Conflict resolution abilities in children with Specific Language Impairment

Purpose: To investigate the conflict resolution abilities of children with Specific Language Impairment, and to verify whether the time of speech-language therapy correlates to the performance on the conflict resolution task. Methods: Participants included 20 children with Specific Language Impairment (Research Group) and 40 children with normal language development (Control Group), with ages ranging from 7 years to 8 years and 11 months. To assess the conflict resolution abilities, five hypothetical contexts of conflict were presented. The strategies used by the children were classified and scored by the following levels: level 0 (solutions that do not match the other levels), level 1 (physical solutions), level 2 (unilateral solutions), level 3 (cooperative solutions), and level 4 (mutual solutions). Results: Statistical analysis showed group effect for the variable total score. There was a difference between the groups for modal development level, with higher level of modal development observed in the Control Group. There was no correlation between the period of speech-language therapy attendance and the total score. Conclusion: Children with Specific Language Impairment present difficulties in solving problems, in view of the fact that they mainly use physical and unilateral strategies. There was no correlation between the time of speech-language therapy and performance in the task.