Linguistic, pragmatic and social competence of learning-disabled children of a reading-disabled subtype

This study investigated the relationship between social, pragmatic and cognitive/linguistic skills in 38 children who are normally achieving (NA) and 38 children with a learning disability of a phonologically impaired subtype (LD). The study hypothesized that one could statistically predict how flexibly one would use language (pragmatics) based on diagnostic category or age, and that pragmatics would affect social competence and interaction, and that phonological impairment slows down types of mental thought and working memory thereby leading to difficulties in pragmatics.; Pragmatics were investigated using Brown and Levinson's formula for politeness (weight of request = social distance + imposition + power). Imposition was manipulated by varying semantic and syntactic features of the politeness of requests, and social distance was manipulated by addressing requests to imaginary characters of varying affiliation (best friend, friend, schoolmate, enemy). Children were asked to place themselves on a page in relation to the addressee indicating where they would stand saying a particular request to a specific addressee. The distance they placed themselves on the page was assumed to correspond to the level of comfort they felt uttering the request.; The study confirmed that pragmatic competence was predictable by diagnostic group, but not age. Children with phonological processing impairment differentiated less between request forms to characters of varying levels of affiliation than normally achieving children. The group with LD was not significantly different from the NA group on most social measures but was significantly more socially withdrawn and significantly less comfortable in addressing ambiguous figures such as schoolmates than the NA group. Working memory did not correlate with levels of comfort felt in using different requisitives varying in syntax, although it did correlate with requisitives varying on semantic features to figures of close affiliation. Results are discussed and imply that the lack of linguistic flexibility for the group with learning disabilities contributes to their social rigidity and withdrawal, and that in turn is related to phonological processing difficulties.