The purpose of this investigation was to describe the intentional communicative behaviors of profoundly mentally retarded children. Ten 6 to 12 year old subjects, equally grouped according to age, participated in communication sampling with familiar and unfamiliar adults. Intentional communicative acts were collected using structured communication tasks and subject-initiated free-play. Acts were identified and coded according to communicative function, communicative means, discourse structure, and, when applicable, syllable shape. / Findings revealed communicative profiles characterized by a predominance of functions to regulate others' behavior and by gestural means. The majority of older subjects demonstrated more communicative acts per minute and a broader range of communicative functions than their younger counterparts. Initiated acts predominated as did vocalizations without consonants. Self-injurious and aversive behaviors were evident only in older subjects' samples. No substantial differences in subjects' communicative abilities were observed during sampling with familiar and unfamiliar adults. / The use of the communicative sampling and analysis procedures implemented in this investigation with profoundly mentally retarded persons is discussed. Some suggestions for how these procedures can be used to generate communicative profiles instrumental to intervention planning are offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: A, page: 3550. / Major Professor: Amy Miller Wetherby. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77905 |
| Contributors | Ogletree, Billy Townsend., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 150 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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