Pragmatic assessment: analysis of a highly frequent repeated utterance.
The present study examined the pragmatic role of a frequently repeated utterance, "it's gone," within the multiple context conversational interactions of a 4-year-old specifically language-impaired boy. The data indicate that the phrase was an interactive access strategy to engage his partners in a nonexistence/disappearance game, a frequent type of early mother-child interaction. The assessment and intervention implications of these data are discussed.
D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010988:Play and Playthings; D012931:Social Environment; D014743:Videotape Recording / Q000295:instrumentation