Recasts have been shown to be successful in promoting the language
development of normal children. A RECAST is a discourse adjustment
through which basic semantic information is retained while syntactic
structure is altered. Little research to date has addressed the power of
recasts in advancing the development of specifically language-impaired
children. The language-impaired child is believed to be delayed, but not
deviant from the normal child, in acquiring language. For this reason, it is
suggested that the same kind of linguistic input beneficial to normal
children should be beneficial to language-impaired children. This paper
includes a review of the literature on the effects of recasts on normal
language acquisition. The rare event cognitive comparison model (Nelson,
1980; 1987) is presented in an attempt to describe how a child might use
recasts to help acquire language. Finally, a section on the potential use of
recasts to aid in the development of language-impaired children is
presented.
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