Abstract
There is a constant tension in the field of speech-language pathology between researchers who are wedded to the use of carefully controlled and designed conditions for the study of language and clinicians who need to know how to remediate language disorders in the much more messy real world. The problems created by this tension have been the topic of many discussions, including a recent ASHA Report (Shewan, 1990). Yet, over the past 20 years, a number of approaches to the study of language and language disorders have been developed that provide a better framework for clinician-researcher communication. One of these is Functionalism, an approach to the study of language which Carol Prutting pioneered. Her application of pragmatics to the study of language assessment and intervention was an important step toward bridging the gap between theoretical approaches and clinical applications. This chapter represents our attempt to continue the bridge building that Carol exemplified in her productive career by describing a recent functionalist model and suggesting how insights derived from the model may be applied to real-world clinical situations.
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Bates, E., Thal, D., MacWhinney, B. (1991). A Functionalist Approach to Language and Its Implications for Assessment and Intervention. In: Gallagher, T.M. (eds) Pragmatics of Language. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7156-2_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7156-2_5
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