Effects of adult contingent imitation on development of young children's vocal imitation

The effects of adult contingent vocal imitation on the development of vocal imitation skills by three young children with mental retardation were inve stigated. A multiple baseline across subjects design was implemented. Gener alization sessions were conducted separately with both the children's teach er and teaching assistant. Child vocal imitation to adult contingent imitat ion, elicited imitation, and spontaneous imitation were measured in general ization sessions throughout the study. All children vocally imitated in res ponse to adult contingent imitation during training. Minimal generalization to adult contingent imitation and elicited imitation prompts were shown by the children. Moderate to strong generalized increases in spontaneous imit ation occurred for all children concurrent with training.