Effects of adult contingent vocal imitation on vocal imitation skills of three young (26 to 29 months) children with mental retardation were investigated. All children vocally imitated in response to adult contingent imitation during training. There was minimal generalization to adult contingent imitation and elicited imitation prompts but…

This study examined whether maternal responsivity would predict the extent to which prelinguistic milieu teaching (PMT) facilitated generalized intentional communication better than a contrast small-group treatment with 58 children (ages 17 to 36 months) with developmental disabilities. If mothers were relatively responsive before treatment, PMT…

Two experiments with young children with mental retardation found that a milieu teaching approach was effective in facilitating subjects' use of such prelinguistic communication skills as requesting, commenting, and vocal imitation, in both the training and generalized settings. Evidence of reciprocal effects on teacher-student interaction was…