Research: Teaching Young Nonverbal Children with Autism Useful Speech: A Pilot Study of the Denver Model and PROMPT Interventions

Authored by Rogers, SJ, Hayden D., Hepburn S., Charlifue-Smith R., Hall T., and Hayes A. in J Autism Dev Disord, Volume 36, Issue 8, p. 1007-1024, (2006).

Article summary (posted Mar 24, 2008):

Children with autism who were not talking improved in their use of speech using two different speech therapy programs.

Two methods of speech therapy were compared for how well they helped children (2-5 years old) who were nonverbal and spoke fewer than 5 known words per day. Ten children were divided into two groups: one group received "Denver model" therapy; and the other group received "PROMPT" therapy. Each child had 12 1-hour sessions with one type of therapy, and parents attended each session and learned how to practice with the children at home. Children were tested for language use at the end of the 12 week period, and again 3 months later. Of all the children in this study, 8 out of 10 children showed increases in using speech during therapy and at home. Both types of speech therapy worked to help these nonverbal children.

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You can access the original abstract and the complete paper is sometimes available for free via Google Scholar (look for entries that say "PDF" or "HTML" on the right side of the page).
autism, Denver model, home, language, nonverbal communication, parent, parent support, pilot study, prompt, Prompts for Restructuring Oral Phonetic Targets (PROMPT), speech therapy, therapy, therapy programs
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