What Is Pragmatics? Why is it Important?

Pragmatic Knowledge is understanding language is used differently in different situations. It is important as children learn conversational rules, how to be polite, and social register.

Tips for Parents: How can I reinforce Pragmatics at Home?

• Expose your children to different and safe environments and situations.
• Teach them the right and wrong ways of speaking
• Allow children to make jokes
• Tells stories together
• Encourage them to express their ideas through writing
• Engage in conversations
• Introduce them to a variety of written language genres: signs and labels, stories, directions, newspapers, cards, letters.
• invoke social rules, and appropriate ways to express emotion
• talk about how you use language, and tone differently at school, at home, on the playground, etc.

Books & Activities:

Infant/ Toddlers:

1. Yummy Yukcy
2. Where’s My Teddy
3. Counting Kisses

• Puppet Play
• Read with great prosody so children can hear the difference in tones, and the way the characters speak.
• Engage in informal conversations about the book

Preschool:

1. Sheep In A Jeep
2. How I Became A Pirate
3. Are You My Mother?

• Conversation Clips 
• Dramatic Play. Act out a scene in any of the books.
• Work on conversation skills 

Kindergarten:

1. Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse
2. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
3. Chrysanthemum

• Discuss How Lily spoke to her teacher, talk about how she could have spoken to him differently.
• Encourage your child to put themselves in the main characters shoes, ask them to tell you how the character might have felt in the story.
• Create an apology letter than Lily might have sent to her teacher.

Primary Age:

1. Officer Gloria
2. Frog and Toad Are Friends
3. The Polar Express

• Discuss about how the friends in the book talk differently to one another than they would to an adult.
• Assist your child in creating a list of the sequence of events.
• Create a list of tips for school, similar to the ones made in Officer Gloria