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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.