Social Competence in Children with Language Impairment

Biosketch(es)

Bonnie Brinton is professor of Communication Disorders and Dean of Graduate Studies at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.  She was previously employed by the University of Kansas as an Associate Scientist in the Schiefelbusch Institute of Life Span Studies, and at the University of Nevada Reno as an Associate Professor of Speech Language Pathology.  She has also worked as a speech language pathologist in school and hospital settings.  She is a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 

Martin Fujiki is professor of Communication Disorders at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.  He was previously employed by the University of Kansas as an Associate Scientist in the Schiefelbusch Institute of Life Span Studies, and at the University of Nevada Reno as an Associate Professor of Speech Language Pathology.  He has clinical experience in public school and private clinic settings.  He is a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and has received the Frank R. Kleffner Clinical Career Award from the Utah Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 

Research Program

Our research program focuses on the social competence of children with specific language impairment (SLI).  As doctoral students we became interested in the pragmatic abilities of children with SLI.  We were particularly interested in what happened when these children interacted with peers.  Our early work suggested that pragmatic difficulties were evident in contexts where children needed to cooperate with conversational partners.  Children with SLI had particular difficulty adjusting to the needs of others in interaction.  At the time, we questioned what impact these problems might have within a child's social world.  It seemed clear that the study of pragmatics in children would naturally lead to the consideration of social outcomes.

In 1988, we accepted positions at the University of Kansas, Schiefelbusch Institute of Life Span Studies.  This afforded us the opportunity to expand our work to study the pragmatic skills of adults with mild developmental disabilities.  Our research findings emphasized the fact that an individual's quality of life, in the long term, was influenced not so much by structural language ability as by social communication skills.  We felt that our findings with adults with developmental disabilities had important implications for children with language impairment. 

We resumed our work with children with SLI in 1991 when we accepted positions at Brigham Young University.  Our primary focus was the association between language impairment and social competence, and the impact of social communication on peer relationships.  In a series of studies exploring social outcomes, we found that children with SLI were less accepted by peers, had poorer friendships, and were perceived by teachers as being more withdrawn than other children.  Although it was clear that poor language skills played an important role in these problems, we found indications that impaired language was not the only influential variable at work.  We have considered other factors that might interact with language to produce social outcomes, such as emotional competence.  Our most recent studies have focused on the emotion understanding of children with SLI and their typical peers.  We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Matthew Spackman, Dr. Craig Hart, and our graduate and undergraduate research teams to this work. We would also like to acknowledge the McKay School of Education for continued support of this work. We are particularly grateful for the David O. McKay Fellowship awarded by Brigham Young University.

 

Selected Publications on Language Impairment and Aspects of Social Competence:

Brinton, B., & Fujiki, M. (1993).  Language, social skills, and socioemotional behavior.  Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 24, 194-198.

Fujiki, M. & Brinton, B. (1994).  The social competence of children with specific language impairment.  In M. L. Rice & R. Watkins (Eds.) Language intervention with children with specific language impairment (pp. 123-143). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Brinton, B. & Fujiki, M. (1995). Intervention with conversational skills.  In M. E. Fey, J. Windsor, & S. Warren, (Eds.) Communication intervention for school-age children (pp. 183-212).  Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., & Todd, C.M. (1996).  Social skills of children with specific language impairment.  Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 27, 195-202.

Brinton, B., Fujiki, M., & Powell, J. M. (1997).  The ability of children with language impairment to manipulate topic in a structured task.  Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 28, 3-11.

Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., Robinson, L., & Watson, V. (1997).  The ability of children with specific language impairment to participate in a group decision task.  Journal of Children's Communication Development, 18, 1-10.

Brinton, B., Fujiki, M., Spencer, J. C., & Robinson, L. A. (1997).  The ability of children with specific language impairment to access and participate in an ongoing interaction.  Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 40, 1011-1025.

Brinton, B., Fujiki, M., & McKee, L. (1998).  The negotiation skills of children with specific language impairment.  Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 41, 927-940.

Brinton, B., Fujiki, M., & Higbee, L. (1998).  Participation in cooperative learning activities by children with specific language impairment.  Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 41, 1193-1206.

Brinton, B., & Fujiki, M. (1999).  Social interactional behaviors of children with specific language impairment.  Topics in Language Disorders, 19 (2), 49-69.

Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., Hart, C. H., & Fitzgerald, A. (1999).  Peer acceptance and friendship in children with specific language impairment.  Topics in Language Disorders, 19 (2), 34-48.

Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., Morgan, M., & Hart, C. H. (1999).  Withdrawn and sociable behavior of children with specific language impairment.  Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 30, 183-195.

Brinton, B., Fujiki, M., Montague, E. C., &  Hanton, J. L. (2000).  Children with language impairment in cooperative work groups: A pilot study. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 31, 252-264.

Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., Isaacson, T., & Summers, C. (2001). Social behaviors of children with language impairment on the playground: A pilot study. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 32, 101-113.

Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., & Clarke, D. (2002). Emotion regulation in children with specific language impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 33, 102-111.

Jerome, A., Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., & James, S. (2002).  Self-esteem in children with specific language impairment.  Journal of Speech Language Hearing and Research, 45, 700-714.

Brinton, B., & Fujiki, M. (2002). Social development in children with specific language impairment and profound hearing loss.  In P. K. Smith & C. H. Hart (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of childhood social development (pp. 588-603). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Hart, K. I., Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., Hart, C. H. (2004).  The relationship between social behavior and severity of language impairment.  Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 47, 647-662.

Fujiki, M., Spackman, M. P., Brinton, B., & Hall, A. (2004).  The relationship of language and emotion regulation skills to reticence in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 47, 637-646.

Brinton, B., Robinson, L., & Fujiki, M. (2004). Description of a Program for Social Language Intervention: "If You Can Have a Conversation, You Can Have a Relationship." Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 35, 283-290.

Brinton, B., & Fujiki, M. (2004). Social and affective factors in language impairments and literacy learning.  In C. A. Stone, E. R. Silliman, B. J. Ehren, & K. Apel (Eds.) Handbook of language and literacy: Development and disorders (pp. 130-153).  New York: Guilford.

Brinton, B., & Fujiki, M. (2005).  Social competence in children with language impairment: Making connections.  Seminars in Speech and Language, 26, 151-159.

Brinton, B., Fujiki, M., & Robinson, L. (2005).  Life on a tricycle: A case study of language impairment from 4 to 19.  Topics in Language Disorders, 25, 338-352. 

Brinton, B., & Fujiki, M. (2005).  Improving peer interaction and learning in cooperative learning groups. In T. A. Ukrainetz (Ed.), Contextualized Language Intervention: Scaffolding K–12 Literacy Achievement (pp. 289-318).  Eau Claire, WI: Thinking Publications.

Spackman, M. P., Fujiki, M., Brinton, B., Nelson, D., & Allen, J. (2006).  The ability of children with language impairment to recognize emotion conveyed by facial expression and music.  Communication Disorders Quarterly, 26, 131-143.

Spackman, M. P., Fujiki, M., & Brinton, B. (2006). Understanding Emotions in Context:  The Effects of Language Impairment on Children’s Ability to Infer Emotional Reactions.  International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 41, 173-188.

Brinton, B., Spackman, M. P., Fujiki, M., & Ricks, J. (in press).  What should Chris say?  The ability of children with specific language impairment to recognize the need to dissemble emotions in social situations.  Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.