Sampling Utterances and Grammatical Analysis Revised (SUGAR): Quantitative Values for Language Sample Analysis Measures in 7- to 11-Year-Old Children

• Published in: Language, speech & hearing services in schools Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 734 - 744
• Main Authors: Owens, Robert E, Pavelko, Stacey L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 01-07-2020
• Subjects: Age Factors; Child; Child Language; Diagnostic Tests; Elementary School Students; Expressive Language; Female; Grammar; Humans; Language Development; Language Tests; Language Usage; Linguistics; Male; Morphemes; Sampling; Sentences; Speech Language Pathology
• ISSN: 0161-1461; 1558-9129
• DOI: 10.1044/2020_LSHSS-19-00027

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to document whether mean length of utterance[subscript SUGAR] (MLU[subscript S]), total number of words (TNW), clauses per sentence (CPS), and/or words per sentence (WPS) demonstrated age-related changes in children with typically developing language, aged 7;0-10;11 (years;months). Method: Participants were 132 typically developing children (aged 7;0-10;11), with a final sample size of 112 participants (57 boys and 55 girls). Fifty utterance conversational language samples were collected using a language sampling protocol. Four language sample analysis metrics (i.e., MLU[subscript S], TNW, CPS, and WPS) were calculated from the samples. Results: Results indicated statistically significant age-related increases in three (MLU[subscript S], TNW, and WPS) of the four metrics. Conclusions: MLU[subscript S], TNW, CPS, and WPS may be used with other assessment data to document age-related language changes in children aged 7;0-10;11. When combined with previous data from younger (aged 3;0-7;11) children (Pavelko & Owens, 2017), the data suggest that these metrics offer a set of measures that can be used to assess children's conversational language skills from preschool through late elementary school.