ABSTRACT
Transactional theory assumes developmental outcomes are the result of dynamic interactions between the child and the environment, and that developmental disorders such as language delays or reading difficulties in autistic and deaf children are multiply determined and must always be viewed in context. This chapter builds on the foundation of prior theoretical papers to provide a more detailed account at the theoretical level of progress (or lack of progress) made by autistic children, language delayed deaf and hearing children, and other children in varied communicative domains—spoken language, signed language, literacy, and art. This account includes a moderately detailed presentation of the Rare Event Transactional Model (Nelson, 1981, 1987, 1998; Nelson & Camarata, 1997; Nelson, Welsh, Camarata, Heimann, & Tjus, 1996; Nelson & Welsh, 1998). It also incorporates some new data from ongoing research by the authors and provides discussion for varied sets of children of new intervention strategies that are prompted by the theoretical framework.
