A randomized trial of longitudinal effects of low-intensity responsivity education/prelinguistic milieu teaching.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the longitudinal effects of a 6-month course of responsivity education (RE)/prelinguistic milieu teaching (PMT) for young children with developmental delay.


METHODS
Fifty-one children, age 24-33 months, with fewer than 10 expressive words were randomly assigned to early-treatment/no-treatment groups. All treatment was added as a supplement to services that the children received in the community. Follow-up data were collected 6 and 12 months after the conclusion of the initial 6-month treatment/no-treatment conditions.


RESULTS
No effects of this treatment were detected 6 or 12 months after the conclusion of the initial treatment condition.


CONCLUSIONS
M. E. Fey et al. (2006) reported that 6 months of RE/PMT led to a significant treatment effect in the use of intentional communication in 1 of 2 communication sampling contexts. This finding, combined with evidence from other studies, suggests that RE/PMT may be applied clinically at low intensity with the expectation of medium-sized effects on children's rate of intentional communication acts over the short term. The results of the present study, however, provide no evidence for the anticipated longer term benefits of this intervention. Further investigation of the approach at higher intensity levels and for longer periods of time is warranted.
Warren
Steven F
SF
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7555, USA. sfwarren@ku.edu
Fey
Marc E
ME
Finestack
Lizbeth H
LH
Brady
Nancy C
NC
Bredin-Oja
Shelley L
SL
Fleming
Kandace K
KK
D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000628:therapy*; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000628:therapy*; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational / Q000379:methods*; D004519:Education, Special / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012813:Sign Language; D013060:Speech; D014825:Vocabulary