PURPOSE: The aims of this study were: (1) to investigate conflict resolution (CR) abilities in normally developing school-aged children; (2) to verify whether there is a relationship between the occurrence of normal disfluencies (ND) and the development of conflict resolution abilities. METHODS: Twenty normally developing children, whose ages ranged between seven and ten, participated in this study. The participants underwent a language screening test, covering the following aspects: phonology, phonological awareness abilities, reading and writing skills. Those who performed within the expected for their chronological ages were assessed through a CR test and a fluency test. The answers given in the CR test were grouped into 28 categories and then scored. In the fluency test the occurrence of normal disfluencies (ND) was verified. RESULTS: The participants scored from 5 to 14 points (M=10,7) in the CR test, nevertheless it was not observed any correlation between final scores in that test and chronological age (p=0,361). In the fluency test, the occurrence of ND varied from 4 to 24 (M=10). It was not noticed any statistically significant correlation between the performance in the CR test and the occurrence of ND (p=0,899). CONCLUSIONS: In the CR test, in order to solve the conflict, children used mainly unilateral strategies. It was also observed that the strategies did not improve with age. Regarding the comparison between the performance in the CR test and the occurrence of ND, it was not possible to establish direct relationship between these variables.
Cognition; Child language; Language development; Communication; Speech
