Pragmatic Skills in Language Age Matched Children with Autism and Typically Developing Children

Abstract

The pragmatic aspect of language is concerned with social nature of language. Over the past decades, research on autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has shown that pragmatic impairments are widespread in both children and adults with autistic disorder. The present study assessed performance of six Kannada speaking children with autism (language age of 1 to 2 years) in comparison with 1 to 2 year old six typically developing Kannada speaking children on five pragmatic skills: Communicative intent, Refusal, Response for negation, Request for object and / or action and Response to request of object and / or action. One hour audio-video sample of mother-child interaction was recorded. The findings of this study are discussed in terms of frequency of pragmatic skills used during the course of interaction with his/her communicative partner (i.e., mother).