A Study of the Clarification Strategies of Mentally Retarded Children

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the use of conversational strategies by metally retarded children in response to a situation of communication failure. Responses to clarification resquest during spontaneous conversation showed that regardless of language stage, revision of the original utterance was the primary strategy used, rather than repetition or response. Subcategories of revision were expanded to include revision in manner of production, constituent revision, and topic revision. There was a significant increase in the use of revisions across language stages, but no revision subcategory group was used significantly more often than the others.