Elicited Imitation Ability of Children from Learning Disabled and Regular Classes*

In this study 40 normal and 40 learning disabled children classified by age (5 and 6) and level of auditory discrimination (impaired and normal) were tested for language ability using an elicited imitation paradigm. Learning disabled children exhibited more errors, had more difficulty extract-ing the semantic component from the model sentence, and gave more reformulations than normal children. Results supported a deficit hypothesis in regard to the learning disabled child's language rather than a deviancy hypothesis. In addition, the elicited imitation technique was found to be inappropriate for children with impaired auditory discrimination ability. I nadequate language ability has often been cited as a defining characteristic of learning disabled children. Until recently, however, this assumption has received little empirical support. Much of the information available is based on the investigation of children having problems labeled as aphasi