Assessing conversational disability

In spite of current interest in conversational disability, and the growing number of children who are being diagnosed as exhibiting this disorder, there are few satisfactory procedures that can be used to assess their conversation. In the following paper, data from the naturally occurring conversations of two children, who were identified as having difficulties in participating in conversation, are presented. The data were scanned for the following conversational skills: securing the attention of the addressee before speaking, initiating new topics of conversation effectively, using the grammatical forms that are most frequently associated with particular linguistic functions, filling response slots effectively, maintaining cohesion within the discourse, and taking steps to repair mishearings or misunderstandings. This kind of assessment, based on the principles of conversational analysis, provided an objective appraisal of the conversational skills of the children, and also highlighted potential areas for therapeutic intervention. Many of the conversational behaviours exhibited by the two subjects corresponded with those that have been observed in very young children who are developing language normally. It is suggested that the subjects studied here presented with a severe delay in their conversational development rather than a disorder.