Assessment of pragmatic language impairment in children referred to psychiatric services: A pilot study of the Children's Communication Checklist in a Norwegian sample

Abstract

The aim of the present pilot study was to explore whether pragmatic language impairments are more prevalent among children referred to child psychiatric services (n=21) than among a comparison group of typically developing children (n=29) in the age range 8–10 years. A second and minor aim was also to assess the usability of a Norwegian translation of the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC). Communication disorders defined as a pragmatic score equal to or below 140 on the CCC were identified in a majority (0.57) of the children in the clinical group; the corresponding proportion for the typically developing comparison group was only 0.10. Thus, the Norwegian version of the CCC distinguishes between children with symptoms of pragmatic language impairments and those with no symptoms, as does the English version.