Referential communication skill levels of moderately mentally retarded adolescents.

Referential communication skills of moderately mentally retarded adolescents (20 speaker-listener dyads) were investigated. In Study 1, subject performance on referential communication activities divided into three skill levels requiring sampling, comparison, and critical-features analysis was examined. Degree of idiosyncratic messages communicated by retarded speakers was investigated in Study 2. Listening competence of retarded and adult listeners was compared in Study 3. Retarded subjects did consistently better on referential communication tasks requiring only sampling than on tasks requiring comparison or critical analysis. Referential communication messages provided by retarded speakers did not have greater meaning to themselves than to others. Finally, retarded listeners and adult listeners did not differ significantly in their ability to utilize the information given by retarded speakers. Implications of the findings for the study of the social communications of retarded children were discussed.