Goal
To increase social-communication skills in young children through parent training and direct intervention.
About
Project ImPACT is a program developed by Brooke Ingersoll and Anna Dvortcsak that provides parent training and direct therapy services to children with social-communication delays, commonly seen in individuals with autism.
Based on both developmental and behavioral research, the program provides a step-by-step approach for improving social-communication skills for children up to around six years of age. Children receive direct intervention with a graduate clinician in speech-language pathology, while parents are taught the strategies with their own child. The program is spread out over the course of a semester, with the children and parents attending sessions either weekly or bi-weekly.
More information about Project ImPACT can be found on their website, https://www.project-impact.org/.
What is Social Communication?
Social Communication encompasses not only the forms of language that we use to communicate, but also how and why we communicate. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) describes the following as three major skills in social communication. Social Communication (asha.org)
- Using language for different reasons, such as
- Changing language for the listener or situation, such as
- communicating differently to a baby than to an adult or a friend;
- giving more information to someone who does not know the topic;
- knowing to skip some details when someone already knows the topic; or
- Following rules for conversations and storytelling, such as
- taking turns being a talker and being a listener;
- staying on topic;
- trying another way of saying what you mean when someone did not understand you;
- using gestures and body language, like pointing or shrugging;
- knowing how close to stand to someone when talking; or
- using facial expressions and eye contact.
Social Communication Milestones
While many of these skills continue to develop throughout the lifespan, the foundations begin at birth. Project ImPACT targets these early-developing social communication skills, to provide the building blocks for later developing skills. Baby Navigator provides several resources about social communication including the growth charts for milestones across the first two years of life.
Milestones-that-Matter-Most-from-1-24-Months
Tips for Facilitating Social Communication
Specific information about ways to promote social communication development can be found through the First Words Project, which mirrors strategies that are taught in Project ImPACT.
ASHA provides additional information about communication milestones as a whole through five-years-of-age, as well as tips for supporting general communication skills at home (Communication Milestones & Communication Tips).