Assessing and Improving Preverbal Social Communication: Teacher-Led Naturalistic Behavioral Developmental Interventions

Mrs. Parra is an experienced special education co-teacher in an inclusive kindergarten–first grade classroom. Her classroom has a number of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are at the very early developmental stages of language, cognitive, and adaptive learning. For these children, Mrs. Parra uses Discrete Trial Training (DTT) to instruct preacademic and adaptive goals, but does not feel these same methodologies are appropriate to improve preverbal social communication targets (e.g., pointing to request) because the improvements did not often generalize outside of her lessons. She is uncertain about how to choose appropriate social communication goals for her students with complex communication needs (CCNs), allotting time to address these important needs in a direct way, and finding a way to write lesson plans for these goals that fit in an inclusive classroom setting. She also feels the students who are neurotypical are eager to have meaningful opportunities to socially engage with their classmates and wants to support these interactions. Mrs. Parra 1039829 YECXXX10.1177/10962506211039829Young Exceptional ChildrenImproving Early Social Communication / Sterrett et al. research-article2021