Immersive Communication Intervention for Speaking and Non-speaking Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The current study demonstrates the effectiveness of an intervention that addresses both home care and day care for children with intellectual disabilities while also taking the large individual differences between the children into account. The KLINc Studio intervention was designed to improve the language development, communication skills, and emergent literacy of 10 children with complex communication needs. The focus of the anchor-based intervention program was on the stimulation of vocabulary learning via the incorporation of AAC into the learning environment in the most natural manner possible. While all of the children showed significant progress across the intervention period of 2 years, the group of speaking children showed greater development in the domains of receptive language and productive syntax than the group of non-speaking children. For heterogeneous groups of children with disabilities, the use of a combined intervention such as that described here appears to be promising.

O uso da comunicação suplementar e/ou alternativa no trabalho com a morfossintaxe em adolescentes com Síndrome de Down

“…The results obtained corroborate literature findings regarding the gain in oral communication through phrasal structures containing adequately organized elements such as articles, nouns, verbs, pronouns, preposition, and conjunctions 20,22,29,31 . It can be argued that the repetition of phrasal structures with gradual and systematic introduction of slight modifications in syntactic elements, associated to the transparency and familiarity of the symbols, led to the implementation of auditory working memory, which has great influence on language issues presented by individuals with DS.…”

“…The type of study proposed found support in international literature regarding AAC. Although its importance is recognized, few references are found 22,29 .…”

“…There have been references in studies 3,14 regarding the influence of the therapeutic process on the development of linguistic abilities in this population, although there are usually not enough information about the therapeutic model used. Concerning AAC, some authors have emphasized the idea of its positive influence on the communication development of children with DS regarding the outcome assessment of interventions that provide longitudinal data, as well as the results from programmed therapies 22,29,31 . These reports corroborate the data obtained in the present study.…”

“…Studies about language development in DS have reported that, among open class words (that is, words that carry meaning), nouns are acquired first application 22,29,31,40 of a system that uses organized pictographic symbols in order to favor phrasal structure (PCS). The results obtained corroborate literature findings regarding the gain in oral communication through phrasal structures containing adequately organized elements such as articles, nouns, verbs, pronouns, preposition, and conjunctions 20,22,29,31 .…”

“…Studies [19][20][21][22][23] have shown that the presence of language difficulties and cognitive deficits is a relevant condition to indicate the use of systems and symbols from Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for this population, which includes, temporarily or permanently, individuals with DS. In other words, depending on the individual's profile of communication difficulties, the use of AAC could be a tool for language support or an alternative resource for language expression.…”