[Pragmatic impairments in individuals with Asperger syndrome: characteristics and interventions].

Researches on pragmatic impairments in individuals with Asperger syndrome were reviewed in regard to its characteristics and interventions. The very wide diversity of their pragmatic impairments was studied in terms of speech acts, expressing mental states, comprehension of indirect speech, question and answer, conversational turn-taking, narratives, pronouns and addressing forms, inferential language, reference and cohesion, and humor and joke. As for theories on background of the impairments, theory of mind and relevance, central coherence, executive function, general semiotic deficit, and others were discussed. Then, intervention techniques were outlined. Those were social stories, social skills training, teaching theory of mind, individual and group interventions from socio-pragmatic viewpoint.