Date: November 11, 2005 Time: Noon to 1:30 Title: Developmental Effects of Early Language Intervention for Children with Mental Retardation Speaker: Ann Kaiser, Ph.D. Vanderbilt University Where: Waisman Conference Center Room T216, Second Floor, North Tower About the Talk: Most young children with mental retardation require early intervention to support the development of functional language and communication skills. A range of naturalistic early interventions to teach language have been shown to result in immediate changes in children's targeted language production. Evidence that early intervention facilitates children's language development in dependable and systematic ways is much more limited.  This presentation will describe the results of a program of research that has focused on the effects of naturalistic teaching strategies on the language development of children with significant cognitive and language delays.  Criteria for determining the positive developmental effects of early language intervention will be discussed and a conceptual model for assessing the effects of intervention will be offered.  Then, data from two longitudinal studies and several single subject studies involving young children with mental retardation will be presented and discussed in relationship to the criteria and model of evidence for developmental effects.   Finally, guidelines for promoting language development in children with mental will be offered and future research questions will be identified. For more information about Dr. Kaiser, please visit her website at: http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/sped/kaiser.htm For Further Information: Contact Teresa Palumbo at 263-5837 or palumbo@waisman.wisc.edu   To download an Adobe Acrobat file of the entire seminar series schedule click here. (pdf schedule coming soon!)