The present study was a first exploration of verb morphology in Danish children with SLI. The purpose was to investigate if Danish children with SLI have problems with past tense inflection and, if so, how these problems are manifested.

The participants were 18 children. Six were children with SLI aged 4;10 - 6;11 years. Another six children were matched to the children with SLI according to chronological age. Finally, six children aged 3;8 - 5;4 years were matched to the SLI-group according to productive vocabulary using a standardised test. The children in both control groups performed within normal limits for their age on language tests.

Past tense forms of regular and irregular verbs were elicited in a task where the children were shown pictures and were asked to complete sentences describing the pictures provided by the examiner.

The children with SLI had more difficulties with past tense inflection relative to both same-age and younger peers. The participants used present tense for past tense to a large extent but there was no overall tendency for the children in any group to use infinitives for past tense inflection.