Children's Speech Therapy Treatment for Social Language Disorder | Kioko Center

Social language disorder or pragmatic language disorder, is a problem related to the social aspects of language use and understanding. Social language disorders manifest in the following ways:

Difficulty using language socially which includes

• understanding the environment

• reading non-verbal cues

• understanding non literal language such as jokes and sarcasm

Difficulty following the rules of conversation which includes

• maintaining appropriate eye contact

• using non verbal cues that are consistent with your verbal message

• greetings

• introducing a topic

• maintaining a topic

• appropriateness of topic and responses

Difficulty adjusting the use of language based on partner or environment which includes

• speaking with someone of a different age (young child vs someone the same age vs someone much older)

• speaking in a more formal setting (job interview) vs an informal setting (hanging out with friends)

Children with a social language disorder might

• Seem inappropriate, perhaps laughing at a sad event

• Miss parts of a conversation that has a lot of metaphors, sarcasm or other non-literal meaning

• Have difficulty adjusting their conversations for different settings

• Not read obvious non-verbal cues from someone they are speaking with