A longitudinal study of cognitive skills and communication behaviours in children with Rett syndrome.
Kids with Rett syndrome can learn real requests when we teach them with AAC and caregiver coaching, instead of waiting years for small natural gains.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Taylor et al. (1993) watched the same group of children with Rett syndrome for three years. They asked caregivers to rate any tiny gains in communication and social acts.
What they found
Parents noticed small, slow increases in eye contact, reaching, or smiling. These gains showed up only after the kids began to grasp simple cause-and-effect, like pushing a toy to make it light up.
How this fits with other research
McGonigle et al. (2014) later taught three adults with Rett to press a voice switch to ask for snacks. The adults learned the new request in days, not years.
Howard et al. (2023) and EScior et al. (2023) showed girls with Rett can be taught to tap either high-tech tablets or low-tech cards to ask for things, all through parent coaching on Zoom.
Together these newer studies flip the old picture: communication can be trained on purpose once we give the right tools and teaching.
Why it matters
You no longer have to wait for tiny gains to emerge. Start with a single switch, card, or screen and use brief FCT or mand training. Coach parents online, keep sessions short, and reinforce every clear request. The child’s first intentional “I want” may be just a few trials away.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Changes in the cognitive, communicative and interactive development of a group of six girls with Rett syndrome (three younger and three older) were documented over a 3-year period. All six maintained a profound level of intellectual performance and a preintentional level of communication in which caregivers assigned meaning to the girls' limited behaviours. However, marked individual variation was noted in both cognitive and social interaction skills. The study supported the notion of an increased perception of social interactiveness by the caregivers over time. The development of means-end behaviour, in particular, seems closely linked with the measured increase in behaviours inferred as communicative. However, the results also show that factors such as cognitive level, physical status and educational intervention may be related to this perception.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 1993 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.1993.tb00885.x