Why is it important to choose contexts that provide lots of opportunities for communication?
Young children are most likely to learn new skills if they have lots of opportunities to use these skills. In the past, traditional approaches for early intervention often started by teaching children to request food at snack time. • Although the children typically learned to ask for cookies or juice successfully, they often had difficulty communicating beyond these simple requests, which only served one purpose (get a snack). • When intervention focuses primarily on snacks (and other needs and wants), the focus is on the preferred item (the food), not on the social interaction. • Once the children receive the preferred item, the interaction usually ends. • As a result, the children have few opportunities to learn to participate in social interactions. In contrast, with our intervention, we start by teaching children to participate in social interactions. • Many children are innately curious about other people. • Children are naturally drawn to social interactions with other people. •
