What is Semantic Pragmatic Disorder

© Babs@spdsupport

Semantic Pragmatic Disorder is a linguistic term used to describe a set of abnormal language and communication developmental features, whose behaviours may “shade into autism at one extreme and normality at the other”, with “unclear boundaries and differing outcomes over time” (Bishop and Rosenbloom, 1987, Bishop and Norbury, 2000).

Pragmatics is defined as the study of language in context and is all about the way in which a speaker performs both verbally and non verbally for a range of different purposes whilst:
1) following a set of social do’s and don’ts.
2) taking into account the listeners needs and expectations.
3) providing the listener with just enough information to enable them to understand, interpret, and infer meaning from the communicative act.

Semantics is defined as the study of meaning of words, phrases, sentences, and texts.

Semantic - Pragmatic combined, deals with first of all getting at the meaning of the sentence through the actual words and the way in which they are structured, and then using context and what you already know to interpret and understand what is being said.To put it in a nutshell, Semantic Pragmatic Disorder essentially means a child struggles with the meaning and use of language in the social context.

For example, consider the sentence “She cried on her mother’s shoulder”. We know from the knowledge of the meanings of words that “She” is a female, and we use what we know to work out that she is the daughter of the other person known as “Mother”. We also know that she is no longer carrying out the action as the past tense is applied to the verb to cry, i.e. “cried”. We then need to use context and look for further clues in the text to provide us with some answers as to why she is crying on her mother’s shoulder, because it is not given explicitly in the sentence. We also have to apply our knowledge of phrases and sentences to understand that what is written is not necessarily what is being implied, ie. she is not actually crying, she is telling her mother about her problems in an attempt to gain sympathy.

Frequently, professionals refer to ‘semantic-pragmatic’ disorders, combining the two terms into one. Whilst there is clearly some overlap in the concerns of the two disciplines and this can often make good sense, we should guard against assuming that the label suits all circumstances (Gagnon, Mottron and Joanette, 1997).

Children with semantic and pragmatic disorders may use their language for a more restricted range of purposes than the rest of us, such as asking, directing, recounting experiences, imagining and predicting. They may also display some mild behaviours and features of autism coupled with the language difficulties too. One should remain cautious and investigate a child for autism should they show autistic features alongside the following abnormal language development:-

• poor language processing, use and understanding
• literality
• echolalia (parrot talk) and scripted language (copied phrases)
• perseveration (repetition) and incessant chatter
• poor turn taking and diffculty maintaining a topic of conversation
• social difficulties, knowing how to be with people
• difficulty responding to questions
• talks around a subject rather than about it
• when young tends to speak in jargon with:-
  - semantic paraphasias (wrong or inadequate words)
  - semantic neologisms (made up words)

SPD – Why does a child have these difficulties?
Children may have difficulties in the areas of Semantics and/or Pragmatics for a variety of reasons, including hearing impairment, expressive language disorder, delays in understanding language and vocabulary and autism.

SPD - How does it affect a family?
When a child is in his /her primary years it can be extremely difficult to cope with a child that has Semantic Pragmatic communication difficulties. They can often struggle to understand what you are saying, find it difficult to express their needs and may cry all of the time over the slightest of things. Parents are often under a great deal of stress and emotional upset during the early years and around the time a diagnosis is given. Parents need plenty of support from their friends and families to help them to come to terms with the diagnosis and what it means for their child’s future. They also need sound advice and ideas about how to help their child make good progress. This is where the SPD Support Organisation comes in.

What Does SPD Support do to help?
The SPD Support Organisation is a non - profit, internet based, support organisation, run by a parent of a child with Semantic Pragmatic Disorder. The site provides lots of information about the disorder, research articles, therapy tips, language and writing samples, educational matters information and a database of Speech and Language specialists with an interest in the disorder. SPD Support also has a Support Message Forum available to both parents and professionals, who may need advice, support or just a friendly chat.