Using a barrier game format to improve children's referential communication skills

The effectiveness of training referential communication skills with learning-disabled (LD) students was investigated. Forty-two upper elementary-aged children were divided equally into three groups: (a) an LD training group, (b) an LD control group, and (c) a normally achieving training group. The normal group was included as a check on training procedures. All subjects were administered pretests. The measures were a listening task and two speaking tasks. The two training groups were trained in dyads on a referential communication task. Posttests were administered 1 week after training. Results indicated that on the listening task the groups were not significantly different. On both speaking measures, the LD trained group achieved significantly higher scores than did the LD control group. The LD and normally achieving training groups were not significantly different. Follow-up testing 7 months later indicated that significant differences remained between the two LD groups on one of the speaking measures. It is concluded that LD students can benefit from training on referential communication tasks.