Date of Defense

4-20-2018

Date of Graduation

4-2018

First Advisor

Yvette Hyter

Second Advisor

Cary Cekola

Abstract

Hyter (2007) defined pragmatics as “daily interactions among groups of people with varying worldviews, each influenced by a history of social practices” (p.131). People use aspects of pragmatics in their everyday life depending on the context of their current social situation. For example, one’s pragmatic language could differ in a day from talking with a boss at work to having a conversation with a friend on the phone. These variations in conversational processes result in the assessment of pragmatics being a difficult task.

In this honors thesis, I examined results from Dr. Yvette Hyter’s assessment battery, the Assessment of Pragmatic Language and Social Communication (APLSC, Hyter & Applegate, 2012). I specifically investigated the results of the caregiver and professional questionnaires/checklists from the battery, and data from classroom observation forms, or COF, of typically developing children’s pragmatic language. The checklist and COF examine topics such as communicative functions, perspective taking, and communicative effectiveness (Hyter, 2017).

The goal of this research study is to respond to the following research questions:

  1. Based on an examination of responses by caregivers and teachers on the questionnaires, and the SLP using the COF, how does the APLSC characterize the social pragmatic communication skills of young typically developing children?
  2. How do the results from the caregiver and the professional questionnaires differ on ratings of the occurrence of a child’s social pragmatic communication behavior?
  3. Can the results of the battery be used to guide intervention?

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

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