Lexical training through modeling and elicitation procedures with late talkers who have specific language impairment and developmental delays.

Late talkers with specific language impairment and developmental delay make up a large portion of our early childhood caseloads; therefore, an understanding of best clinical practices for these populations is essential. Early lexical learning was examined in 2 interactive treatment approaches with 29 late-talking preschoolers with language and developmental disabilities. Children were randomly assigned to either a mand-elicited imitation (MEI) condition in which elicitations and imitative prompts were used or to a modeling with auditory bombardment (Mod-AB) condition in which auditory bombardment and play modeling were incorporated with no response demands on participants. Lexical production of target vocabulary words already comprehended was measured during a 10-session training period and then during two 50-min play interactions with a parent/caretaker in the home after treatment was completed. Results indicated that the MEI procedure was relatively more effective in facilitating frequency and rate of target word learning in the treatment setting, but no significant differences were found between conditions in the number or percentage of target words generalized to the home setting. Mod-AB children produced more target words that were limited to the home setting than did MEI children, whose productivity was more balanced across settings. Treatment by aptitude regression analyses indicated that none of the preintervention language, cognitive, or total development aptitude scores were predictive of child performance in 1 treatment condition or the other, although Battelle Developmental Inventory communication scores and sizes of preintervention lexicons were predictive of child performance across conditions. Empirical and clinical issues pertaining to the efficacy of modeling- and elicitation-based procedures for late-talking preschoolers are discussed.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes