Question

I need to calculate the MLU:

CH: and the big big ball falled
Mother: Where did it fall
CH: to to to the neighbor
Mother: Oh dea, what should we do
CH: Watch out..It’s coming up
Mother: Oh wow, the neighbors are throwing it back to us
CH: Yeaaaaah. I need to thank them Mother: Yes, we do, Let’s thank them CH: (shouting) Thank you, thank you, thank you

Neighbor: You’re welcome. Be careful next time
CH: We are going to watch Dora the Explorer at Radio city. Do you want us to buy you tickets? Neighbor: Let me check if Addy wants to join
CH: how (a)bout all of us ( . ) Addy, dogs and and mommy and and you.
Mother: Yeah. That would be fun
CH: Abby, do you want to come?
Abby (neighbor’s daughter): Yeah
CH: Yeah and the cat?
Abby: Yeah
Mother: I do not think the cat and the dog will be allowed to join
CH: Okay, okay
CH: Addy, you you want icecream today?
Mother: Addy, if you want to join us for icecream, please join us
CH: ice cream and coffee?
Mother: Do you want her mother to join me too for coffee? You are so funny
CH: and I want icecream me and Addy
Mother: OK, let’s see what Addy’s mom says
Mother of Addy: That is OK. We will come up in five minutes
CH: Yeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. Thank you Addy’s mom.
CH: we all ( . ) you and me eat one ice cream.

Answer 1

Mean length of utterances( MLU)

It is a measure of language or linguistic productivity in children. MLU is obtained by dividing the number of morphemes by the number of utterances. Morpheme means the smallest linguistic unit within a word that can carry a meaning. The higher the language proficiency the higher will be the MLU.

Mean length of utterances.

In the given paragraph, the child made a 20 utterances/ the sentences/ or phrase.

The number of morphemes: 107

MLU = The number of morphemes/ number of utterances

= 107/20 = 5.35

MLU at 4.5 is a good predictor of reading ability at age 8.