Semantic-Pragmatic Language Disorder
According to Caroline Bowen (2001) semantics is the function that relates to understanding the meaning of words, phrases and sentences as well as using words appropriately in speech; while pragmatics is the area of language function that embraces the use of language in a social contexts which can be simplified as knowing what to say, when and how. Combined, the two pose an effect for both processing of meaning and also the choice of words in different settings that a child may find him or herself in.
For a long time scientists have been grappling with semantic-pragmatic language disorder. Parents on the other hand have worried about their children and to some extent thought of them as deaf especially when they display no response to speech, babble little or too late, take long to graduate form ‘baby jargon’ and take rather long to utter the first words.
In an informative article, Julia Muggleton (1997) advises that among the features of semantic-pragmatic disorder are delayed development of speech, repetition of phrases gathered from media for instance TV, confusion of basic questions such as ‘why’ and ‘how’ and difficulty holding and sustaining conversations. It is therefore a language communication disorder, found in children with autistic tendencies. Way back in 1983 Ralph and Allen thought of it as a developmental language disorder and since then there has been a healthy debate about the boundary between autism and semantic-pragmatic language
semantic-pragmatic language disorder 3
disorder. It is important to note that they are considered within the same continuum.
Margo Sharp (1992) in an article published in American Hyperlexia Association homepage, goes ahead to suggest that semantic pragmatic disorder should not be limited to a language disorder but should be seen in the context of a communication disorder since affected children have a problem in processing information. Bishop (1989) concurs that such children have difficulty extracting meaning and tend to maintain and stick to sameness of events by following routines such as eating the same food, watching the same TV programs or even wearing the same clothes. Semantic pragmatic language disorder children may fail to grasp important features of a conversation and even suffer more in new situations due to the transfer of familiar and generalized situations to the new one resulting in a child sounding not only odd but also out of context.
“I thought my son was deaf.” Wrote Lorna Wing (1981) “he would spend a lot of time watching his TV and jumping up and down repetitively on his bed; he would echo what he heard and express his anger through frequent tearful wails”
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