A study of the pragmatic language impairments of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Abstract

This study attempts to find out the pragmatic language impairments experienced by children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The triads of symptoms-inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity hamper their practical use of language in social interaction. Different components of discourse analysis and pragmatics have been used to identify and explore the impairments, and how they affect these children’s social functioning. Moreover, the idea of theory of mind and executive functions have been applied to find the connection between their pragmatic language impairments and social cognition deficiencies. For the empirical data, a survey was conducted with the use of both qualitative and quantitative method. This paper concluded with some recommendations on what steps should be taken to overcome the limitations which were found during the research.