Referential first mention in narratives by mildly mentally retarded adults.

Kelleher et al. (1987) asked adults with mild intellectual disability to retell short picture stories. They compared the stories to ones told by adults without disability.

The team counted how each group introduced a new character for the very first time. They looked for clear noun phrases like "a boy" or "the girl."

The adults with ID named fewer characters at all. When they did, they often used the wrong article, saying "the boy" before the boy had been introduced.

Black males with ID made fewer of these errors than other groups, but every ID speaker still lagged behind the non-disabled adults.

Redquest et al. (2021) later showed the same ID adult lab sample has trouble on the listening side too. They weakly use the normal "first noun = subject" rule when they hear unclear pronouns. Together the two papers map one expressive and one receptive gap.

Castañe et al. (1993) also watched adults with ID miss unclear language, but in directions, not stories. All three studies line up: mild ID equals a blind spot for linguistic ambiguity.

Perrot et al. (2021) found a similar "fewer words" pattern in autistic adults, hinting that sparse first mentions may cut across developmental disabilities.

When you ask clients with mild ID to recount an event, do not assume they will set the scene for you. Probe with "Who was there?" and model the article switch: "A man walked in. Then the man spoke." A quick script like this can raise the clarity of police interviews, medical intakes, and social-story practice.