Language Intervention for Children with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

This article describes a prevention-focused intervention program designed to facilitate the language skills of preschool children at risk for emotional or behavioral and communication difficulties. The program is a collaborative effort between a university speech-language pathology program and a Head Start program in southwest Michigan. Semiqualitative descriptions of two case studies are used to characterize the collaborative intervention processes used in the classroom context by the preschool teacher and a speech-language pathologist. The outcome of the case studies suggests that authentic communicative interactions used as the context for implementation of the child-centered intervention strategies may be effective in reducing some behavioral challenges. Questions generated from the analyses of the case studies are provided.