Rapid Motor Imitation Antecedent (RMIA) Training Manual, Research Edition: Teaching Preverbal Children with ASD to Talk

When you're working with preverbal children on the autism spectrum, you need a complete toolbox of highly effective strategies to expand their communication skills. Add Rapid Motor Imitation Antecedent Training (RMIA), and you'll have one of the most promising interventions for helping young children say their first words.

A discrete trial intervention approach for pre-schoolers with autism who have severe language delays, RMIA is a crucial step on the path to improved communication function. It's an easy-to-use method: children imitate a rapid series of simple motor actions and are then asked to imitate a word. The momentum they build by performing the easy motor actions helps them comply with the more difficult task of word production.

A must for SLPs and autism specialists, RMIA is an ideal addition to your current line-up of strategies and supports:

• Experimentally tested at the Yale Child Study Center, one of the nation's top autism treatment centres.
• Originally developed since 2002 at Teachers College, Columbia University and proven effective for helping young children develop functional speech.
• Perfect to use in tandem with naturalistic interventions like Parent Responsiveness Training.
• Focused specifically on initial imitation of wordsa critical step toward using language spontaneously.
• Quick and easy to implement: RMIA should be administered in short, frequent doses, making it an easy fit with your everyday practices.

The only product available that shows SLPs and autism specialists how to conduct RMIA, this manual-and-CD set gives you everything you need for successful implementation. You'll get complete, practical guidance in the accessible how-to manual, and the CD-ROM gives you a full hour of explicit demonstration videos that show case studies of RMIA in action. You'll also get printable data collection forms to help organise RMIA sessions and assist in data keeping (both blank forms and completed samples).

A key component of your comprehensive intervention program for social communication, RMIA will help young preverbal children overcome the hurdles to saying their first wordsand start making real progress toward communicative competence.

Table of Contents

About the Authors

About the Contributors

Preface

Acknowledgments

I. Introduction

1. Rationale for Rapid Motor Imitation Antecedent Training - Rhea Paul

II. Prerequisite Procedures

2. Setting the Stage for RMIA - Ioanna Tsiouri, Elizabeth Schoen Simmons, & Moira Lewis
3. Probes for Motor Imitation - Ioanna Tsiouri, Elizabeth Schoen Simmons, & Moira Lewis
4. Building Fluency of Motor Imitation - Ioanna Tsiouri, Elizabeth Schoen Simmons, & Moira Lewis

III. Eliciting Spoken Language

5. Assessing Requests and Labels - Ioanna Tsiouri, Elizabeth Schoen Simmons, & Moira Lewis
6. RMIA Treatment for Requests and Labels - Ioanna Tsiouri, Elizabeth Schoen Simmons, & Moira Lewis
7. After Treatment is Complete: The Maintenance Assessment - Ioanna Tsiouri, Elizabeth Schoen Simmons, & Moira Lewis

IV. RMIA in Context

8. RMIA in the Context of Communication Intervention - Rhea Paul

References

Glossary - Moira Lewis & Elizabeth Schoen Simmons

Index