Training Pragmatic Language Skills through Alternate Strategies with a Blind Multiply Handicapped Child

1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-112
Author(s):  
C.J. Evans ◽  
C.J. Johnson

A blind multiply handicapped preschool child was taught to respond appropriately to two adjacency pair types. Where Question - Answer and Comment - Acknowledgement. Training involved teaching manual searching behavior as an alternate strategy for visual searching in response to “where” questions. Echolalic responses to comments initially served only a turn-taking function but, through explicit modification, gradually evolved into more appropriate and communicative responses. The blind child's appropriate responses to trained adjacency pair types increased significantly over the 14-week treatment period. The success of this program augers well for future efforts to develop communication-based interventions that incorporate the alternate language acquisition strategies available to blind children.

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Socher ◽  
Björn Lyxell ◽  
Rachel Ellis ◽  
Malin Gärskog ◽  
Ingrid Hedström ◽  
...  

1985 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-112
Author(s):  
Maryon M. Matsuda

Language acquisition should ideally begin at the same age for blind children as it should for sighted children. Parents of blind infants should be educated to their child's behavior and use it to assimilate the child to their environment. The author outlines some steps to utilize behavior and environment to develop language skills in blind infants.


2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Hoffmann ◽  
Marilee A. Martens ◽  
Robert Fox ◽  
Paula Rabidoux ◽  
Rebecca Andridge

Purpose Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) are recognized as having a strong desire for social relationships, yet many of them have difficulty forming and maintaining peer relationships. One cause may be impairments in pragmatic language. The current study compared the assessment of pragmatic language skills in individuals with WS using the Test of Pragmatic Language—Second Edition (TOPL–2; Phelps-Terasaki & Phelps-Gunn, 2007) and the Children's Communication Checklist—Second Edition (CCC–2; Bishop, 2003). Method Twenty children and adolescents diagnosed with WS were given the TOPL–2, and their parents completed the CCC–2. Results The TOPL–2 identified 8 of the 14 older children (ages 8–16 years) as having pragmatic language impairment and all of the 6 younger children (ages 6–7 years) as having such. In comparison, the CCC–2 identified 6 of the 14 older children and 2 of the 6 younger children as having pragmatic language impairment. The older group also had a higher composite score than the younger group on the CCC–2. Conclusion The TOPL–2 identified significantly more participants as having pragmatic language impairment than did the CCC–2. The TOPL–2 may be more useful in assessing pragmatic language in older children than younger children. The results offer important preliminary clinical implications of language measures that may be beneficial in the assessment of individuals with WS.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Alexander C. WILSON ◽  
Dorothy V. M. BISHOP

Abstract It remains unclear whether pragmatic language skills and core language skills (grammar and vocabulary) are distinct language domains. The present work aimed to tease apart these domains using a novel online assessment battery administered to almost 400 children aged 7 to 13 years. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that pragmatic and core language domains could be measured separately, but that both domains were highly related (r = .79). However, zero-order correlations between pragmatic tests were quite small, indicating that task-specific skills played an important role in performance, and follow-up exploratory factor analysis suggested that pragmatics might be best understood as a family of skills rather than a domain. This means that these different pragmatic skills may have different cognitive underpinnings and also need to be assessed separately. However, our overall results supported the idea that pragmatic and core aspects of language are closely related during development, with one area scaffolding development in the other.


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