Scaffolded-Language Intervention

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of a scaffolded-language intervention using cloze procedures, semantically contingent expansions, contrastive word pairs, and direct models on speech abilities in two preschoolers with speech and language impairment speaking African American English. Effects of the lexical and phonological characteristics (i.e., word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactic probability) of contrastive word pairs and direct models on speech production accuracy were examined. Speech outcomes support the application of a scaffolded-language intervention with children with speech and language impairment. Results lend support to the assertion that fundamental intervention principles are applicable regardless of native dialect. Effects of word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactic probability clarified their role within the scaffolded-language intervention.