Long term maintenance of language and social skills

Abstract

This paper discusses long‐term maintenance issues as they relate to the language and social skills of individuals with developmental disabilities and autism. Long‐term follow‐ups of echolalic and appropriate speech (upwards to 57 months) and social skills (8 years) will be presented as examples of what can be learned about maintenance from long‐term follow‐ups. A maintenance strategy will be presented that employs characteristics of early parent–typical toddler interactions as a means for prompting language impaired individuals to use physical/natural cues. The paper concludes with some recommendations regarding the study of maintenance. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A language programme to increase the verbal production of a child dually diagnosed with Down syndrome and autism

“…Therefore, it appears that increased meaningful communication that occurred during the treatment phase generalized into everyday usage, as reflected in the treatment withdrawn phase data. This is hopeful in that generalization of learned skills is usually a difficult task for individuals in this population (Foxx 1999).…”

Social Behavior and Skills in Children

“…Many of the studies addressed short-term maintenance, by assessing the presence of treatment effects after a small number of weeks or months following treatment. Failing to address maintenance to an adequate degree is a common shortcoming of treatment research in general (Foxx, 1999), so it is not surprising to find it in the social skills treatment literature. Particularly in the case of adult-mediated interventions, contrived intervention procedures must be eliminated early in the treatment process in order for a meaningful treatment effect to be obtained.…”