LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE OF SEVERELY CLOSED-HEAD INJURED CHILDREN

The language functioning of a group of children who had sustained a se vere closed head injury (CHI) was evaluated. The subjects were adminis tered a battery of language assessments including measures of syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Performance of the experimental group was co mpared with that of a control group matched for age and sex. Results i ndicated that all areas of language competence assessed (syntax, seman tics, pragmatics) appeared to be compromised by the childhood CHI. The findings of this study are considered in light of the implications fo r the existence of different language components (syntax, semantics, p ragmatics) as opposed to a unified concept of language. Also considere d is the evidence of a specific linguistic impairment in the childhood CHI population as opposed to a more generalized cognitive decline exp ressed as an overall decrease in performance across all domains of lan guage skill.