Component 3: Pragmatics*

* “. . . pragmatics is the study of communicative action in its sociocultural context. Communicative action includes not only speech acts—such as requesting, greeting, and so on—but also participation in conversation, engaging in different types of discourse, and sustaining interaction in complex speech events.” (Kasper, 1997).

Learning Goal 3.a: Young children understand, follow, and use appropriate social and conversational rules.


By 9 months, most children:

  • Respond to the speech of others by looking toward the speaker
  • Initiate and engage in simple back-and-forth interactions with others by using facial expressions, vocalizations, and gestures
  • Express enjoyment and a desire for “more” through body language (cues), such as kicking their legs, waving their arms, and smiling
LD-9

By 18 months, most children:

  • Respond to others’ communication with gestures, facial expressions, body movements, and sounds
  • Communicate vocally or use nonverbal strategies to communicate when interacting with a responsive adult
  • Engage in joint attention by directing their gaze toward what a speaker is looking at or pointing to
  • Point in order to request an object
  • Use body language (cues) such as bobbing their head, raising their eyebrows, smiling, or tilting their head to signal enjoyment or their desire for more of an activity from an adult
LD-18

By 24 months, most children:

  • Participate in simple turn-taking during one-on-one conversations
  • Demonstrate concern for others through gestures and facial expressions
  • Directly interact with adults to signal enjoyment or a desire for more (e.g., by tugging on an adult’s pant leg, patting an adult, holding an adult’s arm, or verbalizing)
LD-24

By 36 months, most children:

  • Respond to others’ statements, prompts, and questions
  • Use multiple means, such as verbal and nonverbal language, to communicate needs, wants, and feelings
  • Use social conventions to initiate and sustain exchanges of communication
  • Demonstrate an understanding of simple humor
LD-36

By 48 months, most children:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of nonverbal cues (e.g., eye contact, distance from partner, and facial expressions) and the ability to use them
  • Use appropriate volume and intonation when speaking in a variety of social situations
  • Follow commonly accepted norms of communication in group settings, with support and modeling (e.g., responding appropriately to such direction as “Only one child speaks at once; raise your hand.”)
  • Engage, with support and modeling, in conversations of at least three turns, with each exchange relating to and building upon what was said previously
LD-48

By 60 months, most children:

  • Follow commonly accepted norms of communication in group settings with increasing independence (e.g., responding appropriately to such direction as “Only one child speaks at once; raise your hand.”)
  • Engage, with support and modeling, in conversations of at least five turns, with each exchange relating to and building upon what was said previously
  • Use language to communicate with others in familiar and unfamiliar social situations for a variety of purposes
LD-60