Learning Disabled Children's Conversational Skills — The ‘TV Talk Show’

Abstract

This study examined the conversational competence of learning disabled children when placed in a dominant social position. Learning disabled and nondisabled children were videotaped as they played the role of a talk show host interviewing a nondisabled child. The conversational strategies of the learning disabled and nondisabled children were analyzed for discourse and turn-taking behaviors. The results indicated that although the learning disabled children were cooperative conversational partners, their strategies for initiating and sustaining the interaction differed from those of nondisabled children. Learning disabled children asked fewer questions and were less likely to produce open-ended questions than nondisabled children. In turn, their conversational partners were less likely to provide elaborative responses to their questions. The results are discussed in terms of current hypotheses about learning disabled children's linguistic deficits and their difficulties in establishing positive peer relations.