Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities (ID) often have language difficulties. Guided by interactional theories of language acquisition, this study expected that more social contact with peers positively affects language development for this student group. Conversely, it was also hypothesized that poor language skills predict fewer social contacts with peers, thereby reducing their social inclusion. To test our hypotheses, we studied a sample of 1125 students (aged 4 to 19 years) in 16 Swiss special needs schools, on whom data was collected at the beginning and end of a school year. Social contact was measured as the number of peers at school with whom a student has frequent contact, according to teacher reports. Language skills were measured by teacher ratings of verbal and non-verbal abilities. Results of a cross-lagged multilevel model indicated that greater numbers of social contacts at the beginning of the school year were related to an increase in both verbal and non-verbal language skills. However, better verbal and non-verbal language skills at the beginning of the school year did not predict more social contacts later on. The findings support the assumption that more social contacts among students in special needs schools are conducive to language development.

智障 (ID) 儿童和青少年经常有语言障碍。本研究以语言习得的互动理论为指导，预计与同龄人更多的社会接触会对这个学生群体的语言发展产生积极影响。相反，也有人假设语言技能不佳预示着与同龄人的社交接触较少，从而降低了他们的社会包容性。为了验证我们的假设，我们研究了 16 所瑞士特殊需要学校的 1125 名学生（4 至 19 岁）的样本，这些学生的数据是在学年开始和结束时收集的。根据教师报告，社会接触是衡量学生经常接触的学校同龄人的数量。语言技能是通过教师对语言和非语言能力的评分来衡量的。交叉滞后多层次模型的结果表明，学年开始时更多的社交接触与语言和非语言技能的增加有关。然而，学年开始时更好的口头和非口头语言技能并不能预测以后会有更多的社交接触。研究结果支持这样的假设，即特殊需要学校的学生之间更多的社会接触有利于语言发展。