Abstract
Purpose: This article describes how participation in activities/routines can be used as a basis for understanding children's communication and language skills and how that knowledge can be extended to collaborate with families and caregivers to develop meaningful early intervention outcomes. Method: The approach is centered on children's use of communication and language skills to participate in typical activities/routines. Implementation of the approach is based on an understanding of children's performance abilities/disabilities and their use of those abilities to participate in family-identified activities/routines in their natural environments. Discussion and case examples illustrate how communication and language skills can enhance or enable participation in such activities. Family-centered procedures for gathering information about activities/routines from caregivers are described, and strategies for developing outcomes in collaboration with caregivers are presented. Implications: Participation-based outcomes offer speechlanguage pathologists an option for embedding skills within important activities/routines, thereby promoting children's communication and language growth in natural contexts.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 365-378 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Language, speech, and hearing services in schools |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 2011 |
Keywords
- Early communication and language intervention
- Early intervention
- Family-centered early intervention outcomes
- Participation based
- Toddlers with communication impairments
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
- Speech and Hearing