The responses of language disordered children to indirect directives in varying contexts

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Abstract
Language disordered children's responses to sentences that can carry directive import were examined under varying contextual conditions. In the first experiment, sentences were presented in a neutral context; in the second experiment, two different kinds of sentences provided linguistic contexts for test sentences. Taken together, the results of the studies indicate that language disordered children are qualitatively much like normal children with regard to early response behavior. They show evidence of an early action response strategy and some ability to take context into account. On the other hand, they do appear to have more difficulty both in generating informing responses and in utilizing information from prior linguistic context. A possible reason for this latter deficit is suggested.