While pragmatic disorders in children have received increasing recogni
tion in recent years, therapists still lack tools for the assessment of
children displaying such disorders. This paper describes an approach to
assessment which is based on the analysis of samples of conversational
data. A number of categories of pragmatic 'error' are identified. The
system is illustrated by a brief case study. Because of inevitable
problems with inter-tester reliability, it is suggested that this approach is
best used for identifying areas for remediation, and for reassessment in
order to evaluate therapy.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adams, C. and Bishop, D.V.M.1989: Conversational characteristics of children with semantic-pragmatic disorder. 1: Exchange structure, turntaking, repairs and cohesion. British Journal of Disorders of Communication24, 211-239.
2.
Bishop, D.V.M. and Adams, C.1989: Conversational characteristics of children with semantic-pragmatic disorder. II: What features lead to a judgement of inappropriacy?British Journal of Disorders of Communication24, 241-263.
3.
— 1991: What do referential communication tasks measure? A study of children with specific language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics12, 199-215.
4.
— 1992: Comprehension problems in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research35, 119-129. Conti-Ramsden, G. and Gunn, M.1986: The development of conversational disability: a case study. British Journal of Disorders of Communication21, 339-352.
5.
Crystal, D.1982: Profiling linguistic disability. London : Edward Arnold.
6.
— 1987: Towards a 'bucket' theory of language disability: taking account of interaction between linguistic levels. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics1, 7-22.
7.
Crystal, D., Fletcher, P. and Garman, M.1976: The grammatical analysis of language disability. London: Edward Arnold. Dewart, H. and Summers, S.1988: The pragmatics profile of early communication skills. Windsor: NFER-Nelson.
8.
Fey, M.E.1986: Language intervention with young children. London: Taylor & Francis.
9.
Harris, J.1990: Early language development: implications for clinical and educational practice. London: Routledge.
10.
Letts, C.1991: The problem of reliability in the assessment of semantic-pragmatic disorder. In Proceedings of a Conference on Child Language Disorders, Roros: Norwegian Centre for Child Research, Trondheim.
11.
Levinson, S.C.1983: Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP.
12.
McTear, M.1985: Pragmatic disorders: a case study of conversational disability . British Journal of Disorders of Communication20, 129-142.
13.
McTear, M.M. and Conti-Ramsden, G.1992: Pragmatic Disability in Children . London: Whurr.
14.
Olswang, L., Kriegsman, E. and Mastergeorge, A.1982: Facilitating functional requesting in pragmatically impaired children. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools13, 202-223.
15.
Shulman, B.B.1985: Test of pragmatic skills. Arizona: Communication Skills Builders.
