Assessing pragmatic abilities of small children with and without ASD diagnosis

Purpose  DSM 5 indicates social communication deficit as one of the necessary criteria for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. However, the pragmatic assessment of language is not as commonly considered as the formal aspects of language. The presented guide aims to consider communicative elements that include nonverbal aspects of language and the intentionality of communicative acts to identify the first signs of pragmatic alteration.

Methods  The ROLPP (Observation Script of Language from a Pragmatic Perspective) is an observation script for socio-cognitive and pre-verbal language skills and communication necessary for language development preceding speech and part of the pragmatic language construct. The protocol was applied to children aged 18 to 36 months, consisting of 11 children with suspected ASD and discarded diagnosis, and 11 children with confirmed ASD diagnosis. A descriptive level of 5% (p <0.05) was considered statistically significant.

Results  The results indicate that Participants with a confirmed diagnosis of ASD had higher scores than those in whom the diagnosis was discarded. Children with a confirmed diagnosis tended to score higher on the ROLPP overall (p <0.001), highlighting the impact of pragmatic language disorders in children with ASD, even at preschool age.

Conclusion  These preliminary results indicate the possibility of identifying signs of disorders or pragmatic difficulties even before 36 months of age, with low application costs, including for use by professionals with little experience or contact with developmental disorders such as ASD.

Keywords:
Language Development; Language Tests; Child Language; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Social Communication Disorder