Step 5: Analyze Social & Pragmatic Language
Language samples also need to be assessed for the pragmatic and social language that is used to tell a story. Some stories can be grammatically complex and contain a variety of narrative components and still be difficult to understand based on the organization of the events or unexpected additions. Here you’ll consider:
- Topic maintenance
- Relevance to the story
- Inclusion of appropriate details
- Whether the child described what was visually present
This helps differentiate language difficulty from attention, experience, or cultural factors.