Conversational Engagement of Children with Learning Disabilities

This study was designed to characterize the conversational engagement techniques employed by children with and without learning disabilities while in a dyadic inter-action. Engagement was defined and measured in terms of the degree to which utterances provided information and evidenced responsiveness to one's conversa-tional partner. Sixty (30 with learning disabilities and 30 nondisabled) 9- to 13-year-old subjects participated. Analyses indicated that the subjects with learning disabilities (LD) could and did employ engagement-related techniques similar in levels of sophistication to those of their nondisabled peers, although they did so less con-sistently and frequently. Further, the relationship between affective measures and the engagement-related techniques used by the subjects with LD differed markedly from those of the nondisabled subjects. The results are interpreted from a motiva-tional standpoint and suggest that future research should focus on the knowledge and application of engagement-related techniques of the children with LD, across settings and conversational partners. The communicative abilities of chil-dren with learning disabilities (LD) have been the focus of much research in recent years (e.g., Bryan, Donahue, Pearl, & Sturm, 1981; Donahue & Bryan, 1983), based on the belief that observed differences in communicative perfor-mance may account for the social diffi-culties evidenced by this population (e.g.