Language performance of severely closed head injured children.

The language functioning of a group of children who had sustained a severe closed head injury (CHI) was evaluated. The subjects were administered a battery of language assessments including measures of syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Performance of the experimental group was compared with that of a control group matched for age and sex. Results indicated that all areas of language competence assessed (syntax, semantics, pragmatics) appeared to be compromised by the childhood CHI. The findings of this study are considered in light of the implications for the existence of different language components (syntax, semantics, pragmatics) as opposed to a unified concept of language. Also considered is the evidence of a specific linguistic impairment in the childhood CHI population as opposed to a more generalized cognitive decline expressed as an overall decrease in performance across all domains of language skill.