A Program for Achieving Generalization of Grammatical Rules to Spontaneous Discourse

Abstract

Four language-disordered children were presented with a 4-step program designed to achieve generalization of target grammatical rules to spontaneous discourse. A multiple baseline design was used to compare trained and untrained rule usage. During each step of the program, the clinician arranged for the child's own intentions to evoke the target rule. Progression through the program entailed systematically increasing the number of nontarget events the child needed to convey, and decreasing the frequency with which the clinician modelled the target. Trained target rules increased in frequency while untrained rules did not. When therapy was then initiated on the untrained rules, they also increased in frequency while the first rules continued to be produced at mastery level.