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Communicative abilities in children: An assessment through different phenomena and expressive means*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2013

FRANCESCA M. BOSCO ,
ROMINA ANGELERI ,
LIVIA COLLE ,
KATIUSCIA SACCO  and
BRUNO G. BARA
FRANCESCA M. BOSCO
Affiliation:
Center for Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, and Neuroscience Institute of Turin
ROMINA ANGELERI
Affiliation:
Center for Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology, University of Turin
LIVIA COLLE
Affiliation:
Center for Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, and Neuroscience Institute of Turin
KATIUSCIA SACCO
Affiliation:
Center for Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Neuroscience Institute of Turin, and CCS fMRI Neuroradiology at Koelliker Hospital, Turin
BRUNO G. BARA
Affiliation:
Center for Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, and Neuroscience Institute of Turin
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Abstract

Previous studies on children's pragmatic abilities have tended to focus on just one pragmatic phenomenon and one expressive means at a time, mainly concentrating on comprehension, and overlooking the production side. We assessed both comprehension and production in relation to several pragmatic phenomena (simple and complex standard communication acts, irony, and deceit) and several expressive means (linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic). Our study involved 390 Italian-speaking children divided into three age groups: 5;0–5;6, 6;6–7;0, and 8;0–8;6. Children's performance on all tasks improved with their age. Within each age group, children responded more accurately to tasks involving standard communication than to those involving deceit and irony, across all expressive means and for both comprehension and production. Within each pragmatic phenomenon, children responded more accurately to simple acts than to complex ones, regardless of age group and expressive means, i.e., linguistic or extralinguistic. Overall results fit well with the Cognitive Pragmatics theory (Bara, 2010).

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Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , September 2013 , pp. 741 - 778
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by Regione Piemonte, Project: Institutions, Behavior and Markets in Local and Global Settings (Project IIINBEMA).

References

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