The purpose of this study was to investigate communication characteristics of children with mental retardation, in particular, degree of Speech Acts acquisition. Fourteen children with mental retardation in special schools participated in the study.
T...
The purpose of this study was to investigate communication characteristics of children with mental retardation, in particular, degree of Speech Acts acquisition. Fourteen children with mental retardation in special schools participated in the study.
The results of the research are as follows:
(1) The children demonstrated the highest rates(26.28%) of communicative acts in Need of Speech Acts, the second step of Searle's Speech Acts. On the other hand, they demonstrated the lowest rates(0.29%) in Making Rules of Speech Acts, the eighth step of Searle's Speech Acts.
(2) Statement of Information, the fifth of Searle's Speech Acts, was shown in the highest rates(36%) in higher SQ group. On the other hand, Needs of Speech Acts was demonstrated in high rates(34%) in lower SQ rank group.
(3) Statement of Information was observed in high rates(30.8%) in the group with high MLU. ON the other hand, Needs of Acts was observed in high rates(31.4%) in the group with low MLU.
(4) With regard to relationship between SQ and the overall Speech Acts, the correlation coefficient was found to be .52(p=.58), demonstrating no significant relationship. However, the Need of Speech Acts and the Statement of Information were found to be highly correlated with SQ, demonstrating .-653 and .679, respectively. With regard to relationship between MLU and Speech Acts, only the Need of Speech Acts demonstrated singificant relationship with MLU(r=0.81, p=0.00).
In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that educational and theraputic programs for language development of children with mental retardation be based on characteristics of Speech Acts among them.