Erratum to "Growth of Complex Syntax: Coordinate and Subordinate Clause Use in Elementary School-Aged Children".

Abstract

Editorial guidance: This abstract reflects the changes in sample size from N = 196 children to N = 200 children and the resultant change in statistical analyses.

Methods: The analytic sample included 200 children with typical language development, who ranged in age from 5;0 (years;months) to 10;11 (female = 103; male = 97). Fifty-utterance conversational language samples were examined for use of coordinate and subordinate clauses.

Results: Results of simple linear regression analyses indicated that the production of coordinate and subordinate clauses could be predicted from age. The proportion of utterances that included both a coordinate clause and a subordinate clause increased by 0.10% for every month increase in age (p = .028) and accounted for 17.2% of the data. The proportion of utterances that only included a coordinate clause did not significantly change with age (p = .38) and accounted for 32.6% of the data. The proportion of utterances that included only a subordinate clause decreased by 0.10% for every month increase in age (p = .026) and accounted for 48.9% of the data.

Conclusions: This study indicated that as children's age increased, they used more utterances that included both a coordinate and subordinate clause. Although use of utterances containing only a subordinate clause decreased, the proportion of those utterances accounted for nearly half of the data, across all ages of children. These results were obtained from 50-utterance language samples, further supporting use of language sampling to develop intervention goals and monitor progress in therapy.