ASSESSING CONVERSATIONAL DISABILITY

In spite of current interest in conversational disability, and the gro wing number of children who are being diagnosed as exhibiting this dis order, there are few satisfactory procedures that can be used to asses s their conversation. In the following paper, data from the naturally occurring conversations of two children, who were identified as having difficulties in participating in conversation, are presented. The dat a were scanned for the following conversational skills: securing the a ttention of the addressee before speaking, initiating new topics of co nversation effectively, using the grammatical forms that are most freq uently associated with particular linguistic functions, filling respon se slots effectively, maintaining cohesion within the discourse, and t aking steps to repair mishearings or misunderstandings. This kind of a ssessment, based on the principles of conversational analysis, provide d an objective appraisal of the conversational skills of the children, and also highlighted potential areas for therapeutic intervention. Ma ny of the conversational behaviours exhibited by the two subjects corr esponded with those that have been observed in very young children who are developing language normally. It is suggested that the subjects s tudied here presented with a severe delay in their conversational deve lopment rather than a disorder.