Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Learners in Relation to Social Skills

Abstract Pragmatic behaviors are related to the social use of language in an appropriate and effective way. As a result of their hearing loss, many deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) learners who use spoken language have pragmatic difficulties in everyday interactions. Assessing pragmatic competence is the most challenging aspect of language ability to assess and there are few efficient, valid, and reliable sound tools for this purpose in DHH learners. The successful use of pragmatic skills is particularly important to DHH children’s social and emotional functioning in the educational system, including their self-confidence, motivation, social adjustment, peer acceptance, and popularity. This chapter discusses the assessment of pragmatic abilities in DHH learners and argues that pragmatic abilities are fundamental to DHH learners’ social-emotional functioning. A case example will be provided and implications for educational assessment and intervention will be discussed.