Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools Vol.43 36-52 January 2012. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2011/10-0093)
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Article

How Grammatical Are 3-Year-Olds?

Sarita L. Eisenberga
Ling-Yu Guob
Mor Germeziaa
a Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
b University at Buffalo–The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY

Correspondence to Sarita Eisenberg: eisenbergs{at}mail.montclair.edu

Purpose: This study investigated the level of grammatical accuracy in typically developing 3-year-olds and the types of errors they produce.

Method: Twenty-two 3-year-olds participated in a picture description task. The percentage of grammatical utterances was computed and error types were analyzed.

Results: The mean level of grammatical accuracy in typical 3-year-olds was ~71%, with a wide range of variability. The current study revealed a variety of error types produced by 3-year-olds, most of which were produced by fewer than 5 children. The pattern observed for most of the children was to produce a scattering of errors with no more than a few of any 1 error type.

Conclusion: The level of grammatical accuracy in 3-year-olds was skewed toward the high end. Although tense marking errors were the most frequent error type, they accounted for only 1/3 of the errors produced by 3-year-olds. A more general measure of grammaticality that considers additional aspects of language might, therefore, be useful in assessing language at this age.

KEY WORDS: normal language development, language sample analysis, preschool children


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