Reading-disabled children's conversational participation in dispute episodes with peers

Abstract
One fertile site for exploring the intersection between language development and social cognition is children's ability to resolve social conflict. This study examined children's conversational participation during dispute episodes that occurred during a group decision-making task with peers. Triads of children in grades 1 and 2 were told to reach a group consenus about their ratings of possible gifts for their class. When disputes occurred, children with reading problems were less likely than normal readers to make the 'winning move,' i.e., their opinions were less likely to be accepted by their partners. The implica tions of these findings for children's conversational development and social acceptance are discussed.