Inferencing Abilities of Children With Specific Language Impairment

Inferencing is the ability to make judgments based upon limited information. It is necessary for basic problem solving, negation social interaction, and comprehension of oral and written language. Despite the importance of inferencing in daily life, there are currently no commercially available tests dedicated entirely to the assessment of inferencing. Previous research has demonstrated a developmental progression of inferencing abilities in neurotypical children. However, no clinical norms exist. Additionally, little research has been conducted regarding the inferencing abilities of children with language impairments. The purpose of this project was to compare inferencing abilities of children with language impairment to typically developing children and to examine the validity of the recently developed, Test of Inferencing (DePew & Veale, 2010). Ten children with language impairment and twelve typically developing children participated in this study. All subjects were between the ages of six and eight. Utilizing a group comparative design, performance on an inferencing battery was evaluated. The following measures were included: the Test of Inferencing (DePew & Veale, 2010), the Test of Problem Solving 3-Elementary (TOPS-3; Huisingh, Bowers, & LoGiudice, 2005), the Listening Comprehension: Making Inferences subtest of the Test of Language Competence-Expanded Edition (TLC-E; Wiig & Secord, 1989), and the Inference subtest of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL; Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999). Results indicated that subjects with language impairment demonstrated significantly worse inferencing skills than neurotypical subjects. Significant differences were found between the groups on all inferencing measures. Additionally, results demonstrated that the Test of Inferencing is an effective measure of inferencing skills