by:  Lee A Wilkinson

As a group, higher functioning students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) tend to demonstrate strength in formal language, but a weakness is pragmatic and social skills. As a result, they often fail to qualify for speech-language services because they present strong verbal skills and large vocabularies, and score well on formal language assessments. Nevertheless, significant and severe deficits in the ability to communicate and interact with others can limit their participation in mainstream academic settings and community activities. Moreover, pragmatic deficits tend to become even more obvious and problematic as social and educational demands increase with age. Assessments to identify pragmatic language deficits are not as well developed as tests of language fundamentals. Although there are few standard measures available to assess these skills in higher functioning children with ASD, the Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC-2) is a promising third party checklist that can be used in screening and identification of pragmatic language problems.
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