THE AGE GROUP AT WHICH A MAJORITY OF CHILDREN COMPREHEND EACH
LINGUISTIC ITEM TESTED
Form Classes and Function Words
Nouns
Coat, glass ball, car, tree, chair, dog bicycle, baby, table,
man, plane, pencil, farm, box, mother, sheep, boy, paint,
spoon, bird, shoe, book, hand, cat, fish, girl
3.0
3.6
4.0
4.6
5.0
5.6
6.0
6.6
X
X
Half
Pair
Verbs
Jump, run, eat
X
X
Hit
X
Catch
X
Give
Adjectives
Qualitative contrasts
Little/big, fast/slow
X
X
X
Tall/short
X
Alike/different
Color
Red, brown, blue
X
X
Orange, black, green, yellow
Number or relative quantity
Two
X
X
Some, many, middle
More, four
Few, fourth
Direction or space relations
Left/right
Adverbs
Direction of space relations
Up/down
Demonstratives
These/those
That/this
Interrogatives
Who/what
Prepositions
On, under, in
By, between
In front of
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
7.0
LINGUSTIC COMPREHENSION BY AGE GROUPS (continued)
Morphological Constructions
3.0
3.6
4.0
Noun/Noun + Derivational Suffix “er”
Farm/farmer
Paint/painter
4.6
5.0
5.6
6.0
6.6
7.0




X
X
Verb/Noun + Derivational Suffix “er”
Catch/catcher
X
Adjective/Adjective + Derivational Suffix “er”
Tall/taller
X
Noun/Noun + Derivational Suffix “ist”
Piano/pianist
Cycle/cyclist
Grammatical Categories
Gender and Number, Pronoun
Masculine, singular/feminine, singular, and neuter plural
of third person, nominative case: he/she, they
X
Feminine, singular/masculine, singular and neuter plural
of third person, nominative case: she/he, they
X
X
Plural/singular, third person, nominative case: they/he,
she
Feminine, singular/masculine, singular and neuter plural
of third person, nominative case: her/him, them
Masculine, singular/feminine, singular, and neuter plural
of third person, nominative case: his/her, their
X
X
Number, Noun
Singular/plural, marked by inflection: ball/balls,
chair/chairs
Plural/singular, marked by inflection: coats/coat,
tables/table
Number, Verb
Singular/plural: is/are
Plural/Singular: are/is
Tense, Verb
Present progressive/past, future: is riding/rode, will ride
Past/present, future: painted/paints, will paint
X
X
X
X
X
X
Future/present, past: will jump/jumps, jumped
X
Present, perfect/present progressive, future: has eaten/is
X
eating, will eat
Voice, Verb
Doer/receiver, active voice: The car bumps the train/
The train bumps the car, the boy pushes the girl/
The girl pushes the boy
Receiver/doer, passive voice: The man is hit by
The boy/ the boy is hit by the man
X
X
LINGUSTIC COMPREHENSION BY AGE GROUPS (continued)
Grammatical Categories (con’t)
Voice, Verb (Con’t)
The boy is chased by the dog/ The dog is chased by the
boy
Status, Verb
Affirmative/negative: The baby is crying/ The baby is not
crying
Negative/Affirmative: The girl is not riding/ The girl is
riding
Negative/Affirmative: The girl isn’t running/ The girl is
running
Negative/Affirmative: Neither the boy nor the girl is
jumping/ The boy and the girl are jumping
Mood, Verb
Imperative
Syntactic Structure
Prediction, Noun-verb, Number Agreement
The cat plays
The boy jumps
Complementation
Direct/indirect object: Show me the ball
3.0
3.6
4.0
6.0
6.6
7.0
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Simple Imperative Sentence: Stand up
X
Complex sentence with independent clause and
dependent adjectival clause: Bring me the car that is on
the chair
X
X
Complex imperative sentence with conditional clause: If
you are a (girl, boy) show me the car, if not, show me the
ball
Compound imperative sentence using EITHER…OR:
Either open the door or show me the pencil
5.6
X
Noun phrase with two adjective modifier: a large blue
ball/ a large red ball, a small blue ball
When I clap my hands stand up
Coordination
Compound imperative sentence using AND:
Put the car under the table and bring me the book
5.0
X
She showed the girl the boy
Modification
Noun phrase with single adjective modifier: a big cat / a
small cat
4.6
X
X
X
M.A. Carrow, The development of auditory comprehension of language structure in children.
JOURNAL OF SPEECH HEARING DISORDERS 33: 105-108