Condition : Social communication difficulties

If your child has trouble following the ‘rules’ of social communication (pragmatics), both verbally and non-verbally, they may have social communication difficulties, often referred to as social communication disorder (SCD).

You may also see or hear SCD described as pragmatic difficulties or pragmatic language disorder. Pragmatics describes the way we understand and use language and communication in social situations.

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

Verbal skills include changing the way we speak depending on who we’re speaking to and taking turns in a conversation.

Body language, facial expressions, and eye contact are examples of non-verbal skills.

If your child is having trouble using language and communication effectively, you’ll notice that they:

• make off-topic contributions to conversations
• don’t give background information when talking to someone new
• have trouble picking up on social cues, such as hand gestures
• read something well but don’t understanding its meaning
• talk too casually to a teacher or too formally with other children
• launch into long speeches with limited awareness of the listener’s interest or needs
• struggle to start, maintain, and end conversations
• understand language in a literal way and can’t recognise sarcasm or common sayings (idioms)
• lack imaginative play and language

These challenges can make it hard for your child to connect with people and make friends, which might affect their self-esteem and confidence.

Social communication skills can be improved at any age, so there’s no such thing as it being ‘too late’ to seek help.

SCD can be present from birth with no clear connection to other problems, or it can be a feature of another condition, such as:

• autism or ADHD
• learning disability
• a specific learning difficulty (SpLD), such as dyslexia
• developmental delay
• brain injury or stroke

SCD is not related to intelligence or problems with the mechanics of speaking, such as pronunciation.