The goal of the current study was to investigate the social skills of a community sample of children that would vary in their level of ADHD symptomatology (e.g., inattention and hyperactivity), with a specific focus on their communication patterns and pragmatic language use (PLU). The study explored whether PLU was associated with, and perhaps accounted for, the social skills problems children with different degrees of ADHD symptomatology experience. Pragmatic language use, ADHD symptomatology, and social skills were examined with traditional standardized measures as well as a detailed investigation of communication patterns and PLU obtained from sampling behaviors from a semi-structured dyadic communication task. A community sample of 54 children between the ages of 9 and 11 years participated. Pragmatic language use partially mediated the relation between ADHD symptomatology and social skills. These results indicate that although the correlation between ADHD and social skills drops from r = -.649, p < .01 to r = -.478, p < .01, when PLU is entered in the model, the correlation between ADHD and social skills still remains significant. Further, ADHD symptomatology and PLU both predicted social skills scores, and although ADHD symptomatology and PLU were related to one another, PLU provided a unique contribution in the estimate of children’s social skills of 10.5% above and beyond the contribution of ADHD symptomatology. However, ADHD symptomatology was the most influential predictor in uniquely accounting for approximately 19% of the differences in social skills outcomes above and beyond the contribution of PLU. Possible explanations as to why PLU mediates the relation between ADHD symptomatology and social skills are discussed. Implications and future research are discussed in terms of children with ADHD and peer relations.

Individuals with brain injury are in need of speech and language therapy to improve impaired cognitive-communicative skills. Including significant communication partners (e.g., caregivers, spouses or parents) in intervention encourages carryover of skills practiced in therapy to natural communication contexts. Additionally, unimpaired partners benefit from training on how to communicate more effectively and and support the partner’s use of compensatory strategies for impaired cognitive skills. The objective of this multiple single case study was to evaluate the outcomes of a training program delivered to two dyads (Dyad B. and Dyad W.) composed of an adult with brain injury and an everyday communication partner. Participant dyads were recruited from a local brain injury support group. Training consisted of a four-week program during which participants received brain injury education, developed and monitored progress on goals, received instruction on communication strategies, and engaged in self-evaluation and role-play activities. Dependent variables were progress on individual goals, analysis of discourse variables, and the LaTrobe Communication Questionnaire. Treatment effects included a decrease in the amount of overlapping speech and an increase in the proportion of obliges and responses relative to comments for Dyad B., and increased deficit awareness and decreased conversation dominance on the part of the participant with brain injury for Dyad W. Results of the study showed that communication dyads affected by brain injury benefit from short-term training provided to both partners. / text

The dissertation is based on four papers that together offer a theory of General Situated Cognition. The project has two overarching goals: (1) to unify existing foundational approaches to cognition by investigating cognition within the framework of the philosophy of information; (2) to characterize the function of cognition and suggest a general (meta-)framework for cognitive architecture. Two of the papers, "Pre-cognitive Semantic Information" and "The Information Medium", deal primarily with the concept of information. They offer a pragmatic and structural account of information, as well as a novel and more general theory of meaning appropriate for simple, non-linguistic organisms - the interface theory of meaning. The papers lay the theoretical and conceptual machinery needed for the other two papers, "The Cognitive Agent: Overcoming Informational Limitations" and "Information Networks: A Meta-architecture for Situated Cognition", which investigate cognition as a general natural phenomenon. They specify the function of cognition as the mechanism in an organism that overcomes informational deficits. They also offer a broad architecture of cognitive systems based on networks of information media, which encompasses, and thus unifies existing approaches to cognition, such as the computational/symbolic approach, the connectionist approach, the dynamicist approach and the ecological embodied approach.

Communication skill is one of the key competencies that pupils should achieve during the compulsory education. The subject of this work - teaching pragmatic aspects is closely related to communication competence. The thesis focuses on teaching of pragmatic aspects in primary schools. Based on the theoretical literature there are defined basic terms such as cooperative communication, politeness principle, manipulation, argumentation, nonverbal communication and assertiveness. In the practical part the thesis focuses on the analysis of textbooks - how are the pragmatic aspects included in the textbooks. Other part is concerned with the analysis of the survey in which several teachers were asked about how the pragmatic aspects of speech communication are taught and how well is this subject matter mastered by their pupils. The last section includes worksheets, in which the activities are designed to practice examined pragmatic aspects.

En Kabylie, société de tradition patriarcale à domination masculine, les femmes ont recouru pendant des siècles à une multitude de pratiques détournées, décrites dans la littérature comme des « contre-pouvoirs » (Lacoste-Dujardin, 1985, 2008). À travers nombre de processus, elles semblent avoir de tout temps défié l’autorité dominante par le recours à des pratiques magiques, par une adaptation aux normes et valeurs de la société, mais surtout par la subtilité et la maîtrise de l’art de la parole. L’injure féminine, en tant qu’acte de langage, fait également partie des stratégies qu’utilisent les femmes kabyles afin d’exercer leur pouvoir de manière indirecte sur la société dominante, autrement dit, sur les hommes.La plupart des recherches qui se sont penchées sur la question de l’injure en Kabylie ont été menées par des anthropologues qui l’abordent dans son aspect ritualisé (Aït-Ferroukh, 1999 ; Rabia, 1988) ou par des linguistes dont les réflexions portent essentiellement sur le critère sémantique envisagé en rapport avec la vision du monde et la société (Mebtouche-Nejai 2012). Dans la perspective anthropologique qui m’intéresse, l’injure sera appréhendée comme un ensemble d’actes sociaux porteurs de conséquences (Laforêt et Vincent, 2004), plutôt que comme une catégorie de parole dépréciative, d’où la nécessité de prendre en compte sa valeur pragmatique dans la dimension du tort causé ou subi ou effet injure (Larguèche 1983, 1993, 2004, 2009) qui est nécessaire à sa compréhension.En m’appuyant sur les spécificités typologiques de l’injure féminine, je tenterai de montrer, dans une optique essentiellement pragmatique, comment dans une société à domination masculine où la parole est codifiée, l’injure, en tant que transgression langagière, permet aux femmes d’exercer leur pouvoir de manière indirecte. L’examen de ces procédés permettra de cerner les enjeux du pouvoir féminin et de voir dans quelle mesure l’injure peut être utilisée comme contre-pouvoir. / In Kabylia, a society with a male-domination patriarchal tradition, women have employed for many centuries a set of indirect practices, defined in the literature as « counter-powers » (Lacoste-Dujardin, 1985, 2008). Through several processes, they looked as they have always defied the dominant authority by exercising magical practices, adapting to the norms and values of society, but also, by their mastery and subtle use of the art of speech. Female term of abuse, as an act of language, is one of the strategies used by kabyle women to exert their power in an indirect manner on the dominant society, constituted by the men.Most of the research work that focused on the issue of insults in Kabylia has been conducted by anthropologists who analyzed it in its ritualized aspect (Aït-Ferroukh, 1999, Rabia, 1988) or by linguists whose reflections were conducted essentially on the semantic criterion in relation with the worldview and society (Mebtouche-Nejai, 2012). In the anthropological perspective that interests me, the insult will be apprehended as a set of social acts with consequences (Laforêt and Vincent, 2004), rather than as a category of deprecating speech, hence the need to take into account its pragmatic value in the dimension of the harm caused or suffered or the insulting effect (Larguèche, 1983, 1993, 2004, 2009) which is necessary for its comprehension.Based on the typological specifics of female insults, I will try to show, from an essentially pragmatic perspective, in a male-dominating society where the speech is codified, how the insult, as a linguistic transgression, allows women to exert their power indirectly. Examining these processes will help to identify the stakes of feminine power and to see at what extent the insult can be used as a counter-power.

O transtorno do espectro do autismo (TEA) é caracterizado por déficits significativos na comunicação social e interação social. A alteração na comunicação e suas manifestações apresentam uma grande variabilidade, mesmo as crianças com boa fluência verbal apresentam prejuízos com a linguagem pragmática, sendo esta uma manifestação constante nos TEA. A linguagem pragmática é de difícil avaliação, pois é um comportamento dependente do contexto e há poucos instrumentos de avaliação. Objetivo: Comparar o perfil comunicativo de crianças com TEA com crianças que apresentam desenvolvimento normotípico e verificar a capacidade discriminativa diagnóstica do instrumento Children\'s Communication Checklist - CCC- 2. Métodos: Pais de crianças e adolescentes com diagnóstico de transtorno do espectro do autismo, provenientes do Serviço de Psiquiatria da Infância e Adolescência (SPQIA - TEA) e com desenvolvimento normotípico foram convidados a responderem o formulário de resposta do cuidador CCC-2 em sua versão para o português brasileiro. Resultados: Este estudo mostrou que as médias de todas as subescalas do grupo comparativo são maiores que as do grupo com TEA, principalmente as que verificam a pragmática e interesses. As médias das subescalas estão altamente relacionadas, apresentando alta consistência interna. O escore do Composto da Comunicação Geral (GCC) indicou pontos fracos na comunicação geral das crianças do grupo com TEA, diferenciando das crianças do grupo comparativo, apresentando sensibilidade de 85% e especificidade de 90%. E o Composto da Comunicação Social (SIDI) mostrou sensibilidade de 50% e especificidade de 95%. Conclusão: O instrumento CCC-2 apresentou boa capacidade de discriminar crianças com deficiências de comunicação, principalmente a pragmática, de uma população com desenvolvimento típico, porém, é necessário mais estudo utilizando este instrumento com outros grupos de alterações de linguagem / Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by persistent impairment in social communication and social interaction, which is its main defining characteristic, presenting repetitive and restricted patterns of behaviors, interest and activity. The impairment of communication presents a great variability, even children with good verbal fluency present losses with the pragmatic language, it is a constant manifestation in the ASD. The pragmatic language is difficult to evaluate because it is context dependent behavior and there are few evaluation tools. Objective: This study is compared the communicative profile of children with ASD with children with typical development, and to verify the discriminative capacity of Children\'s Communication Checklist - CCC-2. Methods: Parents of children and adolescents diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder from the Childhood and Adolescence Psychiatry Service (SPQIA - TEA) and with typical development were invited to respond to the CCC-2 caregiver response version Brazilian Portuguese. Results: This study showed that the means of all the subscales of the comparative group are larger than those of the group with ASD, especially those that verify the pragmatics and interests. The averages of the subscales are highly related, presenting high internal consistency. The general communication composite score (GCC) indicated weaknesses in the general communication of children in the ASD group, differing from the children in the comparative group, presenting sensitivity of 85% and specificity of 90%. And the social interaction difference index (SIDI) showed sensitivity of 50% and specificity of 95%. Conclusion: The CCC-2 instrument presented a good ability to discriminate children with communication deficits, mainly pragmatic, from a population with typical development, but more study is needed using this instrument with other groups of language disorders

Esse trabalho descreve uma pesquisa realizada com indivíduos entre 6 e 16 anos de idade que tem diagnóstico de Distúrbio do Espectro do Autismo e realizam terapia fonoaudiológica semanal com o objetivo de verificar a efetividade de um programa de estimulação à distância proposto aos responsáveis para realizar diariamente, em casa, a partir da análise das filmagens da interação entre terapeuta e paciente antes (M1) e logo após o programa (M2), bem como passados três meses que o indivíduo retornou a terapia regular (M3), além de sistematizar as atividades propostas pelos terapeutas de cada paciente segundo as áreas abordadas. Foi possível observar que os indivíduos produziram em média menos atos comunicativos por minuto após um período de estimulação em domicilio, mas, após três meses de terapia regular, eles retornam ao desempenho anterior. A análise qualitativa das atividades propostas identificou que a área da linguagem foi privilegiada enquanto o foco na área de cognição foi menor. Foi realizada uma categorização das atividades específicas propostas dentro de cada uma das grandes áreas. É possível notar maior incidência das categorias de discurso, integração e compreensão na área da linguagem; maior frequência do jogo simbólico na grande área de cognição e, por fim, maior incidência da estimulação do contato ocular na área de socialização. Foi possível observar que apenas um programa de estimulação à distância realizado pelos responsáveis, sem a continuidade da terapia regular concomitante não é suficiente para que o indivíduo tenha ou mantenha o desempenho que é obtido durante a terapia fonoaudiológica presencial. Isto reforça a importância da intervenção e acompanhamento de um profissional qualificado junto com a família para que possa evoluir suas habilidades de linguagem, socialização e cognição. Também constatou-se que a quantidade de estratégias propostas para um mesmo objetivo de intervenção terapêutica pode variar de forma a se perceber a grande variedade de possibilidades para trabalhar as características do Distúrbio do Espectro do Autismo, bem como nota-se a viabilidade de trabalho com os mesmos instrumentos, adaptados para diversos propósitos. Isto auxilia o profissional Fonoaudiólogo na orientação de pais e responsáveis de indivíduos inclusos no Distúrbio do Espectro do Autismo / This paper describes a research conducted with individuals between 6 and 16 years old who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and perform weekly speech therapy in order to verify the effectiveness of a distance stimulation program proposed to those responsible for daily performance. at home, from the analysis of the interaction footage before (M1) and soon after the program (M2), as well as after three months that the individual returned to regular therapy (M3), besides systematizing the activities proposed by the therapists of each patient according to the areas covered. It was observed that subjects produced on average fewer communicative acts per minute after a period of stimulation at home, but after three months of regular therapy, they returned to their previous performance. The qualitative analysis of the proposed activities identified that the language area was privileged while the focus on the cognition area was smaller. A categorization of the specific activities proposed within each of the major areas was undertaken. It is possible to notice a higher incidence of speech, integration and comprehension categories in the language area; higher frequency of symbolic play in the large area of cognition and, finally, higher incidence of eye contact stimulation in the area of socialization. It was possible to observe that only a distance stimulation program performed by those responsible, without the continuation of concomitant regular therapy, is not enough for the individual to have or maintain the performance that is obtained during face-to-face speech therapy. This reinforces the importance of the intervention and accompaniment of a qualified professional with the family so that they can evolve their language, socialization and cognition skills. It was also found that the number of strategies proposed for the same therapeutic intervention objective may vary in order to understand the wide range of possibilities for working on the characteristics of the Autism Spectrum Disorder, as well as the feasibility of working with the same instruments, adapted for various purposes. This assists the Speech Therapist in guiding parents and guardians of individuals included in the Autism Spectrum

[pt] Desconstrução Linguagem Política promete trabalhar a noção de linguagem no pensamento desconstrutor e a questão política que ela evoca. Em termos mais precisos, Desconstrução Linguagem Política pretende investigar até que ponto a desconstrução pode ser considerada uma filosofia pragmática da linguagem e qual a sua relação com a esfera política. / [en] Deconstruction Language Politics promise to work on the notion of language in deconstruction´s though and on the political question it evokes. More precisely, Deconstruction Language Politics intends to investigate what are the possibilities to consider deconstruction a pragmatic philosophy of language and what is its relation to the political realm.

La présente thèse se compose de trois études en lien avec le développement du langage chez les enfants sourds profonds porteurs d’un implant cochléaire. La première étude a pu mettre en lumière le développement des échanges conversationnels chez un groupe de 28 enfants implantés sur une période de deux ans suivant l’implantation. La tendancerelevée est un développement des habilités conversationnelles vers un profil plus autonome et actif ; en particulier, nous notons que les enfants implantés ne se distinguent plus significativement des enfants entendants du même âge en ce qui concerne les initiatives deux ans après l’implantation. La deuxième étude se proposait, quant à elle, d’explorer la question des différences interindividuelles. C’est chez un groupe de 21 enfants sourds profonds, implantés depuis en moyenne 6 ans 1 mois, que l’origine des différences interindividuelles au niveau du lexique (réception et production) a été mise enquestion. Il ressort que les facteurs « âge à l’implantation » et « timidité de l’enfant » jouent un rôle dans ces différences : une implantation précoce et un faible niveau de timidité chez l’enfant apparaissent en effet favoriser le développement dulexique. Enfin, la troisième étude s’intéressait à l’ajustement mutuel, variable fondamentale lorsqu’on s’intéresse au développement du langage dans une perspective socio‐constructiviste. Il s’agissait, à l’aide d’une méthodologie originale inspirée de la théorie des systèmes dynamiques, d’analyser l’évolution de l’ajustement mutuel chez 23 dyades enfantimplanté/mère entendante au cours d’un suivi longitudinal de deux années. Nos résultats confirment l’influence positive de l’implant cochléaire dans la mise en place d’échanges harmonieux entre les enfants implantés et leur mère, traduisantl’acquisition d’habilités conversationnelles importantes pour le développement ultérieur de la langue de l’enfant / The present thesis is made up of three studies in relation with the language development of deaf children who are cochlear implant users. The first study highlights the development of conversational language abilities of a group of 28 children during the first 2 years postimplantation. Results showed a development of their conversational skills towards a moreautonomous and active profile. In particular, initiatives taken by implanted children, two years after implantation, were very similar to that of hearing children of the same age. The second study explores the question of inter‐individual differences. The origin of inter‐individual differences regarding lexicon development (reception and production) was studied in a group of 21 profoundly hearing impaired children, implanted on average, at 6 years and 1 month. It seems that the factors « age atimplantation » and « timidity of the child » play a role in this difference. A cochlear implantation early in life and a low level of timidity appear to improve the level of lexicon development. Finally, the third study looked into the mutual adjustment factor which is a fundamental variable in the study of language development in a socio‐constructivist perspective. The evolutionof mutual adjustment was studied with an original methodology inspired by the theory of the dynamic systems in 23 implanted children / hearing mother dyads. Our results underline that the use of cochlear implant seems favorable to aharmonious mutual adjustment development. In turn, the latter allows for the acquisition of important conversational skills in subsequent language development of the child

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier le développement communicationnel multimodal des jeunes enfants français âgés de 18 mois à 3 ans et demi. Nous nous concentrons donc autant sur l'apparition et le développement des gestes et des combinaisons bimodales alliant un geste et un (ou plusieurs) mot(s) que sur celui de la langue et tâchons d'étudier le rôle du geste dans les étapes précoces de l'acquisition du langage. L'intérêt de cette recherche est qu'elle fait un pont entre (1) les recherches sur la gestualité du jeune enfant durant la période pré-verbale ainsi que sur son entrée dans la période verbale (l'arrivée des énoncés à un mot et deux mots dans ses productions) et (2) les recherches sur l'enfant d'âge scolaire (6 ans et plus) et l'adulte, qui communiquent tous deux en utilisant leur langue maternelle et des gestes co-verbaux. Notre corpus est constitué de 154 vidéos de jeunes enfants en train de jouer avec un ensemble ludique comportant une maison et des personnages en situation de jeu triadique (en présence d'un adulte). Notre premier objectif consistait à vérifier l'hypothèse que la production des gestes communicationnels et l'émergence des combinaisons bimodales annonce l'arrivée des énoncés à deux mots (comme cela a été déjà montré pour les enfants italiens et américains). En fait, il apparaît que ce processus s'étend au-delà des énoncés à deux mots, car ces combinaisons geste+Xmots apparaissent toujours avant les énoncés X+1mot. Il semble donc que le geste joue un rôle dans le développement des verbalisations enfantines avant d'être utilisé comme co-verbal chez l'enfant plus âgé et chez l'adulte. Notre second objectif consistait à observer, qualitativement, l'évolution des conduites communicatives lors de situations de jeux triadique, et plus précisément à voir sur quelles ressources communicationnelles s'appuie l'enfant pour exprimer des suites d'événements (scripts liés à son activité ludique) qui nécessitent non pas une seule, mais deux ou plusieurs prédications. Là encore, il apparaît que les gestes et les combinaisons bimodales sont intégrées aux premières tentatives de verbalisation. Ce travail confirme que le geste joue bien un rôle dans le développement linguistique enfantin. Une meilleure connaissance de ces gestes nous permettra donc une meilleure connaissance du développement de l'enfant et nous aidera à repérer plus efficacement et plus précocement les troubles développementaux de l'enfant. De plus, s'il existe déjà des indices pour mesurer le développement des performances linguistiques, cette recherche soulève la question de la création d'un indice pouvant mesurer les performances communicationnelles multimodales enfantines, c'est-à-dire la création d'un indice prenant en compte l'intégralité des ressources sémiotiques mobilisées par l'enfant et pas seulement la langue. / The aim of this thesis is to study the development of multimodal communication in young French children aged from 18 months to 3 years and a half while acquiring the French language. We will focus on the emergence and development of gestures, gesture-word combinations and language and will try to understand the role of gesture in the early stages of language acquisition. The interest of this research is that it fills the gap between (1) research on the young child first gestures during the pre-verbal period and the period during which he begins to acquire his mother tongue (the appearance of one-word and two-words sets in his productions) AND (2) research about older children (age 6 and older) and adults who both communicate using their mother tongue and co-speech gestures. Our corpus is composed of 154 videos of young children playing with an adult and a house game set (triadic situation). Using these data, we first wanted to test the hypothesis that the production of communicative gestures and the emergence of gesture-word combinations both predict the production of two-words speech in young children (as it has already been shown for Italian and American children). In fact, our results point to a more general developmental scheme with gesture+Xwords combination always preceding the upcoming of X+1words verbal utterances. Gesture use does play a role in the development of language at early stages as well as at later stages, when the child begins to produce long sentences (composed of more than two words) and combines them with co-speech gestures. Our second objective was to observe qualitative changes in the child's communicative behavior in a triadic situation, and more precisely to study the communicative resources the child uses to express sequences of events (scripts related to playful activities) which require not one, but two or more predicates. Again, it appears that gestures and bimodal combinations are integrated within the first attempts to produce verbalizations. This work confirms that gesture use does play a role in language development. A better understanding of these gestures will allow us a better understanding of child development and help us to identify earlier and more effectively developmental disorders in children. In addition, if there already is an index to measure the development of language performance, this research questions the creation of an index that can assess the multimodal communicative performance, that is to say the creation of an index taking into account all the semiotic resources mobilized by the child and not just verbal language.