Investigating a Multimodal Intervention for Children With Limited Expressive Vocabularies Associated With Autism

Abstract

Purpose To investigate a new intervention package aimed at increasing expressive word learning by school-age children with autism who have limited expressive vocabularies. This pilot investigation was intended to show proof of concept. Method Ten children between the ages of 6-10 years with educational diagnoses of autism and limited expressive vocabularies at the outset of the study participated. A multimodal intervention composed of speech sound practice and AAC was used to teach individualized vocabulary words that were selected based on initial speech sound repertoires and principles of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density. A multiple-probe design was used to evaluate learning outcomes. Results Five children showed gains in spoken- word learning across successive word sets (High Responders). Five children did not meet learning criteria (Low Responders). Comparisons of behaviors measured prior to intervention indicated that High Responders had relatively higher skills in receptive language, prelinguistic communication, vocal/verbal imitation, adaptive behavior and consonant productions. Conclusions The intervention package holds promise for improving spoken word productions for some children with autism who have limited expressive vocabularies. Further research is needed to better describe who may most benefit from this approach as well as investigate generalized benefits to untaught contexts and targets.

Ion Therapy: A Novel Strategy for Acute Myocardial Infarction

“…[23,24] This study shows that bioactive silicon ions not only promoted angiogenesis, but also played an active role in inhibiting cardiomyocyte apoptosis and enhancing myocardial viability. Inhibition of apoptosis has been considered as an effective treatment for AMI as hypoxia induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis plays an important role in the development of heart failure post-AMI.…”

Teaching and learning vocabulary in context: Examining engagement in three prekindergarten French classrooms

“…Not surprisingly, multimodal instruction has also been recommended for students with learning disabilities (Brady et al, 2015;Leons, Herbert, & Gobbo, 2009;Skinner & Smith, 2011), in part because students with disabilities typically need more time to process linguistic input and because the additional exposure to the language as well as the use of visual and other contextual supports for linguistic input that multimodal techniques provide, in addition to the spoken or written word, allows them to more easily comprehend and incorporate new knowledge into both short and long-term memory (Leons et al, 2009;Regalla & Peker, 2015). For example, multisensory approaches have been found to support students with dyslexia (Sidhu & Manzura, 2011).…”

“…For example, multisensory approaches have been found to support students with dyslexia (Sidhu & Manzura, 2011). In another study, increases in the number of spoken words that were produced by children with autism and children with minimal verbal repertoires were attributed to a multimodal intervention that included word repetitions (Brady et al, 2015), while repeating words through auditory modalities alone helped children with minimal verbal repertoires improve their word production and articulatory movements (Pomaville & Kladopoulos, 2013).…”

Investigating the Receptive-Expressive Vocabulary Profile in Children with Idiopathic ASD and Comorbid ASD and Fragile X Syndrome

“…The manifestation of core ASD symptoms can vary widely and are often related to cognitive and structural language skills. Therefore, research has turned to investigations of more homogeneous subgroups within ASD based on language abilities (e.g., Brady et al 2015; Kjelgaard and Tager-Flusberg 2001; Roberts et al 2004; Tager-Flusberg and Joseph 2003). This work is important because studying subgroups within ASD may help in advancing our understanding of phenotypes associated with ASD and potentially enhance our understanding of the etiology (Tager-Flusberg and Joseph 2003; Belmonte and Bourgeron 2006).…”