WHAT IS PRAGMATICS?
Pragmatics is the use of language in social contexts. The rule system used for social communication allows us to initiate and maintain positive relationships with others; contributes to peer acceptance; and helps us cope effectively and adaptively with our social environment.
RISK INDICATORSFOR POOR PRAGMATIC SKILLS
- Difficulty using language for different purposes
- Greeting
- Informing
- Demanding
- Promising
- Requesting
- Difficulty changing language according to the needs of a listener or situation
- Difficulty following rules for conversation and story telling
- Conversational turn taking
- Introducing topics of conversation
- Topic maintenance
- Altering body language
- Self-monitoring body language
ACADEMIC IMPACT
Difficulty with social communication may lead to
- Poor classroom adjustment
- Listening to instructions
- Following directions
- Poor conversation skills and knowledge of how to make friends
- Reduced peer acceptance
THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
- Formal assessment procedures
- Test of Pragmatic Language 2nd edition
- Reference based tests
- Informal assessment
- Associated verbal and nonverbal tasks
- Natural context analysis
- Discourse samples
- Problem-solving
AREAS OF TREATMENT
- Affect
- Topic maintenance
- Turn taking
- Code switching
- Metalinguistic skills
- Theory of mind
- Communication breakdown repair
- Using appropriate body language
- Interpreting body language of others
- Initiating/closing conversations
- Figurative language
- Comprehension of cause/effect relationships
- Problem solving using appropriate judgment and inferencing skills