A Case Study Of Picture Book Reading Intervening In The Communication Behavior Of Children With Severe Intellectual Disabilities

Children with different levels of mental retardation have varying degrees of language problems,which greatly affect their ability to communicate with those around them.Yet communication is one of the indispensable skills for everyone,and it is no exception for children with severe mental retardation.Picture books,as children’s favorite storybooks,with their brightly colored pictures and exaggeratedly interesting story content and main characters,are child-oriented and well suited to the physical and mental developmental characteristics of children at all ages.At present,researchers have gradually applied picture book reading to educational interventions for children with intellectual disabilities,and good progress has been made especially in language development of children with intellectual disabilities;therefore,this study aimed to investigate the effects of picture book reading intervention on communication behaviors of children with severe intellectual disabilities.This study was conducted using a single-subject method of withdrawal experimental design,in which a preschool girl with severe intellectual disability was trained to read picture books to verify the effect of picture book reading intervention on the communication behaviors of children with severe intellectual disability.The study included three phases: baseline（A）,intervention period（B）and follow-up period（C）.The independent variable was picture book reading,and the dependent variable was the change in communication behavior of the child with severe mental retardation without picture books after the picture book intervention.Before the study,parents and teachers were interviewed and two scales from the assessment tool were used to assess the level of communication skills that the study participants were at.During the intervention,the picture book reading intervention was conducted over a period of 8 weeks,with three weekly interventions of 30 minutes each.In terms of recording the target behaviors,this study was not conducted on an immediate basis,but rather recorded the changes in communication behaviors（including the number and form of communication）of the cases without the picture books.After finishing the picture book intervention,the data were processed and analyzed and organized using Excel,visual analysis,and C-statistics in conjunction with the scale data recording and interviews with Case B’s mother and kindergarten teacher.After analysis and discussion,the study concluded the following.1.picture book reading intervention can improve the communication behavior of children with severe intellectual disabilities.2.The picture book reading intervention can be flexibly adjusted depending on the situation of children with severe mental retardation.3.The picture book reading intervention can promote the oral language development of children with severe mental retardation.The recommendations of this study are as follows: on the one hand,the recommendations for the picture book reading intervention are to use appropriate methods to guide the picture book reading intervention,to select picture books suitable for children with severe mental retardation,and to strengthen picture book reading skills;On the other hand,there are suggestions for future research.Changes in research situations,selection of research objects,parents as teachers,and attention to children’s interests and motivation are the keys.