PRINCIPLES OF CHILD LANGUAGE INTERVENTION

Question 1

Goal of intervention

Answer 1

Develop new language behaviors
* Make the child a better communicator

Question 2

Purpose of intervention

Answer 2

Changing or eliminating the underlying problem
Underlying cause is known and remediable (i.e. cochlear implant)
Changing the disorder
improve the child’s discrete aspects of language function by teaching specific behaviors.
i.e. expand the number of words and grammatical morphemes in sentences, to produce a broader range of semantic relations, use language more flexibly and appropriately.
teachingcompensatory strategies
not specific language behaviors
i.e. strategies for word findings
Impacting the environment and context (i.e. CP)

Question 3

HOWEVER, …

Answer 3

Evidence-based literature points to advantages of more natural approaches
Faster acquisition of grammatical targets and increased generalization with a conversational intervention treatment than an imitative one (Nelson et al., 1996)
Children with language impairments learned syntactic targets faster under naturalistic conditions than with a CD approach (Camarata, Nelson, and Camarata, 1994)
Naturalistic interventions showed a consistent advantage over CD methods (meta-analysis byDelprato, 2001)
Lack of generalization seen in CD approaches renders them useless, compared to natural and interactive language interventions (Norrisand Hoffman, 1993; andOwens, 2009)

Question 4

Drill

Answer 4

Most efficient intervention approach (highest rate of stimulus presentations and responses per unit time)
Clinician instructs the client : what response is expected and provides a training stimulus
Training stimuli are carefully planned and controlled by the clinician.
Promptsor instructional stimuli that tell the child how to respond correctly, for example by imitating the clinician.
Prompts gradually eliminated orfadedon a schedule predetermined by the clinician.
Response
Intended (“correct”), the child isreinforcedwith verbal praise or some tangible reinforcer, such as food or a token, or a motivating eventalso may be provided.
Not the intended target, the clinician attempts toshapethe response by reinforcing the production of parts of the complete target

Question 5

Modelling

Answer 5

Highly structured format, extrinsic reinforcement, and a formal interactive context.
Child listens as the model provides numerous examples of the structure being taught.
Through listening, the child is expected to acquire and later produce the target structure.

Question 6

Child-centered approaches (Prizant & Wetherby, 2005a)

Answer 6

Most important is to win the child’s trust, whether passive communicator or reluctant communicator
Clinician arranges an activity:
opportunities for child to provide target responses are natural part of play and interaction.
Child’s point of view:
Activity is “just” play or conversation
No tangible reinforcers
No requirements that the child provide a response to the clinician’s language,
No prompts or shaping of incorrect responses when they do occur
But: the clinician follows up any child remarks in specific ways