This study examined the effectiveness of an adaptation of Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) in increasing the communicative speech of young children with Down syndrome. Eight children were matched according to their mean length of utterance and divided into two groups, the melodic group and the spoken group. The same individual treatment was received by all during twelve weekly sessions, except for the manner in which target phrases were presented: spoken versus melodically intoned. Data was collected from language samples taken before and after treatment as well as from audiotapes of the children's verbal responses produced during the weekly sessions. Findings revealed greater gains for the melodic group than for the spoken group for total verbal output, length of response and production time, thereby providing evidence for the positive effect of MIT. Implications for future research were addressed and applications for implementing MIT with young children were discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26725 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Carroll, Debbie. |
| Contributors | Stubley, Eleanor (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Faculty of Music.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001557826, proquestno: MQ29533, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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