Intervention for developmental pragmatic language impairments

This paper reviews the current position on speech and language intervention for children who have problems of pragmatic language development. The theoretical rationale for intervention is discussed. Findings from a recent case study series of children with pragmatic language impairments are presented. Treatment targeted the development of communication acts, conversation and narrative skills in addition to facilitating understanding of social inference and social adaptation. Children showed significant improvement in pragmatic skills and language formulation. Changes in communication skills had a concurrent beneficial effect on literacy skills in the classroom. In addition, an illustrative case study of intervention for a child with pragmatic language impairments is presented.