Social skills determine to a large extent the success we enjoy vocationally and avocationally and the amount of satisfaction we derive from our personal relationships. Social skill deficits in childhood have long been associated with a variety of negative outcomes, including criminality, underemployment, and psychopathology (cf. Gilbert and Connolly, 1991). The potential impact of developmental language impairments on social development is one of the most important issues facing families, educators, and speech-language pathologists. Unfortunately, there is little agreement on the definition of social skills as a psychological construct, making service planning in this area challenging. In their review, Merrell and Gimpel (1998) presented no less than 16 different definitions that enjoy wide currency and reflect the interests of a variety of disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry, special education, and social work. However, commonalities across these different perspectives can be extracted. In a meta-analysis of 21 multivariate studies that classified children's social skills (total N = 22,000), Caldarella and Merrell (1997) identified five core dimensions: peer relations, self-management, academics, compliance, and assertion.

What are the interrelationships between language impairments and these important areas of social development? Language impairments occur with a large variety of developmental disorders, and some, such as mental retardation, autism, and pervasive developmental delay, include social skill deficits as a primary diagnostic feature. In order to address the question of how language impairment uniquely affects social development, however, we need to examine the social skills of children with specific language impairment (SLI) (see specific language impairment in children). SLI refers to a language deficiency that occurs in the absence of other conditions commonly associated with language disorders in children. Children with SLI show normal hearing, age-appropriate scores on nonverbal tests of intelligence, and no obvious signs of neurological or socioemotional impairment. Children with SLI represent a heterogeneous group, and significant individual differences exist among children diagnosed with this disorder. However, a common profile in young, English-speaking children with SLI is a mild to moderate deficit in a range of language areas and a more significant deficit in the use of grammatical morphology.

According to Caldarella and Merrell (1997), a large number of social skills contribute to the dimension peer relations. These skills include specific discourse/pragmatic behaviors such as complimenting others and inviting others to play, as well as more general social attributes such as peer acceptance. Several studies have examined the peer interactions of preschool and school-age children with SLI and have documented the detrimental effect that language impairments can have on this area of social development. For example, children with SLI are likely to be ignored by their typically developing peers, respond less often when their peers make initiations, and rely more on adults to mediate their interactions (Craig and Evans, 1989; Hadley and Rice, 1991; Rice, Sell, and Hadley, 1991; Craig and Washington, 1993; Brinton, Fujiki, and Higbee, 1998; Brinton, Fujiki, and McKee, 1998). Sociometric analyses confirm further the impression that children with SLI experience limited peer acceptance (Gertner, Rice, and Hadley, 1994; Fujiki, Brinton, Hart, et al., 1999). Some studies suggest that problems in peer group acceptance may extend to difficulties establishing adequate friendships (Fujiki, Brinton, Morgan, et al., 1999), whereas others have reported no differences between children with SLI and typically developing children in the number and quality of close friendships (Redmond and Rice, 1998).

Although peer relations represent the sine qua non of social development, there are other important social skills. Self-management refers to the ability to control one's temper, follow rules and limits, and compromise with others (Caldarella and Merrell, 1997). A few studies have assessed this dimension in children with SLI. Stevens and Bliss (1995) examined conflict resolution abilities in 30 children with SLI in grades 3 through 7 and found no significant differences between this group and a group of grade-matched typically developing controls during a role-enactment activity. Children with SLI produced fewer strategies during a more verbally demanding hypothetical problem-solving activity. Brinton, Fujiki, and McKee (1998) examined the negotiation skills of six children with SLI (8 to 12 years old) during conversational interactions with typically developing peers and found that children with SLI contributed fewer and less mature negotiation strategies. The strategies used by children in the SLI group resembled those produced by a younger group of children of equivalent language levels.

The third cluster of social skills identified by Caldarella and Merrell's (1997) meta-analysis was the academics dimension. This dimension captures behaviors regarded by teachers as important to school adjustment and is represented by such skills as completing tasks independently, following teachers' directions, and producing quality work. Indirect evidence for problems in this dimension comes from studies of SLI that have used rating scales to evaluate children's socioemotional characteristics. For example, Redmond and Rice (1998) compared standardized parent and teacher ratings of 17 children with SLI collected at kindergarten and first grade to ratings collected on typically developing children. The particular rating scales used included several items that relate to important academic skills (e.g., has difficulty following directions; fails to carry out tasks; messy work). These investigators found significant differences between groups on the teacher ratings of these problems but not on the parent ratings, suggesting that the social performance of children with SLI varies significantly across situations, depending on the verbal demands placed on them and the expectations of others. Levels of academic success may also influence academic social behaviors. In an epidemiological study of 164 second-grade children with language impairments, Tomblin et al. (2000) found that levels of classroom behavior problems were higher among children with SLI who also had reading disabilities than among children with SLI alone (see language disorders and reading disabilities).

Prosocial behaviors such as cooperation and sharing are captured by Caldarella and Merrell's compliance dimension. Information on the consequences of SLI in this area of social skill development is limited. Farmer (2000) compared the performances of 16 10-year-old children with SLI with that of a group of typically developing children on a standardized teacher rating scale of prosocial behaviors and found no significant differences.

The final social skills dimension in Caldarella and Merrell's taxonomy is assertion. Several studies suggest children with SLI experience particular difficulty in this area. Craig and Washington (1993) examined the conversational skills of five 7-year-old children with SLI as they attempted to access ongoing peer interactions and found that three of the five children had considerable difficulty asserting themselves in this situation. Brinton et al. (1997) replicated these results with older children (8–12 years old). Children with SLI have also been consistently characterized as shy, passive, and withdrawn by parents and teachers (Tallal, Dukette, and Curtiss, 1989; Fujiki, Brinton, and Todd, 1996; Redmond and Rice, 1998; Beitchman et al., 2001). Results from a recent 14-year longitudinal study of 77 children with speech and language impairments suggest that characterizations of low assertiveness may be longstanding and continue at least into young adulthood for some children with SLI (Beitchman et al., 2001).

In sum, a small but growing body of research suggests that language impairments place children at risk for negative social consequences, specifically in the areas of assertion and peer relations. Problems in these areas may be particularly detrimental for children with SLI because they can contribute to what Rice (1993) has described as a “negative social spiral.” Rice suggested that in response to repeated instances of communicative failure, children with SLI may withdraw from peer interactions or rely more on adults to mediate peer interactions. However, these behavioral adjustments may turn out to be counterproductive for both social and linguistic development because they limit children's access to important socialization experiences and opportunities to improve their limited language skills.

Studies of children with SLI have consistently reported high levels of variability in social skill performance, a finding that has important clinical and research implications. Social skill deficits do not appear to be an inevitable consequence of developmental language impairments, nor can social skill differences between children be inferred from differences in either the type or severity of language deficits (e.g., Brinton and Fujiki, 1999; Fujiki et al., 1999; Donlan and Masters, 2000). Given the heterogeneity of children with developmental language disorders, it is important that treatment teams supplement the assessment of language impairment with a separate assessment of social skills in the areas of peer relations, self-management, academics, compliance, and assertion across different situational contexts (home, classroom, playground).

Future investigations may reveal that variability in children with language impairments is better accounted for by uncontrolled confounding factors. For example, although many studies suggest that SLI and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder commonly co-occur (cf. Cohen et al., 2000) the potential influence of this comorbidity on social skill development has not yet been considered. Likewise, a small portion of children diagnosed with SLI demonstrate limitations in social cognition commonly associated with autism and pervasive developmental delay. There has been a longstanding controversy over the diagnostic boundaries between SLI and autism spectrum disorders (cf. Bishop, 2000), and social skill outcomes may be an important distinguishing characteristic of children who fall outside preconceived categories. Large-scale investigations comparing the social skills of children with SLI only with those of children with SLI and other comorbid disorders are needed to delineate which language skills are associated with specific areas of social skill development. The results of this line of research will inform important areas of clinical practice, such as diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment.

See also psychosocial problems associated with communicative disorders.