Facilitating Syntax Acquisition

Abstract

Despite current emphasis on semantic and pragmatic content of children's language, structure or syntax remains concern to language interventionists in reaching languagedeficient children to express that content (2). Instructional methods are required that facilitate the rule-induction process so that these children will generalize from trained to untrained exemplars of structural rules. Use of miniature linguistic sysrems offers that potential (1, 3). They are defined as a stimulus-response matrix in which responses controlled by one class of stimuli are taught to occur in sequential order with responses controlled by another class of stimuli with the end result being that the subject responds correctly to untrained combinations of stimuli from these two classes (3, p. 319). Miniature linguistic systems have been used primarily to develop generalized verbobject sequences and need to be extended to more complex language structures (3). Results of using miniature linguistic systems approach to teaching two 6-yr.-old Down's Syndrome children to express the subject-verbobject structure are reported here. This is the underlying srructure of English and provides base for further structural expansion. A 20-cell matrix was constructed using five subjects (boy, girl, dog, cat, horse) and four verb-object sequences (wear glarses, sit floor, ear food, run grass). A stimulus picture represented each cell in the matrix, e.g., girl sit floor. The children were trained, using reinforcement and imitative prompts, to express boy with each of the four verb-object sequences and wear glasres with each of the five subjects. Both children produced the subject-verb-object structure correctly for the remaining untrained cells of the matrix presented in random order on generalization test. These results suggest the potential of miniature linguistic systems for systematically developing more complex language in children following the structural hierarchy.