Responsive Teaching: Early intervention for children with Down syndrome and other disabilities

Abstract

-Responsive Teaching is an early intervention curriculum designed to address the cognitive, language, and social emotional needs of young children with developmental problems. This innovative intervention model was derived from research conducted primarily with children with Down syndrome and their mothers. Results from these studies indicated that during the early childhood years, parents promote their children's development by engaging in highly responsive interactions throughout their daily routines. The effects of responsiveness are mediated by the impact it has on children's use of several pivotal developmental behaviours, such as social play, attention, initiation and persistence. Responsive Teaching helps parents learn to use Responsive Teaching strategies to promote the pivotal developmental behaviours that are relevant to their children's developmental needs. Research with 50 children with developmental problems and their parents indicated that Responsive Teaching was highly effective at addressing children's developmental and social emotional needs. The effects of this intervention were mediated by the impact that RT strategies had on children's pivotal developmental behaviours.

Comparison of Social Engagement of Children Having Disabilities with Their Mothers and Fathers

“…The second main finding of the previous research is that children's rates of cognitive and communication development are positively correlated with their mother's level of responsiveness (e.g., Kim & Mahoney, 2005;Mahoney & Nam, 2011;Mahoney & Perales, 2003;Mahoney, Perales, Wiggers, & Herman, 2006;Yoder & Warren, 1998;Warren, Brady, Sterling, Fleming, & Marquis, 2010).These findings have not only been reported in descriptive research studies but also shown in experimental intervention studies (e.g., Kim & Mahoney, 2005;Yoder &Warren, 1998) as well. This effect has been reported with children who have diverse etiologies such as DS or autism as well as with children who have different IQs or DQs.…”

“…Studies that are focused on parent-child interaction (e.g., Karaaslan, Diken, & Mahoney, 2011;Mahoney, Boyce, Fewell, Spiker, & Wheeden, 1998;Mahoney, Powell, & Finger, 1985) also indicated that parents' interactional behaviors that are highly directive and relatively nonresponsive do not support an increase in the development of their child with disabilities (cited in Diken, 2012).Furthermore, a qualified parent-child interaction seems to decrease the disability of children with developmental delay, including DS and autism. It has been clearly established in the literature (e.g., Mahoney & Nam, 2011;Mahoney & Perales, 2003;Mahoney et al, 2006;Tamis-LeMonda et al, 2001;Tamis-LeMonda, Shannon, Cabrera, & Lamb, 2004;Warren et al, 2010) that during the early childhood years, parents promote the development of their children who have disabilities, including DS and ASD, by engaging in highly responsive interactions throughout their daily routines. Consistent with this interpretation, findings reported by the existing literature on parentchild interactions (e.g., Brady, Warren, & Sterling, 2009) revealed that responsiveness is also a primary influence on a child's development.…”

“…The effects of parental responsiveness have been reported with diverse populations of parents, including parents from Turkey, North America, and continental Europe. For example, some studies conducted with diverse populations of parents in different countries (e.g., Karaaslan, Diken, & Mahoney, 2013;Kim & Mahoney, 2004;Mahoney & Perales, 2005;Mahoney et al, 2006;Tamis-LeMonda, Bornstein, & Baumwell, 2001;Warren & Brady, 2007;Warren et al, 2010) indicated that highly responsive parenting styles might help improve a child's developmental domains, such as language, cognitive, and social-emotional functioning. A number of researchers (e.g., Karaaslan, Diken, & Mahoney, 2011;Kim & Mahoney, 2004Mahoney & Perales, 2005) proposed also that increases in children's pivotal behavior and parental responsiveness were associated with children's developmental improvements.…”

“…Some studies (Mahoney & Perales, 2003 have illustrated that highly responsive parents do not emphasize direct teaching with their children, which many consider to be a necessary strategy for promoting children's developmental learning. Yet a series of studies (e.g., Karaaslan & Mahoney, 2015;Kim & Mahoney, 2005;Mahoney & Perales, 2003Mahoney et al, 2006) conducted by Mahoney and colleagues suggests that the effects of responsiveness on children's development are mediated by the impact of responsiveness on children's social interactive engagement. That is, parental responsiveness has been shown to be highly effective at promoting children's spontaneous social interactive engagement.…”

Improving the spelling ability of Grade 3 learners through visual imaging teaching strategies

“…Gardner (2004) maintains that learners can become more successful in all subject areas, including the learning of basic skills, if they have the opportunity to learn through their strengths. Finally, in the present study, the author has extended Vygotsky"s socialconstructivist theory of cognitive development and proposes a conceptual framework for improving Grade 3 learners" spelling abilities on the basis of a "diverse constructivist orientation within a responsive teaching curriculum" (Au, 1998;Kaste, 2004;Mahoney, Perales, Wiggers & Herman, 2006). The instructional methods proposed by diverse constructivist orientations are those methods that include authentic literacy activities and emphasise explicit systematic instruction whereby learners are actively involved in the learning process (Kaste, 2004:34).…”