Children\u27s Book on Pragmatics

Pragmatics of communication is the use of social language skills when communicating with others. These skills are important in learning how to appropriately communicate and in building relationships. This is one area of communication that children can have difficulties with when they are developing language skills. This children’s book focuses on one pragmatic skill learned during development, using language to request permission, with the goal of teaching children aged two to five about its importance. I used my background knowledge in pragmatics and child development to write a story about a boy named Jacob that struggles to ask his Grandpa for permission to do various things on their day at the park. To promote engagement of children while reading or listening to the book, I used writing and illustration strategies like incorporating consistent repeated phrases, interesting font and text placement, and foreshadowing of events. An additional goal in writing and illustrating this book was to allow space for adults to make comments and pose questions to children they are reading with. As the story is read, children are able to practice recall skills, as well as make predictions, and learn new vocabulary. While studying Communicative Disorders with a minor in Education and Human Development and Family Science, I learned about the excellent tool of children’s books in promoting language development. I’ve never written a children’s book before, which required research on guidelines and suggestions for an engaging story. Creating illustrations for the book is where most of my challenges occurred because I had to stretch my artistic abilities and try out different techniques. This project allowed me to challenge and expand my creativity, and combine my background knowledge into my own children’s book, to hopefully use in my future career as a speech-language pathologist