Social attention and autism symptoms in high functioning women with autism spectrum disorders.

Background: Research has suggested a different, less visible, clinical manifestation of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in females. There is, however, limited research into possible underlying mechanisms explaining the female phenotype.

Aims: This study investigates social attention in females with ASD.

Narrative competence in children with pragmatic language impairment: a longitudinal study.

Background: Children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI) show impairments in the use of language in social contexts. Although the issue has been gaining attention in recent literature, not much is known about the developmental trajectories of children who experience pragmatic language problems. Since narrative competence is an important predictor of both academic and social success, evaluating narrative competence in children with PLI is deemed important.

Semantic abilities in children with pragmatic language impairment: the case of picture naming skills.

Purpose: The semantic abilities of children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI) are subject to debate. The authors investigated picture naming and definition skills in 5-year-olds with PLI in comparison to typically developing children.

Method: 84 children with PLI and 80 age-matched typically developing children completed receptive vocabulary, picture naming, and definition tasks.

Pragmatic language impairment and associated behavioural problems.

Background: Specific language impairment (SLI) is diagnosed when a child shows isolated structural language problems. The diagnosis of pragmatic language impairment (PLI) is given to children who show difficulties with the use of language in context. Unlike children with SLI, these children tend to show relatively intact structural language skills while they do exhibit clear communicative deficits.

Screening for pragmatic language impairment: the potential of the children's communication checklist.

The present study examines the validity of the Dutch Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) for children in kindergarten in a community sample, in order to assess the feasibility of using it as a screening instrument in the general population. Teachers completed the CCC for a representative sample of 1396 children at kindergarten level, taken from 53 primary schools in The Netherlands. The CCC was also completed for a clinical group consisting of children with SLI in special education.