A preliminary investigation of the pragmatic abilities of a group language disordered children

Abstract

The communicative acts, conversational acts, and breakdown repair abilities of six language-disordered children with a syntactic age of ±3 years old as determined by the LARSP (Crystal, Fletcher, Garman: 1976) were investigated. Sampling of each subject involved two separate naturalistic interactions with a familiar adult and a language disordered peer. The data obtained from the transcriptions were analysed in terms of linguistic and nonlinguistic behaviours on the Communication Profile by Wollner and Geller (1982). Specific patterns of deficit and strengths were observed and these trends were related to recent literature in this area. The study emphasises that there is as much heterogeneity in the pragmatic skills as in the other communication skills of language disordered children, although this is due to some extent to the limitations of assessment in naturalistic settings. It also indicates individual areas of pragmatic deficit that require remediation.