PURPOSE: to investigate the pragmatic abilities and their influence on the communicative use in subjects with Down's syndrome. METHODS: the pragmatic assessment (ABFW). The participants were 10 children and adolescents, male and female, from seven to 13-year old. The behavior patterns were analyzed by using the communicative functions, the communication means (vocal, gestural or verbal) and the communicative acts. Data collection was provided from a free play situation with a family member. The Kruskal Wallis test was used for statistic analysis (p < 0.05 Q1 = n/4 Q2 = n/2 Q3 =3n/4 (n = 10) First Quartile, Median, Third Quartile). RESULTS: the median of the communicative acts was 2.88. The comment and narrative functions were the more frequent among the communicative functions and the verbal was the more frequent communicative mean. All the participants used the functions: comment, recognitions of the other and game shared functions. The children and adolescents were responsible for 90% of the direction of the communication. CONCLUSION: the verbal and gestural communication means and the comment and narrative functions were the most used among the participants; mothers were responsible for just 10% of the communication direction and it was carried out predominantly by the children and adolescents that took part in the study.
Language Development; Narrative; Down's Syndrome; Communications Media
