Leiden University Student Repository

Wisse, Frederique (2013)

Het Pragmatische Taalniveau van Kinderen met een Autismespectrum Stoornis

Master thesis | Education and Child Studies (MSc)

The level of pragmatic language of 38 children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (M= 11.4, SD= 1.90) is compared with 84 children from a control-group (M= 10.6, SD= 1.11). First of all, the level of pragmatic language of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was compared with the group of typically developing children using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4-NL (CELF-4-NL). Furthermore, gender differences, the influence of age and the educational level of fathers on pragmatic language level of the ASD children has been examined and compared with the control-group. Finally, the influence of problems in reciprocal social interaction of ASD children on the level of pragmatic development has been examined. The Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised (ADI-R) was used to study the degree of problems in reciprocal social interaction. The results indicated a large difference between the pragmatic abilities of the ASD-group and the control-group. The children without ASD...Show moreThe level of pragmatic language of 38 children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (M= 11.4, SD= 1.90) is compared with 84 children from a control-group (M= 10.6, SD= 1.11). First of all, the level of pragmatic language of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was compared with the group of typically developing children using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4-NL (CELF-4-NL). Furthermore, gender differences, the influence of age and the educational level of fathers on pragmatic language level of the ASD children has been examined and compared with the control-group. Finally, the influence of problems in reciprocal social interaction of ASD children on the level of pragmatic development has been examined. The Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised (ADI-R) was used to study the degree of problems in reciprocal social interaction. The results indicated a large difference between the pragmatic abilities of the ASD-group and the control-group. The children without ASD have significantly better developed pragmatic abilities. This result replicates other studies about the pragmatic abilities of ASD-children. Furthermore, the results showed that there is no difference between the pragmatic language level of boys and girls with ASD. In addition, the age of the child seems to have no influence on pragmatic abilities. It is recommended replicate this study in a more age-varied sample. The results also showed that a high level of education of fathers had a positive influence on pragmatic abilities of children without ASD, but not on the abilities of ASD-children. Finally, there was no effect of the degree of problems in reciprocal social interaction on the pragmatic abilities of children with ASD. This result was unexpected, because previous research concluded that social insight and empathy are important for using pragmatics.Show less

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Pragmatic language

Gender differences

Age

Educational level

Reciprocal social interaction

Author

Wisse, Frederique

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Orthopedagogiek

Supervisors

Zantinge, Gemma

Language

nl