APPROPRIACY JUDGMENTS AND PRAGMATIC PERFORMANCE

This paper examines judgements of inappropriacy made by groups of inde pendent raters from different Professional backgrounds when presented with data from two boys with semantic, pragmatic and syntactic difficu lties, who are interacting with adults, and when presented with data i n a transcript or video format. The purpose is to explore the nature o f such judgements with the view to highlighting the centrality and the complex nature of inappropriacy judgements in the clinical management of pragmatic impairment. The current study suggests that consensus of view as to what is or is not appropriate in interactions involving ch ild clients may not exist in the general population. It further sugges ts that professional experience with children may direct one's attenti on primarily to the child client. Video presentation of information al so appeared to direct attention to the child interactant. Given that a udiovisual presentation of data is able to reproduce the non-linguisti c 'oddness' of a child (e.g. averted gaze, slumped posture, monotonous voice), a situation seems to be created in which the linguistic conte nt is perceived as equally 'odd' or inappropriate. This study has impl ications for assessment, diagnosis and treatment of pragmatic difficul ties in children.