Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

• Mohammad Reza Keyhani ¹
• Zahra Agharasuli ²
• Yahya Modarresi ³
• Mahboubeh Nakhshab ⁴

¹ MSc in Statistics, Academic Member in Department of Biostatics, School of Rehabilition, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

² MSc in Speech Therapy, Academic Member in School of Rehabilitation, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

³ PhD in Linguistics, Academic Member in Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.

⁴ MSc in speech therapy,Academic Member in School of Rehabilitation, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

Abstract

Abstract   Introduction: Conversational repair strategies are among the most important pragmatic skills and are classified under the category of conversational skills. The importance of these skills has been specifically explored in hearing-impaired or specific language-impaired children who are prone to communicative breakdowns during interactions with others. Speech-language pathologists' knowledge about the conversational repair strategies (i.e., repetition, revision, addition and cue repair) and their normal application during communicative interactions is at best limited and tentative. The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare these strategies in children with 3, 4 and 5 years of age. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional research, the employment of conversational repair strategies were evaluated across 72 speech samples derived from Farsi-speaking children resident in Isfahan-Iran. The subjects were divided into three age groups: 3, 4 and 5 years. Results: The results indicated that revision, cue repair and inappropriate responses had significant correlation with age whereas repetition and addition strategies did not show such relationship. With regard to gender of subjects, revision was the only strategy which was more applied by boys than by girls. Conclusion: Repetition was the most frequently applied strategy in each age group. The employment of revision strategy was more common in younger children and, with increasing age, its application decreased. However, subjects used cue repair more frequently as their age increased. These results were in agreement with study results of foreign researchers. Keywords: Pragmatics, Conversational repair, Communicative breakdown.