ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a rough outline of morphosyntactic development in six Italian children followed from about 19 to 36 months of age. It aims to provide a comprehensive picture of language acquisition in one dysphasic child and language recovery in one child suffering from acquired aphasia. The literature on childhood aphasia has been largely derived from the study of aphasia in adults. Childhood aphasia presents a dishomogeneous clinical picture with the time frame and mechanisms of recovery being variable and dependent on many factors. The nature of the linguistic disturbance underlying developmental dysphasia continues to stimulate controversy in psycholinguistic literature. With respect to normal development, dysphasic development displays a number of dissociations and a lack of important learning strategies. Aphasic recovery turns out to be closer to normal learning than dysphasic development. Aphasic learning closely resembles normal learning in its modes and results as far as the basics of grammar are concerned.
