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Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of two early language interventions. Five toddlers (three with current specific expressive language delays and two with a history of expressive language delay) were randomly assigned to a subject-verb-object (SVO) intervention, which targeted increasing SVO productions or a short expansion (SE) intervention, which targeted increasing mean length of utterance (MLU). All children made gains in their targeted goals and did not show gains in their control goals. The rate and extent of change as a result of intervention varied across children and may be explained by factors specific to the child and the intervention procedure.

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Case studies on the efficacy of expansions and subject-verb-object models in early language intervention

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