Spontaneous Language Use by Parents and Their Preschool Children at Risk for Adhd with or Without Li

This study examined the spontaneous language use between parents and their preschool children who are at high-risk for ADHD with a co-occurring language impairment (LI) and those without a co-occurring LI. Semantic and syntactic differences in language use were examined. Participants consisted of 20 children ages three to five years old and their parents. For each parent-child dyad, a 15-minute video-recorded interaction was orthographically transcribed and analyzed using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software program. Children with co-occuring LI showed significantly lower Mean Length of Utterance (MLU), and Type-Token Ratios (TTR). Both groups showed very limited use of complex sentences and no specific difficulties with grammatical morphemes. Parents in both groups did not seem to adapt their language level whether or not their children had a LI.