This study aimed to examine the effects of peer-mediated language therapy using a Theory of Mind intervention program on the pragmatic language abilities of school-aged children with borderline intellectual functioning. The intervention was designed t...
This study aimed to examine the effects of peer-mediated language therapy using a Theory of Mind intervention program on the pragmatic language abilities of school-aged children with borderline intellectual functioning. The intervention was designed to promote pragmatic language use in real communicative contexts through peer interaction focused on understanding others’ emotions, intentions, and beliefs.
The participants were two children aged 7–8 years with borderline intellectual functioning (IQ 71–84). A single-subject repeated-measures design was employed, and the intervention was conducted over 10 sessions. Pragmatic language abilities were assessed at the pre-, mid-, post-, and follow-up stages using the Korean Meta-Pragmatic Language Assessment for Children (KOPLAC) and the Children’s Pragmatic Language Checklist (CPLC).
The results showed that Child A improved on KOPLAC from 21 points at pre-test to 29 points at post-test and maintained 27 points at follow-up, while Child B improved from 11 points to 18 points and maintained 14 points at follow-up. On the CPLC, Child A improved from 42 points at pre-test to 68 points at post-test and maintained 66 points at follow-up, whereas Child B improved from 32 points to 48 points and maintained 45 points at follow-up. Both children showed improvements in situational context understanding, discourse management, communicative intent, and context-based adjustment abilities. In addition, adaptive pragmatic behaviors increased, whereas maladaptive behaviors decreased during the intervention.
In conclusion, this study is meaningful in that it examined changes in pragmatic language abilities by applying peer-mediated language therapy based on a Theory of Mind intervention program to children with borderline intellectual functioning. The findings suggest that this intervention may positively influence the pragmatic language abilities of school-aged children with borderline intellectual functioning.