Pragmatic Abilities In Children Research Articles

Validation of PleaseApp: a digital tool for the assessment of receptive pragmatic abilities in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Pragmatic skills allow children to use language for social purposes, that is, to communicate and interact with people. Most children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) face pragmatic difficulties during development. Nevertheless, pragmatic skills are often only partially assessed because the existing instruments usually focus on specific aspects of pragmatics and are not always adapted to children with communication difficulties. In this sense, digital tools (e.g., apps) are an optimal method to compensate for some difficulties. Moreover, there is a lack of pragmatic tools measuring the receptive domain. Therefore, the present study aims to validate PleaseApp as a digital instrument that measures eight pragmatic skills by presenting the design of the assessment tool and its psychometric properties. PleaseApp was designed based on previous empirical studies of developmental pragmatics in children with and without NDD. PleaseApp assesses eight receptive pragmatic skills: figurative language, narrative, reference, indirect speech acts, visual and verbal humor, gesture-speech integration, politeness, and complex intentionality. The study involved 150 typically developing children between 5 and 12 years of age. A confirmatory factor analysis proposes an eight-factor model with no underlying factor structure. The eight tests that compose PleaseApp have obtained a model with a good fit and with adequate reliability and validity indices. PleaseApp is an objective, valid, and reliable tool for assessing pragmatic skills in children with NDD. In this sense, it helps to assess whether a child has acquired pragmatic skills correctly according to his/her age and clarify the specific problems a child has in eight different components to plan personal and personalized interventions.

Assessing pragmatic abilities in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Assessing pragmatic abilities in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Pragmatic abilities of children with severe to profound hearing loss

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Western studies indicate that children with hearing impairment (CHI) are at risk of pragmatic delay due to their delayed language development. Pragmatics is influenced by culture. Hence the objective of the study was to compare the pragmatic skills of Marathi speaking CHI using hearing devices and typically developing children (TDC) matched according to their expressive language age, chronological age, and hearing age.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> Group I included 40 CHI using a hearing device having a chronological age range of 24 to 68 months, with an expressive language age of 6 to 48 months on receptive-expressive emergent language scale (REELS) and with a hearing age in the range of 12 to 36 months. Group II consisted of 40 TDC in the age range of 6 to 48 months. Checklist for assessment of pragmatics of pre-schoolerswas administered for assessment of pragmatics to children in both the groups.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Statistical analysis using unpaired t test indicated that there was a significant difference in pragmatic skills of the two groups when they were matched on the basis of their chronological and expressive language age (p<0.01), but there was no significant difference between the two groups when they were matched on the basis of their hearing age (p>0.01).</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Pragmatic ability is delayed in CHI and is more a function of hearing age than chronological age or expressive language age. Thus, pragmatic abilities should be assessed and intervention provided if required for CHI even if they have good expressive ability.</p>

Pragmatic Abilities in Children With Acquired Brain Injury

Pragmatic Abilities in Children With Acquired Brain Injury

<p>Pragmatic abilities in children with neurodevelopmental disorders: development of Pragmatic Abilities Questionnaire based on the Rasch rating scale model</p>

BackgroundPragmatic abilities includes a set of skills that could vary by culture and which are absolutely essential for social communication. These abilities can be impaired in many children with neurodevelopmental disorders and may lead to educational and psychological difficulties. Assessing pragmatic abilities requires valid and reliable instruments that should be developed with cultural differences in mind.PurposeThis paper reports on the development of a new instrument for measuring and evaluating pragmatic abilities in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.Methods and participantsThe questionnaire items were generated based on a literature review on the theoretical basis of pragmatic abilities, the available pragmatic assessment instruments, interviews with experts and the mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders and the observation of their interaction with children based on the pragmatic protocol. Item selection and reliability and validity assessment for the instrument were carried out based on the Rasch rating scale model analysis. The Pragmatic Abilities Questionnaire (PAQ) was completed by the mothers of 185 normally-developing children and the mothers of 120 children with neurodevelopmental disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Specific Language Impairment (SLI), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SPCD).ResultsThe initial pool of 119 items, reflecting the characteristics of pragmatic abilities, was first reduced to 80 after a review by ten experts, and then further reduced to 40 using the Rasch analysis for removing the misfitting items. The final PAQ had a person measure reliability of 0.97 with a separation of 6.03 and an item measure reliability of 0.99. The remaining items formed the questionnaire and measured a single construct, which explained 63.8% of the variance.ConclusionThe 40 items of the PAQ appear to construe a psychometrically-sound measure of pragmatic abilities.

Pragmatic abilities in children with ASD, ADHD, Down syndrome and typical development through the Galician version of the CCC-2

BackgroundPragmatics is an area of language that may be impaired in a wide variety of disorders. However, there is a dearth of instruments for the assessment of pragmatic abilities. The Children's Communication Checklist (CCC-2) is the most widespread test, although more adaptations of this instrument to other languages are necessary. AimsIn this paper we (1) develop a pilot study to adapt the CCC-2 to the Galician language, (2) check the capacity of this version to assess communicative difficulties in Galician speakers from 4 to 16 years of age, and (3) we also check its capacity to discriminate the linguistic profiles of different disorders. MethodThe reference profile of the Galician CCC-2 was established with a sample of 48 schoolchildren. Comparisons of the scores obtained by children with ASD (n=11), ADHD (n=10), Down Syndrome (DS) (n=9) and Typical Development (n=10) were carried out. ResultsThe Galician CCC-2 (1) accurately identified children with and without communicative impairments, (2) distinguished between profiles with predominance of pragmatic (ASD and ADHD) and structural disorders (DS), and (3) distinguished between different profiles with predominance of pragmatic impairment. ConclusionsThe Galician CCC-2 seems to be a useful instrument to assess pragmatic disorders and to differentiate among different clinical groups.

Study of pragmatic language ability in children with hearing loss

Abstract Pragmatic language refers to how language is used socially to achieve some purpose in communication. Pragmatic language impairment can be a disorder by itself, or as a sign of other accompanying disorders. Hearing-impaired children show less clear pragmatic communication functions. Knowledge of pragmatic abilities in children with hearing loss (HL) is lacking relative to that of children with normal hearing (NH). The aim of this study was to examine the pragmatic language ability in Arabic-speaking children with sensorineural hearing loss in order to apply a proper intervention program to guard against the effect of early pragmatic language skill disorders on later academic and social abilities. Twenty-seven children with HL were subjected to pragmatic language assessment using the Arabic version of the Test of Pragmatic Language, 2nd edition and both the Observational Rating Scale and the Pragmatic Profile subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamental, 4th edition. The results obtained were compared with the results of 27 age-matched and sex-matched NH children. The results of this study revealed significantly lower pragmatic abilities in children with HL compared with children with NH. Male children were significantly more impaired compared with female children. There were significant correlations between the pragmatic variables and the degree of HL, speech discrimination ability, and the duration of auditory deprivation. HL children had significantly lower pragmatic skills compared with NH children, with greater affection correlated with increasing severity of HL and the duration of auditory deprivation. The higher susceptibility to pragmatic impairment in this category of children as well as the importance of pragmatic skills for further social communicative and academic careers should be considered in their rehabilitative plan.

Assessing pragmatic language in autism spectrum disorder: the Yale in vivo Pragmatic Protocol.

This study compared pragmatic language in youths (9-17 years) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those with typical development (TD) on the Yale in vivo Pragmatic Protocol (YiPP), a semistructured, dynamic conversational assessment. Participants (n = 118) were divided into groups based on age and diagnosis. Each completed the YiPP, which included 4 pragmatic domains (discourse management, communicative functions, conversational repair, presupposition). The participant's response to each probe was scored correct or incorrect; incorrect scores elicited cues from the examiner, and level of cue required for a correction was also scored. The YiPP showed high reliability and internal consistency, with moderate concurrent validity, sensitivity, and specificity. The group with ASD performed worse overall on YiPP probes compared to their TD counterparts on both error (d = 0.96) and cue (d = 0.91) scores. Item analyses revealed greater gaps between older students with ASD and their TD peers than between the 2 younger groups. These data suggest that a probe measure designed to assess pragmatic abilities in children with ASD within a conversational context has some validity for contributing to diagnostic classification and can identify specific areas of pragmatic vulnerabilities as part of a clinical assessment.

Avaliação de aspectos pragmáticos em crianças com desvios fonológicos

Objetivo investigar as habilidades pragmáticas em crianças com desvio fonológico. Método por meio de triagem fonoaudiológica foram selecionadas 12 crianças com diagnóstico de desvio fonológico, com idades entre 3:7 e 7:8, sendo três do sexo feminino e nove do sexo masculino. Foi realizada análise dos aspectos pragmáticos destas crianças, utilizando-se o instrumento ABFW – pragmática. Além disso, as crianças foram classificadas de acordo com a gravidade do desvio fonológico por meio de uma abordagem quantitativa – Percentual de Consoantes Corretas-Revisado e outra qualitativa. Resultados não foi encontrada correlação estatisticamente significante entre gravidade do desvio fonológico e desempenho pragmático. Os sujeitos com desvio fonológico apresentaram número de atos comunicativos por minuto inferior aos parâmetros oferecidos pelo teste, de acordo com cada faixa etária. Conclusão a partir dos resultados obtidos não foi possível afirmar que existe uma relação significante entre a gravidade do desvio fonológico e o desempenho pragmático, no entanto, estes sujeitos apresentam desempenho inferior aos parâmetros do teste.

Pragmatic Abilities in Children with Congenital Visual Impairment: An Exploration of Non-literal Language and Advanced Theory of Mind Understanding

Children with congenital visual impairment have been reported to be delayed in theory of mind development. So far, research focused on first-order theory of mind, and included mainly blind children, whereas the majority of visually impaired children is not totally blind. The present study set out to explore whether children with a broader range of congenital visual impairments have a delay in more advanced theory of mind understanding, in particular second-order theory of mind (i.e. awareness that other people have beliefs about beliefs) and non-literal language (e.g. irony or figure of speech). Twenty-four children with congenital visual impairment and 24 typically developing sighted children aged between 6 and 13 were included. All children were presented with a series of stories involving understanding of theory of mind and non-literal language. When compared with sighted children of similar age and verbal intelligence, performance of children with congenital visual impairment on advanced theory of mind and non-literal stories was alike. The ability to understand the motivations behind non-literal language was associated with age, verbal intelligence and theory of mind skills, but was not associated with visual ability.

Pragmatic Abilities of Children with Williams Syndrome: A Longitudinal Examination

Prior research has indicated that pragmatics is an area of particular weakness for individuals with Williams syndrome (WS). To further address this aspect of the WS social phenotype, we used an individual differences approach to consider both cross-sectional and longitudinal relations among different pragmatic abilities for 14 children with WS, taking into account individual differences in non-verbal reasoning abilities. We also considered the relations between pragmatic abilities and expressive vocabulary ability. Participants were tested at two time points: as 4-year-olds during a 30-min play session with their mothers (Time 1) and an average of 5.87 years later during a one-on-one conversation with a familiar researcher (Time 2). Children’s intellectual and expressive vocabulary abilities were assessed at both time points. Results indicated that the ability to verbally contribute information beyond what was required in response to a question (ExtendQ) was significantly related to the ability to verbally contribute new information in the absence of a question (ExtendS) both at age 4 years and during primary school. At age 4, both the ability to pair verbalizations with eye contact in triadic interactions (secondary intersubjectivity) and expressive vocabulary ability were related to both ExtendQ and ExtendS. Finally, both ExtendQ and the ability to pair verbalizations with eye contact (intersubjectivity) at age 4 years predicted ExtendQ at age 9–12 years. The theoretical implications of our findings and the importance of early pragmatic language intervention for children who have WS are discussed.

Pragmatic Abilities of Children With Hearing Loss Using Cochlear Implants or Hearing Aids Compared to Hearing Children

This study characterized the profile of pragmatic abilities among 24 children with hearing loss (HL) aged 6.3-9.4 years, 13 using hearing aids (HAs) and 11 using cochlear implants (CIs), in comparison to those of 13 hearing children with similar chronological and language ages. All the children with HL used spoken language, attended regular schools, and received communication therapy twice a week. They had no disabilities other than the HL. We assessed pragmatic abilities using the pragmatic protocol of C. A. Prutting & D. M. Kirchner (1987. A clinical appraisal of the pragmatic aspects of language. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 52, 105-119), which includes verbal, nonverbal, and paralinguistic aspects. Findings showed that children with HL used varied pragmatic functions but revealed more incidents of inappropriate use of the different abilities, compared to hearing children. Intergroup differences were significant only for verbal parameters. No differences emerged between children who used CIs vs. HAs. It seems that the CI group had the same pragmatic abilities as severe HA children. The different or less effective pragmatic abilities of children with HL may be explained by less flexible use of language structures, difficulties in theory of mind, difficulties in auditory perception of spoken language, and less exposure to varied pragmatic situations and strategies. Results indicated the need to incorporate pragmatic communication abilities into rehabilitation programs.

Análise do perfil das habilidades pragmáticas em crianças pequenas normais

pragmatic abilities in children. to analyze the pragmatic abilities profile in normal preschool children and to verify if significant differences exist regarding the children's different socioeconomic levels. participants of this study were 30 children, with ages between 36 and 47 months, who attended public and private elementary schools - low and medium/high socioeconomic levels respectively. A thirty minute semi-structured conversation between each child and the evaluator was recorded in VHS. For the analysis of the pragmatic abilities profile 20 minutes of each conversation was transcribed. there is a prevalence of verbal over non-verbal and unintelligible utterances; simple over expansive utterances; coherent over incoherent utterances. There was a low occurrence of utterances used to start a conversation. Regarding the use of communicative functions, the informative function prevailed, even though all the others (instrumental, heuristic, naming, narrative, negative, interactive) were used by all of the children. Comparing the performance of children who attended public schools with that of children who attended private schools, statistically significant differences were observed in the number of simple and expansive verbal utterances, and in the use of the narrative function, indicating a better performance of children from private institutions. the analysis of the children's conversational abilities profile revealed that they respond/maintain the conversation instead of initiating it; their utterances are verbal, mostly coherent and simple. Regarding the communicative functions, the most prevalent was the informative function. Sociolinguistic aspects can interfere in the pragmatic abilities of children of different socioeconomic level.

Assessing the pragmatic abilities of children: Part 1. Organizational framework and assessment parameters.

This paper describes an organizational framework for the assessment of pragmatic abilities in children. The framework addresses the areas of communicative intention, presupposition, and the social organization of discourse. For each area, assessment parameters are presented in coordination with a review of pertinent literature.