Gender differences in the use of linguistic devices by youths with mental retardation: A preliminary analysis

One potential influence on communication behavior that is often overlooked in the field of mental retardation is the effect of gender. Two recent studies reporting gender-related differences in social (Wilkinson and Romski, 1995) and semantic (Wilkinson and Murphy, 1998) aspects of communication have underscored the need to examine the role of gender in this population. The relative use by males and females with mental retardation of linguistic (grammatical) devices identified as characteristic of typical female speech (qualifying markers, question styles, and politeness terms) was examined. Females produced significantly more qualifying markers than did males, although neither question style nor politeness marking differentiated the two.