Imitation som intervention
En behandlingsstudie om hur Intensiv Imitation påverkar samspel och kommunikation hos en flicka med Rett syndrom
Rett syndromeImitationIntensive ImitationInterventionInteractionRett syndromImitationIntensiv ImitationInterventionSamspel
Rett syndrome is a congenital neurological syndrome, which in the classic phenotype only affects girls. The symptoms include lack of speech, stereotypic movements of hands, dyspraxia and mental retardation, and these symptoms lead to communicative impairments. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the intervention method Intensive Imitation affected interaction/communication and initiative in a girl with Rett syndrome. The design of the study was a Single Subject Experimental Design with a three-week long intervention period where the girl participated daily in 30- minute sessions of Intensive Imitation together with the test conductor. Interaction, communication and initiatives were observed and analyzed before (Baseline A), during and after (Baseline B) the intervention period. The results showed that the girl?s total amount of communicative contributions increased between Baseline A and Baseline B, especially regarding the amount of produced vocalizations. However, there were some variations in the amount of contributions during the entire period. The girl increased her eye gazing towards her communicative partner, especially during the intervention sessions. There were no increase in the amount of communicative initiatives between Baseline A and Baseline B. However, the amount of initiatives increased between the first and the last observation. Intensive Imitation had a positive effect on eye gazing, vocalizations and communicative contributions, but this study cannot show any stable improvement regarding the girl?s communication and interaction.