| Abstract: | Developmental expressive language disorder (ELD) is a condition characterized by a delay in the development of expressive language compared with receptive language and IQ. Conditions that might contribute to the origins or maintenance of ELD are poorly understood. Unusual verbal interactions between parents and ELD children might be implicated in the origins of ELD or might represent parental reactivity to the child's limited expressive skills. We compared verbal interactions in the homes of 28-month-old ELD children, and 17-month-old normal children matched on expressive ability with the ELD children. We analyzed frequencies of major pragmatic categories of parent and child verbal behavior as well as sequential relations involving those categories. Pragmatic interactions in the ELD families were substantially similar to those in the families of the normal younger children and different from those in the older normal children. A measure of the structural complexity of maternal speech (MLU) did not differ across the groups. These results indicate that pragmatic language interactions in the families of ELD children are determined largely by the children's level of expressive ability rather than by their age or receptive abilities. In this regard, the child directed speech of parents of ELD children cannot be considered deviant and cannot be implicated in the etiology of ELD. The sensitivity of parents to their child's level of expressive ability suggests the need for refinement in current hypotheses concerning child directed speech. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
