Pragmatic Abilities Research Articles

Pragmatic Skills in Late Adulthood.

Research investigating pragmatic abilities in healthy aging suggests that both production and comprehension might be compromised; however, it is not clear how pragmatic abilities evolve in late adulthood, as well as when difficulties are more likely to arise. The aim of this study is to investigate the decline of pragmatic skills in aging, and to explore what cognitive and demographic factors support pragmatic competence. We assessed pragmatic production skills, including discourse abilities such as speech, informativeness, information flow, paralinguistic aspects, as well as the ability to produce informative descriptions of pictures, and pragmatic comprehension skills, which encompassed the ability to understand discourse and the main aspects of a narrative text, to infer non-literal meanings and to comprehend verbal humor in a group of elderly individuals and in a sample of younger participants. Moreover, specific cognitive functions (short-term memory, verbal and visuospatial working memory, inhibition Theory of Mind, and Cognitive Reserve) were assessed in both groups. Pragmatic difficulties seem to occur in late adulthood, likely around 70years, and emerge more prominently when participants are asked to understand verbal humor. Age was the only predictor of general pragmatic performance in a sample of cognitively unimpaired older adults; conversely, when elderly individuals with less intact inhibitory control are considered, a general role of inhibition emerged, in addition to working memory and ToM in specific tasks.

Pragmatic function of speech disfluencies in high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder

Disfluencies in speech are usually viewed as manifestation of problems at the level of inner cognitive processes underlying speech production. However, it has been suggested that some types of disfluencies may also have a pragmatic function. The current study examines the distribution of disfluencies and speech rate in spontaneous speech of 10 high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder (diagnosed as Asperger syndrome or high-functional autism) as compared to the typically developing controls. The task of participants was to retell the cartoon which they had previously watched. Their speech was audio recorded and transcribed. The duration of the analyzed speech segment was 60 seconds. Our results show that there is no significant difference in the total number of disfluencies between the two groups. Furthermore, participants of both groups produced the same types of disfluencies. Given that disfluencies reflect troubles in speech planning, these findings indicate that disfluencies are indeed a universal phenomenon in speech production. As regards different types of disfluencies, our study shows that participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) produced significantly more disfluent silent pauses and significantly fewer filled disfluencies than the controls. As has already been suggested in the literature, this could be due to the deficiency in the pragmatic ability of individuals with ASD. That is, individuals with ASD are less engaged in the maintenance of speech flow, which will result in more silent pauses.

An Investigation into the Pragmatic Competence of the Front-Office Trainees of Valombola Vocational Training Centre

This study aimed to analyze the front-office trainees' pragmatic competence at Valombola VTC. The trainees were tested on their ability to formulate and implement strategies for requests, their politeness principles in the speech acts of refusal and apologetic responses, and the factors that impact their pragmatic competence. Fifteen out of thirty (2022) front-office trainees enrolled in the Hospitality Department's program were chosen for the study using a systematic random sampling method. A Written Discourse Completion Task (WDCT) and a questionnaire were utilized as data collection devices. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted on the data about the students' pragmatic abilities. According to the study's results, the trainees' pragmatic competence was a dismal 30% when it came to the verbal act of refusing. It can be concluded that the trainees at the front desk lacked the pragmatic competence necessary to effectively respond to requests, offer apologies, and employ a refusal approach. Taking into account the outcomes of the three speech acts of asking, apologizing, and refusing, their pragmatic competence was found to be fairly low. This is in line with their preference for using their vernacular language when interacting with others, as shown even in the questionnaire. Furthermore, the results show that trainees employ various aggressive apologetic methods and reaction styles when asked to apologize. Finally, the results show that pragmatic competence is affected by several underlying issues, such as a lack of education, a low level of everyday activities involving English, and the misunderstanding of pragmatic implicature. Finally, the TVET sector as a whole and front-desk trainees in particular were advised to take English for Specific Purposes with an emphasis on pragmatic skills.

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.

Komunikacijske sposobnosti dece hrvatske i romske nacionalnosti s lakim intelektualnim teškoćama - postignuće na Ček-listi dečje komunikacije (CCC)

Introduction. Communication and language development in children with (mild) intellectual disability is generally delayed. Roma national minority children are sequential bilinguals, most introduced to the Croatian language upon entering the educational system. Information on communication in the natural context can be obtained through checklists completed by children's communication partners. Objectives. This study aims to obtain insight into the communication and Croatian language abilities of Croatian and Roma children with mild intellectual disabilities. Method. The study participants were 52 children between 9 and 16 years old (22 Croatian and 30 Roma). Their performance on the Children's Communication Checklist was analyzed and compared to published thresholds and each other. Results. The performance of Croatian and Roma children on the pragmatic composite is comparable to that of British peers with intellectual disability, as both groups scored below the normal range. Only the Roma children performed below clinical thresholds on the Speech and Syntax scale. No group displayed autism features. Mann-Whitney test showed significant differences between the groups in Speech output and Syntax subscales, indicating Roma children's poorer Croatian language abilities. Overall pragmatic abilities did not differ between the groups. Both groups scored below the threshold on the Coherence and Use of conversational context subscales, showing comparable pragmatic profiles. However, Croatian children outperformed Roma children on the Coherence, Use of conversational context, and Conversational rapport subscales. Conclusion. Roma children use the Croatian language in a way comparable to their Croatian peers despite being less proficient in its structure. Pragmatic abilities should be targeted in children with intellectual disabilities.

Comparison of Children’s Communication Checklist Between Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and Hearing Adolescents

Background and Objectives: The present research compared pragmatic abilities between deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), and hearing adolescents using the children’s communication checklist (CCC). Methods: In this study, 16 hearing adolescents aged 11–16 and 16 deaf and DHH adolescents with similar chronological ages participated. The CCC was completed with parents of DHH and hearing adolescents. Results: The study’s results revealed that DHH and hearing adolescents had a significant difference in pragmatic composite scores (PCS) and the score of all CCC subscales. The results showed that in all subscales of the CCC, DHH adolescents received lower scores from their parents than hearing adolescents. The inappropriate initiation and stereotyped language subscales of the CCC had the highest correlation rates. Also, the pragmatic composite score showed the highest correlation with the stereotyped language subscale. Conclusion: DHH adolescents showed weaker performance in pragmatic skills than hearing adolescents.

Hubungan antara Fase Merangkak dan Kemampuan Pragmatik Anak Usia Prasekolah di TK Dharma Wanita Nambakan Kediri

Abstract Background: Gross motor skills greatly affect the development of children. If a child experiences motor delays, then the child will experience developmental and growth delays (Permana, 2013). In minimizing errors in meaning (miss understanding), children need to develop pragmatic aspects so that their language skills develop properly (Sari, 2021). Objective: This study aims to determine the relationship between the crawling phase and pragmatic abilities in preschool-age children at Dharma Wanita Nambakan Kindergarten, Kediri. Method: This type of quantitative research with a cross sectional design. The data collection technique uses total sampling with a sample of 30 respondents. The data that has been collected will be analyzed univariately and bivariately using the Spearman Rank statistical test. Research Outcome: Based on the results of Spearman's Rank analysis test, the value of ρ (sig.) is 0.036 or the value of ρ (sig.) < 0.05, then Ha (alternative hypothesis) is accepted, indicating that there is a relationship between the paying phase and children's pragmatic abilities. The strength of the correlation or relationship between the two variables is in the range of 0.2 to < 0.4, which is included in the weak category. Conclusion: There is a relationship between the crawling phase and the pragmatic abilities of preschoolers at Dharma Wanita Nambakan Kindergarten, Kediri. Keywords: Crawling Phase, Pragmatic Ability, Preschool Aged Children

Hubungan Pola Interaksi Keluarga dan Perkembangan Kemampuan Pragmatik Anak Prasekolah di TKIT Insan Kamil Karanganyar

ABSTRACT Background: Family interaction patterns are reciprocal relationships within a family that are deliberately built to influence, change, or improve behavior with social contact and communication between family members. Whether or not family interaction patterns are harmonious affects the development of language (including pragmatic language) and the child's social. Pragmatics is the ability to use language according to the context in social communication. Objective: This study aims to determine the relationship between family interaction patterns and the development of pragmatic abilities of preschoolers in TKIT Insan Kamil Karanganyar Method: This research is a quantitative study with a cross-sectional research design. The sampling technique in this study was simple random sampling, with a total sample of 58 respondents. The collected data was tested using Pearson Product Moment. Research Results: Pearson Product Moment test results obtained a p value of 0.000, that is, if the p value < 0.05, then the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. The strength of the relationship can be seen from the result r = 0.880, the result shows a "very strong" correlation strength. Conclusion: There is a relationship between family interaction patterns and the development of pragmatic abilities of preschoolers in TKIT Insan Kamil Karanganyar Keywords: Family Interaction Patterns, Development of Pragmatic Abilities, Preschoolers

HUBUNGAN WORKING MEMORY DAN LITERACY DENGAN KEMAMPUAN PRAGMATIK ANAK USIA PRASEKOLAH DI SURAKARTA

The ability to carry out good social interactions in children must be accompanied by good cognitive abilities as well. Cognitive is related to intelligence. Memory is complex and central to many cognitive operations. Working Memory (WM) is the ability to store information and process information at the same time. There is a strong relationship between Working Memory (WM) and Literacy abilities. Literacy is generally defined as the ability to read and write and use spoken language. Research Objective: To determine the relationship between working memory and literacy with the pragmatic abilities of preschool children in Surakarta. Subjects and Methods: This study used a correlational design. The sample size for this study was 173 children. Data collection uses questionnaires and test instruments. Research Results: Hypothetical testing using the Simultaneous Test can be explained that the variables working memory ability and literacy ability are jointly related to the pragmatic abilities of preschool aged children in Surakarta with a significance figure of 0.000. The resulting coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.079 or 7.9%. In the multiple linear regression test, the equation Y = 48,714 + 1,740 X1 is obtained.

Development of Web-mediated Audio-Visual Listening Book to Boost the Understanding of Implicatures in the TOEFL Short Dialogues

Purpose of the Study: Understanding implicatures in TOEFL Short Dialogues is difficult. It is essential to develop web-based media to boost implicature understanding. This current study aimed at testing the implicature inference-making ability of English teachers, identifying the factors that affect listening difficulties and developing web-mediated audio-visual books for the TOEFL.
 Methodology: This is a three-phase R & D model: 1) ‘Research Phase’ (Testing the English teachers listening ability; Examining factors affecting implicatures understanding; and Profiling the English teachers listening abilities); 2) ‘Development Phase’ (Constructing the test instrument; Formulating Learning Objectives; Selecting Audio-visual materials, Designing the web-mediated audio-visual book; Validating and revising the book) and ‘Production Phase’ (Dissemination and Mass Production).
 Main Finding: The products of the ‘Research phase’: 1) Listening ability, 2) Factors affecting listening, 3) Profile of the English teachers’ pragmatic ability. There are five primary causes of difficulty, ‘Speech Rate Delivery,’ ‘Voice,’ ‘Sentence Complexity,’ ‘Mishearing,’ and ‘Colloquial.’ The product of the ‘Development Phase’ is a ‘Web-based audiovisual book for the TOEFL Short Dialogues.’ All lessons are aided with online links to audio and videos. Finally, the product of ‘Production Phase’ is a massed published book.
 Novelty/Originality of the Study: No single study has ever been reported that focused on developing a web-mediated audio-visual listening book to boost the understanding of implicatures in the TOEFL Short Dialogues.

Re-Examing the Indonesian Language Pragmatic Abilities of Students Majoring in Hospitality as a Basis for Exploring Students' Intercultural Abilities in Japanese

This research focuses on the intercultural competence of Japanese language students majoring in hospitality at three vocational schools in Yogyakarta. To be able to find out students' intercultural competence, a contrastive analysis method is used regarding politeness strategies in the context of greeting guests, asking the guest's name, asking for general information, rejecting the guest's wishes, asking for something from the guest and confirming. There are three things compared in this research, namely, politeness strategies in Indonesian sentences made by students, politeness strategies in Japanese sentences from native Japanese and the suitability of Indonesian translations into Japanese made by students. Brown and Levenson's face-threatening act (FTA) management theory was used as the theoretical basis for this research. The research results show that politeness strategies in the mother tongue do influence how students translate. In general, there are many similarities in strategies between Indonesian and Japanese regarding politeness strategies in the hospitality context. The similarity of these strategies will make it easier for students to achieve intercultural competence. It is just that a lack of linguistic ability still causes pragmalingustic failure and sociopragmatic failure. Furthermore, the difference in strategy is that the use of bald on record in Indonesian produces a bald on record translation in Japanese, which causes sociopragmatic failure.

Conversations between ages five and seven – Connections to executive functions and implicature comprehension

A language user must rely on several different abilities to carry out a conversation, e.g., the ability to acknowledge the conversational contributions of others, to respond appropriately, to stay on topic, etc. There are many aspects of the development of conversational conduct that are yet unknown. In this study, the longitudinal development of conversational conduct, as in acknowledging one's interlocutor's previous turn, was traced from age 5;0 to 7;2. We also investigated whether conversational conduct was predicted by core language skill, executive functions, and specific pragmatic abilities. Previous findings of productive morphosyntactic accuracy were replicated, while findings concerning longitudinal receptive vocabulary were not. We also found connections between children's conversational responses and executive functions, working memory, and the comprehension of conversational implicatures. The results suggest that conversational conduct is dependent on inferring communicative intentions, as well as being able to keep track of others' contributions and how they relate to previous turns.

Emotion dysregulation and social communication problems but not ToM properties may predict obsessive-compulsive disorder symptom severity

Objective Studies have shown that theory of mind, emotion regulation and pragmatic abilities are negatively affected in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We aimed to investigate theory of mind (ToM) abilities, social responsiveness, pragmatic language, and emotion regulation skills in children with OCD and to compare them to healthy controls. Methods This study was designed as a single-center, cross-sectional, case-control study. ToM abilities were evaluated via “Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test” (RMET), “Faces Test”, “Faux-Pas Test”, “Comprehension Test” and “Unexpected Outcomes Test”. Social responsiveness, pragmatic language and emotion regulation were evaluated by Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), Children’s Communication Checklist- Second Edition (CCC-2), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS). Within the study period, we enrolled 85 adolescents (42 with OCD and 43 controls). Results The OCD group performed significantly lower than healthy controls in the Faux Pass and Comprehension tests (p = 0.003 for both). We found a statistically significant difference between groups in terms of the goal, strategy, non-acceptance subscales of the DERS (p < 0.001, p = 0.006, p = 0.008, respectively) as well as the total DERS score (p < 0.001). CY-BOCS total scores correlated significantly and negatively with Comprehension, Faux Pas and Unexpected Outcomes tests, and positively with CCC total, SRS total and DERS total scores. In regression analysis the DERS, SRS and CCC tests emerged as significant predictors of CY-BOCS total score. Conclusion Addressing ToM, pragmatic, and ER difficulties when planning the treatment of young people with OCD may contribute to positive outcomes.

The violation of the cooperative maxim in early childhood: A pragmatic case study

&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;The study examined the violation of the maxim of cooperation in early childhood conversation be means of a pragmatic case study, which is an important undertaking given the strong influence of the surrounding environment on children’s language development. Previous studies have delved into this area, particularly with regard to children with special needs, but have not widely explored how such a violation emerges in the early childhood period. Here, we adopted a qualitative approach using a pragmatic case study design, and over seven months collected data by observing, listening to and recording the conversations of a 4-year-old boy. The results of this process were used as transcripts for conversation data. Specifically, we found that of the 40 conversation data items concerning the form of cooperative maxim violations, there were 13 (32.5%) conversation data items. These results indicate that children in the early childhood period already possess pragmatic abilities, as evidenced by the ability to answer questions relevantly, but are constrained by their ignorance in answering questions correctly, thereby leading many children to violate the maxim of manners.&lt;/span&gt;

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN EXISTENCE SIBLING AND PRAGMATIC ABILITY AMONG PRESCHOOL CHILDREN: PATH ANALYSIS EVIDENCE FROM SURAKARTA

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;: &lt;/strong&gt;In each phase of development, children do not only grow physically, but also from a psychological to intellectual point of view. Children who don't get enough stimulation may show signs of developmental problems in their language and speech. The presence of siblings can affect the development of personality and the ability to communicate with children. Children who have existence siblings get more language and speech stimulation from their parents and siblings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ethods: &lt;/strong&gt;This study used a cross sectional study design, which was conducted in Surakarta City. A sample of 200 people was selected using a random sampling technique. Data collection was performed using a questionnaire and analyzed by path analysis.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results:&lt;/strong&gt; There was a direct relationship between children with siblings having a log odds of good pragmatic skill 4.97 units higher than children without siblings (b=4.97; 95% CI= 3.70 to 6.24; p= &amp;lt;0.001). Positive parenting styles had a log odds of experiencing good pragmatic skill of 3.42 units higher than children with negative parenting styles (b=3.42; 95% CI= 2.10 to 4.69; p= &amp;lt;0.001). Children who have existence siblings are indirectly related to pragmatic skill through parenting style. Children with existence siblings had the possibility of having good pragmatics skill by 1.73 units higher than children without siblings (b=1.73; 95% CI= 1.07 to 2.3; p= &amp;lt;0.001).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/strong&gt; Good pragmatic skill was directly influenced by the existence sibling and positive parenting style. Pragmatic abilities are indirectly related to existence sibling through positive parenting style.&lt;/p&gt;

“¿Cómo te sientes? – With my butt!”: code-choice-related humor in bilingual speakers living with dementia of the Alzheimer’s type

This study investigates data from three narrative interviews held with people living with early- and mid-stage dementia of the Alzheimer’s type (DAT) and their primary care partners speaking English and Spanish in informal settings; the analysis focuses on the humorous moves which are employed by the participants living with dementia in both languages. Drawing on the General Theory of Verbal Humor and the Cooperative Principle, this study sheds light on the conversational humor on a semantic (i.e. language-dependent) as well as pragmatic level (i.e. contextually situated) initiated by the people living with dementia in this dataset while investigating the interpersonal goals behind such moves. By analyzing the (intentional) humorous practices and their respective code choices, our aim is to gain a better understanding of the pragmatic abilities of speakers which are retained while experiencing communication challenges in the face of DAT. This study thus contributes with increased knowledge about people living with dementia as active conversational partners.

Assessment of pragmatic abilities and cognitive substrates (APACS) brief remote: a novel tool for the rapid and tele-evaluation of pragmatic skills in Italian

Assessment of pragmatic abilities and cognitive substrates (APACS) brief remote: a novel tool for the rapid and tele-evaluation of pragmatic skills in Italian

A longitudinal investigation of pragmatic language across contexts in autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions.

Pragmatic language, or the use of language in social contexts, is a critical skill in daily life, supporting social interactions and the development of meaningful social relationships. Pragmatic language is universally impacted in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and pragmatic deficits are also common in other neurodevelopmental conditions, particularly those related to ASD, such as fragile X syndrome (FXS). This study used a multi-method, longitudinal approach to characterize potentially unique pragmatic profiles across different neurodevelopmental disabilities, and across contexts that varied in degree of social demand. The utility of computational linguistic analyses, as an efficient tool for capturing pragmatic abilities, was also explored. Pragmatic skills of boys with idiopathic ASD (ASD-O, n = 43), FXS with and without ASD (FXS-ASD, n = 57; FXS-O, n = 14), Down syndrome (DS, n = 22), and typical development (TD, n = 24) were compared using variables obtained from a standardized measure, narrative, and semi-naturalistic conversation at up to three time points. Pragmatic language was most significantly impacted among males with ASD-O and FXS-ASD across all three contexts, with more difficulties in the least structured context (conversation), and also some differences based on FXS comorbidity. Patterns of group differences were more nuanced for boys with FXS-O and DS, with context having less of an impact. Clinical groups demonstrated minimal changes in pragmatic skills with age, with some exceptions. Computational language measurement tools showed some utility for measuring pragmatic skills, but were not as successful as traditional methods at capturing differences between clinical groups. Overlap and differences between ASD and other forms of neurodevelopmental disability in general, and between idiopathic and syndromic ASD in particular, have important implications for developing precisely tailored assessment and intervention approaches, consistent with a personalized medicine approach to clinical study and care in ASD.

PRAGMATICS TEACHING BARRIERS IN EFL CLASSROOM

Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that study about language and its context. In learning a second language, EFL learners need to have a pragmatic competence in order to be able to communicate effectively based on the context of the target language. There are some factors that can help learners improve their pragmatic competence, not only the EFL teachers who are competent in their field but also the tools and media that support the learning process. This study aimed to investigate (1) what the most common barriers to teaching pragmatics in EFL classrooms by Indonesian EFL teachers and (2) how pragmatic norms is provided in textbooks by the Indonesian authors. Qualitative used as the research methodology in this study. The participants of this study were 15 Indonesian EFL teachers from different schools -- junior and senior high schools. The writer used questionnaire as the instrument research. The participants were given questionnaires to find out what exactly the barriers found to teaching pragmatics in EFL classroom. English textbooks used in junior and senior high school written by Indonesian authors were also analyzed by the researcher. This study came up with the findings that (1) there are six common barriers to teaching pragmatics in EFL classroom by Indonesian EFL teachers and (2) most of the ELT textbooks do not consider the pragmatic norm in its content. Given the significance of students' pragmatic abilities, EFL teachers need to keep improving their research of teaching pragmatics in order to help EFL learners in developing their pragmatic competence.

Growing up laughing: Laughables and pragmatic functions between 12 and 36 months

Laughter serves a wide variety of functions in adult interaction, some of which are quite sophisticated from a pragmatic perspective. Nevertheless, it is a vocalization that emerges very early in ontogeny. We present a longitudinal semantic and pragmatic study of laughter among four American English mother-child dyads interacting freely at home from 12 to 36 months of age. Our data show differences in child laughter-use compared to mothers and a developmental trajectory in terms of the entities the laughter is related to, of laughter pragmatic functions, and in the amount of shared attention on the object of mothers’ laughter. We observe differences in mother laughter-use by comparison to patterns observed in adult-adult interaction. This suggests that laughter production, conveying meaning in a manner akin to speech, gets modulated in child directed interactions similarly to spoken utterances. Our data show that laughter-use can be informative about the neuro-psychological development of babies very early on: mirroring acquisition of physical world knowledge, development of social cognition, linguistic and pragmatic abilities. Our results constitute the basis for hypotheses about the co-option trajectory of laughter in humans and suggest that laughter production in interaction is a valuable resource for early pragmatic development evaluations.