Measuring treatment fidelity is an essential step in research designed to increase the use of evidence-based practices. For parent-implemented communication interventions, measuring the implementation of the teaching and coaching provided to the parents is as critical as measuring the parents' delivery of the intervention to the child. Both levels…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a parent-implemented language intervention improves language skills in toddlers at risk for persistent language impairment (LI) as compared with a group of typically developing toddlers. Method: Thirty-four children with LI between 24 and 42 months of age were randomly…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of enhanced milieu teaching (EMT) implemented by parents and therapists versus therapists only on the language skills of preschool children with intellectual disabilities (IDs), including children with Down syndrome and children with autism spectrum disorders. Method: Seventy-seven…

Purpose: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to systematically evaluate the effects of parent-implemented language interventions on the language skills of children between 18 and 60 months of age with primary and secondary language impairments. Method: A systematic literature search yielded 18 studies that met the predetermined inclusion and…

Examined effects of training six parents to use Enhanced Milieu Teaching with their preschoolers with autism/pervasive developmental disabilities. Found that parents learned strategies during 24 individual training sessions, generalized strategies to home interactions, and maintained procedure use at 6 months follow-up. Most children's complexity…

This article draws on empirical data and anecdotal examples to support teaching parents of young children with developmental disabilities naturalistic language intervention strategies. It also identifies the skills that parent educators need to be effective and discusses a model for preparing professionals to teach parents. (Contains references.)…

Four parents were trained to use enhanced milieu teaching with their preschool children with developmental delays. The parents learned to use the strategies in the clinic and generalized them to the home. Positive effects were observed on children's spontaneous communication and target use, and on parent and child affect. (Author/DB)

Preliminary findings are reported from a study examining changes in preschool-aged child communication skill occurring when parents were trained to apply one of two procedures: milieu teaching and responsive-interactive teaching. Three families participated in milieu language training in which the adult uses naturally occurring situations as…

This study, involving six mothers of preschoolers with language impairments, found that mothers could be taught to correctly apply four milieu language teaching procedures (model, mand-model, time delay, and incidental teaching) and that use of the procedures is associated with positive effects on various aspects of child language. (Author/JDD)

This study explored effects of teaching three novice trainers to teach three parents to implement milieu teaching with their preschool children who had language delays. Results demonstrated improved skills among trainers and increased use of the procedures by parents. Two of the three children showed increases in their targeted language responses…

This study examined effects of training five parents to use Milieu Teaching procedures with their preschool-aged children with disabilities. Although modest levels of performance of the language teaching procedures were found for the group instruction condition, intensive feedback and coaching in the home were required to reach criterion level…