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Pragmatic Language

The Power of Pragmatic Language

Social Language Milestones

Pragmatics is the way we use our language in social settings. For example, how to start a conversation, interpreting body language, understanding different perspectives, and using sarcasm. Pragmatic language is typically learned incidentally (learned through experience) but with some children, it may need to be directly taught. Pragmatic language begins to develop as an infant and continues to grow and form until the high school years. Below is a list of “milestones” to expect along with activities/strategies to enhance social language. 

Infant (3-12 months)

  • Starts making eye contact
  • Reaching 
  • Participates in parallel play (playing next to caregiver, sibling) 
  • Participates vocal turn taking
  • Uses vocalizations to request, protest, express feelings 

Activities: Peek-a-boo, stacking blocks, waving, songs, nursery rhymes

Toddler (12-36 months) 

  • Imitates routines
  • Imitates other children
  • Uses words (12 months)/phrases (18 months)/sentences (30 months) to request, protest, express feelings
  • Asks questions
  • Begins at 18 months
  • Initiates pretend play (ex: playing in toy kitchen, pushing trucks/cars, playing with baby doll)
  • Begins at 18 months
  • Takes two turns in conversation
  • Begins to describe/retell events 
  • Begins to return/initiate greetings by waving 

Activities: Ask questions during pretend play (“What’s baby doing? Where are they going?”), “sabotage” by putting toys out of reach, shared reading activities, scrapbooks to encourage retelling 

Preschool (3-5 years)

  • Uses language for teasing, joking, fantasies 
  • Starts to share with others
  • Joint play with peers (participating in others play schemes, including self in play) 
  • Theory of Mind: Understanding that others have different beliefs 
  • Begins at 4 years
  • Produces narratives as “chain”
  • Takes 4-5 conversational turns 
  • Improves describing skills to repair communication breakdowns
  • Begins to inference/predict 
  • Participates in turn-taking games

Activities: Sequence 3-4 pictures and retell story, give simple riddles (i.e., “This is an animal that lives on the farm and says ‘Moo’”), play “Go Fish” or “Bingo”

School age (5-11 years)

  • Invites others to play 
  • Initiates conversations with familiar topics (ex: school, weather, weekend) 
  • Problem solving (individually and in a group) 
  • Begins 6-8 years old
  • Gives and responds to compliments 
  • Tells and understands jokes of greater complexity 
  • Politely interrupts 
  • Responds to and uses facial expressions (ex: smiles, frowns, looks of surprise) 
  • Recognizes spatial boundaries 

Activities: Practice multiple meaning words, Apples to Apples, Emotion charades, Red Light Green Light 

Middle/High School (11-18 years)

  • Recognizes if listener is interested or bored 
  • Shifts topics during lulls in conversation 
  • Understands difference between friends/acquaintances
  • Engages in collaborative discussions 

Activities: Would You Rather questions, book club, Let’s Talk Conversation Starters

If you notice delays in the way your child is using social language such as having difficulty making friends, understanding body language, or maintaining age-appropriate conversations, schedule a screening with an SLP at BDI Playhouse today!

 

Speech-Language Therapy

Pediatric Speech Therapy

  • Myo Munchee

Questions about BDI Speech & Language Therapy?

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708-478-1820

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Schedule a screening

Our BDI Playhouse Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work to prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders in children.  Each SLP is certified through ASHA and licensed through the State of Illinois.

  • Speech Production

    How your child makes their sounds:

    • Articulation
    • Apraxia
    • Phonological Disorder

    Specialty Certification

    • PROMPT
    • OMT
  • Language

    Encompassing both spoken and written communication, SLPs help people across the spectrum of language. This includes working on

    • AAC
    • expressive language
    • Gestalt language processsing
    • receptive language
    • literacy
    • morphology
    • multi-language learner
    • Natural Language Acquisition framework
    • phonology
    • reading comprehension
    • reading decoding
    • semantics
    • spelling
    • social/pragmatic language
    • syntax
    • written language

    Specialty Certifications

    • Orton-Gillingham
  • Cognition

    SLPs often help improve cognitive skills.

    • attention
    • memory
    • problem solving
    • executive functioning
  • Voice/Resonance

    Supporting patients with

    • alaryngeal disorders
    • buteyko breathing
    • cul-de-sac resonance
    • forward focus resonance
    • hyper nasality
    • hyponasality
    • loudness
    • phonation quality
    • pitch

    Certifications

    • Buteyko Breathing
  • Feeding/Swallowing

    SLPs cover all three phases of swallowing: oral, pharyngeal and esophageal dysphagia

    • breast/bottle difficulties
    • transition to table foods
    • food refusal
    • oral motor
    • orofacial myology
    • picky/problem eaters

    Specialty Certifications

    • OMT
    • Beckman Oral Motor
    • SOS
    • Food Chaining
    • IBCLC (Lactation Consulting)
  • Auditory Habilitation/Rehabilitation

    • hearing loss
    • deafness
    • cochlear implants
    • hearing aids
    • auditory processing disorder

A-Z of our SLP Services

A

AAC

Aphasia

Apraxia

Attention Deficits

Articulation/Phonological Disorders

Autism

B

Breast and Bottle Drinking

C

Central Auditory Processing Disorders

Cognitive-Communication Disorders

E

Early Intervention

Expressive Language

F

Fluency Disorders

Feeding Infants & Beyond

Food Refusal

G

Gestalt Language Processing

L

Lactation Consulting (IBCLCs)

Learning Disabilities

Language Acquisition

M

Math Language

Metacognition/Metalinguistics

N

Natural Language Aquisition framework

O

Orofacial Myology

Orton-Gillingham

P

Phonological Awareness

Phonology & Phonological Disorders

PROMPT

R

Reading Comprehension

Reading Decoding

Receptive Language

S

Spelling

Social/Pragmatic Language

SOS Approach to feeding

Study Skills

Swallowing Disorders

W

Written Language

  • Buteyko Breathing

  • Myo Munchee

  • TOTS

Great Feedback from Great Families

My son has been at BDI for over a year now and I can’t say enough great things! when we walk in, every therapist and receptionist greets him by name! He is always happy to go and we have seen great progress with both his physical and language needs. We have personally recommended BDI to several friends and colleagues looking for top notch therapies!”

Getting Started With Speech Therapy

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Still not sure? Learn more about whether your child needs therapy here

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