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. 2022 Mar 13;12(3):385.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci12030385.

Pragmatic Profiles of Adults with Fragile X Syndrome and Williams Syndrome

Eliseo Diez-Itza  1 , Aitana Viejo  1 , Maite Fernández-Urquiza  1
Affiliations

Pragmatic Profiles of Adults with Fragile X Syndrome and Williams Syndrome

Eliseo Diez-Itza et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Linguistic phenotypes of individuals with Fragile X (FXS) and Williams (WS) syndromes exhibit various degrees of pragmatic impairment, involving difficulties in social communication and in adapting to conversational principles. The goal of the present study was to explore syndrome-specific pragmatic profiles of adults with FXS and WS based on the assessment of the observance of Gricean maxims of conversation. The participants were 12 Spanish-speaking adults (6 FXS/6 WS), without a diagnosis of ASD, whose extensive naturalistic conversations (71,859 words) were transcribed and coded with the CHILDES/TALKBANK tools and the PREP-CORP pragmatic protocol. Violations of the maxims of conversation were analyzed, and indexes of cooperation and conversational response were obtained. Both groups showed reduced verbal production and repetitive dysfluencies; prominent features in the FXS profile were higher proportion of non-contingent language, perseverations of topic and form, and impulsive conversational responses; in the WS profile, salient characteristics were higher proportion of tangential utterances, reformulations, and conversational responses reflecting overly literal interpretation. Pragmatic profiles of violation of conversational maxims reflect specific communication skills impaired in adults with FXS and WS and raise the need for assessment and intervention methods that specifically address their social communication abilities.

Keywords: Gricean maxims of conversation; Williams syndrome; fragile X syndrome; pragmatic assessment; pragmatic impairment; social (pragmatic) communication disorder.

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Conflict of interest statement

The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Profiles of aggregate violation indexes (AVIs) of maxims. Note: MQL = maxim of quality; MRL = maxim of relation; MQT = maxim of quantity; MMN = maxim of manner, * = p < 0.05.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Violation indexes (VIs) of conversational response. Note: ICOM = incomprehension; LIT = literality; IMP = impulsivity; ECH = echolalia, * = p < 0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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