Social Language Disorder

Social language disorder or pragmatic language disorder is a problem related to the social aspects of language use and understanding. Social language disorders manifest in the following ways:

Difficulty using language socially which includes

understanding the environmentreading non-verbal cuesunderstanding nonliteral language such as jokes and sarcasm

Difficulty following the rules of conversation which includes

maintaining appropriate eye contactusing nonverbal cues that are consistent with your verbal messagegreetingsintroducing a topicmaintaining a topicappropriateness of topic and responses

Difficulty adjusting the use of language based on partner or environment which includes

Speaking with someone of a different age (young child vs. someone the same age vs. someone much older)Speaking in a more formal setting (job interview) vs. an informal setting (hanging out with friends)

Children with a social language disorder might

Seem inappropriate, perhaps laughing at a sad eventMiss parts of a conversation that has a lot of metaphors, sarcasm or other non-literal meaningHave difficulty adjusting their conversations for different settingsNot read obvious non-verbal cues from someone they are speaking with