Genre 5: Podcast
My name is Nancy Wood. Recently my husband and I found out that our four year old daughter Amy has Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). We were devastated when we heard the news, but have made learning more about the characteristics of AS our number one priority. We had noticed Amy’s lack of social skills and inability to stay on topic during a conversation, but we thought maybe it was just shyness. Once she was given the diagnosis of AS we learned that one of the main characteristics in children with AS is problems with pragmatics. When I first heard the word “pragmatics” I didn’t know exactly what that meant. When Amy was referred to a speech-language pathologist (SLP) one of my first questions was “What is pragmatics?” The SLP educated me and my husband on the topic and told us what problems children with AS have with pragmatics. She also discussed the components of pragmatics to better explain why Amy and other children with AS have trouble with language. The following information was provided to my husband and I during our visit to the SLP. She informed us that:
Podcast text:
One of the key features of children with Asperger’s Syndrome is a disruption in the ability to engage in social communication, which is also referred to as pragmatic language (Martin & McDonald, 2004). Pragmatics is the sociolinguistic rules which govern how we use language. Pragmatics consists of communicative function, linguistic selection, and discourse.
• Communicative function is the intent of speech acts. What we say and how we say it is affected by what we’re trying to accomplish. There are direct speech acts, which clearly state the intention of the speaker and indirect speech acts, which don’t always reflect the true intention of the speaker (Berko Gleason, 2005).
• Linguistic selection is where what we say is affected by our perception of the context and the listener’s presuppositions (Berko Gleason, 2005).
• Discourse is the rules of conversation, e.g., initiation, topic maintenance, eye contact, termination, etc (Berko Gleason, 2005).
Children with Asperger’s Syndrome often have problems with eye contact, turn taking, topic maintenance, understating non-literal language, and being aware of unusual situations or disruptions around them (Maurice, Green, & Luce, 1996). They often talk about just what they want to talk about and very rarely make eye contact. A child with Asperger’s Syndrome also takes everything you say literally, e.g., if you say “Give me two seconds and then we can play,” they literally are ready and expect you to play with them in two seconds (Martin & McDonald, 2004).
As a speech-language pathologist (SLP) it is my responsibility to set reasonable therapeutic goals for these children to improve their language skills. Difficulty engaging in social communication is a crucial impediment for individuals in society (Martin & McDonald, 2004). It is my job to teach these individuals the proper rules of social conversation in hopes that one day they will be able to engage socially with others.
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Voice: Voice of the client’s mother relaying information that is in the voice of the speech-language pathologist. The podcast itself is the SLP
Audience: The general public–someone who is interested in learning about asperger’s syndrome.
Say Back: When Amy was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, Nancy and her husband were told Amy has difficulty with pragmatics. They didn’t know the meaning of this term, but the SLP’s explanation cleared up their confusion. The SLP told them:
–She has trouble with the social use of language.
–Specifically, she has trouble with expressing her intentions.
–She also has trouble choosing what to say based on her understanding of the listener.
–She has trouble using conversational rules.
–She has trouble with maintaining eye contact and understanding non-literal language.
She needs an SLP to help her with the social use of language because pragmatic skills are necessary for life.
Bless: I like not only the way you use your podcast–to relay part of the counseling of the patient by the SLP as a response to the parent’s question–but also the way your Podcast sounds. It is of a very professional quality. Using the podcast to explain the meaning of pragmatics is a great use of the genre. Good job, Alyssa!
Address: The only thing I would consider is specifying what the purpose of the piece is–Why is Nancy Wood communicating to us or who is she talking to (as she does introduce herself even)? Is this a public service announcement and the SLP is actually speaking on a commercial? Or is Nancy simply recalling something that the SLP told her in counseling? You may want to provide a statement at the beginning of the whole piece putting the genre in context (e.g. “The following is a public service announcement:” if it is.) In the explanation, be sure to take into account the listener’s prior knowledge of terms (speech acts, presuppositions)
Comment by Abby Warner — November 7, 2006 #
Voice: This podcast is in the voice of the SLP
Audience: General public, other professionals, and possibly students.
Say Back:The author is saying that they(the parents) did not understand what Asperger’s was so the SLP gave them information including: what Asperger’s is, what pragmatic language is, communicative function, linguistic selection, and discourse related to the problems that these kids have in relation to the listed areas. She also discussed what the role of the SLP was.
Bless: I like how you used a sort of introduction before your podcast to explain what it was, and then outlined the text of your podcast. It is very easy to follow with the bold print and the way it is spaced. Good job!
Address: The only thing I’m not sure about is if you have to list your sources on this page? Personally, I am not sure if we do or not but it might be worth checking on. Everything looks good though and is very informative!
Comment by kmk22 — November 7, 2006 #
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