Rachel H. Thompson, Nicole M. Cotnoir-Bichelman, Paige M. McKerchar,
Trista L. Tate, & Kelly A. Dancho (2007).
Enhancing early communication through infant sign training.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
40, 15-23.
Existing research suggests that there may be benefits to teaching signing to
hearing infants who have not yet developed vocal communication. In the current
study, each of 4 infants ranging in age from 6 to 10 months was taught a simple
sign using delayed prompting and reinforcement. In addition, Experiment 1 showed
that 2 children independently signed in a variety of novel stimulus conditions
(e.g., in a classroom, with father) after participating in sign training under
controlled experimental conditions. In Experiment 2, crying and whining were
replaced with signing when sign training was implemented in combination with extinction.
DESCRIPTORS: communication training, extinction, infants, modeling, physical prompting, reinforcement, sign language, delay