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J Autism Dev Disord (2007) 37:15051513 DOI 10.1007/s10803-006-0243-6
ORIGINAL PAPER
The Effects of Enhanced Milieu Teaching and a Voice Output Communication Aid on the Requesting of Three Children with Autism
Melissa L. Olive Berenice de la Cruz Tonya N. Davis Jeffrey M. Chan Russell B. Lang Mark F. OReilly Sarah M. Dickson
Published online: 25 October 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006
Abstract The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of enhanced milieu teaching when combined with a voice output communication aid on the requesting skills of three children with autism. The research design was a multiple probe across participants. All sessions were conducted during 5-min play sessions in the childs classroom. All three children learned to use the voice output communication aid to request items during play. Additionally, all three children increased their total requesting during play.
Keywords Enhanced milieu teaching Voice output communication aid Communication intervention Naturalistic intervention
Introduction
Enhanced milieu teaching (EMT), a naturalistic communication intervention, has been described as a hybrid intervention model combining strategies from the interactive model (Girolametto & Weitzman, 2002; Kaiser & Hemmeter, 1996) and milieu teaching intervention approaches (Alpert & Kaiser, 1992; Hancock
& Kaiser, 1996). EMT has been shown to increase communication skills in young children with language delays (Hemmeter & Kaiser, 1994; McCathren, 2000), including children with autism (Hancock & Kaiser, 2002; Kaiser, Hancock, & Nietfeld, 2000). Despite the effectiveness of EMT for children with autism, to our knowledge, no studies of EMT have been completed using any augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Since many children with autism have been shown to lack formal expressive communication skills, they may not benet from an intervention that focused solely on verbal expressive communication. Therefore, it seems important to study the effects of EMT when combined with AAC strategies.
Augmentative and alternative communication intervention strategies may consist of a variety of options including but not limited to sign, picture exchange, and voice output communication aids (VOCA1). In fact, research has demonstrated the effectiveness of using VOCAs to teach communication skills to individuals with limited expressive ability (Brady, 2000; Schepis, Reid, Behrmann, & Sutton, 1998; Sigafoos et al., 2004). However, the context for intervention with the VOCA has been studied very little. In fact, Schepis and...