Comparative analysis of parent-child interactions with language-disordered and linguistically normal children.

Audio-recordings were made in the home environment of 20 parent-child dyads. Each parent and child participated in a 15-min structured and a 15-min free-play period of interaction. Language samples were analyzed in three areas: frequency components, sentence types, and pragmatic discourse features. Significant differences were found between the linguistic interactions of parents with a language-disordered child and parents with a linguistically normal child in all areas studied. Few differences were found between mothers and fathers within each group. The conclusion is drawn that language-disordered children may live in a different type of linguistic environment which could function to maintain the underlying language problem.