Abstract
While research undertaken worldwide indicates that mean length of utterance (MLU) is a valuable index in investigations of child language development, to date there have been no studies exploring MLU in pre-primary Cypriot Greek (CYG)-speaking children. The participants in this study were 36 monolingual CYG-speaking children at ages 36, 40, 44 and 48 months, with a typical course of language development. The findings demonstrated that MLU counted in words (MLU-w) of typically developing CYG-speaking children had a positive correlation with age (from 36 to 48 months) and a non-significant difference in MLU-w by gender at each age point, and that typically developing CYG-speaking children, for the age range studied, tended to produce more multiword utterance types. An outcome of this study is an MLU-w database which could be used, with some caution, in the language assessment of a similar population or as the basis for future studies. Areas for further research are identified.
Highlights
Non-standardized or informal language assessment methods offer alternative approaches to describe and analyse communication in a variety of naturalistic contexts with numerous interactive partners (Thomas-Tate et al, 2006; Heilmann, 2010a)
The mean length of utterance measurement, which samples a natural behavior of children and which may be less susceptible to the impact of dialect in comparison with formal testing, forms the backbone of lsa (Owens, 2003; Klee et al, 2004; Parker and Brorson, 2005)
Data for the boys and girls was combined for the creation of the mlu-w normative scores database which was justified on the grounds that the analysis revealed no statistically significant difference between them at any age point
Summary
Non-standardized or informal language assessment methods offer alternative approaches to describe and analyse communication in a variety of naturalistic contexts with numerous interactive partners (Thomas-Tate et al, 2006; Heilmann, 2010a). There is evidence that language sample analysis (lsa hereafter) legitimizes the ordinary talk of every child as a clinical resource and may be less vulnerable to dialect and cultural variations than traditional formal tests (Stockman, 1996). The mean length of utterance (mlu) measurement, which samples a natural behavior of children and which may be less susceptible to the impact of dialect in comparison with formal testing, forms the backbone of lsa (Owens, 2003; Klee et al, 2004; Parker and Brorson, 2005). Informal assessing is the only available procedure because there are no standardized tests regarding Cypriot Greek (cyg), the linguistic variety of interest in the study on which the current paper reports. The aim of the study was to contribute to knowledge on the relationship between age, gender and mlu among cyg-speaking children (for the age range 36 to 48 months)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
