Pragmatic abilities in children with and without language disorders: cross-linguistic and cross-cultural analysis

Abstract

The purpose of the first study to map pragmatic abilities (such as communication initiative, communication interactivity, use of communicative means, functional diversity, discursive abilities and social-communicative adaptation) of children with child language disorders and children with typical development. The questions that were included in the questionnaire were based on existing protocols, especially the Functional Communicative Profile and the Autism Behavior Checklist. The specific aim was to verify the sensibility of a simple questionnaire, to be answered by the parents and professionals, that aims to identify the different pragmatic manifestations of children with language disorders and typical development. Results of the first study have revealed that the questionnaire maps the different groups of children (with and without language disorders). The analysis currently being carried out is aimed at investigating whether the questionnaire discriminates different language disorders. For such, screening data is being collected and analyzed. Preliminary data suggests differences on the answers associated to different disorders. During the visit at the Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences Department at Lehman College, City University of New York, we will translate and culturally adapt the questionnaire to American English and collect data with American families. This data will allow cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparisons, further increasing the relevance of the developed questionnaire and our knowledge on pragmatic abilities of children with and without language disorders. (AU)