TY - JOUR
T1 - References to people in the communications of female and male youths with mental retardation
AU - Wilkinson, Krista M.
AU - Murphy, Nora A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for the research and manuscript preparation was supported by a supplement from the Office of Women’s Health to NICHD Grant HD 25995. The authors thank Kathy Clark, Julie Jeffery, Alison McVay, Tom Fowler, and Kevin Farren for assistance with data collection and the teachers and participants at the May Center, the Learning Center, and the New England Center for Children. Additional thanks to Julie Jeffery for data tape coding and editorial input on an earlier version of this paper.
PY - 1998/5
Y1 - 1998/5
N2 - Gender-related differences have consistently been reported in the language of adults and children with no disabilities. One well-replicated finding is that females discuss people and relationships more often than do males, particularly in conversations with other females. These stylistic variations in language are considered to have implications for the adaptive functioning of language users, most particularly females. Although studied thus far only in nondisabled individuals, such issues of language style use may be of equal or greater concern for those with mental retardation. How does a cognitive impairment intensify or reduce gender-linked language styles and their effects? Language transcripts were obtained from eight male and eight female participants with retardation, interacting separately with one male and one female adult partner. Half of the participants used speech as their primary mode of communication: the others relied on vocalization, gesture, or augmented modes. Participants using speech showed gender-linked language patterns similar to nondisabled individuals, with females discussing people significantly more often than males. Females using nonspeech modes, in contrast, showed a severe reduction in person-referencing that was not accountable by their expressive speech limitations.
AB - Gender-related differences have consistently been reported in the language of adults and children with no disabilities. One well-replicated finding is that females discuss people and relationships more often than do males, particularly in conversations with other females. These stylistic variations in language are considered to have implications for the adaptive functioning of language users, most particularly females. Although studied thus far only in nondisabled individuals, such issues of language style use may be of equal or greater concern for those with mental retardation. How does a cognitive impairment intensify or reduce gender-linked language styles and their effects? Language transcripts were obtained from eight male and eight female participants with retardation, interacting separately with one male and one female adult partner. Half of the participants used speech as their primary mode of communication: the others relied on vocalization, gesture, or augmented modes. Participants using speech showed gender-linked language patterns similar to nondisabled individuals, with females discussing people significantly more often than males. Females using nonspeech modes, in contrast, showed a severe reduction in person-referencing that was not accountable by their expressive speech limitations.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0891-4222(98)00005-5
DO - 10.1016/S0891-4222(98)00005-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 9653799
AN - SCOPUS:0031808770
SN - 0891-4222
VL - 19
SP - 201
EP - 224
JO - Research in Developmental Disabilities
JF - Research in Developmental Disabilities
IS - 3
ER -