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At least 631 records · Page 35Linked to original sources
PubMed2006

Predicting lexical density growth rate in young children with autism spectrum disorders.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this longitudinal correlational study was to test whether an environmental variable and 4 child variables predicted growth rate of number of different nonimitative words used (i.e., lexical density). METHOD: Thirty-five young (age range = 21-54 months) children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who were initially nonverbal or low verbal participated in the study. Lexical density was measured at 3 times: at entry into the study as well as 6 months and 12 months after entry into the study. Growth curve analysis was used to test the associations. The predictive value of the putative predictors in the model was tested after controlling for initial expressive language impairment. RESULTS: Initial frequency of intentional communication and diversity of object play were predictors of lexical density growth above and beyond initial expressive language impairment (both pseudo R(2)s = .14). CONCLUSIONS: Intentional communication and diversity of object play may represent important prelinguistic goals for young children with ASD. These skills not only have been shown to be malleable through treatment, but they also provide a context for linguistic input from others that may facilitate language development.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed2006

Enhancing generalized teaching strategy use in daily routines by parents of children with autism.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of facilitating generalized use of teaching strategies by parents of children with autism within daily routines. METHOD: Five preschool children with autism participated in intervention with a parent within daily routines in the family's home. Parents learned to include 2 teaching strategies in target routines to address their child's communication objectives. Parent-child interactions in routines were videotaped for data coding and analysis. Proactive programming of generalization occurred by systematic selection of intervention routines and by embedding intervention in multiple routines. Generalization data were collected by measuring strategy use in untrained routines. A multiple baseline design across teaching strategies was used to assess experimental effects. RESULTS: All parents demonstrated proficient use of teaching strategies and generalized their use across routines. The intervention had positive effects on child communication outcomes. All parents perceived the intervention to be beneficial. CONCLUSION: Results from this study add to the limited body of evidence supporting parent-implemented interventions in natural environments with young children with autism spectrum disorder. Additional research that replicates this approach with children of varying ages and disabilities and families with diverse characteristics is needed to support the generality of these findings.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2006

A randomized comparison of the effect of two prelinguistic communication interventions on the acquisition of spoken communication in preschoolers with ASD.

PURPOSE: This randomized group experiment compared the efficacy of 2 communication interventions (Responsive Education and Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching [RPMT] and the Picture Exchange Communication System [PECS]) on spoken communication in 36 preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). METHOD: Each treatment was delivered to children for a maximum total of 24 hr over a 6-month period. Spoken communication was assessed in a rigorous test of generalization at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6-month follow-up periods. RESULTS: PECS was more successful than RPMT in increasing the number of nonimitative spoken communication acts and the number of different nonimitative words used at the posttreatment period. Considering growth over all 3 measurement periods, an exploratory analysis showed that growth rate of the number of different nonimitative words was faster in the PECS group than in the RPMT group for children who began treatment with relatively high object exploration. In contrast, analogous slopes were steeper in the RPMT group than in the PECS group for children who began treatment with relatively low object exploration.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed2006

Response time in 14-year-olds with language impairment.

PURPOSE: To determine whether children with language impairment were slower than typically developing peers at age 14, and whether slowing, if present, was similar across task domains; whether differences in response time (RT) across domains were the same for children with specific language impairment (SLI) and nonspecific language impairment (NLI); and whether RT performance at age 9 predicted performance at age 14. METHOD: Fourteen-year-old children with SLI (n = 20), NLI (n = 15), and typical development (NLD; n = 31) were administered several linguistic and nonlinguistic speeded tasks. The children had received the same tasks at age 9. RT performance was examined. RESULTS: Both the SLI and the NLI groups were significantly slower than the NLD group in motor, nonverbal cognitive, and language task domains, and there was no significant difference among domains. Individual analyses showed that most, but not all, children with SLI and NLI were slower than the NLD group mean. Slowing at age 9 and age 14 were moderately correlated. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that slow RT is a persistent characteristic of many children with language impairment; however, the nature of the relationship between RT and language performance requires further investigation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Tense and agreement morphemes in the speech of children with specific language impairment during intervention: phase 2.

PURPOSE: The goals of this investigation were to determine whether treatment assists children with specific language impairment (SLI) in the use of grammatical morphemes that mark tense and agreement and whether treatment gains influence the children's use of other, untreated morphemes. METHOD: Twenty-five children with SLI participated in 96 intervention sessions designed to facilitate the children's use of third-person singular -s or auxiliary is/are/was. RESULTS: The children showed significantly larger gains on the target forms than on control forms (e.g., past tense -ed) that were monitored but not included in intervention. Along with possible treatment-related generalization across morpheme types, there was also evidence of one morpheme type influencing another when neither was the target of intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Although the results provide clear evidence for intervention effects, it appeared as if maturational factors also played a role. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for treatment and for characterizing development in SLI.

Child Language↗
PubMed1982

Language training in natural and clinical environments.

A persistent problem in programs designed to help children acquire language skills is how to promote generalization so that the child can use communication skills in the widest variety of appropriate situations. One solution is to embed the teaching in the natural environment and, perhaps, to use the parent as the teacher. For some families, however, this may not be a feasible arrangement, because of the nature of the child's problem, the characteristics of the environment, or some interaction. It may then be most appropriate to teach the child in a clinical or laboratory environment and to use a formal language training program. When such programs are implemented, there is often a problem in extending or generalizing the child's newly acquired skills. Careful consideration of the manner in which stimuli are presented, the kinds of responses that are required, and the way in which reinforcement is dispensed may help to solve the difficulty in moving from laboratory to natural settings.

Child↗
PubMed1982

Establishing generalized, productive verb-noun phrase usage in a manual language system with moderately handicapped children.

Strategies for producing generalized language skills continue to be of considerable interest to those working with severely language-delayed children. Research on generalized instruction-following suggested that strategies employing linguistic elements (verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.) arranged in systematic combination matrices were successful in producing generalized and novel responses among handicapped children. The efficacy of a training matrix in the development of expressive verb-noun phrase usage was demonstrated. Two of the three students showed considerable gains in trained responses as well as predicted, novel responses, while a third who had much less training, showed some gains. Increases were also found in the overall development of expressive language tests. This approach is discussed in relation to other experimental approaches to language development.

Child↗
PubMed1982

Phonological disorders II: a conceptual framework for management.

A conceptual framework for management of phonological disorders is proposed. The framework includes a 10-element system for describing the structure of management programs and invokes a diagnostic classification system for determining appropriate management content. Data from three serial studies of management structure describe the effectiveness, efficiency, and clinician acceptance of four modes of management: Drill, Drill Play, Structured Play and Play. Review of past, present, and future content of management programs emphasizes the central role of individual differences among persons with phonological disorders.

Child↗
PubMed1983

Auditory processing and language impairment in children: stimulus considerations for intervention.

Two experiments were undertaken to examine the performance of language-impaired children on auditory identification and sequencing tasks which employed different stimuli. The purpose of Experiment I was to determine if introduction of linguistic stimuli (words) into tasks using nonlinguistic stimuli (complex tones) would change subjects' performance. Experiment II was designed to measure differences in response when words and tones were presented separately. Responses to utterances of increasing length (up to four words) were also measured. Results indicated that some children performed significantly better when words were used as stimuli. No child responded better when tones were used as stimuli and there were no significant differences between utterances of different length. Based on these results and on the related literature, considerations for choice of stimuli for intervention with language-impaired children are discussed.

Auditory Perception↗
PubMed1983

Integrated spoken and written English instruction for the hearing-impaired student.

This study was designed to investigate the effect of integrated instruction in both spoken and written English on oral expression of hearing-impaired persons. Twenty-five hearing-impaired young adults were enrolled in English courses that focused on reading and writing skills only (control group) or on reading, writing, and complementary oral language instruction (experimental group). The experimental group demonstrated significant improvement in grammatical correctness of spoken English and in speech intelligibility, while the control group failed to demonstrate a significant improvement in these areas.

Hearing Disorders↗
PubMed1984

The effects of mands and models on the speech of unresponsive language-delayed preschool children.

The effects of the systematic use of mands (non-yes/no questions and instructions to verbalize), models (imitative prompts), and specific consequent events on the productive verbal behavior of three unresponsive, socially isolate, language-delayed preschool children were investigated in a multiple-baseline design within a classroom free play period. Following a lengthy intervention condition, experimental procedures were systematically faded out to check for maintenance effects. The treatment resulted in increases in total verbalizations and nonobligatory speech (initiations) by the subjects. Subjects also became more responsive in obligatory speech situations. In a second free play (generalization) setting, increased rates of total child verbalizations and nonobligatory verbalizations were observed for all three subjects, and two of the three subjects were more responsive compared to their baselines in the first free play setting. Rate of total teacher verbalizations and questions were also higher in this setting. Maintenance of the treatment effects was shown during the fading condition in the intervention setting. The subjects' MLUs (mean length of utterance) increased during the intervention condition when the teacher began prompting a minimum of two-word utterances in response to a mand or model.

Child Behavior↗
PubMed1984

An experimental analysis of auxiliary and copula verb generalization in aphasia.

Two subjects with chronic Broca's aphasia were taught to produce third person singular auxiliary is in sentence contexts to determine if is production would generalize to untrained auxiliary is items and to copula is contexts. A single subject (ABAB) reversal design was employed. Results revealed that training a few exemplars of the present tense auxiliary is resulted in generalized responding to untrained auxiliary is and copula is plus predicate adjective items. Generalized responding to untrained copula is plus predicate nominative and locative items was marked by individual variability. Although auxiliary and copula is verb production was maintained on 2- and 6-week follow-up probes, transfer to spontaneous speech was negligible. The results were interpreted as providing partial support for the existence of a functional or generative response class between verbal auxiliary and the copula is verbs.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Untrained acquisition of /s/ in a phonologically disordered child.

The untrained /s/ productions of a phonologically disordered child were followed over a period of several months as she produced /s/ in imitated words and in spontaneous connected speech. For this child, as has been reported in the literature for children acquiring phonology normally, /s/ occurred earliest in the word-final position, appearing in word-initial position only several weeks later. Two word-medial, or intervocalic, contexts were compared: (a) monomorphemic words in which /s/ is word- and morpheme-medial (e.g., lasso); and (b) bimorphemic words in which /s/ is word-medial but morpheme-final (e.g., missing). In this latter group, a grammatical inflection or morpheme was added to a morpheme that ends with /s/. Correct responses to the intervocalic position where /s/ occurred at a morpheme boundary (i.e., in inflected morphemes) occurred earlier and more frequently than responses to single-morpheme intervocalic position. The variability of the child's productions over time is examined and discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1985

Facilitating word combination in language-impaired children through discourse structure.

The influence of an adult-child discourse structure on the production of early word combinations was examined in language-impaired children. The subjects were 10 children (2:8-3:4) at the single-word utterance level. Eight of the children were engaged in 10 experimental sessions utilizing vertical structures (e.g., Adult: "Who's this?" Child: "Daddy." Adult: "What's Daddy throwing?" Child: "Ball." Adult: "Yeah, Daddy's throwing the ball."), while the remaining children, serving as controls, were engaged in an alternate activity. Examination of pretest and posttest data as well as session data revealed a substantial increase in the number of multiword productions for most of the children in the experimental group but not for the children serving as controls. These findings indicate that vertical structures have a facilitating effect on the multiword productions of language-impaired children comparable to that found in an identical procedure with normally developing children. The use of a naturally occurring adult-child discourse structure as an intervention procedure is discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1985

Using the miniature linguistic system in teaching syntax: two case studies.

Two language-delayed children received comprehension instruction on preposition-object phrases using a miniature linguistic system format to structure generalization. Results indicated generalization not only to untreated two-word combinations, but also to comprehension of four-word phrases. In addition, there was some generalization of production of two- and four-word structures.

Child, Preschool↗