Pragmatic skills of children and youth with mild intellectual disability

Abstract

Pragmatic competence means the use of language in social context. Persons with intellectual disability experience numerous problems in this aspect of communication, but they are relatively pragmatically skilled in well-known situations, in which they are not subjected to significant cognitive and social requirements. The aim of this paper is to determine the level of pragmatic abilities of children and youth with mild intellectual disability and to perceive its relation to chronological age, speech comprehension, speech production, the level of intellectual functioning, gender and bilingualism of the participants. The level of pragmatic competence was tested in the sample of 120 children with mild intellectual disability, aged between 8 and 16, by using the Test of pragmatic language competence. The Clinical scales of Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery for children were also used. The results obtained in this research suggest that general level of achievement of children with mild intellectual disability in this domain of development is far below the expectations based on their chronological age. Significant progress appears between 12 and 14 years of age, but there are also two critical periods in their development. Important relations of pragmatic skills with speech comprehension, speech production, chronological age and intellectual level were established.