Current Perspectives on Child Language Acquisition

Usage-based theories explain language development in terms of the specific characteristics of language input in combination with a child’s own inherent ability to engage in shared intentionality and statistical learning. In this chapter, I discuss these mechanisms in relation to evidence from Developmental Language Disorders (DLD) and Autism. First, there is evidence for the role of language input in both conditions. The specific patterns of morpho-syntax impairments in DLD are clearly affected