Language Training Procedures Research Articles

Replacing the Echolalia of Children With Autism With Functional Use of Verbal Labeling

We evaluated the direct and generalized effects of cues-pause-point language training procedures on immediate echolalia and correct responding in two children with autism. The overall goal was to teach the children to remain quiet before, during, and briefly after the presentation of questions and then to verbalize on the basis of the cues (pictures) whose labels represented the correct responses. A multiple baseline design across question/response pairs demonstrated that echolalia was rapidly replaced by correct responding on the trained stimuli and there were clear improvements in one child’s responding to untrained stimuli. These results replicate and extend previous research with adults with mental retardation and autism which demonstrated that cues-pause-point procedures can be effective in teaching individuals displaying echolalia to use their verbal labeling repertoires functionally.

Speaking clearly for learning-disabled children: Sentence perception in noise

This study sought to establish connections between two findings regarding speech perception in special populations. First, children with learning problems often have difficulty perceiving speech in noise. Second, naturally produced clear speech is more intelligible for adult hearing-impaired listeners. Given recent interest in the use of digital enhancement techniques in speech and language training procedures for learning-disabled children, we wanted to investigate whether naturally produced clear speech yields perception benefits for this population. We presented children with learning problems (n=46) and normal children (n=17) with sentences embedded in noise. Factors that varied were speaking style (plain versus clear) and signal-to-noise ratio (high versus low). Results indicated that: (1) children with learning problems had poorer sentence-in-noise perception than normal children; (2) both groups had poorer perception with increasing noise levels; and (3) both groups benefited from naturally produced clear speech. There were no significant two- or three-way interactions between listener group, noise level, and speaking style. In combination with acoustic analyses of the plain and clear sentences, these findings have broad implications for our understanding of the speech perception deficits in this population, and the design of appropriate training procedures. [Work supported by NIH-NIDCD Grants DC 03762 and DC 01510.]

Training Parents as Milieu Language Teachers

Six mothers of preschoolers with language impairments were taught individually to use four milieu language training procedures: model, mand-model, time delay, and incidental teaching. A multiple-baseline design across pairs of mother-child dyads and within each dyad across milieu techniques was used to evaluate the effects of training. All mothers learned the milieu procedures and applied them during home observation sessions. Mothers' use of the procedures generalized to two non-training situations and they showed acceptable levels of maintenance across three monthly maintenance probes. Comparison of child behaviors at baseline and maintenance showed improvements in two areas for the majority of child subjects: (a) Average monthly gains in mean length of utterance exceeded or were approximately equal to the increase predicted for normally developing children (Miller & Chapman, 1981), and (b) the number of total words produced and number of novel words produced more than doubled. In addition, an increase in frequency of requests was observed for four of the children when the incidental teaching procedure was trained. The findings suggest that mothers can be taught to correctly apply milieu language teaching procedures and that use of the procedures is associated with positive effects on various aspects of child language.

Facilitating Early Language Development with Milieu Intervention Procedures

The lexical, semantic, and pragmatic effects of milieu language intervention procedures implemented to teach basic lexicon and early relational semantic forms was investigated. The subjects were two young children with mild mental retardation in the early stages of productive language development. After a baseline period, the subjects received four training sessions weekly in a small group interactive play situation. Experimental control was demonstrated by within-subject multiple baseline designs across training targets. Generalization was measured along a variety of dimensions. Results indicated that one subject expanded his basic lexicon and began to generatively produce both action-object and agent-action combinations in nonobligatory conversational situations as requests for objects/actions and as declaratives with different adults. The other subject began to generatively produce both agent-action-object and adjective-noun combinations in nonobligatory conversational situations as requests and declaratives with different adults and in different settings. Both subjects began to respond correctly to probe questions for each target form. The results further support the use of milieu language training procedures to enhance the acquisition and generative use of basic lexicon and relational semantic forms. The results also suggest that systematic adult commenting and the child's spontaneous imitation may further facilitate the effects of milieu language teaching.

Replacing a chronic schizophrenic man's delusional speech with stimulus appropriate responses

This study attempted to extend the use of Cues, Pause, Point language training procedures (developed to treat the speech disorders of mentally handicapped persons) to delusional speech. The direct and potential generalized effects of the procedures on the delusional and socially appropriate responding of an institutionalized, chronic schizophrenic man were evaluated in a multiple baseline design across stimulus-response pairs. The procedures encouraged the subject to (a) remain quiet before, during, and after the presentation of verbal stimuli and then (b) respond on the basis of environmental cues (i.e. written word cards) that contained the correct responses. Delusional responding was rapidly replaced by appropriate responding on both sets of the trained stimuli. Across person and setting generalization occurred in assessments conducted immediately following training, and these effects were maintained for 15 months. The results suggest that Cues, Pause, Point procedures may offer some potential for replacing delusional responding with appropriate responding to social stimuli.

A review of techniques for naturalistic language training

Recently, a number of language training procedures have been developed to teach language to handicapped children in everyday settings. This paper describes the language training strategies of mand-model, time-delay, and incidental teaching. The current research that has been conducted to validate these procedures is discussed. Additionally, research describing naturalistic language training procedures that contain components of these techniques is discussed, and the author calls for an integration of these procedures. Directions for future research in this burgeoning field are suggested.

Practical Procedures for Increasing Spontaneous Language in Language-Delayed Preschoolers

Children with language delays often manifest low rates of spontaneous expressive language, particularly in school. This pattern appears to develop as a means of coping with situations in which children with mild to moderate language delays believe they are unable to perform or may perform poorly. Interactive language training procedures are now being used to increase syntactic complexity, develop morphology, and train transformational rules in language delayed/disordered children. This article discusses several linguistic and nonlinguistic strategies in interactive language training which not only foster language acquisition but increase spontaneous language as well. As rates of self-initiated speech increase, it is probable that improvements in the content, use, and form of language will follow.

Cues‐pause‐point language training: Structuring trainer statements to provide students with correct answers to questions

AbstractThis study assessed the applicability of Cues‐Pause‐Point language training procedures in teaching students to obtain information from the statements of others. Two mentally retarded subjects, one of whom was echolalic, received training on one set of stimuli but not on another. During training the subjects were encouraged to remain quiet before, during, and briefly after the presentation of statements and then verbalize (i.e., answer a question) using the verbal cue(s) that had been presented in the statement. Correct responding reached 100% to the trained stimuli and both subjects' responding improved to the untrained stimuli. Posttests revealed that subjects used the trainer's statements to answer novel questions. The results suggest that Cues‐Pause‐Point procedures may be useful in teaching severely retarded individuals the functional use of observing and listening to others' verbal behavior.

Natural Environment Language Assessment and Intervention with Severely Impaired Preschoolers

The literature on language assessment and intervention with severely handicapped populations has emphasized the acquisition of skills while neglecting the role of the environment. Recent recognition of generalization problems has forced language researchers and practitioners to reexamine the role of the environment in language remediation. The present paper represents a more balanced approach to assessment and intervention that surveys both the learner's skills and the context in which the skills are displayed. The essence of this approach is that the natural environment is adopted as the setting for assessment and training. This paper will first provide a rationale for the importance of assessing and intervening directly in the natural environment. Three prerequisites for language will be identified, and means for assessing each will be discussed. Procedures for restructuring or rearranging the natural environment to occasion and support language use are surveyed. In the final section of the paper, three natural environment language training procedures are described in terms of application, empirical support, and objectives. Throughout the paper the assessment and intervention procedures are discussed in terms of their implications for and applications with severely impaired preschoolers.

Acquisition of expressive signing by autistic children: an evaluation of the relative effects of simultaneous communication and sign-alone training.

Two methods of training autistic children to use manual signs were compared. Two children, one mute and one capable of some verbal imitation, were taught to use signs as expressive labels for pictures of objects. Using an alternating treatments design, speed of sign acquisition was compared across two training conditions in which signs were presented either accompanied by, or without, the corresponding verbal label. In both conditions, the training procedure incorporated reinforcement, modeling, prompting, fading, and stimulus rotation. The efficacy of training in both treatment conditions was demonstrated by the use of a multiple baseline control across signs, but no clear differences in acquisition speed across conditions were apparent. Posttests conducted to assess stimulus control of signing, and learning of verbal labels when these were present in training, showed that the behavior of the imitative, but not the mute, child was controlled by the verbal stimuli. The implications of the results both for understanding deficits characteristic of autistic children and for developing appropriate language training procedures are discussed.

A Program of Language Training for the Severely Language Handicapped Child

A sequence of language training procedures for the severely language handicapped child is presented. The procedures are based on the authors' research as well as the recent investigations of other speech and language specialists. Language components specifically dealt with are operant audiometry, receptive vocabulary, imitation, naming, and sentence production.

APPLICATION OF TIMEOUT FROM POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT FOR INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF SPEECH TRAINING1

Language training procedures, which involved positive reinforcement for verbal imitation, were applied to increase the appropriate verbal behavior of an almost non-verbal, brain damaged, 5-yr-old boy. Two experiments assessed the effectiveness of timeout from positive reinforcement as a training procedure viewed as having potential punishing and negatively reinforcing functions. In both experiments, timein, termination of timeout and resumption of training, was arranged to have reinforcing properties in that it presented an opportunity to receive positive reinforcers. In Exp. I, the procedure consisted of temporarily halting language training (timeout) following verbal jargon and resuming it (timein) contingent upon the boy sitting quietly in his chair for approximately 30 sec. The jargon declined to almost zero for an extended period each time the procedure was employed. In Exp. II, the procedure consisted of halting language training (timeout) after emission of undesired verbal responses which previously had been reinforced as the desired approximation to the target verbal behavior. Resumption of training (timein) was made contingent upon the emission of the then-desired approximation of the target verbal behavior. In each experiment, the contingent timeout and timein of the language training that involved positive reinforcement effectively reduced the undesired and increased the desired responses.