Department of Philosophy, Education, and Psychology, University of Verona, Italy.
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2011 Sep-Oct;46(5):579-91. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-6984.2011.00032.x. Epub 2011 Mar 7.
Previous studies indicate that (1) children with specific language impairment (SLI) produce a high number of problematic answers during shared book reading, and that (2) adult communicative input has a key role in supporting child responsiveness. However, little is known about the strategies used by parents to repair children's inadequate answers and their effectiveness in supporting appropriate responses.
Repairs (any utterance aimed to correct a child's problematic answer) produced by mothers of children with SLI and mothers of typically developing children during shared reading conversation were compared: (1) to examine whether there are significant differences in their features, and to what extent these differences (if any) are accounted for by limitations in child responsiveness and language abilities; and (2) to assess whether-and in which cases-maternal repairs are effective in eliciting appropriate answers from children with SLI.
METHODS & PROCEDURES: Ten preschool-aged children with SLI, ten age-matched typically developing children, and ten mean length of utterance-matched typically developing children with their mothers participated in the study. Each mother-child dyad was videotaped during four sessions of shared book reading at home. Each maternal repair was coded according to the level of support (i.e., presence of crucial information and familiar topic) provided to elicit the child's correct answer. Each child's answer following a maternal repair was coded on the basis of both linguistic production and content appropriateness.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Mothers of children with SLI produced significantly more high-supportive repairs than mothers of age-matched children, but not more than mothers of mean length of utterance-matched younger children. Sequential analysis applied to maternal repairs and children's answers showed that supportive repairs significantly affected the occurrence of minimally acceptable answers produced by children with SLI, while non-supportive repairs affected significantly the occurrence of inadequate answers. Children with SLI behaved in a similar way to mean length of utterance-matched younger children, showing spontaneous motivation to imitate crucial information included in high-supportive repairs.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The findings suggest that mothers of children with SLI adjust their repairs to their children's linguistic limitations. The use of supportive repairs is functional to model the children's answers, enables them to practise new words, and contributes to the children's experience of being an active interlocutor. These findings have a potential clinical value that can be used in language intervention programmes based on shared book reading.
先前的研究表明，（1）患有特定语言障碍（SLI）的儿童在共同阅读时会产生大量有问题的答案，（2）成人交际输入在支持儿童反应能力方面起着关键作用。然而，对于父母用来修复孩子不恰当回答的策略以及这些策略在支持适当回答方面的有效性，我们知之甚少。
比较患有 SLI 的儿童的母亲和发育正常的儿童的母亲在共同阅读对话中产生的修复（旨在纠正孩子有问题的回答的任何话语）：（1）检查它们在特征上是否存在显著差异，以及这些差异（如果有的话）在多大程度上归因于儿童反应能力和语言能力的限制；（2）评估——以及在哪些情况下——母亲的修复是否能有效地从患有 SLI 的儿童那里引出适当的回答。
10 名学龄前患有 SLI 的儿童、10 名年龄匹配的发育正常的儿童和 10 名平均话语长度匹配的发育正常的儿童与他们的母亲一起参加了这项研究。在每个家庭的四次共享阅读视频记录中，每个母子二人组都被拍摄下来。根据为引出孩子正确答案而提供的支持程度（即关键信息的存在和熟悉的主题），对每个母亲的修复进行编码。根据语言产出和内容适宜性，对孩子在母亲修复后的回答进行编码。
患有 SLI 的儿童的母亲所产生的高支持性修复明显多于年龄匹配儿童的母亲，但并不多于平均话语长度匹配的年幼儿童的母亲。对母亲修复和孩子回答的序列分析表明，支持性修复显著影响了患有 SLI 的儿童产生最小可接受回答的可能性，而非支持性修复则显著影响了不适当回答的产生。患有 SLI 的儿童的行为与平均话语长度匹配的年幼儿童相似，他们表现出自发的动机，模仿高支持性修复中包含的关键信息。
研究结果表明，患有 SLI 的儿童的母亲会根据孩子的语言限制调整修复方式。使用支持性修复有助于为孩子提供示范，使他们有机会练习新单词，并使他们体验到作为积极对话者的感觉。这些发现具有潜在的临床价值，可用于基于共同阅读的语言干预项目。
