Part 1. Organizational Framework and Assessment Parameters
This paper describes an organizational framework for the assessment of pragmatic abilities in children. The framework addresses the areas of communicative intention, presupposition, and the social organization of discourse. For each area, assessment parameters are presented in coordination with a review of pertinent literature. Recent approaches to the study of child language have emerged from a renewed interest in pragmatics, the rules governing the use of language in a social context (Bates, 1976). This is in contrast to the focus during the past two decades on the structural aspects of language. It is now realized that in addition to learning the phonologic, semantic and syntactic rules of language, a child must also master the rules that underlie how language is used for the purpose of communication (Hymes, 1971). The acquisition of these rules requires a complex integration of linguistic, cognitive, and social knowledge.
The development of pragmatic skills in handicapped children has not received substantial attention despite the recognition by practitioners that there are children whose social interaction abilities cannot be directly tied to their linguistic skills (Bernard-Opitz, 1982; Blank, Gessner, & Esposito, 1979; Snyder, 1978; Spekman, 1981). Numerous clinical reports indicate that these children demonstrate major communication deficits which transcend their problems with form and content or which exist even in the presence of normal linguistic skills. The problems exhibited by these children illustrate that linguistic knowledge alone does not guarantee appropriate language use. There are also children who manifest poor social interaction abilities that can be accounted for by a primary linguistic deficit (Brinton & Fujiki, 1982; Fey & Leonard, 1983; Leonard, Camarata, Rowan, & Chapman, 1982) or cognitive deficit (Beveridge, 1976: Guralnick, 1978). However, most clinicians and special educators do not yet have an adequate framework for assessing pragmatic difficulties regardless of their foundation. Whereas the development of formalized pragmatic assessment instruments must await a clearer delineation of a normal developmental sequence, it is now possible to draw on empirical and theoretical literature to construct an organizational framework for analyzing performance in this area. Such a framework can aid the practitioner in fulfilling the two major objectives of assessment: (a) to determine the effectiveness of a child as a communicator, and (b) to provide recommendations regarding appropriate intervention strategies. The purpose of this paper is to present such a framework along with a discussion of the relevant behavioral dimensions that warrant attention in the assessment of pragmatic abilities. The construction of this framework is based, in part, on the pioneering work of others including Bates (1976) and Miller (1978). It is our intention that this assessment framework be viewed as an extension of existing diagnostic models. Without information about language structure and cognitive growth, it is difficult to arrive at a well-informed and accurate decision regarding the integrity of a child’s communication system.
Continue reading this paper by FROMA P. ROTH NANCY J. SPEKMAN University of Maryland, College Park
