The production of pronouns in Dutch children with developmental language disorders: A comparison between children with SLI, hearing impairment, and Down's syndrome

The production of pronouns in spontaneous language was investigated in three groups of children with Developmental Language Disorders (DLD): children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI), children with hearing impairment (HI), and children with Down's syndrome (DS). The results were compared to the production of pronouns in typically developing children, matched on MLUm. The number of pronouns produced did not differ significantly between the groups. In the order of production of pronouns, more commonalities than differences were found between the three DLD groups and compared to typically developing children. The number of errors in all groups appeared to be very low and all groups showed a significant correlation between the increase in MLU and the production of pronouns. The results are presented in relation to the discussion of whether children with DLD with different aetiologies show a difference in language behaviour.