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What Is a Pragmatic Speech Delay?
The American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) describes pragmatic speech as having three components:
Using languagefor different purposes, such as
Changing languageaccording to the needs of a listener or situation, such as
Of course, the rules of speech and communication vary from community to community and may be completely different from nation to nation. But the ability to observe, make sense of, and use these rules (and make appropriate changes in different social settings) is the key to pragmatic speech and communication.
How Autism Affects Pragmatic Speech
For autistic people, pragmatic speech is almost always a challenge at some level. Obviously, a nonverbal person is struggling with very different challenges than a highly verbal person, but both are likely to need help in understanding facial expressions, nonverbal cues, turn taking, and so forth.
While autistic speech patterns vary from person to person, autistic individuals may:
How Therapists Can Help With Pragmatic Speech
Improvements in pragmatic speech skills can make a huge positive difference in others' response to autistic people. It’s important to note, however, that it is possible to “overtrain” autistic children, in particular, to the point where their language use is technically correct but socially “off.” Strange but true, an autistic child who shakes hands with an adult,looks them in the eye, and says “It’s a pleasure to meet you” is behaving, not like a child, but like a business peer!
1 SourceVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Social Language Use (Pragmatics). 2017.Additional ReadingBrukner-Wertman, Yael et al. Social (pragmatic) communication disorder and its relation to the autism spectrum: dilemmas arising from the DSM-5 classification.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder. August 2016, Volume 46, Issue 8, pp 2821–2829.Adams, C. (2015). Assessment and intervention for children with pragmatic language impairment. In D. A. Hwa-Froelich (Ed.),Social communication development and disorders(pp. 141–170). New York: Psychology Press.
1 Source
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Social Language Use (Pragmatics). 2017.Additional ReadingBrukner-Wertman, Yael et al. Social (pragmatic) communication disorder and its relation to the autism spectrum: dilemmas arising from the DSM-5 classification.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder. August 2016, Volume 46, Issue 8, pp 2821–2829.Adams, C. (2015). Assessment and intervention for children with pragmatic language impairment. In D. A. Hwa-Froelich (Ed.),Social communication development and disorders(pp. 141–170). New York: Psychology Press.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.Social Language Use (Pragmatics). 2017.
Brukner-Wertman, Yael et al. Social (pragmatic) communication disorder and its relation to the autism spectrum: dilemmas arising from the DSM-5 classification.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder. August 2016, Volume 46, Issue 8, pp 2821–2829.Adams, C. (2015). Assessment and intervention for children with pragmatic language impairment. In D. A. Hwa-Froelich (Ed.),Social communication development and disorders(pp. 141–170). New York: Psychology Press.
Brukner-Wertman, Yael et al. Social (pragmatic) communication disorder and its relation to the autism spectrum: dilemmas arising from the DSM-5 classification.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder. August 2016, Volume 46, Issue 8, pp 2821–2829.
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