Assertiveness, responsiveness and reciprocity in verbal interaction. Dialogues between children with SLI and peers with typical language development

The present study examined assertiveness and responsiveness in two different conversational contexts: children with specific language impairment (SLI) interacting with an age-matched peer with typical language development (TLD) and children with SLI interacting with a language-matched peer with TLD. The dialogues where the 10 participating children with SLI interacted with an age peer were characterized by a higher degree of responsiveness and coherence. The age peers tended to dominate the interaction with the children with SLI. The dialogues where children with SLI interacted with a language peer were characterized by less responsiveness and less coherence and the child with SLI was likely to be more dominant in the interaction. Thus children with SLI take different roles in verbal interaction depending on how much support the conversational partner can offer.