Children’s pragmatic development
Written By: Author(s): Elspeth Wilson
12 min read
Elspeth Wilson, University of Cambridge, UK
How do children learn to communicate well? Are they born little communicators or is their communicative development gradual? Children’s pragmatic skills include a wide range of abilities, from how to initiate a conversation and take turns, to understanding a metaphor or ironic comment. Research on child language acquisition shows that these are skills that start to develop early, in the first year of life, and are actually key for language development in general – therefore, children can and should be given a rich language environment in which to use and develop these skills further. But research also reveals that some of these skills tend to develop later and many are being honed throughout childhood – and so children do not always understand everything that adults intend, and not just because they don’t know the meaning of specific words.
This article gives a brief overview of children’s pragmatic development, and focuses on j
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This is a really good article. The development of pragmatic skills are so important. Thank you.