Matthews, D. orcid.org/0000-0003-3562-9549, Biney, H. and Abbot-Smith, K. (2018) Individual differences in children’s pragmatic ability: a review of associations with formal language, social cognition and executive functions. Language Learning and Development, 14 (3). pp. 186-223. ISSN 1547-5441
Abstract
Children vary in their ability to use language in social contexts and this has important consequences for wellbeing. We review studies that test whether individual differences in pragmatic skill are associated with formal language ability, mentalising and executive functions in both typical and atypical development. The strongest and most consistent associations found were between pragmatic and formal language. Additional associations with mentalising were observed, particularly with discourse contingency and irony understanding. Fewer studies considered executive function and evidence is mixed. To make progress, high-quality studies of specific pragmatic skills are needed to test mechanistic models of development. We propose 6 goals for future research: 1) developing an empirically-based taxonomy of pragmatic skills; 2) establishing which skills matter most for everyday functioning; 3) testing specific hypotheses about information processing; 4) augmenting measures of individual differences; 5) considering a broader set of psychological associates; 6) employing statistical tools that model the nested structure of pragmatics and cognition.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Language Learning and Development. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | pragmatics; individual differences; Theory of Mind; executive function; language development |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 Apr 2018 12:25 |
Last Modified: | 16 Nov 2020 14:40 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/15475441.2018.1455584 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:129247 |