Maternal recasts and activity variations: A comparison of mother--child dyads involving children with and without SLI

• Published in: Clinical linguistics & phonetics 2014-04, Vol.28 (4), p.223-240
• Main Authors: Rezzonico, Stefano, de Weck, Geneviève, Salazar Orvig, Anne, da Silva Genest, Christine, Rahmati, Somayeh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Case-Control Studies; Child; Child clinical studies; Child, Preschool; Children's responses; dialogue; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Language and communication disorders; Language Development Disorders - diagnosis; Language Development Disorders - psychology; Language Therapy - methods; Linguistics; Male; Maternal Behavior; Medical sciences; mother-child interaction; Mother-Child Relations; Phonetics; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; recast; specific language impairment; Verbal Behavior; Vocabulary
• ISSN: 0269-9206; 1464-5076
• DOI: 10.3109/02699206.2013.802014

Abstract This study investigated maternal recast and the children's responses comparing dyads made up of a mother and a child with typical language development (TD) or a child with specific language impairment (SLI). More specifically, this article deals with the influence of the type of activity being carried out on the number and types of maternal recasts. A sample of 17 French-speaking children with SLI (age 5 to 7 years) matched with 17 TD same-age peers was observed in interaction with their mother during four different activities (joint reading, symbolic play, question guessing game and clue guessing game). The results showed that group and activity had an impact on the number and type of recasts. Mothers of children with SLI offered more recasts than mothers of TD children. The former preferred phonological recasts whereas the latter preferred lexical ones. Moreover, recasts were more frequently used in joint reading than in other activities. Regarding the children's responses, no significant difference was observed between the two groups. Children with SLI took up the maternal proposition more frequently after a lexical recast than after a recast of another type. The findings provide evidence for considering the features of the activities in clinical settings.