Purpose: Four children identified with language impairment (LI) participated in a social communication intervention to increase the production of validating comments, including making positive statements, sharing information, and asking peers questions about themselves. Method: A case study design was used. Baseline measures were collected from 3…

Adolescents with impaired language comprehension and formulation skills often experience difficulty keeping up with the linguistic and social demands of peer interaction. This clinical exchange describes an individualized treatment program designed to increase the conversational skill of an adolescent male with language impairment. Treatment…

Teachers were asked to rate the emotion regulation behaviors of 41 children (ages 6-13) with specific language impairment (SLI) and 41 typical peers. Overall, children with SLI received significantly lower ratings than typical children. Sex differences were also found, with boys with SLI having notably lower ratings than other groups on the…

This pilot study examined the playground social behaviors of eight children (ages 6-10) with language impairments (LI) and their typical peers. Analysis of videotape recordings found LI children spent significantly less time interacting with peers and demonstrated significantly more withdrawn behaviors than did their peers, with group membership…

This pilot study examined how the individual social-behavioral profiles of six children with language impairment (LI) influenced their ability to work with two typically developing children in cooperative groups. Although the success of individual interactions was highly variable, the LI child's social profile was a good predictor of ability to…

Elementary classroom teachers rated the withdrawn and social behaviors of 41 children with language impairments (LI) and 41 typically developing peers using the Teacher Behavioral Rating Scale. Teachers rated children with LI as more reticent than typically developing children, and boys with LI as displaying more solitary-active withdrawal…

The social skills of 19 elementary school children with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared to those of a matched control group using 3 different measures. Results indicated the SLI children had poorer social skills, fewer peer relationships, and less satisfaction with their peer relationships than classmates without SLI. (Author/DB)

Speech-language clinicians should offer specific suggestions to classroom teachers for dealing with language handicapped children. Suggestions may touch upon listening behavior, classroom emotional climate, as well as specific techniques for talking with children (modeling, expatiation, expansion). Specific activity ideas may also be offered. (CL)

Thirteen subjects (aged 5:6 to 6:6) with language disorders were given elicited imitation and spontaneous language tasks, and their performance was compared among and within subjects. The two procedures produced significantly correlated results for some children but not for others. Analysis of specific syntactic forms also produced variable…

Language-disordered (N=30) and linguistically-normal (N=30) first- through third-graders judged the grammatical acceptability of sentences (and attempted to correct those they judged ungrammatical). Results indicated that the judgment task was capable of effectively separating language-disordered and linguistically-normal children at specific age…

Thirty children from two age levels (4 to 5 and 6 to 7 years) with diagnosed language problems were tested with four informal methods of language evaluation: spontaneous language sampling, elicited imitation, sentence completion, and grammatical judgment. Overall comparisons between tasks revealed significant correlations between spontaneous…

This article presents a case study of a nine-year-old male with language impairment and specific pragmatic disabilities. His interactions with an adult, a language age-matched peer, and a chronological age-matched peer were observed and analyzed to determine conversational responsiveness and assertiveness. Findings support Fey's (1986) verbal…

This paper on the relationship of language impairment, social skills, and socioemotional behavior introduces the following issues: the influence of language impairment on the social interactions of children; the association between language and challenging behavior; and the relationship between language impairment, social problems, and psychiatric…