The Impact of Child-Directed Treatment for Young Children with Motor Impairments on Their Caregivers' Facilitative Behaviors

Abstract

Children's development of early signals of communication (e.g., triadic eye gaze) is powerfully shaped by their caregivers' facilitative behaviors which provide support for learning during caregiver-child interactions. When a child has severe motor impairments, these interactions are disrupted and communicative development is negatively impacted. Speech-language pathologists may treat either the child or the caregiver to facilitate development of early signals of communication in children with severe motor impairments. The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits that caregivers may receive when their children receive direct treatment for triadic eye gaze. This study examined the changes in facilitative behaviors for 7 caregivers whose infants with severe motor impairments received treatment for triadic eye gaze versus 7 caregivers whose infants did not receive this treatment. Overall, there were no statistically significant differences between the changes in facilitative behaviors in the two groups. However, the treatment group did significantly decrease their facilitative behaviors from baseline to follow up. Implications for treatment are discussed as well as qualitative analysis of the caregivers' facilitative behaviors.