Semantic Pragmatic Disorder Support Group
Welcome to
SPD Support!
The SPD Support Organisation is a non profit, internet based, voluntary organisation of parents and professionals based in the United Kingdom, with aims of providing quality information, advice and support to parents/carers and professionals supporting children diagnosed with Semantic Pragmatic Disorder.
Quick Description of Semantic and Pragmatic Difficulties
For more information please read the articles and information links above or why not join our forum!What SPD means to me
Compared with other conditions on the autistic spectrum, Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder is one of the least known compared with its more famous brethren, Asperger Syndrome, ADHD and classic Kanner type Autism. Persons may have SPLD alone, or semantic pragmatic impairments may co-exist with other autism spectrum disorders.
This account focuses on my experience with SPLD. I hope you find it useful and interesting.
Stuart Vallantine
October 2005.
What is SPD
Semantic Pragmatic Disorder is a linguistic term used to describe a set of abnormal language and communication developmental features, whose behaviours may "shade into autism at one extreme and normality at the other", with "unclear boundaries and differing outcomes over time" (Bishop and Rosenbloom, 1987, Bishop and Norbury, 2000). Pragmatics is defined as the study of language in context and is all about the way in which a speaker performs both verbally and non verbally for a range of different purposes whilst:
- following a set of social do's and don'ts.
- taking into account the listeners needs and expectations.
- providing the listener with just enough information to enable them to understand, interpret, and infer meaning from the communicative act.
