The view from Walter's window: social environment and the communicative competence of adults with a mental handicap.

This paper reports on a study of the communicative competence of adults with a mental handicap living in hospital and community settings. One hundred and twenty subjects, half from hospital settings and half from community settings, were assessed on the Communication Assessment profile (CASP). Significant differences were found between the hospital and community groups on pragmatic competence. The communication environment was shown to be an important determinant of pragmatic skills. The implications of this finding are discussed.