What does an MLU measure?
Mean length of utterance (MLU) is a frequently‐used measure of expressive language ability within both clinical and research settings. It has been advocated as a useful measure for diagnosing language impairments as well as for monitoring treatment progress (Miller, 1981.
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What does an MLU measure?
Mean length of utterance (MLU) is a frequently‐used measure of expressive language ability within both clinical and research settings. It has been advocated as a useful measure for diagnosing language impairments as well as for monitoring treatment progress (Miller, 1981.
What age does MLU go up to?
We can conclude, then, that an MLU of 4.25 would be expected in a child of between 45-48 months of age. As we know that our particular child is 48 months old, then it appears that the average length of the child’s utterances is age appropriate….Age equivalent.
| MLU | age equivalent (within 1 month) |
|---|---|
| 5.63 | 60 |
Why is MLU useful?
MLU is important because if a child says “my toy,” that’s two morphemes. If the child says “my toys” then the child used three morphemes. If you were counting by the number of words the child used, they both used two, however the child who added the “s” made the utterance more linguistically complex.
What should a 6 year olds MLU be?
A 6-year-old should: Begin to read books that are right for their age. Sound out or decode unfamiliar words….This is the age when children should at least begin to:
- Understand the concept of numbers.
- Know day from night and left from right.
- Be able to tell time.
- Be able to repeat three numbers backward.
Is MLU syntax or morphology?
Mean Length Utterance (MLU) is a quantitative measure for morpho-syntactic complexity. It indicates how many morphemes or words a child uses per utterance. In other words: a higher value of the MLU means that a child is capable of producing more complex sentences.
How do you explain MLU to parents?
If a child says “my ball”, that’s two morphemes (my and ball). But if the child says “my balls”, then we would say she used three morphemes (my, ball, and “s”). If you were counting by number of words, both children would have the same MLU.
What is the MLU level used for?
In clinical applications, MLU is used to diagnose language impairments in young children, often defined as an MLU level one standard deviation or more below the mean for the child’s age level (Eisenberg, Fersko, & Lundgren, 2001).
What is MLU in child development?
MLU is also a valuable index in investigations of children with language impairments. In clinical applications, MLU is used to diagnose language impairments in young children, often defined as an MLU level one standard deviation or more below the mean for the child’s age level (Eisenberg, Fersko, & Lundgren, 2001).
Should MLU be used as a benchmark for language intervention outcomes?
An expert panel recently recommended that MLU be used as a benchmark for cross-study comparisons of language intervention outcomes for children with autism, as one of several potential outcome measures ( Tager-Flusberg et al., 2009 ). MLU has been used as a matching variable in many studies of clinical groups.
Are MLU values sensitive to language impairment at different age levels?
The effect sizes are large until around 7 years of age, when they drop to the medium-to-large range, suggesting that MLU values are sensitive to language impairment throughout the age levels for which MLU is a reliable and valid index. Thus the widely adopted assumption that MLU values above 4.0 are not reliable is not supported here.
