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Generalized Effects of Naturalistic Social Communication Intervention for Minimally Verbal Children with Autism

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Abstract

JASP-EMT, the combined Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) and Joint Attention, Structured Play, and Emotion Regulation (JASPER) interventions, has been found to be effective for promoting social communication in young children with autism (Kasari et al. in J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 53(6):635–646, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2014.01.019, 2014). The current study examined the effects of this naturalistic intervention on social language use in three children with autism who were in the early stages of language acquisition. Generalization to communication partners who did not utilize the intervention strategies was systematically examined using a multiple-baseline design. The results from this study indicate that this blended intervention is effective in increasing target social language for young children with autism, however, generalization to communication partners does not readily occur. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you Dr. Mark Woolery for his guidance of the study design.

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Author notes

  1. Lauren H. Hampton

    Present address: University of Texas at Austin, 1912 Speedway, Stop D5300, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Lauren H. Hampton, Ann P. Kaiser, Jennifer P. Nietfeld & Ani Khachoyan

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Contributions

All of the authors contributed to the design and analysis of the study. LHH and AK contributed to the execution of the study, and JPN and APK provided intervention and fidelity training and supervision. LHH and APK prepared the manuscript. The final manuscript has been edited and approved by all the authors.

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Correspondence to Lauren H. Hampton.

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Hampton, L.H., Kaiser, A.P., Nietfeld, J.P. et al. Generalized Effects of Naturalistic Social Communication Intervention for Minimally Verbal Children with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 75–87 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04521-4

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