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., 1996).There is emerging evidence supporting the effectiveness of this procedure.Specifically, the interventionist models a speech sound or word (e.g., da, gee, oh) and at the same time delivers a reinforcer to the child.The rationale being that this pairing of vocal model with a reinforcer will eventually make the child’s own vocalizations automatically reinforcing and thus the child’s propen-sity to emit speech will increase.Data indicate that after approximately 300–400such pairings, some children with autism and language delays may begin to spontaneously imitate the target sounds (Miguel, Carr, and Michael, 2002; Yoon and Bennett, 2000).While additional research is needed to establish the reliability of these initial findings, it would appear that this stimulus–stimulus pairing procedure is a promising approach for inducing imitative speech.REPLACING ECHOLALIASome children have speech, but simply repeat words or phrases that they hear other people say.Because this echolalia is not functional, the aim of intervention is to replace echolalia with functional use of speech.Along these lines, there has been some success in replacing echolalia with functional speech using prompting, shaping, and fading procedures (Lovaas, 1977).Generally, the interventionist sets the occasion for a response by presenting a discriminative stimulus (e.g., holding up a book and asking, “What is this?”).During the initial phases of intervention, the child is immediately prompted to say “Book.”Because the prompt is immediate, the child is most likely to echo only the last word (book), rather than the entire initial question.This echoic prompt is then faded by speaking the word “book” with less and less volume and emphasis over successive learning opportunities.A well-established variation of this approach is known as the cues-pause-point procedure (Foxx et al., 1987; McMorrow and Foxx, 1986; McMorrow et al., 1987).The procedure involves a series of steps that occur during intervention Communication303sessions.First, the interventionist prompts the child to remain silent by holding up a finger to the lips.If any child verbalizations occur at this point, the interventionist gives corrective feedback (“No” or “Shh”).This corrective feedback is referred to as the pause prompt.Once the child has paused, the interventionist points to a discriminative stimulus and asks, “What is this?” The pause prompt is then removed, which is intended to signal to the child that it can now make a response.Data show that this procedure is highly effective for replacing echolalia with correct naming of objects.MILIEU-BASED INTERVENTIONSGoldstein (2002) reviewed 12 studies investigating the use of time delay, milieu teaching, and natural language paradigm interventions.His review is systematic in terms of extracting some of the data from the original studies (e.g., appraisal of quality, design, participant characteristics, independent variables, dependent variables, generalization assessed), but falls short on effectiveness judgments, which appear to be subjective.In addition, the review does not specify where and how the search for studies was conducted.Hence, the conclusions reached in this review were discussed with these limitations in mind.Time delay is a technique whereby a pause is inserted between the presentation of a stimulus and a prompt or a sequence of prompts.Depending on the exact delivery of the prompts, we distinguish between constant time delay and progressive time delay.Time delay lends itself readily for use in natural settings although its use is also frequent in discrete-trial interventions such as the speech-based interventions described earlier.According to Goldstein (2002), time delay is effective in producing rapid and often generalized language production, although it is many times unclear whether it is time delay that is responsible and/or the frequently combined correction and modeling procedures.Milieu teaching is a family of procedures that aim to elaborate on the child’s desires and wants in the natural environment.Milieu teaching approaches include incidental teaching involving the mand-model procedure and time delay, and following the child’s lead and interests (natural language paradigm).Goldstein (2002) corrected the common misconception that milieu teaching is used only for teaching requesting, noting the following other intervention goals that have been targeted: preverbal communication (e.g., eye contact, joint attention), spontaneous productions, descriptions of drawings and card play, social amenities, positive interactions with peers, answers to questions, phoneme production, and increased talking.Although generally viewed as effective, Goldstein (2002) argued that there is no compelling evidence that milieu teaching is any more effective than discrete-trial instruction.304Schlosser and SigafoosCOMMUNICATION PARTNER INTERVENTIONSIn communication intervention the role of communication partners cannot be overemphasized.If communication is viewed as a transactional process between a sender and a receiver, the communication partner’s contribution to the success of an interaction is critical (Schlosser et al., 2007).Parents constitute one group of partners that are part of children’s natural environment, especially when these children are young.Other partner groups are teachers and related staff in classrooms, day care centers, and peers.Goldstein (2002) reviewed three studies that focused on the effectiveness of parent training programs exclusively, two studies that targeted entire classroom staff, and one study that involved day care center staff as well as parents of children with autism.Although each of these studies reported moderate to significant effects for the children involved, Goldstein (2002) cautioned about the low confidence we can place in these results due to numerous shortcomings in design (except one study using a randomized control trial), lack of treatment integrity, and sketchy descriptions of interventions.McConachie and Diggle (2007) conducted a more recent and rigorous systematic review of parent-implement intervention programs in early intervention involving children with ASD.Based on a randomised control trial (RCT) by Aldred et al [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]