Redirects: A Strategy to Increase Peer Initiations

Abstract

Preschoolers’ verbal abilities influence their verbal interactions with play partners. Previous research has suggested that preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI) are more likely to initiate conversations with adults than with peers, as compared to their typically developing peers. This study investigated a teacher-implemented procedure, redirects, as a means to facilitate initiations to peers. A redirect occurs when a child initiates to the teacher, and the teacher then suggests the child initiate to a peer, thereby redirecting the child from an adult to a peer. Four preschool boys with SLI participated in the study. The teacher training was successful in increasing the teacher’s ability to redirect the children’s initiations. The children consistently responded to redirects by initiating to peers, and most redirected initiations received conversational responses from peers. Generalization effects to spontaneous peer initiations following the intervention period were demonstrated for 2 of the boys.

Preschoolers' Exposure to Language Stimulation in Classrooms Serving At-Risk Children: The Contribution of Group Size and Activity Context

“…For instance, adult use of open-ended questions, repetitions, and expansions of children's utterances has been found to relate to children's performance on measures of syntax and vocabulary (Arnold, Lonigan, Whitehurst, & Epstein, 1994;Lonigan & Whitehurst, 1998;Valdez-Menchaca & Whitehurst, 1992;Whitehurst et al, 1988). Likewise, redirecting a child to initiate conversation with another peer rather than an adult has been shown to increase peer interactions for preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI; Schuele et al, 1995), and using focused contrasts in the preschool classroom has been shown to provide measurable gains in phonology for children with SLI (Wilcox & Morris, 1995).…”

“…Adult use of pragmatic strategies such as waiting, turn taking, face-to-face interaction (i.e., by positioning oneself to be on the child's level), and including uninvolved children in interactions increases children's language use and participation in conversations (Girolametto et al, 2003). In addition, redirecting children's verbal initiations to peers rather than to adults increases opportunities for children to interact in peer-to-peer conversation (Schuele, Rice, & Wilcox, 1995).…”

“…Language stimulation techniques (LSTs) are an important subset of the input children receive and are defined as caregiver interactive techniques designed to target key linguistic structures that are potentially helpful for children's language development (Rice & Hadley, 1995). Specific LSTs include focused contrasts, models, event casts, open questions, expansions, recasts, redirects, and prompted initiations (Rice & Wilcox, 1995). The Appendix provides definitions and examples of these LSTs.…”

Evidence-based practice in speech language pathologist training of early childhood professionals

“…Children who can successfully interact with peers are more likely to develop friendships , have better oral language skills (Mashburn, Justice, Downer, & Pianta, 2009;Schuele, Rice, & Wilcox, 1995), and have better early adjustment at school (Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1996). In an experimental study by Girolametto et al (2004), ECPs in the experimental group were taught to facilitate children's interactions with their peers by using direct referrals (e.g., telling a child what to say to a peer, inviting children to play together).…”

Treatment Research in Speech, Language and Swallowing: Lessons from Child Language Disorders

“…Studies of teacher-implemented intervention programs are very limited at this point but suggest that teachers can also be effective in facilitating children's language development and conversational behavior [56,57]. This type of research will be important given the increasing use of consultative intervention models with school-aged language-disordered children [58,59].…”