Social Skills of Children With Specific Language Impairment

Abstract

Children with specific language impairment are at risk for social problems. This article discusses the available literature pertinent to understanding their peer relationships. In addition, a clinical case is provided to illustrate some of the socialinteractional difficulties described.KEY WORDS: social skills, language disorders, specific language impairment (SLI), peer relationships "That kid's strangely" (The words of one 7-year-old boy with normal language development to another boy of the same age with specific language impairment, just 11 minutes after meeting him for the first time.) 0 1993, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 0161-146 1/93/2404-0206$01 .00/0 206 Downloaded From: http://lshss.pubs.asha.org/ by a Western Michigan University User on 03/27/2016 Terms of Use: http://pubs.asha.org/ss/rights_and_permissions.aspx

Social and behavioral correlates of preschoolers with specific language impairment

“…Children with receptive and expressive deficits were less conversationally effective than those SLI children whose receptive language skills were more intact (Craig, 1993). Children with both speech and language impairments were ignored much more than their peers, had fewer social interactions, and were addressed much less (Hadley & Rice, 1991).…”

“…Children with both speech and language impairments were ignored much more than their peers, had fewer social interactions, and were addressed much less (Hadley & Rice, 1991). Poor intelligibility and grammar were predictors of social difficulties as preschool children began to discriminate among those children who talked well and those who did not (Craig, 1993;Hadley & Rice, 1991).…”

Habilidades sociales en preadolescentes con trastorno específico del lenguaje

“…Así, se deben incluir otras áreas problemáticas en los niños con TEL que afectan directamente a las relaciones interpersonales, especialmente con sus iguales, como son las habilidades sociales y el liderazgo. De esta manera, la idea de que un círculo vicioso afecta a estos niños sigue vigente: las dificultades del lenguaje de los niños con TEL les empujan a tener menos relaciones sociales, lo que a su vez hace que presenten un menor nivel de habilidades sociales que sus iguales, lo cual les conduce a tener relaciones más sencillas y en menor cantidad (Craig, 1993). Pero precisamente, al no tener interacciones sociales de mayor complejidad, no pueden incrementar sus habilidades en este campo, ni tampoco mejorar en el ámbito del lenguaje.…”

“…Ambos hechos dificultarían el aumento progresivo de la complejidad en las relaciones sociales, produciendo un estancamiento en el desarrollo de estas. Así pues, estos niños se relacionan en menor medida con sus iguales y están menos satisfechos con sus relaciones sociales que la población normativa (Craig, 1993). En este punto, cabe reseñar que el historial de rechazos que potencialmente pueden sufrir agrava dichas circunstancias, generando ansiedad, falta de atención y tristeza.…”

A method for assessing the use of first person verb forms by preschool-aged children with SLI

“…Finally, there is evidence that children with SLI are less likely to interact in conversational settings with multiple participants (Craig, 1993;Craig and Washington, 1993;Fey and Leonard, 1984;Rice, Sell, and Hadley, 1991). In addition, studies have indicated that these children are more likely to show higher levels of withdrawn behavior as reported by teachers (Fujiki, Brinton, Morgan, and Hart, 1999;Redmond and Rice, 1998) and observed during free play settings (Fujiki, Brinton, Isaacson, and Summers, 2001).…”