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Requesting and Verbal Imitation Intervention for Infants with Down syndrome: Generalization, Intelligibility, and Problem Solving

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Abstract

Part of the Down syndrome behavioral phenotype is significant impairment in expressive communication. This begins early with impairments in verbal imitation and requesting observed in infants with Down syndrome. In contrast, social interaction is a relative strength. We replicated intervention procedures using social reinforcement and prompting (Feeley et al. 2011) to teach infants with Down syndrome to imitate sounds and engage in increasingly sophisticated forms of social and instrumental requests and examined generalization and collateral changes in intelligibility and problem solving. Infants learned to imitate verbalizations and make requests. They showed generalization by imitating novel sounds and requesting with different toys and on a semi structured assessment. Infants also showed verbal imitation that was intelligible to a naïve listener and improvements in problem solving, suggesting this intervention may have broader effects than just requesting and verbal imitation.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the families who participated in the study and Nila Chourhury, Yishai Kadry, Ariella Altabe, Raquel Cerrato, Yoseph Jacobs, and Kristen Masciana for assisting with various aspects of this project. Support for this project was provided by a Professional Staff Congress-City University of New York Award, jointly funded by The Professional Staff Congress and The City University of New York.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Queens College 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Queens, NY, 11367, USA

    Sara M. Bauer & Emily A. Jones

  2. The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Sara M. Bauer & Emily A. Jones

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  1. Sara M. Bauer
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  2. Emily A. Jones
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Correspondence to Sara M. Bauer.

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Bauer, S.M., Jones, E.A. Requesting and Verbal Imitation Intervention for Infants with Down syndrome: Generalization, Intelligibility, and Problem Solving. J Dev Phys Disabil 27, 37–66 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-014-9400-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-014-9400-6

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