Advice and resources : Social communication (pragmatics)

Overview

Pragmatics is about the ways we understand and use language, and communicate in social situations.

This includes our verbal skills, such as changing the way we speak depending on the person we’re speaking to, and taking turns in a conversation.

It also includes our non-verbal skills, like body language, facial expressions, and eye contact.

Although they may be able to speak complex sentences, this doesn’t always mean they understand how to use language and communication effectively.

What you might see

There are symptoms you may notice if your child is having trouble using language and communication effectively.

Conversation

• They may make contributions unrelated to the current topic
• They have limited understanding and use of facial expressions
• They launch into long monologues with limited awareness of the listener’s interest or needs
• They talk in a more mature way than other children
• They talk too casually to a teacher or too formally with other children
• They have difficulty in appropriately starting, maintaining and ending conversations

Social abilities

• Making and maintaining friendships is difficult, as other children may find them annoying or irritating
• They lack imaginative play and language

Semantics

• They understand language in a literal way, and can’t understand common saying and sarcasm
• They successfully read something without the understanding its meaning
• They have rigid, inflexible opinions
• They obsess over interests and topics
• They struggle with tasks that need them to infer, predict, and reason

How you can help someone else

There are techniques you can use to help your child develop their pragmatics.

Look and listen

• Provide a visual timetable every day to help them prepare for any changes to their usual routine
• Work with them on a social story to discuss changes in routines and behaviour
• Support them in problem-solving a situation by discussing the possible choices and consequences, and ask them to draw diagrams with speech bubbles to support this

Clear

• Keep language simple and in order, such as 'put your books away, then go out to play' instead of 'go out to play after you’ve put your books away'
• Use literal language wherever possible and explain abstract or non-literal language, such as common sayings and sarcasm
• Using Circle Time to help develop their social and communication skills
• Demonstrate good conversation skills to your child and make the rules of conversation very clear

Structure and inclusion

• Give them a specific time when they can choose the topic of conversation
• Give them extra support, such as helping them interact with or play with other children
• Include them in supported social skills groups
• Include them in Emotional Literacy Support (ELSA)

Feedback

• Check that they fully understand what they’re reading
• Give specific feedback about what they’ve done well in a situation, such ss ‘you waited really nicely for X to have their turn’
• Giving them immediate feedback on their communications, such as 'Well done, you waited for your turn', or, 'We are talking about holidays now, you can tell us about Thomas the Tank Engine later'
• Use real-life examples as they come up as teaching opportunities, like 'how did you feel when…’ / ‘how do you think X will feel?’
• Understand that they may not respond appropriately to your body language, facial expression, or tone of voice

Support

• Identify a member of staff or peer in school that they can talk to if issues come up

When to ask for help

If you’ve tried all of these techniques and you’re still not seeing any improvement after three months, please speak to your GP or health professional.

Self-help and other support

Online workshops on early language development

Our team run online workshops on early language development. They are designed for parents and carers and those working within early years settings. We have three training sessions available on different topics to equip you with everyday strategies to support your child, aged up to five.

• Early language development workshops

Social Skills Programmes

• Socially Speaking: Pragmatic Social Skills Programme, Schroeder, A (Winslow Press)
• Dealing with Feeling: An Emotional Literacy Curriculum for Children Aged 7-13, Rae, T (Lucky Duck Books)
• Social Skills Programmes. An integrated approach from early years to adolescence, Aarons, M and Gittens, T. (Speechmark Publishers)
• Developing Pupils’ Social Communication Skills, Barrett, P et al. (David Fulton Publishers)

Resources and Activities

• The New Social Story Book, Gray, C (Winslow Press)
• Writing and Developing Social Stories: Practical Interventions in Autism, Smith, C (Speechmark Publishers)

• Winslow Resources
• Black Sheep Press
• LDA Learning: Inferencing cards
• Stass Publications

Further information

• Visit Teachers Net