This case report describes a young child with inconsistent phonological disorder (IPD). The child presented with unintelligible speech. She made limited progress on individual speech production goals targeting phonological patterns over 4 years, remaining unintelligible. The child was diagnosed with IPD following an inconsistency assessment and…

Background: The ability to understand the mental state of others (social cognition), as well as language, is crucial for children to have good social adaptation. Social cognition (SC) has been shown to be a hierarchical model of three factors (Cognitive, intermediate and affective SC) interrelated with linguistic processes. Children on the autism…

Caregiver-implemented communication intervention can result in increased communication skills in young children. Parents/caregivers are the first teachers of their children and are in natural positions to provide naturalistic communication intervention throughout their child's daily life within their home. Professionals who work with young…

Background: Interprofessional collaborative practices (IPCP) are considered to be a crucial factor in the optimal support of young children (3-6 years) with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in inclusive early childhood education and care (ECEC). Aims: To investigate IPCP in interventions using a collaborative approach for young…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are also minimally verbal may require specialized interventions to promote the development of vocalizations. Preliminary research supports an innovative procedure called response contingent stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) as a potentially effective procedure to promote vocalizations. The primary aim…

This study investigated the impact of a 'Jewellery Club' on girls with social, communication and interaction difficulties. The project focussed on three girls aged seven who participated in an intervention using similar principles to the 'Lego Therapy' intervention. An action research approach was followed, where two phases of the intervention…

Background: Engagement of the child, parent and professional may facilitate positive outcomes for young children with communication disorders receiving early intervention (EI) via telepractice. Despite reported positive outcomes of engagement in a family-centred model of EI, there is limited research exploring the nature engagement in the…

The aim of this pilot study was to explore the feasibility and language outcomes of coaching parents to implement an aided language stimulation intervention using Pragmatic Organisation Dynamic Display (PODD) communication books. Two parent--child dyads, with children aged 4 years 6 months and 4 years 8 months participated in a home-based…

Parent-mediated interventions (PMIs) are considered an evidence-based practice for fostering social communication skills in young autistic children and for promoting parent responsivity and empowerment, yet barriers to caregiver engagement are evident when PMIs are implemented within historically underserved community settings. Issues of caregiver…

This study examined Oregon's early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE) pipelines as a function of children's intersecting ethnicity and home language(s) with a focus on children from Latino/a backgrounds with communication disorders. We found differences in children's referral source and age of referral, likelihood of…

Background: The majority of children with cerebral palsy (CP) experience challenges in functional communication from a young age. A pivotal aspect of functional communication is language comprehension. A variety of classification systems and questionnaires are available to classify and describe functional communication skills in children with CP.…

Purpose: Sentence diversity is a measure of early language development that has yet to be applied to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The primary aim of this study was to identify whether children with ASD show change in sentence diversity over 6 months of treatment with Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI).…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe and explain changes in severity of speech sound disorder (SSD) and token-to-token inconsistency in children with high levels of inconsistency. Method: Thirty-nine children (aged 4;6-7;11 [years;months]) with SSDs and high levels of token-to-token inconsistency were assessed every 6 months for 2 years…

Preverbal communication means any social behavior that occurs before children communicate verbally. Generally, these communicative behaviors are categorized into two ways: as behavior regulation (BR) or joint attention (JA) skills. BR, also referred to as requesting, involves the use of behaviors to gain something or receive assistance (Mundy et…

Changes in minimal verbal communication by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were measured with the Communication Complexity Scale (CCS) and other communication assessments. The CCS measures complexity of preverbal and beginning verbal communication used to communicate behavior regulation and joint attention. The purpose was to…