Cambridge University Press, 2009. — xi, 305 pages. — ISBN13: 978-0-521-88845-5; ISBN13: 978-0-511-54018-9.
Many children and adults experience significant breakdown in the use of language. The resulting pragmatic disorders present a considerable barrier to effective communication. This book is the first critical examination of the current state of our knowledge of pragmatic disorders and provides a comprehensive overview of the main concepts and theories in pragmatics.
It examines the full range of pragmatic disorders that occur in children and adults and discusses how they are assessed and treated by clinicians. Louise Cummings attempts to integrate the fields of pragmatics, language pathology and cognitive science by examining the ways in which pragmatics can make a useful contribution to debates about cognitive theories of autism. The reader is encouraged to think in a critical fashion about how clinicians, experimentalists and theorists deal with pragmatic issues.
Clinical pragmatics: theory and practiceThe scope of clinical pragmatics
The emergence of clinical pragmatics
Concepts and theories in pragmatics
The multidisciplinary nature of clinical pragmatics
Primary and secondary pragmatic disorders
Pragmatic defiits and pragmatic preservation
A survey of developmental pragmatic disordersDevelopmental language disorder
Autistic spectrum disorder
Emotional and behavioural disorders
Mental retardation
A survey of acquired pragmatic disordersLeft-hemisphere damage
Right-hemisphere damage
Schizophrenia
Traumatic brain injury
Neurodegenerative disorders
The contribution of pragmatics to cognitive theories of autismCognitive theories of autism
The relationship between cognitive theories
The criterion of pragmatic adequacy
A pragmatic challenge to cognitive theories
The validity of pragmatic adequacy
The cognitive substrates of acquired pragmatic disordersPragmatic theory
Cognitive theory
The assessment and treatment of pragmatic disordersPragmatic language assessment
Pragmatic language intervention
A critical evaluation of pragmatic assessment and treatment techniquesThe domain of pragmatics
Clinical studies of pragmatics
Implications for the management of pragmatic disorders
Overcoming problems of defiition and delimitation