SLP Receptive and Expressive Language 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A 4-year-old child consistently uses telegraphic speech (e.g., 'want cookie') and omits grammatical morphemes. Which expressive language domain is most affected?
- Phonology
- Morphosyntax (Correct answer)
- Pragmatics
- Semantics
Correct answer: Morphosyntax
Telegraphic speech with omitted grammatical morphemes reflects a deficit in morphosyntax, the rule system governing word forms and sentence structure.
Question 2: Which assessment tool uses a standardized elicitation procedure to measure mean length of utterance (MLU) in children?
- PPVT-5
- SALT (Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts) (Correct answer)
- CELF-5
- EVT-3
Correct answer: SALT (Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts)
SALT is a language sample analysis tool that calculates MLU and other morphosyntactic measures from transcribed speech samples.
Question 3: A child understands 'Give me the red ball' but fails 'Give me the ball that is not red.' This difficulty with negation in comprehension reflects a problem in which area?
- Phonological awareness
- Receptive morphosyntax (Correct answer)
- Expressive vocabulary
- Pragmatic inference
Correct answer: Receptive morphosyntax
Understanding negation within syntactic structures is a receptive morphosyntactic skill, reflecting comprehension of grammatical markers.
Question 4: According to Brown's Stages of Language Development, at which stage does a child typically begin using the present progressive '-ing' morpheme consistently?
- Stage I (MLU 1.0–1.5)
- Stage II (MLU 1.5–2.0) (Correct answer)
- Stage III (MLU 2.0–2.5)
- Stage V (MLU 3.5–4.0)
Correct answer: Stage II (MLU 1.5–2.0)
The present progressive '-ing' is among the first grammatical morphemes acquired, emerging in Brown's Stage II around MLU 1.5–2.0.
Question 5: A child can name objects when shown pictures but cannot define words or explain relationships between concepts. This pattern indicates a deficit in:
- Confrontation naming
- Word-finding
- Depth of lexical knowledge (Correct answer)
- Phonological retrieval
Correct answer: Depth of lexical knowledge
Difficulty with definitions and conceptual relationships reflects shallow depth of lexical knowledge rather than a naming or retrieval problem per se.
Question 6: Which of the following is an example of a fast-mapping error in young children's word learning?
- Saying 'doggie' for all four-legged animals (Correct answer)
- Using a new word correctly after only one or two exposures in the wrong context
- Refusing to use a newly learned word
- Substituting a phoneme in a known word
Correct answer: Saying 'doggie' for all four-legged animals
Overextension, such as calling all four-legged animals 'doggie,' is a classic early fast-mapping error reflecting incomplete semantic boundaries.
Question 7: A school-age child with language impairment has difficulty understanding indirect requests such as 'Can you open the window?' Which aspect of language is primarily impaired?
- Syntax comprehension
- Phonological processing
- Pragmatic/inferential language (Correct answer)
- Expressive morphology
Correct answer: Pragmatic/inferential language
Understanding indirect speech acts requires pragmatic inference — recognizing that a yes/no question functions as a polite request.
SLP Receptive and Expressive Language 2
A 4-year-old child consistently uses telegraphic speech (e.g., 'want cookie') and omits grammatical morphemes.
Which expressive language domain is most affected?