Conversational interaction and decision-making in children with specific language impairment

Abstract

The present investigation examines decision-making in conversational contexts for children with specific language impairment (SLI) and two sets of control groups: same-age peers and children matched for mean length of utterance (MLU). In a dyadic situation, it was found that children with SLI made as many verbal winning moves as age-control peers and more than the MLU-control children. Non-verbally, the children with SLI had more winning moves than the age-control peers. These results are discussed theoretically, in light of previous research on peer interaction, and practically, in terms of implications for clinician-researchers working with children with SLI.