The acquisition of Dutch plurals by children with dyslexia and/or SLI

Abstract

Purpose: This study compared the morpho-phonological process of pluralisation of 8-year-old children with dyslexia and/or children with specific language impairment (SLI) to their typically developing peers. The main purpose of this study was to explore the difference between groups and the influence of phonological and frequency factors in pluralisation.

Method: Pluralisation of words and novel words was assessed in five groups of children: 1) children with dyslexia, 2) children with SLI, 3) children with dyslexia and SLI, 4) age-matched typically developing children, and 5) language-matched typically developing children.

Results and conclusions: The results demonstrated that the language-disordered children differed from the typically developing 8-year-old children in both number of plural inflection and suffix choice and performed equal according to the typically developing 5-year-old children. The language-disordered groups were sensitive to phonotactic probability in novel pluralisation in contrast to their typically developing peers. An influence of lexical frequency was found in the SLI and the comorbid group, but not for the dyslexic group. The findings of this study point towards an underlying phonological deficit in the language-disordered groups.