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Children with language impairment (LI) are at risk for social difficulties that can undermine their ability to establish and maintain positive relationships. These children are often poorly accepted by peers, have limited friendships, and may be excluded from work and play contexts. Evidence suggests that various factors intertwine with language impairment to limit social competence in children with LI. Emotion understanding, the ability to infer the emotions of oneself and others from social context, appears to be one important factor. In this presentation we will review research on the social competence of children with LI and discuss the results of several studies highlighting the influence of emotion understanding on social outcomes. We consider the implications of these data for conceptualizing LI in terms of a category of impairment, a point on a continuum of impairment, or a clustering of factors that determine impairment. This work has been supported by the David O McKay School of Education and a David O. McKay Fellowship, Brigham Young University. |
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