Modifying a naturalistic language intervention for use in an elementary school classroom

Abstract

Background and aims We evaluated a naturalistic language intervention (NLI) targeting expanded forms of expressive communication (e.g., two-word phrases) for elementary-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or intellectual disability (ID). This study extends the findings of a previous study that evaluated an NLI for preschool-aged children who displayed social communication delays. In the previous study, one child was considered a non-responder to the original intervention; children with similar pre-intervention profiles to the non-responder were recruited for this study to evaluate a modified version of the NLI with a new participant group. Methods The NLI was evaluated within the context of a multiple probe design across children, with sessions conducted in a public school classroom. The modifications to the NLI resulted in varying dosages of the intervention provided across sessions and children. To analyze the moderating influence of the variation in dosage, we graphed each dosage variable to allow for a formative analysis of changes within and across study conditions. Results Results indicated increases in the target behavior for all three children when compared to probe sessions; however, for one child the consistency of changes were variable and, as such, may not be socially significant. Conclusions and implications This study extends the literature on conducting NLIs with minimally verbal children with ASD and ID in dynamic settings, like classrooms. Educators and related professionals can capitalize on natural opportunities for social communication in children who are minimally verbal but imitative by using naturalistic procedures to promote verbalizations during age-appropriate activities.

Incidental Teaching of Conversational Skills for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Naturalistic behavior interventions take place in natural settings, such as the home, school, and larger community. These interventions allow students to generalize their learned skills across context and settings (Lane et al, 2020). Teaching in the natural environment where cues continually change yields better " Although individuals with ASD may display a willingness to communicate, their difficulty with pragmatic language skills can isolate them from peers (Kelly et al, 2018).…”

“…generalization and decreases the need to directly teach individual skills in multiple settings (Spencer & Higbee, 2012). Children also learn more rapidly when there is a relationship between a communicative response and a reward (Lane et al, 2020). For example, a student might be rewarded for verbally identifying a particular toy and receive the toy as the reward rather than a piece of candy or points toward a token economy award chart.…”

“…First, the teacher recruits team members for the intervention program, including family members, peers (as appropriate), teachers, and service providers who work with the student across various settings in the school. The more people who can assist in the incidental teaching methods, the more rapidly learning will occur and generalize to new settings (Lane et al, 2020). An advantage of incidental teaching involves the ease by which teachers, family members, and peers can learn and use the strategies.…”

Systematic Review of Naturalistic Language Interventions in Schools: Child- and Adult-Level Outcomes for Verbal Communication

“…Children typically spend a large portion of their day in schools, which makes educational settings, like classrooms, ideal settings to target social communication. Educators can capitalize on a child’s interests and motivations to communicate by creating a language-rich environment—(a) modeling age-appropriate communication, (b) encouraging children to share wants, interests, and feelings, and (c) embedding opportunities for advancing a child’s communication throughout the day (Kaiser et al, 1993; Koegel et al, 1999; Lane et al, 2020). Relatedly, early childhood is a critical period for children to learn how to share their voices with others.…”