Development of the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC): A Method for Assessing Qualitative Aspects of Communicative Impairment in Children

Abstract

The Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) was developed to assess aspects of communicative impairment that are not adequately evaluated by contemporary standardised language tests. These are predominantly pragmatic abnormalities seen in social communication, although other qualitative aspects of speech and language were also included. Some items covering social relationships and restricted interests were incorporated, so that the relationship between pragmatic difficulties and other characteristics of pervasive developmental disorders could be explored. Checklist ratings were obtained for 76 children aged 7 to 9 years, all of whom had received special education for language impairment. In 71 cases, 2 raters (usually a teacher and speech-language therapist) independently completed the checklist, making it possible to establish inter-rater reliability. From an initial pool of 93 items, 70 items, grouped into 9 scales, were retained. Five of the subscales were concerned with pragmatic aspects of communication. A composite pragmatic impairment scale formed from these subscales had inter-rater reliability and internal consistency of around .80. This composite discriminated between children with a school diagnosis of semantic-pragmatic disorder and those with other types of specific language impairment (SLI). The majority of children with pragmatic language impairments did not have any evidence of restricted interests or significant difficulties in the domains of social relationships.

Children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida and pragmatic language impairment: Differences and similarities in pragmatic ability

“…Children´s Communication Checklist (CCC; Bishop, 1998). The CCC is a 79-item checklist assessing children's communication behaviour across 11 subscales, five of them constituting the pragmatic composite, i.e.…”

“…Although the existence of instruments as e.g. The Children's Communication Checklist (CCC; Bishop, 1998) could be helpful, according to Letts and Leinonen (2001) clear criteria for diagnosing pragmatic impairment are not available. The process still involves a heavy dependence on clinical judgement and good knowledge of the specific child (Conti-Ramsden, Crutchley & Botting, 1997).…”

“…Children with pragmatic impairment normally find it easier to perform in a structured situation guided by an adult, e.g. a formal assessment situation, than in an unstructured situation such as a spontaneous conversation (Bishop, 1998). In addition, there is a general lack of norms in different subskills (Adams & Lloyd, 2005;Letts & Leinonen, 2001), making pragmatic impairment difficult to establish unambiguously.…”

“…A third clinical group of interest, in relation to the previously mentioned groups, is children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI, previously known as semantic pragmatic disorder; Bishop 1998;. In contrast to the other two groups, children with PLI do not have established brain damage with a physical impairment as a consequence.…”

Language in autism and specific language impairment: Where are the links?

“…Tables 1 and 2 about here Semantic-pragmatic disorder constitutes a form of higher-order processing impairment according to Rapin and Allen's (1987) and Rapin's (1996b) classification system. It is important to note, however, that pragmatic language impairment (impaired language use) can occur independently of semantic impairments and independently of the social and behavioural flexibility impairments associated with autism (Bishop, 1998;Bishop & Norbury, 2002;Botting & Conti-Ramsden, 1999). Thus, pragmatic language impairment appears to be, in part, dissociable from the structural language impairments of SLI (affecting phonology, grammar, and 2 Following Rapin and Allen's (1987) classifications, this list excludes a cluster labelled 'verbal dyspraxia' which constitutes a speech output problem rather than an impairment of structural language acquisition.…”