Exploring Mandarin syntactic development through language sample analysis

The clinical presentation of specific language impairment in Mandarin speakers has only been researched in a handful of studies, and is poorly understood. This is a public health concern to countries where Mandarin is the majority, or an important minority, language. This study proposes applying language sample analysis procedures to child Mandarin data to describe the syntactic developmental trajectory of the language. Normal development must be described before clinical understanding of disordered language acquisition can advance. Additionally, this study will compare the use of widely accepted metrics with newer, more fined tuned metrics of syntactic development currently being piloted in Canada. These new metrics are hoped to be more sensitive and specific to language impairment in the early school years and adolescence than currently used measures. This project is of interest to researchers and clinicians specializing in developmental language disorders, as it would provide a method of comparison for disordered language development in Mandarin.