Saban-Bezalel Ronit
Department of Communication Disorders, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 May 23. doi: 10.1007/s10803-025-06882-0.
Expressing communicative intentions is a fundamental pragmatic skill that develops early in childhood, enabling individuals to meet personal and social needs. This ability relies on cognitive, social, and linguistic competencies, which can pose challenges for children with intellectual disability (ID) or global developmental delays (GDD). This research examines the communicative profile, including the communicative intentions produced and the means of production of young children with ID or GDD (the developmental delay group-DD) compared to their typically developing (TD) peers during a structured pragmatic protocol. Seventy-two children aged 24 to 68 months participated in the study, divided across three groups: twenty-three children with DD, twenty-three TD children matched by chronological age to the children with DD, and twenty-five TD children matched by language age to the children with DD. All children underwent a structured pragmatic observation protocol that prompted the production of communicative intentions. Significant differences were observed when comparing children with DD to their age-matched TD peers, namely, TD children produced more social communicative intentions and used more complex means of production. A more similar communicative profile was found between the DD group and equivalent language-matched TD peers. Language ability was associated with producing a greater variety of communicative intents for both language-matched groups; however, better executive functions were associated with a broader variety only among younger TD children. This study highlights delays in communicative profiles and differences in related variables between children with DD and their TD peers of equivalent chronological age, and of equivalent language age.
表达交际意图是一项基本的语用技能，在儿童早期就会发展，使个体能够满足个人和社会需求。这种能力依赖于认知、社会和语言能力，而这对智力残疾（ID）或全面发育迟缓（GDD）的儿童来说可能构成挑战。本研究考察了在一个结构化语用协议中，与发育正常（TD）的同龄人相比，ID或GDD幼儿（发育迟缓组-DD）的交际概况，包括产生的交际意图和产生方式。72名年龄在24至68个月的儿童参与了这项研究，分为三组：23名患有DD的儿童、23名按实际年龄与患有DD的儿童匹配的TD儿童，以及25名按语言年龄与患有DD的儿童匹配的TD儿童。所有儿童都接受了一个结构化语用观察协议，该协议促使他们产生交际意图。将患有DD的儿童与其年龄匹配的TD同龄人进行比较时，观察到了显著差异，即TD儿童产生了更多的社会交际意图，并使用了更复杂的产生方式。在DD组和语言匹配的TD同龄人之间发现了更相似的交际概况。对于两个语言匹配组来说，语言能力与产生更多样化的交际意图相关；然而，只有在较年幼的TD儿童中，更好的执行功能才与更广泛的交际意图相关。这项研究突出了患有DD的儿童与其实际年龄和语言年龄相当的TD同龄人之间在交际概况上的延迟以及相关变量的差异。
