A Influência da Cooperação dos Pais no Processo Terapêutico para a aquisição da linguagem.

Abstract

Considering the previous history of success of the use of procedures based on the Behavioral Approach in the work with children with developmental disabilities, some procedures of this theoretical approach were combined with techniques of speech therapy to make it possible the acquisition of mands abilities by two children, 5 and 7 years old with specific language delay. In the intervention were used procedures of Positive Reinforcement, Shaping, Modeling and Fading. Of the speech therapy techniques, the most frequently used were those of Phonetic Placement that included point demonstration and articulating forms of the phonemes that were part of the trained mands. The study was implemented in two phases, Intervention I and Intervention II, and in two settings: clinical setting and residential setting. The first phase of the intervention was conducted only in the clinical setting with the intervention of the researcher as therapist. In this phase, the parents did not have an active participation. The second phase of the intervention was conducted in the clinic as well in the children s residence with the participation of the therapist and of the parents as co-therapists. The parents began to watch the therapist in action in the clinical setting and in their residences. The therapist had the opportunity to observe the parents in action as well. They received orientation about how to encourage and reinforce the children in all settings they attended to, to favor the acquisition and the development of language. The two children s performance was measured in terms of frequency of occurrence of mands present in the verbalizations registered during four weekly sessions of 30 minutes each. The results show efficiency of the procedures used in both phases of intervention. In the second phase, the results were even more evident, suggesting that parents participation as co-therapists resulted in an acceleration of the therapeutic process.