Developing Useful Speech in Young Nonverbal Children with Cognitive Disabilities

Sally Rogers sjrogers@ucdavis.edu

Fifty percent of persons with autism do not develop complex speech, and lack of speech is associated with poor outcomes. Intensive intervention programs have indicated that 75-95% of treated children develop some useful speech by age 5. However, we have very few manualized, empirically demonstrated treatments to guide practitioners.

Treatments have generally focused on increasing social engagement, imitation skills, and understanding of language. The Denver Model is built from such a conceptualization. However, empirical findings suggest that the presence of oral-motor dyspraxia may be an additional barrier to speech development. A promising treatment for oral motor dyspraxia - the PROMPT approach - has been successful in other disorders for the past 20 years.

The main objectives of the project are to complete standardization and refinement of these two treatments: PROMPT and the Denver Model, and obtain initial pilot data.