PRESCHOOLERS’ DEVELOPING
MORPHOSYNTACTIC SKILLS
Remember that:**
• McLaughlin ch. 8 is not on the
exam—the exam is based
entirely on these lecture notes
• The exception is Table 8-2 on
p. 310—please memorize
this—it’s always on the
PRAXIS! And you need it for
the “real world” too 
Turnbull & Justice, 2012:
However: (Turnbull & Justice,
2012):
I. MASTERING GRAMMATICAL
MORPHEMES**
• Around 18 mos. of age, when children start
putting two words together, we see
grammatical morphemes emerge
• Brown’s Morphemes p. 310—on test—
especially order of development
•
•
•
•
•
Examples:
1. -ing
2. In
3. On
4. Regular plural -s
To assess children’s
morphosyntactic skills:**
• We calculate MLU, or mean
length of utterance
• Instead of counting words, we
count actual morphemes
• Remember, we have free and
bound morphemes
Words vs. morphemes**
• We wanted to eat cookies.
• 5 words
• 7 morphemes
• The PRAXIS always asks you to count the
# of morphemes in an utterance
How many morphemes?**
• The three boys wanted five candies.
• We played all day with my friend’s toys.
• He’s going to cook eggs and bacon.
Count the morphemes in
Mark McKibbin’s
utterances:**
• (2.5 yrs old) “I need to get my
shoes and socks on because the
stones will hurt my feet.”
• (3 yrs old) “I will give my old
pillow to the poor children so they
can sleep better.”
• (3 yrs. old) “Madame Blueberry
was sad because they didn’t have
happy hearts at the Stuffmart.”
II. DEVELOPING SYNTACTIC
ELEMENTS
• A. Basic Sentence Constituents
•1
2. Clause
3. Sentence
4. Noun phrase**
• Sentence role filled
by people and
objects
• The boy is blowing
out his candles.
5. Verb phrase**
• Actions or relationships
that are central to the
sentence
• The girl lifts the beach
ball.
• **The little red hen
• NP
• The students
– NP
The leaves
NP
The baby
NP
was eating corn.
VP
are taking notes.
VP
were falling down.
VP
was laughing at the dog.
VP
B. Noun Phrase Elements
• 1. Determiners
• 2. Pronouns—
• 3. Noun suffixes
The derivational noun suffix -
er
C. Verb Phrase Elements
Copula verbs–
More examples of copula
verbs:**
• He is a boy scout.
• They were in their car.
• I am happy.
• State verbs
• Process verbs
By 5 years of age…**
• Children
have
mastered
most verb
forms
Youtube examples…
• 5 year old
Gus—
typically
developing
• 8 year old
with mixed
expressive
language
disorder
III. BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE
(review)
• A. Types of Sentences
• 1. Interrogative asks a question
• Yes-no ?s (earliest to develop—
around 18 mos.)
• wh-?s
• tag ?s (speaker wants confirmation)
2. Declarative makes a
statement
3. Passive
4. Negative
B. Complex and
Compound Sentences**
• Independent or main clause—
can stand alone
• Dependent or subordinate
clause—cannot stand alone
• 1. Complex sentence: Has indep. clause and
dependent clause**
• We will go to the party if it is not raining.
• (main/indep. clause) (subordinate/dep. clause)
I talked to the boy
who has red hair.
(main/indep. clause) (subordinate/dep. clause)
• 2. **Compound sentence: 2
independent clauses are linked
together by a conjunction
• We ate cookies andthey were good.
– (main/indep. clause)
(main/indep. clause)
– John liked herbut she didn’t like him.
– (main/indep. clause)
(main/indep. clause)
Coordinating conjunctions:
Examples of sentences using coordinating
conjunctions in compound sentences:**
• I wanted to get an A on the test,
so I studied hard.
• We could eat popcorn or we could
have Doritos.
• She wanted to go shopping, but
she didn’t have any money.
**
• Rescorla, 2008 ASHA Leader
article (Sept. 23)
• “Late Talkers Show Language
Weakness into Adolescence”
20+ years ago…**
• She got 2 groups of children:
• 1. 39 typically-developing (TD) children
• 2. 40 late talkers
• All were 24-31 months of age
• All were from middle-upper income families
Follow-ups showed that:
Thus…
How can we help parents be
motivated to seek early
intervention for their LTs?