Relative Treatment Effects of Two Prelinguistic Communication Interventions on Language Development in Toddlers With Developmental Delays Vary by Maternal Characteristics

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 224-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Yoder ◽  
Steven F. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Treatment Effects ◽  
Developmental Delays ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Intentional Communication ◽  
Maternal Characteristics ◽  
Maternal Responsivity ◽  
Prelinguistic Communication ◽  
Communication Interventions

This paper tests whether two prelinguistic communication interventions have a differential effect on productive and receptive language development 6 and 12 months after the end of treatment. We predicted that treatment effects on language development would vary as a function of pretreatment maternal responsivity or amount of mothers' formal education. Fifty-eight prelinguistic children with developmental delays and their mothers participated in the study. Children were randomly assigned to one of two staff-implemented treatments that were designed to increase intentional communication ability. Results confirmed the prediction that treatment effects on children's receptive and expressive language 6 and 12 months after the end of interventions vary as a function of pretreatment maternal responsivity and education level.

Predicting Language Outcomes for Young Prelinguistic Children With Developmental Delay

2000 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 1061-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy M. Calandrella ◽  
M. Jeanne Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Delay ◽  
Nonverbal Communication ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Language Outcomes ◽  
Communication Behaviors ◽  
Intentional Communication ◽  
Symbolic Communication ◽  
Prelinguistic Communication ◽  
Language Outcome ◽  
Natural Interactions

The purpose of this study was to examine potential relationships between children's prelinguistic communication behaviors and subsequent (12 months later) expressive and receptive language outcomes. Participants included 25 toddlers with developmental delay and their mothers. The dyads were observed during natural interactions at 6-month intervals over a 12-month period for a total of 3 observation points (O 1 , O 2 , O 3 ). Children's rate of nonverbal behavior that is often perceived as communication by adults was identified at O 1 and O 2 . In the investigation, the children's intentional nonverbal communication acts all included coordinated attention between the communication referent and the adult. The other types of prelinguistic communication behavior, termed gestural indicating behavior and social interaction signals, were produced without coordinated attention to the adult. Receptive and expressive language test scores and spontaneous word productions were analyzed at O 3 and served as outcome measures in regression analyses. Results indicated that rate of intentional nonverbal communication at O 1 was a predictor of spontaneous word productions at O 3 . At O 2 , rate of intentional communication and rate of gestural indicating behavior predicted subsequent language outcomes as measured by the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development-Revised. The results are consistent with previous findings for intentional nonverbal communication that includes coordinated attention, but additionally demonstrate that prelinguistic behavior lacking coordinated attention also bears a relationship to subsequent language outcome. Discussion of observed patterns focuses on child and adult factors that may motivate the transition from prelinguistic to early symbolic communication.

Facilitating Prelinguistic Communication Skills in Young Children With Developmental Delay II

1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 841-851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Yoder ◽  
Steven F. Warren ◽  
Kyoungran Kim ◽  
Gail E. Gazdag
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Developmental Delays ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Multiple Baseline ◽  
Intentional Communication ◽  
Transactional Theory ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Milieu Teaching ◽  
Prelinguistic Communication ◽  
Intervention Context

Four children with mental retardation were studied in the context of a multiple baseline across subjects design. Staff members used a modified version of the milieu teaching method to facilitate intentional requesting. The results replicated the finding that a modified version of milieu teaching was effective in facilitating the use of intentional requesting by children with developmental delays in an intervention context (Warren, Yoder, Gazdag, Kim, & Jones, 1993). This study also extended the Warren et al. (1993) work by (a) documenting that increased intentional requesting generalized to sessions with the children’s mothers, (b) demonstrating that mothers who were naive to the purposes of the study were more likely to linguistically map their children’s prelinguistic communication after the intervention than before the treatment, and (c) that mothers and teachers who were naive to the purposes of the study linguistically mapped the children’s intentional communication more than the children’s preintentional communication. We discuss implications of these results for early intervention, the transactional theory of development, and the importance of the distinction between intentional versus preintentional communication.

scholarly journals The role of early social motivation in explaining variability in functional language in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder

Autism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136236132095326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pumpki L Su ◽  
Sally J Rogers ◽  
Annette Estes ◽  
Paul Yoder
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Functional Language ◽  
Intentional Communication

This study examined an insufficiently studied predictor of functional language, social motivation, in a group of 87 young children with autism spectrum disorder. Participants (age 14–31 months at the start of the study) were assessed at four times over 24 months. We tested total and indirect associations between early social motivation and later expressive language to understand the behavioral mechanisms by which social motivation might affect functional language development. Results from this study show that early social motivation predicts functional language 2 years later in young children with autism spectrum disorder. In addition, this positive longitudinal association is serially mediated by intentional communication and then receptive language. These findings are consistent with the elicited bootstrapping hypothesis which proposes that children with relatively stronger social motivation produce more intentional communication. This, in turn, elicits others’ linguistic input which impels receptive language development. This process eventually results in relatively increased expressive language development. Lay abstract About one-third of children with autism spectrum disorder never develop the language that they need in different day-to-day situations. Identifying potential factors that can predict later language development is crucial to understanding why some children with autism spectrum disorder successfully develop language while others do not. This study sought to investigate one of the understudied predictors of language development, social motivation, and to test theories for why this association may occur. Testing the theories requires that we measure children’s ability to deliberately and directly communicate with others (i.e. intentional communication) and children’s language understanding between the measures of social motivation and later expressive language. We tested 87 children with autism spectrum disorder, aged 14–31 months, at four times over 24 months. We found that children with relatively stronger social motivation had relatively better language use 2 years later. This positive link was partly due to a child’s ability to produce intentional communication and to understand language. Although we did not measure parents’ talking to their children, a theory that inspired this study suggests that children who use frequent intentional communication probably motivate others to talk with them frequently, which facilitates children’s language understanding which leads to the development of expressive language. This theory, if confirmed to be true, can provide guidance for parents who want to help their children learn to talk. Parents could look for intentional communication from their children and respond by talking to their children. Effective intervention on both parent and child targets will likely enhance treatment efficacy. Future work is needed to test these ideas.

Maternal Responsivity Predicts the Prelinguistic Communication Intervention That Facilitates Generalized Intentional Communication

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1207-1219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Yoder ◽  
Steven F. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Relative Effectiveness ◽  
Family Systems Theory ◽  
Post Treatment ◽  
Intentional Communication ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
Maternal Responsivity ◽  
Prelinguistic Communication ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
Family Variables

Family systems theory posits that the relative effectiveness of early interventions will vary depending on various aspects of the family. This study tested whether maternal responsivity would predict the extent to which Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching (PMT) facilitated generalized intentional communication better than a contrast treatment that was conducted in a small group by a responsive adult (i.e., Responsive Small Group, RSG). Fifty-eight children with developmental disabilities in the prelinguistic communication period of development were randomly assigned to one of the two staff-implemented treatment groups. Thirty were assigned to RSG; 28 were assigned to PMT. Mothers were kept naive to the intervention methods, hypotheses, and measures. In families with mothers who responded to a high percentage of the children's communication acts at the pre-treatment period, the children in the PMT group used more frequent intentional communication in post-treatment generalization sessions with a trainer and mothers than did children in the RSG group. In the families with mothers who responded to fewer than 39% of their children's communication acts, children in the RSG intervention used more frequent intentional communication in post-treatment generalization sessions with the mothers than did children in the PMT intervention. Other family variables and no child variables that we measured could account for these findings.

The Concurrent Validity of the Minnesota Child Development Inventory as a Measure of Young Children's Language Development

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bruce Tomblin ◽  
Cynthia M. Shonrock ◽  
James C. Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Language Measure ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Child Development Inventory ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

The extent to which the Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI), could be used to estimate levels of language development in 2-year-old children was examined. Fifty-seven children between 23 and 28 months were given the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD), and at the same time a parent completed the MCDI. In addition the mean length of utterance (MLU) was obtained for each child from a spontaneous speech sample. The MCDI Expressive Language scale was found to be a strong predictor of both the SICD Expressive scale and MLU. The MCDI Comprehension-Conceptual scale, presumably a receptive language measure, was moderately correlated with the SICD Receptive scale; however, it was also strongly correlated with the expressive measures. These results demonstrated that the Expressive Language scale of the MCDI was a valid predictor of expressive language for 2-year-old children. The MCDI Comprehension-Conceptual scale appeared to assess both receptive and expressive language, thus complicating its interpretation.

Intentional communication and the anterior cingulate cortex

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oana Benga
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Structure ◽  
Intentional Communication ◽  
Attention Skills ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Prelinguistic Communication ◽  
Critical Structure

This paper presents arguments for considering the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as a critical structure in intentional communication. Different facets of intentionality are discussed in relationship to this neural structure. The macrostructural and microstructural characteristics of ACC are proposed to sustain the uniqueness of its architecture, as an overlap region of cognitive, affective and motor components. At the functional level, roles played by this region in communication include social bonding in mammals, control of vocalization in humans, semantic and syntactic processing, and initiation of speech. The involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex in social cognition is suggested where, for infants, joint attention skills are considered both prerequisites of social cognition and prelinguistic communication acts. Since the intentional dimension of gestural communication seems to be connected to a region previously equipped for vocalization, ACC might well be a starting point for linguistic communication.

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