Assessing Referential Communication Skills

Abstract

This article describes a method used to assess the degree to which school-aged children with communication disorders are competent with one aspect of referential communication, an important pragmatic skill. The focus of the article is on the development and use of a nonstandardized assessment probe that could have utility as part of a comprehensive diagnostic test battery for language disorders or for language therapy. Rationales for the use of nonstandardized probes, and results from presentations of the probe to a heterogeneous group of children with diagnosed communication disorders are discussed.