The purpose of the current study was to examine whether types of discourse deficits were
associated differentially with psychiatric disorders (PD) and with language impairments (LI)
in children. Discourse analyses examining the occurrence of different types of discourse
deficits in language structure, information structure, and flow of information were performed
on the spoken narratives of 111 children aged 7 to 12 years who comprised 4 groups: (1)
psychiatrically referred children with LI (PD+LI), (2) psychiatrically referred children with
normally developing language (PD), (3) nonreferred children with language impairments
(LI), and (4) nonreferred children with normally developing language (controls). Discourse
deficits in language and information structure characterized children with LI, whereas
disruptions in the flow of discourse characterized children with PD. Children with the
comorbid condition exhibited deficits associated with both LI and PD; in addition, they
displayed distinct deficits related to pronominal reference and causal cohesion. The findings
provide a preliminary understanding of the associations among language, discourse, and
psychopathology in children.