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A Multimodal Approach To Develop Expressive Language And Pragmatics In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
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Book Synopsis A Multimodal Approach to Develop Expressive Language and Pragmatics in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder by : Trevor Harris
Download or read book A Multimodal Approach to Develop Expressive Language and Pragmatics in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder written by Trevor Harris and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that can affect thinking, feeling, language, and social skills in a variety of ways, and can emerge in behaviors that change from one individual to another (NIMH, 2016). While speech pathologists have used traditional approaches in order to develop communication skills in individuals with ASD, there has been little research performed combining techniques used from other professions and integrating those techniques into a speech therapy session. A case study was conducted on a school-age child diagnosed with autism to determine if intervention approaches used by other professionals in combination with speech therapy would improve language and pragmatic skills. Over the course of 9 weeks, a single subject ABAB treatment approach was used interchanging a traditional speech therapy approach and a hybrid intervention approach that contained techniques from the backgrounds of both Applied Behavior Analysis and Music Therapy. The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - 5th Edition (CELF-V) and criterion referenced assessments were used to collect baseline and post intervention data in the areas of expressive and receptive language as well as pragmatics. Treatment revolved around three treatment goals, which targeted correctly producing present and past tense verbs, identifying objects and their function, and appropriately requesting social interactions from others. The results of the CELF-V exhibited improvement or no growth in five of the six subtests assessed, while the criterion-referenced assessments displayed improvement in the participant's social skills and a decline in the participant's expressive language. Raters were used to assess the participant's pragmatic skills using the Pragmatic Activities Checklist and Pragmatics Profiles subtests. Cohen's Kappa was calculated to compare the reliability of the raters, and revealed that the raters were inconsistent in their scoring of the participant's pragmatic abilities. The results of the study concluded that while there were small gains made in the participant's expressive language and pragmatics from the standardized and criterion-referenced tests, the length of the study was too short to determine if the hybrid intervention approach used in the study could make large gains in the participant's communication skills. The participant's three goals targeted in the study, as well as the parent observations during the study, exhibit positive outcomes in terms of the effectiveness of the study for the participant.
Book Synopsis Language development in children with autism spectrum disorders by : Oliver Selzer
Download or read book Language development in children with autism spectrum disorders written by Oliver Selzer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Pedagogy - Pedagogic Psychology, grade: 2,0, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: The development or acquisition of language separates the human being from any other mammal, enabling him to efficiently communicate and socialize with every other member of the same race. Thus, acquiring and developing this form of communication is crucial not only for means of transporting meaning itself, but for ensuring the human race to exist. Under normal circumstances every child can acquire every existing language, depending on it’s surrounding (cf. chapter two). Normal circumstances imply medical, cognitive and social parameters; if these three determining factors play together typically, a child may acquire a language in a stage-like order. In each stage, fundamental elements (or rules) of language are being learned (e.g. phonology, morphology, prosody etc.). In case of an autism spectrum disorder, one or more of the three determining factors is deficient – hence the acquisition of language deviates from its typical course. As will be described in chapter one, the actual type of autism plays a pivotal role in how problems in language acquisition will manifest: e.g., children with Asperger syndrome or some other type of high-functioning autism will be more likely to have problems in Pragmatics, whereas children with low-functioning type of autism may be challenged with producing language at all. Hence in this paper, I will examine this deviant development by looking closely into the fundamental rules of language in “typical” and autistic learners. I will introduce very basic knowledge on medical, cognitive and social impairments autism spectrum disorders may consist of; then, the above mentioned comparison of fields of language will be conducted. Chapter four will conclude with prospects on therapeutics and teaching, introducing concepts and constructing possible classroom intervention.
Book Synopsis Effects of Early Intervention on Pragmatic Language in Children with Autism by : Charlotte L. Tomevi
Download or read book Effects of Early Intervention on Pragmatic Language in Children with Autism written by Charlotte L. Tomevi and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Autism appears in the first three years of a child's life, involving impairments in social and verbal and nonverbal communication. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder with core deficits in social and communication, struggle to effectively accomplish social interactive goals through pragmatic language. Early intervention programs may strengthen expressive communication and increase functional communication by some children with autism. The current study examined if participation in an intensive early intervention program increases functional communication in social situations with children with autism. I hypothesized that participation in an early learning program would increase functional communication in social situations for children with autism. Results indicated that all three children decreased their ADOS-2 scores on module two posttest when compared to module one pretest, demonstrating a decrease in symptoms of autism. Results of functional communication demonstrated that participation in the early learning program did not increase functional communication, however participation did increase the types of functional communication used by all three children. At the end of the intervention each child was able to discriminate between different types of functional communication and utilize their new behaviors to communicate"--Leaf iv.
Book Synopsis A Combined Linguistic and Prosodic Treatment Approach for Language-communication Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders by : Silva Kuschke
Download or read book A Combined Linguistic and Prosodic Treatment Approach for Language-communication Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders written by Silva Kuschke and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study aimed to determine whether the use of prosodically varied speech within a traditional language therapy framework had any effect on the listening skills, pragmatic skills and social interaction behaviour of three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A single participant multiple baseline design across behaviours was implemented. Three participants with ASD were selected for this research. The listening skills, pragmatic skills and social interaction behaviour of the participants were compared before treatment, after a 3-week period of treatment and after a 2-week withdrawal period from treatment, utilising prosodically varied speech within a traditional language therapy approach. Statistical significance was not calculated for each individual due to the limited data, but visual inspection indicated that all the participants showed positive behavioural changes in performance across all areas after 3 weeks of treatment, independent of their pre-treatment performance level. The use of prosodically varied speech within a traditional language therapy framework appears to be a viable form of treatment for children with ASD.
Book Synopsis Developing Expressive Language in Verbal Students with Autism Using Rapid Prompting Method by : Soma Mukhopadhyay
Download or read book Developing Expressive Language in Verbal Students with Autism Using Rapid Prompting Method written by Soma Mukhopadhyay and published by Outskirts Press. This book was released on 2016-03-26 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written for a group of students with autism who have speech- enough to state requests or recite dialogs but not enough to discuss a topic.Verbal autistic students may have functional speech but it may be difficult for them to extract the right word/language at the right moment required. Expressive language may lie dormant and the student may need a way to bring these thoughts to the surface. Spelling a word may be easier approach for these students than saying a word or thought aloud.Also, many verbal students may experience a "road block" towards intentional-communication beyond the previously learned functional or social speech. If the speech is rote/habit/stim, people may be deceived by their speech and believe that the student cannot think beyond those uttered words.
Download or read book Minimal Speech written by Stacie Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this literature review is to determine how minimal speech compares to a full language approach when used in various strategies and methods and the effect it has on language development in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The research review focuses (a) how minimal speech as incorporated in the selected methods affects an individual with ASD receptive language skills, expressive skills and/or encourage self-initiated communication in children with ASD; and (b) the effect of the use of full language in children with ASD. The research looked at three methods, two of which are used with great prevalence in typical classroom settings and utilize a minimal speech approach. These methods are discussed in greater detail within the review and describe how each influence language development, specifically related to the use of minimal speech as a central component of the method. The results show strengths and weaknesses in each practice and the development of communication varied by method. Although additional research is necessary in the third method studied the full language approach’s initial findings show promising results in the development of language skills although the scope of the research is limited.
Book Synopsis Improving Pragmatic Language Skills in Toddler with Autism Spectrum Disorder by : Joy E. Festa
Download or read book Improving Pragmatic Language Skills in Toddler with Autism Spectrum Disorder written by Joy E. Festa and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study comared the effectiveness of two different treatment protocols, discrete trial training (DTT) and a naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention (NDBI), on spontaneous use of trained words in four 2-to-3-year-old children with autism. All participants used more words trained using a NDBI than those trained using DTT. Secondary data were collected on the effects of a multifaceted treatment combining DTT with a NDBI on receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language outcomes and joint attention skills. Outcomes were measured using standarized tests, the Receptive/Expressive Emergent Language Test-Third Edition, and the Languge Use Inventory. Additional non-standardized measures collected were total number of utterances produced, number of trained utterances produced, and pragmatic use categories appearing in language samples during generalization probes. Participants made gains in total number of utterances produced and ability to respond to bids for joint attention. Two profiles of overall improvement emerged, with two participants improving their performance by at least 40% across the majority of measures, and two participants making smaller gains across a more limited number of measures. These differences in response to treatment suggest several areas for future study.
Book Synopsis Pilot Study of Multimodal Communication Treatment in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder by : Rebecca Marie Rogers
Download or read book Pilot Study of Multimodal Communication Treatment in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder written by Rebecca Marie Rogers and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study, a promising new intervention implemented for adults with aphasia due to stroke, Multimodal Communication Treatment, was modified for its use with one child with autism spectrum disorder to identify if the child could learn and communicate new words through learning multiple modalities. Data was collected on the child's communicative output as well to assess the frequency and types of his communication attempts. The child presented with challenging behaviors throughout the intervention period, and its potential impact on the execution of the intervention was studied. The study found that Multimodal Communication Treatment was not an effective intervention approach for this child. The majority of his output was not communicative in nature and challenging behaviors impacted the effectiveness of implementing the approach. Further research is needed to identify whether Multimodal Communication Treatment could be an effective intervention for children with more communicative intent and increased attention.
Book Synopsis The Autistic Child by : Ole Ivar Lovaas
Download or read book The Autistic Child written by Ole Ivar Lovaas and published by Halsted Press. This book was released on 1977 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Jumpstarting Communication Skills in Children with Autism by : Mary Jane Weiss
Download or read book Jumpstarting Communication Skills in Children with Autism written by Mary Jane Weiss and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When children's communication skills lag, all areas of learning and socialisation are affected. This book describes how an ABA approach can help children aged 2 to 10 years who have significant communication problems -- difficulty making requests, perseverative speech, a lack of fluency in conversational exchanges, trouble reading others' signals, and more -- learn to understand and use speech and language. Enriched by case studies, this straightforward and information-packed book examines using the Applied Verbal Behaviour (AVB) method to tackle a wide variety of communication problems typical of children with autism. In a nutshell, AVB consists of observing and analysing a child's communication behaviours, breaking them down into functions, and then teaching and reinforcing needed skills. AVB strategies and the other methods profiled (PECS, sign language, video modelling, scripts, social stories, etc.,) can greatly boost a child's understanding of verbal and non-verbal communication, and help him improve his expressive abilities. The authors provide helpful suggestions on how parents can support this process and teach and reinforce communication skills at home. With this book parents and professionals can help young kids, both those with and without speech, expand their communication abilities and opportunities, enabling greater inclusion and progress in daily activities.
Book Synopsis The Neuropsychology of Autism by : Deborah Fein
Download or read book The Neuropsychology of Autism written by Deborah Fein and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-09 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neuropsychology of Autism provides an up-to-date summary on the neuropsychology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), written by leaders in the field. It summarizes current knowledge about neurochemistry, neuroanatomy, genetics, and clinical presentations and provides helpful discussions on key functions such as language, memory, attention, executive functions, social cognition, motor and sensory functioning.
Book Synopsis Characteristics of the Spoken Language Interactions of Young Beginning Communicators with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Mothers by : Beth Davidoff
Download or read book Characteristics of the Spoken Language Interactions of Young Beginning Communicators with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Mothers written by Beth Davidoff and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This descriptive research study investigated the characteristics of the spoken language interactions of 13 mother-child dyads including children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during daily interactions at home. The children ranged in age from 26 to 76 months of age, and all had language abilities that ranged from no spoken words to early spoken word combinations. Three main research questions were addressed: (1) What are the general characteristics of the utterances children with ASD and their mothers are observed to produce? (2) What are the semantic-syntactic characteristics of the spoken words children with ASD and their mothers are observed to produce, and children are reported by mothers to produce and understand? (3) Is there a relationship between the words a child with ASD produces and the words his/her mother produces, such that the dyad produces a common set of spoken words (a shared lexicon)? Mothers made digital audio recordings of daily interactions with their children during typical activities at home. Sixty minutes of these interactions per dyad were transcribed and analyzed. Mothers completed a parent report questionnaire on their childrens receptive and expressive vocabulary. There was considerable variability across children and mothers on all language measures, which varied by the childrens phase of spoken language development. The five children at the Intentional/Presymbolic phase produced substantially more unintelligible than intelligible utterances, expressed less than five spoken word types and less than 20 word tokens in a 20-minute natural language sample, and obtained age equivalent language production scores below 15 months per parent report. The six children at the First Words phase produced more intelligible utterances, although they also produced many unintelligible utterances. They generally produced five or more word types and 20 word tokens but less than 30 spoken word types per 20-minute natural language sample and obtained age equivalent language production scores between approximately 15 and 24 months per parent report. The two children at the Word Combinations phase produced more intelligible utterances than the other children, and produced fewer unintelligible utterances. They expressed more than 30 spoken word types in a 20-minute natural language sample, but less than 92 different word types in 65 utterances. They had mean lengths of utterance in morphemes between 1.2 and 1.7 and they obtained age equivalent language scores that were at approximately the 24-month level. Children at all phases of spoken language development were reported to understand more words than they were reported to produce. During their 60-minute interaction, each mother-child dyad produced a shared lexicon of words (i.e., words that were produced by both the child and the mother), ranging from two to more than 100; the dyads shared lexicons increased in size as the childrens spoken language development level increased. The shared lexicons of the dyads with children at the presymbolic phase included words that related to social/interaction and action word types, while those of the dyads with children at the symbolic phases shared words across all word semantic/syntactic word types (social/interactive, noun, action/state, descriptive, closed class). The frequency of words produced by the mothers, and mother and child imitation were related to the shared lexicons. The results support the social-interactionist theories of language development; specifically, that mothers provide scaffolds including frequent word tokens, semantic and temporal contingency to child utterances, and attunement to their childrens level of spoken language development. The receptive and expressive vocabularies of the children were consistent with those of children with other developmental disabilities and younger children with typical language development as reported in the literature. The results of this study suggest that imitation may play a role in the shared lexicon of the children and their mothers. Imitation by mothers and their children may play an important role in language learning for children with ASD. This hypothesis proposes an alternative view of immediate echolalia (i.e., a childs repetition of all or part of another persons speech) than that traditionally proposed. Furthermore, results suggest that vocabulary targets for children with ASD at these early phases of spoken language development should be selected from the words that caregivers use with their children during spontaneous daily interactions rather than from core vocabulary lists. Results suggest that frequency of maternal words also facilitates language learning. Another important strategy for intervention may be to increase the number of times new words are presented to children with ASD within the language interactions of mothers and other communication partners. For those beginning communicators with ASD who are not yet producing spoken language, the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) may be considered. Future directions for research include replication of the current study with additional participants, and using video to capture the nonlinguistic context, gestures, and unaided communication in the dyads interactions. The results of this research would inform the development of interventions with caregivers to support the spoken language development of their children with ASD who are beginning communicators. Future studies should investigate the effects of such intervention.
Book Synopsis Spoken Language Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders by : Karla McGregor
Download or read book Spoken Language Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders written by Karla McGregor and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "As a group, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at high risk for severe delays and lifelong impairments in broad aspects of language competency. This program presents the results of four studies of aspects of spoken language development among children with ASD (ages 2-18)."-- ASHA website.
Book Synopsis Pragmatic Language Development in Young Children with ASD by : Charlsey Wallace
Download or read book Pragmatic Language Development in Young Children with ASD written by Charlsey Wallace and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the pragmatic impairments that exist in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. A measure adapted from Baron-Cohen, Surian, and Van der Lely (1996) called The Gricean Pragmatics test was used to evaluate how severe the pragmatic impairments were in the subjects with ASD, how their performance compared to their neurotypically-developing (NT) counterparts, if there were differences according to which Gricean Maxims were tested, and finally, if there were any underlying factors that contributed to pragmatic ability. The results showed that the children with ASD performed successfully on this task, possibly indicating that the majority of the children in this study had a less severe form of ASD. Furthermore, significant correlations were found between overall Grice scores and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 4th Edition (PPVT-4) scores and also between overall Grice scores and digit span scores. These findings indicate that language ability and working memory play a role in overall Grice performance; possibly indicating that in general, children with higher IQs will perform better on the task.
Download or read book Empower! written by Beth A. P. Soeder and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed to enable child with autism spectrum disorders and related communication challenges to be more effective communicators, improve receptive and expressive language skills, improve pragmatic and socialization skills, increase participation of the non-verbal or minimally verbal student, decrease frustration of both the communication and listener, decrease the time that educators need to prepare the classroom, promote carry over of skills to the home setting, and train educators to effectively utilize all modalities of communication (verbal, visual, tactile).
Book Synopsis The Added Effect of Visual Scene Display AAC Within a Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention for Young Children on the Autism Spectrum with Minimal Speech by : Lauramarie Elizabeth Pope
Download or read book The Added Effect of Visual Scene Display AAC Within a Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention for Young Children on the Autism Spectrum with Minimal Speech written by Lauramarie Elizabeth Pope and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many children on the autism spectrum struggle significantly in their early language development, entering kindergarten with little or no functional speech (Kasari et al., 2014; Rose et al., 2016). Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) are a promising approach for supporting early language and communication development for young children on the autism spectrum (e.g., Sandbank et al., 2020). NDBIs blend developmental principles with behavioral intervention strategies within naturalistic environments to support child development across domains (Schreibman et al., 2015). However, the children with the greatest need of language supports -- those with minimal speech -- have limited means to participate within these interventions and are therefore the least likely to benefit from traditional NDBIs that focus primarily on speech production (Kasari et al., 2014). Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) offers children on the autism spectrum with limited speech the potential means to enhance communication and participate effectively in the interactions needed to support early language and communication development. To date, only one study has directly investigated the impact of adding traditional, grid-based AAC supports into a preexisting NDBI, with promising results (Kasari et al., 2014). However, grid-based AAC systems can still constrain access to contextually-relevant and motivating vocabulary, effectively limiting critical language learning opportunities. No research has explored incorporating AAC systems that have been specifically designed to support early language and communication development into the context of an NDBI. The proposed study aimed to fill this gap by investigating the effect of integrating visual scene display (VSD) AAC supports with "just-in-time" programming and aided AAC input within an NDBI framework for young children on the autism spectrum with minimal speech. VSD systems capture the contexts in which language is learned and used through photographs, embed vocabulary within these familiar scenes, and support quick and easy programming of new vocabulary during interactions in response to children's interests (Holyfield, Caron, & Light, 2019). These systems give children access to dynamic, contextually relevant, and motivating vocabulary, supporting active engagement within early language learning contexts. In addition, aided AAC input consists of communication partners augmenting their own spoken input by selecting relevant vocabulary on the aided AAC system (O'Neill et al., 2018). Strong evidence indicates that aided AAC input is highly effective in supporting communication and vocabulary development for individuals with limited speech (O'Neill et al., 2018). Using a single case, multiple-probe across participants design, the current study investigated the impact of adding VSD-based AAC supports with just-in-time programming and aided AAC input into NDBI procedures on the total number of symbolic communicative turns taken during 10-minute interactions by young children on the autism spectrum with minimal speech. The following collateral variables were also explored: (a) the cumulative number of unique vocabulary concepts expressed; (b) the communication modality of symbolic turns expressed by participants (e.g., speech, gestures, aided AAC); (c) characteristics of the most frequent expressive vocabulary concepts; (e) characteristics of vocabulary programmed just-in-time in response to participants' interests; and (f) comprehension of the spoken word for book-related concepts. Results of a caregiver social validity questionnaire are also reported. Participating children were all in the First Words stage of language development (as defined by Tager-Flusberg et al., 2009), indicating that they were in the process of developing an initial corpus of single word expressive communication. During this period of language development, acquiring a robust vocabulary and developing formative social communication skills is critical to establishing the essential building blocks needed to support later language growth, such as word combinations. Participant performance in baseline on (a) the number of symbolic communicative turns per session, (b) the cumulative number of unique vocabulary concepts expressed, and (b) the communication modality of symbolic turns was compared to intervention, with the addition of VSD AAC supports and aided AAC input. All participants tended to take more turns each session and add new expressive vocabulary more rapidly in intervention than in baseline, though with notable variation across participants. Participants generally communicated most frequently using gestures in baseline and aided VSD AAC during intervention, with no notable change in the low rates of speech production across phases. Overall, the ten most frequent expressive vocabulary concepts for each participant consisted mostly of nouns, though with a notable number of verbs. However, interjections (e.g., "Oh, no!" "Wheee!") were also often at the top of participants' high frequency vocabulary lists. Vocabulary programmed just-in-time also consisted primarily of nouns. Lastly, participants performed at chance levels identifying the spoken words for book-related vocabulary pre-selected by the researcher across study phases. However, for half of the participants, accuracy was above chance levels on a post-hoc individualized comprehension measure of spoken language that targeted the vocabulary concepts communicated most frequently by each participant (50-70% accuracy). The results of this study indicate that including VSD-based aided AAC systems and strategies designed to support beginning communicators within the framework of an NDBI can increase both the communication frequency and expressive vocabulary of children on the autism spectrum with minimal speech, beyond the effects of NDBI procedures alone. Additionally, these results demonstrate that, when given greater agency over their communication, the expressive vocabularies of children on the autism spectrum with minimal speech in the First Words stage of language development consist predominantly of nouns, with some concrete verbs and interjections, as is common in early language development of neurotypical children who use speech (McDonough et al., 2011). Lastly, study outcomes suggest that the connection between expressive use of aided AAC vocabulary and understanding of the spoken word is complex, requiring further investigation. These results demonstrate the positive impact of intervention strategies that combine the strengths of NDBIs and developmentally appropriate AAC intervention on both social pragmatic (turn taking) and semantic (vocabulary growth) development. In addition, this study lays the foundation for future research expanding NDBI and AAC research into new contexts, with a variety of communication partners, and with more fine-grained comparisons between intervention components.
Download or read book From Play to Talk written by Soo Wee Ho and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deficits in communication skills, both verbal and nonverbal, are central in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SCD). Treatment goals focused on the acquisition of functional communication skills are among the most prevalent targets for instruction in education plans for persons with developmental disabilities (Sigafoos, 1997). This thesis explores the importance of teaching symbolic play skills in early interventions and its role in developing early social communication skills in young children with developmental disabilities, with a focus on children with ASD. This thesis comprises: (i) two parallel systematic reviews on measures used by authors since 2000 for assessing early social communication and for assessing symbolic play, (ii) a report of an intensive one-on-one daily targeted symbolic play intervention for a three-year-old child diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder- Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), and (iii) a report of a developmental trajectory study involving both children with ASD (n=4) and neurotypical children (n=4), tracking their play and language development over three time-points across a six-month period.The two systematic literature reviews on measures revealed a total of 46 different measures being employed for assessing early social communication and 26 measures for symbolic play. Of these measures, eight were reported in both reviews. Psychometric properties of the top ten most frequently cited measures on both lists were listed. Implications of the results were discussed. The author put forward the proposition that symbolic play and early social communication are closely linked in early childhood development, such that teaching symbolic play can lead to improvements in early social communication and potentially result in collateral gains in language.Supporting evidence for this hypothesis was presented. A single participant behavioural paradigm was employed to present findings on a targeted symbolic play intervention. Teaching and learning processes are explicated from this experiment. The child made gains in her play skills, becoming a more active player and was able to display more pretend play and more combinations of toys. Even though language skills were not explicitly targeted, the child made gains in language skills, especially in her expressive communication, as assessed by Preschool Language Scale, Fifth Edition (Zimmerman, Steiner, & Pond, 2011).From the developmental trajectory study, the neurotypical group of children made better progress compared to the group of children with ASD, both in their language and in their play skills. The group of children with ASD had a greater percentage of indiscriminate play actions. Indiscriminate play actions are non-specific and non-targeted interactions with the toys or materials presented such as mouthing, sniffing and rubbing the toys against the skin, dropping or throwing the toys off the play table or floor play area. The findings provide validity support for the selected measures used in this study. The child who received targeted symbolic play intervention made significant gains in her play skills, including self pretend play and making many different toy combinations. She also made gains in her expressive communication skills even though these skills were not directly targeted. Overall, this study has provided supporting evidence that targeted symbolic play may be a cusp to developing social communication skills, with collateral gains in language skills. Going beyond using play as a backdrop to teaching various skills, the author argued that symbolic play targets are worthy early intervention goals by themselves.
