Steven Warren | University of Kansas (original) (raw)

Papers by Steven Warren

American Journal on Mental Retardation, 2002

The 'Predicting And Preventing Child Neglect In Teen Mothers' project was designed to ass... more The 'Predicting And Preventing Child Neglect In Teen Mothers' project was designed to assess the impact of varying degrees and types of neglect and poor parenting on children's development during the first 3 years of life, including changes in intelligence and behavior, language, social and emotional well-being, physical growth, and health status. This study included a broad array of assessments related to the construct of childhood neglect, and can be used to test the developmental associations among parenting characteristics, parenting behaviors and attitudes, and child development in multiple domains. Six hundred and eighty-two expectant mothers were recruited during pregnancy through primary care facilities in the communities of Birmingham, AL, Kansas City, KS, South Bend, IN, and Washington, D.C. Three different groups of first-time mothers were included in the sample: adolescents (n=396), low-ed adults (less than 2 years formal education beyond high school; n=169),...

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 1993

Very little research has focused on the development and evaluation of intervention strategies des... more Very little research has focused on the development and evaluation of intervention strategies designed to facilitate the acquisition of prelinguistic communication skills. We conducted two experiments to determine the effects of a milieu teaching approach on the acquisition and generalization of specific prelinguistic communication skills. In the first experiment, we utilized this intervention approach within a multiple baseline design to teach prelinguistic requesting, commenting, and vocal imitation to a single subject with Down syndrome and language delay. The results indicated that the intervention approach was effective at facilitating the child’s use of these skills within the treatment setting. Therefore, in the second experiment we conducted a more comprehensive analysis of this approach with 4 subjects with mental retardation. Three of these subjects were taught to request, and 1 subject was taught both to request and to comment. The effects were experimentally evaluated wi...

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 1998

The purpose of this study is to predict which of 58 children (mean age=22 months) with developmen... more The purpose of this study is to predict which of 58 children (mean age=22 months) with developmental disabilities in the prelinguistic period of development would begin speaking 12 months after initial assessment. None of the children had severe or profound motor impairments. During the initial assessment period, children participated in a structured and unstructured communication sample with a project staff member. Also, at the time they entered the study, a mother-child interaction session was conducted to measure maternal responses to child communication acts, and mothers filled out a vocabulary checklist. Twelve months later, the structured and unstructured language samples were repeated. We labeled children with fewer than 5 different nonimitative spoken words in either communication samples as "prefunctional speakers" and those with 5 or more words in either sample as "functional speakers." The results indicate that functional speakers scored significantly ...

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 1999

This study tested the relationship between prelinguistic vocalization and expressive vocabulary 1... more This study tested the relationship between prelinguistic vocalization and expressive vocabulary 1 year later in young children with mild to moderate developmental delays. Three vocalization variables were tested: rate of all vocalization, rate of vocalizations with consonants, and rate of vocalizations used interactively. The 58 toddlers in the study were 17–34 months old, not sensory impaired, and had Bayley Mental Development Indices (Bayley, 1969; Bayley, 1993) from 35–85. In addition, the children had fewer than 3 words in their expressive vocabularies and during classroom observation each showed at least one instance of intentional prelinguistic communication before testing. Selected sections of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales procedures (CSBS; Wetherby & Prizant, 1993) were administered at the beginning and at the end of the study. The vocal measures were obtained in the initial CSBS session. One measure of expressive vocabulary was obtained in the CSBS session ...

American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 2014

Children with intellectual disability were randomly assigned to receive Milieu Communication Teac... more Children with intellectual disability were randomly assigned to receive Milieu Communication Teaching (MCT) at one 1-hr session per week (low dose frequency, LDF) or five 1-hr sessions per week (high dose frequency, HDF) over 9 months (Fey, Yoder, Warren, & Bredin-Oja, 2013. Non-Down syndrome (NDS) and Down syndrome (DS) subgroups were matched on intelligence, mental age, and chronological age. The NDS group had significantly more growth in spoken vocabulary than the DS group. In the DS subgroup, the HDF group had more spoken vocabulary growth than the LDF group when IQ was controlled. In both etiological subgroups, the HDF group yielded greater vocabulary production outcomes than the LDF group for children who played functionally with a range of objects.

American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 2010

The relationship between early maternal responsivity and later child communication outcomes in yo... more The relationship between early maternal responsivity and later child communication outcomes in young children with fragile X syndrome was investigated. Data were obtained from 55 mother–child dyads over a 36-month period. Performance data were obtained at each measurement point from video observations of four different contexts. These were coded for (a) child communication behaviors, (b) parent responsivity, and (c) behavior management behaviors. Results indicate that early maternal responsivity predicts the level of four important child language outcomes at 36 months of age after controlling for child developmental level and autism symptomology.

Merrill Series on The Research Mission of Public Universities

Pediatrics, 2018

Quantity of talk and interaction in the home during early childhood is correlated with socioecono... more Quantity of talk and interaction in the home during early childhood is correlated with socioeconomic status (SES) and can be used to predict early language and cognitive outcomes. We tested the effectiveness of automated early language environment estimates for children 2 to 36 months old to predict cognitive and language skills 10 years later and examined effects for specific developmental age periods. Daylong audio recordings for 146 infants and toddlers were completed monthly for 6 months, and the total number of daily adult words and adult-child conversational turnswere automatically estimated with Language Environment Analysis software. Follow-up evaluations at 9 to 14 years of age included language and cognitive testing. Language exposure for 3 age groups was assessed: 2 to 17 months, 18 to 24 months, and ≥25 months. Pearson correlations and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. Conversational turn counts at 18 to 24 months of age accounted for 14% to 27% of the ...

American journal of speech-language pathology, Jan 6, 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability of an automated language analysis sy... more The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability of an automated language analysis system, the Language Environment Analysis (LENA), compared with a human transcriber to determine the rate of child vocalizations during recording sessions that were significantly shorter than recommended for the automated device. Participants were 6 nonverbal male children between the ages of 28 and 46 months. Two children had autism diagnoses, 2 had Down syndrome, 1 had a chromosomal deletion, and 1 had developmental delay. Participants were recorded by the LENA digital language processor during 14 play-based interactions with a responsive adult. Rate of child vocalizations during each of the 84 recordings was determined by both a human transcriber and the LENA software. A statistically significant difference between the 2 methods was observed for 4 of the 6 participants. Effect sizes were moderate to large. Variation in syllable structure did not explain the difference between the 2 meth...

Topics in Early Childhood Special Education

This article presents a vision of the future of early communication and language intervention eff... more This article presents a vision of the future of early communication and language intervention efforts. In this vision, all young children experience highly responsive environments for as much of the time as possible from infancy onward, communication and language delays and disorders are routinely identified as close to their genesis as possible, and optimal intervention strategies are implemented as early as possible. To realize this vision, we must achieve the following on a broad scale: (a) increase support for responsive interaction styles among all parents, childcare workers, teachers, and early interventionists; (b) expand efforts to identify communication delays and disorders as early as possible; (c) move forward with the development of truly effective communication and language intervention approaches; and (d) transform research findings into day-to-day practice. The realization of this vision will necessitate a truly transdisciplinary approach to both research and practice.

Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps

EJ368935 - Facilitating the Acquisition of Sensorimotor Behavior with a Microcomputer-Mediated Te... more EJ368935 - Facilitating the Acquisition of Sensorimotor Behavior with a Microcomputer-Mediated Teaching System: An Experimental Analysis.

American journal of speech-language pathology, Jan 16, 2017

This research provided a first-generation standardization of automated language environment estim... more This research provided a first-generation standardization of automated language environment estimates, validated these estimates against standard language assessments, and extended on previous research reporting language behavior differences across socioeconomic groups. Typically developing children between 2 to 48 months of age completed monthly, daylong recordings in their natural language environments over a span of approximately 6-38 months. The resulting data set contained 3,213 12-hr recordings automatically analyzed by using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) System to generate estimates of (a) the number of adult words in the child's environment, (b) the amount of caregiver-child interaction, and (c) the frequency of child vocal output. Child vocalization frequency and turn-taking increased with age, whereas adult word counts were age independent after early infancy. Child vocalization and conversational turn estimates predicted 7%-16% of the variance observed in c...

Journal of autism and developmental disorders, Mar 1, 2017

Several studies have reported declines in adaptive behavior amongst children with fragile X syndr... more Several studies have reported declines in adaptive behavior amongst children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) starting in middle childhood. We examined the effects of maternal responsivity on adaptive behavior in 55 children with FXS visited 5-6 times in their homes from early through middle childhood. Our analyses indicated that sustained maternal responsivity had a significant positive impact on the trajectories of communication and to a lesser extent other adaptive behavior domains through middle childhood with many effects remaining significant after controlling for autism symptoms and developmental level. For children who showed declines in adaptive behavior during middle childhood, sustained high levels of maternal responsivity minimized the amount of decline observed in the communication, socialization, and daily living domains.

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 2017

Purpose This research explored syntactic growth in children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) over a ... more Purpose This research explored syntactic growth in children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) over a 5-year period, and variability in growth in relation to autism symptoms, nonverbal cognition, maternal responsivity, and gender. Method Language samples at 4 time points from 39 children with FXS, 31 boys and 8 girls, were analyzed using the Index of Productive Syntax (Scarborough, 1990) and mean length of utterance (Brown, 1973). The degree of autism symptoms was evaluated using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Schopler, Reichler, & Renner, 1988) at the first time point. Maternal responsivity estimates were averaged across time points. Results Children with FXS showed significant syntactic growth over time and a significant plateau (quadratic trend) in the later observations. Children who exhibited more autism symptoms at Time 1 had significantly lower syntactic abilities over time than children who exhibited fewer autism symptoms. Nonverbal cognition significantly predicted mean leng...

Developmental neurorehabilitation, Jan 7, 2016

Children with Down syndrome (DS) and fragile X syndrome (FXS) struggle with language development.... more Children with Down syndrome (DS) and fragile X syndrome (FXS) struggle with language development. Parenting variables, such as responsiveness to children's communication attempts (Maternal Responsivity), and techniques used to support and teach appropriate behavior (Behavior Management) are known to have a significant impact on early child development. We examined these two aspects of parenting style via coded, videotaped parent-child interactions in two groups of participants matched on child age (2-5 years) and child expressive language level: mothers of children with DS and mothers of children with FXS. The mothers differed in their use of gestures and redirecting the child's attention. Overall, mothers in both groups of children appeared to adapt appropriately to their children's developmental needs.

Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR, Oct 28, 2016

In this study, we examine joint engagement (JE) in young children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) a... more In this study, we examine joint engagement (JE) in young children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and its relationship to language abilities and autism spectrum disorder symptomatology at 24 to 36 months (toddler period) and 59 to 68 months (child period). Participants were 28 children with FXS (24 boys, four girls) and their mothers. Videotaped home observations were conducted during the toddler period and coded for JE. Language abilities were measured at both ages from a developmental assessment, a functional measure, and from a language sample. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Schopler, Reichler, & Renner, 1988) was completed at both ages. Children with FXS spent more time in supported JE than in coordinated JE. Using a weighted JE variable, we found that children with FXS who had higher weighted JE scores also had more advanced expressive language skills at both the toddler and child periods. Weighted JE was negatively related to autism symptomatology in the toddler period. This...