The Hyter Pragmatic Protocol

Developed By

Yvette Hyter, PhD, CCC-SLP

Co Founder-CTAC

What Are Pragmatics and Social Communication?

• Social-communicative functions of language

• “Allows us to exchange information, initiate and develop social relationships, cope with changing environmental demands and assert one’s needs, desires, and preferences” (Walker, Schwarz, Nippold, Irvin & Noell, 1994, p.

222).

Background Information

• Disruptions of these social functions affects home, school, and personal interactions.

• This may often result in maladaptive behaviors that are associated with FAS and Trauma (Burgess & Streissguth, 1992).

Decision Making Strategic Planning

Executive Functions

Social Cognition

Understanding why people act in certain

ways and what they are likely to do next

Language

Sentence StructureWord meanings

Word relationshipsSocial Language Use

Social Communication Framework

Adapted from Coggins, T. E., Timler,G. R. & Olswang, L.. B. (2007).

Poor social skillsDemonstrates little desire to please socially significant people; limited social attachment; exercises poor social judgment. Shows difficulty reading social situations, and making inferences about other’s intentions.

Verbal but not communicativeShows a tendency towards high verbal output. Often interjects comments based on personal experience that are either unrelated or remotely related to the topic at hand.

Limited organizational skillsExhibits genuine difficulty in being able to plan and execute a series of goal-related actions

Lacks understanding of cause-effectRepeats the same misguided action regardless of consequences. Gives little evidence of learning from experience, regardless of structure.

Concrete thinkers and problem solvers Decisions are based on intuitive judgments rather than conscious attention or critical thinking.

ImpulsiveActs hastily or on sudden impulse without evidence of forethought.

Table 1 Behavioral deficits that impair social communication, as observed by parents of school-age children and adolescents with fetal alcohol syndrome