Our research on typically developing children was used as a benchmark for studies of children with language impairments. Professor Rosalind Thornton extended the biolinguistic approach to language impairment in children (e.g., Thornton, Rombough, Martin, & Orton, 2016). This work was conducted in collaboration with two speech pathologists as co-authors (Martin & Orton) and published in a special issue of First Language, dedicated to Professor Heather van der Lely. The experimental findings supported the view that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have the same innate capacity to acquire language as typically developing children, but their language growth is considerably slower (i.e., delayed but not fundamentally different). Understanding the delays in using plurals in typically developing children led to a study demonstrating a delay in the comprehension and production of syllabic plurals by 5-year-old children with SLI (Tomas, Demuth, & Petocz, 2017).
ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders
Our Centre was funded by the Australian Research Council to investigate five key areas including belief formation, language, memory, person perception, and reading. This website is no longer actively maintained as the CCD concluded in 2018. But you can find out information about past projects, research highlights, publications, initiatives, and the people who worked with us.