Assessing Communicative Environments of Children with Severe Language Delays: A Qualitative Analysis of Topic Control

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method of supplementing the more traditional measures of linguistic form and fluency with a structured qualitative analysis of the communicative environment of a preschool child with severe language delays. The analytic methods presented were adapted from two main sources: a conceptualization of the factors contributing to the quality of communicative environments developed by Peck and a sociolinguistic approach to analyzing classroom interactions referred to as “mapping.” A detailed description of the method and several suggestions for application in special education research are included.