Sentence Repetition Test (SRT) as a Diagnostic Tool for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD): Evidence from Long-Distance Dependencies in Brazilian Portuguese

The study proposes a Sentence Repetition Test (SRT) for Brazilian Portuguese, aiming to improve the identification of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Although the literature recognizes SRT as an effective diagnostic tool in various languages, no specific version had been developed for Portuguese. The test focuses on high computational cost sentences, crucial for identifying linguistic processing deficits in individuals with DLD (Correa & Augusto, 2011), as they require the maintenance and integration of syntactic information in structures involving long-distance dependencies. Reversible passive structures demand thematic-syntactic reanalysis due to structural inversion, leading to errors in thematic role assignment and morphosyntactic marking, such as incorrect preposition substitutions. Branching and embedded relative clauses impose a high working memory load, requiring tracking
and retrieving distant syntactic features in the filing of a gap in the relative clause. Processing these sentences involves identifying an intervening DP, adding cognitive cost as it requires activating and retaining syntactic copies at different structural levels. Children with DLD may struggle to manage these dependencies, frequently simplifying or omitting elements, revealing deficits in handling long-distance structures. The SRT was administered to three groups: DLD (children with a confirmed diagnosis), R-DLD (children at risk), and TD (typically developing children). The 24 sentences, distributed across eight syntactic conditions, were repeated by children aged 6–8 and 9–12 years after being presented with visual stimuli corresponding to the target sentences. Responses were recorded and analyzed for accuracy, lexical, syntactic, and morphological errors, as well as omissions. Visual support was incorporated into the SRT to reduce working memory load and facilitate lexical access, aligning with models emphasizing vision-language interaction. Although it reduced hesitations and lexical errors, visual support did not eliminate difficulties in high computational cost structures. Children with DLD exhibited higher incidence of syntactic errors and omissions, particularly in object-relative clauses. These findings corroborate the difficulty imposed by long-distance dependencies. The TD Group performed significantly better across all conditions, reinforcing SRT’s effectiveness as a diagnostic tool for DLD.

Corrêa, L. M. S., & Augusto, M. R. (2011). Possible loci of SLI from a both linguistic and psycholinguistic perspective. Lingua, 121(3), 476-486.