Research on children's language impairments has provided valuable
insights into the factors that are important for normal language
acquisition. In particular, research on Specific Language Impairment has
investigated dysfunction in cognitive, perceptual, social, environmental
and developmental areas that impact on normal language development.
Until recently however, many of these factors have been investigated in
isolation in clinical samples. Therefore, despite suggestions that the
factors are important for normal language acquisition this hasn't been
fully investigated in a normal sample of children. This book provides a
multi-theoretical and multi-faceted approach to investigating language
ability that incorporates the main factors of importance in child
language. Structural models are developed and analysed with a view to
predicting which factors are related and most important in language
development in a non-clinical group of children. The analysis summarises
and synthesises current child language research and should be especially
useful to child language researchers and professionals in the
psychology, speech pathology, education and child development fields.