| The abilities of a group of developmentally delayed children were examined on an experimenter-designed referential communication task. Children's abilities on logically related components of referential communication and general cognitive abilities were also measured. Finally, the relationship between referential communication abilities and earlier developmental test scores was investigated.;The subjects for this study were 36 developmentally delayed children (X CA 74 months) who had participated in a longitudinal study where a battery of development tests was administered at six month intervals. The children were selected to represent a homogeneous sample of mild to moderately handicapped children identified early on.;For this study, subjects were assessed in their homes on a referential communication task following the work of Krauss and Glucksberg (1969). Cognitive-perceptual, structural linguistic, and social abilities felt to be logically related to referential communication were also assessed. The Stanford-Binet test was administered, and a spontaneous sample of language was collected.;Four major findings emerged from this study: (1) There was a wide range of abilities in referential communication, from inability to perform due to severe language impairments to quite adequate performance (range of scores 0-64 out of a possible score of 68). (2) For subjects who could perform on the referential communication task, components skills did not vary widely. (3) Scores on developmental tests administered when subjects were approximately three years old were strongly related to referential communication abilities measured at six years. Clusters of developmental test items reorganized by linguistic domains (i.e., phonology, syntax-morphology) (Wilcoxen & Briggs, 1981) also were related to referential communication abilities measured subsequently. (4) Early developmental test scores and clusters of test scores at age three differed significantly for subjects able to perform on the referential communication task and those unable to perform. |
