Responses to Communication Breakdowns by Nonverbal Children with Developmental Disabilities

Communication skills are important for children with developmental disabilities to be functional and independent in their own lives. This study examined influences of different types of listener feedback or breakdowns on repair behaviors of nonverbal children with disabilities during semi-structured opportunities at snack time. Three preschool children (3-4 years old) with developmental disabilities participated. An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effect of different types of listener feedback or breakdowns on subjects’ communication repairs. Three different types of feedback served to evoke repair attempts by subjects. Results revealed that all three subjects used different repair behaviors across different experimental conditions to achieve their communicative goals during snack routines.