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

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Learning-disabled (LD) students often face challenges in effective communication.
• Referential communication skills are crucial for academic and social success.
• Targeted interventions may improve communication abilities in LD students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of referential communication skills training for upper elementary-aged learning-disabled students.
• To compare the outcomes of LD students receiving training with a control group of LD students and a normally achieving training group.

Main Methods:

• Forty-two upper elementary-aged children were assigned to an LD training group, an LD control group, or a normally achieving training group.
• Training involved dyads working on referential communication tasks.
• Listening and speaking tasks were used for pretesting and posttesting (1 week and 7 months post-training).

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found in listening task performance across groups.
• The LD training group showed significantly higher scores on speaking measures compared to the LD control group.
• The LD training group and the normally achieving training group performed similarly on speaking tasks.
• Follow-up testing indicated sustained differences between the LD groups on one speaking measure after 7 months.

Conclusions:

• Learning-disabled students can benefit from targeted training in referential communication skills.
• Intervention can effectively enhance the communication abilities of LD students.
• The training approach appears to be effective in improving specific speaking skills relevant to referential communication.