A common ground. The ability of children with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI) to share information.

• In daily life referential communication situations, nonvocal children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) often have difficulties to convey information in a way that is adapted to the listener’s needs. One explanation to this could be that the children have difficulties to understand the relation between what the listener already knows, what can be inferred and what cannot. Their difficulties could also indicate problems to identify the qualities that characterize the target. The aim of this study was to examine referential communication in children with severe speech and physical impairments in a structured situation. Apart from the referential communication task assessment was also made of intellectual ability, both auditory and visual memory, verbal ability and mentalizing. Participants were twenty-two 5.5 – 18.9-year-old nonvocal children. The results from this study indicate that children with communicative impairments show specific problems in referential communication situations and that these problems are related to mental age, verbal ability and memory rather than to problems to take the listener’s perspective.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

augmentative and alternative communication

nonvocal

referential communication

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)