Comprehensive Intervention for Children with Developmental Delays: Program Manual and Checklists describes an early intervention program for children with communication disorders such as specific language impairment, developmental verbal dyspraxia, pervasive developmental disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. The program provides multidisciplinary intervention to children, in the age range of 0-6 years, with the goal of integrating them into regular school by the school entry age of 6 years. This manual describes this process, the underlying rationale and what the program is all about. The complete program is contained in nine additional intervention manuals for toddlers and preschoolers that target skill building in children across the domains of motor skills (gross, fine and activities of daily living), communication (receptive and expressive language as well as Alternate and Augmentative Communication) and cognitive, social and emotional development. Lesson plans for each skill are described with clear targets, materials required and simple instructions along with illustrations. Also included in this manual are developmental checklists for assessing a child's proficiency of the target skills prior to intervention. A review of the checklists was carried out by experienced clinicians and the resultant checklists and the format for the composite profile are given. The checklists were administered to children with communication disorders of the types that the program specifically caters to and sample profiles of some of these children are provided. Ideally the checklists should be administered to the primary caregiver of the child and their observation on each of the items recorded. The profile provides a representation of the child's mastery of skills across domains at the time of profiling. This simple user friendly profile is intended to provide a baseline for intervention that enables planning of subsequent targets in intervention towards enabling the child to perform at levels that are more appropriate for his or her chronological age. About the Authors: Prathibha Karanth received her MSc (1971) and PhD (1981) from the All India Institute of Speech & Hearing (AIISH), in India. For 25 years she worked on neurogenic communication disorders in adults and children, at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences and AIISH, in India. In 2004, she set up the non-profit Com DEALL Trust to support the Communication DEALL Early Intervention Program, developed by her in 2000, now scaled up to over 20 units across India. She is associated with academic institutions such as SRCISH and NIAS in Bangalore and serves on scientific advisory committees of the Government of India and other academic institutions. Celeste Roseberry-McKibbin received her PhD from Northwestern University. She is a Professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology at California State University, Sacramento. Dr. Roseberry is also currently a part-time itinerant speech pathologist in San Juan Unified School District where she provides direct services to students from preschool through high school. She has worked in educational and medical settings with a wide variety of clients ranging from preschoolers through geriatric patients. She serves homeless persons in her community through direct work on the streets. Priya James, MS, CCC-SLP, has over a decade of experience working with special need children and families. Priya's varied experiences include working with pre-schoolers through high schoolers in the public / private schools, juvenile hall, post secondary and vocational school. She has also worked with adult patients with neurological disorders and injury.
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