MARCADORES DISCURSIVOS EN NIÑOS DE 7 AÑOS CON TRASTORNO ESPECÍFICO DEL LENGUAJE: ESTUDIO DESCRIPTIVO

Abstract

In this research we describe the use of discourse markers in 25 seven-year-old children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI) in contrast with a control group consisting of the same number of typically developing (TD) children of the same age. The motivation is grounded in that cohesion has been indicated as one of the challenging elements for children with this diagnosis, and problems with cohesion can be detrimental for their future academic performance and daily life (Soriano y Contreras, 2012; Buiza, Rodríguez y Adrián, 2015; Pérez, 1997; Acosta, Hernández y Ramírez, 2018). In order to expand the results of previous studies, in the present research we combine quantitative and qualitative perspectives to study the use of discourse markers in a corpus elicited by a story retelling task using a picture book. We analyze the number of discourse markers per text as well as their categories and their coincidence with the markers used in the original story, comparing the results of SLI and TD subjects. We observe no significant difference between the two groups regarding the use of discourse markers. There is only a slightly greater use of coordinating connectors and less coincidence with the markers used in the original story in the case of the SLI group, which is consistent with characteristics of this diagnosis.