This study investigated the comprehension of relative clauses (RCs) in Chinese children with and without developmental dyslexia (DD). Twenty-two children with DD, 22 chronological age-matched (CA) children, and 22 younger reading-level-matched (RL) children completed an RC comprehension task (measuring both accuracy and response latency), a receptive vocabulary task, and a working memory task. Results show that all three groups comprehended subject RCs more accurately than object RCs, supporting featural Relativized Minimality’s prediction that structural intervention (i.e., syntactic configurations where an intervening element blocks dependency formation) is a crucial factor in children’s RC comprehension. The DD group performed less accurately and more slowly on both structures compared to the CA group, but performed similarly to the RL group. Dyslexic children’s receptive vocabulary knowledge was associated with higher accuracy and shorter response latencies in RC comprehension, and their phonological short-term memory was specifically linked to faster RC processing. These findings confirm the existence of syntactic difficulties in dyslexia and suggest that these difficulties may stem from limited vocabulary knowledge and phonological short-term memory deficits.

Changes in narrative skills among Russian-Hebrew bilingual preschoolers with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) were examined following Bilingual Narrative Intervention. Eight children with DLD and nine typically developing children participated in two six-session intervention blocks, first in the home language HL/Russian and then in the societal language SL/Hebrew. Intervention sessions involved retelling single-episode stories accompanied by icons/gestures, repetition, and peer interaction. Narrative skills were assessed at four-time points. Results showed that while typically developing children performed better overall, both groups followed similar trajectories. Children performed better in HL/Russian across all assessments. Macrostructure improved in both groups after HL/Russian intervention, particularly for “Feeling” and “Goal” elements. Bilingual typical language development children showed higher lexical diversity, with significant improvement following HL/Russian intervention. Children with bilingual DLD made more errors in HL/Russian, but similar error rates emerged between groups for SL/Hebrew. Earlier age of onset of bilingualism correlated with better macrostructure in SL/Hebrew but not in HL/Russian. Findings underscore the need for tailored intervention in both languages which considers clinical status and bilingual children’s background.