An Analysis of Naturalistic Interventions for Increasing Spontaneous Expressive Language in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Journal of Special Education
Lane, J. D., Lieberman-Betz, R., et al. (2016).
Journal of Special Education, 50(1), 49-61.
This systematic review investigates the effects of a variety of naturalistic language interventions for increasing spontaneous (i.e., unprompted) expressive language in young children on the autism spectrum. For this review naturalistic interventions included approaches such as: DIR Floortime, Early Start Denver Model, Enhanced Milieu Teaching, Hanen More Than Words, Incidental Teaching, Mand-Model, Milieu Teaching, Joint Attention Intervention, Preschool Autism Communication Trial, Pivotal Response Training (PRT), Responsive Interaction, Social Interaction Project, and Social Pragmatic Intervention.
No funding received
Not stated
Single-subject research design studies; quasi-experimental group studies; experimental group studies
24 studies from 11 articles
Six of the 24 included studies met adequate rigor requirements and yielded robust change in spontaneous verbalizations. These studies examined milieu teaching (MT) and pivotal response treatment (PRT). Therefore, "when increasing spontaneous verbalizations in children with [autism spectrum disorder] ASD who display delays in expressive communication, there is increased confidence that MT or PRT will lead to a meaningful change in the target behavior" (p. 58).
