Margaret Miller
Rationale
 Lack of tx material for this age group
 Difficult to measure pragmatic language quantitatively
 Quantitative data necessary to show progress and
objectify data
 Beginning clinicians especially have difficulty measuring
these skills quantitatively
Literature Review
 Gained better knowledge of tx materials and programs
available for older adolescents and adults
 Identified 10 pragmatic language skill areas to research
 Gained better knowledge of relevant strategies for data
collection
 Quantitative data collection vs. Qualitative data
collection
Identified Skill Areas
 Eye contact
 Initiating & Terminating
 Topic Maintenance
 Follow-Up Questions
 Turn-Taking
 Body Language
 Recognizing/Expressing
 Perspective Taking
 Humor
 Reducing
Emotions
Conversations
Negative/Distracting
Behaviors
Education
 Developed treatment packets for clinicians describing
procedures for targeting pragmatic language skills and data
collection
 Provided protocols for quantitative data collection of
pragmatic language skills
 Provided pragmatic language activities and worksheets to
address 10 social skill areas
 Presented packets to graduate level CSD students
 Participated in poster presentation at the Autism
Conference sponsored by the Thompson Center
Examples:
 Pragmatic Language Activities & Data Collection
Booklet
 Measurable Goals
 Quantitative Data Collection
Measurable Goals
 Eye Contact
 The client will receive an average score of ‘5’, indicating
appropriate eye contact, when talking with familiar
conversation partners as judged by 3 unfamiliar listeners
using the eye contact scale.
 Initiating & Terminating Conversations
 The client will respond appropriately to conversation
initiations from familiar and unfamiliar conversation
partners in 80% of opportunities.
Quantitative Data Collection