Soc Com Model
- Behaviors
- Cognitive
- Language
- Processing

Appropriate social communication requires that children have adequate language to support their social interactions. In order for a school age child to communicate appropriately and successfully, he/she needs to be linguistically competent. Indeed, language is the primary means by which school age children succeed in establishing and maintaining social relationships. The pivotal role that language plays in teacher-related and peer-related adjustment (Gresham, 1998) places school age children with compromised language not only at a social communicative risk, but also jeopardizes their ability to participate in social environments.

Children need basic and advanced abilities in semantics or word knowledge, syntax or language structure, and pragmatics or language use. Semantic skills for good social communication include having the vocabulary to allow for sophisticated forms of information exchange as needed in social exchanges. Lack of flexibility in word knowledge can create misunderstandings in interpersonal communication and confusion when deciphering linguistic information. For example, appropriately offering help or resolving conflicts necessitates an adequate vocabulary and production of word relations. Very often successful interpersonal relations among school age children requires an ability to appreciate synonyms, analogies, idioms and other forms of figurative language (e.g., "Are you going back on your word?" "Don't let the cat out of the bag." "Are you biting off more than you can chew?").

school age social communication also requires adequate syntax for formulating complex sentences. Facility with comprehension and production of complex constructions, especially embedded clauses, is necessary for elaboration of abstract ideas that occur in social interactions. Syntax used for such social behaviors as negotiating interactions is typically rather sophisticated, including compound and complex sentence types (e.g., "I'd like to help, but I'm late for school." "If the movies are over early, we can go bowling afterwards.").

Finally, a school age child must have advanced pragmatic knowledge for adequate social communication. Arguably, this may be the most significant component of language as it relates to social communication. Pragmatics refers to how children use their semantics and syntax in interactions with others. It reflects a child's knowledge of how communication should vary in different contexts, allowing a child to know how to talk and behave in different situations with different people. These are the abilities that are necessary for determining how to appropriately behave in the classroom as a child interacts with teachers and peers.

We have identified the following specific semantic, syntactic and pragmatic behaviors as being important for social communication:

Semantics:

• Variety in vocabulary
  
  
• Recognizing different points of view and using evaluative comments (taking on more than one perspective on events-using verbs of mental states, e.g., thinking, believing, and knowing)
  
  
• Recognizing different emotions (using verbs of emotion, e.g., angry, sad, frustrated)

Syntax:

• Propositions with complex structures
  A proposition is defined as any clause containing at least a noun/subject + verb (e.g., He was sleeping.). However, the subject may be implied, as in infinitivals (e.g., He wanted to go outside, in which the subject is the same for wanted and to go, vs. He said to go outside, where the subject of to go is someone other than the subject of said.) The same is true of gerundives (e.g., Leaning out the window, the dog fell, in which the subject of leaning is the dog.) Alternately, the verb may be implied, as in cases of verb ellipsis (The boy searched in the tree, and the dog in the woods, where searched is the implied verb for the dog). Thus, any instance of subject + verb, whether these elements are overt or not, will be counted as a proposition.
  
  Syntactically complex propositions are defined as propositions that are joined to other propositions by means other than or, and or but. These include embedded clauses (clausal subjects, verb complements, relative clauses, infinitival clauses, gerundive clauses), subordinate clauses begun by conjunctions other than and/but/or, and two propositions forming a conditional utterance of any type.
  
  
• Pronouns with clear antecedents
  Pronouns need to have clear, unambiguous referents. A clear reference occurs whenever a pronoun is used to refer back to a noun or prepositional phrase that was explicitly stated earlier in the sentence or in a previous sentence (e.g., The boy wondered where his frog went. He started to look for it in which he refers back to the boy and it refers back to his frog.).
  
  
• Linking meaning across referents and events
  (discourse cohesion in extended turns-e.g., conjunctions with temporal and causal links). This refers to producing two propositions that are linked by a conjunction, which specifies a conceptual relationship between them. Of particular importance to social communication are conjunctions that relate two propositions in a causative (because, so that) or temporal (after, while) manner will be counted.
  
  
• Mapping questions and answers
  (asking and answering the right questions for specific information, e.g., double wh-questions-"Who is wearing what"?).

Pragmatics (Damico, et al., 1999)

• Clear statement of topics and reiteration of topics. Topics are clearly stated, and when necessary for the listener, are repeated.
  
  
• Clear and polite communicative attempts. Verbal interactions between two or more people that are clear and polite. Clear attempts are informative as the situation requires. They do not deceive the listener/communicative partner (i.e., sincere), talk about that for which speaker lacks adequate information. They are neither obscure nor ambiguous, but rather, are free from confusion, uncertainty, or doubt. Polite attempts do not impose upon the listener/communicative partner, but, rather are friendly, appropriate to the situation, courteous, civil.

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