Einstellungen zu kindlicher Sprachvariation

Language acquisition has mostly been studied in terms of homogeneity instead of heterogeneity such as regional variation. On the other hand, developmental language disorders have been described in more detail. In this paper, we explore a combination of both types of variation – regional/social and developmental language disorders. We investigate the attitudes of adults toward children's regional variation and/or variation due to specific language impairment. The main findings are that language disorder is judged most negative with respect to achievement, social skills and parental education, while regional variation is judged much more positive. However, children with both regional variation and language impairment were judged less negative. The results suggest that regional variation may conceal language impairment for some degree.