Teaching spontaneous responses to a young child with Down syndrome.
Children with Down syndrome experience significant communication impairments, particularly in expressive language. Although receiving little attention in the literature, deficiencies in expressive language are likely to affect spontaneous communicative responses in children with Down syndrome. In this study, using a multiple baseline design across responses, we demonstrated the effectiveness of discrete trial instruction in establishing spontaneous responses in a preschooler with Down syndrome. Spontaneous responses generalised to a novel setting involving a novel person and novel materials. Implications for the use of behaviourally based interventions to address the social-communicative needs of children with Down syndrome are discussed.
Feeley
Kathleen
K
Department of Special Education and Literacy, C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, Brookville, New York 11548, USA. kathleen.feeley@liu.edu
Jones
Emily
E
D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational; D004644:Emotions; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D006801:Humans; D007808:Language Therapy; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology