Acquisition of the native language proceeds in a stage-wise manner for both typically developing (TD) children and children with developmental language disorder (DLD). As shown in TD children learning Dutch and German, the ability to establish contextual cohesion serves as the driving force to proceed from a simple, lexical system to a more complex, functional system. It is argued that precisely this ability is challenged in children with DLD. The present book offers an account of the functional linguistic features fit to achieve contextual cohesion in language production. It provides a rationale for practitioners to develop linguistically founded tools to be used in speech therapy.

• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Developing language. Driving forces in children learning Dutch and German
• Developmental language disorder and the functional category system
• Language acquisition in a German DLD child
• Testing the extended optional infinitive hypothesis in a German child with DLD
• The acquisition of finiteness in auchand aber-clauses in DLD. A case study
• Index