Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to describe a pilot program designed to support parents of young children with language delays by identifying and nurturing communication-enhancing activities. This program includes an initial parent survey of child interests; an overview of child development, developmental domains, and the relationship between activities and communication; weekly guided observations/ratings of children engaged in a variety of developmentally appropriate activities; activity-communication rating/reflecting to further understand the relationship between context and communication in activities at home; and a Parent Outcomes Questionnaire and interview. A parent-child study is used to illustrate program components. Consider the following scenario as analogous to the notion that tapping into one's interests facilitates learning.
You are working for an agency that places early childhood professionals in positions around the world. You just have accepted an assignment to work with young children with special needs and their families in Italy. You realize that you must learn Italian and you find three different language training programs. The first program is housed at the Metropolitan Opera and teaches Italian through the study of famous operas. The second program is held in a cooking school and teaches Italian as you learn to prepare and enjoy the recipes of great Italian chefs. The third promises to teach you Italian while studying the magnificent paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance. In which program will you be most motivated to communicate in Italian? Why?
Chances are, if you love opera or music, you chose the Met's program; if you love to cook (or eat), you chose the cooking school; or if you love art or history, you chose the art school. If none of these excited you, chances are, you would look further! Adults and children are most motivated to communicate when we have something we passionately want to talk about.
Understanding the relationships between our physical and social environments is the aim of environmental systems theorists (Bronfenbrenner, 1992, 1993, 1999; Dunst, Bruder, Trivette, Hamby, Raab, & McLean, 2001; Kaiser, 1993). Environmental systems theory proposes that behavior and learning, in children and adults, is the result of dynamic interactions between the person and his physical and social environments. Furthermore, modifying any aspect of a person's physical or social environment will change some aspect of the person's behavior.
Environmental systems theory has been applied by researchers in child language disorders to the development of parent education programs. Some parent education programs are designed to change the child's social environment (for review, see Tannock & Girolametto, 1992; Weitzner-Linn, 2004). For example, parents have been taught successfully to modify their didactic communicative behaviors (e.g., asking children to label objects and follow directives) by following the child's lead, being more contingently responsive to the child's communicative attempts, and asking open-ended as opposed to closed-ended questions. Results of these social change programs include improved naturalness of parent-child interactions and increased spontaneous child language production (i.e., primarily greater use of existing communication skills).
