Conversational Interactions of the Learning Disabled and Nondisabled Child

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to replicate with modifications three previous studies examining the conversational interactions between learning disabled children and nondisabled peers. The performance of fifteen pairs of learning disabled and nondisabled peers on a persuasion task and their recorded conversations during a cooperative construction task were compared via analyses of variance. The results suggest that the learning disabled and control groups may be distinguished on the basis of their verbal communications. In contrast to previous studies, learning disabled children produced more Request statements proportionately than did their nondisabled peers. Predictions that learning disabled children would be less persuasive were not confirmed, as learning disabled children and nondisabled peers appeared to be equally persuasive. The failure of this study to replicate previous findings of Rejection, Considerate and Competitive statements as discriminators of learning disabled and nondisabled peers is discussed. Address: Barbara D. Markoski, 3658 East Indigo Circle, Mesa, Arizona 85203.