What Is Social Pragmatic Communication?

Social pragmatic communication refers to the skills children use to understand and participate in social interactions. These skills include using language appropriately, understanding what others mean, taking turns in conversation, interpreting nonverbal cues, and adjusting communication depending on the situation.

Strong social communication skills help children connect with others, express their thoughts and needs, participate in conversations, build relationships, and navigate social and academic environments (Dall et al., 2022; Swineford et al., 2014).

For some children, difficulties with social communication or pragmatic language can make it challenging to interact with peers, participate in conversations, understand social cues, or communicate effectively at school and at home. A speech-language pathologist (SLP) can assess these skills and provide speech therapy to support a child's individual communication needs.

What Are Social Communication Skills?

Social communication includes both verbal and nonverbal communication skills. These skills allow children to communicate effectively with different people and in different situations.

Examples of social communication skills include:

• Greeting others and saying goodbye

• Starting and ending conversations

• Taking turns during conversations

• Answering questions and asking questions

• Staying on topic

• Sharing information and experiences

• Making requests

• Making appropriate comments

• Understanding and following conversational rules

• Asking for clarification when something is unclear

• Rephrasing or repairing communication breakdowns

• Adjusting communication based on the listener or situation

• Understanding facial expressions, gestures, body language, and tone of voice

For example, a child may learn that the way they communicate with a teacher in the classroom may be different from how they communicate with a close friend on the playground. Being able to adjust communication to different situations is an important part of social communication (Swineford et al., 2014).

What Is Pragmatic Language?

Pragmatic language is an important part of social communication. It involves using language in context and understanding what another person means based on the words they use, the situation, and previous knowledge.

Pragmatic language skills can include:

• Making inferences

• Understanding implied meaning

• Interpreting multiple meanings

• Understanding humour

• Understanding idioms and metaphors

• Recognizing sarcasm

• Understanding indirect requests

• Using context to understand what someone means

For example, if a teacher says, “It’s getting quite noisy in here,” the teacher may not be directly telling the students to be quiet. A child uses pragmatic language and contextual information to understand that the teacher is indirectly asking the class to lower their voices.

Research suggests that pragmatic language is associated with social competence and a person's ability to communicate effectively across different social situations (Norbury, 2014).

Social Communication and Nonverbal Communication

Social communication involves more than the words we say. Nonverbal communication also plays an important role in social interactions.

Children may need to learn how to recognize and interpret:

• Facial expressions

• Gestures

• Body language

• Eye gaze

• Tone of voice

• Changes in volume or pitch

• Personal space

For example, a person's facial expression or tone of voice may provide important information about how they are feeling, even when their words do not explicitly communicate an emotion.

Developing an understanding of verbal and nonverbal communication can help children better understand others and communicate their own thoughts, feelings, and intentions.

Why Are Social Pragmatic Communication Skills Important?

Social communication skills are important for everyday interactions at home, at school, and in the community. Children use these skills when they play with peers, participate in classroom discussions, work in groups, talk with family members, and develop friendships.

Difficulties with social communication may affect a child's ability to:

• Join or maintain conversations

• Make and maintain friendships

• Understand social cues

• Interpret what others are communicating

• Participate in group activities

• Understand jokes, idioms, or figurative language

• Express thoughts and feelings

• Resolve communication breakdowns

• Adjust communication for different people and situations

Supporting social communication skills can help children participate more confidently and effectively in their everyday environments (Swineford et al., 2014).

Social Communication Can Look Different Across Cultures

It is important to recognize that social communication expectations are not the same for everyone. Communication styles can vary across cultures, families, communities, and individual preferences.

For example, expectations surrounding eye contact, conversational turn-taking, appropriate topics, humour, personal space, and how directly someone communicates may differ depending on cultural and social context (Norbury, 2014).

This is why social communication should be understood within the context of the individual child and their environment. Speech-language therapy should focus on helping children communicate effectively and meaningfully rather than simply teaching them to follow one particular set of social behaviours.

When Can Speech Therapy Help With Social Communication?

A child may benefit from a speech-language assessment if they consistently have difficulty using or understanding language during social interactions.

Some signs that a child may benefit from support include:

• Difficulty starting or maintaining conversations

• Difficulty taking turns in conversation

• Frequently changing the topic or having difficulty staying on topic

• Difficulty answering or asking questions

• Difficulty understanding implied or nonliteral language

• Difficulty interpreting facial expressions, gestures, or tone of voice

• Difficulty understanding jokes, idioms, or sarcasm

• Difficulty understanding another person's perspective

• Difficulty repairing communication breakdowns

• Difficulty adjusting communication depending on the situation

• Challenges communicating with peers

An SLP can assess a child's social communication, receptive language, expressive language, and pragmatic language skills to determine whether speech-language therapy may be appropriate.

Social Communication Speech Therapy in Vaughan

At Kurliand Speech Clinic, we provide speech-language assessment and therapy for children, teens, and adults in Vaughan, Ontario. Our clinicians can support a range of communication needs, including social communication and pragmatic language skills.

Depending on the individual's needs, therapy may focus on skills such as:

• Conversational skills

• Social interaction

• Perspective-taking

• Understanding social cues

• Asking and answering questions

• Topic maintenance

• Inferences and implied meaning

• Figurative language

• Communication repair

• Functional communication

Speech therapy is individualized to the person's communication goals, developmental level, and everyday environments.

If you are looking for speech therapy in Vaughan and are concerned about your child's social communication or pragmatic language skills, a speech-language assessment can help identify areas of strength and areas where additional support may be beneficial.

References

Dall, M., Fellinger, J., & Holzinger, D. (2022). The link between social communication and mental health from childhood to young adulthood: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.944815

Social Communication Disorder. (n.d.). American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/social-communication-disorder/

Swineford, L. B., Thurm, A., Baird, G., Wetherby, A. M., & Swedo, S. (2014). Social (pragmatic) communication disorder: A research review of this new DSM-5 diagnostic category. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1866-1955-6-41

Norbury, C. F. (2014). Practitioner Review: Social (pragmatic) communication disorder conceptualization, evidence and clinical implications. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(3), 204–216. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12154