Development of minimum communications circuits from seven basic speech acts

Definition and characteristics

ICRA-A Battery was designed to assess the child’s early pragmatic competence systematically and with a progression criterion.

It is centered on the concept of speech act resulting from pragmatic linguistics and language philosophy (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969).

It assesses the pragmatic aspect of language within the framework of a neurolinguistic speech and language assessment. For this particularity, phonologic, lexical-semantic, morphologic and syntactic features need to be assessed through the corresponding tests.

ICRA-A Battery was submitted to a validation process through which values of sensitiveness, specificity, prediction and risk and also percentiles for population control could be established. The minimum level of pragmatic linguistic development, nonverbal and verbal, expected at 2.5 years old could be established from cutting values. Within the ICRA Method, this implies the basic competence to interact effectively (COMMUNICATION MINIMUM CIRCUIT).