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Assessing pragmatic language difficulties using the Revised Children’s Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-R). Exploratory structural equation modelling and associations with restricted and repetitive behaviours

Keating, Jennifer, Uljarević, Mirko, van Goozen, Stephanie, Abbot-Smith, Kirsten, Hay, Dale, Leekam, Susan (2024) Assessing pragmatic language difficulties using the Revised Children’s Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-R). Exploratory structural equation modelling and associations with restricted and repetitive behaviours. Autism Research, 17 (3). pp. 584-595. ISSN 1939-3792. E-ISSN 1939-3806. (doi:10.1002/aur.3100) (KAR id:104582)

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the psychometric properties of the Child Communication Checklist-Revised (CCC-R) for the first time with an English-speaking sample. We used confirmatory application of exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) to re-evaluate the CCC-R’s psychometric properties. We found strong support for its use as an assessment for pragmatic and structural language. Our second main aim was to explore associations between pragmatic and structural language and restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRBs), two hallmark characteristics of autism. We used the CCC-R and Repetitive Behaviour Questionnaire (RBQ-2) to investigate these associations in a diverse non-clinical sample of children, taking a transdiagnostic approach. We intentionally excluded autism and other neurodevelopmental diagnoses to test, (1) the CCC-R in a broad sample and (2) the association between pragmatic language and RRB in children not already selected for that association. The sample comprised two groups of children, one was community sampled (n=123) and the other (n=143) included children with non-specific behavioural, emotional and/or cognitive difficulties referred to an assessment unit by schools. We found clear associations between pragmatic language difficulties and RRBs in both groups. Regression analysis showed that pragmatic language was the only significant contributor to RRBs even after Grammatical-Semantic score, age, sex, and socioeconomic status were controlled. The pattern was the same for both recruitment groups. However, the effects were stronger for the school-referred group which also had more pragmatic difficulties, grammatical-semantic difficulties and RRBs. A robust link between pragmatic language and RRBs, established in autism, has continuity across the broader non-clinical population.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1002/aur.3100
Additional information: For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.
Uncontrolled keywords: Pragmatic language; Restricted and Repetitive Behaviour; Exploratory structural equation modelling; Revised Children's Communication Checklist 2 (CCC-2); autism
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF41 Psychology and philosophy
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Funders: Leverhulme Trust (https://ror.org/012mzw131)
Economic and Social Research Council (https://ror.org/03n0ht308)
The Waterloo Foundation (https://ror.org/01cwc0f90)
Depositing User: Kirsten Abbot-Smith
Date Deposited: 22 Jan 2024 19:26 UTC
Last Modified: 05 Nov 2024 13:10 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/104582 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Abbot-Smith, Kirsten.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8623-0664
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