Pragmatic skills in Chinese dyslexic children: Evidence from a parental checklist

Abstract

Individuals with deficits in pragmatic skills, the skills of applying and interpreting language appropriately in its occurring context, may lead to reduced communication ability that affects social interactions. The present study aimed at examining whether children with dyslexia had pragmatic deficits and what their specific language profile was as compared with normally‐developing children and those with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Sixtyeight participants of Grades 3 to 6 were recruited from five mainstream schools in Hong Kong. They were divided into the Dyslexia group (N=22), the ASD group (N=22) and the Control group (N=24) matched on age, IQ, and SES. The Children Communication Checklist‐2 (CCC‐2, Bishop, 2003), a parental checklist, was used to collect information regarding the language and communication abilities of these children. Results showed that the Chinese dyslexic children had reduced pragmatic skills compared to normally‐developing children. These dyslexic children were relatively weak in structural language skills and reduced general communication scores that were comparable to children with ASD, but they were normal in social relationships and interests. These results provided new insights for investigating communication abilities of the dyslexic population and implied a possible need for remediation of this population in the domain of language use.