Speed and context: the effect of a sentence prime on naming speed in children with language impairment

Nineteen pre-school children with language impairment participated in a computerized naming task. The naming procedure involved two conditions, one unprimed where the child had to name a colour picture appearing on the screen as fast as possible and one primed where the picture was preceded by an uncompleted sentence. Response times were significantly shorter in the primed condition compared to the unprimed condition. There was a tendency that the ability to benefit from a semantic-syntactic prime was more closely linked to the participants' results on verbal measures than on non-verbal measures. Naming speed in the primed condition or the unprimed condition was not found to be linked to non-verbal measures including a speed component. Results are discussed in relation to current research, and methodological issues are highlighted.