Assessing Pragmatic Language

Question 1

What skills are difficult for children with pragmatic language impairments?

Answer 1

• Inferences (oral & written)
• Figurative language
• Flexible use of language
• Taking perspectives (e.g., narration, conversation, persuasion)
• Implicit social rules

Question 2

What makes assessment of pragmatic language impairments difficult?

Answer 2

• Assessments are decontextualized and structured while these skills are contextulatized and unstructured
• There aren’t good norms
• Cultural variation

Question 3

When given word & sentence level tests, children with pragmatic impairments often…

Answer 3

do better with word-level

Question 4

Tasks at discourse level are most appropriate because you can look at…

Answer 4

• Narrative quality ratings
• Expository & persuasive discourse ratings (esp. “sense of audience”)
• Answering inferential questions about narrative (esp. related to mental status)
• Code a conversational interact (% turns, % comments/questions)

Question 5

What are the three parts of the “double interview” task

Answer 5

Part I: Interview the child
Part II: Show student 3 pictures of yourself in a social scenario
Part III: Invite student to interview you

Question 6

Considerations for Part I (interview the child) of the double interview task.

Answer 6

• Include “perspective taking” questions (ex: “If your mom had one day to herself, what would she do?”)
• Observe: Theory of mind, perspective taking

Question 7

Considerations for Part II (show a student 3 pictures of yourself in a social scenario) of the double interview task.

Answer 7

• Wait for questions / comments

- Test with TD peers first

Question 8

What kinds of educational impact might be present for a child with primarily pragmatic difficulties

Answer 8

-They may miss instruction, inference/TOM pieces come into play a lot with comprehension tasks, social issues make group things difficult, etc.