Social Communication Disorder

The scope of this Practice Portal page is social communication disorder across the life span.

See the Social Communication Disorder Evidence Map for summaries of the available research on this topic.

Social communication disorder (SCD) is characterized by persistent difficulties with the use of verbal and nonverbal language for social purposes. Primary difficulties may be in social interaction, social understanding, pragmatics, language processing, or any combination of the above (Adams, 2005). Social communication behaviors such as eye contact, facial expressions, and body language are influenced by sociocultural and individual factors (Curenton & Justice, 2004; Inglebret et al., 2008). There is a wide range of acceptable norms within and across individuals, families, and cultures. Specific communication challenges may become apparent when difficulties arise in the following:

  • communicating for social purposes in ways that are appropriate for the particular social context
  • changing communication to match the context or needs of the listener
  • following rules for conversation and storytelling
  • understanding nonliteral or ambiguous language
  • understanding that which is not explicitly stated
  • sentence grammar and lexical semantics
  • inferential language
  • discourse comprehension
  • misinterpretation of contextual meaning

This definition is consistent with the diagnostic criteria for social (pragmatic) communication disorder detailed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Please note that certain references cited in this page may predate this definition. Therefore, specific terminology relating to “social (pragmatic) communication disorder” may not be used in all cases, but information may still be relevant and considered for the SCD population.

SCD can result in a wide array of problems, including difficulty participating in social settings, developing peer and/or romantic relationships, achieving academic success, and performing successfully on the job.

SCD may be a distinct diagnosis or may co-occur with other conditions. In the case of autism spectrum disorder, social communication problems are a defining feature, along with restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. Therefore, SCD cannot be diagnosed in conjunction with autism spectrum disorder.

Definitions

Social communication encompasses the following components:

  • pragmatics—communication that focuses on goal-consistent language use in social contexts (N. Nelson, 2010)
  • social interaction—communication that occurs between at least two individuals
  • social cognition—an understanding of the mental and emotional states of self and others, social schemes, and social knowledge that beliefs and values cause social events, expected socially appropriate behavior and consequences of inappropriate behavior
  • language processing—internal generation of language (expressive), and understanding and interpretation of language (receptive)

Social communication enables individuals to share experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Social communication skills are needed for language expression and comprehension in nonverbal, spoken, written, and visual–gestural (sign language) modalities.

Social communication skills include the ability to

  • adjust speech style based on context,
  • understand the perspectives of others,
  • understand and appropriately use the rules for verbal and nonverbal communication, and
  • use the structural aspects of language (e.g., vocabulary, syntax, and phonology).

For more details, see the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA’s) resources on Components of Social Communication and Social Communication Benchmarks.

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