Training Pragmatic Language Skills through Alternate Strategies with a Blind Multiply Handicapped Child

Abstract

A blind multiply handicapped preschool child was taught to respond appropriately to two adjacency pair types. Where Question - Answer and Comment - Acknowledgement. Training involved teaching manual searching behavior as an alternate strategy for visual searching in response to “where” questions. Echolalic responses to comments initially served only a turn-taking function but, through explicit modification, gradually evolved into more appropriate and communicative responses. The blind child's appropriate responses to trained adjacency pair types increased significantly over the 14-week treatment period. The success of this program augers well for future efforts to develop communication-based interventions that incorporate the alternate language acquisition strategies available to blind children.