Increasing Language Use in Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Research has demonstrated that higher levels of parent language use is
correlated with later language use and intellectual development of their children.
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display deficits in social and
communication skills. They also demonstrate repetitive and restrictive behaviors or
interests. These behavioral deficits and excesses may contribute negatively to
language development, as well as parent and child social interactions, and
communication exchanges. The current study used a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline
design to evaluate the effectiveness of behavior skills training (BST) and on-going
graphical and verbal feedback on increasing parent language use and child words and
utterances. Results of this study demonstrated that BST with on-going feedback was
effective in increasing parent language use and child words and utterances above baseline levels for all four parent-child dyads. The dissertation concludes with
recommendations for future research.