Assessing Child and Adolescent Pragmatic Language Competencies: Toward Evidence-Based Assessments

Using language appropriately and effectively in social contexts requires pragmatic language competencies (PLCs). Increasingly, deficits in PLCs are linked to child and adolescent disorders, including autism spectrum, externalizing, and internalizing disorders. As the role of PLCs expands in diagnosi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical child and family psychology review 2008-06, Vol.11 (1-2), p.59-73
Main Authors: Russell, Robert L., Grizzle, Kenneth L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescents
Autism
Behavior Problems
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Child
Child and School Psychology
Child psychology
Children
Clinical Diagnosis
Cognition
Communication
Content Validity
Evaluation Methods
Humans
Interpersonal Competence
Language
Language Acquisition
Language instruction
Language Skills
Language Tests
Learning disabilities
Pragmatics
Psychologists
Psychology
Psychopathology
Questionnaires
Social Behavior
Social Sciences
Social skills
Verbal Behavior
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Summary:Using language appropriately and effectively in social contexts requires pragmatic language competencies (PLCs). Increasingly, deficits in PLCs are linked to child and adolescent disorders, including autism spectrum, externalizing, and internalizing disorders. As the role of PLCs expands in diagnosis and treatment of developmental psychopathology, psychologists and educators will need to appraise and select clinical and research PLC instruments for use in assessments and/or studies. To assist in this appraisal, 24 PLC instruments, containing 1,082 items, are assessed by addressing four questions: (1) Can PLC domains targeted by assessment items be reliably identified?, (2) What are the core PLC domains that emerge across the 24 instruments?, (3) Do PLC questionnaires and tests assess similar PLC domains?, and (4) Do the instruments achieve content, structural, diagnostic, and ecological validity? Results indicate that test and questionnaire items can be reliably categorized into PLC domains, that PLC domains featured in questionnaires and tests significantly differ, and that PLC instruments need empirical confirmation of their dimensional structure, content validity across all developmental age bands, and ecological validity. Progress in building a better evidence base for PLC assessments should be a priority in future research.
ISSN:1096-4037
1573-2827
DOI:10.1007/s10567-008-0032-1