The competition–compensation account of developmental language disorder

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dc.contributor.authorHarmon, Zara
dc.contributor.authorBarak, Libby
dc.contributor.authorShafto, Patrick
dc.contributor.authorEdwards, Jan
dc.contributor.authorFeldman, Naomi H.
dc.date.accessioned2023-10-04T18:20:55Z
dc.date.available2023-10-04T18:20:55Z
dc.date.issued2022-12-22
dc.description.abstractChildren with developmental language disorder (DLD) regularly use the bare form of verbs (e.g., dance) instead of inflected forms (e.g., danced). We propose an account of this behavior in which processing difficulties of children with DLD disproportionally affect processing novel inflected verbs in their input. Limited experience with inflection in novel contexts leads the inflection to face stronger competition from alternatives. Competition is resolved through a compensatory behavior that involves producing a more accessible alternative: in English, the bare form. We formalize this hypothesis within a probabilistic model that trades off context-dependent versus independent processing. Results show an over-reliance on preceding stem contexts when retrieving the inflection in a model that has difficulty with processing novel inflected forms. We further show that following the introduction of a bias to store and retrieve forms with preceding contexts, generalization in the typically developing (TD) models remains more or less stable, while the same bias in the DLD models exaggerates difficulties with generalization. Together, the results suggest that inconsistent use of inflectional morphemes by children with DLD could stem from inferences they make on the basis of data containing fewer novel inflected forms. Our account extends these findings to suggest that problems with detecting a form in novel contexts combined with a bias to rely on familiar contexts when retrieving a form could explain sequential planning difficulties in children with DLD.
dc.description.urihttps://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13364
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/dspace/ie7r-vowv
dc.identifier.citationHarmon, Z., Barak, L., Shafto, P., Edwards, J., & Feldman, N. H. (2023). The competition–compensation account of developmental language disorder. Developmental Science, 26, e13364.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/30668
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherWiley
dc.relation.isAvailableAtCollege of Arts & Humanitiesen_us
dc.relation.isAvailableAtLinguisticsen_us
dc.relation.isAvailableAtDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_us
dc.relation.isAvailableAtUniversity of Maryland (College Park, MD)en_us
dc.subjectchild language disorder
dc.subjectfragment grammars
dc.subjecthapax legomena
dc.subjectnonparametric Bayesian models
dc.subjectSLI
dc.titleThe competition–compensation account of developmental language disorder
dc.typeArticle
local.equitableAccessSubmissionNo

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