Edited by Vincent Torrens
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 64] 2020
► pp. 209–238
This study deals with the case of Emma, an Italian 8-year-old girl affected by a sex chromosome anomaly called Trisomy X and diagnosed with Expressive Language Impairment. Language assessment of both comprehension and production was conducted through standardized and non-standardized, experimental tests. Passive, cleft, wh-sentences, and relative clauses with manipulation of number features were tested, in addition to clitic pronouns. Her spontaneous production was also assessed. Emma has problems with functional words realizing the highest portion of nominal structure: articles, prepositions, and clitic pronouns. Given her very good cognitive abilities, Emma was administered a tailor-made language intervention focused on functional elements, namely determiners and prepositions, aimed at enhancing her language awareness. During language intervention, use of Italian Sign Language (LIS) was crucial to boost lexical retrieval of functional prepositions and pluri-syllabic lexical words.