Mean Length of Utterance is a measure of linguistic productivity in children. It is traditionally calculated by collecting 100 utterances spoken by a child and dividing the number of morphemes by the number of utterances. A higher MLU is taken to indicate a higher level of language proficiency.
A study by Bishop and Adams (1990) suggests that MLU at 4.5 is a
good predictor of reading ability at age 8. Nonetheless MLU is
considered controversial, and should not be used as the only diagnostic
measure of language proficiency in children.
A study by Bishop and Adams (1990) suggests that MLU at 4.5 is a
good predictor of reading ability at age 8. Nonetheless MLU is
considered controversial, and should not be used as the only diagnostic
measure of language proficiency in children.