Requesting and Verbal Imitation Intervention for Infants with Down syndrome: Generalization, Intelligibility, and Problem Solving

Abstract Part of the Down syndrome behavioral phenotype is significant impairment in expressive communication. This begins early with impairments in verbal imitation and requesting observed in infants with Down syndrome. In contrast, social interaction is a relative strength. We replicated intervention procedures using social reinforcement and prompting (Feeley et al. 2011) to teach infants with Down syndrome to imitate sounds and engage in increasingly sophisticated forms of social and instrumental requests and examined generalization and collateral changes in intelligibility and problem solving. Infants learned to imitate verbalizations and make requests. They showed generalization by imitating novel sounds and requesting with different toys and on a semi structured assessment. Infants also showed verbal imitation that was intelligible to a naïve listener and improvements in problem solving, suggesting this intervention may have broader effects than just requesting and verbal imitation.
Source: Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities - Category: Disability Source Type: research