Assessment options of pragmatic communication level in children with autism spectrum disorder - partial survey results

Abstract

Communication pragmatics is frequently disturbed in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which causes difficulties in the social interaction, and thus it might be one of the obstacles to speech therapy intervention realized in these children. The aim of this paper is to highlight some assessment options of pragmatic communication level using originally created assessment (test) material which aims to pragmatically oriented communication situations relating to daily activities and real life. Ten children with ASD and ten intact children were evaluated within preliminary testing; their choice of an adequate illustration from pair pictures representing communicative and socially orientated situations from everyday life was evaluated. The results of preliminary research revealed that children with ASD showed fewer erroneous answers, and in different areas, than intact children. However, certain areas were evaluated correctly in both groups. Half of the children with child autism did not even make any mistakes at all. The results of qualitative analysis point out that communication pragmatics assessment has to be completed with an individually specific qualitative analysis of the child performance.