Building Preverbal Communication & Engagement: Triadic Gaze Intervention for Young Children with Disabilities and Their Families

During the first years of life, before a child’s first words, preverbal communication and engagement between children and their caregivers build an essential foundation for language and learning across domains. Many children with disabilities and their families struggle to connect early in life and need support developing early communication skills—and now there’s a comprehensive resource to help birth-to-three practitioners deliver that critical support to young children with disabilities and their families.  

The product of more than three decades of research and clinical work, this accessible guidebook will help professionals harness the power of Triadic Gaze Intervention (TGI), an evidence-based strategy that supports the development of early communication behaviors—gaze, gestures, and vocalizations—in young children with disabilities. Through a straightforward protocol, practitioners will learn powerful techniques for helping caregivers engage young children during everyday routines and build their preverbal communication skills. In-depth practical guidance—enhanced with tip sheets, case examples, photos, and demonstration videos—make the protocol easy to learn and put into action with families and children. 

A must for early interventionists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and other practitioners, this book is the key to helping young children with disabilities learn to successfully communicate, bond with their families, and engage with their world.

READERS WILL:

• Learn about the six elements of the authors’ PoWRRS-Connect protocol for implementing TGI: providing opportunity, waiting, recognizing, responding, shaping, and connecting
• Use the protocol to help children make progress toward IFSP goals related to communication and engagement
• Tailor the protocol for individual children with a range of disabilities and needs, including motor, sensory, or social impairments
• Embed opportunities for communication and engagement into each family’s authentic routines and activities
• Facilitate stronger collaborative partnerships with caregivers
• Discover how to monitor small measures of progress in engagement and communication through the lens of TGI
• Learn from four parents of children with complex communication needs, who share their success stories with TGI and describe their children’s current communication methods and abilities

PRACTICAL MATERIALS: Easily implement the PoWRRS-Connect protocol in families’ daily routines with the downloads available online, including handouts for caregivers (available in English and Spanish), a communication checklist for assessment, and 19 brief demonstration videos.

Lesley B. Olswang, Ph.D.’s, 40-year tenure at the University of Washington included a professorial appointment in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science and a research affiliate appointment at the Center on Human Development and Disability. She received her academic degrees at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Washington. Dr. Olswang’s honors include the University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award and the Marsha Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, a Fulbright Scholar’s Award to study in the United Kingdom, Fellow and Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and Editors Awards from Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools and the American Journal of Speech Language Pathology. Dr. Olswang has had extensive clinical and research experience with children with language disorders. Her first clinical experiences involved developing a screening program for preschoolers in Evanston, Illinois, as the United States Education for All Act was initially being implemented. Her clinical research career has focused on two primary groups of children with communication challenges: school-aged children and children below the age of three. Her school-age research has examined the social communication of children diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome as they participate in classroom activities. Her research with children below the age of three has focused on two specific populations: toddlers diagnosed with specific language impairment and infants diagnosed with moderate to severe disabilities. She has been investigating the efficacy of treatment with these children and their families, particularly attempting to determine readiness factors for predicting benefits from different intervention options. Her primary research efforts in the last several years has been investigating the efficacy and implementation of Triadic Gaze Intervention, which was designed to assess and teach gaze shift as an intentional signal of communication to very young children with disabilities and complex communication needs. This research has been dedicated to improving the engagement and communication between children and their families as they encounter the struggles associated with disabilities. Dr. Olswang’s research has been supported by grants from the University of Washington, The Arc of Washington State, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control.

Julie Feuerstein, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is an Assistant Professor at the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Central Florida. She obtained her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology at Boston University and her doctorate in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Washington. She completed post-doctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, with an appointment to Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Center for Autism and Related Disorders. Dr. Feuerstein is certified a speech-language pathologist who has practiced in a variety of pediatric practice settings, including early intervention, outpatient clinics, and inpatient rehabilitation. She is a member of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, Neuro-developmental Treatment Association (NDTA), International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and Society for Implementation Research Collaboration. Dr. Feuerstein’s research interests center around evaluating the effectiveness of early communication interventions for minimally verbal children with neurodevelopmental disorders and examining mechanisms for moving empirically supported interventions into clinical practice. Her pre- and post-doctoral research has been supported by research awards from the American Speech-Language Hearing Foundation, the University of Washington and Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Center for Autism Related Disorders and by institutional training grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Gay Lloyd Pinder, Ph.D., is a speech language pathologist who has specialized for the past 45 years in working with infants and children with neuromuscular disorders and oral motor/feeding and communication problems associated with those disorders. Dr. Pinder received her academic degrees from Hollins University, Boston University, and the University of Washington. Dr. Pinder is a founder and continues to consult at Children’s Therapy Center in Kent, Washington, a neuromuscular center serving children birth to 18 and their families. She is a certified instructor in Neurodevelopmental Treatment (NDT) and teaches courses in the United States as well as internationally. She has also been an instructor at the University of Washington in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences. Dr. Pinder’s awards include the University of Washington Distinguished Alumna award; Duncan Award for exceptional service for children with disabilities, their families and their communities; Washington Speech and Hearing Association Award for Clinical Achievement; and the Neuro-Developmental Treatment Association Award of Excellence. Dr. Pinder’s therapy is child centered and family focused and is based on a holistic perspective of development. Dr. Pinder is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Washington Speech, Language and Hearing Association, National Association of the Deaf, and the Neuro-Developmental Treatment Association. Dr. Pinder’s research has focused on the development of early communication signals in young children with neuromuscular disorders and then on treatment efficacy in teaching those early signals to those same children. She has also worked on research projects focused on training parents and most recently on training clinicians working in homes with that same population.

Dr. Sandall is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington. She has directed personnel preparation projects, developed curriculum materials for all age groups, and published materials on educational practices to facilitate optimal outcomes for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities.

Her scholarly interests are effective instructional practices for young children with disabilities in inclusive settings, the changing roles of teachers of young children, and effective approaches to professional development and knowledge utilization.

She was Principal Investigator of the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning for the Office of Head Start; the Center continues its work as the EarlyEdU Alliance at Cultivate Learning at the UW. Dr. Sandall serves on the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Commission on Recommended Practices and edited publications on the practices. She is on the editorial boards of Journal of Early Intervention and Topics in Early Childhood Special Education

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