Denyse Hayward read a script-based story -- about two children who go to a restaurant with their mother -- to 44 8-year-old children with and without language impairments. Once the story was finished, the children were asked to tell the story back to the examiner.

The study, published in the American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, found that the children with language impairments often were only able to retell one key piece of information related to the story. Researchers called that a surprising result, since research on children without language impairments shows children as young as 3 can comprehend and retell basic scripts -- how people store information in their brain.

"This research indicates that we need to talk more with our children about what we are doing in daily situations because children with language impairments often need more experiences before they will understand and remember scripts," Hayward said in a statement.