Comparing Early Pragmatics in Typically Developing Children and Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
Kay H Y Wong, Kathy Y S Lee, Sharon C Y Tsze and 4 others
PMID 34480668WHAT IT FOUND
Preschoolers with language impairment and autism scored significantly lower on direct pragmatic language tests than typically developing peers.
Scores for the two clinical groups were comparable, suggesting similar early social communication deficits in both conditions.
Key findings
01Children with language impairment and autism spectrum disorder both showed significantly lower overall pragmatic language scores compared to typically developing children.
02There was no significant difference in pragmatic language scores between the language impairment and autism spectrum disorder groups.
03Direct assessment tools successfully differentiated typically developing children from those with language impairment or autism spectrum disorder.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The autism group was very small (n=16) and predominantly male. The autism group was tested online while other groups were tested in person, which may have affected performance. The children with autism were older on average than the language impairment group, which may have influenced comparisons. The assessment tool had only 11 items, limiting the granularity of the findings. The study did not compare results against existing norm-referenced tests because none were available for Cantonese-speaking preschoolers.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Health and Medical Research Fund. No specific conflicts of interest were declared by the authors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that children with language impairment have intact social communication skills. This study found their pragmatic deficits were statistically indistinguishable from those of children with autism spectrum disorder, challenging the traditional view that pragmatics are a relative strength in language impairment.