Influence of Certain Clinical Variables on Black Preschoolers' Nonstandard Phonological and Grammatical Performance.

The influence of the socioeconomic background and sex of the child and the race of the clinician on the frequency of implementation of nonstandard phonological and grammatical structures was examined in 72 black 4-and 5-year-olds. In order to generalize findings to typical clinical settings, language samples were elicited by 3 black and 3 white clinicians using spontaneous, paragraph completion, and repetition procedures. Results indicated that socioeconomic status and sex had a strong effect on black children's usage of nonstandard phonological and grammatical forms. The data also suggested that the beginnings of a bi-dialectal capability were identifiable in certain speech forms in the clinical setting for black preschoolers. Discriminant analysis detailed those nonstandard phonological and grammatical forms which contributed to dialect differences between lower and middle socioeconomic black children. (Authors/ED)