Communicative Profiles of Children with Developmental Delay Compared to Age- or Language-Matched Typically Developing Peers

Expressing communicative intentions is a fundamental pragmatic skill that develops early in childhood, enabling individuals to meet personal and social needs. This ability relies on cognitive, social, and linguistic competencies, which can pose challenges for children with intellectual disability (ID) or global developmental delays (GDD). This research examines the communicative profile, including the communicative intentions produced and the means of production of young children with ID or GDD (the developmental delay group-DD) compared to their typically developing (TD) peers during a structured pragmatic protocol. Seventy-two children aged 24 to 68 months participated in the study, divided across three groups: twenty-three children with DD, twenty-three TD children matched by chronological age to the children with DD, and twenty-five TD children matched by language age to the children with DD. All children underwent a structured pragmatic observation protocol that prompted the production of communicative intentions. Significant differences were observed when comparing children with DD to their age-matched TD peers, namely, TD children produced more social communicative intentions and used more complex means of production. A more similar communicative profile was found between the DD group and equivalent language-matched TD peers. Language ability was associated with producing a greater variety of communicative intents for both language-matched groups; however, better executive functions were associated with a broader variety only among younger TD children. This study highlights delays in communicative profiles and differences in related variables between children with DD and their TD peers of equivalent chronological age, and of equivalent language age.