Pragmatic Communication Skills Research Articles

Linguistic approaches to development pragmatic communication skills in the English language to students from technical vocational education

In this article are reflected the linguistic approaches on the development of communication competence. Communica-tion competence, based on the linguistic dimension, is used in the act of personal and professional communication. Prag-matics is the way we convey the message through communication, by emphasizing the active and interactive features of language and the structure of norms established in the case of linguistic communication. Pragmatic communication compe-tence points out the ability to know, understand and construct coherent appropriate discourses to the social, intercultural and professional circumstances, in which communication takes place. Mastering pragmatic communication skills in English highlights the student’s ability in technical vocational education for social interaction and professional career at a global level

358 Using autism symptom profiles at intervention baseline to predict social cognitive outcomes

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: 1) Investigate the utility of pragmatic communication profiles in a sample of children with autism at baseline to predict response to treatment in a randomized clinical trial (RCT) of oxytocin augmentation and social cognitive skills training at week 12. 2) Determine if levels of anxiety or hyperactivity moderate child outcome performance. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: 40 children (37M, 3F), aged 8-11(M=9.25, SD=1.10), with confirmed autism spectrum disorder (ASD), enrolled in an RCT(NCT02918864) were evaluated at baseline on: an assessment of ASD (Autism Diagnosis Observation Schedule, ADOS-2), a task of perspective taking, Theory of Mind ToM, (Reading the Mind from the Eyes Task), pragmatic communication (Pragmatic Rating Scale-School Aged; PRS-SA), IQ (WAIS_I, WISC-V) and anxiety and hyperactivity (Behavior Assessment Scales for Children-3; BASC-3). A Tobii T60 XL was used for eye-tracking visual patterns and attention during the RMET. The PRS-SA was coded by trained, reliable clinicians. Parent ratings indicated over half of the participants’ had At Risk levels or higher on anxiety and hyperactivity on the BASC-3. Week 12 measures included all but the PRS-SA and ADOS-2. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Baseline preliminary analysis indicated the participants spent more time looking at words (.41ms) than eye images on the RMET(.15ms, p DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Findings at baseline suggest pragmatic communication skills are more related to ToM than gaze and attention on the RMET. This relationship will be further investigated over the time of the trial. Mental health indicators need to be considered further in this population. Child profiles at baseline may inform appropriate triage and treatment targets.

Differences in pragmatic communication skills of adults with intellectual disabilities and dual diagnoses.

Pragmatics includes a set of skills related to language structure and meaning that allow the speaker to use the language appropriately and in accordance with different communication situations. The aim of this research was to determine the differences in pragmatic communication skills of adults with intellectual disabilities, dual diagnoses, and typical development, and to determine the effects of gender, age, the level of intellectual functioning and speech comprehension on their achievements on two assessment instruments. The sample included 180 adults (60 typically developing participants, 60 with intellectual disabilities, and 60 participants with dual diagnoses). We used two instruments to assess pragmatic communication skills - Communication Checklist - Adult, CC-A, and the Assessment Battery for Communication, ABaCo. In order to test the differences between the three groups of participants, we used canonical discriminant analysis. Discriminant analysis revealed two significant canonical functions. Function one (speech comprehension and the level of intellectual disability, social engagement, and paralinguistic scale) differentiates between typically developing participants and participants with dual diagnoses the most. The second canonical function (language structure, linguistic scale, paralinguistic scale, extralinguistic scale, and context scale) differentiates between participants with intellectual disabilities and participants with dual diagnoses the most. According to the results, age did not affect pragmatic achievements. Pragmatic skills are very complex, and different instruments measure different dimensions of these abilities. The results of this research lead to the conclusion that we can differentiate between the pragmatic abilities of typically developing people, people with intellectual disabilities, and those with dual diagnoses with the help of the ABaCo battery and the CC-A questionnaire.

A Longitudinal Study of Parent-Child Interactions and Language Outcomes in Fragile X Syndrome and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

Difficulties with pragmatic language (i.e., language in social contexts, such as conversational ability) are a noted characteristic of the language profiles of both fragile X syndrome (FXS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), conditions which show significant phenotypic overlap. Understanding the origins and developmental course of pragmatic language problems in FXS and other developmental conditions associated with language impairment is a critical step for the development of targeted interventions to promote communicative competence across the lifespan. This study examined pragmatic language in the context of parent-child interactions in school-age children with FXS (who did and did not meet ASD criteria on the ADOS; n = 85), idiopathic ASD (n = 32), Down syndrome (DS; n = 38), and typical development (TD; n = 39), and their parents. Parent-child communicative interactions were examined across multiple contexts, across groups, and in relationship to pragmatic language outcomes assessed 2 years later. Results showed both overlapping and divergent patterns across the FXS-ASD and idiopathic ASD child and parent groups, and also highlighted key differences in pragmatic profiles based on situational context, with more pragmatic language difficulties occurring for both ASD groups in less structured interactions. Differences in parental language styles during parent-child interactions were associated with child language outcomes, likely reflecting the complex interplay of discourse style inherent to a parent, with the inevitable influence of child characteristics on parent language as well. Together, findings help delineate the dynamic and multifactorial nature of impaired pragmatic skills among children with FXS and other neurodevelopmental disorders associated with language impairment, with potential implications for the development of targeted interventions for pragmatic communication skills.

Caregiver burden and proxy-reported outcomes of people without natural speech: a cross-sectional survey study

ObjectiveTo examine interrelations between care-related burden on informal caregivers and their proxy assessments of outcomes in people without natural speech.DesignA cross-sectional survey.SettingData were collected in January 2019 from a postal...

Journal Digest: IPSRT, Internet-Based CBT, Autism, IDD, Problem Drinking

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Journal DigestFull AccessJournal Digest: IPSRT, Internet-Based CBT, Autism, IDD, Problem DrinkingNick ZagorskiNick ZagorskiSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Jul 2020https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2020.6b9IPSRT Found to Improve Functioning in Patients With Bipolar DisorderiStock/Pornpak KhunatornAlthough interpersonal and social rhythm therapy (IPSRT) can improve functioning in patients with bipolar disorder, the therapy may not reduce the risk of mood relapse. This finding comes from a clinical study by investigators at the University of Otago in Christchurch, New Zealand, that was published in the American Journal of Psychotherapy.IPSRT seeks to balance biological and social rhythms through the practice of regular daily routines, including sleep and other techniques to reduce stress.The study included 88 patients with bipolar disorder who had recently been discharged from a mental health center. The patients were randomly assigned to IPSRT or usual treatment from their primary care physician for 18 months, with assessments performed every six months. The IPSRT participants also received a brief monthly medication management session from a psychiatrist.At the end of 18 months, about 40% of patients in each group experienced at least one recurrent mood episode (depression or mania). Both groups also had similar scores on the Longitudinal Interval Follow-up Evaluation (which calculates the average severity of depression and mania symptoms over the previous six months) at each assessment.The patients who received IPSRT reported statistically lower scores on the Social Adjustment Scale (which rates functioning across a range of family, work, and leisure domains) compared with those patients who received usual treatment. In addition, fewer patients receiving IPSRT required readmission to a mental health center compared with those who received usual care (14% versus 40%).“Similar to self-management programs for chronic physical conditions, [IPSRT] was focused on promoting self-management and teaching the participants to live well in the presence of symptoms,” the investigators wrote. This focus may have been associated with the low readmission rate and improved functioning despite similar relapse events.Crowe M, Porter R, Inder M, et al. Clinical Effectiveness Trial of Adjunctive Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy for Patients With Bipolar Disorder. Am J Psychother. April 20, 2020. [Online ahead of print] Internet-Based CBT Effective for Health AnxietyiStock/SDI ProductionsHypochondriasis, anxiety about one’s health, is a common and potentially debilitating condition. In-person cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered the best treatment for hypochondriasis, but a study appearing in JAMA Psychiatry reports that an internet-based CBT program for health anxiety may be as effective as face-to-face treatment.Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and colleagues randomly assigned 204 adults with health anxiety to either online CBT or 12 weekly in-person CBT sessions. The online program included 12 self-help modules, and the participants were encouraged to complete one a week. Online participants could also freely communicate with a therapist via email.After 12 weeks, participants in both treatment groups showed similar reductions in health anxiety, as assessed with the 18-item Health Anxiety Inventory (scores in both groups dropped 11.3 points). The groups showed similar improvements in general anxiety and functional impairment as well.The researchers calculated that online CBT would produce a lower net societal cost (which considers therapies, medications, nonmedical services, and indirect costs like unemployment) of about $3,800 per patient over the 12-week period. This was primarily due to lower therapist costs; therapists spent about 10 minutes communicating with each patient per week in the online treatment compared with 45 minutes face-to-face each week.“Given the low societal costs of ICBT [internet CBT] for health anxiety, our findings highlight the potential benefits of implementing this treatment on a wider scale,” the authors concluded.Axelsson E, Andersson E, Ljótsson B, et al. Effect of Internet vs Face-to-Face Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Health Anxiety: A Randomized Noninferiority Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. May 13, 2020. [Online ahead of print]Autism Severity May Change In Early ChildhoodiStock/Orbon AlijaWhile early research suggested that symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain stable over the lifetime, a study in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders now suggests ASD symptoms in children may change over time.Researchers at the University of California, Davis MIND Institute analyzed data from 125 children (89 boys and 36 girls) with ASD, who at the age of 3 and 6 years underwent symptom severity and IQ assessments. Symptom severity was assessed with the 10-point Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Calibrated Severity Scores scale; a change of 2 points or more in either direction was considered significant.About half of the children (54.4%) displayed stable symptom scores between the ages 3 and 6, while 16.8% exhibited increased severity and 28.8% exhibited decreased severity. The overall symptom severity at age 3 did not affect how symptoms changed over time; however, children with higher IQ scores at age 3 were more likely to experience a decrease in the severity of symptoms at age 6. Symptom severity was more likely to decrease and less likely to increase in girls than boys.“These findings are somewhat at odds with the common notion that girls with autism are generally more impaired than boys,” the researchers wrote. “Yet, our results are consistent with many recent studies that suggest that girls might actually demonstrate better developmental outcomes than boys in the areas of cognition, sociability, and pragmatic communication skills.”Waizbard-Bartov E, Ferrer E, Young GS, et al. Trajectories of Autism Symptom Severity Change During Early Childhood. J Autism Dev Disord. May 14, 2020. [Online ahead of print]Young People With IDD More Likely to Die From COVID-19iStock/koto_fejaAn analysis conducted by researchers at Syracuse University and colleagues suggests that individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), such as cerebral palsy or Down’s syndrome, are more likely to die from COVID-19 than those without IDD. This report was published in the Disability and Health Journal.The researchers evaluated information contained in the TriNetX COVID-19 Research Network, a shared collection of electronic health record data from 42 health care organizations from around the world designed to facilitate COVID-19 research. The study included 474 COVID-19 patients with IDD and 29,808 patients without IDD.The overall death rate for IDD and non-IDD COVID-19 patients was similar (5.1% and 5.4%, respectively). Significant differences emerged when looking at different age groups, however. Among patients aged 18 to 74, the death rate was 4.5% in patients with IDD and 2.7% in patients without IDD, while in patients aged 17 and younger, the death rate was 1.6% among patients with IDD and <0.1% among patients without IDD. Fatality rates were similar in patients aged 75 and older with and without IDD.The researchers found that individuals with IDD in all age groups had a higher prevalence of comorbid circulatory, respiratory, and metabolic disorders. This may partly explain the increased risk of death in younger IDD patients who contract COVID-19. Another possible reason is that individuals with IDD are more likely to live in congregate settings like nursing homes, which are associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes.Turk MA, Landes SD, Formica MK, Gossa KD. Intellectual and Developmental Disability and COVID-19 Case-Fatality Trends: TriNetX Analysis. Disabil Health J. May 24, 2020. [Online ahead of print]Survey Finds Problem Drinking Among Pacific Islander YouthiStock/KPSPacific Islanders remain heavily understudied in mental health research, which hinders clinical knowledge of this population’s psychiatric risk and treatment needs. A new study appearing in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry reports on the rates of hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorder among this population.The findings come from a survey of 156 Pacific Islander young adults (aged 18 to 30) across two communities: Los Angeles County and Northwest Arkansas. The survey was conducted by a team at the University of California, Riverside.Participants were asked about alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use, as well as their perceived need for mental health and/or substance use disorder services. Alcohol use was reported with the three-question Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Concise (AUDIT-C).In total, 78% of the respondents reported a history of alcohol use, and 56% screened positive for hazardous drinking (defined as an AUDIT-C score of 4 or higher for men and 3 or higher for women). In addition to the high rate of alcohol use, 53% and 54% of the respondents reported a history of cigarette and marijuana use, respectively; 30% of participants reported using all three substances.Despite the prevalence of alcohol and substance use, only 25% of the survey respondents felt that they needed treatment for substance use disorder. Young adults who had experienced a drinking-related hazard (such as health or financial problems) were more likely to report needing treatment.“Now that we’ve demonstrated that a major problem exists, we are starting to design culturally tailored interventions that could help these communities suffering excessive alcohol use and alcohol-related harms,” said lead investigator Andrew Subica, Ph.D., in a press release. ■Subica AM, Guerrero E, Aitaoto N, et al. Hazardous Drinking, Alcohol Use Disorders, and Need for Treatment Among Pacific Islander Young Adults. J Orthopsychiatry. April 30, 2020. [Online ahead of print] ISSUES NewArchived

Specificul dezvoltării abilităților de comunicare pragmatică în contextul dizabilității intelectuale

Specificul dezvoltării abilităților de comunicare pragmatică în contextul dizabilității intelectuale

Language Problems and ADHD Symptoms: How Specific Are the Links?

Symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity frequently co-occur with language difficulties in both clinical and community samples. We explore the specificity and strength of these associations in a heterogeneous sample of 254 children aged 5 to 15 years identified by education and health professionals as having problems with attention, learning and/or memory. Parents/carers rated pragmatic and structural communication skills and behaviour, and children completed standardised assessments of reading, spelling, vocabulary, and phonological awareness. A single dimension of behavioural difficulties including both hyperactivity and inattention captured behaviour problems. This was strongly and negatively associated with pragmatic communication skills. There was less evidence for a relationship between behaviour and language structure: behaviour ratings were more weakly associated with the use of structural language in communication, and there were no links with direct measures of literacy. These behaviour problems and pragmatic communication difficulties co-occur in this sample, but impairments in the more formal use of language that impact on literacy and structural communication skills are tied less strongly to behavioural difficulties. One interpretation is that impairments in executive function give rise to both behavioural and social communication problems, and additional or alternative deficits in other cognitive abilities impact on the development of structural language skills.

Executive Functioning and Social Pragmatic Communication Skills: Exploring the Threads in Our Social Fabric

The development of treatment plans and related strategies to help our students with social pragmatic challenges improve upon their social communicative competencies requires us to explore how Theory of Mind (ToM), Central Coherence (CC), and Executive Functioning (EF) are interwoven. In this article, we will deconstruct elements of social learning to explore how EFs play a critical role in face-to-face communication and how this information is not captured on any current standardized assessment currently available in our field. Addressing the need to teach our students to be stronger social observers or “detectives” in order to socially problem solve and the practice adapting their behaviors based on the situation and the people within it is key to teaching social EF. Treatment philosophy encouraging the use of systematic social communication frameworks, such as Carol Gray's Social Stories (Gray &amp; Garand, 1993) and Social Thinking's Social Behavior Mapping (Winner, 2007b) is explored to assist our students' in their development of social and self-regulatory strategies.

Pragmatic Communication is Impaired in Parkinson Disease

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to determine whether severity of disease, cognitive function, age, gender, or amount of social interaction were associated with pragmatic dysfunction in Parkinson disease. No studies have previously been done to investigate variables that may be associated with pragmatic dysfunction in Parkinson disease. A case-control study was conducted with 17 Parkinson disease patients and 17 convenience controls. Each Parkinson disease patient and a control were interviewed, and their pragmatic skills were evaluated using a scale of pragmatic communication skills. Correlation analysis was used to determine what factors were associated with pragmatic dysfunction in the Parkinson disease patients. Cases scored lower on the pragmatic scale with a mean of 29.7 compared with 38.9 in the controls (p < .001) out of 40 possible points. The score on the scale of pragmatic communication skills had moderate to strong correlations with the MMSE (r = .81, p = .002), Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale score (r = −.71, p = .002), and duration of disease (r = −.53, p = .03). These results show that Parkinson disease patients have impaired pragmatic function compared with controls on both verbal and nonverbal sections, and this impairment correlates with mental state, duration, and severity of disease.

Music Therapy Methods with Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Severe Neurobehavioral Disorders Due to Brain Injury

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the application of music therapy intervention in neurobehavioral treatment programs with pediatric, adolescent and adult populations through the presentation of six case reports, with special reference to post-traumatic amnesia. Severe behavioral disorders stemming from brain injury are challenging for both the affected individual and their support network. Managing neurobehavioral disorders requires specialist skills and knowledge of various strategies to minimize behavioral incidents and decrease episodes of agitation. Music therapy interventions are effective in increasing orientation and decreasing agitation in people with post-traumatic amnesia following brain injury (Baker, 2001). However, there is little published guidance or research on music therapy interventions for use in interdisciplinary rehabilitation programs for patients with short-term or chronic neurobehavioral disorders following traumatic brain injury. Music therapy is well-placed as a part of interdisciplinary rehabilitation with this population, offering opportunities to enable emotional expression and improve pragmatic communication skills and social interaction. This case material provided illustrates how music therapists integrate family members into treatment programs, and work with others to enable multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary outcomes.

Association Between a High-Risk Autism Locus on 5p14 and Social Communication Spectrum Phenotypes in the General Population

Recent genome-wide analysis identified a genetic variant on 5p14.1 (rs4307059), which is associated with risk for autism spectrum disorder. This study investigated whether rs4307059 also operates as a quantitative trait locus underlying a broader autism phenotype in the general population, focusing specifically on the social communication aspect of the spectrum. Study participants were 7,313 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Single-trait and joint-trait genotype associations were investigated for 29 measures related to language and communication, verbal intelligence, social interaction, and behavioral adjustment, assessed between ages 3 and 12 years. Analyses were performed in one-sided or directed mode and adjusted for multiple testing, trait interrelatedness, and random genotype dropout. Single phenotype analyses showed that an increased load of rs4307059 risk allele is associated with stereotyped conversation and lower pragmatic communication skills, as measured by the Children's Communication Checklist (at a mean age of 9.7 years). In addition a trend toward a higher frequency of identification of special educational needs (at a mean age of 11.8 years) was observed. Variation at rs4307059 was also associated with the phenotypic profile of studied traits. This joint signal was fully explained neither by single-trait associations nor by overall behavioral adjustment problems but suggested a combined effect, which manifested through multiple sub-threshold social, communicative, and cognitive impairments. Our results suggest that common variation at 5p14.1 is associated with social communication spectrum phenotypes in the general population and support the role of rs4307059 as a quantitative trait locus for autism spectrum disorder.

Exploring theory of mind after severe traumatic brain injury

Previous studies have reported a dissociation between social behavioral impairments after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and relatively preserved performances in traditional tasks that investigate cognitive abilities. Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the ability to make inferences about other's mental states and use them to understand and predict others' behavior. We tested a group of 15 patients with severe TBI and 15 matched controls on a series of four verbal and non-verbal ToM tasks: the faux pas test, the first-order and second-order false belief task, the character intention task and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. Participants with severe TBI were also compared to controls on non-ToM inference tasks of indirect speech act from the Montreal Evaluation of Communication (M.E.C.) Protocol and empathy (Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index – I.R.I.) and tests for executive functions. Subjects with TBI performed worse than control subjects on all ToM tasks, except the first-order false belief task. The findings converge with previous evidence for ToM deficit in TBI and dissociation between ToM and executive functions. We show that ToM deficit is probably distinct from other aspects of social cognition like empathy and pragmatic communication skills.

Their Perspectives: ESL Students' Reflections On Collaborative Community Service Learning

Our business communication classes will continue to be enriched by students from various cultural backgrounds, many of them ESL learners. Among the numerous benefits of this diversity are oppor tunities for all students to develop essential life skills through course-embedded community ser vice learning (CSL) projects. This study analyzes students' guided reflections in response to qualitative probes regarding CSL projects required for all MBA candidates at the study site. Data were gathered during a 5-year period from 326 reflective repor ts. More than 80% of the reflective question responses were authored by international students; approximately 60% of those were ESL learners. The findings reveal differences not only between ESL learners and native speakers of English but also between ESL students. Key themes discussed include cultural sensitivity, teamwork, contributive roles, conflict resolution skills, and pragmatic communication skills. The findings presented are accompanied by students' comments, corroborating literature, and teaching tips.

Pragmatische Kommunikationsstörungen bei Kindern

When a child's language development does not follow the normal developmental course for no known reasons specific language impairment (SLI) is diagnosed. In contrast, pragmatic language impairment (PLI) refers to children who experience significant difficulties with the use of language. Clinical accounts of PLI have suggested that unlike children with more typical SLI, children with PLI have adequate syntax and phonology and are often verbally fluent. However, they may exhibit a range of linguistic and communicative deficits such as comprehension deficits for connected speech, conversational inadequacies, poor turn-taking, atypical word choices, literal interpretation of figurative language, and poor topic maintenance. There also may be fundamental deficits in social cognition, such as appreciating the thoughts and feelings of others. PLI may be found in SLI children, children with learning disabilities, autism and traumatic brain injuries. Here we review aspects of pragmatic communication skills, the development of emotion recognition, and diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Otolaryngologists have to be aware of PLI in case children with communication problems are referred to them. This may enable a timely diagnosis and early intervention.

Pragmatic communication skills in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Background. Pragmatic communication abilities may depend on intact frontal lobe systems. Independent evidence suggests that some persons with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are impaired on measures of frontal lobe function. Hypothesis. We therefore hypothesized in Study 1 that pragmatic communication skills would be impaired in some persons with PD and would be linked to frontal dysfunction in these patients. In Study 2 we hypothesized that PD patients would be unaware of their pragmatic communication deficits. Methods. In Study 1 we administered tests of pragmatic abilities and frontal lobe functioning to twenty-two persons with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and 10 healthy controls. In Study 2 we obtained self-ratings of pragmatic abilities from 11 PD patients and then checked these self-ratings against ratings of these same abilities by the patient’s spouses. Results. We found in Study 1 that patients with PD were: (a) significantly impaired on measures of pragmatic communication abilities, especially in the areas of conversational appropriateness, turn-taking, prosodics and proxemics, and that this impairment was significantly related to measures of frontal lobe function. In study 2 we found that PD patients overestimated their own abilities relative to spousal ratings of those abilities and thus were unaware of the extent of their problems with pragmatic social communication skills. Conclusion. We conclude that pragmatic social communication skills are impaired in PD and that this impairment may be related to frontal lobe dysfunction.

The development of pragmatic communication skills in head injured children

This study investigated the developmental levels of pragmatic language skills in children following head injury (HI), in comparison to their uninjured peers. Participants were 30 head-injured and 19 healthy controls, classified into a 'young' age group, 8-9 years, and an 'old' age group, 11-12 years. Participants were administered the WISC- III, a negotiating requests task and a hint task, the latter two assessing verbal reasoning skills and abilities to be indirect, respectively. It was found that negotiation and hinting strategies were rapidly developing in these age groups, where abilities to hint were less mature for all groups. Results found a main effect for injury on cognitive and functional language tasks, reflected by lower performance levels and inflexibility in reasoning for the head-injured group. Injury sustained at an earlier age consistently predicted poorer performance on the language tasks, complicating the ongoing development of generalized and higher-order communicative skills. Severity of injury did not predict performance on either language task.

Family and Clinician Perceptions of Pragmatic Communication Skills Following Right Hemisphere Stroke

Pragmatic communication abilities are frequently impaired in persons who have had a right hemisphere stroke. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) often use rating scales to judge the appropriateness of pragmatic communication behaviors observed during their treatment sessions with patients. At the same time, families are able to rate the degree to which a stroke has changed pragmatic communication behaviors. In comparing these two perspectives, this study found that the degree of agreement between clinicians and family members as to the existence/appropriateness of pragmatic communication behaviors varied widely across behaviors and, overall, was not robust. SLPs were likely to rate behaviors as inappropriate that family members reported had not changed.

Amplifying Pragmatics: A Decade Later

Despite advances in technology and educational methods, it is obvious that for many hearing impaired adolescents, normal communication is not a reality. Clinicians who work with these childr.en are aware of their communication problems which extend beyond limitations in syntax, semantics and phonology. Hearing impaired children exhibit deficits in the full range of pragmatic communication behaviours. The communicative skills of these teenagers suggest the need for stressing communicative competence at the preschool and elementary-school levels. Developing these abilities requires the careful coordination of amplification and teaching strategies. These papers will present information regarding the integration of amplification and teaching techniques in order to help hearing impaired children develop pragmatic communication skills, including the full range of communicative functions, strategies for effective maintenance of conversations, clarification strategies, and social appropriateness. Attention will be given to bridging the gap from amplification systems and teaching methods in the classroom to personal hearing aid use and communication in the “real world”.

The use of 'left' and 'right' in speech: the development of listener-specific skills.

ABSTRACTTwo experiments are reported, where the development of pragmatic communication skills was assessed in a simple but realistic setting, so that even the youngest speakers could construct consistently accurate messages. It was shown that children of up to six years are specifically hampered by the speaker's use of left and right, but not by the use of named landmarks. Children were also allowed to create their own messages. The ability of the speaker to use language which would be valuable to a particular listener could then be measured. The results show a development between six and seven years in speakers' ability to select and use linguistic forms which are appropriate to listeners' receptive skills, though speakers could use objectively accurate information at an earlier age.