A Pilot Study on the Effect of Training Parents of Language-Delayed Children in Pragmatic Interaction Strategies

Abstract

This pilot study investigated pragmatic language training on parental expansion of interactive strategies, and a corresponding decrease in using questions and imperatives in parental communication with their language-delayed preschool children. Seven parent-child dyads participated, with the parents receiving training in the acquisition of six pragmatic categories, including reference, model, imitation, description, parallel talk, and expansion. Training results showed a significant increase in the parents' use of parallel talk and a decrease in their use of questions. Apparently in many applied instances parallel talk may incorporate the strategies of referencing, modeling, imitation, description, and expansion. Findings are discussed in terms of parallel talk functioning as a facilitator for language-delayed children.