Early Speech Learners: Assessment and Program Planning with the EESAPP is the kind of topic that looks straightforward until it collides with the speed, ambiguity, and competing demands of clinic sessions and day-to-day service delivery. In Early Speech Learners: Assessment and Program Planning with the EESAPP, for this course, the practical stakes show up in clearer case conceptualization, better instructional targets, and stronger generalization, not in abstract discussion alone.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via The Verbal Behavior Conference
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Join Free →Echoic skills, the ability to repeat a speech model, play a major role in early speech development. One such role is to establish sound-making as a reinforcing activity. Another is to fast-track the learning of other important vocal language skills, beyond just repeating what is heard. These critical skills include asking for, commenting on, or having conversations about things, people, activities, and the like. No matter the age of the early speech learner, it is useful to assess and track echoic skills as the foundation of a set of complex behaviors that result in vocal-verbal language. In this presentation, Dr. Esch will discuss the role of the echoic verbal operant within overall vocal language learning, how echoic skills are analyzed in terms of syllable complexity and why this is prioritized over precise articulation for beginning speakers, and how to use echoic assessment information to build a beginning speech-language program. As the basis for this workshop, Dr. Esch will show and discuss materials from her newly published second edition of the EESAPP: Early Echoic Skills Assessment and Program Planner, Guide and Protocol. Attendees will complete worksheets and program planning tasks from the Work Packet contained in the EESA's Protocol manual, with the goal that, by the end of the workshop, attendees will have a sample beginning speech program for their unique learner.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 6 | General |
| COA | 6 | — |
A behavior analyst and speech pathologist with extensive experience in behavioral interventions for children and adults., Dr. Esch received her Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis from Western Michigan University under the direction of Dr. Jack Michael and Dr. Jim Carr and her M.A. in Speech Pathology from Michigan State University.She has published research on behavioral treatments for early speech acquisition and aphasia assessment in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities. She has presented workshops, training symposia, and research in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia, focusing on the use of behavioral procedures to improve speech and language skills for individuals of all ages with a wide range of diagnoses.Dr. Esch is the founder of SPABA, the Speech Pathology Applied Behavior Analysis Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. She is the author of the original Early Echoic Skills Assessment, part of the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) published by Dr. Mark Sundberg (2014, 2nd ed.), and the Early Echoic Skills Assessment and Program Planner – Guide and Protocol (2023). She is the author of the Early Echoic Skills Assessment and Program Planner (EESAPP).
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
280 research articles with practitioner takeaways
279 research articles with practitioner takeaways
258 research articles with practitioner takeaways
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.