Research On Applying The Comprehensive Intervention Method Into Pragmatic Communicative Acts Training For Children With Mental Retardation

Pragmatic competence is the source of children’s language development and the ultimate goal of language training. A good ability of language application is an important condition for children with mental retardation to adapt to the society and live a quality life in the future. Therefore, the language problem, especially the pragmatic problem of such children should become a big concern for workers engaging in special education.This study aims to (1) examine the intervention effects of comprehensive social stories, role play and behavior modification technology to school-age low-degree children with mental retardation children in the situation of peer interaction; (2) explore the implementation approaches and range of application when the comprehensive intervention method is applied into school-age low-degree children with mental retardation children n the situation of peer interaction. The research selects three subjects at the age of 14 to 15 and adopts A-B-A-B and single base multiple baseline design. In the research, linguistic data is collected by picture recording. Then, transcription and coding are conducted in accordance with the statement selection principles of CHLDES and the pragmatic communication behavior coding system of the INCA. Encoded linguistic data is processed with CLAN procedures to preliminarily analyze the speech orientation, speech behaviors and speech flexibility of the subjects. Then, input the data being processed by CLAN into SPSS 19.0 for further analysis. Then, quantitative and qualitative analyses were made to judge the pragmatic communication behaviors of the three subjects before and after the intervention. Then, the research arrives at the main conclusions as below.Firstly, the Comprehensive Intervention is effective for low-degree children with mental retardation children in the situation of peer interaction. In accordance with the quantitative analysis, through the Comprehensive Intervention, the social interchanges, speech acts and pragmatic flexibilities of the three subjects have been improved to varying degrees. And the difference of most of the indicators has reached a significant level of 0.01, compared with that before the intervention. And at the two stages respectively before and after the intervention, most of the data non-overlap rate exceeds 50%. Qualitative analysis shows that, after the intervention, the three subjects generate new types of pragmatic communication acts, and moreover, their social interchanges clarity and flexibility have been significantly improved. Besides, the subjects also make progresses in LJT communication and cooperation acts.Secondly, the Comprehensive Intervention can be applied to the pragmatic competence trainings for living language, or rehabilitation programs in special education schools. The application process should mind all the links such as the design, implementation and evaluation of the teaching plan and, combine the teaching procedures and principles proposed in this research with the personal quality and specific natural environment closely. Meanwhile, the range of application of the research findings should also be specified.