The first group of children that we study are children between 4 and 9 who have speech and language difficulties. These children are sometimes referred to as having a language disorder called Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In the schools, these children are often labeled as having a speech or language impairment or a specific learning disability. SLI has also been called an expressive or receptive language delay/disorder, developmental dysphasia and developmental aphasia.

We also study children who have typical language abilities. Usually we look at two different groups of typically developing children:

One group of children consists of children who are the same age as the children with SLI that we are seeing. These children are usually between 4 and 9 years old also. We want to know what to expect in terms of responses to our experiments from children who have had the same amount of experience in the world, but don't have any documented difficulty with language.

Another group of children we see are children who are younger than the children with SLI, but have similar language abilities (we measure language abilities as the average number of words per sentence or by comparing children's vocabulary levels). These children are usually between 3 and 6 years of age. These children help us to figure out if the mistakes that kids make are due to using short sentences or if the mistakes might be due to other factors.

How do you identify children as having a language problem?
When we see children, we first spend some time getting to know them and their parents. We are especially interested in knowing if anyone has any concerns about the child's speech and language development. Usually we will spend some time listening to how a child talks and then we will give the child a variety of tests to check out their language in more detail. We might ask them to describe a picture, point to some toys, solve puzzles without talking, and let us look in their mouth. We usually check to make sure that they can hear okay as well. This allows us to look at the language profile shown by a particular child and decide if they demonstrate a particular difficulty with language. We give the same tests to every child who comes and sees us so that we can be sure that a child is performing the way we expect.

What can we expect when we come to the lab?

Typically the first day is spent making sure that you and your child are comfortable in the lab. After we do some paperwork and talk to you about what we will be doing, we will usually play for awhile and listen to how your child talks. Then we will give the child some language tests - kids are asked to describe a series of photographs or point to particular pictures.

The next time you come, we will likely begin to ask some of our research questions. We do this by having children watch several short puppet shows and then tell us what they see. The kids get a chance to talk to Ratty (who is too shy to watch) or Sleepy Bear (he just can't stay awake through the puppet shows) in addition to the lab staff. In addition to puppet shows, kids get to play a hiding and finding game, repeat silly words, and look at lots of picture books.

We might ask you to come and see us 5-8 times for about 1 hour each time. Appointments can be scheduled at times that are convenient for you and your family over a few weeks. We prefer to see families here in the Grammar Acquisition Lab in the Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center, but we do occasionally see children at their schools or in their homes also. Usually you will see the same people for several appointments, but occasionally one member of the lab staff might have a conflict and you may end up with new people.