Establishing a basic speech repertoire without using NSOME: means, motive, and opportunity

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Developmental Psychology
• Pediatric Communication Disorders

Background:

• Prelinguistic children with speech disorders present unique intervention challenges.
• These children often lack consistent, meaning-based vocalizations for communication.
• Current interventions need to address the stimulation of mature vocalizations linked to meaning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel conceptual framework for assessing and intervening with prelinguistic children.
• To highlight the importance of functional communication in speech development.
• To contrast a proposed framework with nonspeech oral motor exercise (NSOME) protocols.

Main Methods:

• The study proposes a "means, motive, and opportunity" conceptual framework.
• This framework focuses on stimulating meaningful vocalizations for functional communication.
• It draws upon existing literature on early language development.

Main Results:

• Nonspeech oral motor exercise (NSOME) protocols involve decontextualized, non-communicative movements.
• The underlying assumption of NSOME generalization to functional speech lacks empirical support.
• The proposed framework centers on the direct stimulation of functional vocalizations.

Conclusions:

• The means, motive, and opportunity framework offers a theoretically grounded approach for prelinguistic communication intervention.
• Evidence does not support the generalization of nonspeech movements to functional speech in prelinguistic children.
• Interventions should prioritize the development of meaningful vocalizations for effective communication.