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Methodological adaptations for investigating the perceptions of language‐impaired adolescents regarding the relative importance of selected communication skills

This article describes the systematic and detailed processes undertaken to modify a research methodology for use with language‐impaired adolescents. The original methodology had been used previously with normally achieving adolescents and speech pathologists to obtain their opinions about the relative importance of selected communication skills for adolescents' positive peer relationships. Modifications attempted to address language‐impaired adolescents' characteristic metalinguistic, literacy, cognitive, and information processing weaknesses. Revising the original wording of the communication skills, reducing the reading level of the skills from grade 10 to 4.6, using a Q‐sort approach to ranking the importance of the skills, and revising the instructions and administration procedures led to what pilot testing results indicated was a valid methodology for use with language‐impaired adolescents. Results of a preliminary study using the revised methodology suggested that language‐impaired adolescents may perceive the relative importance of some communication skills differently from their normally achieving peers.