Developmental Markers in Adolescent Language

Abstract

Adolescents with language disorders frequently manifest delays in syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic development. Proper assessment and intervention with these students requires the speech-language pathologist to have adequate knowledge of normal adolescent language development. In this article, selected aspects of normal development during adolescence are discussed in the areas of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Possible clinical implications of the developmental literature also are discussed.