The present study tested the hypothesis that pretreatment level of play would predict the rate of increase in prelinguistic, intentional requesting during prelinguistic communication intervention. The participants were 8 children with developmental disabilities. A negative relation was found between the amount of person-only engagement observed during baseline sessions and later rate of change in the number of prelinguistic, intentional requests children made to interventionists during the intervention period. In contrast, a positive relation was found between the amount of transitional or symbolic play observed during baseline sessions and the rate of increase in the number of prelinguistic, intentional requests children directed to interventionists. The implications of the results for individualizing interventions and for predicting children's responses to prelinguistic communication intervention are discussed.
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