Pragmatic language impairment in children with Noonan syndrome

ABSTRACT

Noonan syndrome (NS) is a disorder causing symptoms like short stature, characteristic facial features, congenital heart disease, possible mental retardation, and pragmatic difficulties. This study describes the pragmatic skills in NS and discusses the linguistic profile of 17 informants aged 6–15 years, by comparing the participants’ scores on the Children’s Communication Checklist, 2nd edition (CCC-2) (Bishop, 2011), with a group of typically developing children of matching age and gender. Language impairments were common in the NS group. The results show that children and adolescents with NS do not have one coherent pragmatic profile. However, 76.5% of the participants displayed communication impairments, and pragmatic skills were significantly lower than in the control group.

KEYWORDS:

• CCC-2
• children
• language
• language impairment
• Noonan syndrome
• pragmatics

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express gratitude to the children and families who participated in this research and to the Noonan Syndrome Association.

Declaration of interests

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.