Social adaptation and communicative competence in children in care

This paper analyses the communicative competence and the degree of social adaptation of children in care. It provides further knowledge of the relationship between the children's social and linguistic skill and analyses the presence of difficulties in the different components of language (morphology, syntaxis, semantics and pragmatics). The research was carried out in children's homes in Extremadura (Spain). The sample consists of 74 children between 6 and 18 years of age. The study illustrates that the children's linguistic development is below what is considered to be normal for their chronological age. They have greater difficulties in pragmatics and morphology than in syntaxis and semantics. The relationship between the level of dominion in morphology, syntaxis and semantics and the children's degree of social maladjustment is evident. We call attention to such important aspects as intentionality in communication and the context in which the children's language is developed.