Promoting Communication Development in Young Children with or at Risk for Disabilities

Promoting Communication Development in Young Children with or at Risk for Disabilities

Introduction

  • Communication skills in young children:

    • Crucial for sharing interests and accessing preferred activities.

    • Early communication learned through the interaction of behavior and environment (McCathren, Yoder, & Warren, 1999; Prizant & Wetherby, 1987).

    • Example: An infant crying due to hunger prompts parental response (feeding or soothing).

Early Communication Learning

  • Contingency learning in infancy:

    • Crying leads to fulfilling responses from caregivers, encouraging future similar behaviors.

  • Early reciprocal interactions as foundational for developing sophisticated communication (Bruinsma, Koegel, & Koegel, 2004).

Understanding Communication Dynamics

  • Communication is dynamic and social:

    • Involves multiple persons and settings (DEC, 2014; Hancock & Kaiser, 2006).

    • Development is embedded in interactions with parents, siblings, and members of the community.

  • Child’s communicative behavior is shaped through responsive adults:

    • Adults interpret and respond to communication forms effectively (e.g., gestures, vocalizations).

Importance of Communication Forms and Functions

  • Forms of communication include:

    • Words, signs, gestures, written text, pictures, vocal output devices (McCauley & Fey, 2006).

  • Each communicative act has a specific function:

    • Requesting items, information, assisting access to desired activities, commenting on events, protesting non-preferred activities (Kaiser & Grimm, 2005).

  • Common functions of communication:

    1. Accessing items/social interactions.

    2. Escaping non-preferred situations (Halle, Ostrosky, & Hemmeter, 2006).

Definitions and Terms

  • Communication: Exchange of information involving a sender and a receiver.

  • Form: Type of behavior used to communicate needs (e.g., verbalizations).

  • Function: Purpose of communication (e.g., making requests).

Components of Communication

  • Two notable aspects:

    1. Understanding (receptive communication): Comprehension of others’ communicative behaviors.

    2. Expression (expressive communication): Production of one's own communicative behaviors.

Language Development Components

  • Common terms include:

    • Phonology: Production of speech sounds.

    • Morphology: Understanding the meaning of speech.

    • Syntax: Understanding word order.

    • Semantics: Clarity and meanings of words.

    • Pragmatics: Appropriate use of language in social contexts (Turnbull & Justice, 2012).

Typical Communication Development

  • Progressive development in form and function:

    • Prelinguistic forms (gestures, reaching) leading to intentional communication (joint attention).

  • Stages of communication:

    1. Preintentional Stage: Reflexive sounds transitioning to early babbling.

    2. Intentional Communication: Development of meaningful gestures and verbal associations.

    3. Symbolic Communication: Use of symbols (e.g., words) that represent abstract concepts beyond immediate context.

Joint Attention and Gestures

  • Joint Attention: Engagement between two or more people focusing on the same object or event (Bakeman & Adamson, 1984).

    • Early social engagement predicts communication skills (Adamson et al., 2014).

  • Gestures: Key initial communication method:

    • Emerge around 7-9 months including basic contact gestures, progressing to distal gestures (e.g., pointing) by 10-12 months (Carpenter et al., 1998).

  • Difficulty in joint attention often observed in children with disabilities (Bruinsma et al., 2004).

Prelinguistic Vocalization Development

  • Categorized into five levels from reflexive sounds to advanced forms of speech:

    1. Reflexive sounds (0-1 month).

    2. Vowel-like sounds (1-4 months).

    3. Vocal expansions (3-8 months).

    4. Canonical babbling (5-10 months).

    5. Advanced babbling (9-18 months) (Nathani et al., 2006).

Language Acquisition in Young Children

  • First words typically emerge between 10-15 months, with vocabulary expanding significantly by 24 months (Bates et al., 1994).

  • Successful acquisition emphasizes functions of communication across varied contexts (e.g., requesting, commenting).

Communication during Conversations

  • Advances in conversations include:

    • Understanding and discussing decontextualized events.

    • Engagement in sustained interactions with peers and adults.

  • Challenges faced by children with disabilities in initiating and participating in conversations (Crais & Roberts, 2004).

Atypical Development of Communication

  • Deviations can occur in rate and quality of communication development:

    • Awareness of these atypical patterns assists in timely intervention (Johnson, Beitchman, & Brownlie, 2010).

History of Communication Interventions

  • Early interventions were conducted in isolated settings, lacking natural contexts (LeBlanc et al., 2006).

  • Strategies evolved to incorporate children’s natural environments, focusing on real-world application of skills.

Evidence-Based Communication Interventions

  • Environmental Arrangement: Modifying the child’s environment to create communication opportunities (Halle et al., 1981):

    • Considerations include physical and social components of the child's environment.

  • Milieu Teaching: Interventions embedded in typical activities combining behavioral methods (Hart & Risley, 1975).

Types of Milieu Teaching Interventions

  1. Modeling: Verbal modeling of communication target, followed by reinforcement (Kaiser & Grimm, 2005).

  2. Mand-Model: Adult prompts the child verbally, followed by modeling if there's no response.

  3. Time Delay: Adult pauses to let the child respond after withholding access to preferred items.

  4. Incidental Teaching: Expansion of child’s initiated communication opportunities (Hart & Risley, 1968).

Additional Techniques for Enhancing Communication

  • Contingent Imitation: Adults imitate child’s communicative actions to encourage further communication.

  • Expansions and Recasts: Strategy to increase language complexity through repeated teaching formats (Camarata et al., 1994).

  • Video Modeling: Visual representation of model communicative behavior for repeated observation (Alexander et al., 2015).

Comprehensive Intervention Programs

  1. Early Start Denver Model: Targets communication, language, and play skills specifically for young children with autism.

  2. Enhanced Milieu Teaching: Hybrid methods combining responsive interaction with milieu teaching strategies.

  3. Hanen Programs: Training parents to use effective communication strategies, including responsive interaction (Sussman, 2012).

  4. Joint Attention Intervention: Focuses on encouraging shared attention and language development among children with ASD.

Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC)

  • AAC provides alternative methods for children with limited speech:

    • Types include unaided (manual signs) and aided (devices).

  • Using AAC can improve expressive communication and supplement existing communication skills, particularly when traditional methods fail (Romski & Sevcik, 2005).

Instructional Context

  • Embed interventions within natural learning settings to enhance meaningful communication:

    • Emphasize real-world interactions for generalization of acquired skills.

Future Research Directions

  • Increased focus on dynamic environments for implementing interventions to promote generalization and maintenance of communication skills.

Conclusion

  • Effective communication interventions are vital not just for early childhood but also for long-term social and academic success.