This study was designed to examine the effects of a three-component intervention on the social-communicative interactions of six preschool children at risk for language delays and behavior problems. In a multiple baseline design across three dyads, children were taught to (a) plan their play, (b) use conversational social interaction strategies, and (c) self-evaluate their play interactions. The number of socialcommunicative behaviors by each child increased following introduction of the intervention condition, as did their use of descriptive and request utterances during play sessions. Increases in linguistic complexity and diversity and play complexity also were associated with the intervention. This intervention holds promise for improving social, linguistic, and play behaviors in preschoolers at risk for language delays and behavior problems.Young children with social communication delays frequently have difficulty engaging with their peers in sustained interactions. To engage in social interactions
The current study assessed the effects of an intervention to improve the social-communicative interactions of six children at-risk for delays in language and social skills enrolled in Head Start. A multiple-baseline design across three mixed-gender dyads was used to determine the effects of a three-component intervention on children's verbal interactions and play. During the baseline, intervention, and generalization phases, children's social-communicative behaviors were videotaped, coded, and summarized. When the plan-play-report intervention was introduced in each dyad, children's social-communicative behaviors increased. Increases occurred in descriptive statements, requests, and language complexity and diversity. During the intervention, children also engaged in more complex play behaviors. Children generalized changes in social communication, interaction, and play to untrained peers from different classrooms.
This study compared the effects of 2 interventions often used to enhance social relationships in preschool classrooms. Social Integration Activities involves a teacher structured play activity along with teacher provided roles, suggestions, and feedback. Group Friendship Activities involves adapting songs and games so that opportunities occur for peers to demonstrate positive, affectionate, friendship behaviors to targeted students. One preschooler with a developmental disability and one at risk for delay participated. Results indicated differential benefits across the 2 approaches, suggesting a need to tailor the selection of interventions to the individual child's characteristics, skills, and interests. Findings stress the importance of closely monitoring children's social behaviors to determine if interventions are achieving desired outcomes.
Purpose: Facilitating language development in children with specific language impairment (SLI) who are learning African American English (AAE) as their first dialect requires clinicians to consider grammatical, lexical, and cultural differences. The purpose of this article is to examine 2 intervention methods that have an extensive history of validation for general American Englishimitation using discrete trials and conversational recast-for use with children who speak AAE. Methods: Participants in the preliminary study were 4 pre-school-aged AAE-speaking children, who were at-risk for language delays and who used AAE forms. A within-participants design was employed. Results: Both interventions were associated with growth in contrastive and noncontrastive target structure use. All children increased production of specific language targets that were not observed in baseline samples in AAE or general American English forms, and language scores on posttreatment assessments increased in all participants. Discussion: Considerations include individualizing interventions on the basis of level of support and understanding the relationship between language learning and culture.
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