Exploring the Complex Syntax of School-Aged Children: The Effects of Age, Discourse and Bilingualism

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate established and novel metrics of syntactic development in school-age children, to compare elicitation tasks, and to evaluate the effects of bilingualism on measures of syntactic complexity. Method: The participants were 48 children recruited from the province of Nova Scotia in four groups: monolingual and bilingual French-English children 7 and 12 years of age. The groups were compared using established and novel language sample measures on English language samples. Results: Important syntactic development continues during the early school-age years. Established and novel metrics generally showed sensitivity to age and discourse type, but not bilingualism. The measures validated interest in the application of theoretical syntax to language assessment. Clinical and theoretical implications for syntax in developmental language disorders are discussed.