The Use of English Morphology by High-Risk and Learning Disabled Children

The application of morphological rules by 10 high-risk and 10 normal children and 12 learning disabled and 12 achieving children were compared. An adaptation of Berko's experimental test of morphology was administered. High-risk and learning disabled children gave significantly fewer correct responses than their controls. For high-risk children, the greatest relative performance differences were for third person singular, progressive, past tense, and adjectival inflections. For learning-disabled children, the greatest relative differences were for third person singular, possessives, and adjectival inflections. It was concluded that high-risk and learning disabled children exhibited differential and qualitatively similar delays in the acquisition of morphological rules.