Kindergarten Population: Testing the Bimodal Distribution Hypothesis.
      aug:
        au:
          Weiler, Brian
          Schuele, C. Melanie
        affil:
          Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green
          Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
      su:
        Linguistics
        Comparative grammar
        Language acquisition
        Elementary schools
        Tense (Grammar)
        Kindergarten children
        Language disorders in children
      sug:
        subj:
          Linguistics
          Comparative grammar
          Language acquisition
          Elementary schools
          Elementary and Secondary Schools
          Tense (Grammar)
          Kindergarten children
          Language disorders in children
      ab: Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore whether evidence for a bimodal distribution of tense marking, previously documented in clinically referred samples, exists in a population-based sample of kindergarten children from a rural county in Tennessee. Method: A measure of tense marking, the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (TEGI) Screening Test, was individually administered to consented kindergarten students (N = 153) across three elementary schools in a single school district. The consented children constituted 73% of kindergartners in the district. Cluster analysis was used to evaluate the number and composition of latent classes that best fit the distribution of the TEGI Screening Test scores. Results: Analysis of the scores revealed a distribution that deviated significantly from normality. Cluster analyses (Ward's, k-means, single linkage) revealed a two-cluster solution as the best fitting model. The very large effect-size difference in mean TEGI Screening Test score between the two clusters (d = 4.77) provides validation of an identifiable boundary delineating typical from atypical tense marking in this sample of kindergartners. The difference in tense marking across the two clusters was not attributable to child chronological age. The percentage of the sample comprising the low-performing cluster aligns with specific language impairment and developmental language disorder prevalence estimates. Conclusion: Additional demonstrations of a bimodal distribution of tense marking in future studies with carefully defined samples could strengthen the clinical marker evidence and utility of this linguistic feature.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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