1. What Promotes Children’s Communication?
• Children must be exposed to language to learn language.
• Children do not learn language only by being spoken to.
• Children learn language by communicating.
• Children learn language by engaging in the social/communicative
interactions that are the foundations for Communication
Development:
• Joint Activity
• Vocalization
• Intentional Communication
• Joint Attention
• Conversation
2. Joint Activity
Language can only be learned through social
interaction with adult speakers.
Early social interactions set the stage for preverbal
conversations.
The more opportunities children have for preverbal
conversations that sooner they will learn language.
Joint activities and games provide a structured,
predictable interactive routine that help children learn
the meaning and use of words and phrases.
Joint Activity should be a concern if a child older than
six months of age:
Does not engage in frequent one-to-one social
interactions throughout the day.
Does not stay engaged in social interaction with
parents and caregivers more than briefly.
Have few opportunities to engage in interactive
routines with parents that are playful, fun, and
predictable.
Be physically available and interactive.
Expect the child to interact.
Play back and forth with sounds.
Communicate less so the child communicates
more.
Play face-to-face games without toys.
Interact for fun.
Response Intervention
Strategies (RI) to
develop Joint Activity
3. Vocalization
Child will not talk unless they vocalize (create
sounds with their voice).
The more adults respond to their children’s
vocalizations, whether meaningful or not
meaningful, the more children will vocalize.
Vocalizing helps children learn to make the
sounds of spoken language.
Vocalization is a concern if a child older than
five months:
Seldom uses vocalizations or language to
interact.
Makes his or her own special sounds but few
conventional speech sounds.
Is extremely quiet most of the time.
Is difficult to understand.
Play back and forth with sounds.
Communicate less so the child communicates
more.
Respond immediately to little behaviors.
Imitate the child’s actions and communications.
Communicate the way the child communicates.
Response Intervention
Strategies (RI) to
develop Vocalization
4. Intentionality
Children must be able to express intentions before
they will use language to communicate.
Children learn to communicate their intentions as
they notice the effects that behaviors they produce
have on others.
Children's behaviors become intentional when
parents treat them as if they were meaningful.
Intentional Communication is a concern if a child:
Seldom uses nonverbal cues to express feelings or
needs.
Jargons, babbles, or uses words by him or herself
but not with others.
Vocalizes but only occasionally uses vocalizations to
communicate intentions to others.
Knows several words but either seldom uses them
to communicate his or her intentions or uses them
only in a restricted way.
Respond quickly to the child’s signals, cries, or
nonverbal requests.
Respond immediately to little behaviors.
Respond to unintentional vocalizations, facial
displays, and gestures as if they were
meaningful conversations.
Accept incorrect word choice, pronunciation, or
word approximations by responding to the
child’s intention.
Translate the child’s actions, feelings, and
intentions into words.
Imitate the child’s actions and communications.
Accompany communications with intonation,
pointing, and nonverbal gestures.
Response Intervention
Strategies (RI) to develop
Intentional Communication
5. Joint Attention
The key to early vocabulary development.
Children must learn both how to follow the focus of
others' attention and how to direct others to what
they are attending to or are interested in as a
prerequisite to learning language.
Joint attention develops gradually in the first two
years.
Joint Attention is a concern if a child who is between
12–18 months developmentally:
Engages in joint activities but seldom directs parents’
attention other than to get his or her needs met.
Maintains eye contact with a parent or other adult for
longer than a few seconds at a time.
Is unable to follow parents’ nonverbal and verbal
directional cues (e.g., eye gaze, pointing, gesturing).
Is capable of directing and following the parent’s focus
of attention but seldom does it.
Get into the child’s world.
Observe the child’s behavior.
Respond immediately to little behaviors.
Be animated.
Accompany communications with intonation,
pointing, and nonverbal gestures.
Repeat activities the child enjoys.
Follow the child’s focus of attention.
Response Intervention
Strategies (RI) to
develop Joint Attention
6. Conversation
Children expand their vocabulary and learn to use
more complex language structures by participating
actively in frequent conversations.
Children will stay longer in conversations when the
conversation focuses on topics that are at their
level and focused on their interests.
Questions from adults are conversation killers.
Conversation should be a concern if a child with
two word utterances:
Has several words but seldom stays engaged with
adults for more than a few conversational turns.
Communicates to get his or her needs met but
seldom for other reasons.
Is interested in communicating elaborate
sequences or observations but lacks the language
to do it.
Make a habit of communicating during joint
activity routines.
Communicate without asking questions.
Expand to show the child the next
developmental step.
Expand to clarify the child’s intention or to
develop my child’s topic.
Wait silently for a more mature response.
Respond to the child in playful ways.
Communicate the way the child communicates.
Follow the child’s lead.
Response Intervention
Strategies (RI) to
develop Conversation
