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

• Published in: Young exceptional children 2023-06, Vol.26 (2), p.77-91
• Main Authors: Sterrett, Kyle, Freeman, Stephanny, Hayashida, Kristen, Kim, Joanne J., Paparella, Tanya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Autism Spectrum Disorders; Behavior Development; Communication Disorders; Curriculum Development; Difficulty Level; Educational Practices; Evaluation; Evidence Based Practice; Improvement; Inclusion; Intellectual Disability; Interpersonal Communication; Intervention; Language Acquisition; Natural Language Processing; Nonverbal Communication; Verbal Communication; Young Children
• ISSN: 1096-2506; 2154-400X
• DOI: 10.1177/10962506211039829

Preverbal communication means any social behavior that occurs before children communicate verbally. Generally, these communicative behaviors are categorized into two ways: as behavior regulation (BR) or joint attention (JA) skills. BR, also referred to as requesting, involves the use of behaviors to gain something or receive assistance (Mundy et al., 1992). Examples include reaching toward a parent with extended arms to be picked up, sounds and eye contact indicating a desire, or pointing to an object to get it from another person. JA involves the coordination of attention between interactive partners and objects or events to share awareness or interest (Mundy et al., 1992). Both BR and JA develop naturally in children who are typically developing. Most importantly, JA is strongly related to developing spoken language (Anderson et al., 2007). Just as an infant learns to move, scoot, and crawl before they walk, children need preverbal communication skills to build to verbal language. Children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder), however, develop BR and JA later and often need significant support to learn and use preverbal communication skills (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Although preverbal communication skills develop later in all children with ASD, there is a subgroup, those with complex communication needs (CCNs) and with co-occurring significant cognitive challenges, where these delays can make it especially difficult for them to learn from their natural social environment. The purpose of this article is to describe one such approach: Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI). NDBI are evidence-based and are a framework to create lessons to teach preverbal social communication in a classroom context. The goals of this article are to provide educators an overview of the basic principles of NDBI, to offer a practical developmental assessment, and to provide a framework to develop lesson plans for early social communication goals in inclusive early education contexts for students with ASD and CCNs.