The Use of Expansions as a Language Intervention Technique in the Natural Environment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of expansions as a language intervention technique with children at a pre-syntactic level of language development. The ease with which adults could be trained to deliver such intervention during play was also investigated. Five preschool children with delays in language development spent 20 minutes a day in play with an adult trained to use expansions of child utterances as an intervention technique on selected language structures. Statistical analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the production of targeted structures after 4 weeks of intervention. A follow-up observation revealed that structures were still spontaneously used by three of the five children several weeks later in a different situation. The ease with which adults were trained to use this procedure makes it valuable for training regular preschool teachers, parents, and paraprofessionals to carry out language intervention in natural environments.

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