Effects of a Caregiver-Implemented Intervention on the Motor and Communication Outcomes of Infants and Toddlers with Significant Disabilities

Abstract

Effects of a Caregiver-Implemented Intervention on the Motor and Communication Outcomes of Infants and Toddlers with Significant Disabilities Kelly Windsor Dissertation under the direction of Dr. Ann P. Kaiser Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using the coaching components of Family Guided Routines Based Intervention (FGRBI) to teach Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) strategies to caregivers and to examine the impact of this intervention on caregivers’ use of correct learning trials and EMT strategies to address their children’s specific motor and communication targets in two routines. The effects of caregivers’ implementation on children’s use of their targets was also examined. Method: Three children ages 15 to 23 months with significant disabilities, their caregivers, and an early intervention provider participated in this single case multiple probe design study. Using the FGRBI coaching approach, the provider taught each caregiver EMT for promoting her child’s use of specific motor and communication targets in family identified routines during 10-11 sessions. The primary dependent variables were caregivers’ rates of correct learning trials, and the number of naturalistic teaching strategies used for each target in each routine. Secondary dependent variables were child use of target motor and communication behaviors. Results: Caregivers demonstrated increases in rate of correct learning trials and number of strategies used to teach communication and motor targets in play and caregiving routines from baseline to intervention phase. Children demonstrated small increases in total and spontaneous use of communication and motor targets during intervention. Some effects of the intervention for both caregivers and children were observed during the maintenance phase. Conclusions: The results support the use of the FGRBI coaching approach to teach caregiver use of EMT, and they indicate that caregiver-implemented EMT can increase child use of communication and motor targets in routines by young children with significant disabilities. Implications of these findings for research and practice in early intervention for children with significant disabilities are discussed.

Approved: Ann P. Kaiser, PhD