Promoting communication outcomes for children with deaf-blindness through adaptive prelinguistic millieu teaching (PMT) strategies
Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education, grant #H324D030003
Five-year research validation project for children who are deaf-blind grant
Dr. Susan M. Bashinski, Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Nancy Brady, Co-Principal Investigator
Subcontact partner: (Replication Site):
- Indiana Deafblind Services Project, Indiana State University
Ms. Karen, Goehl, Project Director
Goal
Investigate the effectiveness of adapted prelinguistic milieu teaching strategies for improving the use of conventional gestures and vocalizations by young children with deaf-blindness
Twelve children in the greater Kansas City/northeast Kansas area are participants
- Three cohort groups of four children each
- Participants were three to seven years of age, at the study's inception
- Participants have concurrent vision and hearing losses
- Stratified, multiple baseline design
- Each child receives intensive, individual intervention with project staff—45 minutes per day, 4 days per week, for five to nine months
Six children are participants in the Indiana replication study
Preliminary outcomes indicate that, of the eight children, whose intervention phase has been completed:
- ALL demonstrated significant increases in rates of communication (i.e., the number of initiated communication acts / minute)
- ALL demonstrated increased diversity in communication forms
- ALL demonstrated increased diversity in communication functions
- Seven children successfully achieved, or exceeded, exit criterion (i.e., minimum of 1 communication act / minute for 3 consecutive sessions)
- One child exited intervention after 9 months (i.e., only child who has significant motor challenges)
PARENT BROCHURE.pdf