In vivo language intervention: unanticipated general effects

Area of Science:

• Child Language Acquisition
• Developmental Psychology
• Applied Behavior Analysis

Background:

• Traditional language training methods showed limited generalization.
• Need for effective strategies to promote language skills in natural environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze general language changes in disadvantaged preschoolers using incidental teaching.
• To compare language development with control groups of disadvantaged and middle-class children.

Main Methods:

• Reanalyzed daily language samples from a previous incidental teaching experiment.
• Compared language use of experimental group with two control groups (disadvantaged and middle-class children).

Main Results:

• Experimental group showed marked increases in overall talking.
• Language elaboration (vocabulary and sentence complexity) increased proportionally with language use.
• Language patterns shifted from disadvantaged to middle-class norms.

Conclusions:

• Incidental teaching's features (attending to child overtures, topic-based reinforcement) boosted overall language use.
• Increased talking led to greater language elaboration in spontaneous language.
• Contextual control of language drives elaboration as overall use increases.