Assessing Developing Language Part 3

Question 1

Pragmatic Assessment

Answer 1

• Purposes:
• Determine if child is stronger in pragmatics
compared to morphology, semantics, etc.
▫ Important for determining intervention
• Identify pragmatic contexts to practice new
forms
• Identify specific problems of communicative
interaction for children with only pragmatic
language impairment

Question 2

Assessing Pragmatics

Answer 2

• Questionnaires, parent-report, direct observation
• Protocol examples
▫ Peanut Butter Protocol (Creaghead, 1984)
▫ Pragmatic Protocol (Prutting & Kirchner 1983)
• Roth and Spekman divide pragmatics into three
areas: communicative intentions,
presuppositions, and organization of discourse

Question 3

Pragmatic Analysis

Answer 3

Social v. nonsocial utterances used in sample
• Topic initiation
• Topic appropriateness
• Turns per topic /topic maintenance
• Discourse management – how often child does
not properly take a turn (interruptions, not
responding)
• Contingency
• Discourse comprehension – understand
connected text (story retell)
▫ *Late preschoolers, soon to be school aged
children

Question 4

Bottom line of assessing Pragmatics

Answer 4

Pragmatics better, worse, or same as other areas
of language?
• Which communicative functions need guided
practice?

Question 5

Children with ASD

Answer 5

70-80% of children with ASD use spoken
language as primary means of communication
• Can still have language impairments
▫ Children with ASD usually have more advanced
language skills or delayed language like children
with DLD
▫ Most all of these children will need to have
thorough pragmatic assessments completed

Question 6

Older children in DL stage

Answer 6

Primary assessment instruments will be C-R and
behavioral observations
Useful instruments:
• Functional Communication Profile Revised
(Kleiman 2003)
• Triple C Checklist (Iacono, West, Bloomberg, &
Johnson 2009) – for those with severe
disabilities

Question 7

Assessing Older Clients

Answer 7

Three considerations
1. Assess need for augmentative and alternative
communication
2. Use chronologically age appropriate materials
3. Evaluating functional communicative needs

Question 8

Ecological Inventory

Answer 8

• Observes the needs of particular environments
• I.E. what communication is needed for given
situations?
• Target those goals to make them successful –
even if it does not follow the developmental
sequence
• Look at major aspects of living, (McCormick and
Goldman 1984):
▫ Domestic, occupational, recreational, and
community involvement

Question 9

How to Collect an Ecological Inventory

Answer 9

Shadow client’s schedule throughout the day
• Interviews/questionnaires to adults involved with
each activity/aspect
• McCarthy’s et. Al (1998) Communication Supports
Checklist
• Rowland and Schweigert (1993) Analyzing the
Communication Environment (ACE)
▫ The activity
▫ Communication system used during activity
▫ Way adults interact with the client during activity
▫ Group dynamics
▫ Activity materials
▫ Specific communicative opportunities