Communicative Competence of Children with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Research on children with learning disabilities has suggested that many of the social difficulties evidenced by this group may result from their communicative behaviors. The purpose of this study was to identify and characterize the verbal communicative abilities of children with and without learning disabilities both within and across two distinctly different communication situations. Sixty subjects, 30 disabled and 30 nondisabled, drawn from three middle class suburban school districts and ranging between the ages of 9 and 13 years participated in this study. Statistical analyses suggested that the subjects' communicative abilities differ markedly both as a function of the presence or absence of a handicapping condition and in response to the nature of the communication task. In addition, the use of strategies, whether to narrow the comparisons needed in a referential task or to maintain engagement during a conversation, was found to play an influential role in the quality and success of subjects' verbal communicative interactions.

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