Evaluation of Pragmatic Skills in 2-5 Year Old Kannada Speaking Children

Abstract

Effective communication requires not only linguistic knowledge but social knowledge as well. The rule governing the use of language in context is termed as pragmatics (Bates, 1976a). This study evaluated the performance of 2-5 year old typically developing Kannada speaking children on five pragmatic skills. 36 children participated in this study. One hour audio-video sample of mother-child interaction was recorded. The findings of this study are discussed in terms of frequency of pragmatic skills initiated and responded by each child during the course of interaction with his/her communicative partner (i.e., mother).