Cerebral palsy

Stéphanie Caillies

pp. 165-178

in: Louise Cummings (ed), Research in clinical pragmatics, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

Cerebral palsy describes a group of disorders of the development of movement and posture that limit activity. These motor disorders are attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occur before, during or shortly after birth. They are often accompanied by disturbed sensation, communication, perception and behaviour. Even though children with cerebral palsy patently have communication problems, little is known about their pragmatic abilities. Awareness of the pragmatic difficulties faced by children with cerebral palsy could, if appropriately acted upon, result in the improvement of their communication skills within the family, at school, and ultimately in the workplace. It is, therefore, particularly important to identify them. In this chapter, I examine the communicative and pragmatic abilities of children with cerebral palsy through a review of the literature, and indicate some new directions for research.