Journal of Clinical Pediatrics >
Development and assessment of children's pragmatic competence and its application in the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders
Received date: 2025-11-15
Accepted date: 2025-12-31
Online published: 2026-03-31
Pragmatic competence refers to the ability to accurately understand and appropriately use language in a specific context.There is a relatively close correlation between the development of children's pragmatic competence and neurodevelopmental disorders. Some neurodevelopmental disorders are often accompanied by pragmatic communication disorders of varying degrees, and patients mostly seek medical attention due to language or pragmatics-related problems, which leads to their final diagnosis. In-depth research on the development patterns of pragmatic competence in normal children and their standardized assessment tools is of great guiding significance for the early identification of behavioral problems and developmental disorders risks in children. Most of the currently used standardized assessment tools for pragmatic competence are developed by foreign scholars, including the children's communication checklist, the test of pragmatic language, and the language use inventory. However, these tools have such limitations as insufficient cultural adaptability and lack of targeted assessment dimensions. Localized, standardized assessment tools in China are still relatively scarce and have limited application.This article reviews the development trajectory of normal children's pragmatic competence, the research progress in existing standardized assessment tools for pragmatic competence, and the relationship between pragmatic competence and neurodevelopmental disorders.It also discusses the future research directions and challenges, thus providing a reference for the development of standardized assessment tools for pragmatic competence in China.
LI Xuewei , LIU Xiao . Development and assessment of children's pragmatic competence and its application in the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders[J]. Journal of Clinical Pediatrics, 2026 , 44(4) : 341 -347 . DOI: 10.12372/jcp.2026.25e1439
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