This study examines the relationship between syntactic and pragmatic language and reticence, solitary-active passive withdrawal, solitary-passive withdrawal, prosocial skills, and likeability. The Children's Communication Checklist (CCC-2), a language checklist, and Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS), a behavior checklist, were completed by three 2nd-grade teachers and three 4th-grade teachers about each of their students. Factor analysis was used to determine two composite language measures from the CCC-2 scales. The results of two hierarchal regression analyses indicated that social behaviors were significant predictors of pragmatic language, but not structural language. In particular, solitary-passive withdrawal and reticence were significant predictors of pragmatic language deficits.

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The thesis discusses the issues of communication of young people with mental disabilities. The theoretical part of the diploma work defines mental retardation. It shows the life of a mentally-disabled young person and explains the educational and employment opportunities of such young people. The theoretical part further focuses on the speech of persons with intellectual disabilities. It provides information about the development of speech and about impaired communication abilities. The work outlines the possibilities of speech therapy, its diagnostics and intervention. A diagnostic test oriented on the communication of young people with mental disability in selected situations of daily life was created within the practical part of the thesis. The speech of pupils was analysed on the basis of a test used in a selected two- year practical primary school, and on the basis of available documents and interview with the class teacher. A proposal of communication development was created for every pupil, which can be used in the preparation of the pupil's individual education plan. The contribution of the thesis is in the created proposal of measures for the development of communication of pupils at two-year practical schools, which is consistent with the school curricular documents. KEYWORDS...

The diploma thesis deals with the topic of special education. It deals with the definition of basic knowledge in interpersonal communication and speech development in general, and especially in symptomatic speech disorders in people with mental disabilities. In context of communication, it presents four language levels with focus on the pragmatic language and the social-use communication. This thesis connects knowledge of intact speech development with speech development in children with intellectual disabilities, and knowledge of the pragmatic language level with the specifics of pragmatics of people with intellectual disabilities. The research of this thesis is produced by the interpretation of the results obtained by using the evaluation material which was created for this thesis - it is based on theoretical knowledge and inspired by evaluation materials of other authors. The research surveys the level of pragmatic language as a social use of communication among people using residential social services, specifically one home for people with disabilities. The conclusion of the thesis is the evaluation of the partial parts of pragmatic language level in persons with intellectual disabilities and recommendations for practice in improving the deficiencies on this level. During the evaluation, it was...

Abstract This research explored, within the framework of relevance theory, how normally developing 3- to 9-year-old children and two age groups (age 7–9 and age 10–12) of children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism (AS/HFA) and their 7- to 9-year-old control group used context when answering questions and giving explanations for their correct answers. The children were asked questions targeting the pragmatic processes of reference assignments, enrichments, routines, implicatures and feelings. They were also asked to explain their correct answers to routine, implicature and feeling questions to elicit understanding about their awareness of how they had derived the answers from the context. In normally developing children the largest increase in correct answers occurred between the ages of 3 and 4 in all question types except feeling questions, where rapid development continued until age 5. After that development progressed more gradually until the age of 8 when the children performed near the ceiling level in all of these question types. Giving explanations for correct answers developed gradually between the ages of 3 and 9, indicating that becoming aware of the information used in inferencing has a longer developmental timeframe. Children's incorrect answers and explanations showed that, as children develop, their answering strategies become more sophisticated as they increasingly utilise context in different ways. Children with AS/HFA were able to answer all the question types. However, compared to the control group, the younger AS/HFA group did less well when answering contextually demanding questions, and the performance of the older AS/HFA group fell in between the younger AS/HFA group and the control group. Both AS/HFA groups had difficulties when giving explanations for their correct answers, showing difficulty in articulating explicitly how they had used context in arriving at the correct answer. Incorrect answers and explanations indicated that, usually, all the children tried to utilise contextual information, although the attempt failed somehow. For children with AS/HFA it was more typical to continue with their answer after first giving a correct answer or explanation, which then led to an irrelevant answer, suggesting that these children had difficulties with stopping processing at the relevant point. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin, kuinka normaalisti kehittyneet 3–9-vuotiaat lapset ja kaksi ikäryhmää lapsia (7–9-vuotiaat ja 10–12-vuotiaat), joilla on Aspergerin oireyhtymä tai hyvätasoinen autismi (AS/HFA) ja heidän 7–9-vuotiaista koostuva kontrolliryhmänsä, käyttivät kontekstia vastatessaan kysymyksiin ja perustellessaan oikeita vastauksiaan. Tutkimus tehtiin relevanssiteorian viitekehyksessä. Lapsilta kysyttiin pragmaattista prosessointia vaativia kysymyksiä, jotka arvioivat viittausten, epätäydellisten lauseiden, rutiinien, implikatuurien ja tunnetilojen ymmärtämistä. Lisäksi heidän tuli perustella oikeat vastaukset rutiini-, implikatuuri- ja tunnekysymyksiin, jotta nähtiin, olivatko lapset tietoisia, kuinka he olivat johtaneet vastauksensa kontekstista. Normaalisti kehittyneillä lapsilla oikeiden vastausten määrä lisääntyi nopeasti 3. ja 4. ikävuoden välillä kaikissa kysymystyypeissä. Tunnekysymyksiin vastaamisessa tämä nopean kehityksen kausi jatkui 5. ikävuoteen saakka. Tämän jälkeen kehitys jatkui hitaampana 8 vuoden ikään saakka, jolloin lapset suoriutuivat lähes kaikista kysymyksistä kaikissa eri kysymystyypeissä. Perustelujen antaminen oikeisiin vastauksiin kehittyi asteittain 3. ja 9. ikävuoden välillä, mikä kertoi, että vastauksessa käytetyn informaation tiedostamisen kehittyminen tapahtui pitemmällä aikavälillä. Lasten virheelliset vastaukset ja perustelut osoittivat, että iän lisääntyessä lasten vastausstrategiat muuttuivat kehittyneemmiksi ja he hyödynsivät kontekstia monin eri tavoin. Lapset, joilla oli AS/HFA, osasivat vastata kaikkiin esitettyihin kysymystyyppeihin. Kuitenkin nuorempi AS/HFA-ryhmä suoriutui kontrolliryhmää heikommin ja vanhemman AS/HFA-ryhmän suoriutuminen sijoittui nuoremman ikäryhmän ja kontrolliryhmän suoriutumisen puoliväliin. Molemmilla AS/HFA-ryhmillä esiintyi vaikeuksia oikeiden vastausten perustelussa, mikä kertoi vaikeudesta ilmaista, kuinka he olivat käyttäneet kontekstia oikeaan vastaukseen pääsemiseksi. Virheelliset vastaukset ja perustelut osoittivat, että yleensä kaikki lapset pyrkivät kontekstin hyödyntämiseen vaikka epäonnistuivatkin siinä. Lapsille, joilla oli AS/HFA, oli tyypillisempää jatkaa vastaamista vielä oikean vastauksen tai perustelun antamisen jälkeen, mikä lopulta johti aiheesta syrjähtämiseen. Tämä kertoi vaikeudesta lopettaa prosessointi relevantissa kohdassa.

Some children have difficulty communicating due to a lack of age-appropriate language and social skills. Researchers have explored how music and language share features that shape language processing. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological analysis was to explore the experiences of caregivers of preschool children who participated in a music-based program and to understand their perspectives related to children's language and social skill development. Learning style and sensory integration processing theories were used as framework to provide foundations of skills in this study. Research questions addressed caregivers' choices related to this program for their children, their experiences of their children's participation in the program, and how the caregivers perceive their children's language and social skills change as they participated in the program. Data from 8 participants were collected using narrative journals and interviews and were analyzed by identifying relationships and themes. Identified themes included the importance of choice of quality music program, improved language skills, improved social skills, and improvement in other areas. Caregivers reported that their children's language and social skills developed in the early weeks of participation in The Listening Program. Primary recommendations included providing opportunities to educate other parents and professionals about the benefits of music-based programs. Contributions to positive social change include the value of music-based programs as a complementary technique to aid language and social skill development in preschool aged children, and that children who participate become more effective communicators and interact more appropriately with others.