I was just recently reading an article on Pervasive Development Disorder and it said that Speech and language skill are impared in the area of semantics,pragmatics and prosody.
Can somone please explain to me what these words mean?
In this context, semantics refers to understanding the actual meaning of language; pragmatics refers to the social context of language, and prosody refers to the ability to pick up on the tone involved in language. So someone with PDD, might miss out on the actual meaning of words being spoken (semantics) but might also not pick up on the context (a teasing comment as opposed to a serious comment, for example) which would be pragmatics or might not understand the change in meaning reflected by tone (something being said in a sarcastic manner, for example) which would be prosody.
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Meta
The study or science of meaning in language is what semantics means. Have you heard someone say "lets not argue about semantics?" So its basically the meaning or interpretation of a word or sentence. Pragmatics is the relationship between signs, especially words and other elements of language, and their users. And prosody is like the the patterns of stress and intonation in a language so what this is all telling you is that a pervasive disorder becomes more apparent as a child ages and education becomes more demanding. Its more likely to become apparent that they may suffer because they are struggling to make these connections. Think about how you speak when your telling a joke, or being sarcastic or being sentimental? the tone and inflection in your voice is different in all cases; this is a simple analogy i know but a child suffering from a pervasive disorder would have difficulty determining which context you were trying to convey, especially in written form. Does this make sense? I know its a complex subject but…there is help available to assist them. Please let me know what other informatioin you might need. Good luck!
References :
Educatioin
In this context, semantics refers to understanding the actual meaning of language; pragmatics refers to the social context of language, and prosody refers to the ability to pick up on the tone involved in language. So someone with PDD, might miss out on the actual meaning of words being spoken (semantics) but might also not pick up on the context (a teasing comment as opposed to a serious comment, for example) which would be pragmatics or might not understand the change in meaning reflected by tone (something being said in a sarcastic manner, for example) which would be prosody.
References :