BIO

Hello, my name is Viviana and I am from Austin, Texas. I am a senior, graduating this semester, with a major in communication science and disorders and a minor in child development. My undergraduate research interests include early communication intervention for young prelinguistic children. I am also interested in bilingualism and children with speech and language impairments. I plan on beginning graduate school and pursuing my masters in speech language pathology in the Fall.

Adult Strategies and Child Acts for Communication Development in Early Intervention

Abstract

Early intervention in speech therapy is critical for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers to learn communication skills during the period of normal brain development and can have a significant impact on a child’s development that minimizes the long-term negative impacts of a speech-language delay or disorder. Early intervention programs also aim to provide education, support, and guidance for parents and caregivers. This presentation will overview the data collection process of child and adult communication acts and strategies. The data set came from an overarching study which examined the effect of a multicomponent professional development approach on early intervention providers’ use of the Family Guided Routines Based Intervention framework. Communication was coded using The Observer XT software on the NOLDUS platform to add information on caregiver and child impacts in early intervention services within the home. The Observer XT software on the NOLDUS platform allowed for a quantitative way to code behaviors and visualize them on a timeline and assess reliability between the coders. The different strategies and implications for communication acts are discussed in this presentation.

Keywords: communication, gestures, child, development, intervention