Why and when do some language-impaired children seem talkative? A study of initiation in conversations of children with semantic-pragmatic disorder

Bishop, Dorothy V. M.; Hartley, Jason; Weir, Fiona

doi:10.1007/bf02172095

Cited by 32 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Typically, children are much more reserved with an adult with whom they are not acquainted, which may tend to reduce their overall level of assertiveness. In fact, Bishop et al (1994) showed that, compared to children with Semantic-Pragmatic Disorder, normally developing children had a slightly greater tendency (although not significant, p = 0.09) to initiate conversation with a familiar adult than with an unfamiliar one. This means that a low degree of assertiveness with an unfamiliar adult could be a sign of better PS, meaning that the child is able to adapt to the context of the situation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The role of executive functions in the pragmatic skills of children age 4â€“5

Blain-Brière¹,

Bouchard

Bigras

2014

Front. Psychol.

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Several studies suggest that pragmatic skills (PS) (i.e., social communication) deficits may be linked to executive dysfunction (i.e., cognitive processes required for the regulation of new and complex behaviors) in patients with frontal brain injuries. If impairment of executive functions (EF) causes PS deficits in otherwise healthy adults, could this mean that EF are necessary for the normal functioning of PS, even more so than cognitive maturation? If so, children with highly developed EF should exhibit higher levels of PS. This study aimed to examine the link between EF and PS among normally developing children. A secondary goal was to compare this relationship to that between intellectual quotient (IQ) and PS in order to determine which predictor explained the most variance. Participants were 70 French-speaking preschool children (3;10–5;7 years old). The PS coding system, an observational tool developed for this study, was used to codify the children's PS during a semi-structured conversation with a research assistant. Five types of EF processes were evaluated: self-control, inhibition, flexibility, working memory and planning. IQ was estimated by tallying the scores on a receptive vocabulary test and a visuoconstructive abilities test. The results of the test of differences between correlation coefficients suggest that EF contributed significantly more than IQ to the PS exhibited by preschoolers during conversation. More specifically, higher inhibition skills were correlated with a decrease in talkativeness and assertiveness. EF also appeared to foster quality of speech by promoting the ability to produce fluid utterances, free of unnecessary repetition or hesitation. Moreover, children with a high working memory capacity were more likely to formulate contingent answers and produce utterances that could be clearly understood by the interlocutor. Overall, these findings help us better understand how EF may assist children in everyday social interactions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The role of executive functions in the pragmatic skills of children age 4â€“5

Blain-Brière¹,

Bouchard

Bigras

2014

Front. Psychol.

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“…The question of whether pragmatic difficulties can exist separately from linguistic problems has also been subject to both theoretical and empirical debate McTear & Conti-Ramsden, 1992;Smith & Leinonen, 1992;Bishop, Hartley & Weir, 1994). Such studies have highlighted that pragmatically impaired children tend to exhibit inappropriate conversational behaviours (such as giving too much or too little information; excessive use of initiations; expression superior to comprehension; problems with topic maintenance).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why pragmatic impairment? A case study in the comprehension of inferential meaning

Leinonen

Letts

1997

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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This paper discusses a case study of Sarah (aged 9;8-10;3) who is reported to have pragmatic difficulties. The focus is on her comprehension of questions, which are asked on the basis of pictures and heard stories. Particular focus is on the pragmatic (or inferential) demands of the input questions and their relationship to the (in)appropriacy of the answer. Data from 16 normally functioning 6-and 8-year-old children are also presented for comparative purposes. The study shows that Sarah has difficulty with questions which require her to go beyond visually presented or verbally stated information. On one set of tasks she was to answer questions on the basis of composite pictures: for some of the questions, the answer was obvious from the picture (descriptive questions) and for others information needed to be inferred beyond the picture (for example, by imagining what had happened before and what is likely to happen next). Sarah's performance was poorer on the inferential questions than the descriptive questions and poorer than the performance of 6-and 8-year-old normally functioning control children. Although the control children also found the inferential questions more difficult than the descriptive questions, this difficulty was not as pronounced as Sarah's. This trend was also apparent in a set of tasks which required the children to answer questions on the basis of verbally told stories. This study suggests that pragmatically impaired children may have difficulty going beyond explicitly presented information and this would manifest as pragmatic production and comprehension problems. In cognitive terms, this may indicate difficulty with the process of inferencing. ABSTRACT This paper discusses a case study of Sarah (aged 9;&10;3) who i s reported to have pragmatic difficulties. The focus is on her comprehension of questions, which are asked on the basis of pictures and heard stories. Particular focus is on the pragmatic (or inferential) demands of the input questions and their relationship to the (in)appropriacy of the answer. Data from 16 normally functioning 6-and 8-year-old children are also presented for comparative purposes. The study shows that

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“…Tager-Flusberg and Anderson (1991) found that children with autism had difficulty dealing with new information and produced more noncontingent utterances. A higher proportion of initiations rather than responses was found in a study by Bishop, Hartley, and Weir (1994). Tager-Flusberg et al (2005) suggest that there is a basic difficulty in establishing and maintaining reciprocity in conversation -that is, in the ability to engage in mutual, co-operative social dialogue.…”

Section: Development Of Communication and Language In Children With Asdmentioning

confidence: 92%

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Thunberg¹

2011

Autism Spectrum Disorders - From Genes to Environment

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Why and when do some language-impaired children seem talkative? A study of initiation in conversations of children with semantic-pragmatic disorder

Cited by 32 publications

References 11 publications

The role of executive functions in the pragmatic skills of children age 4â€“5

The role of executive functions in the pragmatic skills of children age 4â€“5

Why pragmatic impairment? A case study in the comprehension of inferential meaning

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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