Coaching Parents to Use Naturalistic Language and Communication Strategies
Published Mar 1, 2017 · Yusuf Akamoglu, Laurie A. Dinnebeil
Young Exceptional Children
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Abstract
Mr. Taylor is a new early intervention specialist who has just started working with 26-month-old Kelsey and her family at their home. Kelsey is identified with developmental delay and shows delays in expressive communication skills. Kelsey’s mother, Ms. Peterson wants her child to be able to express her basic needs and wants. Mr. Taylor thinks Kelsey would benefit from working on oneword utterances to express her basic needs and wants. He believes that Kelsey needs more opportunities to practice skills during the family’s daily routines and activities. As a new early interventionist, Mr. Taylor is unsure how to introduce naturalistic language and communication strategies that the family can use during their daily routines and activities (e.g., mealtime, bedtime, play, reading, etc.). Language acquisition begins in the early years and is affected by the quality and quantity of language input (Hart & Risley, 1995; Moore, Barton, & Chironis, 2014). Communicative interactions between parent (i.e., primary caregiver) and child, as well as a rich language input are very important in the early years (Moore et al., 2014). Interactions between parents and children occur naturally and throughout daily routines and activities. These naturally occurring interactions create many opportunities to support the child’s language and communication skills (McWilliam, 2012; Woods, Kashinath, & Goldstein, 2004). Parents are knowledgeable about their children and daily routines, and therefore, can create languagerich environments for their children by embedding language and communication opportunities into daily routines and activities (Woods et al., 2004). Naturalistic language and communication strategies (i.e., naturalistic teaching strategies) refer to practices that are used to promote the child’s language and communication skills either through verbal (e.g., spoken words) or nonverbal (e.g., gestures, signs) interactions between an adult (e.g., parent, teacher) and a child. Use of naturalistic teaching strategies (NT strategies) allows parents to promote their child’s language through authentic learning experiences (Kaiser, Hancock, & Trent, 2007). Kaiser, Hancock, and Nietfeld (2000) stated, “The definition of naturalistic language teaching varies widely in reported “