Mean length of utterance (MLU) is widely used in child language sample analysis as a way to quantify language development. The current study examines the split-half reliability of MLU and two alternative measures: MLU2 and median length of utterance (MdLU). The effects of utterance segmentation into phonological units (P-units) or communication units (C-units) on reliability were also studied. Sixty conversational child language samples were used which included ten children with language impairment. All measures were found to have high levels of split-half reliability, with MLU and MLU2 having higher levels of reliability than MdLU. There was no significant difference between MLU and MLU2. The differences in reliability when segmented into P-units or C-units were inconsistent. Overall, MLU and MLU2 are adequately reliable measures for clinical use.

PURPOSE: Parent-child reading allows parents to extend the walls of their home to introduce their children to novel places and scenarios, and is an important factor shaping language development. Accordingly, the parent-child reading practices characterizing the home literacy environment (HLE) offer rich potential to boost and diversify language input and exposure in early childhood, especially if parents use shared reading experiences to spark conversational dialogue around novel concepts. To date, it remains unclear how shared reading experiences may promote language interaction and development in early childhood for late talker children. Furthermore, the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in contribution to the relationship between language development and shared book reading interactions in early childhood remains understudied. Therefore, there is a need to further specify characteristics of shared reading practices and SES in relation to parent-child conversational interactions and child language abilities in early childhood. METHOD: 33 parent-child dyads (all mothers) of children classified as either late talkers (n = 15, 8 male) or typical controls (n=18, 9 male) were selected from an ongoing larger longitudinal study of language delay in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University (PIs: Norton and Wakschlaug). Characteristics of parent-child conversational interactions during story book reading were assessed through language transcription and subsequent analysis of the quality and quantity of parent language input during these interactions. Parent language input measures and SES were evaluated for possible group differences between late talkers and typical controls, and subsequently examined as potential predictors of language status. RESULTS: Parental language input during shared book reading significantly differed among dyads of late talkers compared to typical controls, as indicated by mean length of utterance (MLU) in words, MLU in morphemes, moving average type token ratio (TTR), and number of different words. SES differences in parent education were also identified between groups. MLU in morphemes was found to significantly contribute to the prediction of language status in toddlerhood. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that the proximal factor of parent language input quality may be a more salient predictor of language development than the distal factors of SES for late talker children in particular. Findings highlight modifiable factors such as high-quality parent language input and shared book reading that have the potential to facilitate positive language outcomes for this population. These findings may lead to better guidance for adjustments that can be made within the HLE to improve language outcomes for late talker children.

Concerns regarding Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) has led to adaptations of this method of analysis. A recent study by Johnston (2001) introduced an alternative to MLU called MLU2. The current study investigates the split-half reliability of MLU and MLU2 as well as another alternative, Median Length of Utterance (Med-LU). Split-half reliability was found for these methods when segmented into Phonological and Communication Units. Split-half reliability of MLU2 was generally higher than that of MLU, and both were higher than Med-LU. The study suggests that MLU2 may also be a valuable tool for clinicians in analyzing child language.

This study compared seven syntactic measures which can be automatically generated by the Computerized Profiling (CP) software: Mean Length of Utterance in morphemes or words (MLUm or MLUw), Mean Syntactic Length (MSL), the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn), the Picture Elicited Scoring Procedure (PESP) for the Language Analysis Remediation and Screening Profile (LARSP), the Syntactic Complexity Score (MSC) scoring of LARSP, and Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS). Language samples came from 192 children, 106 typically developing children, ages 5;6 to 11;2 and 86 children with language impairment, ages 5;6 to 11;1. Patterns of correlation were consistent for children with or without language impairment. All measures were computed with CP software, and all coding decisions that were made by the software were accepted. The three measures of length (MLUm, MLUw, and MSL) were highly intercorrelated. MSC correlated with the measures of length and with DSS. DSS correlated with the length measures, though not as highly as MSC. DSS also correlated with IPSyn. IPSyn correlated moderately with PESP, correlated less with MSC, and correlated the least with the measures of length. PESP correlated moderately with each measure. PESP, DSS, and IPSyn correlated more highly for the children with language impairment. These measures correlated highly sometimes and sometimes they did not correlate much. This suggests that they are measuring different aspects of syntactic ability.

Children’s utterances have been studied in different languages; however, only a few studies refer to Swedish. The aim of the present study is to describe utterance types, subordinate clauses and utterance length for a group of three and four year old Swedish children without known functional impairments. The study included 29 children, 17 girls and 12 boys, in a larger city in the south-east of Sweden. The children, all native Swedish speakers, were aged 3;0 to 4;11. Sound recordings were made during a playing session with one of the authors in the children’s day care centers.The utterances were divided into the categories elliptical responses, incomplete and partly unintelligible utterances, imitative utterances and independent utterances. Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) was calculated for the 50 first independent utterances. Subordinate clauses were classified and counted and placement of the sentence adverb was studied. Elliptical responses were frequently used. Incomplete or partly unintelligible utterances were relatively common, but imitative utterances were rare. Subordinate clauses were used by 23 of the 29 children. Relative subordinate clauses were the most common type, and were used across the age range. Most of the children placed the sentence adverbial correctly. The children had utterances ranging from one to 23 words, and the most common utterance length was four words. The MLU ranged from 2.36 to 7.04. Frequent use of subordinate clauses resulted in a higher MLU. The older children used subordinate clauses more frequently and had a lower percentage of elliptical responses. The MLU had a tendency to increase with age. The great variety in the results shown in the present study, can be explained by the fact that children aged three and four are in a process of developing their language. Children with a more frequent use of subordinate clauses had higher MLU values, suggesting a relation between language complexity and MLU. The results show that MLU is a reliable measure of children’s language level in the ages three and four years. / Barns yttranden har undersökts i flera studier på olika språk, men det finns endast ett fåtal studier som berör det svenska språket. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att beskriva yttrandetyper, bisatser och yttrandelängd hos en grupp tre- och fyraåriga svenska barn utan kända funktionsnedsättningar. I studien deltog 29 barn, 17 flickor och 12 pojkar, i en större tätort i sydöstra Sverige. Barnen var i åldern 3;0 till 4;11 och hade svenska som modersmål. Ljudupptagning skedde under samtal i en leksituation med en av uppsatsförfattarna på barnens förskola. Yttrandena delades in i kategorierna elliptiska svarsyttranden, ofullständiga eller delvis oförståeliga yttranden, imitativa yttranden och självständiga yttranden. Yttrandemedellängd (eng: Mean Length of Utterance, förkortat MLU) räknades ut för de 50 första självständiga yttrandena. Förekomst av olika bisatstyper och placering av satsadverbial i bisatser undersöktes också. Elliptiska svarsyttranden var vanliga hos barnen. Ofullständiga eller delvis oförståeliga yttranden förekom i viss utsträckning, och imitativa yttranden var ovanliga. Bisatser förekom hos 23 av de 29 barnen. ”Som” var den vanligaste bisatsinledaren och förekom i hela åldersgruppen. De flesta barnen placerade satsadverbialet korrekt i bisatserna. Barnens yttranden var mellan ett och 23 ord långa, och den vanligaste yttrandelängden var fyra ord. MLU varierade från 2,36 till 7,04. Frekvent användning av bisatser gav högre MLU. De äldre barnen använde fler bisatser och hade en mindre andel elliptiska svarsyttranden. MLU hade en viss tendens att öka med ålder. Barn i åldern tre till fyra år befinner sig i en språklig utvecklingsfas, vilket speglas i den stora variationen i resultaten. Att barn som använde många bisatser hade högt MLU tyder på ett samband mellan språklig förmåga och yttrandelängd. Detta visar i sin tur att MLU är ett tillförlitligt mått på barns språkliga nivå i åldern tre till fyra år.

A variety of tools have been developed to assist in the quantification and analysis of naturalistic language samples. In recent years, computer technology has been employed in language sample analysis. This study compares a new automated index, Scoring Sentences Developmentally (SSD), to two existing measures. Eighty samples from three corpora were manually analyzed using DSS and MLU and the processed by the automated software. Results show all three indices to be highly correlated, with correlations ranging from .62 to .98. The high correlations among scores support further investigation of the psychometric characteristics of the SSD software to determine its clinical validity and reliability. Results of this study suggest that SSD has the potential to compliment other analysis procedures in assessing the language development of young children.

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