Effects of Lexical Intervention on the Phonology of Late Talkers

l.girolametto{at}utoronto.ca

The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether a focused stimulation intervention focusing on lexical training has indirect, secondary effects on children's phonological abilities. Twenty-five toddlers with expressive vocabulary delays and their mothers were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The children were between 23 and 33 months of age at entry into the study and were at the single-word stage of language development. Parents of late talkers in the experimental group were trained to employ frequent, highly concentrated presentations of target words without requiring responses. Two measures of phonological diversity (i.e., syllable structure level and consonant inventory) and one measure of accuracy of production (i.e., percent consonants correct) were measured prior to and following intervention within the context of mother-child interactions. The toddlers who received intervention made treatment gains in two areas of phonological ability. They used a greater variety of complex syllable shapes and expanded their speech sound inventories to include more consonant sounds in both initial and final position. In contrast, there were no effects of language treatment on the accuracy of correct production when compared to the adult phonological system.

KEY WORDS: intervention (language), late talkers, parent training, phonology, language delay

Submitted on February 13, 1996
Accepted on December 19, 1996

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A Buschmann, B Jooss, A Rupp, F Feldhusen, J Pietz, and H Philippi Parent based language intervention for 2-year-old children with specific expressive language delay: a randomised controlled trial Arch. Dis. Child., February 1, 2009; 94(2): 110 - 116. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. M. Ellis and D. J. Thal Early Language Delay and Risk for Language Impairment Language Learning and Education, October 1, 2008; 15(3): 93 - 100. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. Gilbert Milieu Communication Training for Late Talkers Language Learning and Education, October 1, 2008; 15(3): 112 - 118. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Hardin-Jones and K. L. Chapman The Impact of Early Intervention on Speech and Lexical Development for Toddlers With Cleft Palate: A Retrospective Look at Outcome Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch, January 1, 2008; 39(1): 89 - 96. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. D. Nelson, P. Nygren, M. Walker, and R. Panoscha Screening for Speech and Language Delay in Preschool Children: Systematic Evidence Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force Pediatrics, February 1, 2006; 117(2): e298 - e319. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]