Speech and language therapy for pragmatic language impairments

Children who have pragmatic language impairments have difficulty with language comprehension, telling stories and participating in conversations. This can lead to further problems with integrating into the peer group and in keeping up in the classroom. These children typically receive help from a speech and language therapist (SLT) whose role it is to work with the teaching staff and sometimes directly with the child. However, research has not established the most effective method of SLT intervention for these children despite a great demand for this knowledge.

In this project the researchers studied the effects of an intervention programme which has been developed by the Manchester team. Using a number of different measures of language and social functioning they hoped to gain evidence for the effectiveness of SLT intervention for these children and obtain a better understanding of the factors within the child which predict success. In addition they aimed to determine what the children, their parents and teachers value about the intervention.