Early Intervention

Language Disorder

abnormal acquisition, comprehension, or use of spoken or written language

*includes all receptive and expressive language skills

Form

word order, word endings, speech

Content

word meaning, the way words link together, sequencing

Use

conversations, social rules, matching language to situation

What are the earliest sounds children develop?

p, m, w, h, b, k

What is the goal of Early Intervention?

Development of basic skills, critical for language and learning through repeated exposure, stimulation, and parent education

Localization

Childs awareness of sounds in their environment

ex. turning head toward loud sound

Joint Attention

shared fous/attention highlights the relationship between adult utterance and the concept/object they represent

ex. both child and clinician looking at object in front of them

Mutual Gaze

child and caregiver/clinician look at each other during social interaction for a sustained period (at last 1-2 seconds); a building block for later development of conversational turn taking

Think: eye contact

Join Action & Routines

routine is ritualized exchange with clear beginning, middle, and end clearly specified for vocalization/verbalization

*allows for anticipation and turn-taking

ex. peek-a-boo, hide & seek

Gestures

physical motions (usually involving hands) that indicate meaning; gestural development is a key indicator of vocabulary development and language ability

ex. pointing, waving

Vocalizations

expand on a child’s vocal repertoire by increasing the frequency, variety, and quality of vocalizations

Communicative Intentions

attention seeking, requesting, greetings, transferring, protesting, rejecting, responding, acknowledging, informing

What are the three types of Play?

1. Functional

2. Pretend

3. Symbolic

Functional Play

physical play; banging objects together and appropriate use of objects

Pretend Play

imaginative play

ex. pretending to feed doll

Symbolic Play

substitute one object for another object

ex. using block as pretend phone

Emergent Literacy

Increasing awareness of print and an understanding of the functions of literacy

What are aspects of Emergent Literacy?

• Reading and phonological awareness

• Segmentation and blending

• Rhyming / recognition of rhyming words

• Alphabetic principle

• Print awareness

• Shared reading and sense of story

• Alphabetic letter knowledge

• Adult modeling of literacy activities

• Experience with writing materials

Which strategy of Early Intervention do these techniques fall under?

• face-to-face

• OWL (observe, wait, listen)

• creating opportunities

• join in play

• imitate

• interpret

• comment

Follow the Child’s Lead

Which strategy of Early Intervention do these techniques fall under?

• turn-taking

• cues

• questions (choice, yes/no, WH-, how)

• rewarding routines/activities

Keeping the Interaction Going

Which strategy of Early Intervention do these techniques fall under?

• adding language

• daily activities

• word expansion/variety

• making sure to highlight your language

• remembering to: say less, stress, slow down, show

Language Building

Which strategy of Early Intervention do these techniques fall under?

• determining receptive and expressive targets and select play activities to stimulate them

• includes organized/spontaneous, functional, pretend, symbolic play, books, and music.

Structured Play

Name the Key Teaching Strategy:

○ Clinician demonstrates target behavior for client

○ Reduces errors

○ Visual, tactile, auditory cues

Direct Modeling

Name the Key Teaching Strategy:

Provide client with increased exposure to the desired behaviors but client

is not asked to imitate

Indirect Modeling

Name the Key Teaching Strategy:

• A target behavior that is too complex for a child to perform even given a

model is simplified

• A behavior is broken down into manageable chunks

• Client is asked to imitate in successive approximations

Shaping

Name the Key Teaching Strategy:

• Extra verbal and nonverbal cues that are given to help the client produce desired response

• Attentional cues (“eyes on me”)

• Instructional/verbal cues

Prompts

Name the Key Teaching Strategy:

• Gradual fading of modeling needs to happen to allow client to become

independent

• Clinician can do this by asking the client to imitate a response several

times in a row or only giving a partial model

• General rule of thumb is if the client can make at least 5 successful

imitations over two sessions you can begin to fade

Fading

Name the Key Teaching Strategy:

More frequent in language therapy programs for younger children

Build on the child’s utterances

Expansion

Name the Key Teaching Strategy:

Clinician reformulates a client's utterance into a different sentence type

Recast

Name the Key Teaching Strategy:

Helps client differentiate between the “old” response and the “new” response

Negative Practice

Name the Key Teaching Strategy:

○ Client receives info regarding aspects of their response

○ More than a simple accuracy statement, more precise

○ Maintains clients awareness of desired response

Target Specific Feedback