Pragmatic impairment: a case study

Introduction: Children with pragmatic language impairment have problems with appropriate use of language according to age and context. Assessment and intervention plans designed to be used with a pragmatically impaired child were discussed in this study. Materials and methods: The primary method of data collection adopted in this study was observation method. Accordingly, communicative partner profile and child’s pragmatic rating scale were completed. Based on the obtained data from these two tools, appropriate targets were then selected for intervention. Results: After treatment plan implementation and providing necessary consultations to parents for enhancing conversational skills and use of speech acts, a significant increase in child’s scores on pragmatic rating scale was evident. Moreover, the child’s ability in conversational skills increased by an average of 2-3 scores. Conclusion: Similar to the work of Richardson and klecan- Aker, selected targets in this study were focused on pragmatic skills. Pragmatics was assumed as a whole not as a part of treatment. As a result, appropriate diagnosis of the disorder is efficient in decision for making assessment and selection of proper treatment targets. Key words: Pragmatic language impairment, Speech acts, Conversational skills, Pragmatic rating scale, Communicative partner profil

‎راهکارهای اصلاح مکالمه در کودکان طبیعی3 تا 5 ساله شهر اصفهان

چکیده مقدمه: مهارت‎هاي اصلاح مكالمه، يكي از مهم‎ترين مهارت‎هاي كاربرد شناختي زبان و از دسته مهارت‎هاي مكالمه‎اي مي‎باشد. اهميت اين مهارت‎ها به وي‍ژه در مورد كودكان دچار نقايص زباني از قبيل كودكان كم شنوا يا دچار نقص ويژه زبان كه نياز به اصلاح نقايص ارتباطي دارند، به شدت احساس مي‎شود. اطلاعات آسيب شناسان گفتار و زبان در زمينه چنين مهارتي و شكل طبيعي استفاده از راه‎كارهاي اصلاح مكالمه (تكرار، بازگويي، افزايش و اصلاح سرنخي) بسيار محدود و مبتني بر حدس و گمان مي‎باشد. اين پژوهش به معرفي و مقايسه اين راه‎كارها در كودكان طبيعي 3، 4 و 5 ساله پرداخت. مواد و روش‌ها: در اين پژوهش توصيفي- تحليلي و مقطعي، كاربرد انواع راه‎كارهاي اصلاح مكالمه در 72 نمونه از كودكان دختر و پسر فارسي زبان شهر اصفهان، در سه گروه سني 3، 4 و 5 ساله به كمك دو كتابچه تصويري و ايجاد موقعيت درخواست توضيح، مورد بررسي قرار گرفت. یافته‌ها: راه‎كارهاي بازگويي، اصلاح سرنخي و پاسخ‎هاي نامناسب با سن ارتباط معني‎داري داشتند، ولي در مورد راه‎كارهاي تكرار و افزايش، چنين ارتباط آماري به اثبات نرسيد. در مورد جنس نيز تنها راه‎كار بازگويي در پسران، كاربرد بيشتري نسبت به دختران داشت. بحث: تكرار در هر مقطع سني پركاربردترين راه‎كار بود. استفاده از راه‎كار بازگويي در سنين پايين‎تر، شايع‎تر و با افزايش سن كاهش یافت. استفاده از راه‎كار اصلاح سرنخي نيز با افزايش سن بيشتر شد. اين نتايج با نتايج پژوهش‎هاي خارج از كشور هم‎خواني داشت. کلید واژه‌ها: كاربردشناسي زبان، اصلاح مكالمه، نقص ارتباطي

Describe some language structures in 4 years normal children’s narrative in Isfahan and its relationship with sex according to Narrative Assessment Protocol (NAP)

Introduction: Narrative assessment is an important evaluative tool for determining literacy outcomes, academic performance and social appropriateness. It can be viewed as rich approach for the description of how language develops in early childhood environments. The aim of this study was to report some language structures in narrations produced by 4-year-olds and to explore any association that may be observed between those structures and the sex of these children according to Narrative Assessment Protocol (NAP). Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, NAP method was used to evaluate particular language structures in spontaneous narrations of 126 Persian-speaking children that had been produce while they were describing a picture book. Intra-rater, inter-rater and online- offline reliabilities were also calculated. Results: Target language structures were evident in the most of narratives. The most commonly used structure was possessive noun and the least common one was tier-two noun. Agreement percentage for each of the NAP items ranged from 53% to 100% of accuracy. The final NAP score for each subject and the scores obtained for each structure were not significantly different between girls and boys. Conclusion: The results were in agreement with the past results about the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) in various ages and the relationship between MLU and the development of language structures in this age range. Keywords: Narration, Language, Narrative Assessment Protocol, Childre