Language training in the ESN(S)child.

A behavioural language training programme was implemented with a group of nine children with severe language and learning difficulties in a local authority day school in Sheffield. The study was conducted over a period of four and a half school terms. Detailed data and results are presented on five of the nine children. The language training programme focussed on the development of syntax and was organised into three categories; 1) pre-language training, 2) language training and 3) video training. One-to-one teaching strategies, combined with the techniques of imitation and reinforcement were used in each dimension of the programme. Systematic teaching procedures were also developed for training the generalisation of new syntax in non-training settings within the school. The child care assistant functioned as a second trainer. Significant improvements occurred in the language behaviour of each of the five children. Functional speech and language was established in one child who was non-verbal at baseline. The utterances of the four other children were extended in both length and structural complexity. Generalisation occurred in a range of settings with both familiar and unfamiliar adults. A teaching approach integrating a structured language training curriculum and one-to-one teaching strategies in an ordinary classroom setting combined with training for generalisation in non-training contexts within a school environment, proved both possible and successful in shaping effective communication in a group of children with severe learning difficulties.